Psychologist Mimi Road Tripping the World

There is a new trend out of South Korea that feels both deeply innovative and slightly existential.They are called dopamine sites.You browse. You select. You add to cart. A courier accepts your order.You can even track the delivery in real time.And then nothing arrives.It is fake shopping. A full emotional arc with no package at the end. Retail theater. Consumption cosplay.Now as someone who has…

Fourteen years ago, I started a blog with absolutely no plan.No content calendar.No brand strategy.No “voice and tone” guide approved by a committee of people who say things like “circle back.”Just vibes.And yet, here we are. Fourteen years later. Still typing. Still observing. Still mildly annoyed by humanity in ways that feel both deeply personal and broadly universal.I truly had no idea I had…

Somewhere between “please give me grace” and “please give me a break,” there exists a tiny linguistic battlefield where adults with too much time on their hands argue about whether you can gift someone something.And I would just like to say, as a licensed user of words in the wild. I am not entering that battlefield. I am decorating it.Because yes, I  gift things. I gift time. I gift patience. I…

This may be the most 2026 headline we get all year. A DoorDash delivery robot wandered into an active SWAT scene and refused to evacuate.Of course it did.Why wouldn’t it? The robot has no amygdala. No anxiety. No “maybe I should not be here while heavily armed humans are negotiating something intense.” Just vibes. And a delivery window.Somewhere, a human in a vest is yelling, “Clear the area!”…

In a move that feels equal parts dystopian and deeply on-brand for 2026, Dating.com has announced it’s hiring its first-ever Chief Breakup Officer. This is a person whose full-time job is to end other people’s relationships for them.I’m sorry, is this not just Human Resources with better lighting?Because let’s be honest the skillset overlaps. You’re managing expectations. You’re delivering…

Of course it was Florida.An entrepreneurial spirit looked at a Walmart parking lot and thought, “You know what this needs? Pineapple garnish and emotional regulation.”And just like that an emotional support tiki bar was born.For three glorious hours.Three hours of questionable zoning decisions and surprisingly effective coping strategies. Three hours where people pushing carts full of bulk paper…

So apparently, we’ve decided death needed a software update.Enter the “grief bot.” An AI-powered, eerily chipper digital version of your dead loved one which is ready to text you back, remember your birthday, and maybe even say the things they never quite managed to say while alive. Closure, but make it interactive.If your first reaction is wait absolutely not, congratulations! Your nervous…

Researchers have discovered something deeply comforting about human connection. We don’t actually bond over shared values, hopes, or dreams.No no. We bond over what we can’t stand.This explains a lot.You’re at a party. You could try to ask someone “What brings you joy?” Or you could say, “Can we talk about how the Kardashians are somehow still a thing?”Boom. Instant intimacy. Practically…

There are bad decisions and then there are parade-level, caught-on-camera, what exactly did you think was going to happen here decisions.A woman, now former executive at JPMorgan Chase, attends a parade, presumably to celebrate, soak in joy, maybe grab a T-shirt cannon freebie like a normal person. Instead, she locks eyes with a full-sized, Knicks-themed trash can.And something inside her says…

Apparently, we’re speaking about 300 fewer words a day than we used to.Three hundred.That’s not just a statistic. That’s a slow, collective quieting.And honestly? I believe it.Because somewhere between “call me when you get there” and “k,” we decided full sentences were optional.We don’t talk. We ping.We don’t converse. We respond.We don’t elaborate. We react.Thumbs up. Heart. “LOL” (which, let’s…

“You may encounter many defeats, but you must not be defeated.”There’s something almost quietly defiant about that line from Maya Angelou. Not loud. Not performative. Just steady.Because let’s be honest, defeat shows up. Regularly. Uninvited. Sometimes dressed as rejection, sometimes as loss, sometimes as the slow unraveling of something you thought would hold.Life does not hesitate to knock the…

Of course this exists.Somewhere along the timeline where we started tracking our steps, optimizing our sleep, and assigning moral value to hydration, it was only a matter of time before happy hour got clinically evaluated.Enter: the “barmacy.”Because why just decompress with friends when you can also get your pulse read, your energy assessed, and be handed a custom herbal concoction that says,…

There’s a glass of water on my nightstand right now.I will not drink it.I never drink it.And yet, every night, I place it there like I’m preparing for a very specific, very dramatic version of myself who might awaken at 3:17am, parched, reflective, possibly mid–existential crisis and in desperate need of hydration.She never shows up.But the water stays.Psychology would like to gently point out…

So apparently, the internet has decided that not only do parallel universes exist (fine, physics, do your thing), but there’s also another version of me out there controlling me.Like I’m some kind of emotional marionette.Or worse, a cosmic voodoo doll.Somewhere, allegedly, Alternate Me is sitting in her superior universe, sipping a smug oat milk latte, deciding a scenario similar to this:“You…

Somewhere in 2017, over 100 employees boarded planes for what was marketed as a “corporate retreat.”You know the type. Growth. Bonding. Vision. Probably a PowerPoint with the word synergy in it.What they got instead? A fever dream. This is what supposedly happen but recall can certainly have been embellished.  But the embellishments are part of the story anyway. A CEO taken out by a salad.…

In a brief and deeply questionable moment of maternal devotion (read: mania), I signed up for an online “marketplace” while searching for grain-free pizza for my son.Marketplace is doing a lot of work here. It’s a supermarket. Let’s not get fancy.Within approximately four minutes, I realized two things:1. They had nothing else I wanted.2. They were planning to automatically fill a cart for me…

There is a very specific kind of existential betrayal that happens sometime between 1:12 a.m. and “I definitely didn’t mean to fall asleep.”You’re watching a show.Something dependable. Structured. Predictable.Let’s say Law & Order. There are rules here:1. There is a crime2.  There are detectives3. There are lawyers4. And most importantly there is a core castA psychological contract, if you will.…