Hey y’all, Reema here. I just wanted to share a personal note, reflecting on our ninth season of “This Is Uncomfortable,” which wrapped up this week. I’m really proud of this season, which is a little different from past ones. We started it off with a very personal story from me and my dad, reflecting on his life in Gaza and the horrors our family has been experiencing there since last October.
Now that I have some distance from the episode, I’m surprised I had the emotional capacity to share it with you all. Just typing this right now, I can feel my chest tighten. The weight of grief has felt especially heavy recently. It’s an impossible thing to process, dozens of family members, my sweet cousin Iman, her husband and their seven children, killed by Israel’s bombardment. None of it is normal.
These past six months have been marked by an incredible amount of cognitive dissonance and emotional whiplash: One minute, I’m reading a headline that shakes my worldview and personal life. The next, I’m on a Zoom call, chuckling at a co-worker’s joke. Some things have helped me navigate the incongruity and grief: talking with family and friends, lots of internal family systems therapy and reading books like Pema Chödrön’s
"When Things Fall Apart,"
All of that has prompted me to look both inward and outward lately, reflecting on my personal values and how I want to live my life, while also questioning the systems we’ve entrusted to run our world. Unfathomable events rearrange and force a magnifying glass on our lives. And I’m learning that if you don’t let them collapse you, they have the potential to change you and those around you.
And while I’m reluctant to make too many direct comparisons, I think a lot of our episodes this season featured stories with that tension: meeting adversity with transformation. Faced with the harsh realities of South Korea’s beauty culture, Haein Shin rejected the standards at great personal cost. After experiencing weight discrimination on the job, Lindsey Niehay took her employer to court
to challenge a system with few protections. And when Lorena wasn’t receiving a livable wage as a garment worker in Los Angeles, she discovered a newfound courage by standing up to her boss. In all of these stories, things beyond their control urged them to look within, interrogate their beliefs and make decisions so they could live more authentically.
My favorite part of this job is talking with people like Haein, Lindsey and Lorena. People who push through discomfort to share their most vulnerable selves and challenge the status quo. It reminds me of our connectedness and shared humanity in a world that can feel increasingly dark and dystopian. I’m excited to spend the next few months working alongside our producers Zoë Saunders, Hannah Harris Green and Alice Wilder to find more stories like those to share with you, stories that I hope resonate with you all just as much as they do with me.
Please stay in touch with us until then. You can always reach me and the team at uncomfortable@marketplace.org with any comments or story ideas. We’re also launching a summer reading club, which you can read more about below. Thanks for listening and your support. I appreciate you all so much. — Reema |