Kelly Corrigan Wonders

Go To on the Health Benefits of Connection

September 18, 2026·7 min
Episode Description from the Publisher

For almost 90 years, Harvard has been tracking the same group of men to answer one question: what actually leads to a long, happy life? Kelly digs into the findings, which point again and again to the same surprising answer — not money, not IQ — but the quality of our closest relationships. She connects it to research on chronic pain, a study on personality change well into old age, and a simple trick for staying connected that takes less time than a coffee run. It's a conversation about what actually protects us as we age, and why the smallest gestures of connection might matter more than we think.Links:Harvard Study of Adult Development:https://www.adultdevelopmentstudy.org/Robert Waldinger's TED talk on What Makes a Good Life? (discusses the Harvard study):https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8KkKuTCFvzI&t=16sKelly's PBS Tell Me More (video) episode with pain psychologist Rachel Zoffness:https://www.pbs.org/video/rachel-zoffness-1vq8xc/Kelly Corrigan Wonders podcast episode with Rachel Zoffness:https://www.kellycorrigan.com/podcast/rachelzoffnessJancee Dunn's article in the New York Times: "The Secret Power of the 8-Minute Phone Call"https://www.nytimes.com/2023/01/02/well/phone-call-happiness-challenge.html

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