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

In the future you won't own anything / Fast walkers have much better brains / Even "good" lies aren't good

Sony just announced that physical disc production for new PlayStation games ends in January 2028 — and the deeper story is what this means for everyone who's watched a one-time purchase quietly become a monthly subscription. Also: a new Albert Einstein College of Medicine study published in Neurology finds that people in their 80s who walk unusually fast have about half the risk of cognitive impairment — and they maintain that advantage even when their brains show the same Alzheimer's-related pathology as everyone else. And new research from StudyFinds maps exactly how people lie to their partners — and finds that "good" lies damage relationships about as often as selfish ones. Plus shark attack alerts on your phone, Pokémon cards stolen from an arcade, an Empire State Building climbing arrest, and king cobras on Everest. ---------------------------------------- Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy [https://acast.com/privacy] for more information.

Way to not murder people, America / Science says gossip is good for your gene pool / You can now rent a dog by the hour

NPR reports that the US murder rate in 2025 was almost certainly the lowest ever recorded since the FBI started keeping national data in the 1950s — and 2026 is tracking to go lower still. This is the second "Great Crime Decline" in American history and almost nobody is talking about it. Also: a new study from the University of Silesia finds that people who gossip and spread rumors are more likely to be in romantic relationships and have more children — and the evolutionary logic behind it is more interesting than the headline. And a Chinese platform launched in March called Wangbu lets dog owners in Beijing, Shanghai, and Shenzhen rent out their pets by the hour to strangers for walks, and animal welfare experts are not pleased. Plus a Harvard UFO professor running the White House alien council, human remains in a Queens school chimney, two-month-olds on screens, and a woman who denied owning the cocaine. ---------------------------------------- Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy [https://acast.com/privacy] for more information.

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.