Jacob's Blessings and Aging Out of People Pleasing

Drawing on the book "(Un)kind: How 'Be Kind' Entrenches Sexism" by Victoria Smith and Ellen Scherr's essay "The Neuroscience of Why You Suddenly Can’t Pretend Anymore," I examine Jacob's deathbed blessings to his sons, which are impartial statements of fact with neither personal commentary nor people-pleasing softening. I see in my own life the draw of middle age to convey factual statements without personal judgment, but the societal messages that everything has to be couched in uplifting, taking-care-of-others'-feelings language or you're a bad person or a bad supervisor.

You can listen to Jacob's Blessings and Aging Out of People Pleasing online on Radio and Podcast. Open the player on this page to stream the available audio.

Jacob's Blessings and Aging Out of People Pleasing is an episode from Authentic, Compassionate Judaism for the Thinking Person by Rabbi Nadav Caine.

This episode is 14:17 long.

This episode was published on Jan 4, 2026.

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