The blog · Topic

Purpose

6 posts on Purpose, newest first. All posts →

2026

  1. Industry · Purpose

    Two reports in two days: one counts the people, one counts the market

    Yesterday the Milken Institute published The Future of Aging and Longevity: A Decade of Progress, A Decade to Act, a collection of essays and interviews from more than fifty contributors — foundations, universities, AARP, Meals on Wheels, the MIT AgeLab, the Stanford Center on…

    4 min read
  2. Purpose · Evidence

    Purpose in life and dying: the largest analysis yet, 488,765 people, and the honest size of the effect

    A meta-analysis published today inPsychological Medicine, open access, pools 25 samples — eight large national cohorts with individual-level data plus 17 published studies — totaling 488,765 people followed for up to 32 years, with 48,928 deaths.

    4 min read
  3. Connection · Purpose

    Loneliness shortens life mostly by taking your reasons. A new study puts the share at 88%.

    Connection and purpose are two of the five fundamentals, and a paper in the March issue of Social Science & Medicine suggests they are closer to one fundamental wearing two hats.

    4 min read

2025

  1. Movement

    12,500 athletes over fifty are in Des Moines this week. None of them are optimizing.

    The National Senior Games open today in Des Moines, Iowa, and run through August 4: more than 12,500 registered athletes, all at least fifty years old, competing in 25 sports from track and swimming to pickleball and powerlifting.

    4 min read
  2. Connection · Purpose

    The Surgeon General's last prescription has no drug in it

    Vivek Murthy, leaving office this month after two terms as US Surgeon General, released a document today he calls a Parting Prescription for America. It has no dosing table.

    4 min read

2024

  1. Evidence

    A Blue Zones critic won an Ig Nobel today. What changes for you?

    The Blue Zones are five regions — Sardinia, Okinawa, Ikaria, Nicoya in Costa Rica and Loma Linda, California — reported to have unusual numbers of very old people, and one of the best-known stories about simple living and long life.

    4 min read