“I wish I could slow AI development, but I can’t,” admitted the CEO of one of the world’s leading AI companies during a video call we had.  A few months

May 24, 2025

And, then, in midlife, I stumbled upon Dante’s “Divine Comedy,” written 800 years ago as an early precursor to MEA’s curriculum:  “In the middle of our life’s journey, I found

May 23, 2025

DJ DiDonna who teaches at Harvard and Annette Mason. Someone in the MEA community recently asked me how she should best approach her sabbatical so, off the cuff, in a

May 22, 2025

Midlife isn’t a crisis—it’s a chrysalis.  It’s the most transformative time of your life, a marathon that spans decades, from 35 to 75.  After years of accumulating, it’s time to

May 21, 2025

I was fortunate enough to give the opening keynote for Stanford’s Lifestyle Medicine “Healthy Aging” conference earlier this month. Lifestyle medicine is a burgeoning field that strives to optimize physical

May 20, 2025

This TIME magazine article with today’s title caught my eye last week given that I’m spending more and more time with my 87-year-old parents. Dr. Shoshana Ungerleider, founder of End

May 19, 2025

The US just fell out of the top 20 countries for happiness in research by Oxford University. Why aren’t we happy all the time?   The short answer is that our

May 18, 2025

I’m excited to be co-leading a silent meditation retreat, Landscapes of Silence, August 25-30 on MEA’s Rising Circle Ranch with Teddi, our cowboy yogi Lee (the Dalai Lama meets the

May 17, 2025

KOINOPHOBIA: the fear that you’ve lived an ordinary life  While you’re in it, life seems epic. Fiery, tenuous, and unpredictable. But when you look back over your story, or try

May 16, 2025

AMBEDO: A Momentary Trance of Emotional Clarity Sometimes when you’re alone and everything is quiet, you feel a certain placeless intensity that drifts in like a fog. It’s subtle at

May 15, 2025

OPIA: the ambiguous intensity of eye contact So much can be said in a glance. You feel such ambiguous intensity, looking someone in the eye—it’s somehow both intrusive and vulnerable.

May 14, 2025

I continue this week’s exploration of made-up works in The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows that deserve to be popularized. ALAZIA: the fear that you’re not longer able to change When

May 13, 2025