Topics · 6 reviewed briefs

Stress, relationships & meaning

Loneliness, humor, purpose, family pressure, and the social parts of health that senior leaders tend to postpone.

Current evidence

Maintained after publication
Evidence brief · Reviewed Jul 21, 2026
Loneliness, Social Connection, and Health Risk

Loneliness, heart risk, immune research and the cold-challenge study. What the population data mean for a leader surrounded by people all day.

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Evidence brief · Reviewed Jul 21, 2026
Midlife Drive, Meaning, and Wellbeing

Career success, Erikson, the 1978 lottery study and dopamine. What these ideas explain about a hollow win and what they cannot diagnose.

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Evidence brief · Reviewed Jul 21, 2026
Humor, Stress, and Health: What a Laugh Can and Cannot Do

Laughter, cortisol, pain tolerance and mental health. What small experiments found and why there is no medical dose of comedy.

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Evidence brief · Reviewed Jul 21, 2026
Life Satisfaction, Youth Distress, and Screen-Time Evidence

The midlife dip, Facebook's college rollout, teenage screen time and suicide statistics. Which results apply beyond the original study and which do not.

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Evidence brief · Reviewed Jul 21, 2026
Alcohol, Wearables, and Social Connection

Stress beliefs, moderate alcohol, wearable scores and social connection. What observational studies can tell you about one imperfect evening.

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Evidence brief · Reviewed Aug 3, 2026
Vacation Recovery and Psychological Detachment

What holidays change, how quickly benefits fade, why switching off matters, and where family workload and workplace norms alter the result.

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Source editions

Preserved as sent
UNDER LOAD 058 · Mar 1, 2026
Surrounded and Starving: The Hidden Biology of Leadership Loneliness

Loneliness rewrites your genes and suppresses immunity. Why connected leaders are still isolated, and the single relationship that reverses it.

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UNDER LOAD 071 · May 31, 2026
The Hollow Win: What the Climb Costs You by Forty-Seven

You can win every game and feel nothing the next morning. The three inner drives behind midlife emptiness, and how to audit which one runs you.

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UNDER LOAD 074 · Jun 21, 2026
I Told a Parent Group My Daughter Was Missing. It Was a Joke.

Laughter is the best medicine is mostly a myth. What a real laugh actually does to your body, the four humor styles, and why the audience decides.

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UNDER LOAD 070 · May 24, 2026
At 47, I Was Supposed to Be at the Bottom. My 12-Year-Old Might Get There First.

For decades happiness bottomed out at 47. New data shows the floor moved to the young. What changed, and how to protect a midlifer and a teen at once.

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UNDER LOAD 073 · Jun 14, 2026
The Night a Wearable Would Score as a Failure

Alcohol is not good for you, and obsessing over your tracker is worse. A doctor on the real drivers of a long life, and why the dinner matters more.

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UNDER LOAD 080 · Aug 2, 2026
I Couldn't Remember My Password. That Was the Best News of the Trip.

What psychological detachment, family workload, sleep, and workplace incentives reveal about whether a holiday restores you.

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