December 4, 2022 — We have been living in an age of outrage for a while now. Blame it on politicians, social media, cancel culture, or whatever you like. But that impulse to assign the blame for it might be an indicator that we are suffering from a deficit of forgiveness. Writing in the New York Times, Timothy Keller […]
November 24, 2022 — Much research goes into understanding how our environment prompts relentlessly rising problems with obesity – with good reason. Much of that research focuses on the substance of the food itself. The characteristics of ultra-processed food is a favorite topic right now. So we find delight in recent research that focuses instead on the broader context […]
October 1, 2022 — Boredom is unpleasant for a reason – our brain wants action from us. It is a signal that, whatever we’re doing, something isn’t right. We’re not engaged with it or we’re not finding meaning in it. We need to change course. So one way or another, we will respond to that discomfort prompting us for […]
September 5, 2022 — The big problem with pop diets is the presumption that the latest, hottest diet on the scene might be THE ANSWER that everyone’s been looking for. Ironically, non-diet diets fit neatly into this template. It’s all part of the abyss that greets people when they go looking for answers about diet, health, and weight. Evangelists […]
September 4, 2022 — The Greek fabulist Aesop recognized it thousands of years ago. No act of kindness, however small, is ever wasted. But now we have experimental evidence to back him up. Amit Kumar and Nicholas Epley conducted a series of four experiments showing that small acts of kindness have much bigger effects than people realize. They tell […]
July 19, 2022 — We’ve all spent well more than two years in a weird state of being intensely connected through technology, yet feeling disconnected from people. Zoom is a great tool, but it has its limits. Research on mental health and technology can support just about any bias you bring to the subject. Maybe it’s connecting us while […]
May 28, 2022 — Worldwide sales of fitness trackers increased from US$14 billion in 2017 to over $36 billion in 2020. The skyrocketing success of these gadgets suggests that more people than ever see some value in keeping tabs on the number of steps they take, flights of stairs they climb, time they spend sitting, and calories they burn. […]
March 24, 2022 — The economy of shame and pride is at work in human cultures everywhere. Public shaming can take aim at whole countries and companies or at random individuals. In The Shame Machine, Cathy O’Neil describes shame as the foundation for an industry that can destroy people: “Humiliation lingers in the mind, the heart, the veins, the […]
August 19, 2021 — It’s hard to deny that yoga has put an imprint on popular culture – especially popular concepts about fitness and wellbeing. It had an outsized role in defining a now dominant fashion trend – athleisure. Prior to the pandemic, yoga was a roughly ten billion dollar industry. But of course, the pandemic put a dent […]
January 21, 2021 — In Australia and around the world, research is showing changes in body weight, cooking, eating and drinking patterns associated with COVID pandemic lockdowns. Some changes have been positive, such as people cooking at home more, and eating more vegetables. But many people have also reported snacking more, and eating and drinking in response to stress. […]
