Pandemic Problem: Young Brains Getting Older Fast

Even as Americans in general have slowly moved away from identifying as either a Democrat or Republican over the past couple of decades, younger voters are already there. In fact, Millennials are bucking a trend among Boomers and members of the Silent Generation who’ve become less likely to be independents as they age – Millennials have become continuously more likely to identify as independents.Then, a recent study from Stanford published in the journal Biological Psychiatry: Global Open Science found the stress of living through the pandemic physically changed adolescents' brains and prematurely aged them by at least three or four years. So, it appears that the pandemic not only adversely affected adolescents’ mental health, but also accelerated their brain maturation. These findings have critical implications for researchers who are conducting longitudinal studies that were interrupted due to pandemic-related shutdowns. Our special guest is Dr. Ian H. Gotlib (@GotlibLab) from Stanford University who is a co-author of the study.We finish up with Lee's Fun Fact from 1949 when Americans had high hopes for the Atomic Age.