#14: Negin Sairafi with Laura Sniderman on Loneliness, Connection and the Art of Vulnerability

Growing Wise

In this episode, I am sharing a conversation with Laura Sniderman about how we can create more meaningful connections in our lives.

Laura shares personal experiences, academic insights and her learnings from years of community building. Together we unpack what it really means to be vulnerable with friends, family and strangers. And how we can create a sense of belonging by leaning into and out of community.
"As humans, we all have an array of feelings and emotions, and as a global society, we need to learn how to embrace those feelings and those thoughts, collectively, so that we are not meeting each other on the premise of superficial things, such as interests or pictures, but rather we are meeting each other on the foundations of mutual vulnerability, generosity and reciprocity—and a desire for consistency, for ongoing connection, not just one-off interactions or a like or a comment."
Laura Whitney Sniderman - Founder & CEO of Kinnd

Laura launched Kinnd 10 months ago at the onset of COVID as a response to the growing epidemic of loneliness. Kinnd is a digital friend-making platform that is de-swipifying and re-humanizing the experience of making a friend online. Currently, Kinnd is a Facebook Group, soon to be app, that now has over 8500 members from 100 countries around the world. Laura has a Masters in Clinical and Counseling Psychology from Columbia University and is a 2X Founder having previously run an International Women's retreat company for 6 years.
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