In this episode, I sit down with historian Barbara H. Rosenwein to talk about how emotions, far from being timeless or universal, are shaped by the cultures and communities we live in. Drawing from her influential concept of emotional communities, Barbara helps me understand how emotions like anger, shame, pride, and love have been expressed, suppressed, and moralized across history. We explore how medieval monks, warriors, or aristocratic women didn’t just feel differently than we do today. They inhabited different emotional worlds, with distinct rules about what could be shown, hidden, or valued.We also discuss the modern myth that emotions are raw, instinctive things we should either control or let loose. Barbara challenges this binary, showing instead how emotional expressions are learned, practiced, and patterned, passed down like language or custom. We talk about the emotional life of institutions (like schools), the policing of public vulnerability, and how historical shifts in religious or political structures can create entirely new emotional landscapes. There’s a particularly powerful moment where we reflect on the role of shame in both medieval and modern settings, how it can be used as a tool of control, but also resisted through new emotional solidarities.This episode is not just about what people felt in the past. It’s about what we’ve been taught to feel today, and how knowing history might free us to feel differently. If you’ve ever wondered where your emotions come from, or why some are welcome in public while others are hidden, this conversation offers an eye-opening and deeply human perspective.🎙️ Episode Chapters00:00 – Introduction02:15 – Emotional Communities Defined06:42 – Are Emotions Universal?12:01 – How Historians Read Emotion17:25 – Religious Emotional Norms in the Middle Ages24:40 – Emotion as Power and Social Order30:15 – From Individual Emotion to Emotional Style34:50 – Grief and Love Across Time40:08 – The Modern Myth of Emotional Freedom45:23 – Rethinking Emotional Intelligence50:50 – What History Can Teach Us About Feeling55:10 – Final Reflections and Takeaways

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