When the former Archbishop of Canterbury the Rt Revd Justin Welby spoke recently about his mental health (Quotes, 6 March), his honesty was striking.

Speaking to Gyles Brandreth on the podcast Rosebud, he reflected on the failures surrounding the Church of England’s handling of abuse allegations, and revealed that he had sought professional help. “I’ve been seeing a psychotherapist for a considerable period of time, and a psychiatrist: very helpful,” he said. He went on to say that therapy was not about excusing mistakes, but about confronting them honestly: “It’s not about saying, ‘Oh, it didn’t matter,’ . . . quite the reverse. How does one live with such a failure?”

That candour should have been welcomed. Instead, it prompted a deeply damaging column in The Daily Telegraph by Celia Walden, who asked: “What’s the point of God if even Justin Welby is seeing a therapist?”

Reading her article left me shocked, distressed, and very upset at such ignorance about mental health. I felt shamed and triggered. As a serving clergyman who has lived with serious mental-health challenges, I felt guilty and embarrassed simply for seeking help. Her column was extremely damaging, heartless, and cruel, and lacked any compassion for clergy and people of faith who live with mental illness. It implied that faith alone should replace therapy: a view that is both wrong and pastorally reckless.

Read it all.

"I have never told someone with cancer to refuse chemotherapy and to 'just pray'. I have never suggested that insulin betrays belief. So, why is mental health treated differently?" ✍️ Mark Edwards #mentalhealth #JustinWelby https://t.co/FTUYk6BqKd

— Church Times (@ChurchTimes) March 13, 2026

Adults age 65 and older who completed five to six weeks of cognitive speed training — in this case, speed of processing training, which helps people quickly find visual information on a computer screen and handle increasingly complex tasks in a shorter time period — and who had follow-up sessions about one to three years later were less likely to be diagnosed with dementia, including Alzheimer’s disease, up to two decades later, according to new findings published today in Alzheimer’s & Dementia: Translational Research and Clinical Interventions.

This National Institutes of Health (NIH)-funded study is the first randomized clinical trial, and only study of its kind, to assess 20-year links with dementia, including Alzheimer’s disease, among adults who participated in the Advanced Cognitive Training for Independent and Vital Elderly (ACTIVE) study. Investigators enrolled 2,802 adults into this study in 1998–99 to assess long-term benefits of participants randomized to three different types of cognitive training — memory, reasoning and speed of processing — in comparison to a control group who received no training. In the three training groups, participants received up to 10 sessions of 60–75 minutes of cognitive training that took place over five to six weeks. Additionally, half of participants were randomized to receive up to four additional cognitive training sessions, or boosters, which took place 11 and 35 months after the initial training.

In this 20-year follow-up study, investigators found that 105 out of 264 (40%) participants in the speed-training group with boosters were diagnosed with dementia, which was a 25% reduced incidence compared to 239 out of 491 (49%) adults in the control arm. This was the only intervention with a statistically significant, or meaningful, difference compared to the control group.

Read it all.

A type of cognitive training that tests people's quick recall seems to reduce the risk of dementia, including Alzheimer's disease https://t.co/1ntw4Q2cgE

— New Scientist (@newscientist) February 12, 2026

‘In large corporations and administrations, justification and self-protection have become the primary motive in place of achievement. In this world, intuition is not talked about openly, but relied on surreptitiously.’

–Gerd Gigerenzer, The Intelligence of Intuition (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2023)

Gerd Gigerenzer:

Why simple rules of thumb often outperform complex models.https://t.co/FrPo8Csqfd

— GuruAnaerobic (@GuruAnaerobic) March 2, 2021

A third of Church of England clergy could be suffering from depression, according to a Church report.

Some 16 per cent of 500 clergy polled “show indications of probable clinical depression”, with a further 13 per cent showing “indications of possible or mild depression”, the Living Ministry report on clergy well-being from 2017 to last year found.

This could mean that around 6,000 out of the 20,000 total clergy within the Church are suffering depression.

The Covid pandemic, the cost of living crisis, wars, climate change and “social movements calling for gender and racial justice” are among the factors affecting clergy, according to the internal report.

Problems within the Church, such as dwindling congregations, safeguarding failures and the resignation of Justin Welby as Archbishop of Canterbury in 2024, also added to their stress.

Read it all.

We reported on these findings in 2024. Not to suggest the issues have been resolved but the Church has since announced a package including a rise in the stipend and funding for Clergy Support Trust & St Luke’s Healthcare.https://t.co/qbn7kO8kjv

— Madeleine Davies (@MadsDavies) February 10, 2026

 The percentage of U.S. adults who anticipate high-quality lives in five years declined to 59.2% in 2025, the lowest level since measurement began nearly two decades ago. Since 2020, future life ratings have fallen a total of 9.1 percentage points, projecting to an estimated 24.5 million fewer people who are optimistic about the future now versus then. Most of that decline occurred between 2021 and 2023, but the ratings dropped 3.5 points between 2024 and 2025.

Americans’ ratings of their current lives have also declined since rebounding in 2021 but not as steeply as their future life ratings. And current life ratings are not at a low point; that occurred in 2020, during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic.

These results are a part of the Gallup National Health and Well-Being Index. The 2025 results are based on data collected over four quarterly measurement periods, totaling 22,125 interviews with U.S. adults who are part of the Gallup Panel, a probability-based panel encompassing all 50 states and the District of Columbia.

Read it all.

AMERICAN OPTIMISM HITS RECORD LOW

U.S. adults’ optimism about their future life fell to 59.2% in 2025, the lowest since Gallup began measuring nearly 20 years ago. Since 2020, future-life optimism dropped 9.1 points, equal to roughly 24.5 million fewer hopeful Americans.… pic.twitter.com/k6G253FfgC

— *Walter Bloomberg (@DeItaone) February 10, 2026

The U.S. birthrate has declined to record lows in recent years, well below population replacement rates. So the news that the vice president and second lady are having a fourth child is welcome—and significant—news indeed, for several reasons.

First, there is a great cultural importance to influential people having more children. Even in local communities, pregnancy can be “contagious” because humans are social animals. When one lives in a career-minded metropolis where couples having only one or two children (if any) is the norm, there can be intense pressure to fit in and focus on careers, nights out, travel, accumulation of goods, and so forth to avoid having children. Conversely, visit any thriving church community and observe how, when large families are the norm, people who join that community are more likely to have more children themselves.

The effect could very well work at scale. When our leaders (from statesmen to idolized celebrities) do not marry and have children, there is a message coming from the top that avoiding children is a behavior to be imitated. So when our most visible leaders make the choice to be open to life and welcome new children, there could be a meaningful cultural effect. JD Vance is the vice president, likely the next Republican candidate for president, and therefore the soon-to-be leader of the post-Trump GOP. Perhaps a public announcement welcoming a fourth child coming from one of the most prominent and powerful people in the country will start to change the cultural norm back to welcoming more children. As Katy Faust said in response to the news, “four is the new two.” 

But there is another important takeaway from the Vance baby announcement. The Vance family draws a stark contrast to what the vice president has long lamented: a disturbing trend of a childless ruling class. 

Read it all.

Goodbye, Childless Elites
by Frank DeVito @therightfrankd https://t.co/SCHzpso7MG pic.twitter.com/5ZZwSCF32C

— First Things (@firstthingsmag) February 3, 2026

The Archbishops’ Council is to award £600,000 to two national charities that provide well-being services to clergy, including counselling and financial grants, it was announced on Monday.

The Clergy Support Trust, which is independent of the Church of England, has been awarded £500,000 for work that supports clergy with their finances, health, and well-being. It is hoped that the new grant will support clergy with everyday expenses such as energy costs, unexpected car repairs, and school-related costs for clergy children, a statement from Church House, Westminster, said.

The Trust also provides other grants and services for clergy, including counselling, coaching, and occupational therapy. A year ago, it received a grant of £2 million from the Archbishops’ Council (News, 7 February 2025), through which more than 7000 grants were provided to more than 2900 households.

“The vast majority of applicants are from serving clergy households in the Church of England,” Church House said.

The Trust has supported more than one fifth of all serving C of E clergy for the past three years. 

Read it all.

The Archbishops’ Council is to award £600,000 to two national charities that provide well-being services to clergy, including counselling and financial grants, it was announced on Monday#churchofengland #clergywellbeing #churchnews #churchtimes https://t.co/zyu8RXD6YK

— Church Times (@ChurchTimes) February 3, 2026

Still, finding enough volunteers for the ministry is a challenge. Many people will help with Christmas caroling events at the retirement homes or attend special classic-movie nights that Twilight Hope puts on at facilities. But only a few volunteers come out consistently.

Some people find long-term care facilities intimidating. “I think it’s because there’s weird smells, there’s scary noises, sometimes there’s bells going off,” [Stephanie] Smith said. “Some of the facilities feel like hospitals, and that freaks people out.” 

Yet she believes those feelings fade quickly. “Once you get in there, and once you get over that, and once you start to get to know the people, you’re gonna fall in love with them,” she said. “They’re so wise. They have whole histories behind them, a life to share.” 

She noted that residents especially enjoy when children visit. One volunteer, Jake Alger, has been serving and bringing his children with him for the past 18 years. His youngest is 6 and is a favorite among the residents.

“Jesus tells us to love our neighbor, and the reality is a lot more of our neighbors are going to be older,” Smith said. “There’s a real sense
of urgency.”

Read it all.

(CT) Some people find long-term care facilities intimidating. “I think it’s because there’s weird smells, there’s scary noises, sometimes there’s bells going off,” Smith said. “Some of the facilities feel like hospitals, and that freaks people out.”

Yet she believes those…

— Kendall Harmon (@KendallHarmon6) January 16, 2026

The poll…finds 24% of Americans satisfied and 74% dissatisfied with the way things are going in the country, which is unchanged from November but more negative than all other readings since January. As recently as May, 38% of U.S. adults were satisfied. Satisfaction levels remain slightly higher than at the end of the Biden administration.

Declining satisfaction has coincided with worsening views of the economy in recent months. Gallup’s Economic Confidence Index currently sits at -33, which is down 10 points from October and 19 points from June, and is the lowest it has been since registering -35 in July 2024. The index summarizes Americans’ evaluations of current economic conditions and their perceptions of whether the economy is getting better or getting worse. It has a theoretical range of -100 to +100.

Read it all.

Americans End Year in Gloomy Mood https://t.co/JcHu7bBBn5

— Patrick Riccards (@Eduflack) December 23, 2025

Read it all.

The decision in the trial of Bp Stewart Ruch, of ACNA's Diocese of the Upper Midwest, is out: Ruch has been found not guilty on all charges from the presentment. pic.twitter.com/prXLkZCtDf

— Arlie Coles (@ArlieColes) December 16, 2025

At Pennsylvania State University, which has 64,000 undergraduate students, Stephanie Stama, an assistant director at the student psychological services centre, reports that “it is increasingly common for us to hear that students have lost a significant amount of money” in sports betting and that it “is interfering with basic needs like eating and sleeping”. An 18-year-old student at URI, who declined to be named, confesses that he can no longer feel enjoyment from watching sports without the high from betting.

Timothy Fong, a professor of psychiatry at the University of California, Los Angeles sees a similar pattern. Every one of his clients as of late has been an 18- to 24-year-old man seeking help for a sports-betting or cryptocurrency addiction. The financial wreckage can be severe, too. John Simonian, a personal-bankruptcy attorney in Rhode Island, says he never used to see young men filing for bankruptcy, “but now it’s not surprising”. Sports betting, he notices in young clients’ bank statements, is often one part of the equation.

Institutions have had an uneven and clunky response. Between 2021 and 2023 a handful of universities partnered with sports-betting firms directly, receiving cash for sponsorship and naming rights. Most have since ended the agreements. But in America there is the added complication that many campuses are filled with both bettors and those being bet on. March Madness, the annual basketball tournament played by college athletes, is by some accounts the most-bet-on event in the country, with more than twice as much wagered on it as the Super Bowl.

Read it all.

Student-athletes now face a torrent of abuse from losing gamblers. Last year the governing body of American college sport recorded 740 instances of harassment directly attributed to sports gambling https://t.co/X73pIEgdBm

— The Economist (@TheEconomist) December 8, 2025

While almost three-quarters of the clergy participating in a ten-year study agreed that they were fulfilling their sense of vocation, 40 per cent felt isolated in their ministry, a report published this week reveals.

Lord, for the Years, the fifth and final panel survey report for the decade-long Living Ministry study, observes: “While the feeling that one is fulfilling one’s vocation can be sustaining through all sorts of other challenges to wellbeing — and being unable to do so can feel devastating — pursuance of a calling can also lead to physical, social and material sacrifices which may be detrimental to wellbeing.”

The study, launched by the national Ministry Team in 2017, was designed to gather evidence about “what enables ministers to flourish in ministry”. In total, more than 1000 clergy, from groups ordained in 2006, 2011, and 2015, or who entered training in 2016, have participated (News, 24 February 2017).

The authors caution that the data should not be used in general terms as representative of all clergy. The four key challenges to well-being observed across the study are listed as: tiredness, isolation, demoralisation, and financial anxiety.

Read it all.

While almost three-quarters of the clergy participating in a ten-year study agreed that they were fulfilling their sense of vocation, 40 per cent felt isolated in their ministry, the final Living Ministry report says.https://t.co/86ZCXErdQk

— Madeleine Davies (@MadsDavies) December 5, 2025

In this month’s Q&A, contributing editor Serena Sigillito interviews Dr. Angela Franks about her new book, Body and Identity: A History of the Empty Self.

Serena Sigillito: I’ve just finished reading your fascinating new book. Can you give PD readers a brief description of the argument you make there?

Angela Franks: Sure. I argue that our concern with the body is usually a smokescreen for deeper questions about identity. I try to show historically why and how identity became a problem for us—why our culture is going through a systemic identity crisis. I try to show that this is not simply a new development, but it has its roots in phenomena that go back centuries, and even millennia.

SS: You’ve mentioned elsewhere that you were inspired, in part, to write this book by Carl Trueman’s The Rise and Triumph of the Modern Self. I found that a really helpful and thought-provoking comparison. My sense is that your book is more unabashedly academic than Carl’s. Your book seems like it’s aimed at the kind of people who write for places like Public Discourse, who can then draw on your scholarly work and translate it into a more accessible register and help popularize the ideas you articulate. Does that seem right to you?

AF: Yes, I think that’s accurate. I had already been working on my book when Carl’s came out. We got to know each other pretty soon after that, and—as I told him—I was very relieved that his book was not making mine superfluous! I think Carl’s book is primarily a work of translation, whereas mine is a more academic synthesis. One of the books that was really helpful to me was Charles Taylor’s Sources of the Self, as well as A Secular Age. Those books are similar to what I’m trying to do—a work that’s lengthier, with an abundant use of footnotes, that really gets into texts at a deeper level. The hope is that it shifts the scholarly discussion around identity.

Read it all.

A great interview with @theologianmom @PublicDiscourse on her fine book on “the empty self.” With @SerenaSigillito.

It wasn’t only secularism that “liquified” the body and emptied the self. Christianity played a large role too. What do we do with that?https://t.co/y6RwYWeaqb

— Rachel Lu (@rclu) December 1, 2025

No one worries about the insurance industry quite like Tom Gober.

From his home office outside of Pittsburgh, the forensic accountant has been tracking, documenting and highlighting the weaknesses of the $9.3 trillion sector responsible for the financial well-being of millions of Americans.

“I’ve been seeing warning signs for years, and I’ve been very vocal about it,” Gober, 66, said in a recent interview in his living room. More recently, he’s been paying attention to what he says is the most troubling development yet: The influx of private equity’s billions.

The industry waves off its critics as needlessly alarmist, always predicting a disaster that never comes. But that mid-October afternoon, Gober’s phone began to light up. Josh Wander, the co-founder of 777 Partners, a private equity firm on Gober’s radar, had been charged with cheating investors and lenders out of almost $500 million — an alleged fraud enabled in part by its opaque and intricate ties with some US insurance companies.

Read it all.

Some great reporting from Bloomberg this week about how private equity is making a grab for life insurance money and hiding it away where traders are gambling it without much oversight. https://t.co/QNe2jf8OzO pic.twitter.com/AIwLA0GEQT

— Heidi N. Moore (@moorehn) November 19, 2025

For most of human history, coupling up was not merely a norm; it was a necessity. Before reliable contraception, women could not control their fertility, and most were far too poor to raise children alone. Hence the centuries-old convention that, whereas a tragic play or saga ends in death, a happy one ends in marriage.

So the speed with which the norm of marriage—indeed, of relationships of any sort—is being abandoned is startling. Throughout the rich world, singlehood is on the rise. Among Americans aged 25-34, the proportion living without a spouse or partner has doubled in five decades, to 50% for men and 41% for women. Since 2010, the share of people living alone has risen in 26 out of 30 rich countries. By The Economist’s calculation, the world has at least 100m more single people today than if coupling rates were still as high as in 2017. A great relationship recession is under way.

For some, this is evidence of social and moral decay. As we report, many in the “pro-natalist” movement believe that the failure of the young to settle down and procreate threatens to end Western civilisation. For others, it is evidence of admirable self-reliance. Vogue, a fashion magazine, recently suggested that for cool, ambitious young women, having a boyfriend is not merely unnecessary but “embarrassing”.

In fact, the rise of singlehood is neither straightforwardly good nor bad. 

Read it all.

A future with far more singletons is fast approaching. That will reshape the world in ways good and bad. Everyone, from construction firms to the taxman, had better prepare https://t.co/VnDr8O2MYV pic.twitter.com/l6mVxmWgBH

— The Economist (@TheEconomist) November 6, 2025

In a statement to The Times, a spokesperson for the EHRC said: “This topic raises complex issues relevant to equality and human rights, and therefore our regulatory remit given the EHRC’s statutory powers and duties. As such, we have provided advice to the chair of the working group and the secretary of state for housing, communities and local government and stand ready to continue to do so.

“Legal protections against discrimination and hate crime already exist, so it is unclear what role a new definition would play in addressing discrimination and abuse targeted at Muslims. An official non-statutory definition risks being in conflict with existing legal definitions and provisions, resulting in inconsistency and potential confusion for courts and individuals.

“Should government proceed with adoption of a definition, we advise that this should be subject to a full public consultation so that all the potential risks and benefits can be considered.”

A spokesperson for the communities department said that a full consultation was not necessary under the law.

Read it all (requires subscription).

Islamophobia definition risks breaking the law, watchdog says https://t.co/OMabIwC21R

— Times Politics (@timespolitics) October 21, 2025

Nearly every student clutches a phone in one hand as they traverse the University of Central Florida campus, even while walking in groups. Laptops and tablets are lunchtime companions, and earbuds and headphones are routine accessories. While waiting for class to start, many students sit in silence, drawn into their devices.

It is a familiar and exasperating scene for Seán Killingsworth, 22, a former U.C.F. student. “What is this life I’m signing up for?” he asked himself during his sophomore year. “It was just like, I’m talking to a bunch of zombies.”

Mr. Killingsworth craved a space where he could chat with his peers without feeling as though he was intruding. When he was in high school, he ran into similar conundrums, so he would organize phone-free hangouts with friends.

Why not in college too?

In 2023, he helped bring the idea of no-phone social time to two different Florida campuses — U.C.F. and Rollins College. He called it the Reconnect Movement: During meetings, everyone was required to hand over their phone and socialize without devices, a concept that has become a big draw for like-minded students. Reconnect has now spread to six schools in four states. And in September it broadened its reach beyond students, hosting a phone-free event in New York — soon to be followed by Orlando and Tampa — that anyone could attend.

Read it all.

Can College Students Stand to Ditch Their Phones for an Hour or So? https://t.co/i64o5O5tUJ

— Rajiv Prabhakar (@rajivprab) October 1, 2025

“I’m currently working on a bunch of hellish paintings,” says the US-born artist Sedrick Chisom from his east London studio. One in particular, destined for the Paris Basel booth of gallery Pilar Corrias, features a Babel-esque “ziggurat tower structure that doubles as an active volcano”. In an earlier work, an axe-wielding “chaotic villain” is drawn with carnivalesque panache. “He’s got all the hallmarks,” says Chisom. “A really morose dying horse, his horns, and he’s just having a delightful time.”

The artist is interested, he says, in “the social dimension of designating something heaven or hell. It’s truly an intersubjective. What might be perceived as heaven by one person might be hell for another.” Chisom is one of a number of contemporary artists bringing the hellish and the heavenly to the canvas as a way of exploring personal and societal unrest, looming ecological crisis and utopian visions of possible transcendence.

At Hauser & Wirth in New York, Canadian painter Ambera Wellman’s current show Darkling (until 25 October) emits a sense of impending doom: her blurry, mutating figures seem to wrestle with a world in breakdown. German artist Florian Krewer sees his exhibition cold tears released at Michael Werner gallery (until 1 November) as a response to “the world feeling more heavy, more depressing and politically more conservative”, he says. By contrast, Greek-born Sofia Mitsola’s vibrant mythology offers a glimpse of paradise (albeit laced with a deadly siren call), and a sense of the sublime emanates from the Rococo interpretations of Flora Yukhnovich (seen in a new mural at The Frick in New York this autumn). Alabama-born artist Verne Dawson, meanwhile, paints a realistic kind of Eden.

Read it all.

What does the afterlife look like? https://t.co/sbYrnVccNK

— HTSI (@htsi) September 25, 2025

n a digitally oversaturated society like ours, distraction is a daily sparring partner. What begins as a quick check of the weather to decide what to wear on a morning run turns into 20 minutes of scrolling political takes or cat videos. Most of us don’t wake up thinking, I’d like to spend two hours watching Seinfeld reruns today, but here we are.

Our devices and internet algorithms are remarkably effective at capturing our attention and redirecting it from whatever we intend. Yet for all the well-earned anxiety about our attention crisis, a troubling tendency in our discourse is to conflate the predicament with concerns about productivity.

We can, and should, care about productivity and attention’s role in it. But when output and efficiency become our primary concern, it distorts the nature of attention. Attention becomes only a means to an end, problematically viewed as merely a “resource.” And the root of this problem is glimpsed in the most basic way we talk about attention: We pay it.

When we pay for something, we expect something beneficial or useful in return. When we pay, we’re the consumer—and we want to know that what we’re paying for is worth the cost. But attention isn’t something we pay. It’s something we should give.

.

We shouldn’t pay attention. We should give it.

That subtle shift in language “transforms how we inhabit our world.” https://t.co/bPt4H7Qhga

— Christianity Today (@CTmagazine) September 8, 2025

The percentage of U.S. adults who report currently having or being treated for depression has exceeded 18% in both 2024 and 2025, up about eight percentage points since the initial measurement in 2015.

The current rate of 18.3% measured so far in 2025 projects to an estimated 47.8 million Americans suffering from depression. Most of the increase has occurred since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. Gallup obtained the most recent results for 2025 Feb. 18-26 and May 27-June 4, 2025, with 11,288 U.S. adults surveyed by web as part of the probability-based Gallup Panel. Respondents were asked, “Has a doctor or nurse ever told you that you have depression?” and if yes, “Do you currently have or are you currently being treated for depression?”

Both metrics are part of the ongoing Gallup National Health and Well-Being Index. The percentage of adults who report having been diagnosed with depression in their lifetime stands at 28.5%, hovering near the record high of 29.0% measured in the first quarter of 2023.

Read it all.

U.S. Depression Rate Remains Historically High https://t.co/P24MAawQa4

— Rasha B Basha (@basharabasha_ra) September 9, 2025

Worldwide, people in more countries are living better lives and expressing more hope for the future than they have in years.

In 2024, a median of 33% of adults across 142 countries rated their lives well enough to be classified as “thriving,” continuing a trend of steady improvements in life evaluation going back more than a decade.

Gallup’s Life Evaluation Index, based on the Cantril Self-Anchoring Striving Scale, asks people to rate their current and future lives on a ladder from 0 (worst) to 10 (best). Those scoring 7+ for the present and 8+ for five years ahead are “thriving,” while those rating both 4 or below are “suffering.” Everyone else is “struggling.”

Understanding how people evaluate their own lives is an important measure of human progress, unlike traditional economic metrics like GDP, which, while related to living standards, fail to capture whether people are living well.

Read it all.

The world is becoming happier. More people across more countries say they are living better lives today and are hopeful for tomorrow, and fewer are suffering. 33% of adults across 142 countries rate their lives as "thriving", and the trend suggests even better times to come 🌍😊 pic.twitter.com/hqUk9N3nLu

— Mark Henry (@Mark_J_Henry) July 30, 2025

Jamie Mains showed up for her checkup so high that there was no point in pretending otherwise. At least she wasn’t shooting fentanyl again; medication was suppressing those cravings. Now it was methamphetamine that manacled her, keeping her from eating, sleeping, thinking straight. Still, she could not stop injecting.

“Give me something that’s going to help me with this,” she begged her doctor.

“There is nothing,” the doctor replied.

Overcoming meth addiction has become one of the biggest challenges of the national drug crisis. Fentanyl deaths have been dropping, in part because of medications that can reverse overdoses and curb the urge to use opioids. But no such prescriptions exist for meth, which works differently on the brain.

In recent years, meth, a highly addictive stimulant, has been spreading aggressively across the country, rattling communities and increasingly involved in overdoses. Lacking a medical treatment, a growing number of clinics are trying a startlingly different strategy: To induce patients to stop using meth, they pay them.

The approach has been around for decades, but most clinics were uneasy about adopting it because of its bluntly transactional nature. 

Read it all.

Meth use is surging, but unlike opioids, there’s no approved medication to ease cravings. In response, clinics across the country are offering small financial rewards to help patients. It’s a behavioral intervention that’s showing real results. Read more: https://t.co/eaDcMOJu87

— Addiction Policy Forum (@AddictionPolicy) July 17, 2025

The theory of clergy work/life balance is on every diocesan website, and many others besides, discussed at length from all viewpoints. The general conclusion today seems to be that a 48-hour week is about right, plus a bit more if you are going to be very conscientious, with one 24-hour period a week not working, and maybe an extra day off a month — all this, wrapped in language that makes it plain that it is up to the individual to take responsibility for their own health and well-being.

So much for the theory; but what about the reality of life in a parish, where the daily torrent of emails, phone calls, diocesan directives, pastoral demands, and personal challenges threatens to overcome the hapless priest, submerging them beneath a tide of operational activities? Only a lone hand is left above the waves, holding aloft a small white piece of plastic, the symbol of their calling, hoping that they can get to the shore of annual leave before they drown.

This is exaggeration, perhaps, but probably a feeling that few have escaped at least some time in their lives — a state of “overwhelm” which I have certainly experienced and prefer to remain clear of, if at all possible. The pastoral calls made upon us, however, the late nights spent crafting sermons or creating props for family-friendly services, the early waking hours reflecting on church finances, or the stomach-sinking safeguarding issues — these are all part of the priest’s daily lot. A strategy that enables us not only to survive, but to thrive, must be worked out if we are to remain as parish clergy for any length of time.

Read it all.

In the parish: the theory and reality of clergy work/life balance https://t.co/A7fcAAiN26

— Church Times (@ChurchTimes) July 11, 2025

There is a lot of research and a lot of effort focused on the idea that if we can design AIs in a certain way, if we can teach them certain principles, if we can code into them certain goals, then we will be safe.

But the two main problems with this approach are: First, the very definition of AI is that it can learn and change by itself. So when you design an AI, by definition, this thing is going to do all kinds of things which you cannot anticipate.

The other, even bigger, problem is that we can think about AI like a baby or a child. And you can educate a child to the best of your ability. He or she will still surprise you for better or worse. No matter how much you invest in their education, they are independent agents. They might eventually do something which will surprise you and even horrify you.

The other thing is, everybody who has any knowledge of education knows that in the education of children, it matters far less what you tell them. It matters far more what you do. If you tell your kids, “Don’t lie,” and your kids watch you lying to other people, they will copy your behavior, not your instructions.

Now if we have now this big project to educate the AIs not to lie, but the AIs are given access to the world and they watch how humans behave and they see some of the most powerful humans on the planet, including their parents, lying, the AI will copy the behavior.

Read it all.

Will AIs lie a lot in the future? Yes, if they copy us humans, says this author https://t.co/jtvWbwp6Sw

— The Wall Street Journal (@WSJ) June 29, 2025

Frustrated with dating apps, singles are shelling out for high-end matchmaking.

“We had our biggest month of sales in the history of the company last month, and we’ve been around for 15 years,” Adam Cohen-Aslatei, CEO of the matchmaking service Three Day Rule says. “Our business is not shrinking.”

And he’s not alone. Demand for personalized dating services is growing, according to companies interviewed by Bloomberg, with clients citing “app fatigue” and a desire for meaningful connection as the motivation for ditching the swipes.

Read it all.

Elite dating services are thriving, stoked by app fatigue and "Materialists" the movie https://t.co/vHzSWU11pP

— Bloomberg (@business) June 24, 2025

In the House of Lords recently, there was a question about the rise in the number of old-age pensioners shoplifting. The peer who asked it was clearly trying to draw attention to the extent of poverty among older people. The Minister, Lord Hanson of Flint, in his answer, said that shoplifting by anyone, whether a pensioner or not, was “unacceptable” and should not be “tolerated”.

Why those words? Why not just say that it was wrong? For some time now, we have been frightened of using the word. We even talk about shoplifting rather than stealing. Those who use social media can be very judgemental, but, even there, words such as “right” and “wrong” do not necessarily come naturally.

For centuries, all children were taught the Ten Commandments; in many churches, they were written on either side of the altar. People grew up believing that they lived in a universe in which moral choices had to be made: it was not just a matter of what was legal or expedient, but what was right.

This certainly prevailed until the end of the 1950s….

Read it all.

Why are people reluctant to use the words ‘right’ and ‘wrong’ wonders Richard Harrieshttps://t.co/TR1q7hhsZZ

— Church Times (@ChurchTimes) June 5, 2025

This isn’t the steady march of technological progress we’re used to. It’s a cliff jump that has left experts, filmmakers, and society scrambling to understand what just happened. The sudden leap from obviously fake AI videos to nearly indistinguishable synthetic content represents one of the most dramatic capability jumps in recent tech history.

One place where it is being embraced is Hollywood. Media executives who sat nervously in conference audiences taking notes about AI experimentation as recently as a few years ago are now publicly discussing their active use of these tools. Amazon Studios recently spoke openly about integrating generative AI into its creative pipelines, marking what one industry insider called “a come to Jesus moment” where the technology became too useful to ignore. The shift makes sense: When daily shooting costs reach $200,000 in Los Angeles and traditional VFX houses are shutting down, AI isn’t just innovation — it’s survival.

But the real disruption isn’t happening in studio boardrooms. It’s in the complete democratization of sophisticated video manipulation. What once required teams of VFX artists, expensive software, and Hollywood budgets can now be accomplished by anyone with $1.50 and an internet connection. Veo 3’s pricing structure puts the creation of convincing fake videos within reach of essentially everyone, collapsing barriers that previously served as natural safeguards against widespread media manipulation.

Read it all.

AI video is getting real. What comes next won't be: A leap from obviously fake AI videos to nearly indistinguishable synthetic content is one of the most dramatic capability jumps in recent tech history https://t.co/9XnJ04n8ne pic.twitter.com/ZBXQEK0Dz4

— Quartz (@qz) June 16, 2025

When I first stepped behind the host lectern on the quiz show “Jeopardy!,” I was intimidated for two reasons. Most obviously, I had the hopeless task of filling the very large shoes of Alex Trebek, the legendary broadcaster and pitch-perfect host who’d been synonymous with the show since 1984.

But I was also keenly aware that the show was one of TV’s great institutions, almost a public trust. Since I was 10 years old, I’d watched Alex Trebek carve out a safe space for people to know things, where viewers get a steady diet of 61 accurate (and hopefully even interesting) facts every game. And I wondered: Even if “Jeopardy!” could survive the loss in 2020 of its peerless host, could it survive the conspiracy theories and fake news of our post-fact era?

Facts may seem faintly old-timey in the 21st century, remnants of the rote learning style that went out of fashion in classrooms (and that the internet search made obsolete) decades ago. But societies are built on facts, as we can see more clearly when institutions built on knowledge teeter. Inaccurate facts make for less informed decisions. Less informed decisions make for bad policy. Garbage in, garbage out.

I’ve always hated the fact that “trivia,” really our only word in English for general-knowledge facts and games, is the same word we use to mean “things of no importance.” So unfair! Etymologically, the word is linked to the trivium of medieval universities, the three fundamental courses of grammar, rhetoric and logic. And much of today’s so-called trivia still deals with subjects that are fundamentally academic.

Read it all.

As a citizen and Jeopardy! champion, I approve! Ken Jennings: Trivia and ‘Jeopardy!’ Could Save Our Republic
https://t.co/L5GHbBqt9B

— Meg Gardiner (@MegGardiner1) June 5, 2025

The lady on the phone had seen my number in the musician section of the local classifieds. She asked if I could fill in as a drummer for the worship team the upcoming Sunday. I thought, Why not? I guess I should do something good.

I expected it to feel unbearably awkward to step back inside a church after all those years, but I was surprised at how the worship team welcomed me without judgment or pretense and how natural it felt to be there. One Sunday became two, then three, and soon I was a part of the regular rotation.

After a time, one of the guys, Seth, invited me over for dinner at his house. I accepted, half expecting him to back out. But when I showed up, he and his wife, Jayme, served me a meal and even had a cold beer ready. That was not what I was expecting. We spent the evening talking and laughing.

They invited me back the next week and the week after that, until these dinners became a weekly ritual. There was no agenda, no pressure—just warm hospitality.

One evening, Seth said, “How about after dinner we talk about what makes you angry about Christianity?”

Oh, I was all in on this. I had a lot of rage and was ready to share it.

He patiently listened as I vented all my frustrations—the hypocrisy of Christians, the failures of pastors, and the shallow faith I’d seen in others. To my surprise, he wasn’t defensive. He nodded and said, “I share some of your concerns. I think Jesus does too.”

Sometimes he’d pull out his Bible and ask me to read a section of the Gospels, asking, “What do you think Jesus would say about this?”

Read it all (subscription).

"But my desire to join this crew did not start by reading Mein Kampf. What drew me was the things the group offered: a sense of strength and inclusion in something greater than myself. The belonging, no matter how flawed, came first. Ideology followed.

Years later, a different…

— InterVarsity Press (@ivpress) May 16, 2025

Matthew Hunter woke up disoriented, his cheek against concrete. He looked around and saw a rectangular bench, a camera and a toilet. There was no window. He sat up and noticed what he was wearing: cargo shorts and a Mötley Crüe T-shirt, same as the night before. Socks but no shoes.

Hunter, who had been an officer in the Des Moines Police Department for 21 years, was on the wrong side of a cell door. He searched his memory, straining to make sense of how he got there, but found only fragments. Long stretches of the previous night had gone dark. He remembered arriving at a relative’s house in his Chevy Silverado pickup truck, walking inside with his wife for a family celebration. He recalled finishing a bottle of Jack Daniel’s. He would learn more about what happened later from body-camera footage and police reports, which said he tried to drive off in his truck, insulted officers, called them “podunk” and worse, banged his head against the side of a police van, threatened a jail guard, collapsed on the ground and wept inconsolably.

He had been in trouble long before that night. Hunter, who was 45 and recently promoted to sergeant, had been spiraling for months, ever since his best friend died by suicide. Hunter and Joe Morgan had been paired up as partners early in their careers, patrolling the mostly blue-collar neighborhoods of the city’s east side. Morgan was a couple of years older and more seasoned; he previously worked at a smaller agency and served as chief in a town of 500 before joining Des Moines, the state’s largest Police Department. The two men clicked instantly and became close. Both fanatical Minnesota Vikings fans, they found much to commiserate about during football seasons. When it snowed, they wore matching hats with furry flaps covering their ears.

On Sept. 16, 2020, Hunter was in his bedroom, changing out of his uniform, preparing to help his wife make dinner for their three children, when he received a call. “Joe Morgan just killed himself,” a sergeant told him. Hunter didn’t believe it at first. If he had been asked to name cops who might hurt themselves, his friend would not have been on the list.

He climbed into his truck and drove five minutes through the suburbs to Morgan’s home, parking on a quiet street with tidy lawns. He walked past a dozen patrol cars and approached the crime-scene tape that circled his friend’s driveway. He had ducked beneath yellow tape hundreds of times in his career, but that night he felt his pace slow, as a familiar act suddenly became filled with foreboding. He approached the officers crowded around Morgan’s S.U.V., peered between them, then stepped closer. He saw Morgan lying on his back, his shirt removed. One of his flip-flops, left behind as officers had dragged him out of the driver’s seat, dangled from the S.U.V.’s running board. There was a dark hole in his friend’s chest.

Read it all.

Why Do More Police Officers Die by Suicide Than in the Line of Duty? – The New York Times https://t.co/sA6gMgjwpc

— Mental Ammo (@MentalAmmo) May 8, 2025