The language of heartbreak may sometimes sound mundane, but the havoc it inflicts on our brains and bodies is trenchant. People who have suffered lost love face an elevated risk of serious medical woes. It's not just their metaphorically sundered hearts, although cardiac risk is part of it. Their immune systems falter. Even their language skills drop off. Why would evolution equip us with an operating system so easily weakened by an event as common as the denial of love? One genomic researcher went so far as to say heartbreak is one of the hidden land mines of human existence.
Hi Slight Changers -- We'll be back with fresh episodes for you on Feb 28th!! In the meantime, I wanted to share a new audiobook from Pushkin, the company behind A Slight Change of Plans. It’s called Heartbreak and it’s written and read by Florence Williams. Florence is a science journalist, and when her husband of 25 years broke up with her, she set out to understand what was happening to her, emotionally and physically, after the divorce. The result is an immersive listening experience that's geared at changing the way we think about loneliness, health, and what it means to fall in and out of love.
You can order the Heartbreak audiobook now at pushkin.fm/heartbreak
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