Psychology and neuroscience
Mind & Matter covers psychology and neuroscience: what the evidence says about how brains work and why people do what they do, with limited patience for overclaimed studies.
Solo dining reservations have climbed sharply since 2021. Read alongside the research on emotional labor and chosen solitude, the trend looks less like withdrawal and more like a quiet form of recovery.
Aug 11, 2026
In a wartime letter to a bedridden poet, Weil captured something we've nearly lost: the radical power of actually listening to another person.
Aug 11, 2026
Research on occupational identity suggests that retirement can change how people describe themselves, although the experience and meaning differ from person to person.
Aug 9, 2026
Anne Lamott's line about unplugging has become shorthand for rest, but the research on cognitive breaks, burnout, and recovery draws a sharper line between a five-minute reset and the deeper depletion no short break can fix.
Aug 9, 2026
In 1998, a Swedish-American team examined the brains of five cancer patients who had received a DNA tracer before death and reported the first direct evidence that adult human brains grow new neurons. Nearly three decades later, the finding is still being argued over.
Aug 8, 2026
