E145 - The Happiness Health Behind Having a Pen Pal. (Get on the Trend Wagon!)

✉️ Think for a moment...it feels sweet to get a handwritten envelope in your mailbox, right?

This week on Create Today, Beth explains the brain health and happiness boost behind writing to...and receiving letters from a pen pal.

Letter writing is having a real comeback (Pinterest even named pen pals a 2026 trend), and the research on what a handwritten letter does for your heart, your brain, and your stress levels is pretty wonderful.

Grab your favorite pen, my creative friend, because in this episode, you'll discover:

• Why a text takes two seconds to send, two seconds to read, and about two seconds to forget

• What a slow, handwritten letter gives you that a screen can't

• The year-long "Please, Mr. Postman" pen pal study where loneliness scores dropped as people traded one letter a month

• What happened when people wrote just three gratitude letters over three weeks (its some good brain stuff!)

• The brain science of discovering beauty, and why decorating an envelope counts as making art

• Why we worry way too much about our handwriting, our spelling, and whether a letter will feel awkward.

• The two 12-year-old pen pals, one in Singapore and one in Newfoundland, who wrote for 43 years and finally met for one giant hug

• Seven kinds of people who especially need a pen pal right now, from caregivers and the screen-weary to the quiet ones and the stationery hoarders (you know who you are)