Leslie John (on the power of oversharing)

Leslie John, a behavioral scientist and Harvard Business School professor, discusses her research on self-disclosure, privacy, and why we underestimate the benefits of oversharing. She explains how growing up in a penny-pinching household drove her to study human irrationality and how one mortifying over-share led to finding lifelong mentors. The conversation covers the cognitive toll of keeping secrets, why sketchy websites encourage more honesty than polished ones, and how parasocial relationships fill a real intimacy gap. John argues that strategic vulnerability is a social tool that builds trust, and that we're often better off revealing more than we think.