The Science of Shared Growth: Why Learning Together Deepens Relationships
We are living through a loneliness epidemic and researchers are clear that it is not simply about being single or physically isolated. It is about the slow erosion of depth inside relationships. The kind of presence, vulnerability, and shared attention that makes connection feel real has become increasingly rare, even between people who love each other.
This is the conversation I want to bring to your audience.
Psychological research consistently shows that couples who engage in novel learning experiences together report higher relationship satisfaction and stronger emotional bonds. And yet most of us have never been taught how to be deliberately present with another person, how to negotiate, attune, and show up without distraction. We have the intention. We rarely have the structure.
In this episode, we would explore why presence has become a radical act, why vulnerability without structure rarely leads to real connection, and why shared learning may be one of the most overlooked tools we have for rebuilding relational depth in a distracted world.
And the practice that best embodies all of it may be the last one you would expect.
Japanese rope tying, shibari, is not what most people imagine. When you look past its reputation, what you find is a practice that meets every criterion relationship researchers use to define high-quality connection: partners negotiate boundaries out loud before anything begins, read each other's physical cues in real time, maintain undivided presence throughout, and collaborate toward something neither could do alone. Nothing is assumed. Nothing is passive. It is structured vulnerability, which is precisely what most relationships are missing
This is not a conversation about shock value. It is about rediscovering how to be fully present with another human being and why that might be the most urgent relationship skill of our time.
I bring this conversation from direct experience. Shibari Academy, which I founded, is one of the largest online shibari education platforms in the world, serving more than 200,000 students across 60 countries. Shibari Academy teaches Japanese rope art as an accessible, consent-driven, mindfulness practice. What that global community has shown, repeatedly, is that the rope is almost never the point. Connection is.
Eve is the founder of Shibari Academy, one of the largest online shibari education platforms in the world, serving more than 200,000 students across 60 countries. After discovering shibari in a social setting and experiencing firsthand the depth of connection it created, she spent two years immersing herself in every course, workshop, and resource available only to find that most existing materials were intimidating, hypersexualized, or nearly impossible to follow. She built Shibari Academy to offer what she had been looking for: a structured, beginner-friendly, consent-driven approach to rope practice focused entirely on communication, trust, and relational presence. Beyond Shibari Academy, Eve is a partner at Elevín Solutions where she advises hundreds of startups annually, a volunteer mentor in startup accelerators worldwide, and a portrait painter. She holds an MBA, a degree in Chemical Engineering, and the MIT Innovators Under 35 Award.
