{"id":190976,"date":"2025-09-30T08:38:50","date_gmt":"2025-09-30T13:38:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.artofmanliness.com\/?p=190976"},"modified":"2026-09-06T16:55:34","modified_gmt":"2026-09-06T21:55:34","slug":"podcast-1087-why-you-need-the-good-stress-of-socializing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/beta.artofmanliness.com\/social\/social-skills\/podcast-1087-why-you-need-the-good-stress-of-socializing\/","title":{"rendered":"Podcast #1,087: Why You Need the Good Stress of Socializing"},"content":{"rendered":"

You may have heard of hormesis \u2014 the idea that intentionally embracing small stressors activates the body\u2019s repair and defense systems, building resilience, improving how the body and even the microbiome function, and ultimately protecting against the harms of chronic stress.<\/p>\n

We typically think of these hormetic stressors in terms of things like exercising, taking ice baths, sitting in a sauna, and ingesting certain plant compounds. But you ought to consider adding socializing to that list.<\/p>\n

As my guest today explains, while we tend to avoid socializing as we do all stressors \u2014 even the good ones \u2014 it’s something that can strengthen our health, resilience, immunity, and sense of meaning. Jeffrey Hall, professor of communication studies and co-author of The Social Biome: How Everyday Communication Connects and Shapes Us<\/em><\/a>, joins me to discuss why relationships are harder to build in the modern world, how our adolescent approach to making friends needs to evolve, and why we must intentionally \u201cexercise\u201d our social muscles in a world where they’ll otherwise atrophy.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

You may have heard of hormesis \u2014 the idea that intentionally embracing small stressors activates the body\u2019s repair and defense systems, building resilience, improving how the body and even the microbiome function, and ultimately protecting against the harms of chronic stress. We typically think of these hormetic stressors in terms of things like exercising, taking […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":194601,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[156,42379,42293],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-190976","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-podcast","category-social","category-social-skills"],"featured_image_urls":{"large":"https:\/\/beta.artofmanliness.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/1087-538x280.png","medium_large":"https:\/\/beta.artofmanliness.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/1087-768x432.png","aom":"https:\/\/beta.artofmanliness.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/1087-372x230.png","reactor-320":"https:\/\/beta.artofmanliness.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/1087-320x180.png","reactor-640":"https:\/\/beta.artofmanliness.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/1087-640x360.png"},"yoast_head":"\nPodcast #1,087: Why You Need the Good Stress of Socializing | The Art of Manliness<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/beta.artofmanliness.com\/social\/social-skills\/podcast-1087-why-you-need-the-good-stress-of-socializing\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Podcast #1,087: Why You Need the Good Stress of Socializing | The Art of Manliness\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"You may have heard of hormesis \u2014 the idea that intentionally embracing small stressors activates the body\u2019s repair and defense systems, building resilience, improving how the body and even the microbiome function, and ultimately protecting against the harms of chronic stress. We typically think of these hormetic stressors in terms of things like exercising, taking […]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/beta.artofmanliness.com\/social\/social-skills\/podcast-1087-why-you-need-the-good-stress-of-socializing\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Art of Manliness\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"http:\/\/facebook.com\/artofmanliness\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-09-30T13:38:50+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-09-06T21:55:34+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/beta.artofmanliness.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/1087.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1280\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"720\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Brett & Kate McKay\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" 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