where the most interesting science is quietly happening, the in-betweens and the gaps in what we think we know
075 | ANEWWITHHUE: A monthly Saturday listicle to spark joy, creativity, and curiosity.
“Everything begins in the mind,” my mother says with conviction.
Nothing about this sentence is false. It’s true, everything does begin in the mind, but the deeper I go into understanding the complexity of us: our physiology, our systems, and the intelligence within us, the longer I linger in the gaps of what we don’t yet fully understand.
While we like to sort things into neat categories like neuroscience, psychology, or physiology, the truth of our nature is far more intertwined; and there’s a trend I’m noticing: the convergence of scientific fields.
The most interesting insights are happening in the in-between, in the combinations many of us might have never heard of: neuro-nutrition (the study of how food and nutrients affect the brain, nervous system, mood, cognition, and mental performance), mitochondrial psychobiology (studies how cellular energy production influences the brain, mood, behavior, stress, and mental health), or psychoneuroimmunology (studies how the mind, brain, nervous system, and immune system affect each other). Friends, I promise, these are not made up, and now you know my truth: I am a nerd at heart. Haha.
Over the years, devouring everything I can on understanding human potential, one truth keeps surfacing: the more we understand ourselves, the more we’re realizing how interconnected our systems are; with nature too.
This edition we’re pulling on that thread. Health is often reduced to exercise and nutrition, but health is often the result of consistency over a lifetime. The answer was never in a ninety-day program or a two-week regimen; transformation happens through patience and rigor, and the slow compound of all our daily choices.
Paying patrons are what keeps this effort alive. If these editions have given you something meaningful, join me. It’s what lets me keep showing up for you each week.
Podcast. Harvard Thinking. Host Samantha Laine Perfas sits down with aging experts William Mair, Alexandra Touroutoglou, and Suzanne Salamon to talk about “super-agers”—older adults whose brains function decades younger than their age. The conversations debunks a quiet myth: that cognitive decline is inevitable. Your chronological age and your biological age (how old your body and brain actually behave) aren’t the same thing. Genetics matter, but lifestyle matters more. I say this often: the compound of our daily habits, across our lifetime, is the single greatest factor in how we age. So what sets super-agers apart? Unusually resilient brains: stronger memory, less shrinkage, thicker cortical regions tied to memory and attention, richer neural connectivity. But the more surprising finding was how deep social connection may be the strongest protective factor of all. Close friendships, real conversations, sustained curiosity, and staying in community. Other habits matter, of course, but social connection carried disproportionate weight. Loneliness is known to accelerate decline, while meaningful relationships guard both mind and body. Exercise also emerged as one of the most powerful and accessible interventions. No surprise here. Though emphasis was consistency over intensity: walking, strength training, balance, and daily movement. These beat any extreme regimen. The takeaway: protect your brain through good habits: sleep, nutrition, stress management, cardiovascular health (what’s good for the heart is usually good for the brain), so nurture your closest relationships. I’m also thinking about Harvard’s longitudinal study on happiness, which landed on similar conclusions: quality social connections was the greatest determinant of a happy life.
Podcast/Video. The Big Think Interview. Mark Manson, yes of The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck (a book I thoroughly enjoyed as well) is clear about how modern life floods us with cheap dopamine: quick, effortless hits of stimulation from endless scrolls, junk content, notifications, and instant gratification. The result? A creeping emotional numbness: distracted, bored, anxious, and unmotivated. Not because life is objectively worse, but because our brains have been hijacked and chronically overstimulated. Easy rewards condition us to avoid discomfort, boredom, and the slow effort that meaningful goals demand. The platforms are engineered for it: novelty, validation, and instant reward for minimal effort. Over time, that lowers our tolerance for boredom, delayed gratification, and uncertainty, until everything else in life feels harder and less exciting by comparison. The brain starts expecting constant highs from little effort or from no work at all. Manson’s counter-argument: meaningful satisfaction usually requires a little struggle. Cheap dopamine feels good but fades fast while hard-earned achievement creates lasting meaning and self-respect. This is probably why I love fitness a lot, because fitness performance is about merit. The proof is in the pudding, as they say. And the single lesson that’s almost paradoxical: by trying to eliminate all discomfort, we make ourselves psychologically weaker. Resilience is built through frustration, failure, patience, and sustained effort, not optimized away through convenience. Because intentional limits are what creates autonomy and mental clarity versus limitless freedom. Without structure, we become controlled by impulse and external stimulation, and life turns into a series of reactions rather than an intentional act of living.
Podcast. Good Life Project. Grief isn’t only about mourning someone we’ve lost. Dr. Lucy Hone, the globally acclaimed resilience researcher, joins host Jonathan Fields to explore how grief is far broader than most of us think. The forms of loss that are emotionally significant yet go unrecognized, by society, family, or even ourselves. She calls it “invisible grief:”the quiet mourning that follow a changed relationship, a missed opportunity, a shift in identity, a health diagnosis, an unrealized dream. This was one of the most illuminating conversations I’ve heard in a while. Likely because I lost someone close, a few years ago. And maybe, like me, you’ll find closure in finally naming the confusing aftermath of loss: not only in the memories that fades, but in the range of feelings we never thought was grief. Hone’s point is that grief shows up whenever something meaningful is lost. Moving away from home, losing a version of yourself, a friendship that changes shape, aging, chronic illness, or expectations that went unmet. We’re quick to invalidate our own pain, Hone says: telling ourselves it wasn’t serious enough to grieve. But unacknowledged grief doesn’t disappear. If it says buried, it can surface sideways: as anxiety, burnout, numbness, perfectionism, overworking, or a fear of being vulnerable. Many of us stay relentlessly busy precisely to outrun what we’ve never processed. The irony is that suppression only prolongs the ache, while acknowledgement can help to heal, at it begins with naming the emotion. One last valuable insight: we’re built to heal in community, not in isolation. Profound.
These products are on my radar. Disclaimer: I have yet to try them.
Product. Lumia2. A wearable that goes on like an earring. It’s hard to deny the appeal. If the data holds up, the ease alone wins attention. But I’m not expert, but how accurate is the data you can capture from an earlobe?
Product. Foulplay. Creatine gummies with branding that gets it. Distributing to the region’s top fitness influencers while executing on serious product design is what caught my attention. The one piece of feedback I’ve heard so far: questionably sweet.
Product. Meadow. A new-age, simplified music player with the essential apps you need, without the distractions. The insight: people are tried of attention robbing apps, but still want their full library in one place. I can see this taking off. Thought it’s hard not to notice what it says about where we are, that we’re not inventing devices to help us become less addicted to our other devices. That says a lot about the state of humanity. I’d put Brick, “the physical device that blocks distracting apps from your phone” and the wave of app-blockers and greyscale tools in the same movement.
Product. Thorne Daily Electrolytes. I lean whole-foods-first and remain skeptical of anything in powder form, because honestly how many steps did it take before it became edible? But between the climate I live in, the amount of movement I subscribe to, and the volume of hype around electrolytes—I’ve succumbed. So I’ve been testing one from a brand I trust: Throne. The flavors, so far, are the best I’ve tried. SEA fam, if you want an alternative, I also liked Moom’s Hydr-Aid.
Opinion. Entrepreneur. This CEO Is Creating a New Elite College Degree With Google and Microsoft—And Offering It for Only $10,000 by Sherin Shibu. Sal Khan of Khan Academy is launching the Khan TED Institute to offer a low-cost, AI-focused alternative to elite universities, starting with with a Bachelor’s in Applied AI in the next one to two years, in partnership with Accenture, Bain, and McKinsey. The real innovation isn’t just the price tag. It’s that the degree is competency-based: students will be measured by what they can prove they’ve mastered, not hours logged. What’s on my mind is how lightning fast AI disruption has swept the world. In Southeast Asia, we may only wake to the full force later, but the trajectory is clear. As Dario Amodei, founder and CEO of Antrophic, recently said on Oprah: this technology is “an epochal change for humanity,” on the scale of fire and the Industrial Revolution. Meanwhile, in the real world, shifts like layoffs are happening. Not all companies are responding in the same way: Meta cut 10% of its workforce, about 8,000 people globally this week, with Singapore staff notified on May 20. IKEA went with retraining 8,500 call centere workers as interior design advisors, while creating a new revenue stream worth €1.3 billion in the process. I keep returning to the irony of building an online newsletter in the middle of all this. But the deeper concern isn’t about the technology, it’s how these seismic shifts will impact people’s sense of stability and wellbeing. What do you think?