Two things are happening simultaneously right now: America's 250th birthday and the World Cup on American soil. And the intersection of those two things raises a genuinely interesting health and wellness question — what does the research actually say about shared experiences across cultural lines?

In this episode Dr. Kelsy Vick brings her honest, all-angles approach to one of the most talked-about cultural moments of 2026. The science of collective sporting experiences, cross-cultural contact, social connection and longevity, team sport vs. individual sport, and 250 years of women in American sport — all covered with the complete picture, not just the highlight reel.

What you'll learn:

• What the research consistently supports about shared experiences and collective events
• The contact hypothesis — what it says AND what it doesn't
• Why the South Korean and Mexican fan moment at the World Cup is both real and more complicated than the coverage suggests
• What a systematic review of 29 studies and 239,000 adults found about team sport vs. individual sport and mental health
• 250 years of women in American sport — the real numbers on both the progress and the gaps
• Where the honest limits of the "shared experiences change you" narrative actually are

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Resources

• Holt-Lunstad (2024) — World Psychiatry / PMC — Social connection and health
• https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC11403199/
• Eather et al. (2023) — Systematic Reviews / PMC — Sport, mental health & social outcomes in adults
• https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC10286465/
• Pluhar et al. (2019) — Journal of Sports Science & Medicine / PMC — Team vs. individual sport and mental health
• https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC6683619/
• PMC (2025) — Frontiers in Psychology — Memorable tourism & psychological richness
• https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC11995712/
• Oishi & Westgate (2022) — Psychological richness framework

Welcome to Wellness Fixes the

Pod, a by Maven Media production,

2

where we believe you deserve real

education from real experts delivered

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in a way you can actually use.

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I'm Dr.

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Kelsey Vick, your board-certified

orthopedic doctor of physical therapy, and

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this podcast was built for the girl who

is done feeling overwhelmed and frustrated

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by conflicting health noise and is ready

for something she can actually trust.

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Every week, we have honest, science-backed

conversations about your health,

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your hormones, your brain, your

body, and everything in between.

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No fluff, no fear-mongering,

just the truth.

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Because understanding your

body is the most powerful

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thing you can do for yourself.

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A table full of experts built for

the curious girl who wants the truth.

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So welcome.

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Your seat is waiting for you

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america turns 250 this week.

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The World Cup is happening

right now on American soil,

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and I keep coming back to this

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One observation that I think is

worth an entire episode and the

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perfect Fourth of July episode

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There's something specific that happens

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When humans from completely different

contexts, completely different cultures,

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completely different environments

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up in the same moment together.

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Not just emotionally when we're cheering

on the same team, not just physically

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when we are standing right beside someone

else watching a Fourth of July parade

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or cheering on a team at the World Cup

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But also biologically, psychologically

and what happens innately in our

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physiology when we're in these

sort of environments is something

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that I think is super special.

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Welcome back to Wellness Fixes the Pod.

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I'm your host, Dr.

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Kelsey Vick, a board-certified

orthopedic doctor of physical therapy

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and a pelvic floor physical therapist.

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And there are two things that

are happening simultaneously

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in the month of July.

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One we celebrated last Saturday.

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This episode will release Monday, but

we are about to celebrate July 4th

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at the time of this recording, and

the World Cup is going on right now.

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And both of these two events and bringing

people together, especially from different

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walks of life, strangers celebrating,

whether it's cheering on the same team,

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whether we're celebrating America's

birthday, it's something super special.

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And I don't know if you guys are like

me, but the media coverage surrounding

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the World Cup and all that's happening

has been super-duper healing.

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Seeing people from different countries

experience America for the first time

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and having these new experiences to

them, watching America through their

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eyes has been like the best birthday gift

ever, I feel like, for me as I celebrate

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my own country's 250th anniversary

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It's another way that I've

realized the world is a whole lot

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smaller than what we think it is.

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Seeing all of these people from all

different walks of life, getting to

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travel in my own life and visit different

countries, I realize that there are people

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out there who are just like me, living

in their own worlds, living in their

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own environments, and I've been blessed

to get to experience that in certain

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countries, and it's a real blessing to

see other people experience my own country

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in the way that people visiting for the

World Cup are experiencing it right now.

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there is something that happens when

a group of strangers gather together

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and all experience the same

thing at the same time.

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And research is just starting to scratch

the surface on what this actually means

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and to help explain that feeling of

camaraderie that we get And it's more

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biological than what we might expect

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So in 2024, there was a super

comprehensive study done

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On social connection and health

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They found that social participation

or participating in these communal

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events with a lot of other

people, even if they're strangers

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is one of the most consistently documented

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and strongest predictors

of wellbeing and longevity

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They found that having more of these

social connections, social interactions,

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social contacts plays a super beneficial

role in our brain health, primarily

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lowering the risk for dementia

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They also found that these brief

interactions with strangers, so not these

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deep friendships that we've done a lot

of episodes on before, but what they

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call weak tie interactions with strangers

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contribute meaningfully to happiness

and the sense of belonging that we feel

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The Fourth of July parade, the

World Cup, the watch parties

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All of these are structured

forms of social connection

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that create opportunities for

these high density, weak tie

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interactions with strangers

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in a shared both like physical context

at the game or at the parade, but also

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in a shared emotional context as well

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So what is the active ingredient among

these shared experiences, the shared

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participation in some of these events?

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How does it actually help us

physiologically and help things like our

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brain health and our risk for dementia?

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It comes down to this shared emotional

experience, this collective gasp, this

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held in breath as you're waiting to

see is that penalty kick gonna go in

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The simultaneous sigh or cheer or reaction

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The unified attention on the same

event, Which in our day and age is

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very challenging to have a group

of people focus on something and be

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attentive to something for that long

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All of those things appear to be

the active ingredient, not just

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physically being in the same space

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A little disclaimer here though, it's

hard to study this sort of thing.

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I know we all feel it, but

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Is it because we're actually partaking

in this shared experience, this both

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physical and emotional experience

with others that we're getting

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some of these health benefits?

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Or is it because we are naturally

social people going to these events?

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A lot of the people going to these

events might be naturally social

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people, and naturally social people

have improved health outcomes.

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It's hard to distinguish, but there's

something definitely there, and especially

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with Fourth of July, with the World Cup,

I like to believe that there is this true

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benefit from being with others and being

emotionally connected and participating

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in the same social event with other people

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So there has been some research on

social connection for a nationwide event.

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So something like the 4th of

July, like national pride.

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What does that actually do

to our emotional wellbeing?

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They found that participating in these

events and going to these parades

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produce these feelings of connection and

belonging that last well after the event

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I think of this when it comes to

big events like the World Cup and

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the Olympics, and the amount of like

pride that I feel in certain athletes

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from my own country and being able to

cheer them on, but also even feeling

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connected to athletes from different

countries and cheering them on because

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their stories are similar to mine.

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All of these things play into that

sense of cohesion and connection and

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emotional well-being that the research

is trying to explain and actually

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get more objective data on One

of the other things I've noticed

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during this time is this sort

of adoption between countries.

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So I think of it specifically with

South Korean fans and Mexican fans

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during this World Cup, where because

they were in the same city, in the

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same proximity, they started to

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I guess have these sort of

cross-cultural shared moments.

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And I saw a lot of my South Korean friends

when Mexico ended up going further and

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South Korea ended up out of the World

Cup, that they sort of adopted Mexico

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as the team that they were cheering for.

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And I know that happens so often

throughout the World Cup as each country

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in this sort of knockout round gets cut.

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A lot of other people and

a lot of other nations will

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adopt another team to cheer for

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And when I looked into this sort of

shared cross-cultural experience The

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study that was done originally on this

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and duplicated in the decades since

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And it tried to establish a framework

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for what happens when people

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from different cultural backgrounds

share a similar experience

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And they called it the contact hypothesis

So the consistent finding was that

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direct interpersonal contact between

members of different groups under

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conditions of equal status and shared

goals reduces prejudice with the effect

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being stronger when the contact involves

genuine cooperation or shared emotional

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experience rather than mere proximity

And the World Cup creates almost this

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perfect example of this contact hypothesis

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Fans from different countries sharing

equal status as spectators unified

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by the game that they're watching

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And frequently experiencing

the exact same highs and lows

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So the South Korea and Mexico fan

moment is what researchers call

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A superordinate identity moment

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where a shared higher level identity,

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So fans of super exciting

football or soccer And people

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experiencing the same match

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temporarily overrides lower level

distinctions between these groups So

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things like nationality, language,

However, the research does say that

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this is highest, the strength of this

is highest during the experience.

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It doesn't necessarily

last long term after.

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It might be why we feel so connected

during other countries during the

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Olympics, and then after a little bit of

time, we revert back to what we know and

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our own backgrounds that we come from I

think this is really cool as Americans

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and Canadians and Mexicans because we are

seeing so many other countries and so many

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other people from so many different walks

of life experience what we know as normal.

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And I've heard parents explain it that

when they have kids, it's like seeing

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the world through their kids' eyes.

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And although I don't have kids, I

feel a similar way where I'm starting

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to have this new perspective on my

day-to-day life through the eyes

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of people who don't experience and

don't live in my day-to-day life.

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They're experiencing my culture, my

background, the country where I live in

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the way that I wish I could experience

it every day, where everything feels

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so new and so exciting, even something

like a yellow school bus or Bucky's.

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It has been so fun to, visualize and see

the beauty that is our country through

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people from different countries and

different backgrounds, especially as we

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celebrate July 4th, which I don't think

it could have come at a better time.

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I think it's just the perfect sort of

250th birthday gift for our country

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to be able to witness our own country

through the eyes of other people

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And they found that this sort of

like structured new perspective, like

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putting yourself in the shoes of other

people experiencing something for

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the first time that is your normal

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has real psychological benefit.

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I'm sure a lot of people who study

meditation and different forms

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of meditation, I know one form

you take a step out of your own

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life and view you as a character.

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I think of that in the same way

with this experience And there's

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a term for this experience called

re-enchantment through witness

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It's a temporary reversal of the

normalcy that we see every day.

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It's witnessing things through new eyes.

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It's that re-enchantment of the normal

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What happens is we stop really seeing

things that we encounter regularly.

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It starts to become this normal for

us that our brain just passes through

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This repeated exposure

to the same experience

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or the same environment

reduces our brain's novelty

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response or newness response

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which reduces our engagement with that

new experience or that thing that we

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see every day on our morning commute

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Which further reduces the actual

depth we feel during that experience.

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I don't know if you get this way,

but sometimes when I'm driving to

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work, I zone out and I'm like, "I

don't even remember passing that

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grocery store that I typically pass."

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Or on your morning walk, I just zone

it out where if I'm road tripping

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to a new environment, we just got

back from Yellowstone, and I was in

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the car and all of these things are

so new to me, and I felt like I was

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witnessing this beauty for the first

time, even though my own environment

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at home has beauty in and of itself.

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But my brain has just gotten so used to

the same experience, the same commute

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every single time, that it doesn't

necessarily have the same response

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because it is something that I am

experiencing as a daily normal pattern

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Now, this research on specifically

re-enchantment through witness is

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pretty limited and mostly theoretical,

but it ties into another concept that

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they are trying to explain a little bit

better called psychological richness.

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And they've grouped this a little

bit with travel, where experiencing

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new things, experiencing new people,

getting this sense of belonging

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having exposure to these

more diverse perspectives

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contribute to our overall health

and wellness different from

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life satisfaction and happiness.

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So they're trying to describe this

overall psychological richness

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that is a separate component than

just happiness or life satisfaction

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And they state that travel is one of the

highest forms of giving yourself this

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exposure to potential increases in the

psychological richness of your life, but

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also having people come and re-show you

how amazing and wonderful your day-to-day

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life is also a way to, develop a deeper

sense of that psychological richness

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Now, the World Cup is not

just any sporting event

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It is the largest team sport

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collective experience on the planet

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And the research between team

sport and individual sport on our

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mental health is something that

I feel ties into this episode.

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We've talked about the collective shared

experience of fans, but how does being

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on a team and being part of a team,

especially in sport related to the

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World Cup, affect our own mental health?

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So from a study done in 2019, team sport

athletes were significantly less likely

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to report anxiety or depression than

individual sport athletes, 7% versus 13%.

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However, they do admit that both

of those numbers are lower than

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the general population average.

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So athletes in general report lower mental

health challenges than non-athletes,

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but team sports specifically has

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a lower likelihood of reporting anxiety

or depression than individual sport

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athletes They propose that team sport

provides an environment of shared failure

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and shared success, where if you fail,

it's not just on you, it's on your team.

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Where individuals, if

they fail, it's on them

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And the research links this sort

of like internal weight of failure

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and internal attribution, what

they call internal attribution

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after failure to depressive symptoms

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Another study in 2023 found that adults

participating in team sport had more

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favorable mental health and social

outcomes than those in individual

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sport, and those participating more

frequently reported the greatest benefits.

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So a lot of the studies done have

been done in youth and adolescents,

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but they're also finding that team

sports in adulthood has similar mental

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health benefits and social benefits

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They've also found That watching

team sport does seem to recruit

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some of the same social bonding mechanisms

present in team sport participation

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So here are a few caveats to this

research, because it's definitely a lot

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harder to study because you naturally have

this sort of bias when you're studying

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people who participate in sports or like

to go to sports and watch as a spectator

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So number one, there is

a selection bias problem.

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As I said, people who self-select

and actually go to sports might

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have a better social life.

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So if they're studying this brain health

and overall well-being of spectators

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of sports, how much of that is related

to actually spectating the sport versus

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just the likely hypothesized increased

social health of these individuals?

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Same with people who travel.

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Is the travel actually deepening

the psychological richness?

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Or because of the privilege that

people naturally have when they

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travel, like travel is in and of

itself a very selective and exclusive

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group of people, is that actually

contributing to psychological

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richness, or is it actually the travel?

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And most research that actually studies

those things can't separate the two

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The research on all of these studies

also consistently says that all

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of these are a temporary result

of an event or an experience.

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They're not sure if that lasts long term.

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From a subjective experience, like any

time I travel, I feel like it opens my

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mind to other cultures and other things.

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It does carry back with me into

my normal everyday life, but

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it's very hard to study that.

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So I understand that a lot of these

findings are in the event, in the moment,

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during travel, during that sporting

event versus being able to study, did

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that World Cup experience actually

affect someone and someone's health

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long after the event actually ended?

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I think one of my favorite parts of travel

is that it does make the world feel a

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little bit smaller, where even going

halfway across the world, I realized

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these people are also going to work

and taking care of their families and

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eating breakfast, lunch, and dinner.

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It's just funny that I like to be able

to experience someone else's world, even

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if they're doing the same things as me.

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It makes it feel smaller.

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And I understand that experience and

that way of thinking is also a privilege

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The world feels smaller is a tough

descriptor for me because my world

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feels smaller because I'm able to access

other parts of the world, where some

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people, the world might feel infinitely

larger because they're not able to

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access certain parts of the world.

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So it's this, dichotomy with travel

and with these social experiences that

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we've talked about in all of these

caveats, but in order to experience

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the world in this way, it comes with

it a certain amount of privilege

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The research also notes that the

same experiences that promote

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connection can also promote rivalry.

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There are these super extraordinary

moments of fan connection and

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shared experiences and shared wins.

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But on the flip side, there's

also documented violence after

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some of these things, Some that

have already made headlines during

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this twenty twenty-six World Cup

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So the bottom line is that these shared

experiences, things like the World Cup,

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things like Fourth of July celebrations

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produce real biological

and psychological effects

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But those effects are based on

the environment that you're in,

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possibly a little more temporary

than we'd like to believe and not

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equally accessible to everyone

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The warmer, cozier, fuzzier version

of this story is fun to share, but I

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feel like it was incomplete without

some of these sort of caveats on this

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research and just experiencing some of

those collective sensations as a whole

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America turned 250 this past weekend.

305

The World Cup is here

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And something is happening in the

parades, the stadiums, the watch parties

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That the research is just trying to

explain and can't fully grasp yet

308

The South Korean and Mexican

fans in the same corner

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The international visitors scene,

the Buckies, the Waffle House, the

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yellow school buses The stranger

next to you reacting to the same

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fireworks, the same parade as you

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All of these things matter.

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Even these weak tie interactions

that we have with strangers at

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events like this when we travel,

these things actually matter for

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our sense of belonging and wellbeing

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But it's honest that not everyone

has equal access to all of

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those things, and the picture

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of all of these experiences includes

complications and challenges

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But the feeling we get itself, that

the world feels a little bit smaller

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And that people are way more similar than

it seems or than the media makes it seem

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That's very real.

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So happy two hundred and fifty-th America.

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Happy World Cup to all of those watching.

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I hope you enjoyed this episode.

325

If you made it this

far, thank you so much.

326

I enjoy doing these every single week.

327

We have some exciting things coming.

328

I'm working on ratings and reviews for

the podcast, so if you would do me a

329

huge favor when this episode ends and

330

rate and review Wellness Fixes the

Pod on whatever platform you're

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listening to or share this episode

with someone you think might enjoy it.

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I would greatly appreciate it

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Besides wellness, I'm also super

interested in all sorts of topics, and

334

I love combining all sorts of cultural

moments like the World Cup or even

335

pop culture moments like different TV

shows with certain health and wellness

336

concepts, and basically working to

337

create a trusted place for

girls to go who are curious

338

about a lot of different things.

339

So with that sort of mission in

mind, I also have a weekly newspaper

340

called The Smart Girl Newspaper.

341

The link is always in the description

below if you wanna join us.

342

It's completely free, but it has usually

the episode for the week and then also

343

a few articles, podcasts, videos that I

think are super interesting, super fun.

344

Always positive, never this like negative

thing that you're opening in the morning

345

that's going to remind you of different

parts of the world that you might not want

346

to be reminded of at 5:50 in the morning.

347

So always positive, always fun.

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I really enjoy creating them.

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So if you're interested in that,

please check that out below.

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But then also, if you wouldn't mind

rating and reviewing the podcast,

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I would greatly appreciate it.

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Thank you guys so much.

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I hope you enjoyed this episode, and

I'll see you guys again on the next

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episode of Wellness Fixes: The Pod