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At some point, every pop-neuroscience story mentions a study where [insert some part of the brain] “lights up” whenever [insert some action or thought process] happens. The concept has given us empirical evidence that we should listen to more music, have more sex, eat more chocolate, and most other things we’d like to be told to do. These functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) studies make great stories. If you give a TED talk, I believe they’re legally required. Still no place is...

America’s safety-net programs are meant to help the poorest and most vulnerable access meet their basic needs—food, medical care, and safe housing—and there’s an ongoing debate about just how robust and successful these programs are. In his new book, The Poverty Industry: The Exploitation of America’s Most Vulnerable Citizens , Daniel L. Hatcher, suggests that the problems plaguing programs such as foster care and Medicaid are deeper and more troubling than most realize. Hatcher, a professor...

Last Sunday’s massacre at a gay nightclub in Orlando, Florida, by a gunman who pledged incoherent loyalty to extremist groups in the Middle East, has re-energized our discussion of the cultural status of Muslims in the United States. Donald Trump struck again last Tuesday with broad generalizations against Muslim Americans, telling Fox News that among second- and third-generation Muslim immigrants, “for some reason there’s no real assimilation.” (On Sunday , Trump went further, calling for...

The new, free telephone service offering parenting advice and resources to residents of Memphis and Shelby County isn't a traditional crisis hot line. It's called the Parent Support Warm Line , a service providing professional advice for parents, caregivers and others with difficult parenting situations and questions. Answered from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m., Monday through Friday, the telephone number is (844) 877-9276, or (844) UPP-WARM. The ACE Awareness Foundation in Memphis is providing the...

For years I’ve listened to women and men recount an agonizing spectrum of verbal, emotional, and physical abuse and trauma that occurred during their childhood, often continuing through adolescence. Most remember that period in their life as the time when they began to overeat. Neglect, abandonment, isolation, and physical harm usually send young people on a desperate search for a way to numb and soothe their pain. Of course, food is the main accessible and primal reward. Laurie has her...

“Start sharing. Don’t be shy,” the facilitator said at the start a training last week for Asian, black, and Hispanic men hoping to teach in the New York City school system. He’d asked them to name a movie or song that spoke to them. “Rocky,” one man said. “The Star-Spangled Banner,” said another. “Remember the Titans,” Kwang Lee said, citing the movie about the black coach of a racially mixed high-school football team. [For more of this story, written by Patrick Wall, go to ...

Parents often say that raising a child is one of the most rewarding and important roles you'll ever play. While there is no clear “best” way to raise a child, recent survey results from Kobe University in Japan have revealed the lasting effects that different rearing techniques can have on children’s personalities, wealth, and overall happiness after they’ve left the nest. For the project, the researchers surveyed 5,000 women and men about their relationships with their parents during...

Underfunded and overburdened, public transit agencies aren’t wrong to view Uber and Lyft as threats to ridership statistics and fare revenue. But viewed as a complement , ride-hailing offers an answer to the so-called “first-and-last-mile” problem which transit users often face, especially in low-density cities. Some agencies are wholeheartedly embracing ride-hailing’s potential—and undoubtedly, the rest will have a lot to learn from them. Pinellas County, Florida, is among those early...

We intuitively know that our personalities and temperaments — whether we’re introverts or extroverts, how we respond to novelty or adversity, whether we’re hard-driving or laid back — are the result of a complex interaction of nature and nurture. We likely start with some general social tendencies established by genes inherited from our parents. But it seems equally evident that experience matters. Did you grow up beloved or neglected? Have your surroundings and people close to you...

At any given time you’ll find 4 or more parenting books on my Amazon wish list, a few by my nightstand, and an email box chock full of insightful parenting theories and approaches. Granted, child development is my career, but I speak with plenty of parents in my practice who find themselves in similar circumstances. With information around every corner and our culture projecting constant messages (many times contradictory) regarding how we should raise our kids, feeling like a confident and...

This is on the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Administration website this week. A new SAMHSA Report highlights the correlation of exposure to traumatic events, the occurrence of post-traumatic stress symptoms (PTSS), and negative health and behavioral health outcomes. This report was developed from a study on the characteristics of adults exposed to potentially traumatic events (PTEs) and adults who had PTSS, and their association with health and behavioral health conditions. The study...

In medieval myth, Cockaigne was a land of plenty, where work was outlawed, houses were made of pie and sausages , rivers of wine flowed, and ready-roasted geese and grilled fish followed villagers around, eager to be eaten. To the poor of the Middle Ages, according to the Dutch historian Herman Pleij, Cockaigne was a well-known paradise , a fantastical escape from the harshness of everyday life. Nowadays, the Dutch city of Utrecht is about to see if such a place, where citizens’ fundamental...