This article was originally published by Undark Magazine. For more than a decade, in blog posts and scientific papers and public talks, the psychologist Hal Herzog has questioned whether owning pets makes people happier and healthier. It is a lonely quest, convincing people that puppies and kittens may not actually be terrific for their physical … Read more
Produced by ElevenLabs and News Over Audio (NOA) using AI narration. This article was featured in the One Story to Read Today newsletter. Sign up for it here. Times are tough for omnivores. By now, you’ve heard all the reasons to eat less meat: your health, the planet, the animals. All that might be true, … Read more
A large digital thermometer sits at the entrance to the gleaming mid-century-modern visitor center in Furnace Creek, California. When I arrived on Sunday afternoon, it was thronged with people with their phones out, taking pictures. A mood of anticipation hummed through the crowd. A few hours east of us, in Las Vegas, temperatures would rise … Read more
Last Thursday was not a good day for Joe Biden. During the president’s shaky and at times incoherent debate performance, he appeared weaker and frailer in real time than the American public had ever seen. Friday appears to have been a much better day. At a campaign rally in North Carolina, clips of which his … Read more
Several years ago, in my work as a palliative-care doctor, I cared for a man in his 60s who had been mostly healthy before he was diagnosed with stomach cancer. After three different treatments had failed him, his oncologist and I told him that a fourth treatment might buy him a few weeks at best. … Read more
Joe Biden’s problem isn’t his age. It’s his ability to function. America has known a number of exceptional octogenarians who have demonstrated the cognitive and physical stamina to serve in demanding leadership roles. In 1787, at age 81, Benjamin Franklin, who a few years earlier had negotiated a highly advantageous treaty to end the Revolutionary … Read more
J o Franco still remembers the moment she realized that her nose worked. Growing up in Wilmington, a Los Angeles neighborhood dotted with oil refineries and next to one of the largest port complexes in the country, she’d always assumed she had a fever, or allergies: “I could never breathe through my nose at all,” … Read more
Updated at 10:14 a.m. on July 19, 2024. For just $65, the skin-care company Selfmade will sell you a kit that will purportedly help you feel more stable and confident in your relationships—and get better skin all the while. According to the kit’s marketing copy, it comes with a serum that enhances “safety and comfort … Read more
This article was originally published by Undark Magazine. When Ina Chung, a Colorado mother, first fed packaged foods to her infant, she was careful to read the labels. Her daughter was allergic to peanuts, dairy, and eggs, so products containing those ingredients were out. So were foods with labels that said they “may contain” the … Read more
Every meal I make begins with a single choice: extra-virgin olive oil or canola? For as long as I’ve cooked, these have been my kitchen workhorses, because they’re versatile, affordable, and—most of all—healthy. Or so I thought. These days, every trip to the grocery store makes me second-guess myself. Lined up next to the bottles … Read more
Nothing compares to the perfect summer run. All winter, even through spring, I sustain myself with the dream of jogging in shorts down a dry, grass-lined path, unencumbered by puddles or black ice. But that dream is becoming more elusive. Now, in mid-June, I already dread the prospect of being outside past about 7:30 in … Read more