The Chemistry of Connection
In partnership with our friends at Avocado Green Mattress
Published on:
“If you get to some of the fundamental issues that are causing the unrest, you don’t need these Band-Aids,” says Julie Holland, a psychiatrist who specializes in psychopharmacology. Holland is the author of Weekends at Bellevue, Moody Bitches, and most recently, Good Chemistry. Today, she’s explaining the science of connection—with self, with partners, with family, with the cosmos. Holland has researched and studied what good chemistry looks like in the body and how someone can develop it using tools beyond prescription medications. She shares techniques and practices that support the production of oxytocin (a neurotransmitter and hormone that’s key for connection) and allow us to operate from the parasympathetic state, which is conducive to healing and connecting. And she breaks down profound lessons from psychedelic experiences and research that can inform and potentially revolutionize the way we relate to one another.
Photograph by Jeremy Wolff
Joan Nguyen and Sarah Willersdorf
Joan Nguyen and Sarah Willersdorf discuss what AI can actually do right now—how execution is being democratized, why women are well-positioned to win, what can't be automated, and why this window is closing fast.
Emily Hickey
Emily Hickey and Gwyneth explore esoteric systems like astrology, tarot, and Human Design—and share how they've used them for personal growth.
Emily Hickey, Julie Rice, and Elizabeth Cutler
In this episode of the Pursuit Series, brand strategist Emily Hickey talks with Julie Rice and Elizabeth Cutler about how they transformed SoulCycle from a single studio into a phenomenon. They revisit the decisions that shaped the brand, the purpose that fueled its growth, and finding inspiration at different stages of life.
Abbie Schiller
Author and goal coach Abbie Schiller guest-hosts this episode to talk about one of the lesser-known forms of grieving: identity grief. Whether you are a mother whose child just went off to college or someone switching careers, if you have ever felt unmoored after a major life change, this episode is for you. Schiller explains how identity grief shows up across an entire lifetime, not just midlife, why it hits some of us harder than others, and gives a framework for moving through it, not just around it.
Dr. Dawn Mussallem
Gwyneth sits down with Dr. Dawn Mussallem, the chief medical officer for Fountain Life, a longevity clinic powered by AI. They talk about Dawn’s incredible health journey–from beating stage four non-Hodgkin lymphoma while in medical school to undergoing a heart transplant at 46–and how that experience now informs her work in the medical field and integrating the powers of AI into health care.