The iPhone is birth control, apparently / The economics of solo-maxxing / The pilot who flew 900 flights without a license

The iPhone is birth control, apparently / The economics of solo-maxxing / The pilot who flew 900 flights without a license

Two new papers from the National Bureau of Economic Research find that US fertility rates have fallen 22% since 2007 — the year the iPhone launched — and access to smartphones correlated with birth rate declines of up to 8% among teenagers. Also: the average all-in cost of a date in the US has hit $189, up 12.5% in a year, and a growing number of Gen Z and millennials are responding by opting out of dating entirely — a trend they're calling solo-maxxing. And Geoffrey Wall, a 59-year-old former Air Canada captain from Barrie, Ontario, flew more than 900 commercial flights on Boeing 767s, 777s, and 787s between 2009 and 2025 — allegedly without ever obtaining the license required to do so. Plus a fake boarding pass, woolly mammoth DNA in squirrel poo, a Florida man arrested on the way to court, and a hot sauce shortage. ---------------------------------------- Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy [https://acast.com/privacy] for more information.

The restaurant that stopped charging / Why June is disappearing / Gen Z can't read a sentence

A 15-year-old Minneapolis café called Post Modern Times stopped charging for food in January as an act of protest and community care — converted to a nonprofit, kept the model, and owner Dylan Alverson says: "Stepping out of the capitalist system gave us more support than existing in it for 15 years." Also: Cambridge neuroscientists scanning 577 brains found that older adults' brains register fewer distinct "moments" per unit of time — literally processing fewer neural transitions — which is why years vanish faster the older you get, and what you can actually do about it. And a Pepperdine professor told Fortune: "It's not even an inability to critically think. It's an inability to read sentences." Plus dynamite in a freezer, mashed potato litigation, AI-look plastic surgery, and a mysterious cold blob. ---------------------------------------- Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy [https://acast.com/privacy] for more information.

Remote work is making us lonelier than we realized / What it means to be a man in 2026 / Gen Z has gone quiet online

A landmark study published in Science — 590,000 workers, 13 years of data — finds remote work explains about a third of the increase in isolation and mental distress since the pandemic. Workers in remote-capable jobs became more likely to see mental health professionals and fill prescriptions for anxiety and depression. Also: a new survey of 2,000 men finds 57% say financial struggles have made them feel like they're failing at manhood, 77% were taught growing up that a man's primary role is to be a financial provider, and 72% say society expects them to handle that stress quietly and alone. And a Zety survey of 900+ Gen Z workers finds 95% have stopped sharing their real opinions online to protect their careers — and 90% have already faced workplace consequences for something they posted. Plus $8.65 returned to the Pope, a goat in a London office, a spider in disguise, and a four-winged velociraptor cousin. ---------------------------------------- Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy [https://acast.com/privacy] for more information.

Jesus didn't turn water into Brawndo / Perfect randomness exists now / Nearly 1 in 5 seniors are still working

The Guardian profiles a booming category of faith-based energy drinks — with brands called Yahweh, 4gvn, and Praise Energy — that claim to spread the gospel through caffeine. The theology here is thin, but the market opportunity is apparently real. Also: physicists at ETH Zurich just published a landmark paper in Nature demonstrating certifiably perfect randomness for the first time in human history — using quantum entanglement and two chips cooled to near absolute zero. And a new LendingTree analysis finds 18.7% of Americans 65 and older are still working — the average Social Security benefit is $2,071 a month, but basic monthly expenses for a single adult run $4,641. Plus flesh-eating screwworms returning after 60 years, SpaghettiOs with unexpected ingredients, identical twin doctors, and 60 Idahoans who learned the hard way about raw milk. ---------------------------------------- Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy [https://acast.com/privacy] for more information.

Gen X and Elder Millennials are dying faster / Man is climbing a mountain for his 90th birthday / What's your worst office story

A new PNAS study from Tufts University finds that Americans born between 1970 and 1985 are dying at higher rates than any previous generation did at the same age — with rising deaths from cardiovascular disease, colon cancer, and external causes including overdoses and suicide. The lead researcher called it "genuinely alarming." Also: Art Ulene is a physician, television personality, and author who survived a suspected stroke in Paris, watched his wife battle illness, and is now training six days a week at 89 years old to become the oldest person ever to summit Mount Kilimanjaro — in July, on his 90th birthday. And a Myrtle Beach detective named Michael DeBiase was arrested, charged with a felony, and fired from the police department after allegedly pulling his department-issued handgun on a fellow officer who microwaved fish in the breakroom. Plus sourdough from a mummy, the world's largest blanket fort, a casino self-ban that went awry, and a Frontier flight situation. ---------------------------------------- Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy [https://acast.com/privacy] for more information.