Passion Struck with John R. Miles - The Science of Opening Up: The Hidden Cost of Under Sharing | Dr. Leslie John - EP 737

Episode Date: March 5, 2026

Why do we feel a "disclosure hangover" the moment we reveal something real, yet feel a persistent sense of loneliness when we stay silent?Today, we are diving into the complex psychology of human connection with one of the world's leading experts on the science of secrets and sharing. Joining me is Harvard Business School professor and author Dr. Leslie John to discuss her groundbreaking new book, "Revealing."In this conversation, we challenge the conventional wisdom that "less is more." Leslie argues that while we are hyper-aware of the risks of oversharing (TMI), we are almost entirely blind to the devastating costs of under-sharing (TLI—Too Little Information). We explore why silence is not neutral and how the fear of vulnerability is actually holding us back from the trust, influence, and well-being we crave.We move from the research labs of Harvard to the internal "release valves" of our own emotions. Leslie reveals why your "disclosure reflex" might be miscalibrated and how "revealing wisely" can supercharge your career, deepen your most important relationships, and even improve your physical health.If you’ve ever held back your truest self out of fear of judgment, this episode provides the scientific compass to help you navigate the social risks of being real.Passion Struck is the #1 alternative health and personal growth podcast dedicated to human flourishing and the science of mattering. It is ranked #1 on FeedSpot’s list of the Top Passion Podcasts on the Web and is consistently recognized among the world's top business and mindset podcasts.Check the full show notes here: Download a Free Companion Reflection Guide:Connect with John (keynotes, books, podcast): https://linktr.ee/John_R_MilesGet the book Revealing: The Science and Power of Opening Up: https://www.lesliekjohn.com/bookIn This Episode, You Will Learn:The TLI (Too Little Information) Trap: Why the opportunities you miss by staying silent are far more damaging than the occasional awkwardness of saying too much.The Disclosure Hangover: Understanding the psychological sting we feel after being vulnerable and why it’s often a false signal of social danger.The Body’s Release Valve: Why sharing your feelings is a highly credible form of information that reduces physiological stress and breaks through stagnant communication.The Gender Gap in Vulnerability: Insights from Leslie’s research on how boys and girls process emotion differently as early as kindergarten, and what it means for us as adults.The Power of "Going First": How leaders can use metered vulnerability to build psychological safety and increase team motivation.Support the Movement Every human deserves to feel seen, valued, and like they matter. Wear it. Live it. Show it. https://StartMattering.comDisclaimer The Passion Struck podcast is for educational and entertainment purposes only. The views and opinions expressed by guests are their own and do not necessarily reflect those of Passion Struck or its affiliates. This podcast is not a substitute for professional advice, diagnosis, or treatment from a licensed physician, therapist, or other qualified professional.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Coming up next on PassionStruck. We want to feel known for who we are and we want to not be so alone. And what's interesting, the corporate world or academia, buttoned up academia, I started noticing like in these meetings, nobody is sharing their actual feelings about this. Like we're sharing our thoughts. We're kind of dancing around. And I just realized how pervasive this is, the holding back. I'm not saying we should reveal everything all the time.

but I think that most of us stand to benefit tremendously from revealing a little bit more a lot of the time. Welcome to Passionstruck. I'm your host, John Miles. This is the show where we explore the art of human flourishing and what it truly means to live like it matters. Each week, I sit down with change makers, creators, scientists, and everyday heroes to decode the human experience and uncover the tools that help us lead with meaning, heal what hurts, and pursue the form. fullest expression of who we're capable of becoming. Whether you're designing your future, developing as a leader, or seeking deeper alignment in your life, this show is your invitation to grow with purpose and act with intention. Because the secret to a life of deep purpose,

connection, and impact is choosing to live like you matter. Hey friends, welcome back to episode 737 of Passionstruck. Before we dive in, I want to take a moment to thank you. This past week, I released my new children's book, You Matter Luma, and the response has been overwhelming. I am so grateful for your support, your messages, and the way that you've helped bring this book into the world. It means more than I can fully express. And that moment connects directly to what we've been exploring here over the past month, because at its core, You Matter Luma is about helping children feel that they matter, something many adults spend years trying to rediscover. And that idea carries forward into this series. In our last episode on Tuesday,

I head on legendary Good Morning America host Joan London, and we began Life Beyond the script, a series about what happens when the version of life you've been living no longer fits, and you're asked to write something new. Because a meaningful life isn't felt once. It's rewritten. Over time, through experience and through the choices we make, about how we show up. But once you begin that process, once you start to evolve, to rethink the question, another challenge emerges. How much of yourself are you actually willing to reveal? My guest today is Leslie John, the James E. Burke professor of business administration at Harvard Business School. Leslie's award-winning research has appeared in top academic journals and media

outlets, including New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, and The Economist. And her new book, Revealing, The Underrated Power of Overshering explores attention most people feel, but rarely examine. We're often taught to be careful, to hold back, to filter, to avoid saying too much. But what if the greatest cost isn't oversharing, it's undersharing? In today's conversation, what stood out most is this. Silence shapes our lives, more than we realize. The moments we hold back, what we don't say, what we don't express, what we keep to ourselves, quietly shape our relationships, our opportunities, and our sense of connection. Today we're going to explore why people fear saying too much, but overlook the cost of saying too little,

how self-disclosure builds trust, connection, and psychological safety. The role of vulnerability plays in relationships, leadership, and everyday life. Why small moments of openness have outsized impact and how reveals. Feeling who you are at the right time reshapes how you experience the world. Before we get into this conversation, a quick ask. If this episode resonates with you, please share it with a friend, a coworker, or someone you know who may need it. You can also watch the full conversation on our YouTube channels.

And if you haven't yet, leaving a rating and review on Apple Podcast or Spotify would mean a great deal. It helps more people find these conversations. Now, let's begin my conversation with Leslie John. Thank you for choosing Passionstruck and choosing me to be your hosting guide on your journey to creating a life that matters. Now, let that journey begin. Hey, friends, there's something about March that makes you want to reset your space. For me, that started in the kitchen, clearing out what I didn't need and upgrading what I use every single day.

That's when I brought in Carraway. What I love is how simple Caraway makes everything. The ceramic coating means food just lifts right off, so I'm using less oil, cleanup takes seconds, and cooking actually feels enjoyable again. But it's not just performance, it's the intentional design. The storage system keeps everything organized, and I've become a lot more mindful about what I bring into my home. And that's why it's so important that Caraway is third-party tested and made with high

standards, which just gives me more confidence in what I'm using every day. It's one of those upgrades you feel immediately. caraway's cookware set is a favorite for a reason it can save you up to two hundred thirty dollars versus buying the items individually plus if you visit caraway home dot com slash passionstruck you can take an additional 10% off your next purchase the steel is exclusive for our listeners so visit caraway home.com slash passionstruck or use code passionstruck at checkout caraway non-toxic kitchenware made modern so excited today to welcome Leslie John to Passionstruck. Leslie, how are you today?

I'm well, thanks. Thanks for having me. I'm going to open today up in kind of an unusual way. I understand that you were good friends with Allison Brooks. Oh, yes. She was just texting me, actually. She's getting her hair done. She's reading my book in there. So we have, we share the same stylist. And they just texted me a photo of the stylist, Shanine, and Allison, she's sitting in the chair reading my book. It was so cool. That is awesome. I had Allison, and for the listeners, the episode is Allison Woodbrooks. You'd have to search for it like that. But it was such a fan favorite because she teaches the course around talking. It's like some crazy name, like the fun of talking good or in life or something like that. Yeah, exactly. How to talk good or in life or something like that. Exactly. I love it. So cheeky. Today we're going to be talking about the science and power of opening up. But I brought Allison up on purpose because when we were doing that interview, we were talking about like this lost art of connection that so many of us have.

And she and I were talking through that when you're really paying attention to someone, it's almost like holding a mirror up to yourself. Because in the other person, through their stories, you also see your own journeys. And it helps you relate to them in more ways. Does that resonate to you? That's so well put. So I thought given that I knew the two of you worked together and I heard you talk about her another podcast, I thought I would start there. But today we are talking about your brand new book.

And one of the most moving narratives follows John and Grace, whose relationship you cover in the book and I want you to talk about it, but it collapsed not from conflict, but from withheld vulnerability. And I was hoping you could start there. Sure. Yes. So Grace and John had this whirlwind romance when they were in college. He was an exchange student from Australia.

And they just really bonded and fell in love quickly. But he lived in Australia and there's this pivotal moment in their young relationship where she was going to cash in all her savings and she was going to jump on a plane and go be with him for at least the summer. And they'd been planning this. And just before she left for the airport, she kind of had some, she needed reassurance. And so she called him. She said, do you want me to come? And he said, if you want to or something like that.

And then she didn't get on the plane because she didn't feel like she didn't feel it, you know, that she felt as in she loved him and wanted to be with him. But she wanted him to express how he felt. And so they eventually broke up. and married other people, had their own families. And then years later, something like 20 years later, they, has happenstance had it, they connected. And also as happenstance or fate had it, he had just gotten divorced and she had just

gotten divorced. And so 20 years later, they got together and they said all the things that they didn't say when they had in their youth that they had wanted to say, but were too scared to say, to the demise of their relationship. And then they finally, 20 years later, became reunited. And now they're married. And John moved to the U.S. and they're together. And I interviewed them for the book.

And it was so lovely because I was talking to Grace. And then John was in the other room. And he was like overhearing and making like these loving and snide remarks. And then I'm like, bring them over here. And then we were all talking together. And you could just feel their warmth and their love for each other. I love it, Leslie. And you argue that we worry too much about oversharing or TMI and not enough about undersharing or TLI to little information.

I know. I don't even have a word for it. Now we do. What do you think we're getting wrong culturally? That's such a great question. It's interesting because I think when you say culturally where my mind goes is the cultural influences on us and perhaps they're no more apparent than with children, right? I have small children, I have two small boys, and there is this cultural imperative almost to like perform invulnerability

sometimes, right? If someone shares their feelings in like, I'm thinking of my own work in a senior faculty meeting at HBO. At one time I said, I'm feeling frustrated and people are like, but yet when you do that, it unlocks so much. After I said that, people, We're like, but then also finally we got to the core of what our barrier was. And so on the cultural point, especially I think there's also the gender norms, too. I think it's especially problematic for males. I have two young boys. And one of the studies as I was writing the book that really struck me was this study on preschoolers.

So three and four year olds. And what they did was they video recorded their faces as the children were watching a scary movie. They also recorded the sweat on their skin on their hands. It's called, of course, the galvanic skin response, which it measures how physiologically stressed out you are, the sweaty or your hands, the more stressed you are. And what they found is that there was this relationship between showing on your, letting your expression show on your face and stress. Specifically, when you let it out, you had a very expressive face.

You were less stressed out. You were less sweaty. differently, the children who held it in, they were more stressed physiologically. And this is like a really hardcore measure, right? It's like the body doesn't lie. And the thing that really struck me here when you talk about the cultural element is that by the time the children were in kindergarten, so like one, two years later, a gender difference had emerged whereby the little boys were not showing it on their face anymore. They were holding things in, which also meant the logic would follow that they were more physiologically stressed. And we know that comes with all

kinds of negative implications. And so that really was one of those studies that jolted me awake on this issue. I got the opportunity to interview Dan Pink when his book, The Power of Regret, came out. And we spent a lot of talk about this regret survey that he did globally that he thought wasn't going to amount to much. and before he knew it, he's getting thousands and thousands and thousands of people writing in. And what he found is some of the biggest regrets came from the things we didn't say or do, like the story you mentioned. Why do you think silence is so costly? Totally.

Yes, that's so spot on. I mean, that jives with so much research on regret that in the long run, the things we end up regretting are the things we didn't do. And so what self-disclosure, that means we regret the things we did not say, what wish we had, over the kind of stupid, regrettable things we say in the moment. And John and Grace are a perfect example of how, like, you know, in the book, I talk about what they actually said. But then I interviewed them so 20 years later, and I know what they actually were feeling. And what she meant to say is, do you still love me?

I still love you so much. And I want to be sure, right? I need assurance. And that's human and that's normal. but yet we have to kind of pretend as if like we don't need assurance. And so I think that I'm sorry, I'm rambling a little bit. I want to make sure I'm answer your question. I'm getting caught up in their love story, which I love.

I was wondering why is our silence or what we didn't do like these regrets? Why is that so costly? Yes. It's costly because the things that we don't say that we should say, they, the negative symptoms of that show up in all kinds of ways, largely in the form of missed opportunities. So John and Grace, not saying how you actually felt, means that the love that could have blossomed then did not. It's colleagues that never quite trust you. If you're a leader and you project like so many of us, this uber confident facade, really, you're important.

employees are never going to quite trust you because you're not real. And yet the challenge here is that these missed opportunities are very harmful. You're missing out on love, you're missing out on well-being, you're missing out on influence. But because they're missed opportunities, if you flip the side of it and you say, what about oversharing, okay? So I say something, I maybe cross the line with some humor or SaaS, and I immediately get negative social feedback. I see people grimacing up. You see people like looking like a bit aghast and that we're so exquisitely sensitive to negative social feedback that we massively kind of overweight that. And we live in fear of this cringy situation of the disclosure hangover, right? When you say a little too much, you get negative social

feedback. And so the next time that you have an opportunity to reveal, you remember that and you feel like staying silent is the safe option. But you're right. The message I really want to share is that silence is not neutral. Silence is costly. Silence has risks. Silence has rewards just like speaking up. But when we make these decisions of what to reveal and not, we have a really lopsided way of evaluating them. We fixate almost exclusively on the risks of revealing. And that's, of course, very problematic. And one of the things that is problematic across society now is the epidemic of loneliness. And I was just doing an interview with Gordon Flett and a fellow Canadian. And we were talking about how loneliness, through his research, he's connected it to anti-mattering.

But I think it's also connected to our fear of revealing ourselves. And this is something thing you've written about. So what is that connection? Definitely. Revealing sensitive information, self-disclosure is one of the best and most important ways that we create connections with others. Yet we shy away from it because it feels risky. And it is risky, but that's part of the point.

It's precisely because of the social risk it entails that we forge bonds when we do it. And so, for example, when I, I share something sensitive with you, like a weakness of mine, like I'm working on being you can see this phrase organized, but I'm just so, so messy. But when I share something sensitive to you, it's a bit of a social risk. And I am showing that I trust you because when I share something sensitive, it entails risk. So I'm relinquishing control to the universe. And I'm saying through my actions implicitly, I trust you. I trust you to not make a fool out of me. Otherwise, I wouldn't be revealing this, right? And so by showing, I trust you via taking the

social risk, it causes you to trust me. And that mutual trust is the foundation of friendships, of intimacy, of colleagueships, and so on. And so that's really the core thing that's going on of why self-disclosure fights loneliness and why holding back doesn't do us any good. Before we continue, I want to pause for a moment. This series is exploring what it means to move beyond the roles and identities we've outgrown. And part of that process is becoming more honest with ourselves and with others. On my substack, the ignitedlife.net. I share companion reflections and articles for each episode, designed to help you think more deeply

about your own life, where you might be holding back, what conversations you may be avoiding, and what might change if you showed up more fully. Because awareness creates insight, but action creates change. If you want to go deeper into this work, you can visit the ignitedlife.net. And I also want to say thank you to our sponsors.

Their support makes this show possible. And if you've been getting value from PassionStruck, supporting the brands supports us, helps keep these conversations going. You're listening to Passionstruck on the Passion Struck Network. Now, let's return to the conversation with Leslie, John. Leslie, I used to take trips to Australia a lot. I used to work for this company called Lenlays.

And they have very different customs there. And one of their customs is to eat raw squid. And so there was this time where I had just gotten off. Love this. An airplane. And I joined my friend, Richard, who has a sailboat. And over there for high wealth individuals, sailboats that once upon a time were away for them to write off their taxes because taxes there are so high. But we get on this sailboat with a bunch of his friends and they break out these raw, disgusting octopi.

And I am, you know, here in the States, we don't eat raw octopus. I'm not sure how this is a delicatessen anywhere. But I do not want to partake in this, but I'm feeling because it's a bunch of jocks, a bunch of rugby players, and I'm one, that I've got to go through with it. And I understand you had a similar experience with raw steak tartar. I sure did. First tell me, I'll tell you my story. First tell me how it went.

Like, did you like it? Was it as spiny and gross as I imagine it to be? It was horrible. I mean, I'm trying to eat this thing and I don't even know how to describe it. It is just like a gob of gook in your mouth. I mean, I imagine eating like a huge snail because this thing is probably the size of a golf ball, if not a little bit bigger. So it's, and it's like chewy and it's just.

And like spurting and the whole time I felt like I'm about ready to puke. And they're all laughing because I'm probably turning green. And I'm watching them just eat it with raw delight. And I ended up getting it down. But it was like, why in the world did I do that? One, I just say I have no interest in eating that. But the same thing has happened to me in China when you eat crazy food over there. My own food aversion story.

When I was a baby academic, I went to Berkeley to give a talk. and two of the most senior scholars there, they're married, and they invited me for dinner at their house. So I was on my best behavior. I was super excited. I was also a little nervous. And I'm walking through the Berkeley Hills. It's so beautiful. I show up at their door and they're like, welcome. We're so excited. You're here. We walked to the market today and we got our favorite cut of meat. I'm sure they didn't say meat. I said something more elegant. And we're making, we made steak tartar for you. and I just, my heart sank because I've tried it and I just don't like it. And I know I've always felt a little ashamed because it's like I'm supposed to like highfalutin

things, right? Well, I don't like steak tartar. But I didn't tell them because I was trying to impress them and same. It was like very generous servings of steak tartar, like two giant tennis balls and so yeah, I got through and I ate it. But you know what I was thinking as I was thinking of Mr. Bean, who I love. I love Mr. Bean so much. And there's this amazing sketch of Mr. Beam, the mime, who he makes these delightful social commentaries. I call them social commentaries. They're hilarious. These awkward situations people are in. And then he makes us laugh about them. And so he's at a restaurant and he orders steak tartar doesn't realize that it's raw flesh. The fancy waiter comes out and makes a big, great display. And then Mr. Bean's aghast.

And then he proceeds to try to hide it. So he takes like a doll up and he puts it in the woman purse behind him. He was going to make him in the boss. Like, God forbid he actually say what he thinks and that he doesn't love it. And so, but it's interesting because writing the book, I have stories like this in the book and they're not just gratuitous. It's because I realized like it, it's made me reflect on like, what would have been the harm? I kept my mouth shut. There was certainly some harm, I mean, lowercase harm, like, whatever, I ate something I didn't like. But there was a cost of hiding, is what I'm saying. And if I think back, I'm like, well, what if I had just said it's not my favorite thing? I mean, they're so nice. Surely they wouldn't have wanted me to be suppressing my gag reflex.

And they would have offered me something different. And maybe we even would have had a good laugh over it. We would have, they would have teased me about it. And then we would have been maybe connecting, becoming more friendly with each other. So I kind of imagine this alternate world. And that's the core thing that I kept coming back to in doing this work is like, what's the harm of sharing. And we're not really thinking about these things in an even-handed way often. And even like some of my most embarrassing, cringy stories in the moment I, you know, the next morning I had a disclosure hangover. I'm like, oh, my God, it's like I just poured gasoline all over my body and lit a match. Like, what have I done? Career suicide, whether it's crying in front of an audience

or sharing my most embarrassing story with senior colleagues, I've done it all. And, you know, I regretted it in the moment. But then when I was writing the book, I was reflecting back and thinking, well, what about the long game? You know, those two fancy profs that I told my most embarrassing story to when I was a baby academic, they have become my closest mentors. And I don't think it's in spite of what I shared. I think it is partly because of what I shared, because, again, this idea.

that when you say something a little vulnerable, a little edgy, it has these benefits of making people trust you and rapport. Yeah, it really does. And I found this through my corporate career that it seems like when you like reveal an embarrassing truth or something unknown about you, people tend to lean in more than if you're more secretive. Completely. What does that teach us because you're a behavior scientist about human behavior? I mean, I think that part of this is that we want to feel known for who we are and we want to not be so alone. And, you know, it's interesting the corporate world or academia, buttoned up academia,

I started noticing like in these meetings, nobody is sharing their actual feelings about this. Like we're sharing our thoughts. We're kind of dancing around. and I just realized how pervasive this is the holding back. I'm not saying we should reveal everything all the time, but I think we should be revealed. I think that most of us stand to benefit tremendously from revealing a little bit more a lot of the time.

And one of the most powerful things to reveal is our feelings, because one of the reasons is that they're so credible. feelings. I want us to stop thinking about feelings as like woo-woo things. Feelings are really, really solid information and they're really compelling. And when you, when you're in a meeting at work, and the workplace even is a place for feelings, believe it or not, you're in a meeting and you're not getting anywhere and you're talking in circles. You can say, I'm feeling frustrated. And when you do that, you'll see that it changes everything because it turns out. out that if you're feeling frustrated, probably everyone else is. And when you name it, it's like

this release valve that, okay, now we can really get down to it. Now we can realize, okay, well, we're not meeting our goals here, whatever. Like, it kind of opens this ability to communicate clearly. And yet, we're very scared of it. I'm of course not saying we should say all of our most vulnerable feelings, you know, the more sensitive the feeling or the thought, the riskier it is. And especially in workplace context, we need to be very careful about that. I have a good friend, Erin Deal, and she was taught at Second City how to do improv. And she's now takes this concept of improv and she goes into many corporate environments and facilitates meetings or goes in and helps struggling teams through the use of it. And I think loosening up like that or allowing yourself to do yes,

sand to those around you, I think opens up so much more discussion and commonality amongst your peers. Yeah. And where I wanted to go with this is another person that you work with at Harvard, whose research I love is Amy Edminton's. If the listener is not familiar with Amy is kind of the person who, when you think about psychological safety, you think of Amy. How does an environment?

where you're not allowed to reveal impact someone's psychological safety. Oh, geez, yes. I mean, it's antithetical to psychological safety, right? And it's not just the psychological safety. It's antithetical to their well-being, right? There's so much research on how holding things back, concealing, holding secrets. It's very effortful for your brain. And in fact, it takes a toll on your mental and physical well-being.

it even takes a toll on your IQ. So we all want our employees to be on their game. Well, if we don't let them say what's on their minds, it can be preoccupying and their performance may suffer. And I guess then the question becomes, to me, I think leaders have a really tremendous opportunity to help here, where when the leader goes first, when the leader shares something vulnerable,

when the leader shares, they're pathologically messy. Don't say it that way, but like, I'm working on my way. organizational skills. We have found this in study after study that when the leader does this in a metered way, it causes, and I don't say the C word lightly as a scientist, it causes their employees to trust them more. It causes their employees to be more motivated to work for them. And so leaders have a real opportunity for this. Another thing that speaking of psychological safety that's really cool, it's new research by Nicole Abbey Esper, she's a professor at London Business School, she's looked at the

role of eye gaze. So when you're in a meeting, you know, some people speak, some people are less comfortable speaking. The people who are less comfortable speaking are no less valuable. Of course, they're just more reserved. So how do you nudge them to speak up? Now, you could say, you could cold call them and say, Leslie, what do you think? But also people who are retinent to speak up, that's a bit of a hard, not harsh, but heavy-handed way of doing it. There's actually a more subtle and elegant and I think even more powerful way of doing it as a leader. And that is making eye contact with them. So Nicole has found that when a leader, especially someone who has high status in a meeting looks the person in the eye, like not, I'm doing it exaggerately, not in a creepy way,

but like turns their eye gaze to the quiet person, that's this nonverbal cue that's very powerful and very interpretable. And I dare say the automatic response is for that person to, they for sure feel more included, number one, and safe. And number two, they're more likely to speak up. Yeah. Thank you for sharing that. I'm just. trying to think through my own time and eye contact or non-eye contact and how that changes. When I was at Arthur Anderson years ago, we had a full-time person on staff who would come to each of the offices. And she used to be in the FBI. And she used to train FBI agents. How do you tell if someone is lying or not based on their body language? And so she would come in to teach us

what body language we shouldn't do. And one of them had to deal with eye contact. But it was crazy. Even things of how a person crosses their legs, what direction they cross them. Do they pause before they say something? Do they gulp? Does their eyes twitch? She gave us all these things to look for. But what you're saying with eyes, I mean, it really does come into the trust circle in a big way. So I'm so glad you showed that. Yeah, completely, completely. Yeah. So one of the things that your work shows is that people keep around 13 secrets at any given time. What kinds of things are we hiding? Yeah, so this is wonderful work by my colleague Michael Sleppy and Melia Mason at Columbia University. And yeah, they develop this questionnaire to ask people what kind of secrets they keep. And one of the common categories of secrets is secrets around like things in your romantic relationships, intimacy, sex, people keep secrets about that. People keep secrets about their finances. You know, and those. things that people keep secrets about are very much jive with my own research where, you know, for 20 plus years, I've been asking people sensitive questions in various ways. And one of the most,

again and again, the most sensitive things are things, romantic relationships, details about those are very sensitive. Finances are sensitive. And so there are these common common patterns. And it's a bit of a paradox because the more sensitive the thing, the less comfortable, we are sharing, but the less we talk about it, the more anomalous and sensitive it becomes, right? So when we break this and start sharing, it really helps to destigmatize, that's a strong word, or make us feel more human and not ashamed of the things that are just really human and natural. One of the terms that I like to use to refer to this is called when someone who reveals something in a really courageous way, and it helps others to not feel stigmatized, for example.

It's called a catalyst confession. And a prime example of that is, of course, Magic Johnson. Remember, in the 90s, HIV was very, very stigmatized in the sense it was kind of thought to be the gay disease. And there was a lot of stigma around that. And tons of misunderstanding is about how it's actually contracted. And Magic Johnson comes into the conference room. the 90s and you know it's this epic moment you can still see it on YouTube where he walks into this

conference room in a hotel in L.A. and he announces his retirement from the Lakers because he had contracted HIV and that was just a complete shock and you know very sad of course but also very courageous and his doing of that his courageous reveal scientists have studied its impact and they have been able to find, to detect that his saying that in the 90s in the subsequent months and years caused people to get tested who wouldn't have otherwise been tested. So like that is a beautiful catalyst confession. It's does social good, right? And I think it's really, it's the leaders in society, the people that are held in high regard that have such a opportunity there. I think we saw the cross speaking of secrets of Charlie Sheens.

way that it came out and how different it was between the two. I have a confession to make a secret. Juicy. So I interviewed Michael Slap in and we do this whole hour-long interview and I get done and I look down and my computer says you ran out of space. Oh, that's not recorded. That's the worst. And so Michael is still on and I'm like, You are not going to believe it. And I am so sorry, but it didn't take. So I understand if you don't want to re-record this. But he was so genuous about it.

He said, I need to make a couple calls. So let's come back in about 20 minutes. And we re-recorded it. And then when we were done, we were both so happy we re-recorded it because it was such a better second interview. Because he had misspoken about something that he wish he could award a different. and I asked questions differently because I had more familiarity and that episode turned out to be great. Amazing. Amazing. I have a confession too in that vein where I was doing a podcast a few months ago and I was not in a good headspace going into it. There was a bunch of things going on that day.

And also the video wasn't working like it was just a comedy of errors, but we went through with it. And then a week or so later, the host emailed me and he's like, because, you study revealing, I'm telling you this. I think the podcast, I think the episode could be way better. He's like, do you want to record it again? And I'm like, yes, what a gift. I had been ruminating about it too. But, but me, the person who studies this, it honestly didn't even occur to me to say, hey, reach out to him. I could have reached out to him and say, I think that we could make a much better powerful, we could have a better conversation. It didn't even occur to me to share that. And then we re-recorded it and it was so much better. But that's a really

important point because I think of, you know, you ask why do we undershare and what we think silence is neutral, which is all of those things are valid. I think a fundamental, even first order problem is more basic than that, which is that it doesn't even occur to us to share. We don't even think we're feeling frustration in a meeting. We don't even think to share our feelings. Like, it doesn't even occur to us. And as an example of this, the way I often talk about this in class is I take people through kind of a day in the life boring Leslie John. And what I do is I keep track, but that's part of the point, right? Even the most mundane day, there's so many missed opportunities. So what I do is I keep track of the things I said.

And then I also keep track like a tally of the things that I thought, but I didn't say. So like, I'll just do the first beginning of it with you so you can get a feel for it. But so I wake up in the morning. I'm writing this down right now. I'm doing a little test. This is real data collection on the fly, real science. So I have a column that says said and a column that says unsaid on the back of a health summary statement thing from Bluegrass, Blue Shield. Okay, I told you I'm messy. So I wake up in the morning.

I roll over in bed. I say, good morning, collie, my hubby. What I don't say is I slept terribly. When I don't sleep well, I'm unhinged. I don't say that. We get into the bathroom, we're brushing our teeth, staring in the mirror. What I think is, I feel older than I thought I would at this age. And how come I still have acne?

I'm in my 40s. Geez, we get down to the kitchen. He starts making the kids lunches. He says, what do they want for snack? I said, I don't know. Stop asking me. I don't want to make decisions. That's what I say.

What I don't say is I'm exhausted. I need a hug. I have a big presentation. I'm feeling nervous. Okay, so we're not even at breakfast and the very serious data collection we have done here, you can see there, is the unsaid is eight and the said is two. My point isn't that we should say all of the things that are on our mind all the time. You don't want that. I don't want that.

But rather we should consider saying these things. And those, until I started really actually writing the book, I didn't realize myself how many times I didn't even consider. right? So the old me wouldn't have even considered talking about talking to Colin about telling him what I thought about aging. And yet you can see that if I had shared that, that would be intimacy enhancing in my relationship, right, in the sense that like feeling known for who you really are, having a partner that understands your thoughts and feelings is just one of the best ways to have a secure relationship. It's so deeply intrinsically fulfilling. Not to mention the fact that he probably would have said something that like was interesting or made me feel better. If I told him that I hadn't

slept well, I wouldn't have snapped at him in the kitchen with the lunches, right? He would have been like, oh, LJ needs kid gloves today because she's exhausted, you know, but he can't read my mind. And so you see that by not sharing, you see one, how much withholding we're doing. And two, that if we shared a little more, we would often be better off. But it's, of course, not saying we should say all the things, like we would withhold for good reason. You get into work, your assistance is how are you doing? I say, great, which is good. Like, I don't want to burden her with, like, I have a big meeting. I feel overwhelmed. I haven't slept. Like, there's a time and a place. We often withhold out of kindness because of power asymmetry, because we don't have time, whatever it is,

even for strategic reasons. But we should consider revealing more than we do. So in that scenario, how much of that not revealing for many people comes down to shame or fear of judgment. Oh, I mean, some of it, for sure. I think that, you know, my body image, that that specific example, I do think that, you know, there is, we withhold things even from our partners. Like, this is the person, the one person in the world that I should be able to say what, say anything to.

And even then. And so I think that, yes, some of it is our own feelings. but I also think that once you share more, you realize the shame goes away. So now, like, writing this book was like the therapy I didn't know I needed because it wasn't until I was writing it that I was putting the stuff in practice. You know, it's one thing to know the science. It's another thing to actually do it. And writing the book made me do it.

And now that I share my feelings with my husband when I tell him how I feel, it's our relationship. is even stronger. It's unbelievable the benefits. So as I was writing my first book, Passion Struck, I studied Irving Goffman's work. And in the book, I write about how for so many of us, we go through life wearing a mask. And we are really performing life instead of living life. If I have his work summarized appropriately. How does that self-presentation that we think is helping us actually blocking our connection to others? That's a great question.

Yeah, I think the self-presentation, it can inhibit the deepening of relationships, right? So here's an example, which was when I'm thinking back, I'm being transported back to this scene when I was interviewing for academic jobs. And so it's like at a hotel and you're moving around the hotel and interviewing with various universities. So the candidates move around. And I'm in the elevator. I get on the elevator. And clearly there's another candidate there. And I just, so the door closes. We're literally in a steel vault. And I say to him, oh, I'm just so exhausted. Like I just had this moment of like letting my down, my guard down, taking the mask off. And what the fellow candidate did was, well, he kept his, he straightened right up. He, He secured his mask even further, and he said, oh, I'm having such a great time.

This is such an amazing opportunity to share my research with all these professors. And then, no, no, no, no, he did the like tap dance, which, you know, and then, and he's, he's become a very established scholar. And I see him at conferences occasionally. And, you know, I, I've always remembered that interaction or non-interaction in a way. and I've never felt the desire to kind of chat him up at conferences. And I play the other side in my mind of like imagine if he had taken that self-presentation veil off for just one moment in a steel vault with another person that she like, right? So it's safe.

It's so safe. And if he had done that, then maybe like imagine if he had said like, oh, I was in this interview just now. You'll never believe what happened. This like crazy thing. It was so funny or whatever. Like, and then we would have, that would have, like, bonded. Like, we maybe would have been friends for life.

So, yeah, the facade is, of course there's a time and a place to not really show how you're feeling. But again and again, more often than not, I'm like, I don't know. Like, kids, kids is another example of where we often, we feel like we need to be perfect around them and not show them. And I think that's exactly wrong because then the child's. learns that like when the child feels strong feelings or something negative or something that they're ashamed of, then they feel it's even worse. They feel more anomalous because you're so

perfect. And so my husband and I were really trying to make a point of like when we make a mistake or when we disappoint them. Like we try not to, but when we do, we talk about it. And I think that's really important. Leslie, last year I had a raining Miss America on the show. And I had her on because she was an Air Force Academy graduate and one of the first, if not the first military officer to ever get the crown. But in Chapter 5, the Y of disclosure decisions, you have this iconic example of Miss Universe final questions. I know. And I was hoping you could maybe for the audience analyze the three contestants answers. Yes, I love beauty pageants.

I have a lot of strong feelings about them in all ways. They're fascinating too, right? As a social scientist, they're just so interesting. So this was the Miss Universe. I believe it was 1998. And it was down to the final question. And so this is a very high stakes thing where the contestants get one question. They have to answer on the spot.

Often it's not in their native language. And they are judged for it. And then the winner is crowned afterwards. It's very consequential and nerve-wracking. So in 1998, it came down to three contestants. and one of them, Miss Venezuela, who fun fact, was wearing white, which is the color that is statistically most likely to win in beauty pageants. So she was wearing white. And the question is asked, and it's if you could be crazy and do whatever you want for a day, what would it be? And she says

something like, I would magically fly from place to place. And, you know, that was okay. But I would say, you know, post hoc analysis. Number one, this is incredibly nerve-wracking for to do what they did. So I have to say that before I critique them. But the disclosure analysis I would have of that is that was a little, say, T-L-I, too little information, right? It wasn't kind of, it wasn't sparky. It was kind of boring, kind of dull. The next one, Ms. Trinidad and Tobago, she said she would not wear clothes. And then I think there might have even been an audible gas because that's pretty risque for a more conservative beauty pageant crowd, at least at the time. And so that was TMI in that context. Now, in a looser environment, maybe that would have been a fun topic, but not in this situation. And then Miss USA, her name is Brooke Mahalani Lee. And she comes out, she's in this beautiful royal blue. funky, spunky gown and she says, I would eat everything. You do not understand. I would eat everything in the world twice. And there's just uproarious laughter. And that was magical. That was the sweet spot.

It was a little gutsy, a little risky, right? For a beauty queen to say, to admit that she loves eating. And so that is a nice example of that Goldilocks spot between TMI, too much information and TLI too little information. It's often very narrow and it's so context dependent. But I love that example because Brooke really nailed it. Well, when I was writing the book, I was able to track her down and interview her. And so she, like, I played the clip for her and I was like, walk me through what you're thinking, what's going through your mind. It was, you know, what, 20-ish, 20 plus years later. And she said 30, more like, right? And she said, you know, that wasn't just any blur. That was

agentic because what was going on at that time was that Donald Trump, he owned it. And he was thinking about in stating a weight clause that meant that the winner, if she gained a certain number of pounds, she would lose her title. And Brooke was like so, she was like an activist against this. She thought this is not right. And so that her message was actually, not only was it perfect in sense of like navigating that line between TMI and TLA, it was a catalyst confession, right? Like she was trying, she made a statement with it. And sure enough, like things did change a little bit in the in the beauty pageant, I think because of her courage. I love the story. And I wanted to make sure we captured that one. Because I think it explains so well.

Chapter 6, the healing power of revealing, I felt, was really the scientific heart of your book. Yeah. And I'm going to go back to Gordon Flett because when we were talking about mattering, mattering impacts the brain's threat response when you don't feel it. When you don't feel mattering, it impacts immune function, depression, anxiety, and recovery. And it impacts people's mental and physical well-being. And what was interesting to me is I was, was reading the book in this chapter is the power of revealing kind of impacts the same things.

Yes, completely, completely. You know, you're right. That's the scientific core of the book. There's so much amazing research on the power of opening up even privately. Like the power of putting your, the catastrophic thoughts that are swirling around in my brain, when I put them on paper, when I translate them into words, that process is so potent in helping us to feel better about the issue. And it seems so silly, right? Because like, what's the difference between my brain and privately writing things down? Well, the process of putting words on your feelings activates a different part of your brain, a more logical part of your brain.

So when you do this, I think of it as you're becoming the CEO of your feelings. You're becoming more in control. you're taking that stuff that's swirling around that feels uncertain and you're making it feel more concrete and certain. And by doing that, it's more manageable. It's also another really powerful process that that undergirds this is the process of sense making. So tons of research has found that when we can make sense of difficult events, when we can derive meaning from them, we are able to cope better and grow from them and we're no longer traumatized by them. There's amazing studies with Holocaust victims on this, for example, by sensemaking, I don't mean making

it okay, what happened to you, but understanding it better, that experience. And so when you put words onto paper or when you dictate them, there's not even anyone on the other side, you naturally impose a story structure. It's something that's what we humans do naturally. It's not that you're making a happy ending or something deliberate. It's just you naturally sequence it in a story-like way, and that helps you make sense of it. And what I love about this is that you don't even have to try. Like, you don't have to say, oh, I got to tell a story, I got to make a sense of this. All you have to do is write down on paper the words. That's all you have to do. And it's so powerful. And then there's more studies, of course, that if you have an empathic listener, it's a supercharged

effect. It's even stronger these effects. I want to go, Leslie, in the time we have left to the topic of love. I recently put out two episodes by the time this one comes out. And one was with Paul Eastwick, where we kind of went through the evolutionary elements of love. And then I, Sonia Liebermirski, reached out to me and said, I'd love to talk to you. And she goes, do you mind if I bring Harry Reese on? I'm like, you're asking me, do I want to have the preeminent expert in happiness and relationships come on together. So it's interesting because I found in your chapter 8 finding love a lot of correlations between your work and both of theirs. How do romantic relationships, and this goes back to the example you shared with your husband earlier, how do they hinge on

disclosure courage? Yeah, that's great. Oh, and I love that word disclosure courage. It really does take courage. So in long-term relationships, long-term romantic relationships, the longer we've been with someone, the more we know about them, right? The more we know them better with time. But the problem is that our confidence in our knowledge of them massively outpaces are actual knowledge. So we think we know them even better than we actually do. And that's where the problem begins. And here's a demonstration of what I mean by that. So in one study, they had people who have loved each other for years, 10, 20 years, married couples come into the lab and talk about something conflictual to them. And as they did it, each person wrote down,

like what they were in real time, what they were thinking and feeling. And then they had each partner try to guess what the other person had been thinking and feeling. And they were wrong, about 80% of the time. So, but yet they thought they knew the end, they knew what their partner was thinking. And that's problematic because that means we like, we stop asking our partners how they, what they're feeling and thinking. We assume we know. And when we do that, there's all, kinds of misunderstandings. And so, but good thing that the antidote is very clear. Share. It's be curious. It's ask questions. And this is another one of those things that like, okay, share that I knew in the general sense. But then when I was writing the book, I realized, wow, I'm not like we're

talking about logistics at the end of the day. We're not talking about, hey, I made a speech today and I was really feeling really anxious beforehand. And then to my surprise, I did really well. right? Like we don't talk about that. And it's sharing your feelings specifically that is most bonding. And so we're kind of focused on logistics. And so we want to get out of that and share feelings. The other thing that compounds this issue is a trait called mind reading expectations. You know, we psychologists love traits and scales. So there's a scale. I have it on my website too. If people want to check it out, you can do it for yourself because I did it for myself when I was writing the book. As you can tell, I used myself as a guinea pig for all this stuff. And gosh, I learned so much. So I took the test myself. Measearch. Oh, my gosh.

It's totally me search. And my reading expectation is the belief, implicit belief, that your partner should just know what you feel all the time. They should just know your needs. You shouldn't have to state them. And when I say it so overtly like that, it's clear that this is not a reasonable expectation, but it's one of those implicit beliefs that we have and we don't even notice it. So I took the scale and I found out that lo and behold, I have super high mind reading expectations. But the amazing thing is that once I realized that, I'm like, oh my gosh, he can't read my mind

when I haven't slept well. Turns out, though, if I tell him, he's so compassionate. And so I've really learned that what feels like over communicating, what feels like oversharing, especially in these deep relationships, is just communicating. It's just sharing, right? There's a lovely, another construct that I like called emotional intimacy. And that refers to, do you have emotional intimacy? Emotional intimacy is when you feel like you can tell someone anything. You can tell them anything that's on your mind. And that's really what we're going for in the closest of relationships.

Not all, for sure, not all, not even most, maybe one or two of our relationships, tops. But the people that do, that reveal best. So I think of increasingly revealing is a skill. It's not something we're born, good or bad at. It's a skill. And like all skills, it's something that we need to practice and get better at. And one of the things I've realized with revealing is that kind of the more practice, the more you do it, the better you get at it. But it requires kind of taking that leap. Leslie, if listeners embraced revealing just a little bit more, what would mean the best? biggest that they see in their lives. The biggest advantage. Okay. The advantages would be feeling more at

home with yourself, gaining self-awareness, for one, because in order for you to share your feelings, I encountered this also while I was writing the book that, wait, I don't even know what my feelings are. I've got a tool in my book to help with that, which is one that you can see everywhere in the internet. The one that I customized for my book is even more remedial because I needed the remedial help in knowing how I felt. So self-awareness, feeling comfortable at home in your shoes is just so important. Beyond that, of course, well-being, mental, physical well-being, stronger, more intimate relationships, more influence even. That was one that really surprised me, right? All this research we've done on when leaders share a bit more, it causes people to

trust them more and follow their leadership even more. So there's all these benefits in really all swaths of light. Leslie, it was such a great discussion today. Thank you so much for coming to discuss your book revealing the science and power of opening up. It was such an honor to have you. Thank you so much for having me. That brings us to the end of today's conversation with Leslie John. And this episode deepens something we began with Joan London. Because once you start rewriting your life, you also have to decide how honestly are you willing to live it. Leslie's work reminds us that connection is built through what we're willing to share. Trust grows when we take small social risks. Holding back creates distance even when we don't intend it and revealing who we are

allows us to experience life more fully. This is what life beyond the script is about. Not just changing your life, but showing up truthfully within it. If this conversation resonated with you, share it with someone who may need it. Leave a five-star rating or review on Apple Podcast or Spotify and explore more at the ignitedlife.net. Next week, we continue Life Beyond the script with Dave Asprey. And that conversation, we shift from how we show up psychologically to what supports us biologically. Because the version of you you're trying to become is also shaped by your energy, your brain, and your physical state. There are 40-something core traumas that people can tune into at some point at another. And one of them is, I don't matter. I'm not lovable. No one loves me. I'm all alone.

There's this long list of things that are, they're all nuanced. And any of those beliefs is not actually true, but it feels true if you're stuck in that. And most of the programming comes long before you're an adult, before you even had a prefrontal cortex to judge it. So since it was already there before your prefrontal cortex formed, you're going to believe it to be true until it's questioned. And it'll create suffering in your life. Like this is just part of growing up. Until then, remember, you don't have to share everything, but the more of your self, yourself you're willing to bring forward the more of life you get to experience. I'm John Miles and you've been passion struck.