WASHINGTON — President Biden strategies to nominate Dr. Monica M. Bertagnolli, an oncologist who has operate the Nationwide Cancer Institute for the earlier 6 months — and a most cancers patient herself — to be the future director of the Nationwide Institutes of Wellness, an administration official reported.
If confirmed by the Senate, Dr. Bertagnolli would be only the 2nd girl to provide as the professional medical exploration agency’s director on a long term foundation considering the fact that its origins in the late 1800s. She is the initial woman director of the Nationwide Cancer Institute, which is element of the Countrywide Institutes of Health.
The White Household is predicted to announced her selection in the coming times, the administration formal mentioned. A White Home spokeswoman declined to comment, expressing a selection on the new director was not however final. The Wall Avenue Journal previously reported on her emergence as Mr. Biden’s select.
Dr. Bertagnolli turned the director of the Nationwide Cancer Institute, or N.C.I., in Oct. Two months afterwards, she declared that she had been given a prognosis of early breast most cancers and would get started cure at Brigham and Women’s Clinic and Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston, exactly where she experienced worked as a surgical oncologist before signing up for the federal govt. She claimed her prognosis was good.
“I’m in a waiting around interval proper now, and there are things we really do not know,” she explained then. “But thanks to research funded by N.C.I., answers about the treatment method which is greatest for me will come in time.”
If confirmed, Dr. Bertagnolli would direct one of the world’s leading health care study organizations, a assortment of 27 different institutes and facilities focusing on a vast array of health-related issues, including cancer, infectious disease, heart and lung illnesses, mental health and fitness and drug abuse. A branch of the federal Well being and Human Solutions Office, the National Institutes of Overall health has an once-a-year spending plan of a lot more than $47 billion, considerably of it dispersed around the globe to finance primary health-related exploration.
Dr. Bertagnolli would replace Dr. Lawrence A. Tabak, who has served in an performing capacity considering the fact that Dr. Francis S. Collins stepped down at the end of 2021 immediately after much more than 12 several years as director.
Only a person female — Dr. Bernadine P. Healy, who was appointed by President George H.W. Bush — has served as the agency’s director, although Dr. Ruth Kirschstein, a longtime federal scientist and N.I.H. administrator, 2 times served as acting director.
In advance of signing up for the Countrywide Most cancers Institute, Dr. Bertagnolli was a professor of surgical procedure specializing in surgical oncology at Harvard Clinical Faculty. Her past research has focused on the gene mutation that spurs the enhancement of gastrointestinal most cancers and on the purpose that swelling performs in the advancement of most cancers.
Ellen V. Sigal, the founder and chairwoman of Buddies of Most cancers Research, a study and advocacy group, mentioned she would be thrilled if the president picked Dr. Bertagnolli.
“She has each and every standpoint that one particular would want in an N.I.H. leader,” Ms. Sigal stated. “She has fundamental science. She has medical encounter. She has proven management potential — and now is a affected individual.”
The White Household programs to nominate Monica M. Bertagnolli, a Boston cancer surgeon who turned director of the Nationwide Cancer Institute (NCI) final fall, to guide the National Institutes of Health, according to folks acquainted with the situation.
The sprawling federal agencyhas not experienced a long lasting director considering the fact that December 2021, when Francis S. Collins, the longtime head of NIH — recognized for his landmark genetics discoveries and skill to cajole funding from Congress — stepped down. Lawrence A. Tabak, an NIH administrator, has been serving as acting director.
If nominated,Bertagnolli,who was identified with breast most cancers soon soon after assuming her management position at the NCI, would have to be verified by the Senate. The White Property did not straight away react to a request for comment.
Bertagnolli has amazed the White House and other officers with her hard function and capacity to get factors accomplished, according to all those familiar with the circumstance, who spoke on the affliction of anonymity simply because they were being not licensed to discuss the nomination.
In addition, the prolonged lookup for a new NIH director prompted some potential candidates to withdraw from consideration. Some apprehensive that it would be difficult to get set up before the 2024 campaign was in total swing and that a new president could want a new NIH director. NIH also has confronted appreciable scrutiny in the course of the coronavirus pandemic, and the following director will contend with Republican-led investigations into its get the job done.
Republicans have been seeking answers about no matter whether the agency’s funding of virus study inadvertently led to the pandemic, homing in on grants to EcoHealth Alliance, a nonprofit business that examined coronaviruses in Wuhan, China.
“We know that EcoHealth has failed to publish all its do the job and has, in reality, refused to share its work with the U.S. governing administration,” Rep. Brad Wenstrup (R-Ohio), who chairs the Property panel investigating the coronavirus response, stated at a hearing Tuesday on the virus’s origins.
The inspector common for the Office of Health and fitness and Human Services this year faulted NIH’s oversight of EcoHealth, declaring the agency unsuccessful to “appropriately monitor” the organization’s work. EcoHealth has persistently denied wrongdoing in its investigation and mentioned Wenstrup inaccurately characterised the group’s function in China.
“The point is that the bat coronavirus exploration done by EcoHealth Alliance and the Wuhan Institute of Virology could not have started the covid-19 pandemic,” the team stated this week.
Democrats have lifted their personal worries about the agency’s product and regardless of whether its composition is nicely-suited to the recent scientific local weather, in which private-sector companies and philanthropists offer you prizes for exploration breakthroughs.
“I’m a major fan of the NIH … but I will say, I’m anxious by the tempo of scientific investigation that we’re viewing,” Rep. Josh Tougher (D-Calif.) stated at a listening to Wednesday addressing NIH’s funds requests.
Bertagnolli, 64, an qualified in scientific trials, is the 1st female to direct the NCI. Last fall, quite a few months soon after using the helm of the most cancers institute, she was identified with early-phase breast most cancers following a schedule mammogram in Boston. Known as really energetic, Bertagnolli was slowed down by the treatment options, she acknowledged in an interview with The Washington Write-up in December. She has because resumed her immediate pace, according to those who know her.
Bertagnolli’s breast cancer is the most widespread sort for someone her age — hormone receptor-constructive, HER2-unfavorable, she mentioned. The cancer is treatable and has a quite favorable prognosis.
At the cancer institute, Bertagnolli has targeted on making studies considerably less difficult and high priced. She also formulated the a short while ago produced Nationwide Most cancers Plan, which is created to decrease most cancers dying premiums and attain the ambitions laid out by President Biden as section of his most cancers “moonshot” initiative.
Bertagnolli grew up on her parents’ cattle ranch in southwestern Wyoming, finding out to trip horses and mend fences, 90 miles from the nearest town.
She examined chemical engineering at Princeton College and graduated from the College of Utah University of Medication, falling in appreciate with surgical procedures when she very first walked into an running home. She ultimately targeted on a scarce inherited syndrome that potential customers to colon cancer and also concentrated on sarcomas, which are tender-tissue cancers that usually wrap them selves all over blood vessels or critical organs. She did in-depth training in tumor immunology — the partnership between the immune method and tumor cells — and turned an specialist on medical trials.
At Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston, Bertagnolli was acknowledged as “a happy surgeon and a large-situation surgeon” keen to complete technically challenging, higher-hazard functions that other health professionals turned down, Atul Gawande, a surgeon and author who properly trained below Bertagnolli, advised The Publish past 12 months.
As opposed to in some functioning rooms, where by the temper was grim and tense, the atmosphere “in Monica’s was happy and weirdly at ease and easygoing,” said Gawande, assistant administrator for world-wide wellness at the U.S. Agency for Global Development.
Although Bertagnolli normally wears cowboy boots, she does not fit the stereotype of the brusque, swaggering surgeon, in accordance to individuals who have labored with her. Gawande described Bertagnolli as unflappable, crediting her experience elevating an autistic son when tackling higher-strain experienced roles.
As element of her launch of the National Cancer Prepare, Bertagnolli warned that development from most cancers wants to speed up if the country is to obtain Biden’s intention of slicing the cancer dying price by 50 {08cd930984ace14b54ef017cfb82c397b10f0f7d5e03e6413ad93bb8e636217f} by 2047. She stressed that enhancing overall health equity — by providing absolutely everyone increased accessibility to wellbeing care — is needed to accelerate progress against the illness.
In his new function, Bazira will harness and amplify Georgetown’s strengths in global health made in excess of the previous two many years by convening and mobilizing researchers and college students for broader effects.
Bazira, an associate professor of medicine in the College of Medication, is a renowned scholar in strengthening overall health systems and a community overall health practitioner with many years of in-depth, area-amount functional knowledge working and developing partnerships in rising economies. He also serves as founding director of Georgetown’s Center for Worldwide Health and fitness Exercise and Impact (CGHPI), which he will keep on to guide.
“We are grateful to have the leadership, knowledge, and practical experience of 1 of our world’s primary world-wide well being scholars,” explained Georgetown President John J. DeGioia. “Dr. Bazira joined our local community in 2019 and in the yrs because, has demonstrated a deep commitment to collaboration, an bold eyesight for how Georgetown can add to world-wide wellbeing, and a deep comprehending of the values that manual our mission.”
Bazira has deep expertise in the communities that his perform focuses on. Born in Uganda, he grew up at the height of the HIV/AIDS epidemic in an natural environment exactly where accessibility to wellness treatment was a privilege – an encounter, he states, that formed his best aim: strengthening the resiliency of health and fitness systems that are self-sustaining and guaranteeing equitable accessibility for all to optimize particular person and inhabitants health results. His specialist journey led him from Uganda to South Africa and then to Maryland ahead of he settled in Washington, DC.
“Developing and strengthening the world overall health neighborhood at Georgetown, and making a system that enables us to collaborate as an institution, will assist elevate and amplify our perform,” Bazira says. “We will also be better positioned to undertake interdisciplinary perform, to take gain of opportunities that a school member, heart, section or even a faculty would not be equipped to do on its own.”
Relocating the Needle on Worldwide Health
The World-wide Overall health Institute (GHI) builds on the basis of Georgetown’s college-vast International Wellness Initiative, which, for the previous 5 years, modeled how a collective technique to worldwide health and fitness at Georgetown could perform. The World wide Health Initiative was launched in 2017 as an interdisciplinary system for supporting investigation, educating, scholarship and service in world wide overall health.
GHI provides an elevated concentrate and construction to hook up world wide overall health-similar initiatives across Georgetown’s educational institutions and campuses. Its function will be educated and overseen by the executive vice presidents of main campus, the Professional medical Centre and Georgetown Legislation, reflecting the university’s broad-scale determination to global health.
“This institute aims to be the platform that delivers collectively the overall Georgetown world-wide well being ecosystem under 1 umbrella so we can have a complete appreciation for what Georgetown faculty, scientists, pupils and workers are doing in international health,” Bazira claims. “It will help us check out areas of collaboration concerning the distinct educational facilities, departments, centers, institutes, labs, faculty and college students intrigued in world well being perform. It will permit us to a lot more efficiently get the job done in the parts of exploration, training and services.”
Bazira noted that a college advisory committee and external advisory council will be formed in the next 12 months to convey diverse views to the GHI, together with from the private sector, governing administration and the nonprofit house. He will oversee a compact core administrative crew based mostly at the institute and will work collaboratively with colleges and centers to support communications, grant improvement and implementation, and facts administration infrastructure.
Master much more about Bazira’s eyesight for the GHI, and how it will construct bridges throughout the university’s several strengths in global health. This interview has been edited for length and readability.
About the Eunice Kennedy Shriver Countrywide Institute of Youngster Well being and Human Progress (NICHD): NICHD prospects research and coaching to recognize human advancement, boost reproductive well being, increase the lives of youngsters and adolescents, and enhance skills for all. For a lot more information, go to https://www.nichd.nih.gov.
About the Countrywide Institutes of Wellbeing (NIH):
NIH, the nation’s medical investigation agency, incorporates 27 Institutes and Facilities and is a part of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Providers. NIH is the primary federal company conducting and supporting standard, scientific, and translational healthcare study, and is investigating the brings about, solutions, and cures for each frequent and uncommon conditions. For additional info about NIH and its plans, pay a visit to www.nih.gov.
Harvard Psychology professor Katie A. McLaughlin was tapped past 7 days to be the inaugural govt director of the Ballmer Institute for Children’s Behavioral Health and fitness at the College of Oregon.
Funded by a gift of about $425 million from Steve A. Ballmer ’77, the former CEO of Microsoft, the Ballmer Institute will practice educators in adolescent mental wellbeing and supply the first undergraduate youngster behavioral health and fitness big in the country.
McLaughlin, who at the moment serves as the director of the Harvard Pressure and Progress Laboratory, generally studies how a child’s atmosphere influences their mind and behavioral advancement. She holds a joint Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology and Serious Illness Epidemiology from Yale College.
In having the helm of the software — which will be centered at the College of Oregon’s new Portland campus — McLaughlin stated in an interview Monday that she hopes to produce “system-huge change” that will change childhood mental overall health treatment to a preventative product.
“Public well being is genuinely a design that focuses on this concept of prevention, early identification, and the shipping and delivery of interventions to prevent wellness challenges from obtaining even worse,” McLaughlin explained. “And that has not historically been the target of psychology and psychiatry, social operate, or actually any of the mental wellness professions.”
“So resources to determine youngsters who are beginning to struggle and delivering interventions that will avoid these troubles from turning out to be even worse about time — that’s seriously a wholly novel method to mental wellbeing products and services in the United States,” McLaughlin added.
McLaughlin reported that the pandemic exacerbated the rising charges of mental health and fitness problems among the children and youngsters. She states that while some remedies emerged from the pandemic — these kinds of as greater accessibility to telehealth providers — there remains a shortage of childhood psychological wellbeing gurus.
“The complete vision of the Ballmer Institute is based mostly on an concept of teaching a workforce of psychological wellness suppliers,” she said. “And this is just one of the most promising methods to the issue.”
To overcome this scarcity, the Ballmer Institute will offer an undergraduate software that enables graduates to enter specifically into the workforce as baby behavioral wellness professionals in Oregon. Currently, psychological health and fitness pros ought to undertake more teaching and education and learning past an undergraduate degree in order to practice in the subject.
“The strategy in this article is that we’re generating a mental health job that only demands a college diploma to be all set to practice in the community,” McLaughlin claimed.
The application will provide as a product for other states to battle the latest scarcity of childhood psychological overall health professionals, she explained, with the education getting to be “hopefully broadly available in the next 5 to 10 many years.”
In spite of her excitement to choose up her new publish in Oregon, McLaughlin expressed her gratitude for her colleagues and time in Cambridge.
“I’m incredibly fired up about this opportunity because I see just tremendous likely that it has to assist so many children and people,” McLaughlin stated.
“I’m also truly sad to be leaving the amazing group listed here at Harvard, which has been remarkably nurturing and supportive of me and of my get the job done,” she included.
McLaughlin will begin her new part in August.
—Staff author Rysa Tahilramani can be arrived at at rysa.tahilramani@thecrimson.com.
—Staff writer Linda Zhang can be attained at linda.zhang@thecrimson.com.
It was right around the New Year when Kevin Crawley realized his clothes weren’t fitting quite right.
After a “fourth quarter of nonstop indulgence” — think Thanksgiving pie, Christmas cookies and festive drinking — his waistline had expanded, and he wasn’t thrilled.
That’s when 40-year-old Crawley decided to cut out alcohol for the first month of 2021.
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Crawley had a pretty good handle on his diet during the week, but found calories piling up from drinking (and noshing) when the weekend rolled in. A beer lover, he’d sip on Friday and Saturday nights. Sunday football games went well with a brew — sometimes several. After 31 days off the sauce, he dropped 10 pounds.
Crawley, a Glendale resident, joined the ranks of those who participate in what’s known as Dry January, the conscious decision to ditch booze for the first month of the year. Many others opt for Dry-ish, Dri-er or Damp January — cutting back on alcohol but not quitting cold turkey. Many outlets report the contemporary practice started with a U.K. public health campaign in the early 2010s (though the idea dates back to at least the 1940s — when the Finnish government instituted a sober January as part of its wartime efforts).
Hello, my name is Lila Seidman and I’m a mental health reporter at The Times. This week, I’m taking over Group Therapy while my colleague Laura Newberry enjoys some time off. Like Laura, I’m studying to be a therapist when I’m not wearing my journalist hat. This week’s newsletter will delve into something that I’ve been thinking about as the New Year approaches: Is there something to the “sober curious” movement, one of the many buzzwords for giving up alcohol for a variety of health reasons?
Dry January, which is intertwined with the movement, is right around the corner, making it a perfect time to unpack the practice. To do this, I tapped mental and physical health experts, as well as some folks who developed apps geared toward helping people meet their sobriety goals. I also asked people on social media to share their Dry January experiences, and am immensely grateful to those who entrusted me with their stories.
At a glance
Some data suggest the idea is catching on. Nearly 1 in 5 U.S. adults said they were participating in Dry January in 2022, representing a 13{08cd930984ace14b54ef017cfb82c397b10f0f7d5e03e6413ad93bb8e636217f} increase from the previous year, according to a survey by Morning Consult, a market research company. About 52{08cd930984ace14b54ef017cfb82c397b10f0f7d5e03e6413ad93bb8e636217f} of those polled said they were completely abstaining, while the rest were drinking little — or at least less than they normally would. On an anecdotal level, it’s hard to miss whiffs of an underlying cultural trend — stories about hip mocktails, nonalcoholic beers and sober raves — at least among a certain millennial milieu.
(It’s important to note that this doesn’t mean that drinking rates have dropped off. Evidence suggests the opposite for certain groups, such as women, who reported a significant spike in heavy drinking during the COVID-19 pandemic.)
Many, like Crawley, temporarily ditch the drink for health reasons — both physical and mental. Heavy drinking is associated with a host of negatives, including increased risk for heart problems, cancer, liver disease and alcohol-involved car crashes. It can exacerbate depression, anxiety and insomnia. When stress strikes, it’s a common coping mechanism.
Significantly, experts told me that Dry January can serve as a reset or spur heightened awareness around drinking. It might be one of the most enduring gains of the activity.
It can boil down to “a conscious effort to examine one’s relationship with alcohol and how it’s serving you,” said Katie Witkiewitz, director of the Center on Alcohol, Substance Use and Addictions at the University of New Mexico. “Because many of us get into patterns of drinking that are habitual and maybe are actually making us not feel that great.”
Time to reflect, reset, go
The timing isn’t coincidental.
For one, people use Dry January as a resolution to reign in what they see as excessive drinking.
For two, New Year’s, a time for collective reflection, can offer a symbolic moment for the undertaking. Those who believe in the power of stock-taking and resolution-making on this calendar day might make Dry January one, or one of many, goals for the coming year.
Just this late November/early December, 16{08cd930984ace14b54ef017cfb82c397b10f0f7d5e03e6413ad93bb8e636217f} of about 2,000 people surveyed reported they wanted to drink less as their New Year’s resolution, according to a poll commissioned by MUD/WTR, makers of a mushroom coffee alternative. It’s not a jarring finding, as a company spokesperson put it, but it suggests cutting down might be on the radar for some who want to change their lifestyle.
“These sort of exercises are valuable,” said Danny Groner, 39, of the Bronx, N.Y., who intends to go damp for the first time this upcoming January. Groner said he’s not participating because he drinks too much — he imbibes alcohol about three times a month — but to see if he can successfully cut back.
When the pandemic shuttered bars, Groner concluded that much of his socializing had been “automatically geared around drinking alcohol.” Now he’s more likely to steer a hangout to a coffee shop than a bar. Last summer, he tapped into unexpected joy when a friend suggested they opt for ice cream.
“Maybe he ushered in permission for me with the next person to say ‘Hey, do you want to get together for ice cream?’ And nobody would roll their eyes at it because maybe secretly all of us would rather be getting ice cream this whole time,” he said.
Forecasting a dry January
There are many different approaches to a Dry January.
Witkiewitz, a longtime promoter of mindfulness-based interventions, recommends meditating to learn how to slow down, be more present and judge yourself less.
One of the practices she encourages is mindful drinking, or closely examining your drinking experience.
For example, she said, “being aware of alcohol as it’s going into your body and really paying attention to what is that feeling, physiologically? What does it feel like … in the mind? What expectations do you have for that drink?”
And, of course, there’s an app for that. In fact, there’s a plethora of apps geared toward those who want quit or cut down their drinking.
Reframe aims to shift the way people think about drinking, co-founder Vedant Pradeep said, including through understanding why they drink and why they want to cut down, as well as identifying triggers and coping strategies. App users typically receive a 10-minute daily program that includes lessons, tips and activities. There is a forum run by mental health professionals, as well as online classes. Coaching is available.
Sunnyside focuses on mindfulness and good habits around drinking, according to Chief Executive and founder Nick Allen. Allen said the app begins with a diagnostic assessment and encourages users to develop a plan for themselves every week, which may or may not be complete sobriety. Users can track their drinking through texts to the app, which in turn sends messages updating them on their progress relative to their intention. Coaching is also available.
But does cutting out — or down — for a month really make a difference?
This is where it gets squishy.
Several experts said yes, at least in the short term. The longer-term picture is less well understood, in part due to a dearth of data.
Going dry for the month is associated with potential reduction in weight and blood pressure, as well as improved sleep and skin complexion, particularly for moderate to higher-level drinkers, said Rami Hashish, a body performance and injury expert.
“If you look at that long term and just look at the physiological changes, if people go back to drinking the same amount, those are kind of lost,” he said.
Others are more optimistic.
“If you take your average consumption over the year and add in 30 days of no consumption, that’s going to be a lot better for your health than continuing to drink throughout the month of January,” Witkiewitz said.
Though research is limited, there’s some evidence that benefits may last beyond January. A University of Sussex study, for example, found that all Dry January participants were drinking less six months later, with greater reductions recorded for those who fully abstained for the month.
Still, it won’t always be smooth sailing.
Sleep can actually get worse after cutting out alcohol, a depressant, before it gets better, Witkiewitz said. Sugar cravings typically kick in on Day 13 of sobriety, according to Pradeep, of the Reframe app. Then there are the cravings for alcohol, which Pradeep said can be the biggest challenge for the first 20 to 40 days.
Hashish said the greater benefits of temporary abstinence tend to be psychological in nature, including breaking bad habits, increasing awareness and gaining control over use.
Crawley described the gain this way: “Even being aware of what you’re doing, as opposed to just doing it, is helpful. So you’re making a more informed decision about your own body and your own health, and it’s not just kind of going through the motions.”
Important note
Dry January is not for everyone.
Individuals who are physically dependent on alcohol or have a severe alcohol use disorder should not participate in the event, said Dr. Carrie Mintz, assistant professor of psychiatry at the Washington University School of Medicine.
Mintz said individuals who meet this criteria need to talk to their doctor and seek medical treatment, rather than abruptly stop on their own. Doing so could be dangerous and potentially fatal.
For others, it’s a matter of personal choice and preference. After so much research, this reporter is certainly considering a drier, more mindful, January.
Until the next time I fill in,
Lila
If what you learned today from these experts spoke to you or you’d like to tell us about your own experiences, please email us and let us know if it is OK to share your thoughts with the larger Group Therapy community. The email GroupTherapy@latimes.com gets right to our team. As always, find us on Instagram at @latimesforyourmind, where we’ll continue this conversation.
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More perspectives on today’s topic and other resources
Last year, L.A. Times reporter Ben Poston and his father completed the last leg of their 23-year journey on the Appalachian Trail — a journey, he writes, made possible by sobriety. Ben and Sam Poston — or Skid Mark and Festus, when going by trail names — had each struggled with alcohol dependence. Their stories, and their paths to sobriety, were different, but they both got there. And along the way they were comforted by the meditative refuge offered by the AT, as it’s known. “More than anything, I thought about the tranquility of the trail, how it welcomed us each year, whether I was drinking or not,” Ben writes about reminiscing while trekking on a remote stretch of trail. “When I’m truly in the moment on the trail, I babble to myself. That afternoon, these words poured out: ‘Oh my sweet AT.’” No, you’re crying!
The Washington Post breaks down 11 habit-tracking and sobriety apps, with a focus on cost, ease of use and privacy policies. It’s hard to sift through all the apps out there — and even harder to squint your eyes to read the privacy policy. But when it comes to apps that record sensitive health information, it might be worth it. According to WaPo’s tech-focused Help Desk, some of the most popular sobriety apps have privacy policies that give them leeway to share data with third parties. This list sifts through the fine print to lay out the best, and worst, trackers.
From Phony Negroni to Curious Elixirs, the New York Times has compiled a comprehensive list of the best nonalcoholic drinks of 2022 — a great resource for anyone who’s not drinking or just wants to expand their liquid horizons. NYT’s Anna Perling writes: “A great nonalcoholic (NA) drink has all of the elements of a great alcoholic one. Taste is deeply personal, but there are key components that make a drink feel balanced, namely a harmonious blend of acidity, sweetness, bitterness, salinity and water.” And because ’tis the season for listicles, here are some easy mocktail recipes you can make at home, also from the NYT.
Other interesting stuff
L.A. Times cultural critic Mary McNamara wasn’t sure what she was getting herself into when she connected with the Consent Wizard. “A legalistic lecture? A politically correct guide to sex? A magical journey into the cavernous realms of our conscious and unconscious relationship with ‘yes’ and ‘no’”? McNamara writes. “Well, maybe not magical, at least not in the wand-waving sense, but definitely a journey.” According to Mia Schachter, the person behind the online educational business Consent Wizardry, consent is key to much more than sex — it’s “all around us” — and ultimately comes down to acknowledging boundaries with ourselves and others.
Pitchfork’s Jenn Pelly does a deep dive into music’s mental health crisis. A 2021 report titled “Mental health issues among international touring professionals in the music industry” found that survey respondents reported levels of suicidality at five times the average rate of the U.S. population. The issues underpinning the crisis are manifold, Pelly notes, including music professionals grappling with an industry decimated by streaming, barriers to accessing health insurance, distress stoked by social media and cultural myths that uphold the tortured artist as a model.
If you’ve called the 988 Lifeline, please consider sharing your experience in this survey. In my regular job as mental health reporter, I am examining the rollout of the new mental health crisis hotline in Los Angeles County, and your voice is critical. I know this is sensitive information, and all responses in the survey will be kept anonymous unless you provide permission otherwise.
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