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
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
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
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
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
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 is an edition of The Weekly Planet, a newsletter that provides a guide for living through climate change. Sign up for it here. The thermometer read 121 degrees Fahrenheit when 71-year-old Steve Curry collapsed outside a restroom in Death Valley National Park last … Read more
Produced by ElevenLabs and News Over Audio (NOA) using AI narration. Over the past two years, a simple but baffling request has preceded most of my encounters with medical professionals: “Rate your pain on a scale of zero to 10.” I trained as a physician and have asked patients the very same question thousands of … Read more
Produced by ElevenLabs and News Over Audio (NOA) using AI narration. This is an edition of The Weekly Planet, a newsletter that provides a guide for living through climate change. Sign up for it here. Summer has only just officially begun, and the world is already sweltering. This week, two counties in northwestern Maine were … 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