Podcasts

A tiny brain game: decoding number plates

April 24, 2023

Here’s a tiny brain game you can play any time you’re driving or walking in a city: decoding the mystery of number plates.

Tiny tip: seek novelty in your old age

July 20, 2019

Tiny tip for well-being in your old age: welcome novelty with open arms.

My mother Celia would have adored this notice: “Alien abduction zone WARNING.” She would have camped out beside the sign, semaphoring a message to all aliens in the area: “Pick me! Pick me!”

How dancing has improved the function of an aging brain

August 6, 2017

(Written in 2015, first published 17 August, 2017 and updated 29 June, 2019.) In which I perform a scientific analysis of the health benefits of dancing for an aging brain: three cognitive skills have improved, age-related changes prove a challenge, and the over-all effect is joy joy joy. I belong to the Crows […]

The boot camp challenge that I expect to fail

June 20, 2017

Reposted from 2015. Ukulele kindergarten: In which I embark on a learning challenge that is bound to fail, and experience irrational joy and relief. Learn a new skill (this year and every year): this task is a pretty significant one, and you know why! For years scientists have told us that a powerful key to […]

Decluttering your writing: easier with age?

June 24, 2016

Written materials are top candidates for decluttering Not all writing is sacred. Oh no no no. If we kept every word we wrote, writers would all be living in a midden of our own making. Most writing needs radical surgery before it works When it comes to poems and plays and novels and other books, killing your darlings, […]