News Sidequest

Tinder launched Group Hangouts today — groups of 3 to 15 friends create a shared profile, discover other groups, and if both groups like each other, get a shared chat to plan an in-person outing. Testing in Australia found a 40% acceptance rate and women were 2.2 times more likely to like a group profile than a one-on-one. Also: the Environmental Justice Foundation published "Poison Plastics," finding that 93% of known plastic chemicals in everyday products — water bottles, kitchenware, clothing, toys — are classified as high-risk to human health, and more than 50% of those chemicals aren't regulated by any major jurisdiction. And Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced that beginning next year, Americans can apply for their first passport entirely online through America.gov — taking their own photo on a smartphone, uploading it, paying online, and tracking the application in real time. "No printing forms, no drugstore hostage photo, no appointment, no line, no middleman." Plus the shark in the New Jersey flood, the whale sinking the yacht, flesh-eating bacteria, and the TSA standing mandate.

Derek Thompson published a piece today finding that the share of Americans who host friends or family at home at least monthly has fallen from 42% in 1975 to 12% in 2026 — a 70% collapse in 50 years. Critically, it's not because people are out doing other things: everyone is home. They're just not inviting anyone over. Also: Bank of America card data finds hobby spending rose 7.9% year over year in August — twice the rate of transactions — as people shift from expensive travel toward at-home activities, but funflation means the at-home alternatives are also getting pricier. And astronomers using the MeerKAT radio array in South Africa have detected radio waves coming directly from Beta Pictoris b, a gas giant 63 light-years from Earth, giving scientists the first direct measurement of an exoplanet's magnetic field. Plus the Alberta rat crisis, the DIY self-driving car mods, the Lunatic wrong-way driver, and a moose on a New York highway.

The Washington Post published a guide to midlife sabbaticals today, and the advice is genuinely sound — extended breaks in your late 30s and 40s reduce burnout, restore perspective, and often lead to more purposeful career decisions. The financial math, however, is another story. Also: a study published in Alzheimer's & Dementia following 2,418 people from the Health and Retirement Study finds early retirement, extended time outside the workforce, and unstable employment are all linked to measurably weaker memory and cognition later in life — and for women, early retirement equates to roughly six years of memory deficits. And Bloomberg profiled the rage retreat movement, which ranges from free scream clubs to island forest getaways, with Kristina McMenamin running RAGEher events right here in Chicago. Plus the world's oldest peace treaty, the Texas bathroom car crash, the Popeyes condom lawsuit, and a tractor house demolition.

A Virginia Commonwealth University analysis published in The Milbank Quarterly finds death rates for Americans aged 25-44 jumped 71.2% between 2010 and 2021 — the largest surge of any age group — with drug overdoses multiplying sevenfold since 1999, suicides up 40%, and the US now ranking 38th in global life expectancy. Also: Newser reports on research analyzing Reddit threads from people who pulled back from suicidal thoughts, and the finding is consistent with the UC Berkeley Big Joy Project: small, specific, daily moments of joy — not grand interventions — are what kept people going. And new data from Cornell's Karl Pillemer finds 27% of Americans are estranged from at least one family member, YouGov found 38% as of 2025, and the debate over why it's happening is genuinely contested. Plus a second crane falling on the Florida home, a suspect biting a police dog, the racehorse renamed from Austrian Painter, and a Boeing software glitch.

A Talker Research survey of 2,000 adults finds only 41% of single Americans are confident they'll find "the one" — and 20% of people already in relationships say their current partner isn't their true love. The average person has mistaken someone for "the one" twice before. Also: Stanford researchers have formally defined "mankeeping" — the emotional and social labor women perform to compensate for men's shrinking social networks — and a new psychology study confirms it's linked to measurably higher burnout and lower relationship satisfaction. And the International Astronomical Union officially approved naming asteroid 14331, a mile-wide rock in the main belt between Mars and Jupiter, Alyankovic — joining Dollyparton, Freddiemercury, Aretha, Elvis, and the Beatles in the celestial hall of fame. Plus a drone dispute murder-for-hire, Sweden's rude campaign, the raw chicken stalker, and teens recycling 2,675 pounds of sports balls.

A new synthesis of research published September 23 in StudyFinds finds three competing theories for why time accelerates with age — and confirms that the popular "pile of memories" explanation describes the pattern but doesn't cause it. The actual culprit appears to be neural dedifferentiation: older brains log fewer distinct mental "events" per unit of time. Also: a Tulane University study of 277,489 adults published in Nature Communications finds that men who are both lonely and socially isolated lose nearly 5.8 years of life free from depression and anxiety, and healthy lifestyle choices mitigate the physical risks of isolation but do almost nothing to protect against the psychological damage of loneliness itself. And Joachim Lanham, a 24-year-old Norwegian man who called himself a "transcontinental inline skater" on Instagram, was on day 22 of rollerblading from New York to Los Angeles when he was struck by an SUV near Salina, Kansas, left in a ditch, and died on September 11 with his brother holding his hand.

A Talker Research survey of 2,000 Americans finds 54% say their mental load is at maximum capacity during a typical week — tracking appointments, bills, meals, decisions — and 70% say they don't do enough with each day. Also: Stanford Medicine published a landmark study in Nature Neuroscience finding that the human brain develops from two completely separate progenitor cell populations, suggesting evolution fused two ancient nervous systems together — and the hindbrain that runs your heart and breathing is as evolutionarily distinct from the forebrain that produces poetry and math as jellyfish are from humans. And the data on what's happening to America's scientific pipeline is now in: NIH training awards are down 75%, graduate enrollment at MIT is down 20%, 75% of scientists say they're considering leaving the US, and a modeling study found these cuts create training setbacks that take decades to recover from. Plus the Florida deodorant driver, the Fort Worth toddler fight club, the baby born in Golden Gate Park traffic, and Wendy's closing 300 locations over beef prices.

A PLoS ONE study of 111 college students found that group discussion improved fake news detection — but individual reflection alone did not. The improvement only happened when people talked it through with others. Also: out of 5,757 documented serial killers worldwide, 3,803 came from the United States — 66% of the global total from a country with 4% of the world's population — and researchers have a specific explanation for why. And the FDA authorized the Aletta, a Dutch robotic device made by Vitestro that autonomously draws blood using ultrasound to find your vein, applies a tourniquet, sanitizes the skin, inserts the needle, swaps collection tubes, and applies a bandage — with a first-attempt success rate of 94.5%, comparable to or better than trained human phlebotomists. Plus the stolen 800,000 bees, the human vs. Terminator cage fight, the medieval castle in a Dublin university, and the Gold Rush town for sale.

The Washington Post analyzed data going back to 2000 and found concert ticket prices have more than doubled, sports tickets are up 123%, gas is up 27% in the past year alone, and Americans are spending 53 fewer minutes per day doing things outside their homes than they were in 2019. Also: Toys R Us announced 120 new standalone US stores opening this holiday season, bringing its total to 160 — including Creator Studios where influencers will film content — eight years after closing every American location in 2018. And a nonprofit called All Kids Bike has now brought learn-to-ride curricula into nearly 2,000 US elementary schools because a growing number of children have no parent, sibling, or neighborhood where they'd otherwise learn. Plus a golden retriever greeting a burglar with toys, an ex-airline CEO starting a fire, a 132-year-late library magazine, and a humpback whale 60 miles from the ocean.