Life Examined

Midweek Reset: The Retirement Myth

This week, Yale professor of psychology Paul Bloom offers another perspective on retirement. Although leisure and free time are appealing, research indicates that a more balanced approach involving some work may be healthier, more rewarding and make us happier.

How to build community in an age of isolation

While our modern lifestyles offer many advantages and independence, they have also led to a rise in loneliness as we’ve become less reliant on the communities that once held us together. Casper ter Kuile, former Harvard divinity scholar and co-founder of the community-building project Nearness, argues that the connections and community we build with each other “is what lifes all about.”

Midweek Reset: The wisdom of moss

This week, Robin Wall Kimmerer, Indigenous ecologist and author of Braiding Sweetgrass speaks about the virtues of moss and how one of the smallest and humblest plants on the planet can teach us to live more sustainably and harmoniously with the world around us.

‘Re-sparkling’: The science behind embracing variety and rejecting habituation

While good habits and rituals are beneficial, brain scientists and psychologists also say the key to a fulfilling and happy life is novelty, variety, and disruption from our routines. In her book Look Again; The Power of Noticing What Was Always There, co-author and MIT neuroscientist Tali Sharot sources decades of research illustrating that greater sensitivity, appreciation, and innovation happens when we dishabituate.  

Midweek Reset: Are you addicted?

This week, Anna Lembke, addiction specialist at Stanford Addiction Medicine Dual Diagnosis Clinic, and author of “Dopamine Nation: Finding Balance in the Age of Indulgence,” provides the clinical definition of addiction and says it’s becoming easier than ever adopt addictive behaviors but harder to spot the addiction in ourselves. 

Inciting joy: Poet Ross Gay on gardening, grief, and basketball

Jonathan Bastian talks with Ross Gay, poet, essayist, and professor of English at Indiana University. Author of “The Book of Delights,” Gay’s latest collection of essays and poems is “Inciting Joy,” in which he ponders sources of joy, from caring for his father, to skateboarding, gardening, and playing pickup basketball. 
“Joy is what emerges from our tending to one another through the difficulty, making it possible to survive the difficulty,’ says Gay.  “Joy emerges from that.” 
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Heartbreak and divorce: reflections on endings, healing, and self-discovery

In his article “Science can explain a broken heart. Could science help heal mine?,” Los Angeles Times columnist Todd Martens shares his story of heartbreak and explores the science behind physical and emotional suffering. Matthew Fray, relationship coach and author of This Is How Your Marriage Ends;  A Hopeful Approach to Saving Relationships, reflects on his divorce and flags some seemingly benign behaviors that over time can undermine love and trust in a relationship.

Midweek Reset: The Art of Love

This week, philosopher and writer Alain de Botton says, simple as it sounds, there's nothing more enduring and attractive in a partner than being fully and completely heard and understood.

Addicted to distraction: How our world is robbing our ability to pay attention

According to psychologist Gloria Mark, the average attention span is just 47 seconds. Mark, a two-decade veteran in researching attention, says our ability to focus is declining at an alarming rate and is impacting our health. Much of this increase is due to our modern, fast-paced lifestyles and technology. Mark underscores the implications for children while emphasizing the potential for behavioral reversal.

Midweek Reset: Negativity bias

This week, clinical psychologist and Buddhist teacher Tara Brach on suffering, the negativity bias and why it’s a good idea not to overly fixate on the negative in our lives.