High school is rough and the data proves it / Your master's degree might not save you / The goodest of boys

The American Dream is fading, but most still want it / A cure for cancer might actually be realistic / The bees have been judging us this whole time

A new Gallup-Milken Center survey of more than 6,300 Americans finds belief that everyone has a real shot at the American Dream has fallen to 46% — but 69% still believe they personally will achieve it, and striving for it remains important to 78%. The gap between those two numbers might say more than either one alone. Also: Johnson & Johnson's CEO told a London leadership summit this week that curing certain cancers within the next decade is a realistic goal — not aspirational marketing, but a real projection backed by current treatment trajectories. And NPR reports that bumblebees just solved a classic problem-solving test originally designed for chimpanzees — using a ball as a stepstool to reach an out-of-reach reward, with no training required. Plus a 194-year-old tortoise, a robot toilet, a TSA ranch dressing warning, and a 12-year-old's elaborate fake kidnapping. ---------------------------------------- Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy [https://acast.com/privacy] for more information.

What 451 marriages have in common / Faking the shopping cart for the dopamine hit / Even with proof, you'd still have to pay rent

A Dutch study of 451 married couples, average relationship length 28 years, finds that spouses genuinely resemble each other on exactly two personality traits — shared values and shared curiosity — and almost nothing else. On the rest of the personality spectrum, married couples are basically strangers. Also: a viral trend out of South Korea called "dopamine sites" lets users browse, fill a cart, and track a fake courier on fake food delivery apps that never complete a real order — all the anticipation, none of the bill. And new ground-penetrating radar scans at Turkey's Durupınar site are reigniting the decades-old Noah's Ark debate — researchers claim distinct organic material inside a boat-shaped formation, while geologists call it a natural rock structure. Plus the San Andreas Fault's worst stress level in 1,000 years, Scottish soccer fans drinking Boston dry, the 17,000-year doomsday formula, and the cats-don't-reduce-stress study. ---------------------------------------- Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy [https://acast.com/privacy] for more information.

Showing up as a goblin on the first date / Your phone is a FOMO machine / Perfectionists are miserable and there are more of them than ever

USA Today reports that "goblintimacy" — showing up on a first date as your actual, unpolished, slightly chaotic self — is having a moment, and the relationship experts quoted are surprisingly divided on whether it's a good idea. Also: a Semmelweis University study finds one in three young adults are heavy smartphone users primarily because of FOMO — fear of missing out — and the psychological mechanism behind it is more interesting than the name suggests. And a London School of Economics meta-analysis of 82,000 college students across 35 years finds that perfectionism has climbed steadily since 1989 — and phones aren't the cause. Economic anxiety is. Plus the CIA gold heist, bees on a United flight, the Idaho flaming torch juggler, and mixed emotions during a Weird Al song. ---------------------------------------- Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy [https://acast.com/privacy] for more information.

Are you tracking your adult child / Dark humor means you're a genius, science says / You and your dog have more in common than you think

A University of Michigan poll finds most parents of 18-to-25-year-olds are using location tracking apps — and a quarter of those parents say it causes more anxiety than peace of mind. Also: a Medical University of Vienna study finds that people who appreciate dark humor score higher on both verbal and nonverbal intelligence tests, and lower on aggression — and the findings hold up across replications. And the Dog Aging Project just published in the Journals of Gerontology finding that the same metabolic biomarkers that predict lifespan in humans also predict it in dogs, with a striking correlation across 24 human cohort studies. Plus a house full of snakes, medieval eel rent, a scammer who got chocolate coins, and a lemonade stand robbery. ---------------------------------------- Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy [https://acast.com/privacy] for more information.

The cat is out of the bag on human gene editing / Gen X is borrowing from their parents at 60 / Why some people are always the giver

The Columbia University base editing paper has triggered a major scientific debate — with the researcher who helped develop CRISPR saying "the cat's out of the bag" and calling it "a gateway to embryo editing to do enhancements." Also: Northwestern Mutual's 2026 Planning and Progress Study finds 33% of Gen X adults — people now aged 45 to 61 — still feel financially dependent on their parents, and 1 in 5 say they don't expect to ever be financially independent. And a new MIT study in Open Mind finds that the social expectation of reciprocity — you scratch my back, I'll scratch yours — only applies between equals. In hierarchical relationships, once you're the giver, you're the giver forever. Plus a gaming PC that stopped a bullet, police in mascot costumes, the potato-shaped UFO, and the Marilyn Monroe world record. ---------------------------------------- Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy [https://acast.com/privacy] for more information.