On My Mind (OMM) - July 2023 - #1
findings & research from late June & early July
OMM (On My Mind)
~ July 2023 #1 ~
::: The Open :::
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41% of adults experienced a lot of worry the previous day.
32% of people worldwide experienced a lot of physical pain the previous day, meaning nearly one in three people were in pain daily.
[from] Gallup's 2023 Global Emotions Report
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::: Recommended Podcasts Episodes :::
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Important thoughts and insights into grief.
The Gray Area – Seeing ourselves through darkness
A conversation Mariana Alessandri, author of Night Vision: Seeing Ourselves through Dark Moods (Princeton; 2023)
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The Gray Area – The future of tribalism
The Gray Area – Peter Singer on his ethical legacy
The Gray Area – Simone Weil’s radical philosophy of love and attention
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Hidden Brain – The Best Years of Your Life
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We Can Do Hard things with Glennon Doyle – Why So Many Women Don’t Know They are Autistic with Katherine May
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Ultra-processed foods are everywhere. Here's how to avoid them (NPR’s Lifekit)
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The Poetry Space _ (with Katie Dozier & Timothy Green)
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GoodReads isn’t doing most writers any favors.
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~ Big News in the World of Mental Health ~
Australia to prescribe MDMA and psilocybin for PTSD and depression in world first (Nature)
Relatedly…
A recent episode of 1A discusses:
MDMA-assisted Therapy for PTSD
Potential for utility with autism treatment, alcohol use disorder, individual therapy, couple's therapy,
Similar theories are being studied for psilocybin. Both MDMA and psilocybin seem even more promising than the value being gained and trauma that is lifted from ketamine treatments.
All of these are much more exciting than traditional Rx such as SSRIs, benzos as band-aids, and other medication interventions and medication-assisted therapies. This goes hand in hand with finding better therapeutic session styles that go beyond Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) which has been a longstanding popular go to (particularly because it's set goal-oriented strategies appeal to insurance companies) since developed by Aaron Beck in the 1960s.
It’s been 60+ years. Let’s try something different.
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The Best Podcasts of 2023 (So Far) according to Vulture
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::: Music :::
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Fall Out Boy Update Billy Joel’s “We Didn’t Start the Fire” With Lyrics About News From 1989 to 2023
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What’s in a band name?
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The dangers of going Full Swiftie
Drop Everything Now: What To Know About Speak Now TV
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::: The Natural World :::
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Hyenas inherit power from mothers, but it's a privilege they pay dearly for, finds 30-year study
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::: The Arts & The Literary World:::
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October’s Very Own… poetry collection?
Aubrey Graham (aka. Drake) Releases Debut Poetry Collection Titles Ruin Everything
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Is BookTok encouraging people to not only buy more books but also read more? (The Zillennial Zine)
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Artist Opportunities for July/August 2023 (Creative Circle)
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AI thinks it knows what you look like based on where you live.
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The oldest book in the world is about taxing beer.
It tracks…
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Interesting interview catching up with Bechdel.
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::: Small Explorations & Deep Dives :::
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The Transgender Family Handbook (The Cut)
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“The hard problem of consciousness” continues to be, well, hard. (Nature)
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“This is the second type of this incident in six months.”
Another person was killed after being sucked into a plane engine.
It goes without question new protocols are needed immediately.
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[on] The Unethical Practice of Octopus Farming
Science has informed us that octopus’ are highly intelligent animals.
I recently learned (perhaps not for the first time) that they only live, on average, 4-5 years.
Their lifespan doesn’t actually have anything to do with the injustice of killing and eating them.
It’s a trivial objection.
We need to make choices that, at the very least, spare pain and suffering for animals that we know are intelligent, feel pain, suffer, and are not oblivious to what is happening to them.
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Off the beaten path. In search of a quiet road?
“Rt. 50 also has a reputation for being called “The Loneliest Road” in America, specifically in the parts that run across Nevada.”
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“A recently published study challenges the conventional belief that intelligent people think faster. The study discovered that people with higher fluid intelligence, which is a measure of problem-solving ability, actually took more time to solve difficult tasks compared to those with lower fluid intelligence.” (PsyPost)
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A strange, uncomfortable, yet compelling read.
“Deadliest Marine sniper wouldn't have been if not for drinking and a fake toothache”
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We continue to descend into a brave new world of fake news…actual fake news…that goes viral.
No, that baby was not born holding an IUD.
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Are they “toxic”? It is “trauma”? Was he “gaslighting”?
The misuse of “trauma bonding” (apparently)
The argument for putting “therapy speak” back in the box (ie. to be used exclusively during sessions)
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Draft of new FDA guidelines indicates step towards lending legitimacy of psilocybin and MDMA in a therapeutic environment.
The key, as Michael Pollan, noted in his book/documentary ‘How to Change Your Mind’ is treading carefully into this territory this time so as not to create a moral panic.
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There is no Planet B.
“NASA officials say the cost of a proposed robotic mission to retrieve samples from the surface of Mars has grown to $10B, roughly equal to the James Webb Space Telescope…” (Ars Technica)
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“Roughly 20% of the U.S. can now expect extreme rain events known as 1-in-100-year storms to happen every 25 years, according to data released yesterday.” (The Washington Post)
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Intermittent fasting for weight loss is as effective as counting calories (NPR)
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Are we all supposed to be NASCAR fans now?
Increased interest in car racing is, frankly, making me uncomfortable.
I’m not a fan of this as a sport and it seems completely absurd.
If you want to see something actually entertaining involving cars, I recommend going to a demolition derby at a county fair.
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Consider checking out AllSides to get different perspectives on current events and politics.
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New weight loss drug created by the good pharma folks at Eli Lilly shows an average decrease in body weight of 24% over 48 weeks in a phase two clinical study. These results are the most effective to date for a new class of drugs known as semaglutides.
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Beware:
This may be the worst tick season we’ve seen yet. (Time)
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America’s aging population.
New data from the U.S. Census reveals the median age in the U.S. has risen to 38.9 years. In 2000 the median age was 35. (Axios)
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Belize certified malaria-free by WHO
What did it take?
Collaboration.
Also: Focus on the issue at hand, proper access to diagnostic materials, mosquito nets, and a trained community of dedicated healthcare workers.
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Seth Godin’s spin on a diverse portfolio.
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Be My Eyes: Popular App Tests “Life-Altering” AI Tool to Help Visually Impaired People
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This timer can be used for children who do not yet understand how to tell time to maintain focus on an activity. It works because there is a visual component that lets the child understand how much longer they are supposed to spent engaged in an activity.
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Checking in with the so-called “Misery Index”
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“Extreme Pride in Being American Remains Near Record Low” (Gallup)
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Grad school isn’t for everyone. (Seth Godin)
And, really, it’s not meant to be.
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Dunbar’s Number
The basic premise is that “humans can comfortably maintain 150 stable relationships.” (Wikipedia)
Social media is new… and it’s pretty clear we are not very good at it.
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What is Captagon, the addictive drug mass-produced in Syria? (Al Jazeera)
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Inside the First Art Gallery for Blind Artists and Audiences (Thrillist)
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“Orangutans can make two sounds at the same time, similar to human beatboxing, study finds” (phys.org)
Yeah but can they whistle?
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Who knew this was an option?
Online retailer Overstock rebranding as Bed Bath & Beyond
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Porta Jawn (Inquirer)
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A Wikipedia list of The Most-Liked Tweets
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List of most-disliked YouTube videos
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Some print magazines still allege to circulate millions.
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Spotify streaming records that… frankly don’t sit well.
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Mostly unsurprising list of the top websites (aka. most-visited websites)
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Long COVID: answers emerge on how many people get better
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Vitamin D supplements may cut risk of heart attacks, trial suggests (The Guardian)
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Why not consider Rove's opinions, sure...
Karl Rove's blunt take on 2024 GOP presidential field
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Big historical rewrite and an important finding:
Men are hunters, women are gatherers. That was the assumption. A new study upends it.
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[on] Canadian wildfires (CNN)
Resources are limited. Sometimes you had to simply let the fires burn.
There are a number of semi-strange and surprising pull quotes in this article…
“…you’re going to have to let them do their thing.”
“We don’t do anywhere near enough prescribed burning in BC,” Gray said. “Right now we’re burning about 10,000 hectares a year. The state of New Jersey burns more than we do here at BC.”
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Is this true?
The Secret to New York Deli-Style Cream Cheese Is Seltzer (lifehacker)
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Mesa: The US' first autism-friendly city (BBC Travel)
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Doctor spots man's skin cancer during train ride
A reminder why it needs to be safe to approach others. They could save your life.
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“And so I started listening. And listening more. And I started staying up all night refreshing apps for last-minute access to the “Taypocalypse.” And then I went to the show with my daughter. And now I, too, cannot calm down.”
(New York Times, Opinion, Guest Essay, Taylor Swift Has Rocked My Psychiatric Practice, 6.17.23)
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How Taylor Swift Saved My Writing
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World we live in.
“Florida is suffering through a dismal citrus season, sending prices for orange juice up 17.5% since the start of 2022, to $10 a gallon.” (The Washington Post)
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We already knew, but science confirms.
Sleep Temperature Linked to Overall Sleep Quality, Wellbeing
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Remember, the thing about Art is it’s ok to disagree.
The great face off: 16 of the most wonderful portraits ever painted
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Adult Friendships Can Help Heal Childhood Trauma in Baboons — And Maybe Humans Too, Study Finds
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After 2,500 Years, a Ph.D. Student Has Solved an Ancient Grammatical Puzzle
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From Institutions to Individuals: How Americans are now Looking to Public Figures for News and Information
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Set yourself free with ritual.
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The odd appeal of absurdly long YouTube videos that play nothing on purpose - The Verge
Turns out it's still easy to get famous for nothing
On the other hand, I’ve been enjoying some “Slow TV” recently…
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“Fungi bacon and insect burgers: a guide to the proteins of the future”
The future of meat consumption. (Nature)
The talk too often focuses on getting enough protein and not enough on getting enough fiber.
Vegetarians and vegans very likely manage the protein. Most American don’t get enough fiber… not to mention a bunch of other vitamins and nutrients that would make us all a whole lot healthier overall and less of a drain on the healthcare system.
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CTE diagnosed in a female professional athlete for the first time (NBC News)
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Wimbledon Changes Its Women’s Dress Code for the First Time in 146 Years
“Last year, I went on the pill to stop myself bleeding because I knew we had to wear white undershorts, and I didn’t want to face any embarrassment,” British tennis player Heather Watson explained to Sky News.
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I try not to fall too deep into stories about celebrity culture…
That being said, I found myself taken down a disturbing rabbit hole with this story about Jackie Chan and his family…
As a teenager, I was pretty into Jackie Chan movies. Boys, go figure.
Troubled to learn of this story about his estranged daughter who has spent time homeless and this all has an interwoven element of homophobia.
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Introducing Bruno: “Thomas & Friends” Franchise’s First Autistic Character
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Synthetic biology 2020–2030: six commercially-available products that are changing our world (Nature)
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The development of allergy-free eggs is in progress. (MedicalNewsToday)
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Poetic, no?
“Our sense of time can expand or contract with the rhythm of each heartbeat” (Scientific American)
Excerpt:
Researchers from both groups caution that this work is not necessarily telling us about the way we perceive specific events—such as time flying when we’re having fun or dragging when we’re bored. Those experiences are influenced by many factors, including our emotion and attention. They also happen at a totally different scale from the milliseconds-long temporal wrinkles.
Instead, as cognitive neuroscientist Adam K. Anderson of Cornell explains, the new work illuminates how the heart influences the experience of time as it unfolds. “Time is made up of those milliseconds,” he says. “These little moments probably tell a larger story.”
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Test your knowledge of Google predictive search results.
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The First Test for Predicting Preeclampsia Wins FDA Approval (Insider)
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Teen who walked six miles to 8th grade graduation gets college scholarship on the spot
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I think about this all the time… and maybe you do, too?
How old are you—in your mind? How old do you feel?
[on] Subjective age. (The Atlantic)
“Adults over 40 perceive themselves to be, on average, about 20 percent younger than their actual age.”
“Sometimes we freeze at the age of our traumas.”
“If you mentally view yourself as younger—if you believe you have a few pivots left—you still see yourself as useful.”
“At 53 you worry about being old compared to younger people. At 83 you enjoy the moment, and time travel here and there in the past 8 decades. You don’t fret about seeming old, because hey, you really are old! You and your friends make Old jokes. You have more fun than at 53, in some ways. Wait, you’ll see!”
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