SCROLL NEWS / DISCOVERY
Search headlines
Find the stories shaping the conversation.
Results for " like " 9,007 found 🔀 AI-powered Shuffle
Trump loves to bash California to rally the base. 'Let ’em take out' L.A. is just the latest
Bashing California is a reliable applause line in red states like Nebraska, Alabama, Texas and Oklahoma, where Trump has been holding rallies trying to ensure his supporters get out to vote.
76ers will likely apply and get awarded a $1.7M …
76ers will likely apply and get awarded a $1.7M …
Pingree holds double-digit lead as voters back public option for health insurance
Democratic gubernatorial candidate Hannah Pingree holds a double-digit lead over Republican Bobby Charles, while one of her signature health care proposals is even more popular with likely Maine voters, according to a new poll released Tuesday. The survey, conducted by the Maine People’s Resource Center and released by the Maine People’s Alliance (of which Beacon
ESPN Likes Duke to Stay Undefeated Against Georgia Tech
The Duke Blue Devils are being favored to stay undefeated this week against Georgia Tech.
Seiko’s New Affordable Chronograph Takes the “Panda” Moniker to Its Logical Conclusion
You've never seen a "panda" dial watch quite like this before.
Research suggests women living in states with abortion bans bear higher health insurance costs
New preliminary research from the University of Michigan shows women living in states with post-Dobbs abortion bans may be more likely to shoulder costs for employer-sponsored health insurance premiums, with federal data reflecting a 5.4% increase in annual premium expenditures for those women after 2022, when most abortion bans went into effect.
Grammy-nominated R&B singer Freddie Jackson, known for '80s hits like 'You Are My Lady,' dies at 70
Grammy-nominated R&B singer Freddie Jackson, known for hits like “Rock Me Tonight” and “You Are My Lady,” has died at 70 | WBBM Newsradio 780 AM & 105.9 FM
Grammy-nominated R&B singer Freddie Jackson, known for '80s hits like 'You Are My Lady,' dies at 70
Grammy-nominated R&B singer Freddie Jackson, known for hits like “Rock Me Tonight” and “You Are My Lady,” has died at 70 | 830 WCCO
Traumatic brain injuries: The science behind them
Centre of Neuro Skills Chief Medical Officer Dr. Matt Ashley talks about warnings to watch for and what recovery can look like.
Hell Is Officially Breaking Loose For The Gaming Industry Thanks To AI
Viral games like Minecraft inside Elden Ring, PS5 emulators, and recent jailbreaks do not bode well for Sony, Microsoft, or Nintendo
Will Democrats’ midterm wave reach California’s Central Valley? Bernie Sanders rallies the vote
Many Democrats are hopeful that Randy Villegas, their congressional candidate in the traditionally conservative Central Valley, can prove that progressive ideas, like universal healthcare, are palatable outside of safe blue cities.
What To Expect in OKC Thunder’s First Preseason Game
With six stars sidelined, young prospects like Ajay Mitchell and Aday Mara take center stage in Tulsa to fight for roles within the Thunder’s championship-caliber rotation.
Biden-era FBI’s ‘Nixonian’ Trump family surveillance draws scrutiny from unlikely corner
Julian Epstein, a former top Democratic official, compared the FBI's tracking of Melania Trump, Barron Trump and Susie Wiles to Nixonian tactics.
‘The Science Doesn’t Back It Up’ — Controversy Erupts As Chris Nowinski’s Guardian Cap Critique Divides Fans
Chris Nowinski is not sold on the Guardian Cap. On Pablo Torre Finds Out, Pablo Torre’s podcast, posted Tuesday, the co-founder of Boston University’s CTE Center told Torre the story behind the padded helmet cover looks like something of a scam.
GameStop Is Selling Used PS5 Pros for $1499, Likely Due To GTA 6 Release
GameStop is selling used PS5 Pro consoles for up to $1,399.99, nearly $500 above Sony's current $899.99 MSRP.
Want To Know If Someone Likes You? Science Suggests A Key Vocal Feature Can Reveal Who We Like, And Influence Who Likes Us
Interestingly, in works differently for long- and short-term relationships.
October 2026 Halloween events guide for Eastern Iowa
Looking for the best Halloween events in Eastern Iowa this October? From terror-filled haunts like Circle of Ash to family-friendly parades, library events, and live orchestral concerts, here is your ultimate regional roundup of fall festivities in the Cedar Rapids-Iowa City Corridor.
"If You Can't Own It, What Are You Buying?" – Former PlayStation Boss Questions Sony's Decision to Kill Discs
Ever since Sony decided to kill off PlayStation discs starting in 2028, the backlash has been pronounced to say the least. And, now, it looks like former PlayStation boss Shawn Layden is also questioning Sony's decision.
The Harvard Crimson (@theharvardcrimson)
83 likes, 0 comments - theharvardcrimson on October 6, 2026: "Harvard’s Faculty of Arts and Sciences is launching 25 tenure-track faculty searches, FAS Dean Hopi E. Hoekstra announced in a Monday email to faculty, further loosening a University-wide hiring freeze instituted last spring as the school draws an influx of philanthropic support. The searches, which include positions across the FAS’ three divisions and the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, come less than a week after Hoekstra announced the school would also be upping Ph.D. admissions for the upcoming admissions cycle — and as the University continues soliciting support from donors for its academic programming. Full story linked in bio. 🖋: Abigail S. Gerstein and Amann S. Mahajan 📷: Mae T. Weir".
Here’s what iPhone Duo’s new two-page PDF experience looks like
We continue to learn more about iPhone Duo’s feature set, with the latest reveal a preview of the two-page PDF viewing experience on the Duo.
Brazil: Lessons from a Disaster
By Antonio Martins (Outras Palavras) Defeats become deeper and more prolonged when we misunderstand what caused them, avoid correcting course, and embrace “solutions” that only compound our mistakes. Lula’s government and the Brazilian left suffered a disaster in Sunday’s election. Contrary to every poll, the president finished the first round 2.2 million votes behind Flávio Bolsonaro—and, more significantly, 3.4 million votes below his total four years ago, when the machinery of the state was working against him and in favor of his opponent. His vote share declined in 98 percent of Brazil’s municipalities. The PL, the main party of the far right, elected 121 deputies and 28 senators, becoming the largest caucus in both houses of Congress. The parties aligned with the Centrão—Brazil’s bloc of transactional center-right parties—were somewhat diminished, but will still hold roughly 250 seats in the Chamber of Deputies and 35 in the Senate. That will make it easier to assemble the majorities needed to amend the Constitution or impeach Supreme Federal Court justices. If elected, Flávio Bolsonaro could appoint four members of the Court, substantially altering its internal balance of power. What produced these results? How can the far right be prevented from consolidating them into a prolonged political hegemony? And what is the essential change of direction the left now needs? Explaining the Disaster Across the commercial media and the exuberant chaos of digital platforms, interpretations are multiplying. Some focus on specific episodes: Lula’s absence from the Globo debate, his very close relationship with Alexandre de Moraes, or his emphasis on issues supposedly remote from most people’s everyday concerns, such as rare earth minerals. Among the more systemic interpretations, three seem especially questionable. One argues that the principal defeat was not the left’s, since its congressional representation declined only slightly. The decisive movement captured at the ballot box, according to this view, was a shift within the right itself—from the more moderate and transactional forces of the Centrão toward the more ideological and radicalized forces of the PL and Novo. A second interpretation holds that the nature of electoral and political processes has changed. The material interests and aspirations of society, it argues, no longer play the central role they once did; they have given way to forms of subjective self-identification that the left has yet to understand. And a third concludes that, because of these two developments, we should expect a political winter: a prolonged period in which the far right and the broader right dominate Brazilian political life. There are important elements in all three interpretations. The problem lies in what they deny or leave out: Lula’s third government was a small-bore government. It offered the majorities that elected it neither a clearly better life nor reasons to believe again in politics and its power to transform society. These failures flowed from two fatal accommodations, which I will examine below. As a result, the government suffered a slow but steady erosion of support. And, as has happened in so many Western countries, it gave the far right the opportunity to present itself as anti-system and to benefit from popular frustration and distress. The interpretation that emphasizes the migration of votes from the center-right and traditional right toward the far right has been advanced, among others, by the courageous journalist Leonardo Sakamoto. In his UOL column on Monday, October 5, he highlights the miserable behavior of the traditional conservative parties. Over the past four years, they repeatedly joined forces with the “neo”-fascists, helping to “normalize” them—a criticism that could equally be directed at almost the entire corporate media. Believing they could use the far right as a stepping stone, they instead ended up partly devoured by it. This was especially true in the Senate, where the PL’s gain of 13 senators and Novo’s gain of two came at the expense of the PSD, which lost nine; the MDB, which lost two; the PSDB, which lost two; and the PP, which lost one. Sakamoto’s observation is accurate and necessary, but it leaves uncomfortable questions unanswered. Why did the erosion of the Centrão benefit the far right rather than, for example, producing growth for the left—as has happened so many times before, both in Brazil and elsewhere? The answer is not difficult. Throughout its four years in office, Lula’s third government was almost invariably associated with the Centrão. Here lies its first accommodation: accepting the limits imposed by conservative institutions; avoiding, as much as possible, any attempt to strain those limits through popular pressure; and believing only in the modest changes that could be squeezed through openings in Congress. The failure of the campaign to end the six-day workweek is emblematic. Lula could have electrified the presidential race by pairing it with a popular campaign for passage of the measure. Instead, he chose to place his hopes in the hands of Senate president Rodrigo Alcolumbre. He generated no mass mobilization, did not force his opponents onto an uncomfortable defensive, and won no victory. In September 2025, the government squandered the greatest of its many opportunities to shake up conservative power in Congress. Popular opposition to the so-called Shielding Amendment—which, if approved, would have restricted criminal proceedings against members of Congress—brought crowds into the streets, mobilized primarily by artists and social movements. This opened the possibility for a broader political education: a campaign that could begin exposing the limits and dysfunctions of Brazil’s political system while putting Bolsonaro’s movement on the defensive for its predictable support of political privilege. The amendment was defeated. But the executive branch then backed away from the fight. It remained associated with an institutional world widely seen as corrupt, elitist, and indifferent to ordinary people’s struggles. In doing so, it forfeited its credibility as a vehicle for the protest vote. On Sunday, it reaped the bitter fruits. Are We Doomed? Taking a different approach from Sakamoto, the philosopher Moysés Pinto Neto and other writers have drawn attention, in their first analyses of October 4, to the fragmentation of the public sphere produced by Big Tech platforms. Through their algorithms, these platforms present each person with a different view of social reality. As a consequence, it becomes much harder to identify common material problems and demands—for example, the fight for labor rights or for a properly funded public health system. Voters no longer embrace such demands, these authors argue, because they no longer see themselves as part of a collective. Instead, they tend to value the identities assigned to them by neoliberal subjectivity—the role of the entrepreneur, for example. On this interpretation, the left’s possible error lies in clinging to outdated illusions. Moysés’s warning is highly relevant and resonates with arguments such as Naomi Klein and Astra Taylor’s “Apocalyptic Fascism and the Billionaires’ Bet.” Unlike a century ago, the far right no longer promises a radiant future. It concentrates instead on resentment—especially that of young men. “They belong to a generation that fears it may never own a home, but compensates with the pleasure it gets from constantly provoking progressives online. Convinced their future has been stolen, they share memes romanticizing historical authoritarian regimes,” the authors write. But Moysés seems to confuse this danger with inevitability. He fails to see that the left’s answer cannot be adaptation. On the contrary, it must strengthen the possibility of politics as collective action. Nor does he recognize that precisely such a reversal is already becoming possible in some of the most promising mobilizations of the twenty-first century: the election, at the end of 2025, of the young Muslim Zohran Mamdani as mayor of New York, on a platform centered on the intensely material fight for an affordable city; the Left Party’s victory in Berlin two weeks ago, built around the demand to expropriate private real-estate corporations; and the very recent wave of demonstrations in Spain—including an occupation of Madrid’s Puerta del Sol—in which tens of thousands of young people mobilized by the Tenants’ Union have demanded limits on rents. By putting itself in the straitjacket of the “fiscal framework” in the first months of 2022, Lula’s third government adopted the second fatal accommodation of its term. Faced with conservative institutions and a country devastated by four years of Bolsonaro, increased public investment was the government’s remaining weapon for offering a more dignified life to the majority and forging an anti-conservative pact with them. The same state that disburses 1 trillion reais a year to enrich a small class of rentiers could instead spend money to extend the Family Health Strategy to every Brazilian, at a cost of 30 billion reais; provide full-day public schooling and childcare to all adolescents and children—and, especially, relief to their mothers; achieve universal sanitation while cleaning up polluted urban rivers; multiply metro systems; begin transforming the urban peripheries; and undertake many other urgently needed projects. In April 2023, an article in Outras Palavras warned that the fiscal framework could “shrink the Lula government and preserve the forces that condemn the country to inequality and regression.” A year later, another article showed that restraints on public spending were strangling policies vital to ordinary people and undermining the president’s popularity. In November 2024 came a reality check, in the form of the government’s humiliating defeat in the municipal elections. Even then, the fiscal lock was neither removed nor loosened. On the contrary: throughout the government’s four years, fiscal restraint remained central to its political narrative. The administration proudly proclaimed that it had “put the state’s accounts in order,” without grasping either how misleading that phrase was—given the payment of 1 trillion reais in interest—or how badly the message was hurting it politically. Lula finally woke up in September 2026. The increase in Bolsa Família benefits, after four years of being frozen; the announcement that anti-obesity drugs would be offered through Brazil’s public health system; and the ban on online betting showed that the state has the power to act decisively on behalf of the majority when those in government are willing to confront obstacles. The huge marches that closed the campaign in Fortaleza, Salvador, Rio de Janeiro, and São Paulo on the eve of October 4 showed how such initiatives can mobilize activists and the broader public. But it was too late—and too little to change the outcome of the first round. History has not ended The possibility of a turnaround in the three weeks leading up to November 25 cannot be ruled out. It will not be simple or easy. Lula must not only make up a deficit of 2.2 million votes; he must also offset the movement of voters who backed other right-wing candidates in the first round, most of whom are likely to move toward Flávio Bolsonaro. Pulling that off will require a broad, grassroots effort to win over voters, potentially reinforced by new initiatives from Lula. The coming hours and days will be decisive. If Bolsonaro’s movement also wins the presidency, the result will create a high-risk situation for Brazilian sovereignty and democracy. The enormous challenges posed by such an outcome would require the left to reexamine, in depth and with a genuine willingness to engage in self-criticism, its political projects—or its lack of them—and its practices. But would that mean we are condemned to the long winter of far-right hegemony that some analyses are beginning to forecast? It is far too early to say, suggests a recent text by Álvaro García Linera, the thinker who served as vice president of Bolivia under Evo Morales. His central hypothesis is that this political current will prove short-lived. At a moment when the entire world is once again talking about sovereignty and protecting national economies, the far right offers a stale, recolonizing neoliberalism. Its submission to the United States is as blatant and pathetic as Flávio and Eduardo Bolsonaro’s overtures to Donald Trump. Its project amounts to something like every man for himself: greater inequality, capitalism without limits, devastation, and supremacism. Will it work? In the United States, just two years into his second term, Trump himself is reaching record levels of unpopularity and may be on the verge of losing Republican control of both the House and Senate in November. Every new beginning is difficult. Whatever the outcome of the second round, the defeats of October 4 show how profoundly the Brazilian left will have to rethink and rebuild. But just as it would be foolish to underestimate the seriousness of its mistakes, it would be equally foolish to conclude that rebuilding a political project is no longer possible. History has not ended. The times are moving faster than ever. Originally published in Portuguese by Outras Palavras. English translation by Eric Blanc; I’ve added the subtitles. More We can’t stop the far right at home or abroad without a revitalized labor movement, which is yet another reason why you should become a sustaining supporter of the Emergency Workplace Organizing Committee (EWOC) — one of US labor’s pivotal bright spots. Relatedly, Jacobin published a short piece of mine reflecting on a decade of Bernie Sanders inspiring a whole new generation of young worker organizers.
Every ‘Scream’ opening scene, ranked
Do you like scary movie opening scenes? No franchise does killer starts like ‘Scream,’ and we’re ranking all of the star-studded sequences.
Who Should Bucks Look to Trade: Myles Turner or Kel'El Ware?
Milwaukee has two centers other teams would like, and only one of them fits the new timeline.
Nintendo Switch Sports Resort: I’d Trade Table Tennis for Swordplay, Baseball, or Frisbee, but It’s Still Won Me Over
I’m stunned at how excited I am for Nintendo Switch Sports Resort. I plan to 100% this game, which is not something I would have said two weeks ago. I’m still not entirely thrilled with the sports lineup – I would trade Table Tennis and Volleyball for things like Swordplay, Baseball, or Frisbee – but what is here is shaping up to be really fantastic. Don’t sleep on this one: I think it’s going to be an enormous improvement on Nintendo Switch Sports and a fantastic return to one of my favorite settings in Nintendo history. I’ll see you on Wuhu Island.
How many innings will Chris Sale throw in Game 3?
What does Full Strength Chris Sale’s usage look like on Tuesday evening?
Jannik Sinner Ends 2026 Season Early With Knee Injury
In a somber video message posted on social media Tuesday, world No. 1 Jannik Sinner announced that his 2026 tennis season is officially over as he prioritizes long-term recovery from a lingering right knee issue. The 25-year-old Italian, speaking directly to fans, said: “Hello everyone, I would like to give you a little update. Me together with …
Pixel 11 gets first Google Store deal for Prime Day
Like the Pixel Watch 5, the US Google Store is discounting the Pixel 11 and 11 Pro for Amazon Prime Big Deal Days.
Goodbye joint replacements? Stanford scientists found a way to regrow cartilage and stop arthritis
Scientists have found a surprising way to regrow damaged knee cartilage by blocking a protein that becomes more abundant with age. In old mice, the treatment restored naturally lost cartilage and also helped prevent osteoarthritis after ACL-like knee injuries, while human cartilage taken from knee replacement patients began producing new, functional joint cartilage after exposure to the same inhibitor.
Sun Life research reveals the ripple effect behind small business success
As Canada's small businesses navigate a rapidly changing business environment, new research from Sun Life shows that success is about more than growing revenue. It's about building resilience. When owners feel confident in their ability to weather challenges and plan for the future, they're more likely to invest in their employees, strengthen their businesses and create lasting impact for the people who depend on them. The findings align closely with how Sun Life supports small business owners,
Samuel Alito's gift to Democrats
The justice's refusal to retire deprives Donald Trump of a Supreme Court vacancy ahead of likely blue midterm wave
Nobel prize in physics goes to Francis Halzen for south pole work on neutrinos
Belgian physicist praised for work on the IceCube detector that observes the ghost-like particles in Antarctica
Scanning offers players like Martin Odegaard an edge as football becomes faster and more intense
Sky Sports Nick Wright tried out virtual reality technology designed to train scanning to see how some players are improving their off-the-ball awareness; Martin Odegaard, Aurelien Tchouameni, Marc Guehi and Romeo Lavia are among those to have used it
Patient Dies By Suicide After 'Insurance Issue' Delayed Medicine For Lung Disease Flare-Ups
By Lauren Sausser and KFF Health News HealthDay ReportersTUESDAY, Oct. 6, 2026 (HealthDay News) — Kenney Blewett was diagnosed with lung disease more than a decade ago but started experiencing flare-ups this year that made him feel like he couldn’t breathe. Blewett, of Kyle, Texas, described those ...
The Senate is up for grabs. Plot each party’s best path to winning
As many as 10 key Senate races identified by CNN that are on the ballot in November will likely determine which political party controls the chamber.
Before Saying Yes to the Medical Test, Know the Risks and Benefits
Tests like full-body scans marketed directly to consumers are pitched as a way to detect diseases early and establish a baseline of health markers. But there are financial, physical, and psychological risks to all medical tests — and in some cases, not getting a test could be better for your health.
UMBC poll: Moore leads Cox by 27 points in Maryland governor's race
Gov. Wes Moore leads Republican Dan Cox 51% to 24% among Maryland likely voters, according to a new UMBC poll.
Deshaun Watson's Rollercoaster Performances for the Cleveland Browns
I'm going to focus on EPA for this piece. EPA stands for Expected Points Added, which measures the value of individual plays based on how much they increase or decrease a team's likelihood of scoring.Here is a fantastic video explaining what EPA is and why it is a measure that looks at years on NFL history rather than one person's subjective opinion on a certain play.Deshaun Watson's Current...
2026’s Biggest Blockbuster Games Just Received Their First Major Discounts in Amazon’s Prime Sale, but These 48-Hour Deals Won’t Last Long
Amazon's latest Prime Day sale features massive discounts on PS5, Switch 2, and Xbox titles, including deals on 2026's biggest games like The Blood of Dawnwalker, Star Wars: Zero Company, Pragmata, LEGO Batman, and more.
Science-backed guidance for healthy screen time
We’re all aware – and wary – of doomscrolling. Lots of screen time can be bad for us. But what if that’s not always the case? We spoke with the author of a study that found a positive relationship between screen time and brain development in young people. This episode, we sort through what to actually worry about when it comes to screen time – and what guidelines already exist that can empower you and the kids in your life.Interested in learning more about how screen time affects your brain? Email us your question at shortwave@npr.org.Support public media with NPR+ and enjoy perks for over 25 podcasts like this one. This show’s perks include sponsor-free listening. Learn more at plus.npr.org.
Science-backed guidance for healthy screen time
We’re all aware – and wary – of doomscrolling. Lots of screen time can be bad for us. But what if that’s not always the case? We spoke with the author of a study that found a positive relationship between screen time and brain development in young people. This episode, we sort through what to actually worry about when it comes to screen time – and what guidelines already exist that can empower you and the kids in your life.Interested in learning more about how screen time affects your brain? Email us your question at shortwave@npr.org.Support public media with NPR+ and enjoy perks for over 25 podcasts like this one. This show’s perks include sponsor-free listening. Learn more at plus.npr.org.
Protecting elections and play ball?
As I approach 10 years of writing these columns for Colorado Politics, I suspect that only my kindly and long-suffering editor has read all roughly 600-plus of my missives. But regular readers will likely recall I can be easily distracted (squirrel!) and that I often report on multiple items in a column that, in theory, […]
8 Fermented Foods To Add to Your Diet
Fermented foods like pickles and kimchi can help keep your gut health. An expert shares which foods are worth adding to your meals.
Introducing: The Seiko Panda Watch That Stole The Show In 2024 Is Finally Here
One of the standout creations from Seiko's 2024 power design project—an irresistibly charming chronograph designed to look like an actual panda—has officially entered production.
Two Overlooked Stars Keeping Packers Alive
The 2026 Green Bay Packers look and feel like a bad team that has miraculously beaten even worse teams. The coaching and scheme have not consistently aligned with the players’ abilities to execute, while gut-wrenching injuries have left Green Bay relying on backups across multiple position groups. And it is only Week 5. For a …
Vikings Guard Donovan Jackson Likely Out Rest of 2026 Season
The Minnesota Vikings will likely be without offensive guard Donovan Jackson as he tore his meniscus.
The Xbox Elite Controller (Series 3) specs might've leaked — here's what's new (and the main thing you'll want to know remains unanswered)
Although I was unable to verify the sources (as they've been removed), users suggest that this leak is most likely legit. The Xbox Elite Controller Series 3 is likely imminent.
UCLA Health awarded $4M NIH grant to study why ulcerative colitis symptoms persist after inflammation subsides
UCLA Health gastroenterologist Lin Chang and Dr. Bruce Sands of Mount Sinai were awarded a $4 million federal grant to investigate why some ulcerative colitis patients continue to experience irritable bowel syndrome-like symptoms even after inflammation has subsided.
Washburn’s Women in Science Day gives girls a hands-on look at STEM
Seventh-grade girls from across Topeka got a hands-on look at what it's like to work in science at Washburn University's annual Women in Science Day.
State public health officials announce 12th human case of West Nile virus
The woman was likely exposed in Norfolk County, officials said.
The Harvard Crimson (@theharvardcrimson)
24 likes, 0 comments - theharvardcrimson on October 5, 2026: "Caroline B. Kennedy ’80 introduced the Institute of Politics’ 60th anniversary forum Thursday, marking her first known public appearance at the Institute since she resigned from its Senior Advisory Committee more than six years ago. Kennedy — the daughter of President John F. Kennedy ’40, to whom the IOP is dedicated – stepped down as the committee’s honorary chair in 2020 amid concerns over the IOP’s diminished independence, declining programming, and tensions with Harvard Kennedy School leadership. Full story linked in bio. 🖋: Jen L. Phan and Mirei S. Saneyoshi 📷: Grace E. Yoon".
Japan's entertainment robots diversify with AI, offer comfort
The range of home entertainment robots is becoming increasingly diverse in Japan, with some providing emotional comfort like pets, and others serving as fashion accessories due to their cute appearance. The growing use of artificial intelligence is also helping to expand the market, widely seen as having taken off with…
Knicks’ 3 Most Intriguing Regular Season Matchups
As the regular season approaches, the Knicks will officially go from the hunters to the hunted. After a wild offseason, especially in the significantly strengthened Eastern Conference, the defending champions will face much tougher challenges this season. Teams in the East like the Miami Heat, Toronto Raptors, and Philadelphia 76ers all made moves to strengthen …
macOS 27.2 Adds Touch Gestures Ahead of MacBook Ultra
macOS Golden Gate 27.2 adds code referencing new touch-specific gestures in apps like Safari, Notes, Photos, and Quick Look, a possible sign Apple is preparing to release the rumored OLED touchscreen MacBook, possibly called the "MacBook Ultra". Code in the latest beta adds new gesture recognition tools to several Apple apps.
Answer Man: Misleading political ads? What’s up with water alerts?
Today’s round of questions, my smart-aleck replies and the real answers: Question: The ads against Jamie Ager that are airing on TV now are false. They say that Ager voted against this or that and supported this or that. He is not an elected official and could not support or oppose any legislation. These are the ads paid for by No Going Back PAC. What am I missing? My answer: Well, I’d like to say, “The good old days of American politics where opponents politely disagreed with one another in their advertising.” But honestly, these campaigns have always been uglier than a closeup of my belly button.
Hamstring injury for Arden Key
Colts DE Arden Key injures hamstring and will likely miss time
Childhood Housing Assistance Linked to Better Health Decades Later, Children's Mercy Study Finds
A child’s home may shape their health well into adulthood. New research led by Dr. Jeffrey D. Colvin, pediatrician, health services researcher and principal investigator at Children’s Mercy found that children who receive housing assistance are significantly less likely to develop diabetes and high blood pressure, also known as hypertension,...
Your Brain Under Anesthesia Behaves Surprisingly Like a Worm's, Scientists Discover
A shared experience of oblivion.
Crowds line up for teamLab’s debut at the Smart
Black, inky lines writhe slowly like jellyfish beneath a golden sea in teamLab’s “Sea of Darkness, Memory Shining From the Depths,” a standout new piece now on view at the
Why I Don’t Think Ride Or Die Should Have Been Cancelled (And What Company Should Save It...)
(Welcome to my weekly streaming ratings report, the single best guide to what’s popular in streaming TV and what isn’t. I’m the Entertainment Strategy Guy, a former streaming executive who now analyzes business strategy in the entertainment industry. If you were forwarded this email, please subscribe to get these insights each week.) So…I recently came across a Reddit thread, talking about films on streaming, wondering why there are no reliable sources out there for streaming ratings data. Sigh. Honestly, as annoyed as I am that so many still don’t realize that we have streaming ratings, I somewhat get it. Until now, there was such a long delay between when a show or film came to streaming and when we got its viewership data; I understand why people were confused. (But, as you know, this just changed.) Also, even back in the day, how many people knew how well films did on television? Luckily, as a reader, you’re in the know. Okay, on to this week’s issue. I want to take a look at Prime Video cancelling Ride or Die and whether I agree with that decision. Overall, we didn’t have any breakout hits (no TV shows landed over 20 million hours according to Nielsen) but we have a lot of steady performers on the streaming charts. Plus, we’ll look at where $50 million in missing box office dollars went. (Spoiler: straight-to-streaming.) All that, plus new episodes of The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives, Supergirl heads to streaming, a new YA show does well on Netflix, the viewership for the Daily Wire’s $50 million fantasy show, what TV show hit-maker can’t make streaming hits, CD sales, all the flops, bombs and misses, and a whole lot more. Let’s dive right in! (Reminder: The streaming ratings report focuses on the U.S. market and compiles data from Nielsen’s weekly top ten viewership ranks, Luminate’s Top Ten Data, JustWatch and Reelgood interest data, Samba TV household viewership, company datecdotes, Netflix hours viewed data, Google Trends, and IMDb to determine the most popular content. While most data points are current, Nielsen’s data covers the weeks of September 7th to September 13th, 2026. You can find a link to my terminology here.) Subscribe Television - Ride or Die Is a Hit…But It Got Cancelled? What The Data “Says” I hate the phrase “here’s what the data says”, even though sometimes I find myself using it. If data just told us everything, we data folks would be out of a job! Data is often messy, complicated and nuanced. When it comes to strategy, many of the best decisions can’t actually use “data”, since it’s vastly too complicated to model. Anyways, I’ve been singing the praises of Prime Video’s Ride Or Die this summer, a show that did very well for them. And yet…it got cancelled. Now, usually when a show gets cancelled, a bunch of websites say “a hit show got cancelled”... Here’s the thing, though: in this case, they’re right! The data “says” that this show was a hit. Specifically, out of 522 first seasons to make a week on the Nielsen charts since 2020, it’s the 75th biggest. On Amazon, Ride or Die is eighth out of 41 first seasons: That’s top 15th percentile all time, almost exactly, which is my definition of a “hit”! I mean, outside of Reacher, Amazon needed a hit this summer! (Admittedly, Off Campus did well for Amazon in the spring, but Ride or Die performed even better.) So what happened? Why did Amazon cancel one of their rare 2026 bright spots? Well, Deadline reported a reason—which I’ll get to—but I’d break it down into three relevant questions: What is a given streamer’s reasoning? Is that reasoning sound? Could the stated reason not be the real reason? According to Deadline, Amazon felt the show “over-indexed” in middle-aged women. (This was based on leaks from within Amazon.) The logic is this: Amazon already reaches this demographic because of unlimited two-day shipping bundled with Prime, so they don’t really need more shows like this. Now, it’s my job to ask if that’s a good reason, and I’ll be honest, in this case, I don’t think it is. Sure, this show may “over-index” in middle-aged women—I’ll just assume that’s the case here—but I think folks often oversell how important over-indexing actually is. When a show is a “hit”, it isn’t a bit bigger than its rivals; it’s usually multiples bigger. For example, Elle only made the charts for two weeks at 8.3 million hours each. So Ride or Die was 80% bigger in its first two weeks, and likely had a much stronger hold, with its terrific 13 million hours in week three. Ride or Die was nearly three times bigger than Sterling Point through three weeks too. And that means that _Elle, Sterling Point a_nd other Amazon YA shows need to not just over-index a little with younger women (assuming that’s who Amazon prefers over middle-aged women), but massively over-index. Otherwise, more people in that demo (and a bunch more besides) likely watched Ride or Die. (I’ll try to explore this concept more in a future article.) And don’t get me started on how Ride or Die did compared to a certain (very, very popular, possibly the world’s most popular) YouTuber’s reality show…which didn’t make the charts after its first week and likely cost much, much more than Ride or Die. All to say, Amazon-MGM Studios/Prime Video can tell reporters that this show didn’t reach the right audience, but that excuse feels weak to me. So this leads to the third question: could other reasons have come into play? Yes! Renewal or cancellation decisions rarely (I’m tempted to say “never”) boil down to one variable. At its simplest, it’s two things: budget versus viewership. But often factors like critical acclaim, ownership and, yes, personal opinion come into play. In this case, Amazon has a new executive running things, and this show isn’t owned by Amazon-MGM Studios (unlike Elle). And yes, it may not have indexed with the right target viewers, too. Likely all of those factors came into play.1 My guess is ownership ended up mattering most. Amazon doesn’t own Ride or Die. It’s actually produced by another major studio. Fortunately/allegedly, this show is being shopped around. I can think of one brand new CEO who should consider it for one of his two major streamers…especially if he wants to rebuild goodwill in Hollywood. His name is on this list of exec producers of Ride or Die… If David Ellison needs some goodwill—and he does—rescue this female-led show tomorrow and grab some good headlines for a day. The data justifies it. Quick Notes on TV We’re just getting started with this issue, but the rest is for paid subscribers of the Entertainment Strategy Guy, so if you’d like to find out… How The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives latest season did on Hulu, post-controversy... Whether Supergirl soared on HBO Max... Why the box office is losing money due to the streamers... The viewership for the Daily Wire’s $50 million fantasy show... Updates on The Gentlemen, Lanterns, Outer Banks, King of the Hill and more... What former hit-maker has three streaming flops in a row... Whether The Mandalorian and Grogu popped in week two... All the flops, bombs and misses... And a whole lot more... ...please subscribe! We can only keep doing this great work with your support. If you want an idea of just how much content you’d get in a full issue, check out this older issue. Coming Soon! Oh man, we’re almost caught up! We just have two more issues, then the streaming Ratings Report will be coming out just two weeks after a TV show premieres! Next issue, I’ll be looking at the first two weeks of the NFL Thursday night games on streaming, a huge new spinoff, Reacher’s Neagly on Prime Video, and the latest edition of Monster: The Lizzie Borden Story on Netflix, the return of Slow Horses on Apple and MobLand (quietly one of their biggest shows) on Paramount+, and Dancing with the Stars on both ABC and Disney+. Plus I’ll take a look at animation for adults in 2026. The week after, a ton of movies are coming to streaming: Toy Story 5 on Disney+, Backrooms on HBO Max, Jackass: Best and Last on Paramount+ and The Breadwinner on Netflix, plus a Unabomber film on Netflix and a romcom on Prime Video. Woody Harrelson and Matthew McConaughey have a show on Apple, along with a game show inspired by Willy Wonka that everyone seems to hate. Long term, some crazy (but hopefully crazy like a fox) IP news. FX ordered a new Sons of Anarchy show from Charlie Hunnam, but it’s not about the biker gang. No, it features the show’s cast playing themselves in a new “meta-thriller”. Huh. And a lot of the cast is coming back. Next, Ryan Gosling is producing a Flintstones movie about a “grown-up Bamm-Bamm Rubble”. Also, huh. This one is in “early development” so we’ll see what happens. Both projects are based on IP, but also seem to have crazy takes on the IP, which I like.
LGBTQ+ Gen Z Voters More Likely to See Climate, ICE, and Gaza as Urgent Issues
New data shines a light on the priorities of a large swath of young adult voters.
NFL Star Tyreek Hill Gets Big Update After Eagles Suggestion
A top NFL free-agent wide receiver, Tyreek Hill, is expected to find a new team soon, according to ESPN. As Hill fully recovers from the setback he suffered last season, the speedy wide receiver’s agent made it clear that he will likely find a new team in the coming days. Recently, the Eagles were pegged […] The post NFL Star Tyreek Hill Gets Big Update After Eagles Suggestion appeared first on HEAVY.
Dead star likely birthed a new planet, in astronomical first
A white dwarf probably created a rare ‘second-generation’ planet.
Why Taylor Sheridan signed with NBCUniversal after years at Paramount
Taylor Sheridan has had a long and successful stint with Paramount that included popular TV shows like "Landman," "Lioness" and "Tulsa King."
Why Taylor Sheridan signed with NBCUniversal after years at Paramount
Taylor Sheridan has had a long and successful stint with Paramount that included popular TV shows like "Landman," "Lioness" and "Tulsa King."
Discover the stats from Mexico’s Clásico in Oakland
Guadalajara once again showed that El Clásico de México is a game like no other. On a night that brought thousands of Chivahermanos together in California, the Sacred Flock claimed another victory i...
How a controversial camera system is monitoring mental health patients
The Lampard Inquiry started back in September 2024 and I remember going to the first hearing in Chelmsford. Subscribe The bereaved families made placards of their loved ones, they stood outside in silence and then laid flowers to mark the moment. Now, two years on, in a process meant to last another two years, there’s been a development. Last week, we were told the chair, Baroness Lampard, pictured below, could be looking at making interim recommendations. Throughout the process, she has remarked that although this inquiry is looking at almost 2,000 people who were under the care of Essex mental health services from 2000-2023 when they died, the findings could have national implications for other trusts. ‘Records 24 hours a day in patient’s bedroom’ So why has this happened? One system that the inquiry is going to take a closer look at is a controversial monitoring system called Oxevision. It monitors some vital signs of patients remotely by using a camera placed in a room. It’s used by 40% of NHS mental health trusts. But campaigners, particularly the group Stop Oxevision, have asked for this technology to be removed from mental health wards as soon as possible. I spoke to a member, Hat Porter, today and they described to me what they thought this technology did and explained their concerns: “It records 24 hours a day and it’s located in a patient’s bedroom, which is obviously somewhere you’d usually expect to be a private place. “Our concerns are that the use of the technology has been has been kind of implemented as a substitute for proper in-person support, that it’s kind of over relied on and that there’s a lot of misunderstandings and that the presence of a camera, which has often been used without people’s consent, sometimes without even their knowledge, that that has a really big impact on privacy, dignity and human rights.” ‘Not sufficient’ I put it to them that the company behind Oxevision would dispute their claims about consent and in videos I’ve seen online from NHS trusts, they make it clear that the technology is complementary to trained staff and not a replacement. [ ](https://channel4news.substack.com/p/the-nottingham-inquiry-what-lessons) [ How the Nottingham inquiry shines a spotlight on other key mental health care failings ](https://channel4news.substack.com/p/the-nottingham-inquiry-what-lessons) Victoria Macdonald · Feb 12 [ Read full story ](https://channel4news.substack.com/p/the-nottingham-inquiry-what-lessons) A team of lawyers has been working on the inquiry and with bereaved family members who have concerns about this technology. I spoke to solicitor Priya Singh, from Hodge Jones & Allen, who made the point that questions usually asked by nurses would be missing from using devices like this. “It’s not sufficient to say, oh, the patient is moving around. Somebody must go in and say, are you okay? Are you distressed? Do you want help? Is there anything I can do? Share Channel 4 News “How are you spending your time? So I think a lot of our families cannot see the function of it when ultimately the patient should only really be observed when they’ve been prescribed to be observed, they can be observed more, but that more should really be happening face to face.” The Chair will hear evidence over the next two weeks and then a decision made after that, which could have national impact if she does decide this technology should be investigated or even removed. The Department of Health and Social Care said: “The Government is committed to ensuring that lessons are learned from the Lampard Inquiry to improve patient safety. “We are confident that the Inquiry will play an important role in identifying wider learnings for the health system following the tragic events in Essex and will contribute to improvements in patient safety.” We approached LIO Health, which runs Oxevision, for comment. Subscribe Share Channel 4 News Leave a comment
Braiden McGregor set to miss rest of season
Jets LB Braiden McGregor unlikely to play again in 2026 after torn pectoral
Lightsaber-like plasma antenna uses laser-ionized air to transmit radio waves
Researchers have demonstrated a technique that uses a laser to produce a plasma beam antenna capable of transmitting radio waves. The article, "Laser-Induced-Plasma-Filament Antenna Transmitting 30 MHz ...
Greenfield Business Association distributes inaugural Buzz Awards
Greenfield Business Association held its first Buzz Awards at Four Phantoms Brewing Co., celebrating local shops like Hope & Olive and Freedom Cafe.
God Packs are Officially Coming to Magic: The Gathering
Magic: The Gathering booster packs have gone through a lot of changes in the last decade, some of which have been awful. But Wizards of the Coast are introducing 'God Packs' to MTG, which could feel like winning the lottery.
The upcoming D&D interpretation of World of Warcraft sounds great, but don't expect it to work like the MMO does
World of Warcraft is being given the Dungeons & Dragons treatment in a massive new book. But D&D: WoW works quite differently to the MMO.
A Health Influencer Claims He Has Been Drinking Radioactive Water For 250 Days Straight, To A Frightening 13.5 Thousand Likes
If you don't know why this is a bad idea, let us tell you about radiation, Radithor, or the tragic case of Eben Byers.
Dungeons and Dragons: World of Warcraft – Everything You Need to Know
Dungeons and Dragons: World of Warcraft was announced way back in July, as the first Universes Beyond release for the storied tabletop RPG. And just like the MMO it's based on, D&D: World of Warcraft is absolutely massive.
No stadium has a story like the Superdome
The Superdome has weathered the highest of highs and the lowest of lows to represent the complicated and celebrated history of its city.
Rockstar Explains How It Actually Makes A Game Like GTA 6
Working on one chunk at a time, for years and years and years, apparently
Why .670 OPS outfielder 'won't be back' with Mariners
This seems like an unlikely reunion for the Mariners.
RYOBI Cleans Up Local Politics with Unlikely Mayoral Candidate 'Swifty'
McCann Birmingham and RYOBI unveil the first trailer for a documentary following the spot cleaner’s unlikely bid to become mayor of Staines
You Might Need to Replace Your iPhone 18 Pro Max
Some iPhone 18 Pro Max users cannot connect to AT&T's networks. If that's your experience, you'll likely need to swap out the entire device.
ER visits from foreign-born patients fell drastically during ICE raids, study finds
Those who did visit were more likely than U.S.-born patients to require hospitalization.
Extinct ice age bovine discovered in Siberian cave
Bone fragments show this yak-like animal likely went extinct about 27,000 years ago.
Hamilton County Public Health reports first human West Nile virus case
Officials said the evidence supports that the person, who lives in the Symmes Township area, was likely bitten by a local mosquito
Hamilton County Public Health reports first human West Nile virus case
Officials said the evidence supports that the person, who lives in the Symmes Township area, was likely bitten by a local mosquito
Why do some people think cilantro tastes like soap?
Find out why some people think cilantro tastes like soap and how the OR6A2 gene plays an important role.
GTA VI Writers Sidestep Trump and MAGA, as Rockstar’s Rupert Humphries Says Florida Satire Targets Conspiracy Theories Instead
Rockstar said there won't be any references to specific trends or persons in GTA VI, as the game focuses on stuff like conspiracy theories.
TCL’s paperlike OLED phone made me more excited for the iPhone Duo
Can every manufacturer copy this next please?
Senate-approved bills aim to ease burden on pilots amid mental health ‘stigma’
Culture of silence and fears of exclusion means aviation workers less likely to seek help for mental health issues
Qalo SL-1 review: A barebones smart band that's priced like a flagship
Qalo’s first screenless tracker is too expensive for what it is.
Innovation That Solves: From Business Needs to AI Solutions
Targeted AI innovation transforms business challenges like hydrocarbon compliance into effective technological solutions, writes Jorge Mandujano.
Caden Hunter pitched like a Top 100 prospect in 2026
Orioles prospect Caden Hunter pitched his way into MLB Pipeline’s Top 100 with a dominant 2026 season.
Ground Zero Blues Club
A Labor of Love for its Three Managers It is no mystery why Ground Zero Blues Club (GZBC) is one of the most famous blues clubs in the country. It is a genuine juke joint where customers are treated to great live music along with genuine hospitality serving up Southern food favorites like barbecue […]
What Holding Eye Contact While Someone Speaks Really Reveals About Your Psychology, According to Science
You are mid-conversation with a friend, nodding along, and suddenly you wonder: am I looking at them too much? Or not enough? Most of us treat eye contact like an automatic reflex – something we either do or don’t, without thinking twice. But researchers say the way you hold someone’s gaze while they speak is...
Best Buy’s Techtober Sale Is Live with Big Discounts on PS5, Switch 2, and Xbox Games—and Unlike Prime Day, Deals Aren't Locked Behind a Membership
Best Buy's Techtober sale is now live, rivalling Amazon Prime Day with savings on new PS5 game releases, Xbox hardware bundles, and plenty more.
Phillies news: Bryce Harper, Bryson Stott, Kyle Schwarber
I’d like to see Munetaka Murakami hit another home run tonight
Jobs in health care. Jobs for women. The US labour market is segmenting. Chernobyl’s radiation and Lenin’s love of literature.
Thank you for opening your Chartbook email. Elmer Bischoff, Two Figures at the Seashore, 1957 The only really dynamic job-creator in the US economy is health care: The largest crunch has come in Federal government, which has shed 2.7 m jobs. Source: tchouvkov on Twitter Tech is struggling. [ Joey Politano 🏳️🌈@JosephPolitano The US tech sector continues bleeding jobs in official data released today—overall, employment decreased by 17k last month and is down 69k over the last year That's nearly as bad as the worst of the 2024 tech-cession, and much worse than the 2022 boom or even pre-2020 norms 12:42 PM · Oct 2, 2026 · 15.2K Views 15 Replies · 47 Reposts · 390 Likes ](https://x.com/JosephPolitano/status/2106001807847940232?s=20) The new jobs are all for women. [ Justin Wolfers@JustinWolfers I'm not sure who saw this coming, but so far nearly all the jobs created during the second Trump administration have gone to women. 1:09 PM · Oct 2, 2026 · 33K Views 70 Replies · 146 Reposts · 644 Likes ](https://x.com/JustinWolfers/status/2106008723533533601?s=20) Meanwhile, real wages are being eaten up by modest over-target inflation. [ Heather Long@byHeatherLong The financial pain is real: Wage growth fell to 3% (y/y) in September. That's the lowest in 5 years. Wage growth: 3% Inflation: ~3.4% Inflation has eaten up all wage gains for the average worker since April. Many people are having to make hard choices about what to buy and what … 1:24 PM · Oct 2, 2026 · 37K Views 24 Replies · 275 Reposts · 533 Likes ](https://x.com/byHeatherLong/status/2106012367712620728?s=20) HEY READERS, THANK YOU for opening the Chartbook email. I hope it brightens your day. I enjoy putting out the newsletter, but tbh, what keeps this flow going is the generosity of those readers who clicked the subscription button. If you are persuaded to click, please consider the annual subscription of $60. It is both better value for you and a much better deal for me, as it involves only one credit card charge. Why feed the payments companies if we don’t have to. Subscribe Elmer Bischoff, Bathers, 1960 Americans are disillusioned with higher ed. For contributing subscribers only. Subscribe Where the Chernobyl radiation went. h/t Simon Kuestenmacher aka simongerman600 How Lenin’s love of literature shaped the Russian Revolution - Tariq Ali This, then, was the intellectual atmosphere in which Lenin came of age. His father, a highly cultured conservative, was the chief inspector of schools in his region and much respected as an educationalist. At home, Shakespeare, Goethe and Pushkin, among others, were read aloud on Sunday afternoons. It was impossible for the Ulyanov family – “Lenin” was a pseudonym adopted to outwit the tsarist secret police – to escape high culture. At high school, Lenin fell in love with Latin. His headteacher had high hopes that he might become a philologist and Latin scholar. History willed otherwise, but Lenin’s passion for Latin, and taste for the classics, never left him. He read Virgil, Ovid, Horace and Juvenal in the original, as well as Roman senatorial orations. He devoured Goethe during his two decades in exile, reading and rereading Faust many times. Lenin put his knowledge of the classics to good use in the time leading up to the October revolution of 1917. In April of that year, he broke with Russian social-democratic orthodoxy and, in a set of radical theses, called for a socialist revolution in Russia. A number of his own close comrades denounced him. In a sharp riposte, Lenin quoted Mephistopheles from Goethe’s masterwork: “Theory, my friend, is grey, but green is the eternal tree of life.” Source: The Guardian Elmer Bischoff, The River, 1953 If you’ve scrolled this far, you know you want to click: Subscribe
Yale School of Medicine On the Science of Childhood Anxiety, Say, Anxiety Disorders Are the Most Common Mental Health Challenges In Youth
Credit: Matt Bradbury October 5, 2026 - By Isabella Backman - Anxiety disorders are the most common mental health challenges in youth. Left untreated, they can disrupt the lives of both children and their families. The good news is that with intervention, most children will overcome these conditions. Across Yale School of Medicine, scientists are working to understand anxiety at every level, from common anxious behaviors to molecular biomarkers in the brain. They are using their findings to develop and disseminate new evidence-based treatments for childhood anxiety. Today, the go-to treatment for childhood anxiety disorders is cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT). This is a form of psychotherapy that teaches children skills for confronting anxious thoughts and helps them practice managing situations that cause anxiety. While it is the gold-standard treatment backed by considerable scientific evidence, up to 50% of children will not see sufficient benefit from CBT alone. Wendy Silverman, PhD, Alfred A. Messer Professor in the Child Study Center, co-directs the Anxiety and Mood Disorders Program alongside Eli Lebowitz, PhD, associate professor in the Child Study Center. One of their main interests is learning how to improve outcomes beyond CBT. “We’re developing cutting-edge, research-based knowledge that can reduce the suffering that anxiety causes children and their families,” says Silverman. Changing parent behavior YSM experts are investigating how to improve CBT outcomes for children by involving the parents. Silverman’s research has uncovered two main components of parent intervention that improve childhood anxiety: not enabling children to completely avoid the things that make them anxious and taking steps to enhance their autonomy. Parents may unintentionally reinforce their child’s anxiety by allowing them to avoid what makes them anxious. They also may unintentionally limit the children’s sense of autonomy by being overly intrusive. “One of the things that we take pride in is that we’ve focused on trying to understand what parents need to do, and to test our ideas and see if changing the parents’ behaviors is enhancing the effects of CBT,” Silverman says. “Our findings thus far suggest that they do." As much as CBT can be helpful, it can also be challenging to get one’s child to do the necessary steps for CBT to work. This is one important reason why Lebowitz created a novel intervention program for parents named Supportive Parenting for Anxious Childhood Emotions (SPACE). Existing intervention programs often teach parents to act as therapists for their child, such as training them on how to practice breathing exercises. “It makes sense, but this doesn’t work very well in practice,” says Lebowitz. “And part of the reason, I think, is that it’s not easy to get your kid to do things, especially if they’re not excited about doing it.” SPACE is unique because it focuses entirely on parent involvement and changing parental behavior—children are not involved in the sessions. For example, parents learn how to use supportive messages that convey confidence that their child can tolerate and manage distress. “It might sound like a parent saying to a child, ‘I get that this is really hard for you, but I know that you can handle it,’” Lebowitz says. The program also works with parents to identify the ways in which they are accommodating anxious behaviors. “We’ll pick one thing that parents are doing that is an accommodation and help them make a detailed plan for how they’re going to change that,” Lebowitz explains. Treating Anxiety in Children and Adolescents Much of the existing research on SPACE has focused on parents of children under age 14. Ongoing studies are now exploring its use with parents of older teens. “Both anxiety and accommodation can interfere with normative developmental shifts during the teen years, including increased autonomy and individuation from parents,” says Rebecca Etkin, PhD, associate research scientist in the Child Study Center. “In this sense, SPACE may be particularly well-suited for anxious teens and their parents. We want to see whether it is effective during this distinct developmental window.” Unfortunately, many families in need of CBT face barriers, including limited availability of services and geographic constraints. One way to improve access is digital interventions. Silverman and her team are developing an evidence-based digitized intervention program for parents that they can access directly from their computer or smart phone. “The work we’re doing will be one of the very few parent interventions that is digitized and importantly tested for effectiveness,” she says. Creating interventions for anxiety-related challenges Silverman and Lebowitz recently received a generous gift to develop and test other interventions that help parents reduce other child anxiety-related behavioral and emotional difficulties, such as restrictive eating and unexplained somatic symptoms. One of these projects in particular focuses on understanding the risks of social media and its potential benefits, including offering a sense of connection. “A lot of research has focused on the idea that social media is harmful and the less of it the better,” says Lebowitz. “But we actually see is that this is not quite right—there are negatives, but there are also positives. So, we’re trying to get a little bit more nuanced of a picture.” The team is working with teens with social anxiety and their parents over an extended period to better understand their social media habits and how their anxiety levels affect engagement with different platforms. The teens will answer questions sent to an app on their phones about mood and social media usage in an effort to capture emotional responses as they unfold. “We hope to develop interventions that can help make the best of social media while protecting against the more problematic effects,” Lebowitz says. The brain’s role in anxiety Researchers are also testing therapies to address anxiety at the neurological and molecular levels. In collaboration with Dylan Gee, PhD, professor of psychology in Yale's Faculty of Arts and Sciences, and Hilary Blumberg, MD, John and Hope Furth Professor of Psychiatric Neuroscience at Yale School of Medicine, Lebowitz and Silverman are using brain imaging to identify changes in a child’s brain before and after parents enroll in SPACE. In one study, children viewed anxiety-inducing images while undergoing magnetic resonance imaging (MRI); the researchers conducted scans with and without the children’s parents nearby. Before SPACE, children’s brains were better able to activate the regulatory circuitry needed to turn off an anxious response when their parents were nearby. But after SPACE, children could activate this circuitry even without the parent around. “As parents work on gradually reducing some of their accommodations, you can see a child get better at regulating their own fear system in the brain,” Lebowitz says. “It’s remarkable.” Research into the molecular underpinnings of anxiety can also inform new childhood anxiety treatments. In a recent study, Lebowitz, Silverman, and Flora Vaccarino, MD, Harris Professor in the Child Study Center, discovered that a protein known as fibroblast growth factor 2 (FGF2) could be protective from the toxic effects of stress. FGF2 levels in children and their parents were linked to the children’s risk of developing anxiety and depression, the study showed. The findings could help explain why some children who are exposed to early life trauma such as poverty or abuse are more prone to developing mental health disorders. And FGF2 could be a target for treatment. “This is very novel because it starts to give a clue to what is the molecular chain that connects those lived experiences to the actual psychological outcomes,” Lebowitz says. New ways to study and treat childhood anxiety Michael Crowley, PhD, associate professor in the Child Study Center, collaborates with Silverman and Lebowitz to study the role that attention plays in development and maintenance of childhood anxiety. There is a large body of research that shows that anxious children, like anxious adults, are prone to focus on threatening stimuli such as angry faces compared with neutral faces. This has led to innovative interventions that involve attention retraining. The idea is that if experts train children to look away from threatening stimuli, it may reduce their anxiety—especially children with social anxiety who are most prone to attend to threats. The researchers have just completed a clinical trial for attention retraining with 10- to 14-year-olds with social anxiety disorders and are currently analyzing the findings. Besides this innovative attention retraining research, as Crowly notes, “I like to design tasks that are engaging to kids,” Crowley says. “My goal is to assess something without the kids knowing what we are assessing.” With this goal in mind, Crowley has created a virtual game, named Boom, to study threat processing in children with anxiety disorders. The game is similar to that of hot potato—the child and three digital players take turns virtually passing a ball to each other’s gloves. At some point, the ball turns into a bomb, and as the bomb lands in each player’s glove, the outline of the glove turns yellow. The goal is to avoid having the bomb go off in your glove. What isn’t obvious is that the game is designed to measure different types of threatening stimuli, both ambiguous and direct. In the game, the direct threat occurs as the bomb is traveling towards your glove. The ambiguous threat is the yellow outlined glove as it is unknown where the bomb will travel next. While children play the game, Crowley’s team measures their brain activity using electroencephalography (EEG). The researchers have discovered that in kids with anxiety, the brain reacts more strongly to ambiguous threats than it does in their peers, but less strongly to direct threats. They believe that the initial abnormally large brain response to not knowing where the bomb is going impairs the brain's ability to properly respond when the threat is actually traveling the child’s way. “The brains of children with anxiety are unable to differentiate between threats you need to do something about and those that are not your problem.” Michael Crowley, PhD, develops innovative games for studying anxiety in children and adolescents.Credit: Matt Bradbury Based on these insights, Crowley hopes to study whether interventions like attention training could restore appropriate threat processing. Crowley’s team is also working on a test called the Balloon Risk Avoidance Task, which evaluates risk-taking and avoidance behaviors. It features a digital balloon that is full of air and about to burst. Kids have six seconds to let air out of the balloon. The more air they let out, the less risk they face that the balloon will pop. But at the same time, the balloon becomes less valuable as it deflates. “The more air you keep in the balloon, the more points you get,” Crowley explains. So far, the researchers have found that when the balloons pop unexpectedly, teens with social anxiety show distinct brain responses. Studying these responses can help psychologists understand the underlying pathways driving the various manifestations of anxiety. The genetics of anxiety When Thomas Fernandez, MD, associate professor in the Child Study Center and of psychiatry, was still in training, there was a lot of excitement about understanding the genetics associated with autism spectrum disorder. Since then, scientists have identified around 250 genes associated with autism. The genetic contribution to anxiety disorders, on the other hand, has historically received less attention. Anxiety is less heritable than autism, but the genetic contribution for anxiety disorders that emerge in childhood may be higher than for anxiety disorders overall. While scientists estimate the heritability of anxiety disorders in general to be around 30% to 50%, some studies suggest higher heritability for certain childhood-onset anxiety presentations. “I saw firsthand how researchers in the field went about finding vulnerability genes for autism,” Fernandez says. “So, we’re using a very similar playbook for childhood anxiety.” “I saw firsthand how researchers in the field went about finding vulnerability genes for autism. So, we’re using a very similar playbook for childhood anxiety.” Thomas Fernandez, MD Associate Professor In the Child Study Center and in Psychiatry Now, Fernandez and Emily Olfson, MD, PhD, assistant professor in the Child Study Center, are studying children and their parents to identify genetic changes that are present in the child but not the parents, known as “de novo mutations.” “All of us have some de novo mutations—maybe about 50 to 100 sprinkled throughout the genome,” Olfson says. “But when they occur within the coding regions of genes, they can be really disruptive.” Previous research shows that people with autism have higher rates of damaging de novo mutations than the general population. In 2022, Olfson, Lebowitz, Silverman, and Fernandez published a study on 68 children and their families that found that children with anxiety had similarly high levels of these mutations. Studying de novo mutations can help point the researchers to where they should be looking for genes associated with anxiety. “The end game is using the genes to steer us toward the right part of biology that we can then target to come up with better treatments,” Fernandez says. Building on those findings, the team is now studying more families to better understand how these de novo mutations, along with other genetic and environmental factors, shape pediatric anxiety disorders. They recently received a National Institutes of Health grant to enroll 750 new families over the next five years. Olfson is the principal investigator, with co-investigators Lebowitz, Fernandez, Silverman, and Shuangge Steven Ma, PhD, department chair and professor of biostatistics at Yale School of Public Health. Neurodevelopment, Risk Genes, and Mental Health Conditions - The Olfson Lab Joel Gelernter, MD, Foundations Fund Professor of Psychiatry, is interested in how different anxiety disorders differ genomically. “We are studying social phobia, panic disorder, and generalized anxiety disorder, working to understand why people differ in their risk to these specific anxiety disorders and evaluating various risk factors,” he says. Gelernter was recently involved in one of the largest studies to date of the genomics underlying anxiety disorder. The study included around 122,000 people with anxiety disorders and around 730,000 without. It found that some genetic differences associated with anxiety were linked to signaling that helps reduce overactivity in the nervous system. Many anxiety medications available today work by targeting this process. “It’s nice when the biology that you get out of a large genome-wide study ratifies things that we already know because that can help increase confidence in further findings from the study,” Gelernter says. Uncovering the neurobiology of psychiatric disorders John Krystal, MD, Robert L. McNeil, Jr. Professor of Translational Research and chair of the Department of Psychiatry, is interested in the neurobiology of psychiatric disorders, including post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), of which anxiety is a major symptom. In the late 1980s, Krystal’s team discovered that the drug yohimbine activated symptoms in patients with PTSD. “This was the first time we could link a specific biological mechanism to the symptoms of PTSD,” Krystal says. At the time, he adds, this finding was highly controversial. “A lot of people felt that PTSD was a purely psychological syndrome that didn’t have an underlying biology.” Since then, Krystal has dived deep into understanding the neurobiology of PTSD to learn how to better treat it. His team is evaluating the use of ketamine and psychedelics. These would be among the first treatments to be developed specifically for PTSD. They may also be applicable for other disorders including anxiety disorders, Krystal adds. An important gap in PTSD treatment is the absence of biological tests that inform how to best help patients manage their PTSD symptoms. A doctor doesn’t diagnose cancer based on how they feel. Rather, they use tests of the biology of the cancer to determine the best course of treatment. “And we can’t do that in any psychiatric disorder other than Alzheimer’s disease,” Krystal says. “But now we are building a foundation for this approach to the treatment of anxiety disorders for the first time.” Source: Yale School of Medicine
Apple and a Hacker’s Future
I was happy for years in Apple’s walled garden; with AI, however, their protections feel like limitations.
49ers Handed Intriguing Take on Vita Vea After Defeating Broncos
The San Francisco 49ers sit at 4-0 through four weeks, and the trade deadline is on Nov. 10, but if the team keeps playing like this, it’s clear they’ll be buyers looking to improve.Wide receiver and the defensive line are two areas of concern for the Niners given the injuries and lack of depth. On […] The post 49ers Handed Intriguing Take on Vita Vea After Defeating Broncos appeared first on HEAVY.
The 10 Senate seats most likely to flip in 2026
Nearly four weeks out from Election Day, the Senate battleground map is growing after signs of improvement for Democrats in several red-leaning states.