I have been contemplating what it means to be “hopeful” the last few days. Where does hope dwell? How does one accumulate more hope? This stems from a wedding I attended last week. Two of my spouse’s former students married each other, and it was a place where hope felt palpable in the air.

During the ceremony, the mother of...

I teach a course on growth mindset and neuroplasticity to college students. Neuroplasticity is the brain’s ability to form new neural pathways, either by creating new pathways, or altering existing ones. We used to think that our brains' neural networks were highly adaptable in childhood, but then became more rigid in adulthood. Now we...