Joe Jones had a one-and-done hit with the lyric “You talk too much, you worry me to death” and all these decades later you could reverse the warning. People may be speaking substantially less than they once did—and disappearing everyday conversations could be costing us meaningful human connection. An article in The Atlantic warned of isolation.

Researchers analyzed ambient recordings from 2,197 people participating in 22 studies between 2005 and 2019. They estimated that daily speech declined about 28% over that period—from roughly 16,600 words to 12,700. People under 25 showed the steepest decline.

The striking part isn’t merely the number of words. It is what those missing words may represent: fewer conversations with coworkers, neighbors, cashiers, friends and strangers.

Research cited by The Atlantic suggests that even brief exchanges with casual acquaintances can improve feelings of connection and well-being. Talking also requires spontaneity, attention and responsiveness in ways that texting does not.

Small talk may not be small.

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Former Apple CEO Tim Cook in his 2017 MIT commencement address (well before generative AI became mainstream) had a predictive warning about machines replacing humans:

“The greater danger is humans adopting the machine’s worst qualities—speed without reflection, efficiency without empathy and decisions without responsibility.”

Cook was not claiming that AI itself poses no danger. His point was that technology has no moral compass unless people supply one. A computer can optimize an outcome; it cannot decide whether that outcome is humane.

As AI makes it easier to automate hiring, firing, music creation, customer service and even personal relationships, efficiency can become an excuse for removing judgment and compassion.

We should worry less about whether machines become human—and more about whether humans become mechanical.

Intelligence without humanity is not progress.

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I can tell you my music industry students are concerned about AI replacing songwriters, artists and production while also realizing that some things AI does helps indie artists manage their careers.

Then this:  Watching musicians perform in the same room produced a stronger emotional response than watching the identical performance on a screen, according to a randomized pilot study published in Scientific Reports. Livestreaming can deliver the same notes at the same moment, but this experiment suggests that the physical presence of musicians adds something audiences can feel.

Researchers found the live audience consistently reported greater appreciation, emotional arousal, positive feelings and kama muta—a research measure describing the experience of feeling emotionally moved and connected.

The study does not prove that live concerts improve long-term physical or mental health but this experiment found they were not emotionally interchangeable for these participants.

“The kind that makes your heart race, your body move, and your soul stir with passion.” –Foo Fighter’s founder Dave Grohl, writing about live music in The Atlantic

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When Tim Cook handed the Apple CEO position to John Ternus recently he left with 9 words of advice:  “This place is proof that culture triumphs over everything,” both revealing what made the company so successful and in a way served as a warning that it’s true of bad culture, too.

Your personal culture is what you repeatedly tolerate, reward, practice and expect from yourself. Over time, those patterns don’t just influence what you do; habits can become part of how you define who you are.

Your personal culture eventually triumphs over your intentions.

You can intend to be optimistic, disciplined, generous or courageous. But if your daily culture is complaining, procrastinating, avoiding difficult things or surrounding yourself with negativity, that culture tends to win.

And the reverse is just as powerful. Repeatedly choosing curiosity over cynicism, gratitude over complaint, action over avoidance and kindness over irritation creates an environment in which those behaviors become increasingly characteristic of you.

It’s not just for corporations.  The culture you create inside your own life eventually becomes the person you are.

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Michael J. Fox is returning to acting at 65 and 35 years after being diagnosed with Parkinsons on Shrinking.

Sometimes what interrupts the life you planned becomes the thing that gives your life greater meaning.  Fox didn’t choose Parkinson’s and doesn’t romanticize it. But he turned his diagnosis into the Michael J. Fox Foundation, which has become a major force in Parkinson’s research. And now, decades after that diagnosis—and six years after believing acting was behind him—he’s acting again.

His return is especially meaningful because Fox retired from acting in 2020 after realizing Parkinson’s was making it increasingly difficult for him to reliably remember his lines. That makes the comeback more than symbolic: he’s returning to something the disease itself helped force him to leave.

Maybe resilience is continuing to find a life worth living when the old plan no longer applies.

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We spend a lot of time working on our relationships with spouses, partners, children, friends and coworkers. But there’s one relationship we live with every minute of every day — the one we have with ourselves.

A study combining results from more than 16,000 people found a strong connection between treating yourself with understanding instead of constant criticism and greater well-being.

Becoming less relentlessly self-critical can reduce anxiety, stress and symptoms of depression.  This is not a hall pass to ignore your mistakes or overinflating your self-worth as a response.  The voice you hear more than anyone else’s is your own.

If that voice spends all day reminding you what you did wrong, what you should have done and why you’re not good enough, eventually you pay the price.

Show compassion inward instead of constantly judging yourself.

Treat yourself at least as well as you treat the people you love.

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Dolly Parton was so beloved because she made people feel good about themselves – that’s different from being nice.

She put it like this:  “We’re just people. And we need to be better to one another — and to ourselves.”

Dolly could laugh at herself without the need to demonstrate that she was smarter, richer, more important or morally superior to others. “This dumb blonde ain’t nobody’s fool.” “Hopefully people can see beneath the hair to know there’s a brain, beneath the boobs to know there’s a heart, and behind all the other stuff to know there’s some talent.”

Earlier this year, a UMass/YouGov survey found 70% of Americans viewed Dolly favorably and only 5% unfavorably. In an age when practically every famous person becomes somebody’s enemy, Dolly somehow didn’t.

Her fame never went to her head. Her Imagination Library, a program that mails free books to children from birth to age five grew from her father’s inability to read. When Tennessee families lost their homes to wildfires, she helped them directly. When Vanderbilt needed money for COVID research, she gave $1 million.

Her explanation was wonderfully uncomplicated:

“I just see a need and if I can fill it, then I will.”

That’s the part of Dolly worth stealing.  Make someone else feel more important.

She once said “I never quite understood why we have to let religion and politics and things like that stand in the way of just being good human beings”.

Like Dolly and in our own way, we just need to leave people feeling a little better than we found them.

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One way to feel better is to make someone else feel better.

In a randomized study of 777 people, those assigned to do acts of kindness for others for two weeks ended up not only less depressed but less anxious and lonely. Researchers found increased human connection helped explain the benefit.  Self-kindness generated more positive feelings, while kindness toward others increased people’s sense of connection. That increased social connection helped explain the improvements in depression, anxiety and loneliness.

Not that kindness is the cure for mental health or that we should ignore our own needs.  Helping someone else can interrupt our preoccupation with ourselves while reminding us that we’re connected to other people. And the act of kindness does not have to be earth shattering.  It could be an encouraging text or email, a compliment, helping someone you don’t know, a cup of coffee, touching base with someone who is lonely.

“There isn’t anyone who doesn’t appreciate kindness and compassion. It is necessary to help others, not only in our prayers, but in our daily lives.” — Dalai Lama

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Nine out of ten worries we have will never happen.

A Penn State study published in Behavior Therapy had people with generalized anxiety disorder record their specific worries and then track what actually happened. 91% of their worry predictions did not come true. The median participant had 93.5% of worries fail to materialize, and for seven participants, 100% of their worries didn’t happen.

Better yet when the bad thing does happen, we handle it much better than we thought we would.  A new 2026 randomized controlled trial found participants tracked their worries using a smartphone app; 89% of feared outcomes didn’t happen. And when something they feared did happen, participants reported that they coped better than expected 84.% of the time.

Worry asks us to suffer today over a future that, most of the time, never arrives — and research suggests that even when it does, we’re better at handling it than we predict.

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Over the past week that I was off, I had the chance to work on my NYU classes that start after Labor Day.  One hovering issue is the use of artificial intelligence.  I like to encourage my students to use AI for research and ideas but to submit their own original work that reflects their point of view.  Some of my music business students are concerned that fake AI-generated music will replace live performers.  There’s reason for concern as fake music has made it to the top of Spotify charts faster than Spotify can shut it down.

I always see AI can do a lot of things but not everything – for example, it can predict what you’re going to do next but not know it until you actually do it.  AI is a tool, perhaps an overblown threat in some ways, but I found it fascinating that Fred Rogers (yes, that Mister Rogers) came up with these comforting thoughts long before iPhones and AI.

He said “No matter what the machine may be, it was people who thought it up and made it.”

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