Do you sometimes walk to another room in your house to get something, but then can’t remember what it was you wanted? Do you sometimes forget about an appointment or struggle to remember someone’s name? You may have chalked these lapses in memory up to getting older. And age can indeed play a role in the diminishing power of memory. But as my guest will tell us, there are other factors at play as well. Charan Ranganath is a neuroscientist, a psychologist, and the author of Why We Remember: Unlocking Memory’s Power to Hold on to What Matters. Today on the show, Charan explains how factors like ..read more

An important part of manhood has always been about having the competence to be effective in the world — having the breadth of skills, the savoir-faire, to handle any situation you find yourself in. With that in mind, each Sunday we’ll be republishing one of the illustrated guides from our archives, so you can hone your manly know-how week by week. Of all the places to take a tumble, an underground subway platform is one of the most dangerous. What makes a fall onto subway tracks so fraught is that it’s often not easy to get out on your own. Steep, tall walls can make it nearly impossible ..read more

In the present age, the word “cult” is used in a pejorative sense. But it didn’t always carry this negative baggage.  Cult derives from the Latin cultus, which was originally an agri-cult-ural term referring to the cultivation of the land. The Romans, who participated in both state and private cults, used the word to describe the committed cultivation of the rites, habits, and sacrifices attendant to showing religious reverence. In subsequent centuries, cult retained this religious connotation but was also used more generally to mean “devoted attention to a particular person or thing.” P ..read more

If you read most first aid guides, the last step in treating someone who’s gotten injured or sick is always: get the victim to professional medical help. But what if you found yourself in a situation where hospitals were overcrowded, inaccessible, or non-functional? What if you found yourself in a grid-down, long-term disaster, and you were the highest medical resource available? Dr. Joe Alton is an expert in what would come after the step where most first aid guides leave off. He’s a retired surgeon and the co-author of The Survival Medicine Handbook: The Essential Guide for When Help is NOT ..read more

I’ve enjoyed listening to classical music for most of my life. In high school, I’d tune into my hometown university’s radio station at night to listen to Bach and Beethoven while I did my homework. It made me feel smart.  I still listen to classical music today when I work. I also listen to it on Sunday mornings when planning my week.  While I’d listened to classical music since I was young, I didn’t know much about it. Sure, I knew who the great composers were and was familiar with their most famous compositions, but I couldn’t tell what made Bach’s music different from Beethoven’s ..read more

Over the last decade, there’s been an increase in the number of people, particularly young adults, who struggle with low moods, distractibility, and anxiety, and consequent difficulties with getting their life on track and making progress in work, friendship, and romance. In addressing these difficulties, people are often given or adopt a mental health diagnosis, and look for a solution in therapy and/or medication. My guest isn’t opposed to these remedies. She is herself a clinical psychologist who’s maintained a practice for a quarter century that specializes in treating clients in their tw ..read more

An important part of manhood has always been about having the competence to be effective in the world — having the breadth of skills, the savoir-faire, to handle any situation you find yourself in. With that in mind, each Sunday we’ll be republishing one of the illustrated guides from our archives, so you can hone your manly know-how week by week. Hydroplaning is a terrifying situation for even the most experienced driver. It occurs when water is forced under your tires, causing them to leave the surface of the roadway and you to lose control of the car. In normal conditions, your tires ..read more

Why I Hope to Die at 75 by Ezekiel J. Emanuel. There’s been a lot of attention given in recent times to extending the lifespan. But Dr. Emmanuel, an oncologist and bioethicist, has a compelling, contrarian position: he hopes to die at 75. As he argues, a lot of people think they’ll be an exception to the rules of aging, that they’ll stay physically nimble and mentally sharp right up until death whisks them painlessly away. But as the capacity-robbing, burden-on-loved-ones-increasing toll of age eventually comes for all, Emanuel would rather go out before he falls apart. It’s not that he plans ..read more

One of the problems you can encounter with incandescent light bulbs is that when the glass bulb breaks, they’re hard to get out of the socket. But with a bit of ingenuity, you can easily take care of this job. Now, you might be thinking, “Why do I need to know how to do this when incandescent bulbs have been phased out?” It’s true that last year, the U.S. banned incandescent light bulbs to nudge people to start using LED bulbs, which are typically made of plastic and don’t break like incandescent bulbs made of thin glass. But there are two reasons why you still need to know how to remove a br ..read more

When we think of rituals, we tend to think of big, inherited, more occasional religious or cultural ceremonies like church services, holidays, weddings, and funerals. But as my guest observes, we also engage in small, self-made, everyday rituals that help us turn life’s more mundane moments into more meaningful ones. In the The Ritual Effect: From Habit to Ritual, Harness the Surprising Power of Everyday Actions, psychologist and Harvard Business School professor Michael Norton explores the way our DIY rituals shape, and enhance, our lives. We take up that survey on today’s show. Michael expl ..read more