For this episode, I spoke with Dr. Michael Kraus about the widening gap between the richest and the poorest in our society (aka rising economic inequality). We discussed how social class shapes every domain of our lives and how class segregation creates distinct cultural patterns and norms. Dr. Kraus also emphasized how quickly and acurately people can perceive social class, the psychological mechanisms that perpetuate inequality, and the profound ways economic inequality affects our social interactions and well-being on a daily basis.

Dr. Michael Kraus is a Professor of Psychology at Northwestern University and Morton O. Schapiro Faculty Fellow at the Institute for Policy Research. Dr. Kraus is a social psychologist who studies how inequality fundamentally shapes the dynamics of human social interactions. Much of his research focuses on the behavioral and emotional states that maintain and perpetuate economic and racial inequality in society. His research is consistently published in top journals and has been highlighted by numerous media outlets including ABC World News, National Public Radio, and the Wall Street Journal.

Topics Discussed:

• Social Rank
• Social Hierarchies
• Social Class
• Relative Rank
• Socioeconomic (SES) Status
• Societal Health
• Economic Inequality
• Power/Agency
• Social Mobility
• Perception/Status Signals

Papers and Resources Discussed:

• Tan, J. J. X., Kraus, M. W., Carpenter, N. C., & Adler, N. E. (2020). The association between objective and subjective socioeconomic status and subjective well-being: A meta-analytic review. Psychological bulletin, 146(11), 970–1020.
• Kraus, M. W., Adler, N., & Chen, T. W. (2013). Is the association of subjective SES and self-rated health confounded by negative mood? An experimental approach. Health psychology : official journal of the Division of Health Psychology, American Psychological Association, 32(2), 138–145.
• Pew Research Center on Global Economic Inequality
• Kraus, M. W., Piff, P. K., & Keltner, D. (2011). Social Class as Culture: The Convergence of Resources and Rank in the Social Realm. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 20(4), 246–250.
• Kraus, M. W., Park, J. W., & Tan, J. J. X. (2017). Signs of Social Class: The Experience of Economic Inequality in Everyday Life. Perspectives on Psychological Science, 12(3), 422–435.
• Kraus, M. W., & Tan, J. J. X. (2015). Americans overestimate social class mobility. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 58, 101–111.
• Carey, R. M., & Markus, H. R. (2017). Social class shapes the form and function of relationships and selves. Current Opinion in Psychology, 18, 123–130.
• Markus, H. R. (2017). In This Together: Doing and Undoing Inequality and Social Class Divides. Journal of Social Issues, 73(1), 211–221.
• Becker, J. C., Kraus, M. W., & Rheinschmidt-Same, M. (2017). Cultural Expressions of Social Class and Their Implications for Group-Related Beliefs and Behaviors. Journal of Social Issues, 73(1), 158–174.
• Work of Nancy Adler
• Work of Frantz Fanon
• Work of Jim Sidanius
• Stress Puzzle episode on Sir Michael Marmot's contributions

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The Stress Puzzle is hosted by Dr. Ryan L. Brown (https://www.ryanlinnbrown.com/) and supported by the UCSF Stress Measurement Network, an NIH/NIA funded network which aims to better understand the relationship between stress and health by improving the measurement of stress in research studies. Learn more about available resources to support stress research at: www.stressmeasurement.org.

Have burning questions about stress? Email us at [email protected] and we may feature your question in a future episode!

For this episode, I spoke with Dr. Jay Van Bavel about political polarization as a threat to individual and societal health, which is particularly salient as we're seeing more politically-motivated violence. Specifically, we discussed the dangers of rising political polarization, how social media incentives contribute to polarization, and why we should consider political polarization as a social determinant of health. Through this episode, listeners will learn more about the psychological mechanisms behind polarization, potential interventions to reduce social and political tensions, and how social media drives polarization.

Dr. Jay Van Bavel is a Professor of Psychology & Neural Science at New York University, an affiliate at the Stern School of Business in Management and Organizations, Professor at the Norwegian School of Economics, and Director of the Center for Conflict & Cooperation. His research examines how collective concerns—group identities, moral values, and political beliefs—shape the mind, brain, and behavior. He studies these issues using a combination of neuroimaging, lesion patients, social cognitive tasks, economic tasks, cross-cultural surveys, and computational social science. Dr. Van Bavel has published over 150 academic papers in top journals (including in Science, Nature, PNAS) and is a Clarivate highly cited researcher (meaning he's in the top 1% of researchers worldwide!). Beyond his research, I deeply admire his excellent science communication and the way he has translated his research for both the public and policymakers. For example, he co-authored The Power of Us: Harnessing Our Shared Identities to Improve Performance, Increase Cooperation, and Promote Social Harmony (which won the APA William James Book Award). His work has also been cited in the US Supreme Court and Senate and he has consulted with the White House, United Nations, European Union, and World Health Organization.

Topics Discussed:

• Social Identity
• Political Polarization
• Ideological Polarization
• Affective Polarization
• Partisanship/Partisan Animosity
• In-Group/Out-Group
• Megastudy
• Information Sharing
• Misinformation/Disinformation
• Social Inclusion
• Social Media
• Psychology of Virality
• Science Communication
• Trust in Science

Papers and Resources Discussed:

• Van Bavel, J.J., Gadarian, S.K., Knowles, E., & Ruggeri K. (2024). Political polarization and health. Nature Medicine, 30(11), 3085–3093.
• World Economic Forum Global Risks Report 2024
• Bavel, J.J.V., Baicker, K., Boggio, P.S. et al. Using social and behavioural science to support COVID-19 pandemic response. Nat Hum Behav 4, 460–471 (2020).
• Rathje, S., & Van Bavel, J. J. (2025). The psychology of virality. Trends in cognitive sciences, S1364-6613(25)00173-1. Advance online publication.
• Brady, W. J., & Van Bavel, J. J. (2025). Social identity shapes antecedents and functional outcomes of moral emotion expression. Journal of experimental psychology. General, 154(6), 1505–1522.
• Voelkel, J. G., Stagnaro, M. N., Chu, J. Y., Pink, S. L., Mernyk, J. S., Redekopp, C., Ghezae, I., Cashman, M., Adjodah, D., Allen, L. G., Allis, L. V., Baleria, G., Ballantyne, N., Van Bavel, J. J., Blunden, H., Braley, A., Bryan, C. J., Celniker, J. B., Cikara, M., Clapper, M. V., … Willer, R. (2024). Megastudy testing 25 treatments to reduce antidemocratic attitudes and partisan animosity. Science (New York, N.Y.), 386(6719), eadh4764.

Further Readings and Resources:

• Van Bavel, J. J., & Pereira, A. (2018). The partisan brain: An identity-based model of political belief. Trends in cognitive sciences, 22(3), 213-224.
• Van Bavel, J. J., Robertson, C. E., Del Rosario, K., Rasmussen, J., & Rathje, S. (2024). Social media and morality. Annual review of psychology, 75(1), 311-340.
• Finkel, E. J., Bail, C. A., Cikara, M., Ditto, P. H., Iyengar, S., Klar, S., ... & Druckman, J. N. (2020). Political sectarianism in America. Science, 370(6516), 533-536.
• Rathje, S., Van Bavel, J. J., & Van Der Linden, S. (2021). Out-group animosity drives engagement on social media. Proceedings of the national academy of sciences, 118(26), e2024292118.
• Van Bavel, J. J., Harris, E. A., Pärnamets, P., Rathje, S., Doell, K. C., & Tucker, J. A. (2021). Political psychology in the digital (mis) information age: A model of news belief and sharing. Social Issues and Policy Review, 15(1), 84-113.
• Brady, W. J., Gantman, A. P., & Van Bavel, J. J. (2020). Attentional capture helps explain why moral and emotional content go viral. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 149(4), 746.
• Rathje, Steve, James K. He, Jon Roozenbeek, Jay J. Van Bavel, and Sander Van Der Linden. "Social media behavior is associated with vaccine hesitancy." PNAS nexus 1, no. 4 (2022): pgac207.
• Van Bavel, J. J., Harris, E. A., Pärnamets, P., Rathje, S., Doell, K. C., & Tucker, J. A. (2021). Political psychology in the digital (mis) information age: A model of news belief and sharing. Social Issues and Policy Review, 15(1), 84-113.

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The Stress Puzzle is hosted by Dr. Ryan L. Brown (https://www.ryanlinnbrown.com/) and supported by the UCSF Stress Measurement Network, an NIH/NIA funded network which aims to better understand the relationship between stress and health by improving the measurement of stress in research studies. Learn more about available resources to support stress research at: www.stressmeasurement.org.

Have burning questions about stress? Email us at [email protected] and we may feature your question in a future episode!

Season 2 is here and we're focused on stress in context! In this episode, I chatted with Dr. Wendy Berry Mendes about the evolution of stress and emotion research and how these fields have grown together. We also talk about distinctions between stress and emotions, and how their differences lead to meaningful differences in measurement. We wrap up with a discussion around the importance of contextual factors (like culture or social status) in stress and emotion research and give examples of how context can affect the experience and expression of emotions.

Dr. Wendy Berry Mendes is the Chris Argyris Professor of Psychology at Yale University, where she also leads the Emotion, Health and Psychophysiology lab. She's an international leader in social psychophysiology and has trained generations of students. She's a rigorous experimentalist, which has led to dozens of discoveries about the human social stress response. Her research on stress often goes beyond thinking about the individual to characterize how one person's stress impacts another person's emotions and physiology. Learn more about her research: https://www.wendyberrymendes.com/

Topics Discussed:

• Emotions, Emotion Regulation, Emotion Measurement
• Acute Stress, Chronic Stress, Good vs. Bad Stress
• Sympathetic and Parasympathetic Nervous System Responses
• Stress and Coping, Coping Styles, Coping Strategies
• Cognition and Emotion

Papers and Resources Discussed:

• Shenhav, A., & Mendes, W. B. (2014). Aiming for the stomach and hitting the heart: dissociable triggers and sources for disgust reactions. Emotion, 14(2), 301–309.
• Stress Measurement Network's Physiological Toolbox: https://www.stressmeasurement.org/physiological-measures
• Ekman, P. (1992). An argument for basic emotions. Cognition and Emotion, 6(3–4), 169–200.
• Ekman, P. (1989). The argument and evidence about universals in facial expressions of emotion. In H. Wagner & A. Manstead (Eds.), Handbook of social psychophysiology (pp. 143–164). John Wiley & Sons.

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The Stress Puzzle is hosted by Dr. Ryan L. Brown (https://www.ryanlinnbrown.com/) and supported by the UCSF Stress Measurement Network, an NIH/NIA funded network which aims to better understand the relationship between stress and health by improving the measurement of stress in research studies. Learn more about available resources to support stress research at: www.stressmeasurement.org.

Have burning questions about stress? Email us at [email protected] and we may feature your question in a future episode!

In honor of a new academic year, we wanted to share some advice and reflections from our Season 1 guests. This is a mix of clips with some that have been included in prior episodes and some that we've saved just for this episode. We wanted to have these reflections consolidated so it would be easy for you to share with trainees and early-career researchers, as well as anyone who may be thinking about pursuing interdisciplinary research.

Check back tomorrow for our new season of the podcast focused on stress in context.

Outline of Episode:

• 1:09: How have you handled mistakes in your career?
• 8:50: Non-traditional experiences and hobbies
• 12:03: Advice for current trainees
• 22:29: Reflections on collaborating
• 30:20: What do you see as the future of stress science?

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The Stress Puzzle is hosted by Dr. Ryan L. Brown (https://www.ryanlinnbrown.com/) and supported by the UCSF Stress Measurement Network, an NIH/NIA funded network which aims to better understand the relationship between stress and health by improving the measurement of stress in research studies. Learn more about available resources to support stress research at: www.stressmeasurement.org.

Have burning questions about stress? Email us at [email protected] and we may feature your question in a future episode!

For our final episode of Season 1, I spoke with Dr. Andrew Steptoe about social relationships as we age, the need for interdisciplinary research, and emerging biomarkers of interest to stress scientists. Dr. Steptoe is both a prolific and brilliant scientist whose work has identified psychobiological pathways linking low socioeconomic status with cardiovascular disease progression. I especially enjoyed hearing Dr. Steptoe reflect on research surrounding positive well-being and health, as well as the next steps for intervention science that we need to move forward as a field. Stay tuned for Season 2 of the Stress Puzzle this Fall!

Dr. Andrew Steptoe is a Professor of Psychology and Epidemiology at University College London. He was a founding editor of the British Journal of Health Psychology. He also directs the Psychobiology Research Group and the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing (ELSA). He is one of the most impactful researchers in the field of health psychology as his work has identified crucial mechanisms through which social and psychological circumstances influence cardiovascular disease and aging. He was recently honored with the Distinguished Scientist Award from the Society for Biopsychosocial Science and Medicine. Outside of the lab, Dr. Steptoe has written on the cultural background of Mozart operas and has contributed to research on Renaissance and 18th century history. Dr. Steptoe also coedited the second edition of A Matter of Life, which is a book about how his father (Patrick Steptoe) and Robert Edwards developed the procedure for in vitro fertilisation (IVF).

Topics Discussed:

• Psychobiology
• Social Status/Socioeconomic Status
• Population Studies/Cohort Studies
• Biomarkers
• Biological Processes/Biological Aging
• Psychoneuroimmunology
• Stress Measurement
• Social Connection

Papers Mentioned:

• ELSA (English Longitudinal Study of Aging): https://www.elsa-project.ac.uk/
• Whitehall II: Marmot MG, Smith GD, Stansfeld S, Patel C, North F, Head J, White I, Brunner E, Feeney A. Health inequalities among British civil servants: the Whitehall II study. Lancet. 1991 Jun 8;337(8754):1387-93. doi: 10.1016/0140-6736(91)93068-k. PMID: 1674771.
• Hamilton, O. S., Iob, E., Ajnakina, O., Kirkbride, J. B., & Steptoe, A. (2024). Immune-neuroendocrine patterning and response to stress. A latent profile analysis in the English longitudinal study of ageing. Brain, behavior, and immunity, 115, 600–608.

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The Stress Puzzle is hosted by Dr. Ryan L. Brown (https://www.ryanlinnbrown.com/) and supported by the UCSF Stress Measurement Network, an NIH/NIA funded network which aims to better understand the relationship between stress and health by improving the measurement of stress in research studies. Learn more about available resources to support stress research at: www.stressmeasurement.org.

Have burning questions about stress? Email us at [email protected] and we may feature your question in a future episode!

In today's episode of the Stress Puzzle, I chatted with Dr. David Almeida all about how we experience and respond (emotionally and physiologically) to daily stressors. We talked a fascinating finding of his that ~10% of people report no daily stressors and what he's learned about these folks. We also discussed how everyday stress and emotion processes shift as we age, and what we gain from experiencing minor stressors in our daily lives. Finally, Dr. Almeida shared what he is looking forward to for the future of stress science and offered advice to anyone who may a current trainee or may be interested in stress science in their future.

Dr. David Almeida is a Professor of Human Development and Family Studies at The Pennsylvania State University. He is a lifespan developmental psychologist who has focused his research on how daily stress experiences and processes relate to healthy aging. Dr. Almeida developed the Daily Instrument of Stressful Experiences to support this research, which has now been used in numerous large scale epidemiologic and intervention studies on stress and health. Dr. Almeida is the Principal Investigator of the National Study of Daily Experiences, which is an in-depth daily study embedded in the MacArthur Foundation National Survey of Midlife in the United States (MIDUS) and the largest longitudinal diary study of daily experiences and health in the US.

Topics Discussed:

• Lifespan Psychology
• Daily Stressors
• Stress Exposure
• Stress Responses/Stress Reactivity/Stress Recovery
• Social Support
• Stress Physiology/Measurement/Biomarkers (Cortisol/Salivary Amylase)
• Passive Measurement
• Just-In-Time Interventions
• Mistakes and Lessons Learned
• Future Directions in Stress Science

Papers Mentioned:

• Charles, S. T., Mogle, J., Chai, H. W., & Almeida, D. M. (2021). The mixed benefits of a stressor-free life. Emotion (Washington, D.C.), 21(5), 962–971.
• Rush, J., Ong, A. D., Piazza, J. R., Charles, S. T., & Almeida, D. M. (2024). Too little, too much, and "just right": Exploring the "goldilocks zone" of daily stress reactivity. Emotion, 24(5), 1249–1258.
• Toledo, M. J. L., Zawadzki, M. J., Scott, S. B., Johnson, J. A., Marcusson-Clavertz, D., Kim, J., Lanza, S., Almeida, D. M., Sliwinski, M. J., & Smyth, J. M. (2024). Exploring the Utility of a Real-Time Approach to Characterising Within-Person Fluctuations in Everyday Stress Responses. Stress and health, 40(6), e3501.
• Jenkins, A. I. C., Le, Y., Surachman, A., Almeida, D. M., & Fredman, S. J. (2023). Associations among Financial Well-Being, Daily Relationship Tension, and Daily Affect in Two Adult Cohorts Separated by the Great Recession. Journal of social and personal relationships, 40(4), 1103–1125.
• Almeida, D. M., Rush, J., Mogle, J., Piazza, J. R., Cerino, E., & Charles, S. T. (2023). Longitudinal change in daily stress across 20 years of adulthood: Results from the national study of daily experiences. Developmental psychology, 59(3), 515–523.
• Vodovotz, Y., Arciero, J., Verschure, P. F. M. J., & Katz, D. L. (2024). A multiscale inflammatory map: Linking individual stress to societal dysfunction. Frontiers in Science, 1.

Additional Resources Referenced:

• Stress Measurement Network's Toolkit: https://www.stressmeasurement.org/measurement-toolbox

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The Stress Puzzle is hosted by Dr. Ryan L. Brown (https://www.ryanlinnbrown.com/) and supported by the UCSF Stress Measurement Network, an NIH/NIA funded network which aims to better understand the relationship between stress and health by improving the measurement of stress in research studies. Learn more about available resources to support stress research at: www.stressmeasurement.org.

Have burning questions about stress? Email us at [email protected] and we may feature your question in a future episode!

In today's episode, I had the privilege of speaking with Dr. Cheryl Woods Giscombé, a health scientist who discusses her research on Superwoman Schema, which is a conceptual framework highlighting stress and coping mechanisms among African American women. The framework identifies five characteristics: obligation to present strength, obligation to suppress emotions, motivation to succeed despite limited resources, resisting feelings of vulnerability and dependence, and prioritization of caregiving over self-care. Dr. Giscombé's research shows that while some characteristics are protective, others can lead to negative health outcomes - we dig into those nuances in this episode! Her critical work aims to develop interventions that balance strength with self-care to improve health disparities among Black women.

Dr. Cheryl Woods Giscombé is the Melissa and Harry LeVine Family Distinguished Term Professor, Senior Associate Dean, and Chief Wellness Officer at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Nursing with a secondary faculty appointment as a Professor in the Department of Social Medicine at the UNC School of Medicine. Dr. Woods-Giscombé's research focuses on biopsychosocial factors that influence health and health disparities through psychological stress and coping pathways. She is a Fellow of the American Academy of Nursing, the National Academy of Medicine, the Academy of Behavioral Medicine Research, and the Mind & Life Institute. She recently authored The Black Woman's Guide to Coping with Stress: Mindfulness and Self-Compassion Skills to Create a Life of Joy and Well-Being. Learn more about Dr. Giscombé's research and writing: https://www.drcherylwoodsgiscombe.com/

Topics Discussed:

• Stressors, Gender-Related Stressors, Race-Related Stressors
• Resilience
• Self-Care
• Superwoman Schema
• Cost of Caring
• Emotional Suppression
• Health Disparities
• Maternal Health Disparities
• Adverse Birth Outcomes
• Coping Strategies: Mindfulness, Present Moment Awareness, Self-Compassion
• Interventions

Papers Mentioned:

• Woods-Giscombé CL, Lobel M, Zimmer C, Wiley Cené C, Corbie-Smith G. Whose stress is making me sick? Network-stress and emotional distress in African-American women. Issues Ment Health Nurs. 2015;36(9):710-7. doi: 10.3109/01612840.2015.1011759.
• Giscombé, C. L., & Lobel, M. (2005). Explaining Disproportionately High Rates of Adverse Birth Outcomes Among African Americans: The Impact of Stress, Racism, and Related Factors in Pregnancy. Psychological Bulletin, 131(5), 662–683. https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-2909.131.5.662
• Woods-Giscombé C. L. (2010). Superwoman schema: African American women's views on stress, strength, and health. Qualitative health research, 20(5), 668–683. https://doi.org/10.1177/1049732310361892
• Allen, A. M., Wang, Y., Chae, D. H., Price, M. M., Powell, W., Steed, T. C., Rose Black, A., Dhabhar, F. S., Marquez-Magaña, L., & Woods-Giscombe, C. L. (2019). Racial discrimination, the superwoman schema, and allostatic load: exploring an integrative stress-coping model among African American women. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, 1457(1), 104–127. https://doi.org/10.1111/nyas.14188
• Kyalwazi, A. N., Woods-Giscombe, C. L., Johnson, M. P., Jones, C., Hayes, S. N., Cooper, L. A., Patten, C. A., & Brewer, L. C. (2024). Associations Between the Superwoman Schema, Stress, and Cardiovascular Health Among African-American Women. Annals of behavioral medicine, 58(12), 863–868. https://doi.org/10.1093/abm/kaae047
• Woods-Giscombe CL, Allen AM, Black AR, Steed TC, Li Y, Lackey C. The Giscombe Superwoman Schema Questionnaire: Psychometric Properties and Associations with Mental Health and Health Behaviors in African American Women. Issues Ment Health Nurs. 2019 Aug;40(8):672-681. doi: 10.1080/01612840.2019.1584654.
• Woods-Giscombe, C. L., Gaylord, S. A., Li, Y., Brintz, C. E., Bangdiwala, S. I., Buse, J. B., Mann, J. D., Lynch, C., Phillips, P., Smith, S., Leniek, K., Young, L., Al-Barwani, S., Yoo, J., & Faurot, K. (2019). A Mixed-Methods, Randomized Clinical Trial to Examine Feasibility of a Mindfulness-Based Stress Management and Diabetes Risk Reduction Intervention for African Americans with Prediabetes. Evidence-based complementary and alternative medicine, 2019, 3962623. https://doi.org/10.1155/2019/3962623
• Woods-Giscombe, C. L., Gaylord, S., Bradford, A., Vines, S., Eason, K., Smith, R., Addo-Mensah, D., Lackey, C., Dsouza, V., Sheffield-Abdullah, K., Day, T., Green-Scott, K., Chilcoat, A., Peace-Coard, A., Chalmers, L., Evenson, K. R., Samuel-Hodge, C., Lewis, T. T., Crandell, J., Corbie, G., … Faurot, K. (2024). Protocol of the HARMONY study: A culturally relevant, randomized-controlled, stress management intervention to reduce cardiometabolic risk in African American women. Contemporary clinical trials, 146, 107604. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cct.2024.107604
• Woods-Giscombé, C. L., & Gaylord, S. A. (2014). The Cultural Relevance of Mindfulness Meditation as a Health Intervention for African Americans: Implications for Reducing Stress-Related Health Disparities. Journal of holistic nursing, 32(3), 147–160. https://doi.org/10.1177/0898010113519010

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The Stress Puzzle is hosted by Dr. Ryan L. Brown (https://www.ryanlinnbrown.com/) and supported by the UCSF Stress Measurement Network, an NIH/NIA funded network which aims to better understand the relationship between stress and health by improving the measurement of stress in research studies. Learn more about available resources to support stress research at: www.stressmeasurement.org.

Have burning questions about stress? Email us at [email protected] and we may feature your question in a future episode!

Today's episode builds on the discussion of puberty as a sensitive period from the previous episode with Dr. Megan Gunnar. Featuring developmental scientist Dr. Ronald Dahl, this conversation explores early adolescence as a pivotal transition, highlighting the unique vulnerabilities and opportunities for positive growth during this formative window. Dr. Dahl emphasizes the importance of supporting prosocial learning, cultivating positive emotions, and addressing inequities through integrative, interdisciplinary approaches to improve the lives of children and adolescents. Tune in next month for an episode on Superwoman Schema with Dr. Cheryl Woods Giscombé!

Dr. Ronald Dahl is a pediatrician and developmental scientist whose research focuses on early adolescence as a developmental period with unique opportunities for early intervention to support behavioral and emotional health. He is the Director of the Institute of Human Development at the University of California, Berkeley, where he also serves as a Professor in the School of Public Health and the Joint Medical Program. He is also the Founding Director of the Center for the Developing Adolescent. His research is interdisciplinary and bridges between basic developmental research (emphasizing social and affective neuroscience) and the translation of this work into clinical and social policy relevance. He has published extensively on child and adolescent development, sleep disorders, behavioral/emotional health in children, adolescent brain development and on the policy implications of this work. He has been elected as a Fellow of organizations including: Association for Psychological Science, American Academy of Pediatrics, New York Academy of Sciences and American Academy of Sleep Medicine. He is a Founding Editor of the journal Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience and is a Past President of the Society for Research in Child Development. We especially appreciate his focus on integrative developmental science and translating this area of research into clinical and social policy that can improve the lives of children and adolescents.

Topics Discussed:

• Adolescent Development
• Integrative Developmental Science
• Social Transitions
• Fitting In vs. Standing Out
• Self-Other Concept
• Prosociality
• Population Health
• Sleep and Digital Technology
• Youth Involvement/Co-Creation

Papers Mentioned:

• Dahl, R. E., Armstrong-Carter, E., & Van Den Bos, W. (2024). Wanting to matter and learning to care: A neurodevelopmental window of opportunity for (Pro) social learning? Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience, 69, 101430. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.dcn.2024.101430
• Shoib S, Siddiqui MF, Saleem SM, Chandradasa M. Sir Michael Rutter (2022). Pioneer, legend, and father of modern child psychiatry. Ind Psychiatry J. 2022 Jul-Dec;31(2):384-386. doi: 10.4103/ipj.ipj_244_21.
• Schleider, J. L., Zapata, J. P., Rapoport, A., Wescott, A., Ghosh, A., Kaveladze, B., Szkody, E., & Ahuvia, I. L. (2025). Single-Session Interventions for Mental Health Problems and Service Engagement: Umbrella Review of Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses. Annual review of clinical psychology, 10.1146/annurev-clinpsy-081423-025033. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-clinpsy-081423-025033
• Sotomayor, I., *Chang, Y., *Szkody, E., Fox, K., & Schleider, J. L. (under review). A digital, minority stress-focused single-session intervention benefits multiply-marginalized sexual minority adolescents. Preprint
• CERES Project (Sleep in Ukrainian Teens)

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The Stress Puzzle is hosted by Dr. Ryan L. Brown (https://www.ryanlinnbrown.com/) and supported by the UCSF Stress Measurement Network, an NIH/NIA funded network which aims to better understand the relationship between stress and health by improving the measurement of stress in research studies. Learn more about available resources to support stress research at: www.stressmeasurement.org.

Have burning questions about stress? Email us at [email protected] and we may feature your question in a future episode!

For today's episode, I had the honor of speaking with Dr. Megan Gunnar, a developmental psychologist who discusses her research on early life adversity and stress biology showing the importance of puberty as a window of biological flexibility. Dr. Gunnar discussed work from earlier in her career that led her to pursue these questions through an interdisciplinary lens. Tune in next month to hear more on the importance of adolescence from Dr. Ronald Dahl.

Dr. Megan Gunnar is a Regents Professor and Distinguished McKnight University Professor at the University of Minnesota. Her doctoral training was in Developmental Psychology at Stanford University. She then completed her post-doctoral fellowship in Psychoneuroendocrinology at Stanford Medical School. Since then, she has built a remarkable career studying how stress biology affects neurobehavioral development and the processes that help children regulate stress hormones. Dr. Gunnar is a fellow of the National Academy of Sciences and has numerous lifetime achievement awards across many societies and disciplines including the Association for Psychological Science and the International Society for Psychoneuroendocrinology. Learn more about Dr. Gunnar's research: https://innovation.umn.edu/gunnar-lab/

Topics Discussed:

• Developmental Psychoneuroendocrinology
• Stress System Calibration and Recalibration
• Stress Reactivity
• Puberty
• Chronic Stress
• HPA Axis
• Early Life Adversity

Papers Mentioned:

• Gunnar, M. R., DePasquale, C. E., Reid, B. M., Donzella, B., & Miller, B. S. (2019). Pubertal stress recalibration reverses the effects of early life stress in postinstitutionalized children. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 116(48), 23984–23988. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1909699116
• Gunnar, M. R., & Vazquez, D. M. (2001). Low cortisol and a flattening of expected daytime rhythm: Potential indices of risk in human development. Development and Psychopathology, 13(3), 515–538. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0954579401003066
• Engel, M. L., & Gunnar, M. R. (2020). The development of stress reactivity and regulation during human development. International review of neurobiology, 150, 41–76. https://doi.org/10.1016/bs.irn.2019.11.003
• Gunnar, M. R. (2017). Social Buffering of Stress in Development: A Career Perspective. Perspectives on Psychological Science, 12(3), 355–373. https://doi.org/10.1177/1745691616680612

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The Stress Puzzle is hosted by Dr. Ryan L. Brown (https://www.ryanlinnbrown.com/) and supported by the UCSF Stress Measurement Network, an NIH/NIA funded network which aims to better understand the relationship between stress and health by improving the measurement of stress in research studies. Learn more about available resources to support stress research at: www.stressmeasurement.org.

Have burning questions about stress? Email us at [email protected] and we may feature your question in a future episode!

Can you believe it's almost the end of 2024?! Join me for a conversation with Dr. Aric Prather about stress, sleep, and social experiences at the holidays + what we know about links between those and our susceptibility to infections and severity of illness. We chatted about foundational knowledge drawn from studies where people are experimentally exposed to rhinovirus (aka the common cold) before moving to a conversation about health behaviors through the holidays. We hope this episode encourages you to indulge in social support and lean into the joy of this holiday season!

Dr. Aric Prather is a Professor and Pritzker Family Fund Endowed Chair in Health and Community in the Department of Psychiatry and Behaviroal Sciences at the University of California, San Francisco. He co-directs the UCSF Aging, Metabolism, and Emotions Center, is the Director of the UCSF Center for Health and Community, and Associate Director of the Stress Measurement Network. His research focuses primarily on links between sleep and health, particularly immune health, and his work is regularly featured in the New York TImes, NPR, and the Today Show.

Topics Discussed:

• Psychoneuroimmunology
• Susceptibility to Illness
• Severity of Illness
• Health Behaviors
• Sleep and Health
• Glucocorticoid Resistance
• Common Cold/Rhinovirus
• Social Support
• Resilience and Self-Care

Research Mentioned:

• Cohen S. Keynote Presentation at the Eight International Congress of Behavioral Medicine: the Pittsburgh common cold studies: psychosocial predictors of susceptibility to respiratory infectious illness. Int J Behav Med. 2005;12(3):123-31.
• Prather, AA, Janicki-Deverts, D, Hall, MH, & Cohen, S. Behaviorally Assessed Sleep and Susceptibility to the Common Cold. Sleep. 2015;38(9):1353–1359.
• Cohen S, Janicki-Deverts D, Turner RB, Doyle WJ. Does hugging provide stress-buffering social support? A study of susceptibility to upper respiratory infection and illness. Psychol Sci. 2015 Feb;26(2):135-47.
• Access the Pittsburgh Common Cold Study data for yourself!
• Spiegel K, Rey AE, Cheylus A, Ayling K, Benedict C, Lange T, Prather AA, Taylor DJ, Irwin MR, Van Cauter E. A meta-analysis of the associations between insufficient sleep duration and antibody response to vaccination. Curr Biol. 2023 Mar 13;33(5):998-1005.e2.
• Newman DB, Gordon AM, Prather AA, Berry Mendes W. Examining Daily Associations Among Sleep, Stress, and Blood Pressure Across Adulthood. Ann Behav Med. 2023 May 23;57(6):453-462.

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The Stress Puzzle is hosted by Dr. Ryan L. Brown (https://www.ryanlinnbrown.com/) and supported by the UCSF Stress Measurement Network, an NIH/NIA funded network which aims to better understand the relationship between stress and health by improving the measurement of stress in research studies. Learn more about available resources to support stress research at: www.stressmeasurement.org.

Have burning questions about stress? Email us at [email protected] and we may feature your question in a future episode!