Harvard Thinking

Children have minds of their own and those minds might lead to behaviors parents either want to mitigate or reinforce. Parents have difficult choices to make when it comes to guiding their kids, all with the goal of raising successful human beings. In this episode, host Samantha Laine Perfas talks with economist Emily Oster, clinical psychologist Meredith Elkins, and educator Kiran Bhai about how to tell if your parenting tactics are helping or hurting your kid’s development.

Gene therapy has been used to treat many previously incurable conditions, like correcting deadly genetic disorders or giving children born with hearing loss the ability to hear. The field has massive potential, but there are still many economic, regulatory, and scientific hurdles to overcome to adequately address a variety of both rare and more common conditions. In this episode, host Samantha Laine Perfas talks with gene editing researcher David Liu and ear, nose, and throat surgeon Eliot Shearer about how gene therapy can help treat diseases that were previously considered too rare to research.

We all make mistakes. Sometimes we’re able to brush off these experiences, but other times we’re left with regrets. We regret that thing we said, how we handled that situation, or the choice we made. In this episode, host Samantha Laine Perfas, palliative care specialist Susan Block, neuroscientist Liz Phelps, and behavioral scientist Leslie John discuss how to make peace with the actions – or inactions – that still haunt us.

It’s common for our brains and bodies to atrophy with age. But some adults, those known as super-agers, have shown that we may be able to keep the sharpness of someone decades younger, even matching the cognitive abilities of a person in their 20s. In this episode, host Samantha Laine Perfas talks with biologist Will Mair, neurologist Alexandra Touroutoglou, and geriatric doctor Suzanne Salamon about what we’ve learned about super-agers and the secrets that may help us all extend and enrich our later years.

Owning a home feels increasingly unattainable for many middle-class Americans. Last year, home prices surged to nearly five times the median income. Yet the pace of building new housing, which could create more affordability, remains slow. In this episode, host Samantha Laine Perfas talks with urban economist Ed Glaeser, former CEA chair Jason Furman, and innovative housing expert Amy Tomasso about how those hoping to buy can make sense of the current housing crisis.

Different forms of adversity – like abuse, violence, and neglect – not only damage our physical and mental health but also change our cells. Scientific advances in the biology of adversity are showing us that in some cases, the harms of negative experiences run dangerously deep in our bodies and minds. In this episode, host Samantha Laine Perfas talks with children’s psychologist Kate McLaughlin, psychiatric epidemiologist Karestan Koenen, and cellular biologist Jason Buenrostro about what the future holds for protecting people from their worst experiences.

Marriage has evolved a lot through the years – and so have the problems and rewards that come with it. Research suggests it benefits our physical and mental health, but it might not seem like it when conflict arises and couples struggle to co-manage a household. With greater social acceptance of a variety of lifestyle choices, many people – especially young women – are thinking twice before tying the knot. In this episode, host Samantha Laine Perfas talks with business professor Debora Spar, psychiatrist and family counselor Richard Schwartz, and bestselling author Eve Rodsky about the role of marriage in modern society.

Generative AI tools are here to stay. There’s a debate around whether or not they should be embraced in spaces of learning. Recent reports suggest that the risks of using these tools might outweigh the benefits, threatening cognitive development by doing the thinking for their users. This is forcing educators into a dilemma: how do they make the most of AI’s potential, while also protecting students’ ability to think for themselves? In this episode, host Samantha Laine Perfas talks with cognitive scientist Tina Grotzer, applied mathematics professor Michael Brenner, and educator Ying Xu about how to use AI tools to enhance learning, rather than replace it.

Many people hold themselves to extremely high standards, but when the scales tip to the pursuit of perfection, it can result in anxiety, depression, and other serious mental health issues. In this episode, host Samantha Laine Perfas talks with journalist Jennifer Breheny Wallace, psychologist Ellen Hendriksen, and public health expert Michaela Kerrissey about when we’ve gone too far in trying to achieve our best.