Cari Shane

We’ve been hearing a lot in recent years about how awe is good for our mental and physical health. Finding awe in adventure can be as simple as watching others do something incredible or trying it ourselves. Research suggests a viral, contagious component to wondrous encounters, enhanced when we share them with others—not on social media, but as an actual experience.
Awe can be triggered by art, nature, people, or acts of mind-blowing skill or risk. Like from skiing down a snow-covered hill b...

Unassuming freshwater mussels are emerging as environmental heroes. These humble mollusks serve as the "livers of our rivers," filtering 10-20 gallons of water daily while removing harmful algae, nitrogen, phosphorus, E. coli, microplastics and even metals.

The list feels endless, when it comes to the 24-hour news cycle and increased social media visibility of school shootings, airline crashes, the political landscape, climate change and general human existence. Not to mention the lingering effects of a pandemic, both social and academic. Altogether, these factors have left children in the U.S. suffering from a level of anxiety like never before.

For a decade, Indiana businessman Bob Hamilton has operated six fireworks pop-ups in the weeks leading up to July 4. Most years, it's a great business — he says he brings in about $200,000 for a few weeks of work.
But the trade war with China has meant that this year has been anything but normal. And anyone hoping to buy fireworks at the last minute — whether from Hamilton or from pop-ups scattered across the country — is likely to see higher prices and, in some cases, empty shelves.
In the f...

Frigid temps and frosty conditions don’t mean you have to let your two-wheeler hibernate until spring. Sarah Zoey Sturm, a professional off-road cyclist who lives in Durango and frequently trains during the mountain town’s snowiest season, says the tricks to riding during winter are tweaking your gear and staying alert on the road.
1. No matter the bike—mountain, gravel, road, or hybrid—u...

A new TikTok trend involves taking Pepcid AC to relieve symptoms of premenstrual dysphoric disorder, or PMDD.
PMDD can lead to extreme mental symptoms like lasting anger and sadness, as well as typical premenstrual symptoms like bloating and headaches.
While TikTokers say that Pepcid can alleviate these symptoms, experts said there's little research backing up this claim.
There’s an unexpected solution for severe premenstrual symptoms, according to some TikTok users: taking the common heartbu...

Alyssa Katz started doing stand-up comedy three years ago at the age 60. “It’s never too late,” says the retired lawyer who passed the California bar in 1987, the Quebec bar in ‘95, and the New York bar this April. “I liked studying for the bar, I like law, but I like this a lot,” she says of her comedy work. “Most of my comedy comes from processing the world at my age,” she says. “I think everyone should incorporate joy and laughter in their life.”
After age 50, it may sometimes feel we are ...

On a 95-degree day in one of Washington, D.C.’s poorest neighborhoods, Montia Austin makes her way into a wooded area near a busy intersection. Wearing work gloves and a yellow safety vest, she’s on the side of a six-lane road that feels like a highway as cars and trucks speed past her to catch a green light ahead.
She’s there to pick up strewn trash: glass and plastic bottles, some full, some empty; fast food containers; beer cans and candy wrappers; canisters filled with flammable liquids; ...

Benjamin Fernandes’ goal for the fintech startup he launched in 2018, NALA, was to speed up money transfers within his native Tanzania.
It now operates in nearly a dozen African countries, providing African ex-pats working in the US and 20 European countries with a more affordable way to send money home. Last year alone, those outside Africa spent $8 billion in transfer fees. Africa remains the most expensive continent in which to send money.
In July, despite a depressed fintech market, NALA’...

Jessica got an alarming call from a friend this past April. Jessica, whose name has been changed to protect her and her friend’s privacy, hadn’t seen or talked to him in a few years. He was audibly drunk, says the 29-year-old who lives in New York City; he told her he was going to kill himself. She called 988 three different times in two hours, and each time a different person told her to hang up and call 911.
Sixty-year-old Scott says that during the wee hours of the night, when he is suicid...

For more than 35 years, unidentified anomalous phenomena have been part of Lisa Tsering’s life. While the more familiar term is UFO (unidentified flying object), UAP started making its way into our vernacular a few decades ago. First defined as “unidentified aerial phenomena,” about two years ago it was changed to “unidentified anomalous phenomena,” a shift that allowed for the inclusion of a larger swath of undefinable sightings, including those underwater.
“It sounds weird but I don’t care ...

For the past six ski seasons, I’ve dog sat for a retired couple I met during an 11-minute gondola ride at Keystone Resort in Colorado. I had stopped for a few runs while on my way to catch a flight home after my first official dog sit near Beaver Creek Resort using the travel app TrustedHouse sitters.com (THS). Always one to chat on a ski lift, I told the couple about my dog sitting ways. Turns out, the Rubins’ son was getting married in Mexico and they were looking for a dog sitter for their...

Food
But he’s most proud of how he runs his restuarant – with the mental health of his staff front and center
May 31, 2024
When Angel Barreto was 31 and working 16-hour days as an executive sous chef, he had a mental breakdown. At the time, he was at Wolfgang Puck’s now-shuttered DC restaurant, The Source. Each night, Barreto would arrive home from the restaurant at 2 am only to turn around and be back at 9:30 the following morning. He said his burnout was less about the hours and more “a res...

Janet Humphrey and Scott Dazey were on their way from Leavenworth, Washington, to their home in Bend, Oregon, when they decided that rather than arriving in the wee hours of the morning, the smart choice would be to stop for the night. With Dazey behind the wheel, Humphrey grabbed her phone and reserved a parking spot for their 24-foot RV at a winery 20 minutes away from where they were, in Washington’s Yakima Valley. Within minutes of pulling into Severino Cellars, Humphrey, 78, says the own...

The birth of a cloned black-footed ferret named Elizabeth Ann, and her two new sisters, has sparked a new pilot program to preserve the tissues of hundreds of endangered species “just in case”
Elizabeth Ann just became a triplet—at three years old.
This black-footed ferret (Mustela nigripes)—the first endangered species in the U.S. to ever be successfully cloned—was joined late last year by her genetically identical baby sisters Antonia and Noreen, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Ser...