I'm Fine, Thanks
The conversations

Eight people who see wellbeing up close

Between the ten-minute episodes, Claire Myung sits down with the people around students every day: a psychology teacher, a school counselor, a meditation app founder, a Buddhist monk, a biomedical researcher, and students figuring it out in real time.

8

interviews

165

minutes

2

in two languages

Student wellbeing

Russell CaynapYasemin Bozoglu ErdincJean PaekLeanne Patterson-Shin

Mindfulness and presence

Jungeun YouVenerable Junhan Sunim

Science and philosophy

Joon PaekJeongmin Kim

Interview #1 · Episode 38

Russell Caynap

IB Diploma psychology teacher

22 min

Russell Caynap on psychology and student wellbeing

A psychology teacher's view from the classroom: what stress actually looks like in students and which ideas from the discipline help most day to day.

  • The pressures teenagers face today are real and different from a generation ago.
  • Psychology is most useful when it explains your own week, not just the exam.
  • Small, consistent wellbeing habits outperform big interventions.

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Interview #2 · Episode 41

Yasemin Bozoglu Erdinc

IB Diploma theory of knowledge teacher and parent

17 min

Yasemin Bozoglu Erdinc on school culture and wellbeing

A teacher and parent on how much of student stress is environmental, and what adults can change about the culture around young people.

  • The school environment shapes wellbeing as much as any individual habit.
  • Seeing the same problem as an educator and as a parent reveals different levers.
  • Questioning how we know what we know is itself a wellbeing skill.

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Interview #3 · Episode 52

Jungeun You

Founder and chief executive, Mabo

28 minKorean and English

Jungeun You, founder of Mabo, on mindfulness

The founder of Korea's first guided meditation app on why pausing is a skill, how students can start, and what mindfulness looks like in a culture that rarely stops.

  • A pause does not have to be long to change the next thing you do.
  • Meditation is more approachable when it is guided, short, and in your own language.
  • Mindfulness in a high-pressure culture is an act of quiet resistance.

This interview was released in two languages

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Interview #4 · Episode 56

Jean Paek

Psychology student, rising sophomore

14 min

Jean Paek on studying psychology in college

A college psychology student on the transition to university, what the coursework taught her about her own wellbeing, and what she wishes she had known in high school.

  • The jump to university is a role transition, and role transitions strain wellbeing.
  • Studying the mind changes how you treat your own.
  • Community is the variable that predicts a good first year.

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Interview #5 · Episode 60

Joon Paek

Doctoral student in biomedical research

11 min

Joon Paek on dopamine, habits, and the science of wellbeing

A biomedical researcher on what the science of dopamine actually says about everyday habits, and which changes are worth a student's limited energy.

  • Most habit advice is downstream of a few reward-system basics.
  • Sleep and movement are the least glamorous and most effective interventions.
  • Understanding the mechanism makes the habit easier to keep.

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Interview #6 · Episode 65

Venerable Junhan Sunim

Buddhist monk and founder, JustBe Temple

32 minKorean and English

Venerable Junhan Sunim on presence and Buddhist wisdom

A Buddhist monk on what it means to simply be, how awareness changes ordinary days, and why presence is a practice rather than a mood.

  • Presence is available in the dishes, the commute, and the conversation, not only on the cushion.
  • Suffering often comes from wanting this moment to be a different one.
  • Wisdom traditions and modern psychology point at the same door from different sides.

This interview was released in two languages

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Interview #7 · Episode 70

Jeongmin Kim

High school senior and practicing Stoic

12 min

Jeongmin Kim on living with a Stoic mindset

A high schooler on how a two-thousand-year-old philosophy helps with exams, friendships, and setbacks. Control what you can, release what you cannot.

  • The dichotomy of control is the whole practice: sort every worry into yours or not yours.
  • Negative visualization takes the sting out of bad outcomes before they arrive.
  • Philosophy is a tool for Tuesday, not a subject for exams.

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Interview #8 · Episode 75

Leanne Patterson-Shin

Upper school counselor

28 min

Leanne Patterson-Shin on counseling and academic pressure

A school counselor on what academic pressure does to students, what actually helps, and what she wishes every teenager knew about asking for support.

  • Asking for help earlier is the single change that would help most students.
  • School culture can either amplify pressure or absorb it.
  • Support looks less like advice and more like being known.

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