After researchers found that we’re speaking less and less each year, Shayla Love spent a week collecting audio recordings from her own life. www.newyorker.com/culture/anna...
What Scientists Learned by Eavesdropping on Thousands of People
After researchers found that we’re speaking less and less each year, Shayla Love spent a week collecting audio recordings from her own life.
newyorker.com
For The New Yorker's June 1 issue, I wrote about how climate change will affect microbes— featuring flesh eating bacteria, revived Arctic bugs, a very sticky fungi, and more.
The New Yorker@newyorker.com · 2mo ago“Flesh-eating” bacteria is spreading. Microbiomes may never be the same. Are we ready? www.newyorker.com/magazine/202...
In @newscientist.com, I participated in "visualization" coaching to try and improve my aphantasia—the inability to see images in your mind's eye. I learned a lot about what's going on inside my head—even if it still isn't visual! www.newscientist.com/article/2520...
I don’t see images in my head. Can training give me a mind’s eye?
Training programmes for people with aphantasia – the inability to create mental images – are challenging neuroscientists' understanding of how we create thoughts
newscientist.com
For the @newrepublic.com May issue, I wrote about what to make of the right's focus on animal welfare in scientific research and medical testing. newrepublic.com/article/2088...
MAHA Is Monkeying Around With Lab Rats
The Trump administration seems determined to reduce scientific testing on animals. Just how serious is it about its new pet project?
newrepublic.com
I wrote about the fantasy— and reality— of learning while you are sleeping 😴 www.newyorker.com/culture/anna...
It’s Possible to Learn in Our Sleep. Should We?
Learning while sleeping had long been relegated to the realm of quackery, but new studies suggest that we may be able to problem-solve and practice skills in our dreams.
newyorker.com
I wrote about getting married, feeling like an adult, and the many ways to divide up a life into stages www.newyorker.com/culture/anna...
When Do We Become Adults, Really?
Scientists define the stages of life in biological, societal, and chronological terms—but none of them quite capture what it’s like to grow up.
newyorker.com
“I call them Homo sapiens 2.0." I wrote about natural short sleepers (via gene mutations) and what they do with their extra time.
The New Yorker@newyorker.com · 6mo agoShort sleepers, who make up less than one per cent of the population, spend significantly less than eight hours snoozing without any apparent health consequences. What can these rare individuals teach us about our relationship with rest? newyorkermag.visitlink.me/WQhwQk
I wrote about how to learn why we're so emotionally moved by music: by studying those who don't care for it at all.
The New Yorker@newyorker.com · 6mo agoThe study of musical anhedonia—the inability to enjoy music—is revealing how music moves us. www.newyorker.com/culture/anna...
Animals greetings are common, but it was long thought that only humans say goodbye. I wrote about the search for the elusive nonhuman goodbye, and how weird our farewells are if you stop to think about them: www.newyorker.com/culture/anna...
Animals Say Hello, but Do They Say Goodbye?
In recent years, researchers have challenged the idea that farewells are uniquely human.
newyorker.com
When a French village became an ALS hot spot, neurologists found that the patients consistently ate three foods. Shayla Love traveled there to investigate: Revisit the story from March, which became one of The Atlantic’s most-read articles of 2025: theatln.tc/DpPZNmMC
The theory of cognitive dissonance has become ubiquitous—but newly released documents seem to debunk the concept’s foundational case study. www.newyorker.com/culture/the-...
Is Cognitive Dissonance Actually a Thing?
A foundational 1956 study of the concept, focussed on a U.F.O. doomsday cult, has been all but debunked by new research.
newyorker.com
Over the summer, I went to a small Norwegian island where the sun doesn't set for weeks on end. I tried my best to live without the clock, and confront my relationship with time.
The Atlantic@theatlantic.com · 8mo agoIn Sommarøy, a small Norwegian village north of the Arctic Circle, residents have an exceptionally lax approach to timekeeping. Shayla Love traveled there to find out whether modern life really can break free from the clock.
I wrote about new revelations about the influential study of a UFO doomsday group from the 1950s, and the book When Prophecy Fails. Come for the aliens, stay to ponder a difficult question: what do people do when they're confronted with inconsistency? www.newyorker.com/culture/the-...
Is Cognitive Dissonance Actually a Thing?
A foundational 1956 study of the concept, focussed on a U.F.O. doomsday cult, has been all but debunked by new research.
newyorker.com
Starting this month, I'm a contributing writer at The Microdose! I'll be working on 5 Questions; my first asks Lucas Richert about Ritalin-assisted therapy. themicrodose.substack.com/p/ritalin-as...
Ritalin-assisted therapy: 5 Questions for historian of pharmacy Lucas Richert
Richert discusses the drugs that have made their way onto the therapist’s couch.
themicrodose.substack.com
For @us.theguardian.com I wrote about "paradoxical insomnia"—the strange experience of being asleep but not *knowing* you're asleep
Thomas Andrillon@thomasandrillon.bsky.social · 9mo agoThanks to @theguardian.com for this spotlight on "paradoxical insomnia". One of the many fascinating oddities of sleep, when people look like they slept, but do not feel like they slept. #sleep #insomnia 🧠🧪💤 www.theguardian.com/wellness/202...
For NatGeo I wrote about a neuroscientist trying to understand religious belief through the study of miracles www.nationalgeographic.com/science/arti...
Why are humans religious? Scientists are studying miracles to find out.
Miracles by definition defy science. But a new research effort attempts to understand what our experiences with them do to the brain.
nationalgeographic.com
I went to a pop-up city on an island off the coast of Honduras, which bills itself as a hub for fast-tracking longevity drugs. I wrote about what I found there for @newrepublic.com: newrepublic.com/article/2011...
The Island Where People Go to Cheat Death
In a pop-up city off the coast of Honduras, longevity startups are trying to fast-track anti-aging drugs. Is this the future of medical research?
newrepublic.com
Our food may soon look very different if synthetic dyes are eliminated. For @newyorker.com I wrote about the hunt for stable natural colorants: www.newyorker.com/science/elem...
What We Eat May Never Look the Same
R.F.K., Jr., and the MAHA movement are at war with synthetic food dyes. Scientists are racing to reinvent the culinary color wheel.
newyorker.com
How much is the psychedelic experience influenced by what we see, hear and read? We made a way to measure it: The Psychedelic Media Exposure Questionnaire - developed by Audrey Evers, Chris Kelly, @shaylalove.bsky.social , @tehseennoorani.bsky.social, validated on >600 respondents. Link below:
The Psychedelic Media Exposure Questionnaire: The development and validation of a new scale assessing psychedelic-related media exposure
Rationale: A reliable and valid instrument is needed to measure exposure to psychedelic-related media to examine the impact of media and expectations on outcomes in psychedelic clinical trials. Object...
medrxiv.org
Earlier this year, I went from Iowa to central Sardinia to write about the efforts to make American cities more like “blue zones,” the now-controversial longevity hot spots. In the @newrepublic.com: newrepublic.com/article/1883...
The Longevity Hot Spots That Weren’t
Our culture has become obsessed with “blue zones,” where people purportedly live longer. But does the underlying research stand up to scrutiny?
newrepublic.com
Last December, I went to the French Alps to write about a medical mystery: In a small village, more than a dozen people were diagnosed with ALS, 10x higher than expected. This is the result of a decade-long investigation to try to understand why. www.theatlantic.com/health/archi...
An ‘Impossible’ Disease Outbreak in the Alps
In one tiny town, more than a dozen people were diagnosed with the rare neurodegenerative disease ALS. Why?
theatlantic.com
Insects are small, they don’t scream or bleed red, and many are considered pests; we tend to kill or mutilate them without pause. For @newyorker.com I wrote about the investigations into whether insects feel pain. www.newyorker.com/culture/anna...
Do Insects Feel Pain?
Insects make up about forty per cent of living species, and we tend to kill them without pause. New research explores the possibility that they are sentient.
newyorker.com
On today's edition of '100 Years of 100 Things', @shaylalove.bsky.social connected the rise of RFK jr. to the wellness trends in American history. www.wnyc.org/story/100-ye...
100 Years of 100 Things: American Wellness | The Brian Lehrer Show | WNYC
As our centennial series continues, Shayla Love, a staff writer at The Atlantic, reviews the history of American interests in 'wellness.'
wnyc.org
Nothing could be more delightful than reading @shaylalove.bsky.social on 19th century wellness influencers, and their spiritual successor, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. www.theatlantic.com/health/archi...
America Can’t Break Its Wellness Habit
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. fits into a long history of Americans who have waged battle against conventional medicine.
theatlantic.com
Our Goop-ified health world may seem fundamentally modern, but there is a direct line between today’s wellness industry and the mid-1800s/ early 20th century. I wrote how the history of wellness is the best way to understand RFK Jr.'s appeal: www.theatlantic.com/health/archi...
RFK Jr. Is Seducing America With Wellness
The best way to defuse Kennedy’s power is not by litigating his beliefs, but by understanding why the promise of being well has such lasting appeal.
theatlantic.com
Earlier this year, I went from Iowa to central Sardinia to write about the efforts to make American cities more like “blue zones,” the now-controversial longevity hot spots. In the @newrepublic.com: newrepublic.com/article/1883...
The Longevity Hot Spots That Weren’t
Our culture has become obsessed with “blue zones,” where people purportedly live longer. But does the underlying research stand up to scrutiny?
newrepublic.com
If you, too, enjoy "is this grift?" stories that move from immortality desires to research errors to the Aspen Ideas Festival to our ambivalent relationship to modernity, you must MUST read this @shaylalove.bsky.social piece on the Blue Zones scandal. It's got it all. newrepublic.com/article/1883...
The Longevity Hot Spots That Weren’t
Our culture has become obsessed with “blue zones,” where people purportedly live longer. But does the underlying research stand up to scrutiny?
newrepublic.com
I talked to @shaylalove.bsky.social about the paradox of non-psychedelic trips www.theatlantic.com/health/archi...
Tripping on Nothing
New, non-hallucinogenic versions of psychedelics are blurring the boundaries of the drug trip.
theatlantic.com
Modern psychedelic users and advocates, as a group, have no consistent political slant. www.theatlantic.com/health/archi...
The Horseshoe Theory of Psychedelics
Donald Trump’s 2024 campaign has cemented the right’s romance with hallucinogenic drugs.
theatlantic.com
I wrote about the growing overlap between psychedelic and longevity communities. As Bryan Johnson told me: “Psychedelics and longevity seem like long-lost best friends.” www.theguardian.com/wellness/202...
‘Long-lost best friends’: the longevity movement finds psychedelics
The mental-health benefits of psychedelics are a draw for a growing community of people committed to reversing ageing
theguardian.com