2024 Top Ten | The Most Popular Stories from the Building H Newsletter
We've shared a lot of stories on how tech, design and everyday life affects our health in our newsletter this year. Here’s a list of the ten stories that were most popular with our readers, along with what we said of them:
10.
“End the Phone-Based Childhood Now”
Jonathan Haidt in The Atlantic
The controversial social psychologist Jonathan Haidt has a new book coming out entitled The Anxious Generation: How the Great Rewiring of Childhood Is Causing an Epidemic of Mental Illness. Haidt excerpts the book in his article, “End the Phone-Based Childhood Now,” in The Atlantic. In it, Haidt steps back and describes the enormous transformation that has occurred in the experience of childhood and links it to dramatic negative shifts in mental health, social connection and academic achievement, along with declines in dating, sexual activity, and teenage employment. Read our full commentary.
9.
“Bike Lanes Are Good for Business”
Adam Rogers in Business Insider
Adam Rogers begins his piece “Bike Lanes Are Good for Business” by noting the knee-jerk and not unreasonable fear that many small business owners have about adding bike lanes to downtown streets. They, of course, worry that the attendant removal of parking spaces will make it harder for customers to reach them by car, and anything that limits vehicle access to their stores will cut into their sales. It all makes sense, except, as Rogers shows quite clearly in the article, it’s wrong. Read our full commentary.
8.
“Kevin Hall: What Should We Eat?”
interview by Eric Topol in Ground Truths
If you want to geek out on the latest on ultraprocessed foods and other topics in nutrition, check out Eric Topol’s interview with leading NIH nutrition scientist Kevin Hall. They did into the results of the most significant experiments on ultraprocessed foods, what we do and don’t know about obesity, the links between diet and immune system response, and more. It’s a treat.
7.
“I Think This Will Fix Me”
Melissa Broder in Harper’s Bazaar
The writer Melissa Broder takes readers on a wild ride through her wellness journey in this piece for Harper’s Bazaar and portrays a nation obsessed with wellness products, fixes and hacks – that isn’t getting any more, um, well as a result. The market for wellness as a product that individuals can buy for themselves is booming, we are more “therapized” and medicated than ever – and yet also more anxious and depressed. (In an ironic twist Broder herself describes ultimately being diagnosed with OCD related to her obsession with mental health and her compulsion to try to fix it.)
6.
“Breaking Down The Power Broker with Conan O’BrieN”
from the 99% Invisible podcast
We’ve been thinking a lot about Robert Moses of late - mostly because of the amazing 99% Invisible Book Club that is spending 2024 reading and podcasting through The Power Broker, Robert Caro’s Pulitzer Prize winner biography of Moses. (Yes, we were among those who have owned the Power Broker for 30-plus years, but never really read the 1,200 page opus. Until now.) If you aren’t reading and listening to this - START HERE, NOW. The book is legendary, and the podcast shakes off those 50 years of dust since the book came out and makes it relevant for today. Plus: it’s one of the most readable, most gripping books we’ve ever read.
5.
“Why Americans Suddenly Stopped Hanging Out”
Derek Thompson in The Atlantic
Derek Thompson at The Atlantic is one of our favorite writers on modern life - he digs deep to understand how things are going sideways in small ways that loom large. His latest in The Atlantic is "Why Americans Suddenly Stopped Hanging Out" - and it's a sad but illuminating understanding of how isolation creates a compounding effect that enforces itself. The more alone we are, the more alone we become. It's a great read with great reporting. Must read for the week.
4.
“I switched to a flip phone and dramatically improved my well-being”
Mark Lukach in the Washington Post
Ever wonder what it would be like to ditch your smartphone and go back to a flip phone? According to Mark Lukach, who did just that, It’s pretty annoying … and kinda wonderful.
3.
“Will a diet that’s good for the planet also help you live longer? Here’s the evidence”
Karen Kaplan in the LA Times
A team of Harvard research recently published a clever study that tracked health outcomes in a longitudinal study by how closely participants adhered to a diet that was carefully chosen to be environmentally sustainable. And the results point to a clear win-win: the more environmentally sustainable the diet, the less likely people were to die from cancer, heart disease, Alzheimer’s, infectious diseases and less likely to die from all causes.
2.
“Information is a determinant of health”
Garth Graham, Nira Goren, Vignesh Sounderajah & Karen DeSalvo in Nature Medicine
More than a decade ago, Thomas gave a TED talk where he said that health "isn't a science problem - it's an information problem." Honestly, we thought it would hit harder than it did. It only took 12 years!!! So we (read: Thomas) were glad to see a letter in Nature recently from the Google Health team entitled "Information is a determinant of health." The Google team broke it down way more expertly than we did back in 2011, but it's great to see the point embossed: Advances in sharing health information can change more people's lives than advances in science. Science comes second.
1.
“Ozempic Could Crush the Junk Food Industry. But It Is Fighting Back.”
Tomas Weber in the New York Times Magazine
We got part of the answer this last week in an absorbing cover story in the New York Times Magazine, titled: “Ozempic Could Crush the Junk Food Industry. But It Is Fighting Back.” The article, by Tomas Weber, had us enthralled for three reasons. First, it was a deep dive into Mattson Foods, a food development company based in Foster City, California. Read our full commentary.
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