Proxy with Yowei Shaw

An Emotions Beat episode about why we suffer alone — and what happens when we don’t. For years, Jason Yu struggled with skin picking in secret. He didn’t have a name for what was happening. He didn’t know other people dealt with it too. And he felt like if he just had more willpower, he should be able to stop. Then, after eight years of shame and isolation, Jason found a support group. In this epi...

An Emotions Beat episode about why we hate the other side — and what that hate does to us. A week before the election, Yowei talks with social psychologist Jay Van Bavel about political sectarianism: the emotional force that turns political disagreement into disgust, fear, and moral certainty that the other side is not just wrong, but evil.   The question is not whether politics matter. They do. T...

An Emotions Beat episode about why we cry — and what other people are supposed to do about it. After Yowei got laid off, she cried a lot. In bathrooms, at conferences, at birthday parties, and in moments when she desperately did not want to cry in front of other people. So what is actually happening in that moment — when your eyes burn, your throat tightens, and your body starts sending a signal y...

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.  New to Proxy? Try Bisexual Wife Guy , one of the clearest examples of what this show does, or Yowei Can't Speak Bro for a funny investigation into male friendship, bro-speak, and emotional translation.

An Emotions Beat episode about why rituals work — and what they have to do with Proxy. When Yowei first started pitching Proxy, ritual was part of the concept. Proxy conversations, proxy rituals, “proxuals” — it was a whole thing. She eventually ditched the ritual component because no one understood what she was talking about. But after making a layoff music video in a Kleenex box costume, Yowei s...

An Emotions Beat episode about the surprisingly real feelings that can come from acting.  Yowei has a problem: she’s making a show built around proxy conversations, but she still doesn’t totally know how to explain what’s happening inside them. So she turns to psychodrama — an experiential therapy that uses role play, theater, and psychology to help people say the things they didn’t get to say, he...

An Emotions Beat episode about Dead Eyes, Tom Hanks, and why proxy conversations work. Yowei is still trying to answer a basic question about her own show: why would talking to a stranger who wasn’t there help someone get unstuck? So she calls Connor Ratliff, the actor and comedian behind Dead Eyes — a podcast about the time Tom Hanks fired him from Band of Brothers for allegedly having “dead eyes...

Content note: This episode discusses sexual violence. An Emotions Beat episode about proxy conversations, restorative jusice, and the questions we may never get to ask.   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 would talking to someone who wasn’t directly involved in your situation help you feel less stuc...

The case of the couple who want answers from HR. Months after Elliot was laid off, he and his husband Miles were still angry — not just about the layoff, but about the way it happened. The smiling HR rep. The severance paperwork no one explained. The desk he wasn’t allowed to pack up. The coffee spilled all over his belongings. They had questions they couldn’t ask the actual HR person without risk...

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.  After Elliot was suddenly laid off, his husband Miles kept working at the same company — in the same office, with the same HR rep, under the same threat that he...

When Yowei got laid off from NPR, she knew all the rational things. It was a business decision. It wasn’t about her performance. She had savings, severance, and support. So why did it still feel like getting rejected by the entire life she’d built? In the first episode of Proxy, Yowei investigates why layoffs can feel so emotionally devastating — even when you know, intellectually, that it’s not y...

It’s the knot you can’t untangle — a problem so specific, it makes you feel alone. But what if you could talk to someone who gets it?  On Proxy, we find someone with the closest possible experience to your problem — and follow the conversation that unfolds. It’s not therapy. It’s emotional investigative journalism. Hosted by Yowei Shaw, former co-host of Invisibilia. New to Proxy? Try Bisexual Wif...