Men's testosterone has halved in 50 years / Brown University's AI cheating scandal / $440,600 is now the median home price

Men's testosterone has halved in 50 years / Brown University's AI cheating scandal / $440,600 is now the median home price

Researchers at Hebrew University presenting in London this week found total testosterone levels in men declined 54% between 1972 and 2019, tracking more than 118,000 individuals across six studies — and they're calling it a "major crisis in male reproductive health." Also: Brown University economics professor Roberto Serrano — who is blind — allowed take-home exams after a December campus shooting traumatized his students. His class averaged 96 out of 100 on the take-home midterm. When he moved the final in-person, the average crashed to 48. And the National Association of Realtors reported Thursday that the US median home sale price hit $440,600 in June — an all-time record going back to 1999, with prices rising on an annual basis for 36 consecutive months. Plus a squirrel mailed to Meta, a Florida man fighting police in alligator-infested water, a burglar whose truck got stolen while he robbed a Verizon store, and a son's lottery birthday gift. ---------------------------------------- Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy [https://acast.com/privacy] for more information.

Walmart is the most American thing at the World Cup / 95 year old is still water skiing / Cannibalism is bad for you, and science can explain why

World Cup tourists have been going viral on TikTok for their reactions to Walmart — the chips aisle, the gallon jugs of ranch, the dog-kibble-sized bags of Fruity Pebbles — and Walmart just announced VIP guided store tours for the first 20 visitors in line at two fan events. Also: Bryan Murray of New Zealand started water skiing in 1955, competed in tournaments across his country, survived a hip replacement last month, and just been named the world's oldest water skier at 94 years and 318 days old. He plans to extend his record this summer. And a Polish-Czech research team published a paper in PNAS this month building a mathematical model to answer why cannibalism became one of humanity's strongest taboos — and the answer is prions. Plus the hostage negotiation robot, the naked garage fire hero, the insect protein bar, and the Freedom Fuel gas stations. ---------------------------------------- Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy [https://acast.com/privacy] for more information.

Half of America can't afford groceries and gas / Gen X is quietly disappearing / Your brain speaks younger than you do

An exclusive Guardian/pollster survey finds 95% of Americans believe the country is in an affordability crisis, with half struggling to afford groceries and gas — and the partisan gap on the economy has collapsed fastest among Republicans since the Iran war sent gas prices surging. Also: new Census Bureau data shows the 45-to-64 age group shrank by 2.68 million people between 2020 and 2025, and the Northeast lost 7.1% of its midlife workforce in five years. And researchers presenting at the Federation of European Neuroscience Societies Forum found that multilingual people's brains appear 6 to 13 years younger than those who speak only one language — and the effect gets stronger with each additional language. Plus the serial plant thief, the man who slapped himself into a detached retina, the bail bond t-shirt, and the time traveler from 3700. ---------------------------------------- Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy [https://acast.com/privacy] for more information.

A 9-year-old's distress call finally arrived / The man trying to live forever has an incurable disease / Killer robots and who gets to stop them

In 1973, 9-year-old Laurie Blair Brown threw a note in a bottle into the ocean at the Jersey Shore — a fake distress call from her family's vacation. It washed up 53 years later. Also: Bryan Johnson, who spends roughly $2 million a year on a 30-person medical team trying to live forever, just disclosed he has autoimmune gastritis — an incurable disease that was quietly destroying his stomach lining for over a decade while every biomarker looked fine. And the UN Secretary-General has declared that autonomous killer robots are "politically unacceptable and morally repugnant" and must be banned by international law — but the 2026 deadline he set is here, talks are stalled, and the US, Russia, and Israel have been quietly blocking a treaty for years. Plus a whale sinking a fire rescue ship, Frank's Hot Sauce across a highway, the Delaware falling camel, and a $3 Goodwill jacket worth $250,000. ---------------------------------------- Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy [https://acast.com/privacy] for more information.

Kelsey Pfendler rowed to Hawaii / America is getting lonelier by the numbers / Scientists just woke up sleeping cancer cells with light

On July 4th, 32-year-old Grand Canyon river guide Kelsey Pfendler rowed her 21-foot boat Lily into Honolulu harbor after 43 days, 17 hours, and 55 minutes at sea — shattering both the women's record of 86 days and the men's record of 52 days, and raising over $180,000 for the Whale Foundation along the way. Also: the American Time Use Survey just confirmed what a lot of people feel but nobody wants to say — average daily socialization time has fallen from 45 to 35 minutes over the last 20 years, with teenagers down nearly 50%. And ETH Zurich researchers just published a light-controlled molecular switch that wakes dormant cancer cells out of hibernation, potentially making previously untreatable tumors vulnerable again. Plus the Brooklyn Bridge catching fire, the Smokey Bear sign thief, rental swimming pools, and a Delta flight hit by a firework over Chicago. ---------------------------------------- Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy [https://acast.com/privacy] for more information.