Health

The Opposite of Socialized Medicine

A small, litigious group has spent decades trying to stop the government from telling doctors what to do. What happens if it succeeds?

• Olga Khazan
• February 25, 2020

Meat Trimmings Are a Health Food Now

People love fancy Slim Jims.

• Amanda Mull
• February 21, 2020

Corporate Buzzwords Are How Workers Pretend to Be Adults

Circle back and kill me now.

• Olga Khazan
• February 19, 2020

A Photographer Has Spent 20 Years Documenting Stillbirths

For grieving families, the photos preserve the only memories they have of their child.

• Sarah Zhang
• February 18, 2020

The Neglected Consequences of Foot-Binding

Just how much is society willing to damage women in order to control them?

• Antonia Malchik
• February 14, 2020

Coronavirus Is a Data Time Bomb

It will be a long time before we understand what the outbreak did to the global economy.

• Alexis C. Madrigal
• February 13, 2020

The Doctors Who Bill You While You’re Unconscious

A fifth of U.S. patients get surprise bills from surgery—even if their surgeon and hospital are in-network.

• Olga Khazan
• February 11, 2020

How Your Laptop Ruined Your Life

Smartphones aren’t the only killers of work-life balance.

• Amanda Mull
• February 10, 2020

20 Seconds to Optimize Hand Wellness

One of the world’s most crucial and selfless acts is still simply washing your hands.

• James Hamblin
• February 6, 2020

My Hometown Is Being Ravaged by the Coronavirus

My friend in Wuhan messaged me: “Don’t come back for Chinese New Year.”

• Xinyan Yu
• February 5, 2020

The Ominous Rise of Toddler Milk

Baby-formula sales are slumping, so the companies that make it have turned to supplements for 3-year-olds.

• Olga Khazan
• February 4, 2020

The New Coronavirus Is a Truly Modern Epidemic

New diseases are mirrors that reflect how a society works—and where it fails.

• Ed Yong
• February 3, 2020

Why Men Think Plant-Based Meat Will Turn Them Into Women

A viral claim that Impossible Whoppers would make men “grow boobs” plays into long-held beliefs about power and sex.

• James Hamblin
• February 3, 2020

We Don’t Have Enough Masks

Pandemics will require deciding who needs respirators and surgical masks, and who doesn’t.

• James Hamblin
• January 30, 2020

The New Trophies of Domesticity

For many young Americans, stability and sophistication look like a KitchenAid mixer.

• Amanda Mull
• January 29, 2020

The New Black Body

My case for equal-opportunity cosmetic enhancements

• Chloé Hilliard
• January 28, 2020

The Deceptively Simple Number Sparking Coronavirus Fears

Here’s what the oft-cited R0 number tells us about the new outbreak—and what it doesn’t.

• Ed Yong
• January 28, 2020

The Problem That Psychology Can’t Shake

Ten years after a seminal paper laid bare psychology’s white, affluent, Western skew, not much has changed.

• Michael Schulson and Undark
• January 25, 2020