  Polaris is one of the most observed stars in the night sky, with recorded
observations spanning more than 200 years. From these observations, one can
study the real-time evolution of Polaris via the secular rate of change of the
pulsation period. However, the measurements of the rate of period change do not
agree with predictions from state-of-the-art stellar evolution models. We show
that this may imply that Polaris is currently losing mass at a rate of $\dot{M}
\approx 10^{-6} M_\odot$ yr$^{-1}$ based on the difference between modeled and
observed rates of period change, consistent with pulsation-enhanced Cepheid
mass loss. A relation between the rate of period change and mass loss has
important implications for understanding stellar evolution and pulsation, and
provides insight into the current Cepheid mass discrepancy.
