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Stop cheering me up: Some people don’t want to hear it
TODAY: So, your friend is wailing about the miseries of her bush league job, failed romance, clunker of a car, and all-around lousy life. Instead of trying to cheer her up by saying something positive
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The Trauma of Parenthood
The New York Times: Everyone knows that being the parent of an infant is hard. There’s the sleeplessness, the screaming fits to tend to, the loss of autonomy, the social isolation and the sheer monotony of
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Did Laughter Evolve to Make Us Healthy?
National Geographic: Researchers are looking into what laughter can do for our health. More than a form of communication, laughter helps people thrive. Some folks take that to heart and gather for “laughter yoga.” Watch
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Why We Laugh
The Atlantic: Laughter is universal, but we know very little about the reasons we do it. Dr. Robert Provine has been studying the social and neurological roots of laughter for 20 years, and has come
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Masters of Love
The Atlantic: Every day in June, the most popular wedding month of the year, about 13,000 American couples will say “I do,” committing to a lifelong relationship that will be full of friendship, joy, and
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Ellen Langer: Science of Mindlessness and Mindfulness
On Being: Social psychologist Ellen Langer’s unconventional studies have long suggested what brain science is now revealing: our experiences are formed by the words and ideas we attach to them. Naming something “play” rather than
