Ideas worth spreading

The hidden power of sad songs and rainy days

2,174,605 views |

Susan Cain and Min Kym |

TEDSummit 2019

• July 2019

Have you ever wondered why you like sad music? Do you find comfort or inspiration in rainy days? In this profound, poetic talk, author Susan Cain invites you to embrace the feeling of longing -- or the place where joy and sorrow meet – as a gateway to creativity, connection and love. Accompanied by the splendid sounds of violinist Min Kym, Cain meditates on how heartache unexpectedly brings us closer to the sublime beauty of life.

Have you ever wondered why you like sad music? Do you find comfort or inspiration in rainy days? In this profound, poetic talk, author Susan Cain invites you to embrace the feeling of longing -- or the place where joy and sorrow meet – as a gateway to creativity, connection and love. Accompanied by the splendid sounds of violinist Min Kym, Cain meditates on how heartache unexpectedly brings us closer to the sublime beauty of life.

This talk was presented at an official TED conference. TED's editors chose to feature it for you.

Check out Bittersweet: Practices and Reflections, an interactive course delivered in short, digestible bursts, which you can access via SMS or WhatsApp.

Start a Bittersweet Book Club. Use this Bittersweet Reading Group Guide to get you started.

Listen to the companion playlist to Bittersweet on Spotify.

About the speakers

Susan Cain

Author, explorer of hidden superpowers

See speaker profile

With her viral talk from TED2012 and her mega-bestseller "Quiet," Susan Cain urged society to cultivate space for the undervalued, indispensable introverts among us. Now, with her new bestseller "Bittersweet," she's back to explore the surprising lessons sorrow and longing teach us about creativity, connection and love.

Min Kym

Violinist, author

See speaker profile

Min Kym began playing the violin at age six. By her teens, she was a full-blown phenomenon, garnering awards and attention, until her career took an unexpected turn.

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Some of Susan Cain's favorite, most inspiring quotes on bittersweetness, sorrow and longing.

"Homesick we are, and always, for another and different world."
–– Vita Sackville West

"This longing
You express is the return message.
The grief you cry out from
Draws you toward union."
–– Rumi

"Before you know kindness as the deepest thing inside,
You must know sorrow as the other deepest thing."
–– Naomi Shihab Nye

"Even in Kyoto … I long for Kyoto."
–– Basho

"The sweetest thing in all my life has been the longing — to reach the Mountain, to find the place where all the beauty came from — my country, the place where I ought to have been born."
–– C.S. Lewis

Learn more

This talk was presented at an official TED conference. TED's editors chose to feature it for you.

Check out Bittersweet: Practices and Reflections, an interactive course delivered in short, digestible bursts, which you can access via SMS or WhatsApp.

Start a Bittersweet Book Club. Use this Bittersweet Reading Group Guide to get you started.

Listen to the companion playlist to Bittersweet on Spotify.