I now give the floor to Dr. Feroz Shidwa. Thank you, Mr. President, members of the Council. I'm not here as a policymaker or a politician. I'm a physician bearing witness to the deliberate destruction of a healthcare system, the targeting of my own colleagues, and the erasure of a people. I wanted someone to just tell the UN Security Council to please do its job. It's not that some people are good, some people are bad. people are bad, people are people. And, you know, our oath really obligates us to treat all people at all times as needed. We can come with demands or requests to those who are holding on to the power, who have control over the situation, people who claim to represent us, who are supported by us in various different ways, from taxes to popular support. And we can approach them with demands to restore these values. the level of dehumanization that exists, it's really quite shocking. I was shocked at how much resistance I encountered when asking people to just set aside their biases and just think about the humane aspect of what's going on. And I still find it hard to come to terms with. Welcome to the Science of Happiness. I'm Dacher Keltner. Today, we're reflecting on what it means to show up for one another, especially in moments that are hard to face. Studies suggest that when we engage in collective action, it can reduce stress levels and protect our mental health by strengthening social connection and moral identity. People with a strong sense of purpose around activism also report more resilience and hope. But at the same time, they experience more symptoms of depression and anxiety for very understandable reasons. Standing up for our values for justice is hard, but many of us do it anyway. The research shows if you know your values, you're more likely to act in alignment with them. And it also lowers your stress response. More after this break. Welcome back to the Science of Happiness. I'm Dacher Keltner. Today we're exploring what happens when we respond to suffering, both near and far, by taking action together. Creating stronger, flourishing communities, which as Charles Darwin said is one of our deepest evolutionary drives, is a means of survival. Today, I'm humbled to be joined by Dr. Feroz Sidwa, who has worked in Haiti, Ukraine, and Gaza. This past year, he briefed the UN on what he witnessed. Dr. Akiva Leibovitz is also with us. He is a physician and critical care specialist. Together, they've written a letter published in the New England Journal of Medicine urging the medical community and all of us not to look away from the suffering they've witnessed. Their message reflects what the science shows. Responding to suffering doesn't just help others. It shapes who we become. Faroz and Akiba, thank you for the work you're doing, and thanks for being here. Thank you. Thanks for having us. We first learned about your humanitarian work from an academic publication where it was an open letter that you co-authored in the New England Journal of Medicine, one of the preeminent medicine journals, calling on the American medical community to unite in support of the humanitarian needs during times of war. How would two physicians get to this letter and what it meant to you and what it's done for the community of medical practitioners? As people whose professional life is dedicated or focused towards saving lives, being witnesses to such devastation and such travesty and so much misery, which is not a natural disaster, but rather a human-made, mandated, supported, funded, executed disaster. The natural inclination is to get involved and do what is within our capacity to try and stop this. How is it that the wider medical community has been witnessing this and mostly remain silent? Yeah, I completely agree. Like Akiva said, it's the natural inclination for, I think, probably for human beings, but also it certainly should be for physicians, nurses, any healing profession, to be involved in such things directly and deliberately. A lot of the people that I worked with in Gaza, just because of the way the restrictions the New England Journal had on what we could say and what we couldn't say, I asked them if they would still think that we should publish it anyway, despite it being kind of watered down in certain ways. And they all said yes. Akiva is Israeli and I'm an American, but I have no kind of ethnic or religious connection to the Israel-Palestine conflict. Our identities in a way kind of shield us from a little bit of the most severe consequences. So I think we both recognize that it's important for people who have certain privileges in certain situations to use them and to try and push the other people who do have those privileges but aren using them for whatever reason to do so you know because there plenty of people with a lot more privilege than he or I who could get involved and whose involvement could make a big difference And I think that what we trying to work on There this amazing book by Jonathan Glover who a historian called Humanity and he looks at the narratives of soldiers in real combat. And one of the things that surfaces is a profound sense of humanity, even as people are dying and being killed, etc., even in genocides, there is this grappling with humanity. And I know that in part inspired you to write this very influential letter, but Feroz, you've worked in crisis zones like the Ukraine and Haiti and Gaza twice. And in your work as well, Akiva, like, what has it taught you about humanity? A lot, I guess. You know, if you spend about five minutes in Gaza, you can see the best of humanity and the worst of humanity all bundled up into one. I was supposed to go back to Gaza in November of 2025, but I was blocked from going by the Israelis. But so I went to Israel itself and I had little like kind of unofficial seminars at Ben-Gurion University and Tel Aviv University and meeting Israelis who are in the middle of this. And Akiva can tell you a lot more about Israeli society than I can, but it's pretty harsh. Dissent is not something that is embraced. And so seeing people who worked with the Palestinians for 30 or 40 years, despite all of the really huge incentives for them to stop doing that, to just go with the flow. They could have much easier lives. I met an older woman who was 14 years old, and she was on the airplane that was hijacked and taken to Entebbe in Uganda. And when the hostages were taken on October 7th, she said to herself, I know what it is to be a hostage, but she had also been working with the Palestinians, specifically of Gaza, for about 30 years. The way she articulated this was they were all hostages, and now they've taken hostages. So she had this drive to help not only the Palestinians, but also the Israeli hostage families. I just think it's very impressive what people can do when they decide to embrace their humanity instead of deciding to embrace the forces that are pushing them away from that humanity. I like to think about the shared humana you mentioned from a slightly different angle. And every person can choose a historical moment that speaks to them where they reflect upon and ask themselves, how was this possible? So that unfortunately brings me to the conclusion or understanding that for such things to happen, there needs to be a process in which people are convinced in various different ways to believe that someone else is less human. And they are able to exonerate themselves from the responsibility in a way which is contrary to they would want any human to be treated. The science on dehumanization as a sort of a cause of genocides and colonization and the like is just robust and right on point. The concept of common humanity, complex as it is, but also the practice of it. You know, if you can do that kind of work, it's good for your heart and blood pressure. But you guys are really looking at a really hard problem. Faroz, your description of the medical settings you worked in in Gaza, mind-blowing to think about how would you keep your sense of common humanity, your broader sense, Akiva, of the systemic issues leading to dehumanization in the Middle East right now. Why do you have faith in common humanity, both at the day-to-day work you do and the broader historical view of things? I guess one reason is there's just no other option. You've got to keep believing in it. that really brings it back to the dehumanization of Arabs in general and the Palestinians specifically. It's very odd. The Times article that I wrote in 2024, I had to get 65 people, all of whom have worked in Gaza, to testify as to what they saw with their own eyes about what is going on, what they saw. And that ended up being one story. These people need us to humanize them. And that just speaks to the level of dehumanization that exists. It's really quite shocking. We're going to post a link to this remarkable speech you gave or briefing to the UN Council to the United Nations. One of the most striking findings to me was that 50% of children, Palestinian children in Gaza, have suicidal ideation, including five-year-old kids, which is staggering. Tell us what you wanted to convey to the UN. They didn't learn anything from my talk. They all knew what was going on. But nevertheless, I wanted someone to just tell the UN Security Council to please do its job. Like the UN Security Council has a sacred trust to maintain international peace and security and to prevent crimes against humanity. When I was there, I wanted to make it so that people just can't pretend that they don't know the details of what's going on in Gaza. There's no shortage of documentation about it. I certainly wasn't the first person to bring it up. But I made it a point of saying that I wish the United States would listen to its own people. The population of the United States does not want this to be going on. So why are we vetoing these resolutions? Why are we funding this slaughter? It's a very charged issue right now. You know, in American institutions, if you say the wrong thing, you can be put on lists and not allowed to teach, et cetera. And for both of you, Akiva and Faro, it's like, what was your, the reaction to this letter and amongst your colleagues? There were people who were very, very, very extremely supportive. And there were the abusive hateful remarks which came at no surprise And I think we were pretty much prepared for that One of the common criticisms I think we all receive from people who are respectfully arguing with us they're saying, well, you know, we agree with a lot of your points, but we're not talking extensively about the atrocities of October 7, or we're not talking about what Hamas has been doing throughout this time period. And I think what we're trying to say in our perspective is, you know what, there's no symmetry here. We're not trying to make a symmetrical analysis. We're trying to say what are things that decent human beings should not be doing, no matter what. I think everybody recognized that we weren't so much as making an argument that is difficult to make or like, you know, some sort of elaborate academic construction or something. It was just finally someone is being allowed to say this out loud in the medical community. What were some of the conditions that you saw or you worked in? So, you know, I've been to Gaza twice now. And in 2024, I was working on the eastern side of Kanyunas and there were ground troops in the area. So we saw lots of explosive injuries. We had three or four mass casualty events a day, if not more. And about half of the injuries were in children. But the really striking thing we saw was that on a regular and in fact, daily basis, small children, I'm talking about, you know, 12 and under, kids that look like kids, were being brought into the hospital with single gunshot wounds to the head or the chest. And that was, it was really kind of shocking. I work in Stockton, California. It's not that I've never seen a small child shot. I certainly have. It really undermines the notion that this is a war on Hamas. That's how it's presented in the media quite generally. A war on Hamas does not involve the widespread shooting of small children. I've been reviewing the science of activism in really hard circumstances, and it gives us reason for hope that you can increase the biodiversity of a region of the environment. You can increase the educational outcomes in a neighborhood. Our actions matter. A lot of us are struggling to think of how to make sense of this and what to do. What do you guys see as the kind of the trajectory of your work? What do you hope for? I think if we had no hope, we wouldn't spend the time, effort, and resources in publishing this. I think part of the reasons we thought it was important is that we may be able to touch some people, institutions, societies with our writing and call them to action, sort of find that spark of humanity, which may be dormant. We have rewritten it several times to fit publication. And one of the recommendations in the editing process we got is to give it a more personal flavor rather than a very principled argumentative formation. And I must admit initially, personally, I was somewhat resistant to that thought. And in hindsight, it may make sense, right? Sharing a personal perspective, sharing personal stories, sharing the humane aspect of this may light the spark for those who do have that ability to look inwards and take it on. And I think that's our hope. I mean, how much has it changed? Who knows? but hope is what I think brought us to do this work. Ferros? I can't recognize that my country is responsible for what's going on in Gaza. And at the same time, I'm going to Gaza and I have so many people supporting me in doing so. I can't both be hopeless on the one hand and then also acknowledge that all these people exist and want to do the right thing. It doesn't make any sense, you know? So yeah, I think there's good reason to be hopeful, like Akiva said. And I want to thank you both for being on the show, you know, Akiva and Ferros. Thank you so much for joining us today. Thank you for having us. Thank you for taking interest. If this reaches one more person, as the Talmudic saying says, one who saves a life as if they have saved the universe. Every life is so precious, and here we have infinite universes who have the potential of being saved. Next up, how are we trained from a young age to obey? And how does that shape our brain? Many of us are socialized for compliance. When people are pleased with us, it increases our dopamine levels. And we want to feel that again and again. That's up next on The Science of Happiness. Hey, I'm Dr. Maya Shunker. I host a podcast called A Slight Change of Plans that combines behavioral science and storytelling to help us navigate the big changes in our lives. I get so choked up because I feel like your show and the conversations are what the world needs, encouraging, empowering, counter-programming that acts like a lighthouse when the world feels dark. Listen to A Slight Change of Plans wherever you get your podcasts. Welcome back to the Science of Happiness. I'm Dacher Keltner. One of the quietest but most powerful forces shaping our lives is the pull to comply. Our next guest is a social scientist and psychologist, Dr. Sunita Sa. Her work asks a deceptively simple question. When do we go along and when do we act in line with our true values? She defines defiance not as being loud or rebellious, but as choosing integrity under pressure. And she mapped out how to do that deliberately using what she calls a defiance compass Producer True Quinn has the story Many of us have heard the phrase, you are what you eat. There's even been PSAs about it. You see, you are what you eat from your head down to your feet. But social psychologist Dr. Sunita Saw has her own PSA for us. What really defines us isn't just what we consume, it's how we act. Every single act that we do affects us. How we act becomes who we are at the end of the day. Which can be hard because Dr. Sa says we're not exactly socialized to think for ourselves. Many of us are socialized for compliance. When people are pleased with us, we get rewarded for behavior. It increases our dopamine levels. And we want to feel that again and again. We almost become wired to comply by our parents, by our teachers, by other institutions, by our community. And the neural pathways for defiance are often punished. Dr. Soss says one way she challenges this compliance is by asking her students at Cornell to name their values and write them down. So values such as integrity, benevolence, compassion, equality, they tend to be repeated over and over again, almost like universal values in a way. Universal values. And yet with everything happening in the world right now, it can feel hard to believe we actually live by them. What my research has shown me again and again is what someone believes their values to be is actually quite different from how they behave. The dissonance is real. And when it comes to confronting large-scale harm, many of us cope the same way, by looking away. When something bad happens to a certain group of people, we want to distance ourselves because it's too painful to think that it might happen to us and that we are also part of it. We might think that looking away helps us keep going with our lives, but... The amount of distance that we can get can sometimes be quite shocking. accepting things that we don't think are right or that we're looking away from wrongdoing is that it does impact us. It does affect us emotionally, spiritually, and even physically. We get anxiety, chronic stress, depression, inflammation. But Dr. Soss says we can use what she calls a defiance compass by writing down our values, just like her students. The research shows if you know your values and you write them down, you're more likely to act in alignment with them. And it also lowers your stress response. There's less cortisol if you know who you are and what you stand for. She's also clear that when, if, and how we get involved in fighting injustice is deeply personal. Because what's safe for one person is not the same as what's safe for someone else. So someone who doesn't struggle financially is quite different from someone who is thinking about how to make the next rent check. Someone who's perceived as a threat is quite different from someone who can go around unquestioned. A good question to ask ourselves is, is it safe enough for me? What does a person like me with these values, integrity, honesty, transparency, whatever your values are, what does that type of person do in a situation like this? A lot of us also get caught up in feeling like the problems are too big, nothing will ever change, But that's where knowing our values matter. Sometimes people will act, even if they don't think that is going to have an effect, again, because they're so connected to their principles. People feel a lot more authentic, a lot more joy and honesty because they've lived in alignment with their values. That alignment doesn't guarantee outcomes, but everything we do or don't shapes the world around us. How you act again and again becomes who we are. You don't actually have to be brave. You don't have to be a superhero to incorporate defiance in your life. It isn't just for the braver extraordinary. It's actually available here right now. And it's necessary for all of us. And there's different ways to do it. Next time on The Science of Happiness Love changes us It supports us, challenges us, and connects us Join me, Gina Davis, for The Science of Love A new three-episode series Produced by the Science of Happiness podcast At the Greater Good Science Center We'll be exploring the science and lived experience of love in all its forms. From the families we're born into to the relationships we choose, we'll discover what happens inside us when love shows up. That's next week on The Science of Happiness. Our associate producers are Emily Brower and Tarini Kakar. Our producer is Truk Nguyen. Our sound designer is Jenny Cataldo of Accompany Studios. Shuka Kalantari is our executive producer. I'm your host, Dacher Kelton.
