Graduation is for high school and I will die on this hill / America lives twice as long as it did at its founding / Good news: not cancer. Bad news: worms

Graduation is for high school and I will die on this hill / America lives twice as long as it did at its founding / Good news: not cancer. Bad news: worms

Slate reports that kindergarten, first grade, fifth grade, and pre-K graduations have exploded into ticketed events with caps, gowns, diplomas, and professional photographers — and parents can't figure out who asked for this. Also: with the 250th anniversary tomorrow, life expectancy in America has doubled since 1776 — from roughly 35-40 years to 79 — and the story of how that happened is worth knowing. And a 60-year-old man in Spain came to the hospital with two weeks of worsening headaches, was put on the oncology track when his CT scan showed what looked like metastatic brain cancer, and was eventually diagnosed with something considerably more unsettling. Plus a bear who needed a lift, a water slide world record at a vow renewal, the Michigan lemonade stand freedom bill, and the Mexican Batman. ---------------------------------------- Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy [https://acast.com/privacy] for more information.

The gambling math nobody talks about / A cup of yogurt and a daily walk / Why losing hurts more than winning feels good

Epic Research analyzed electronic health records from nearly 200 million American adults and found gambling disorder diagnoses jumped more than 60% since 2018 in states that legalized sports betting — with the rate among men 18 to 29 more than doubling. In the 11 states that never legalized it, diagnoses fell 30% over the same period. Also: a small Japanese trial found that a daily cup of probiotic yogurt, regular walks, and basic diet coaching shifted a DNA-based aging marker in overweight men within just 12 weeks — though the study was funded entirely by the yogurt company that makes the product. And a new Penn State experiment with real money on the line confirms that fear of losing and the dread of regret both shape our decisions simultaneously, with loss aversion the stronger of the two forces. Plus the world's loudest man, a self-driving toilet, the rhinestone menswear trend nobody asked for, and an instant-karma story for the ages. ---------------------------------------- Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy [https://acast.com/privacy] for more information.

The empty nest is full again / Growing up gets less scary with time / Does moving abroad actually change you?

A new Realtor.com analysis finds a record 25.2 million Americans under 35 — roughly one in three — were living with a parent in 2025, and 70% of them have jobs. This isn't a story about unemployed young adults playing video games in the basement. It's a story about a 4-million-unit housing supply gap and a median home price up 34% since 2019. Also: a 30-year study tracking three generations of college students from 1982 to 2022 finds Millennials entered adulthood with significantly more fear of growing up than Gen X or Baby Boomers before them — but that fear fades with age across every generation, suggesting nobody stays scared of adulthood forever. And a new study of 180 British university students finds a year abroad makes you measurably more agreeable and curious, with lower anxiety — but it doesn't overhaul your personality the way the brochures promise. Plus a teleporting FEMA official, smoke grenades in checked luggage, a Carnival cruise brawl, and a snake and a spider sharing a bedroom in Australia. ---------------------------------------- Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy [https://acast.com/privacy] for more information.

Negotiating with a woman gets you more, even if you don't know it / Humans might already be able to regenerate body parts / Your old phone is worth more than you think

A new PNAS study of more than 2,400 people finds women achieve the exact same economic outcomes as men in negotiations — but their partners trust them more, like them more, and want to negotiate with them again, even in fully anonymous text-chat negotiations where gender was unknown. The compounding effect projects to a roughly $55,000 earnings advantage over time. Also: Texas A&M researchers have regenerated bone, joints, and ligaments in mice using a two-step treatment that redirects the body's healing response away from scarring — suggesting the capacity for regeneration may never have left us, just gotten switched off. And researchers say the old phones sitting in drawers around the world contain an estimated $67 billion in recoverable critical minerals, and recycling currently meets just 1% of global rare earth demand. Plus a giant street-legal banana, a retired Robocop with a perfect arrest record of zero, an influencer who learned a hard lesson about showing off online, and a man who fell into a vault toilet rescuing his sunglasses. ---------------------------------------- Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy [https://acast.com/privacy] for more information.

Almost nobody trusts AI, but what does "trust" even mean / The 6-year-old who shopped alone in Tokyo / Five minutes of walking buys back your whole day

A new Talker Research survey finds 86% of Americans distrust AI-generated results — but the study was commissioned by a content management company with a clear stake in the answer, and the actual complaint underneath the number is more specific and more interesting than blanket distrust. Also: a 6-year-old girl in Tokyo spent months preparing with her parents before completing a solo trip through the city to the grocery store and back — and the show that inspired an entire genre of "free-range kid" content is now a real parenting movement. And Columbia University exercise physiologists confirm that five minutes of walking every 30 minutes of sitting is enough to meaningfully offset the health harms of a sedentary day. Plus tentacled rabbits, a 13-year-old who climbed out of a Disneyland ride mid-drop, a missing giraffe with a $5,000 reward, and a DIY exorcism gone wrong. ---------------------------------------- Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy [https://acast.com/privacy] for more information.