“Stool transplants?” I asked my agent. “Please say you’re joking.” Angela shook her head. “I swear I’m not making this up. When researchers transferred the stools of outgoing mice into anxious mice, the recipients became more outgoing. And when they gave people fecal transplants for digestive disorders, they found the same thing—recipients take on characteristics of their donors. Point being: the microbes in our guts exert significant influence over our personalities. “It seems that you are largely what’s in your gut. And if you really want to be a star, you need to have star stuff inside you.”

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