Episode description

Stat: 41%: The share of adults who experienced high levels of psychological distress at some point during the pandemic.

Story: New studies show that physical touch is vitally important to the human experience. And during the pandemic, many Americans felt the impact of its loss because of quarantines and isolation. But how do our brains and bodies distinguish between different types of touch? In this episode, Ishmail Abdus-Saboor of Columbia University discusses how his research tries to answer that question and explains what touch means for our mental and physical health.