Robert Sapolsky is a brilliant and highly awarded Neuroendocrinologist at Stanford. He has contributed to our understanding of stress on our bodies and how social standing can make us more or less susceptible.

From baboon troops on the plains of Africa, to neuroscience labs at Stanford University, scientists are revealing just how lethal stress can be. Research tells us that the impact of stress can be found deep within us, shrinking our brains, adding fat to our bellies, even unraveling our chromosomes. Understanding how stress works can help us figure out ways to combat it and how to live a life free of the tyranny of this contemporary plague. In Stress: Portrait of a Killer, scientific discoveries in the field and in the lab proves that stress is not just a state of mind, but something measurable and dangerous.

Please view Stress: Portrait of a Killer (also free on Netflix) and consider the following questions for discussion. As leadership scholars and practitioners, as well as students of resilience theory contextualized by Jesuit education, what are some implications and generalizations of this work? Enjoy learning about these principles through this scientifically grounded, yet witty documentary. Consider the following questions as mere prompts for discussion and to inform your creative responses:

• What can we learn from this study in the context of human social systems, organizational life, climate, culture, role of hardiness for leadership etc.?
• One of the findings in the study indicated that the amount of control is directly related to where you are at in the hierarchy. What is the prescription for individuals not at the top?
• What is your role in contributing to a work setting that allows for human flourishing from the context of this film and other readings? Discuss struggles and successes and weave in hardiness principles, coping & self-care.
• How might Jesuit principles of 'cura personalis' (regard for the entire person) and 'Magis' re-contextualize the impact of perceived stress?
• What is the role and/or responsibility of leadership in understanding indicators of stress & adversity?
• As leaders, how can we contribute to or mitigate 'healthy' versus 'chronic' stress?
• How do we create healthy 'opportunities' for stress, adversity, and failure in order to grow?