Happy Valentine’s Day! What better reason is there to write a newsletter if not for love? ABSOLUTELY BLOODY NONE. 

But this ode to cupid is taking a slightly different approach. You see, this newsletter is part of my Solitude Series, a look at how people are spending more time alone than ever before. And romance has increasingly become a solo pursuit. 

Yep, while some of you may be dusting off your a-game to dazzle the people you love in your life with flowers and dinners and other IRL declarations of love, others are logging on to talk to machines, alone. 

Yep, AI is in the love game, and it’s changing how we do relationships both with each other, and ourselves. That’s why in this week’s Brink I’m taking a deep dive into the world of AI and romance. 

Hearts at the ready? Let’s go. 

More solitude! Oh yes, continuing fromlast week’s newsletter, I’m taking a closer look at how the modern age is doing strangely unique things to us and our relationships. 

While last week was all about how we’re all feeling the effects of solitude, this week I’m taking a closer look at how that’s playing out with men. In particular, how men are increasingly eschewing relationships in favour of a distinct form of individualism. 

Ready? Onwards! 

We spend more time alone than ever before. We eat alone, we socialise alone, we entertain ourselves alone, and more recently, we’ve even started having relationships on our own. 

Health organisations have been talking about the dangers of loneliness for years. The World Health Organization (WHO) declared loneliness to be one of its pressing global health threats. The US Surgeon General has said the impact of loneliness has the same impact on health as smoking 15 cigarettes a day.

And yet, we’re all slowly, quietly drifting into worlds of our own making. That’s why in this week’s Brink, I’m going to be talking about the quiet rise of solitude, and its impact not only on our health but our friends, families, and the societies we live in.

As is the tradition every year, I’ve no doubt you already have a list of new year’s resolutions locked and loaded in the shiny new achievement cannon you bought yourself for Christmas. 

But before you light the fuse on the resolutions cannon and fire it into the darkest, windiest, wettest months of the new year, know this: about 80% of people fail to keep up with their resolutions by February. 

Of the fraction that survives the January onslaught? Only 8% stick around till next Christmas. 

Well that’s a kick in the new year-new-me resolutions teeth, isn’t it? It is if you follow the tried method you’ve used in previous years. 

But in this week’s Brink, I’ve got a different approach to new year’s resolutions. 

Ready? Onwards! 

If you are listening to this on Christmas Day, here’s some food for thought: if there are 8 billion people on the planet, and the average life span is roughly 26,000 days (71 years in old money), then there are roughly 300,000 people right now having the worst day of their lives. On Christmas bloody Day. Today's episode is about one big idea: that you're not alone.

That’s why in this week’s festive Brink, I’m going to be talking about the Christmas Effect: the seasonal phenomena that seems to wash away the version of yourself you quite happily live with most of the time in favour of someone, well, a little more vulnerable.  

This week I wanted to explore one of the less understood sides of the Russell Brand scandal: Why did so many people around him not speak or say something?

There were producers, directors, friends, colleagues and others all present for some of his worst behaviour, but why didn't anyone speak up?

In today's episode, I'm going to be examining that in more detail.

Here are links to some of the research mentioned and resources you can use if you see something and want to say something.

My YouTube channel! https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCoic4CWpVZF8I2Zk9BVp1TA

- Culture of Silence study - https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/job.2512

- Spiral of Silence - original research https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spiral_of_silence

- How to whistle blow successfully https://freedom.press/news/sharing-sensitive-leaks-press/

- Who to whistleblow to - https://securedrop.org/directory/

Hello! In this week's episode we're going to be looking at the Myers-Briggs personality test.

While it has become one of the world's most popular, and enduring personality tests, the data and research that sit behind are, well, sketchy at best.

In this week's podcast we're going to find out why that its, and also, consider why the test continues to endure.

Welcome to the very first episode of The Brink! The podcast all about what goes on inside our heads.

This week, it's the 50th anniversary of Stockholm Syndrome. But where does it come from? Well, I'm a gana tell you. Listen in to hear how a bank robbery gave birth to one of the most popular terms for what happens when a relationship takes an odd turn.