When you are facing stressful situations with another person, is it better for them to stay calm or be stressed out alongside you? Though it may seem intuitive that it is preferable for one party to remain calm, a study published in Frontiers in Psychology suggests that when the stress is validated, reactivity can decrease, but only for women.

Western culture today equates the pursuit of happiness with seeking out pleasure and comfort. But without the pursuit of experiences and goals that entail a certain degree of suffering, our lives would be meaningless, argues Paul Bloom in this interview.

One day, hopefully many, many years from now, you are going to die. Sometime after that, everyone who ever knew you, your family, friends, acquaintances and so on, will also die, until one day every trace of your existence will be wiped off the face of the earth.

Esta-America.com combed through over 100 online sources to determine which destinations around the world are at the top of people’s bucket lists. With travel slowly returning to normalcy following the pandemic, discover which cities and countries are likely to thrive with tourists once more.

While advocates called for a move to more livable communities, the experience in Canada has proven more halting, and less permanent, than in other countries

Men living in the United States are far sicker than men in similarly wealthy countries, a new report has found. Among other things, American men are more likely to die early from preventable causes than those living in 10 other countries, including Canada, Australia, and the UK. Financially struggling men also tended to be worse off in the U.S. than elsewhere.

We’ve been “productive” enough — produced way too much, in fact. And there is too much that urgently needs to be done.

The separate poverty guidelines for Alaska and Hawaii reflect Office of Economic Opportunity administrative practice beginning in the 1966-1970 period. Note that the poverty thresholds — the original version of the poverty measure — have never had separate figures for Alaska and Hawaii.

Do humans always want more, or are we sometimes just happy with our lot? This debate has long raged in multiple disciplines: economics, politics, and even philosophy. And whether an unlimited desire for more is inherent or a product of capitalism is equally hotly contested.

Worried about the proliferation of plastic trash in the environment and her own body, a journalist tried to shop plastic-free for 7 days. She found plastic in a lot of sneaky and surprising places.

When it comes to financing options, consumers now have alternatives to credit cards in the form of “Buy Now, Pay Later” services. These services such as Affirm, Afterpay, Klarna and PayPal Credit allow consumers to make interest-free installment payments on a purchase over the course of several weeks. According to respondents, 60% say they have used a Buy Now, Pay Later service. Of those, nearly half (46%) are currently making a payment or payments through one of those services.

This may sound strange, but it’s good to make mistakes. In fact, there are certain mistakes you should make in life to become stronger.

New data show politicians have a considerable survival advantage over general populations, based on information from 11 countries and over 57,500 politicians. In some countries this survival advantage is at the highest level for 150 years, and life expectancy at age 45 was found to be around seven years higher for politicians compared to general populations in certain countries.

As Americans, we take comfort in the idea that we have the right to plan our own lives. We are unique in our confidence that it is within our power to move to a better life, as so many of our ancestors did. Where other countries talk about managing stagnation and even decline, we stand undaunted in our assurance that the limits of our wealth and the frontier of innovation lay well into the future.

Frances Day’s husband died during the first wave of the Covid-19 pandemic, so there was no funeral. “It was a horrid, horrid time. I was on my own. It took a long time for me to get fairly steady,” she says. Her 82nd birthday passed, and as the summer wore on, she thought: “I’ve got to do something. I don’t want my life to end now. I want to have a few adventures. Let’s start with veganism.”

This post is part two of a two-part series on how we may be unintentionally sabotaging our joy. You can read Part 1 here, where I discuss stifling joy to fit cultural norms. We may find ourselves withholding positive emotions when we feel like our enthusiasm would be judged harshly. For example, I recently got more enjoyment out of attending a local political debate than I did watching the Super Bowl. At first, I was embarrassed to be fascinated by something many people see as boring. Then, I realized I’m worthy of joy at every opportunity, and I embraced it.

Angela Maria Ortiz Roa loves almost everything about her single-wide manufactured home in Boulder's Mapleton Mobile Home Park. The community offers a rare option for affordable homeownership in the heart of the city. After moving in months before the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, Ortiz Roa now has space for bongos and keyboards she plays with her son. A dog named Poma has joined the family. A corner in the living room is packed with potted house plants, which she fertilizes with compost from a bin full of worms in her kitchen.

@IAmTimDowling writes about the end of ambition, involuntary grunts and a mistrust of bathroom fittings.

A Smiths Falls, Ont., couple say they're pleased the town has rescinded an order to uproot their "naturalized" lawn, but fear the battle isn't over yet. Instead of a manicured lawn and garden, Beth and Craig Sinclair planted 150 trees and other native plant species in front of their bungalow. The couple, who moved to Smiths Falls from Seattle about a decade ago, said natural lawns like theirs are common in their former city.

In 2012, feminist activist Silvia Federici wrote to dismantle much of what we know and hold dear: “Nothing so effectively stifles our lives as the transformation into work of the activities and relations that satisfy our desires.”