Center for Relationships

05/01/2026

From peptides and protein to sleep hygiene and vaccines, what actually helps you age well? Physician Eric Topol breaks down the science — and the myths — of longevity and anti-aging.

05/01/2026

Unpleasant, negative emotions can easily win out over positive ones. But by manually overriding these feelings, “you can grow the amount of gratitude in your emotional repertoire and get a lot happier year-round,” Arthur C. Brooks wrote in 2025. https://theatln.tc/kYBnhAKf

“Gratitude interrupts cycles of negative rumination by reminding you of the good things in your life, which helps lower depressive symptoms as well as reduce stress and negative emotions, such as anxiety,” Brooks explained. “Feeling grateful pulls your attention away from what you lack and toward what you have, and this is associated with a decrease in envy and materialism.”

Thankfulness requires neither payment nor subscription, just a commitment to fighting against negativity. Read Brooks’s advice on how to adopt a gratitude protocol in your life at the link.

🎨: Jan Buchczik

05/01/2026

04/27/2026

04/26/2026

If you feel thwarted in your love life, you may have fallen into one of two modern traps: trying to “solve the problem” of romantic love or trying to simulate it, Arthur C. Brooks writes. (From 2025) https://theatln.tc/rConmaPi

Romantic love is the ultimate complex problem: The concept of being in love is fairly easy to understand, but achieving that state is an impossible problem to scientifically solve. “Scientists have nevertheless developed an understanding of the neurochemical process when we fall in love,” Brooks explains. “When in love, especially in early stages, you feel addicted to the other person—and, in fact, activity resembling drug addiction is exhibited in the pleasure and pain regions of your brain.” But scientific knowledge of how your brain responds to love can only get you so far. “Managing your romantic life in any predictable way is impossible,” Brooks writes.

Although romantic attraction cannot be reduced to an algorithm, dating apps have tried, leaving many people feeling dissatisfied. “Much more problematic than trying to solve for love is trying to simulate it; for example, with po*******hy, the consumption of which has risen in the past two decades,” Brooks continues. These obstacles to modern romance do, however, imply their own solution: “First, add real-life humans back into the process,” Brooks writes. “Just as attraction and passion require two fully committed participants, many people believe that old-fashioned matchmaking is best done by humans who know you.”

Researchers have also found that when people contemplate aesthetically pleasing works of art, the part of the brain used to perform complex cognitive and creative tasks is stimulated—which is why Brooks also recommends turning to art as a way to engage the soul. “Beauty stimulates our brains in ways that help us find meaning,” he continues. “No surprise, then, that the people who, throughout history, have best expressed the depth and beauty of love are painters, composers, and poets … Consider how this human art of romance compares with the cyborgian lifelessness of a dating algorithm or the depressing unloveliness of po*******hy.”

🎨: Jan Buchczik