The Mind-Body Connection: Surprising Research Insights

Ellen Langer is a psychologist at Harvard who studies the mind-body connection. She’s published some of the most remarkable scientific findings Steve has ever encountered. Can we really improve our physical health by changing our mind?

• SOURCE:
  • Ellen Langer, professor of psychology at Harvard University.

• RESOURCES:
  • Brave New Words: How AI Will Revolutionize Education (and Why That's a Good Thing), by Sal Khan (2024).
  • "F.D.A.’s Review of MDMA Cites Health Risks and Study Flaws," by Andrew Jacobs and Christina Jewett (The New York Times, 2024).
  • The Mindful Body: Thinking Our Way to Chronic Health, by Ellen Langer (2023).
  • "Physical Healing as a Function of Perceived Time," by Peter Aungle and Ellen Langer (Nature: Scientific Reports, 2023).
  • "Aging as a Mindset: A Study Protocol to Rejuvenate Older Adults With a Counterclockwise Psychological Intervention," by Francesco Pagnini, Cesare Cavalera, Ellen Langer, et al. (BMJ Open, 2019).
  • Counterclockwise: Mindful Health and the Power of Possibility, by Ellen Langer (2009).
  • "Mind-Set Matters: Exercise and the Placebo Effect," by Alia Crum and Ellen Langer (2007).
  • "The Effects of Choice and Enhanced Personal Responsibility for the Aged: A Field Experiment in an Institutional Setting," by Ellen Langer and Judith Rodin (Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 1976).

• EXTRAS:
  • "The Future of Therapy Is Psychedelic," by People I (Mostly) Admire (2023).
  • "Extra: An Update on the Khan World School," by People I (Mostly) Admire (2023).
  • "Is This the Future of High School?" by People I (Mostly) Admire (2022).
  • "What It Takes to Know Everything," by People I (Mostly) Admire (2022).
  • "Sal Khan: 'If It Works for 15 Cousins, It Could Work for a Billion People,'" by People I (Mostly) Admire (2021).
  • "Greg Norman & Mark Broadie: Why Golf Beats an Orgasm and Why Data Beats Everything," by People I (Mostly) Admire (2021).
  • "Caverly Morgan: 'I Am Not This Voice. I Am Not This Narrative,'" by People I (Mostly) Admire (2020).
  • "Does 'As If' Thinking Really Work?" by No Stupid Questions (2020).
  • "Havana Wild Weekend," S28.E7 of The Simpsons (2016).