Hello Reader! For years, we've been hearing that we need more protein—especially as we get older. I’ve definitely spread this advice around. It’s certainly helped me feel and look better. Then a recent headline announced: Eating less protein could slow aging. Damn. Hello, health confusion, my old friend. This is the problem with trying to eat according to nutrition headlines. Headlines are designed to tell us what's new. Your body doesn't particularly care what's new. Also—new isn't...

Hello Reader! I wonder if Sudoku would've become my habit (minor obsession?) if I hadn't believed it was helping keep my brain sharp. For decades we've been told to protect our brains by doing brain things—crossword puzzles, Sudoku, brain-training apps, and learning another language. Not only do they help, I’ll admit to enjoying all of them (except Lumosity’s spatial orientation game—my poor penguin spends most of its time shuffling in a corner). But what if we've been thinking about brain...

Hello Reader! Do you wish you were more confident? I mean, I’m not alone here, right? Maybe you wish you were confident enough to start a business. Or travel alone. If you’re me, you want to be confident enough to speak in public without turning tomato-red and possibly imploding. (It could happen.) The assumption is always the same: confidence comes first, then action. But how old are we? How much life experience do we have? We already know that's backward—we just conveniently forget it...