HELLO, Is It Connection You're Looking For?

We asked an illustrator who's passionate about demystifying our emotional states to annotate a conversation with an expert in the field. The result: this supremely relatable mini-guide to handling your toughest emotions.

- JULIA BERICK

STEPHANIE CACIOPPO, PHD, is a neuroscientist devoted to exploring how and why we experience emotions, and in many ways, artist Michelle Rial is dedicated to doing the same. In her new memoir, Wired for Love, Cacioppo makes the complex science behind how our brains process love and loss relatable by sharing her own story of finding and losing the love of her lifealso a neuroscientist but in the field of loneliness. Graphic designer Michelle Rial's most recent book, Maybe This Will Help, is a visual memoir that also looks within, using simple graphics and different kinds of charts-bar graphs, Venn diagrams, timelines—to convey complex feelings such as those about loss and chronic pain. Recently, I got on the phone with both of them-they've never met-to talk about love and loneliness, and then asked Rial to translate Cacioppo's revelations and advice into disarmingly honest illustrations. Connecting with them was a reminder that, well, actually making an effort to connect can lift you out of all kinds of uncomfortable emotional spaces. Listen in...

Michelle Rial: Good morning. Yes, I can hear you. Can you hear me?

Stephanie Cacioppo: Hello. Let me say how humbled I am to meet you both. It's really a great pleasure. Michelle, I love your work, your book, and your graphs, and you taught me how to overthink less-so a thank you.

Julia Berick: I am so excited to have you both on the phone. In somewhat similar ways, your very different bodies of work help us understand emotions. Can you tell me about what drew you both to this effort to help us, the public, understand emotions?