Dara is thinking about imprints, specifically the ones left on us in our formative years. He argues that our sense of wellness is very much connected to how successfully we negotiate or accommodate those imprints in our adult selves.
He shares some scenarios from his own childhood to try to illustrate his point, including watching The Muppet Show in a bar while a fight broke out above his 8-year-old head.
He talks about the Pixar movie Turning Red and how its menstruation-based story raised some issues for him. He looks at the cultural setting of that tale and wonders if Western culture’s modernising zeal has completely eradicated the idea of rites and rituals.
A final word is given to another Pixar film – Wall-E – as Dara expresses admiration for its central character, the Chaplinesque garbage droid whose significant imprint is one of love and innocence.