Why does the brain take risks? The answer is complicated, but dopamine plays a starring role. Dopamine is often called the "feel-good" neurotransmitter, but that's only part of the story. It's released not only when we experience something pleasurable, but also when we anticipate a reward. Sometimes the possibility of joy can be just as powerful as the joy itself.

Adult friendships are hard. But you know what’s even harder? Losing the childhood friendships, you thought would survive every stage of life. And when I say childhood, I don’t mean elementary school. I mean that long stretch of time before adulthood fully settled in — before marriages, careers, children, and grief reshaped us. My twenties still felt young enough to be considered childhood in their own way. Honestly, at twenty-eight, I was still very much a kid. A couple of we

Let’s talk bones. Not the Halloween kind—the ones quietly holding you together while you scroll this. Osteoporosis is a condition where bone density decreases and the internal structure of bone weakens, increasing fracture risk. Osteopenia is the early stage of bone loss—the warning sign before osteoporosis develops. Osteoporosis affects 200 million people worldwide. Eighty percent of cases are women. After age 50, 1 in 2 women will have an osteoporosis-related fracture.

Have you heard about this Tik Tok trend? (Yes. Yes. I am in the know). Mom—what were you like in the ’90s? ahem… cue Iris by the Goo Goo Dolls… and begin In the 1990s, I was: 1) Ditzy (on purpose).I had been a full-on nerd growing up—mathletes, teacher’s pet, the whole deal. But in the ’90s, being smart wasn’t exactly cool. Life goals involved being like Kelly Taylor, not Andrea Zuckerman (Thursday night 90210 viewings were quintessential ’90s dogma). Then, my sophomore year,

This past weekend, I visited my college. It was a real college visit for my youngest, and while I’ve been back to campus a handful of times since graduating nearly thirty years ago, it was the first time I was there in an official capacity: as the parent of a prospective student. As I walked the campus, I realized I wasn’t just revisiting my college years—I was imagining what I hoped my son would carry into his own, IF he decided to come here. A mother and her son stroll acro

In August, when we dropped off our first college freshmen, I expected grief. I knew the house would feel lonelier, the dinners quieter. I didn’t anticipate the house being cleaner-but I’ll admit, that was a welcome surprise. The emotional shift of fall felt inevitable, as predictable as the leaves changing color and dropping from the trees. What I didn’t expect were the January blues. A serene winter night scene with a full moon illuminating a snow-covered landscape, where ba