Ellen has spent decades studying what happens when we stop moving through life on autopilot. When we stop treating our assumptions like facts. When we replace certainty with a simple act: noticing. In this episode, we talk about mindfulness without meditation—her version of mindfulness that doesn’t require silence or a retreat. Just attention. Just the willingness to admit: I don’t know.

We move through her iconic experiments - like turning back the clock on ageing, or rigging clocks to show how perceived time changes what happens in the body. We talk about why stress isn’t caused by events, but by the meaning we attach to them. And why so much of what we call reality is really just… a story we’re clinging to because it makes us feel safe.

That the body doesn’t just respond to biology — it responds to meaning. To perception. To the story we’re living inside.

Ellen's work is quietly radical. Her work time and again shows that we have far more influence over our biology than we’ve been taught. Not through force. Not through positive thinking as a performance. But through attention. Through flexibility. Through refusing to collapse life into single answers and embracing the constant change.

Ellen J. Langer

Ellen J. Langer is a professor of psychology at Harvard University and a pioneering researcher best known for developing a Western, evidence-based approach to mindfulness without meditation—often described as “the simple act of noticing new things.” She is widely recognised for decades of research on mindlessness, decision-making, ageing, health, and what she calls mind–body unity. Her work has earned major honours, including multiple Distinguished Scientist Awards and the Liberty Science Center “Genius” Award, and she has been repeatedly named one of Harvard’s favourite professors by students. Her recent books include The Mindful Body: Thinking Our Way to Chronic Health (released in 2023) and Finding Happy, an illustrated book exploring everyday mindfulness and wellbeing. She shares more of her work at her website.

Feelings with Strangers

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Ellen J. Langer

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