Proxy with Yowei Shaw

Y3 Productions

It’s the knot you can’t untangle - a problem so unique, it makes you feel alone. But what if you could talk to someone who’s been through the exact same thing? On Proxy, we find just the person you were looking for, the person who can help you get unstuck. It’s not therapy - it’s emotional investigative journalism™️. Yowei Shaw, former host of Invisibilia, at your service. New cases every other Tuesday.

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Proxy is an independent podcast and we rely on listeners. To support emotional investigative journalism™️ and help the show keep going, consider joining our Patreon . You’ll get ad-free episodes and exclusive bonus interviews.

Get in touch at proxythepod@gmail.com

839140

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Get in touch at proxythepod@gmail.com

839140

14hr 54min

Thumbnail for "So many tears but what do they say?".

We all know that moment - when you feel like you need to cry in front of other people, but don't want to cry. In this episode, Yowei talks to Heather Christle, the author of , to parse what’s happening in that moment, what tears are saying and how...

September 26, 202424min 28sec35.24 MB

Thumbnail for "Brian Can't Stop Fact-checking His Mother-In-Law".

June 17, 202553min 53sec137.14 MB

Thumbnail for "Is it time to break up the band?".

June 3, 202555min 30sec141.01 MB

Thumbnail for "Aparna and the Self-Loathing Introvert".

May 20, 202543min 16sec105.32 MB

Thumbnail for "Mic Chooses the Wrong Life".

May 6, 202548min 8sec129.96 MB

April 22, 202553min 13sec127.74 MB

Thumbnail for "The Utility of Self-Delusion (and Big Show Update)".

March 19, 202517min 59sec50.06 MB

Thumbnail for "Presenting: Alternate Realities (from NPR's Embedded)".

Conspiracy theories have been gaining traction all the way to the highest seats of power. So, are there emotional dynamics at play that we could understand to be able to do something about it? Last year, Zach Mack’s dad sent him a strange...

March 6, 202535min 46sec93.66 MB

Thumbnail for "Presenting: "Stings for Our Enemies. Honey for Our Friends." (from Our Ancestors Were Messy)".

For as long as she can remember, Nichole Hill has had a complicated relationship with Black history. Then in 2020, she stumbled on a digital archive of pre Civil Rights era Black newspapers and got obsessed with the scandalous stories she found. Our...

February 26, 20251hr 8min97.41 MB

Thumbnail for "Presenting: I felt too seen. Um, dragged. (from Basket Case), Plus an Update".

Basket Case is a new show about mental health. In this episode, host Nicole Kelly (NK) takes on perfectionism, an issue that Yowei has personally struggled with. Plus, some breaking news about Proxy. Listener survey: bit.ly/proxysurvey ...

February 6, 202539min 25sec56.77 MB

Thumbnail for "Presenting: An Evil Man (from Little Devils), Plus a Year-End Recap".

When Yowei heard about the new podcast Little Devils, she was like: finally, someone being honest about a thing we all do. On Little Devils, Jasmin Bauomy interrogates the snap judgments she makes of other people, to find the story behind that...

December 30, 202445min 49sec65.99 MB

The story of someone who suffered alone in secret for 8 years with a problem he was too afraid to Google - and then he stumbled into a support group. In this episode, we dive into the emotional dynamics of support groups with Jason Yu. Why did...

December 3, 202452min 27sec75.54 MB

Thumbnail for "Is there anything we can actually do about polarization?".

Whoever wins the election, Americans will still want to rip each other's heads off. Social psychologist Jay Van Bavel helps us understand why we should care about polarization, how we got here, and what, if anything, we can do about it. ...

October 29, 202441min 48sec100.33 MB

Thumbnail for "Did we make our goal???".

Finally, a campaign reveal. Did we get additional funding to hire Kim for more hours? Plus, some updates for what’s in store for Proxy. Episode credits: Produced by and Kim Nederveen Pieterse Mixed by Proxy is...

September 5, 20248min 5sec32.7 MB

Thumbnail for "The Mechanics and Magic of Ritual".

The final installment of Yowei's quest to solve the mystery of proxy converations. In this episode, Yowei talks to a ritual expert and tries explaining what she's learned about proxy conversations to her mom. From the...

August 21, 202423min 43sec56.93 MB

Thumbnail for "Psychodrama: The 2nd Oldest Psychotherapy You've Never Heard Of, But Have Definitely Tried".

Part 3 of Yowei's extremely meta quest to solve the mystery of proxy conversations. In this episode, Yowei learns about psychodrama, a psychotherapy that has similarities to proxy conversations and used to be a dominant modality in the...

August 15, 202439min 41sec95.24 MB

Thumbnail for "Connor Ratliff's Dead Eyes".

Part 2 of Yowei's quest to solve the mystery of proxy conversations. Why do they work? How? Can Yowei figure out how to explain the show to people who don't get it? In this episode, Yowei gets advice from actor, comedian, and proxy...

August 6, 202436min 59sec53.26 MB

Thumbnail for "The Incredible Healing Powers of Vicarious Restorative Justice".

Yowei has a problem. She's having trouble explaining the show to people who don't get it. She knows proxy conversations work. But why? How? Part 1 of a 4-part quest to solve the mystery of proxy conversations. Yowei learns about a proxy...

July 24, 20241hr146.36 MB

Thumbnail for "Exploding the Myth of Meritocracy with Ofer Sharone [TEASER]".

Teaser for full-length exclusive bonus episode on Patreon. An in-depth interview with UMass Amherst sociologist and professor Ofer Sharone about the stigma trap that laid off workers can fall into and how the myth of meritocracy impacts even people...

June 7, 20249min 58sec9.58 MB

Thumbnail for "The Layoff Trilogy 3: HR by Proxy".

With every layoff, there's the blackbox of what's really going on behind the scenes. Why did it go down the way it did? Was it really not about your performance, like they told you? How does the layoff list get made anyway? In our inaugural...

May 23, 202449min 39sec47.68 MB

Thumbnail for "The Layoff Trilogy 2: Danger Day".

Please note: This story contains brief mention of suicidal ideation. If you or someone you know may be considering suicide, contact the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline by dialing 9-8-8, or the Crisis Text Line by texting HOME to 741741. ...

May 23, 202441min 54sec56.56 MB

The Layoff Trilogy 1: Layoff Girl

May 22, 202442min 25sec40.73 MB

May 15, 20241min 12sec17.31 MB

So many tears but what do they say?

September 26, 202424min 28sec

We all know that moment - when you feel like you need to cry in front of other people, but don't want to cry. In this episode, Yowei talks to Heather Christle, the author of The Crying Book, to parse what’s happening in that moment, what tears are saying and how we should respond to them.

From the episode:

Heather Christle's The Crying Book
Heather's new book In the Rhododendrums: A Memoir with Appearances by Virginia Wolf
Follow Heather on X and Instagram @heatherchristle
The Thai Life Insurance commercial from our crying experiment

Proxy is an independent podcast and we rely on listeners. To support emotional investigative journalism™️ and help the show keep going, consider joining our Patreon. You’ll get ad-free episodes and exclusive bonus interviews.

Get in touch at proxythepod@gmail.com