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It’s been a big year for the labor movement. What about farmworkers?

With major strikes in entertainment, logistics and more, 2023 has been a year of high visibility for the labor movement. Even in industries that have long combatted workers’ attempts to organize, like food service, workers have seen ongoing progress towards unionization and scored big political wins, like the creation of California’s fast food labor council. But for some of the most essential workers in the country — farmworkers — it’s been a year of stalled hopes and ongoing isolation from the labor gains made in other sectors of the economy.

With Congress working on another farm bill, farmworker-led organizations hope to capitalize on the omnibus food and agriculture legislation as an opportunity to enshrine some key protections in federal law. This would be a first — labor provisions have never been included in the farm bill’s 90-year history — but it is also something of a long shot. As congressional Republicans push for austerity measures across most of the bill’s sections (or “titles”), securing progressive provisions seems unlikely, even as, between extreme weather and a dysfunctional immigration system, conditions for farmworkers are only getting worse.

Stalled Hopes for the Farm Bill

The farm bill, a broad package of food and agriculture legislation that is renewed every five years and touches on nearly every aspect of the food system, has been the central focus this year in food policy circles. With titles covering conservation programs, subsidies, crop insurance, nutrition assistance programs and more, the overarching bill is the most impactful way that the government shapes the food system. But critics of U.S. agriculture policy have pointed out, the bill prioritizes profits for landowners and food companies at the expense of workers and consumers, which explains why the farm bill has historically neglected labor issues. That exclusion compounds the longstanding problem of agricultural exceptionalism — the separation of farmworkers from the wider labor movement and labor protections — ultimately leaving farmworker rights in jurisdictional limbo between the Department of Labor and the Department of Agriculture.

Farmworkers and advocates see getting labor-related provisions into the farm bill as an opportunity to change that.

But the 2023 farm bill negotiations have been anything but smooth: As September’s expiration approaches, it’s increasingly likely that Congress will need to pass a brief extension before it agrees on a new bill. That’s because some of the bill’s most significant pieces are at stake: Congressional Republicans have aggressively moved to block the expansion of climate-smart agriculture initiatives, cut nutrition assistance programs like SNAP and WIC and even decouple nutrition programs from the farm bill entirely.

This has hardly been an ideal environment for including new provisions in the bill, but activists have been fighting anyway — approaching members of Congress with appeals to more effectively address labor concerns. In a recent briefing for congressional staffers, farmworker groups and allies reiterated the demands laid out in a June letter sent to members of Congress and cosigned by more than 100 organizations. Proposals generally focus on expanding existing provisions — safeguarding SNAP access for farmworkers, bolstering emergency relief and disaster-related wage protection programs, establishing more resources to protect workers from pesticides — rather than calling for complete overhaul. But amid intense budget disputes, securing funding for these measures might still be an uphill battle.

Despite Promises, Heat Guidelines Are Still Absent

Many in the country are feeling the effects of climate change this summer, with rising food prices, torrential floods, drought, wildfires and the resulting air pollution all making headlines. But for many, avoiding the most obvious impact of a warming planet — extreme heat — is as simple as going inside and turning on the fan. Farmworkers don’t have this option while on the job and though schedules often make the most of cool early-morning hours, U.S. farmworkers spend an average of 21 dangerously hot days in the field annually, a number that experts say could nearly double by 2050. Still, farmworkers in the U.S. have almost no federal heat protections.

This creates health consequences well beyond discomfort: Extreme heat can cause vomiting, headaches and dizziness, as well as potentially fatal problems like dehydration and heat stroke. Even outside of acute crises, chronic exposure to extreme heat can cause kidney disease. One study analyzing health data found that farmworkers were more than 35 times more likely to die from these heat related conditions than other workers; data from the Occupational Safety and Health Administration that, of the 121 workers who died from heat-related conditions between 2017 and 2022, one fifth worked in agriculture. Beyond these imminent dangers, increased temperatures can set off other events that threaten farmworker health — like wildfires, which present serious smoke inhalation risks.

Even as summer highs continue to climb, heat-related injuries and deaths should not be treated like an inevitability. Common-sense solutions, like shade structures, frequent breaks and accessible drinking water can all dramatically reduce risk for workers. But getting these solutions out into the field has been a barrier. Some farm groups, like the powerful American Farm Bureau Federation, have lobbied against mandatory heat protections, claiming that one-size-fits-all standards would be too burdensome for farmers across a large, climate-diverse country. And while it’s clear that the real concern for producers is lost profits, farmworkers themselves are often hesitant to break for water and shade when they’re being paid piece rates — pennies for every item they harvest — rather than hourly wages, placing their physical and financial wellbeing at odds.

Advocates have seen some success on the state level in recent years, with California, Washington, Oregon and Colorado all implementing limited heat protections, including mandatory breaks and shade and water access. But even with laws in place to protect workers, enforcement has proved inconsistent, with the United Farm Workers (or UFW, the largest such union in the country) attributing the recent death of California farmworker Elidio Hernández to his employer’s neglect as temperatures hit triple digits. And farmworkers outside of those four states have no official protections.

Labor advocates had hoped working conditions would improve after the creation of an OSHA heat task force in 2021, but the agency has yet to formalize any rules, having recently extended the public comment period on its proposed standards until December 2023. Any implementation of new heat rules will be delayed through at least 2025, missing what is likely to be another record-breaking summer.

Any heat-related labor provisions in the farm bill wouldn’t necessarily come into effect any sooner, given the time it takes federal agencies to move through rulemaking, but would add some urgency to the issue. In the event that heat standards are put in place, the farm bill could also be a route for carving out resources for implementation: For example, the rural development title, which supplies infrastructure funding for rural communities, could be a way to allocate funds for water improvements and shade structures.

An Ongoing Immigration Debate

The farm bill could be an avenue to improve many aspects of farmworker’s lives, but there’s one crucial area it won’t address: immigration. Even as immigration becomes an increasingly hot-button issue in the culture wars, there’s a general consensus among farmers, workers and politicians that the immigration system isn’t working well for anyone, a reality that has broader consequences for the food system. The current process makes it difficult for workers to obtain agricultural visas — then penalizes them for working in the country without documentation. But because the demand for farm labor far outpaces the availability of visas, about half the farmworkers in the U.S. today are undocumented, with the majority hailing from Mexico and Central America.

While that arrangement has always marginalized undocumented workers, farms have, until recently, been more or less able to hire enough people to get the job done. But in addition to the pandemic, which shrunk the workforce overall, the recent proliferation of anti-immigrant policies has helped tilt the country towards a farm labor shortage. The Trump administration’s attempts to crack down on illegal immigration made documentation harder to access while the consequences of going without increased. Meanwhile, poor monitoring of the H-2A temporary visa program (the largest visa program for agricultural workers) led to a spike in worker exploitation and abuse cases, underscoring that even legally sanctioned jobs for farmworkers aren’t necessarily safe or desirable.

As a result, 2020 marked the beginning of a protracted agricultural labor shortage: 87 percent of farmers in a 2021 survey said it had become more difficult to find workers and many have struggled to adapt, even leaving crops unharvested in some areas. For consumers, this leads to shortages that exacerbate the high food prices they’re seeing from inflation.

TERMS TO KNOW: H-2A — A visa program that grants farmworkers temporary legal status to work in the U.S.

Under intense pressure from farm groups to resolve the labor shortage, legislators introduced the Farm Workforce Modernization Act (FWMA), which attracted bipartisan support and cleared the House in 2021 — but ultimately failed to pass the Senate after GOP leaders withdrew their support, fearing it made the path to citizenship too easy. The bill had its detractors among farmworker groups: The iteration that went before the Senate contained provisions, most notably mandating the use of the Department of Homeland Security’s previously voluntary E-Verify database, that advocates worried could be used to more easily deport undocumented workers. It also would have dramatically expanded the H-2A visa program, without fixing the gap in oversight that’s allowed exploitative conditions and workplace abuse to become so common.

Still, the FWMA did propose a path towards legalization for farmworkers who were already in the country. Though some farm labor groups found its requirements — like providing hard evidence of previous employment, when many jobs are arranged under the table — too restrictive, most still say such a step will be pivotal for immigration reform.

In the time since the FWMA fell short, the situation for both foreign workers and prospective employers has only deteriorated. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signed one of the country’s most restrictive immigration bills, mandating E-Verify for workplaces with more than 25 employees and limiting undocumented immigrants’ ability to get driver’s licenses and access medical care. The move sparked panic for Florida farmworkers and many farms felt the subsequent pinch as workers fled the state. With Texas, Iowa and other states pursuing increasingly harsh immigration policies of their own, the need for federal action to protect farmworkers is even more urgent. Farmers, meanwhile, have had a difficult time securing labor during critical periods.

Despite the increasingly polarized debate on immigration, the farm labor crisis has grown dire enough for workers, farmers and consumers alike that lawmakers are increasingly motivated to act, with a bipartisan delegation introducing a new version of the Farm Workforce Modernization Act for 2023. With support from both industry groups and key farmworker organizations like the UFW, the new iteration of the bill is largely the same as its predecessor. This means it’s likely to attract the same criticism as before. Still, the bill’s bipartisan group of sponsors seem optimistic about its chances of moving through the Senate this session. They may be right; though the proposals haven’t changed since the bill’s last iteration, much else in the country has. The political will to find workable compromises may be sufficient to finally push the legislation over the edge.

Still, even considering the immediacy of the farm labor crisis, it’s important to remember that immigration reform is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to giving farmworkers the dignity and stability they deserve: Providing higher wages, better health care access and basic workplace protections to farmworkers are all moral imperatives in the fight for a fairer food system.

Workers pay the price while congress and employers debate need for heat regulations

Sometimes the heat makes you vomit, said Carmen Garcia, a farmworker in the San Joaquin Valley of California. She and her husband spent July in the garlic fields, kneeling on the scorched earth as temperatures hovered above 105 degrees. Her husband had such severe fatigue and nausea that he stayed home from work for three days. He drank lime water instead of seeing a doctor because the couple doesn’t have health insurance. “A lot of people have this happen,” Garcia said.

There are no federal standards to protect workers like the Garcias when days become excessively hot. And without bipartisan support from Congress, even with urgent attention from the Biden administration, relief may not come for years.

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President Joe Biden in 2021 tasked the Occupational Safety and Health Administration with developing rules to prevent heat injury and illness. But that 46-step process can take more than a decade and might stall if a Republican is elected president in 2024, because the GOP has generally opposed occupational health regulations over the past 20 years. These rules might require employers to provide ample drinking water, breaks, and a cool-down space in shade or air conditioning when temperatures rise above a certain threshold.

On Sept. 7, OSHA will begin meetings with small-business owners to discuss its proposals, including actions that employers would take when temperatures rise to 90 degrees.

As this summer has broken heat records, Rep. Judy Chu (D-Calif.) and other members of Congress have pushed legislation that would speed OSHA’s rule-making process. The bill is named after Asunción Valdivia, a farmworker who fell unconscious while picking grapes in California on a 105-degree day in 2004. His son picked him up from the fields, and Valdivia died of heatstroke on the drive home. “Whether on a farm, driving a truck, or working in a warehouse, workers like Asunción keep our country running while enduring some of the most difficult conditions,” Chu said in a July statement urging Congress to pass the bill.

OSHA concedes its data is problematic. It has said its numbers “on occupational heat-related illnesses, injuries, and fatalities are likely vast underestimates.”

Trade organizations representing business owners have fought the rules, calling the costs of regulations burdensome. They also say there’s a lack of data to justify blanket rules, given variation among workers and workplaces, ranging from fast-food restaurants to farms. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce, one of the most powerful lobby groups in Washington, argued that such standards are nonsensical “because each employee experiences heat differently.” Further, the Chamber said, measures such as work-rest cycles “threaten to directly and substantially impair … employees’ productivity and therefore their employer’s economic viability.”

“Many heat-related issues are not the result of agricultural work or employer mismanagement, but instead result from the modern employee lifestyle,” the National Cotton Council wrote in its response to proposed regulations. For example, air conditioning makes it more difficult for people to adapt to a hot environment after being in a cold dwelling or vehicle, it said, noting “younger workers, who are more used to a more sedentary lifestyle, cannot last a day working outside.”

The Forest Resources Association, representing forest landowners, the timber industry, and mills, added that “heat-related illnesses and deaths are not among the most serious occupational hazards facing workers.” They cited numbers from OSHA: The agency documented 789 heat-related hospitalizations and 54 heat-related deaths through investigations and violations from 2018 to 2021.

OSHA concedes its data is problematic. It has said its numbers “on occupational heat-related illnesses, injuries, and fatalities are likely vast underestimates.” Injuries and illnesses aren’t always recorded, deaths triggered by high temperatures aren’t always attributed to heat, and heat-related damage can be cumulative, causing heart attacks, kidney failure, and other ailments after a person has left their place of employment.

The Toll of Temperature

To set regulations, OSHA must get a grasp on the toll of heat on indoor and outdoor workers. Justification is a required part of the process because standards will raise costs for employers who need to install air conditioning and ventilation systems indoors, and those whose productivity may drop if outdoor workers are permitted breaks or shorter days when temperatures climb.

Ideally, business owners would move to protect workers from heat regardless of the rules, said Georges Benjamin, executive director of the American Public Health Association. “We need to do a better job of convincing employers that there is a trade-off between efficiency and sick workers,” he said.

Garcia and her husband suffered the symptoms of heat exhaustion: vomiting, nausea, and fatigue. But their cases are among thousands that go uncounted when people don’t go to the hospital or file complaints for fear of losing their jobs or immigration status. Farmworkers are notoriously underrepresented in official statistics on occupational injuries and illness, said David Michaels, an epidemiologist at George Washington University and former OSHA administrator. Researchers who surveyed farmworkers in North Carolina and Georgia found that more than a third of them had heat illness symptoms during the summers of their studies — far higher than what OSHA has registered. Notably, the Georgia study revealed that 34% of farmworkers had no access to regular breaks, and a quarter had no access to shade.

To workers and their families, suffering has far-reaching consequences that are hard to enumerate.

Even cases in which workers are hospitalized might not be attributed to heat if doctors don’t make note of the connection. Many studies link occupational accidents to heat stress, which can cause fatigue, dehydration, and vertigo. In a study in Washington state, farmworkers were found to fall off ladders more often in June and July, among the hottest and most humid months. And in a 2021 report, researchers estimated that hotter temperatures caused approximately 20,000 occupational injuries a year in California between 2001 and 2018, based on workers’ compensation claims.

Heat-related kidney injuries also come up in OSHA’s database of workers severely injured on the job, like an employee at a meat processing plant hospitalized for dehydration and acute kidney injury on a hot June day in Arkansas. But research finds that kidney damage from heat can also be gradual. One study of construction workers laboring over a summer in Saudi Arabia found that 18% developed signs of kidney injury, putting them at risk of kidney failure later.

In addition to quantifying the injuries and deaths caused by heat, OSHA attempts to attach a cost to them so it can calculate potential savings from prevention. “You’ve got to measure things, like what is a life worth?” Michaels said. To workers and their families, suffering has far-reaching consequences that are hard to enumerate. Medical costs are more straightforward. For example, OSHA estimates the direct cost of heat prostration — overheating due to heatstroke or hyperthermia — at nearly $80,000 in direct and indirect costs per case. If this seems high, consider a construction worker in New York who lost consciousness on a hot day and fell from a platform, suffering a kidney laceration, facial fractures, and several broken ribs.

Putting a Price Tag on Heatstroke

Researchers have also tried to tease out the cost to employers in lost productivity. Work moves less efficiently as temperatures rise, and if workers are absent because of illness, and if they have to be replaced, production diminishes as new workers are trained to do the job. Cullen Page, a line cook in Austin, Texas, and a member of the union Restaurant Workers United, works for hours in front of a pizza oven, where, he said, temperatures hovered between 90 and 100 degrees as heat waves blanketed the city in August. “It’s brutal. It affects your thinking. You’re confused,” he said. “I got a heat rash that wouldn’t go away.” Because it’s so hot, he added, the restaurant has a high employee turnover rate. An adequate hood vent over the ovens and improved air conditioning would help, he said, but the owners have yet to make upgrades.

Via 313, the pizza chain where Page works, did not respond to requests for comment.

Page is not alone. An organization representing restaurant employees, Restaurant Opportunities Centers United, surveyed thousands of workers, many of whom reported “unsafely hot” conditions: 24% of those in Houston, for example, and 37% in Philadelphia.

“Workers have been exposed to working temperatures of up to 100 degrees after air conditioners and kitchen ventilators were broken, making it uncomfortable and hard for them to breathe,” wrote another group that includes members in the fast-food industry, the Service Employees International Union, in a comment to OSHA. “There is no reason to further delay the creation of a standard when we know the scale of the problem and we know how to protect workers.”

Researchers at the Atlantic Council estimate the U.S. will lose an average of $100 billion annually from heat-induced declines in labor productivity as the climate warms. “It costs employers a lot of money to not protect their workers,” said Juley Fulcher, the worker health and safety advocate at Public Citizen, an advocacy organization in Washington, D.C., that is lobbying for the Asunción Valdivia bill to allow OSHA to enact regulations next year.

For a template, Fulcher suggested looking to California, Maryland, Nevada, Oregon, and Washington, the only states with rules mandating that all outdoor workers have access to water, rest, and shade. Although the regulations aren’t always enforced, they appear to have an impact. After California instituted its standard in 2005, fewer injuries were reported in workers’ compensation claims when temperatures exceeded 85 degrees.

Michaels said OSHA has shown it can act faster than usual when Congress permits it. In the early days of the HIV/AIDS epidemic, the agency rapidly passed rules to prevent doctors, nurses, and dentists from being accidentally infected by needles. A similar urgency exists now, he said. “Given the climate crisis and the lengthening of periods of extreme heat,” he said, “it is imperative that Congress pass legislation that enables OSHA to quickly issue a lifesaving standard.”

KFF Health News is a national newsroom that produces in-depth journalism about health issues and is one of the core operating programs at KFF—an independent source of health policy research, polling, and journalism. Learn more about KFF.

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No brain, no pain? Unpacking the murky ethics of whether or not vegans should eat oysters

In one of her consummate works, “Consider the Oyster,” published in 1941, food writer M.F.K. Fisher writes extensively about the bivalve, the joy of consuming it and the actual life of the oyster itself: “Its chilly, delicate gray body slips into a stewpan or under a broiler or alive down a red throat, and it is done. Its life has been thoughtless, but no less full of danger, and now that it is over we are perhaps the better for it.”

A few years back, though, I was mindlessly chatting with someone who was a very passionate vegan. At that time, I still ate everything (sans pineapple, rabbit and soft-shell crabs), so I was just generally making small talk about plant-based eating.

At one point, though, the person I was speaking with nonchalantly mentioned eating oysters. My eyebrow raised and I cocked my head slightly, questioning “…oysters?” I was then subject to an entire discussion about how vegans can and do eat oysters. The main rationalization being that they have hardly any brain function so it’s not like “actually eating an animal.”

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Does eating oysters truly disqualify someone from being a vegan? Would a “full-fledged” vegan who still eats oysters actually be considered more of a pescatarian? All of these questions spun around in my head — and years later, still do. 

The Vegan Society offers a pretty expansive definition:

Veganism is a philosophy and way of living which seeks to exclude — as far as is possible and practicable — all forms of exploitation of, and cruelty to, animals for food, clothing or any other purpose; and by extension, promotes the development and use of animal-free alternatives for the benefit of animals, humans and the environment. In dietary terms it denotes the practice of dispensing with all products derived wholly or partly from animals.

The Vegan Society also writes that “one thing all vegans have in common is a plant-based diet avoiding all animal foods such as meat (including fish, shellfish and insects), dairy, eggs and honey,” which would seem to disqualify oysters. 

However, based on the physical and biological structure of oysters, some vegans offer an alternative viewpoint. While mollusks have cerebral ganglia (essentially “masses of nerve cell bodies,” per Brittanica), as well as digestive, circulatory, reproductive and endocrine — they do not have a brain. According to Michael Ofei at The Minimalist Vegan, oysters “don’t feel pain since they have a very simple nervous system and no brain.” 

Polly Foreman at Plant Based News writes that Peter Singer, the author of a 1975 book called “Animal Liberation”, is quoted as believing that “it’s unlikely that oysters feel pain,” while also noting that there’s no way to be entirely sure. 

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However, as Lola Mendez at The Vegetarian Times notes, Singer markedly changed his tune in later years, eventually disavowing “bivalveganism” because we may not know enough about how oysters feel pain.

This is where the ethical argument surrounding eating oysters as a vegan becomes cloudier. Do they feel pain? Maybe. Are oysters alive? Definitely, but as laid out by Melissa Kravitz at Vice, plants are also alive until “removed from its stem or roots.” Technically, everything (everything non-processed, that is) is or was once ostensibly “alive” prior to being eaten, in some way or another. 

I’m generally a a stickler for words and intentionality, so this all makes this inherently slippery slope even “slippier” when all of these arguments are posited. If you are calling yourself a vegan and won’t consume honey or wear leather, but you’ll eat oysters — well, to borrow from “Real Housewife” Phaedra Parks, “something in the buttermilk isn’t clean.” 

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Many oyster-eating-vegans often hone in on the term “sentience.” Since oysters don’t have brains and are incapable of moving on their own, it could be argued they aren’t sentient. But if, for many, a core tenet of veganism is compassion and empathy to any and all living beings, then oyster most certainly fall into that, do they not? 

Food writer and author Alicia Kennedy has written about how she was once a vegan, but then started eating oysters. Kennedy is presenting a binary: She was vegan, ate oysters and then was, therefore, no longer vegan. This tracks to me and is logically sound; in this conversation with Oyster Oyster chef-founder Rob Rubba, Kennedy and Rubba even speak about how even some vegetarians won’t consume oysters.

But perhaps the issue isn’t with language, but with labels. 

However, Kennedy also advocates for leaning into the gray areas surrounding our diets because, as she told Green Queen writer Sonalie Figueiras that she worries that being “too binary about diet preferences and obsessing about labels is what keeps people from feeling like they can make small, good changes in their lives, because it seems like it’s going to require an identity shift.” 

“The reason people get defensive when the question of not eating meat comes up is because you have to make a massive change to your life, you have to change your identity, you have to become this thing,” Kennedy said. “You have to have a marker on the way you eat, and be either a vegetarian, a vegan, plant-based, a flexitarian. People are very hesitant to put identity markers on themselves in that way.”

Currently, I guess I exist in something of a gustatory gray area, too. Over the past few years, I’ve removed beef, pork, lamb, veal and other “red meats” from my diet and now only eat poultry and fish (plus inane amounts of cheese, of course). There’s no tidy label to encapsulate how I eat . . . and maybe it’s better that way for everyone.

So if you’ve done as M.F.K. Fisher suggested and truly considered the oyster — it’s up to you as to whether it belongs on your plate or not. 

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Why the monarchy needed Diana: “She had to be a front-rank aristocrat, and she had to be a virgin”

A beautiful, rebellious teenage girl dreams of breaking free from her unhappy family and being swept off her feet by a worldly prince. In the hindsight of history, it’s easy to see why young Lady Diana Spencer‘s story seemed at first such a fairy tale. But behind the scenes, the girl was in many ways a game piece, moved around by royal insiders to keep the machinery of the monarchy running smoothly. How could the girl — how could anyone — have imagined how it would turn out? 

In “The Princess,” British bestselling novelist Wendy Holden imagines a fun-loving adolescent from a troubled home, blindsided by an infatuation with the seemingly perfect man. It’s a complex and warmly human view of one of the most influential women of the modern era, an intimate fictionalized glimpse into the person Holden calls “the ultimate royal disruptor.” 

“She was young, very aristocratic, but completely in love with love,” Holden said on “Salon Talks,” “completely idealistic, completely romantic.” Drawing on a wealth of intimate royal memoirs and biographies, Holden discovered that “How she actually got to be the Princess of Wales is quite unknown.”  So she set out to reveal the magnetic yet sheltered young woman who later reportedly felt “like a lamb to the slaughter” when she entered her artfully arranged marriage.

Holden talked to me about the real-life inspirations for the characters in her compulsively readable new book, including Charles’ private “fixer” Stephen Barry. And she also explained why the royal family was dead set on finding “a front-rank aristocrat” who also “had to be untouched and undefiled and pure and innocent,” and how Diana’s influence still remains so powerful decades after her untimely death. Watch the “Salon Talks” episode on “The Princess” here or read below.

The following conversation has been lightly edited for clarity and length.

I know a lot about this family. I’m a little obsessed with them. But, I want you to imagine for a moment that I am someone who has never heard of Princess Diana. Tell me about the heroine of your novel, this fun-loving, romantic, teenage girl named Diana Spencer.

That’s a great question, because that really puts us right in the middle of what’s going on. This is a story of two opposing forces. This is a story of the Buckingham Palace royal machine, which wanted to find a bride for Prince Charles, who was 30, and in the eyes of his family needed to get married. There was a very pragmatic, very hard-headed, very unsentimental search for a bride, and the person they hit on, the sole candidate more or less, was this girl, Diana Spencer. She was young, very aristocratic, but completely in love with love, completely idealistic, completely romantic, a massive fan of romantic novels, which I think had probably formed her entire worldview. They were completely opposing forces, and it was the combination of these two forces that brought about the 1981 royal wedding.

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I wanted to look at Diana’s background because even though she’s the one of the most famous women who ever lived, her background and how she actually got to be the Princess of Wales is quite unknown. It’s quite obscure. It’s a very complicated story that tells us a lot about the 1980s, a lot about the British class system, and a lot about Diana herself. All those themes came together in “The Princess.” She most of all is a really warmhearted, really funny, really clever, really compelling heroine who was doubly betrayed. 

It’s a sad story as well as a funny and happy story. She had a very sad childhood. Her parents were spectacularly and acrimoniously divorced, and she fell in love with Prince Charles, who she thought was going to rescue her from all that and take her into a realm of bliss, and then she was betrayed on that front too. But in between, there was joy. She had a wonderful time living in London with her flatmates. I particularly wanted to get across all the fun that they had there, and just a young girl full of hope. She was a great heroine, one of the most interesting women I’ve ever written about. I really enjoyed it, and I came to really love her, and I was sad when it was all over and the book was finished.

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We have to remember, this is a teenager we’re talking about. [Diana was 19 when she became engaged to the Prince of Wales.]

Absolutely.

There’s a particular character I found very interesting in this story, Stephen Barry. Tell me about him and his role in changing the course of history.

Stephen Barry was the valet to Prince Charles. He was his manservant, but more than that, he was his fixer, and he used to specifically deal with Prince Charles’ love life and his girlfriends. When Prince Charles got a new girlfriend, Stephen Barry would take charge of the affair. He would tell the girl where to park when she came to Buckingham Palace, he’d tell her which door to go through, which room to go through. He would organize the dinners, he’d organize the candles, the food, everything. He really ran the Prince’s love life for him. I discovered this when I found, at the bottom of a pile of books in a market stall, the 1980s autobiography of Stephen Barry. I quickly realized it was a complete goldmine for all sorts of detail, but specifically that.

“She most of all is a really warmhearted, really funny, really clever, really compelling heroine who was doubly betrayed.”

In “The Princess,” I wanted to bring together all the different elements that really manipulated this wedding into being. There were so many different people involved and Stephen Barry was one of them. The Queen Mother was another, and another was the British press. I wanted all these people to have a voice. But Stephen Barry was completely crucial because he was the machinery. The Queen Mother star-spotted Diana, identified her as the girl, but somebody in the palace had to be on hand to make it all happen and take charge of the affair and get the whole thing on the rails. 

[Barry] is slightly sinister, but he’s also quite funny. I particularly imagined him deciding to help her, deciding that this girl was going to be the one. Diana was so young and Charles was so much older and the environment she was entering in the Royal family was just full of people who were so much older, so much tradition, so much Victorian hangover. It was completely unlike her and the kind of life she’d been having in the flat and so on. I fictionalized Stephen Barry giving Diana advice to help her bridge this gap between herself and her husband-to-be, just to get the affair to run more smoothly. 

He would give her advice on what to do on board the Royal Yacht Britannia, how to behave at Balmoral. One of my most fun things I really enjoyed imagining was him explaining to young Diana, the teenage girl, why Prince Charles was so obsessed with this completely old-fashioned comedy series called “The Goon Show.” You couldn’t even hear it at the time, it had been on the radio in the 1950s. Prince Charles was completely obsessed with it, but Diana would never have heard of it. She wouldn’t have had the faintest idea what he was talking about, and so I had him explaining who all the characters were. He was kind of Buttons to her Cinderella, but with a slightly sort of worldly, slightly sinister twist.

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You used that word, “affair.” And yet one of the things that you take on in this book that often goes unspoken because it’s so sensitive, is that she had to be a virgin.

Completely. It’s so fascinating because I suppose the music is still very much around, and fashion, the 1980s seems much closer to us than it actually is. In terms of social conventions, it’s so far in the past. Now, if you were marrying a royal prince, you wouldn’t have to be a virgin, but in 1980, the same conventions applied as would’ve applied a hundred years before. This is why it was so difficult to find the right girl. She had to be young so you could have lots of children, she had to be Protestant, she had to be a front-rank aristocrat, and she had to be a virgin. She had to be untouched and undefiled and pure and innocent. This is completely double standards. Prince Charles, of course, had had loads of girlfriends, and these standards didn’t apply to him at all, but nobody thought there was anything wrong with that at the time. It was all completely normal. So, absolutely, she had to be a virgin. 

Even at the time, doubt was cast on whether this is actually the case with Diana. How could she have been? How could she, this young pretty girl living in London with her friends, always being visited by all these eligible young men. How could it be the case? But it was one of my themes in the book, and my theory is that her exhaustive reading of romantic novels made that a completely normal situation for her. She’d read so many novels in which the young innocent heroine was swept off her feet by the worldly dashing Duke or whoever, and chastity was always rewarded with true love. This was always a theme of these novels.

She would’ve taken this in over hundreds and hundreds of these books, and she said herself that she was keeping herself pure. She was keeping herself for the right man. It’s amazing, isn’t it, how that could have been seen as completely normal in that context?

Yet you also portray her as a woman. She is a 19-year-old, she does have desires. She’s not cold. 

Not at all, not at all. She was absolutely crazily in love with Prince Charles, or the idea of Prince Charles and what she thought he was. She was completely convinced he was the absolute embodiment of the romantic hero and life with him was going to be bliss. 

One of the reasons for that was that she’d had this really sad childhood with the acrimonious divorce of her parents, which has had such a terrible effect on the family. Her parents had split at a time when that wasn’t really normal at all, and the siblings had lived with her father and seen her mother only occasionally. The Diana of the book, and possibly the Diana of real life, constructed for herself this alternative reality in which love was valued and rewarded and everybody was happy as a complete contrast to her, as a way of coping with what had happened to her, and Charles fitted into this, and he was going to take her away from all the misery of the past.

We as the reader come to this fictional Diana through a fictional schoolmate Sandy she confides in, who she then has this pivotal recurring moment with later on near the end of her marriage. How did you create her? Did you draw upon memories of other friends of Diana’s? Were you looking at people who have spoken out about her, who knew her when she was a young woman? 

“She had to be young so you could have lots of children, she had to be Protestant, she had to be a front-rank aristocrat, and she had to be a virgin.”

Yes, a bit of that. I found various bits and pieces of memoir from her school days and thought about how a friend would possibly work. But the main inspiration was Nancy Mitford’s “Pursuit of Love,” when Fanny goes to stay with the Radlett family. The Radlett family is the sort of crazy aristocratic family who do all these bonkers things. Fanny’s very sensible and she’s quite shocked, but really is completely bowled over by these people. I just imagine that when you were a little girl, that’s very possibly how the Spencer family might’ve appeared to someone like Sandy.

I wanted to have this relationship between them when we encounter the Spencers to start with as quite colorful, very aristocratic, slightly eccentric, but then the picture darkens and you realize all the pain that’s behind it, all the difficulty, all these awful misogynistic attitudes and the way that her mother had been treated, and all the toxic relatives such as her grandmother, and so the picture slightly darkens. That was really where she came from. 

I also wanted Sandy to represent a modern girl, because she’s a clever girl, but she’s also got ambition. She wants to do work, she wants to have a job, she wants to have a career. She’s a contrast of Diana, who’s still very much in this sort of this romantic mindset, but also never really had been encouraged to fulfill her potential in that way.

Sandy tells Diana at various junctions through the novel, “You could do so much more. You could work.” She tries to encourage her at one stage to work in nursing because she has fantastic empathy with the patients at the local mental health facility where Diana is the only pupil who knows how to deal with them, how to approach them. [This] came from a real incident and pointed out the fact that all the things that she later became so famous for as Princess of Wales — she could cope with anybody, she knew exactly what to say, how to make everybody feel good, had no fear. That was there right from the beginning, all her most famous characteristics. That was Sandy’s role as well. She frames the story for us, but she also presents a few contrasts and makes us realize how different Diana was from what would’ve been a modern girl at the time.

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And which puts her, as you have positioned this trilogy that you’ve written, as a disruptor. 

Totally.

I want to ask you a little bit about these two other women who you’ve written about who also shook up the Windsors in the 20th century. These other women who came from outside the inner circle and who challenged it in their own ways.

The first in my series is called “The Royal Governess,” and it’s about Marion Crawford, who was a young Scottish teacher who taught Queen Elizabeth as a little girl. I found her very old, battered autobiography in a bookshop in the north of England one day. I opened it, and the very first paragraph said something like, “I didn’t mean to work for the royal family. I wanted to work with poor children in the slums of Edinburgh.” I was completely like, “This is a story. How did somebody with those ambitions end up working for the royal family for nearly 20 years?”

I dived into the story. It quickly became obvious it was an amazing tale, and it had been buried for nearly 80 years. Marion Crawford spent 20 years with them, and they happened to be the 20 most tumultuous years of the 20th century, the abdication followed by World War II. She was with the Windsors all this time, and she experienced it as they did, and she tried to leave a couple of times but they always reeled her back in. 

“She knew exactly what to say, how to make everybody feel good, had no fear. That was there right from the beginning.”

She eventually left, retired, and wrote a book about the family and her work with the family, and it was very admiring, very, very sympathetic. It was a lovely book. They were furious, and they canceled her. Cut her off completely brutally and forever, and they never saw her again. It was so sad because it had been such a happy story. She was completely devoted to them, particularly to the Queen, little Princess Elizabeth. 

It was a really fascinating story, and I hadn’t particularly intended to take it any further. But during the writing of “The Governess,” Wallis Simpson had appeared in a scene at Balmoral. Wallis had come up in a visit because King Edward VIII had asked her to come stay in the Scottish castle. I started to wonder if everything we think we know about Wallis, at least here in Britain, where everyone is led to believe that she was basically the most wicked woman who ever lived, whether that was actually the case. What had actually happened, how had she captured the heart of the world’s most eligible bachelor and why?

When I started to look into that, I uncovered another amazing story, and I novelized her journey from obscurity in Baltimore to the British throne, almost. I had two books about royal disruptors, and then naturally there was Diana, the ultimate royal disruptor and disruptive on such a scale that the consequences of her involvement with the royal family are still playing out. They’re still here. There’s still every day another story about Prince Harry, Meghan Markle, Prince William, Prince Charles, the great schisms. It just goes on and on and on, like ripples in a pool. I see them as three very interesting women who completely changed the institution and revealed a lot about it in the course of their careers with them.

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Now we have this new American divorcee who is a royal disruptor, I wonder where you see Meghan in this lineage, Diana’s daughter-in-law who she never got to know. Where does she fit in this story? 

“It’s like a wattage from a fading star. She’s gone, but she’s like one of those stars that still shines because it was so different, so dramatic.”

I think Meghan could be really interesting, but we’re too close to the story at the moment. We’re too close to what’s been. It’s quite hard to see it in context and in time. The thing about Diana is that it’s 25 years now since she died, and she is a proper historical figure. She belongs to a proper historical epoch, which is now being studied in school now. It’s history, and she’s part of it. Meghan is not. She may well be one day, but she’s too close. We can’t really see what’s going to happen next and how the whole thing’s going to play out. 

Diana’s is an entire arc from start to finish. Obviously it ended very tragically and spectacularly, but we have an entire life there, just as we have with Wallis and just as we have with Marion Crawford. [Meghan’s] not really another Windsor disruptor in a novel sense for me yet, but she may well be one day, certainly.

The thing that is so fascinating about Diana is still very much in the present. The Duchess of York was recently saying, “I can picture us being grannies together.” William and Harry still talk about, “If she was here, she would be doing this.” When you were thinking about her writing this book, were you thinking about what your Diana would be like now in this post-Elizabeth world where her ex-husband is on the throne?

It’s really hard to say, isn’t it? I think it would depend who she was with, who she was married to, what her situation was as to whether she was happy or not. If she was happy and settled, that would have a huge effect on how she behaved and how she saw the world. 

In terms of her enduring effect, it’s obvious to me from the amount of things that I’ve read and seen and watched, that there was something so special about her, which has not ever really been replicated. It’s something to do with this incredible connection with people. I don’t think any other member of the royal family, possibly the Queen Mother when she was young, has ever really had that impact. It was to do with people. The British people, people all over the world felt that she understood them. She was a sort of friend in high places, that they completely saw her as someone who understood them and they understood her because she’d suffered and she knew what it was like, and there was just always this instinctive connection. That’s what endures and why she remains as a presence. I don’t think that’s the case with anybody else, certainly not with the present royal family. It’s like a wattage from a fading star. She’s gone, but she’s like one of those stars that still shines because it was so different, so dramatic. 

If she was still around, I’m not sure whether things would be better or worse really because obviously she had great capacity for disrupting. She was quite naughty. Maybe she’d be really happy that Charles and Camilla were now King and Queen, or maybe she wouldn’t. It’s really hard to say.

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“Trump’s walls continue to crumble”: E. Jean Carroll wins second defamation case

Donald Trump, the former president who is already facing 91 criminal indictments for election subversion, retention of classified documents and hush-money payments to a porn star, suffered another significant legal setback on Wednesday when a federal judge ruled in favor of E. Jean Caroll, the writer against whom Trump was found liable for sexual abuse and fined $5 million for defamation, in a second defamation case. 

U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan, who last month dismissed Trump’s counterclaim against Carroll, again found the ex-president liable for making defamatory statements in a summary judgment handed down Wednesday. Kaplan’s ruling does not give Trump’s attorneys room to re-examine Carroll’s core allegations of rape or defamation. With the decision finding the majority of the defamation case in Carroll’s favor, the trial, set to be held in January, will be limited to determining damages. Kaplan also rejected Trump’s argument that any future damages be capped.

“[T]he jury found that Mr. Trump knew that his statement that Ms. Carroll lied about him sexually assaulting her for improper and ulterior purposes was false or that he acted with reckless disregard to whether it was false,” Kaplan wrote. “Whether Mr. Trump made the 2019 statements with actual malice raises the same issue.”

In May, Trump was found liable of defamation and sexual battery, under a law giving survivors of past assaults a one-year window to act.

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“Accountability IS coming home to roost, first in civil case and then in the criminal cases. Trump’s walls continue to crumble. Let the accountability flood in,” wrote former federal prosecutor Glenn Kirschner on X, formerly known as Twitter.

A trial is set to begin in New York on Jan. 15 — the same day as the Iowa Republican caucus. 

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As another former federal prosecutor, Joyce Allen, pointed out, the damages must be high enough this time to deter Trump from repeating his defamation of Carroll, as he did after the first trial.

Carroll first said Trump assaulted her – in a changing room of a New York department store in the mid-1990s – in a book in 2019.

Wednesday’s ruling comes after a federal judge found last week that Rudy Giuliani is liable for defaming Ruby Freeman and Shaye Moss, two Georgia election workers.

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about E. Jean Carroll

Lady Gaga makes guest appearance on Rolling Stones’ forthcoming album, “Hackney Diamonds”

In addition to unveiling their upcoming album, “Hackney Diamonds,” the Rolling Stones announced a few guest appearances on the LP, including Lady Gaga, who will join the band on a new song.

“Lady Gaga sings really sweet on [the new song] ‘Sweet Sound of Heaven,'” Stones guitarist Ronnie Wood shared Wednesday in a livestream, sit-down interview with Jimmy Fallon and his bandmates Mick Jagger and Keith Richards ahead of the premiere of the group’s video for the album’s lead single “Angry.” Although the English rock band refrained from sharing more information about the anticipated collaboration, they added that the album will feature another high-profile appearance from Stevie Wonder.

Gaga and the Stones previously joined forces on stage during a December 2012 stop on the band’s 50 & Counting tour. They performed a rendition of the Stones’ 1969 single “Gimme Shelter” from their album “Let It Bleed.”

As for “Hackney Diamonds,” the album will be the band’s 26th studio album, and their first in nearly seven years. It’s also the group’s first album since their longtime drummer Charlie Watts died in 2021. “Hackney Diamonds” will feature 12 tracks total, two of which were recorded in 2019 with Watts, Jagger said. The two songs appear back-to-back and are titled “Live By The Sword” and “Mess It Up.”

“Hackney Diamonds” is slated for release on Oct. 20.

 

Wisconsin GOP may try to impeach newly-elected liberal Supreme Court justice

Wisconsin Republicans are considering the impeachment of a newly-elected liberal justice on the state Supreme Court before she has even heard a case, according to a New York Times report. The threats to Justice Janet Protasiewicz came only weeks after her decisive election victory, which created a new 4-3 liberal majority on the state’s high court that is likely to scrap GOP-drawn state legislative maps and legalize abortion across the state. Hypothetically, Republicans could have the votes to impeach Protasiewicz and remove her from office if all their legislators vote as a bloc.

The Times reported that on Democrats will launch a multimillion-dollar advertising counteroffensive over the next three weeks, intended to “inflict maximum political pain on legislators who vote to block Justice Protasiewicz from serving.” During her campaign, Protasiewicz was outspoken about the “rigged” legislative maps enacted by Republicans, as wel as her views on reproductive health care. Liberal groups filing a legal challenge to Wisconsin’s GOP-friendly legislative maps a day after she was seated.

Former Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, a Republican, has argued that the state Assembly is “obligated” to impeach Protasiewicz if she attempts to rule on the maps. The Times report added that although Protasiewicz has not spoken publicly about the potential impeachment case, she released a letter on Tuesday from an independent oversight group, the Wisconsin Judicial Commission, which dismissed allegations that she had acted in violation of Wisconsin’s judicial code of ethics by sharing her “personal views” about abortion and Wisconsin’s legislative maps during her political campaign.

Fani Willis blasts fake Georgia elector’s removal motion: “Fiction is not entitled to recognition”

Fani Willis, the prosecutor overseeing the Georgia election racketeering case, on Tuesday slammed fake elector Shawn Still's motion for removal of his case to federal court.

Still, now a freshman in Georgia's Senate, was one of 16 Georgia Republicans who prosecutors allege falsely certified themselves as "duly elected and qualified" electors during efforts to overturn the 2020 election. Still's indictment is part of Willis' far-reaching racketeering case against former President Donald Trump and 18 associates.

In court filings advocating for his case's transfer to federal court, Still's attorneys argued that he "was, or was acting under, an officer of the United States" — specifically "acting at the direction of the incumbent President of the United States" — and thus satisfied the first requirement for case removal. Willis, however, smacked down that argument in a 27-page response seeking to remand Still in state court.

Still filed his removal motion "based on the improbable theory that he—a private citizen with no federal role, acting at the direction of the losing Trump presidential campaign—is entitled to removal as a 'federal official,'" Willis wrote in the filing. "Yet he fails to clear even the initial hurdle—establishing that he at any time met the definition of 'federal official.' Defendant and his fellow fraudulent electors conspired in a scheme to impersonate true Georgia presidential electors; their fiction is not entitled to recognition by this Court," she continued.

Willis went on to address the other requirements for a case to be removed, arguing that Still's involvement in the charged crimes are not within the scope of any federal office. Thus, she asserted, the Georgia senator does not have any applicable "colorable federal defense." 

Not ready for pumpkin spice? Try vanilla salt

Summer — and outdoor grilling — season may technically still be in full swing, but it’s hard to deny the whispers of fall decorations and the less . . . whispery declarations that pumpkin-spiced everything IS. BACK. (I get it! Please stop yelling at me, Dunkin’ commercials.)

For me, that hard cut off of swapping sunscreen for sweaters every year has always felt a little too abrupt. Though I’ve been quoted as saying silly things such as “I’m tired of my summer wardrobe” and “It’s basically almost Halloween,” don’t be fooled — I’m not quite ready to let go of summer flavors.

Enter my new favorite trick: vanilla salt. I’ve taken a cue from the likes of other versatile spices (think: ginger, cardamom and nutmeg) that seamlessly make the transition from sweet to savory and applied it to a spice that gets a very sweet-heavy treatment in our kitchens. (That being said, I rarely trust a cookie recipe that doesn’t have at least a touch of vanilla extract, paste or a dutifully-scraped bean.) The dulcet aroma of vanilla as it cooks — amplified by the hygroscopic nature of salt (more on this below) — is the perfect accompaniment to hearty grilled meats, a finishing sprinkle on baked goods and chocolates or even a garnishing rim of a cocktail.

Why It Works:

I’m usually a big proponent of a flavored salt and salt in general. (Except garlic salt, but that’s mostly because I’d prefer to consume a wholly unrecommended amount of garlic.)

With salt, the application of it does a few things in cooking. It draws out excess moisture, which is why it was used to cure meats before refrigeration was a thing; why you can salt your tomatoes then pat them dry before adding to a sandwich to alleviate soggy bread; why we season our food before, during and after cooking. That last one feels obvious, but generally, when we’re taught to cook, we learn we must add salt, without ever really knowing why. Basically, when a food item loses moisture, the flavor of it gets concentrated or amplified. That’s essentially what salt is doing every time you season something. So, the more salt, the greater nuance of flavor that’s allowed to be expressed in a dish. And not to worry, it takes a fair amount of salt before things turn “salty.”

Another thing salt does is promote Maillard reaction or the browning of protein. It’s the golden brown kiss on the top of a chocolate chip cookie, the pronounced char on a grilled steak or even the crispy edges of a perfectly fried egg. This is in part thanks to the lack of moisture as stated above, as when proteins lack moisture, they can coagulate more easily due to the reduction of sugar and the denaturing of protein when it hits heat. (I love food science!!)

This is all to say: Salt = more flavor, better color and better texture of your foods.

So how does vanilla play into this all? Vanilla is deeply aromatic and when it’s heated up, it imbues the air around it with the best smell. You know it. It’s that old real estate trick of baking cookies to lure in buyers for a house. By combining the flavor enhancing power of salt with the sweet-without-being-sugary aspects of vanilla and you have a multi-purpose seasoning blend that’ll have people saying “WHAT salt?”

Though I’ve provided a loose recipe for the creation and storage of this salt, what you do with it is truly up to you. Below, I’ve compiled a sort-of comprehensive, sort-of aspirational list of everything I’ve tried vanilla salt on or things I’ve dreamed of trying in the future.

Protein:

  • Get this on the grill, ASAP. My first-ever test with this salt was on some juicy sea scallops and the gentle sweetness of the flesh, partnered with the fruity aromatic nature of the vanilla, was basically designed for the grill. Any white fish (cod, halibut, etc) that you’d consider tossing on the grill probably has the perfect mild profile for a little vanilla salt.

  • For steaks — especially ones served with a brown butter sauce — vanilla is a sweet beacon in a heavily savory sea. Part of the sear on a steak is basically caramelization — there’s that Maillard reaction again — and vanilla is a well-known pair for anything caramel.

  • If you’re making your own gravlax as a weekend project, try swapping out half of the salt rub for vanilla salt. This, on a bagel with cream cheese, would be heaven.

Veggies:

  • My grilled cabbage recipe from earlier this year called for a tangy and bright preserved lemon dressing. The perfect fodder to sunny acidity is grounding sweetness. Sprinkled over the cabbage before grilling allows the salt to draw out some of the excess moisture of the cabbage, allowing the tender leaves to shine with the hint of vanilla.

  • Last days of summer, meet squash salad. While you’re already melding the best of both seasons (fall-favorite: squash and summer sensation: salad), why not add this salt to morph your dinner table offerings into a true end-of-summer celebration?

Fruits + Sweets:

  • Watermelon & Salt . . . hi! A beautiful way to elevate the sweetness without adding more sweetness to this basically perfect summer fruit. For more tart-leaning fruits, like a bitter melon or even grapefruit, vanilla lends that baking-spice note that mellows acidity and tempers bolder flavors.

  • A lot of coffee beans have notes of vanilla already, so a baked treat like these fan-favorite coffee & toffee blondies would be well served swapping the 1/2 teaspoon of kosher salt for vanilla salt.

Cocktails:

  • I loudly exclaimed to our Test Kitchen one afternoon that a vanilla salt rim on a mango margarita would be so good and someone slacked me from across the office asking if I was making them and if so they wanted one because, “hot damn.” (Their words.)

  • Harper Fendler calls for saline solution in his espresso martini, but a swap of vanilla salt (just a pinch, added in the dry shake) would also do the trick quite nicely—amplifying the sweeter notes of the cold brew and cinnamon whip.

Astrophysicist Avi Loeb discusses UFOs, alien life and his controversial interstellar research

On Tuesday, August 29, Harvard astrophysicist Avi Loeb went to the press with a spectacular claim: His research team had combed the ocean floor for remnants of a meteorite that broke apart over the Pacific in 2014, uncovered spherules of molten droplets and determined that they had originated from outside our solar system.

This isn’t the first time Loeb has made such an extraordinary claim. Loeb also said Oumuamua, another mysterious space object — and the first interstellar object ever detected, back in 2017 — could have been a form of alien technology, although others said it was merely a comet passing through the solar system. Loeb published a book about Oumuamua in 2021, and recently published another one titled “Interstellar: The Search for Extraterrestrial Life and Our Future in the Stars” about the Galileo Mission undertaken to recover the spherules from the ocean, the likelihood of alien life outside our solar system and the urgency in finding it.

Loeb has garnered a reputation for being the “world’s leading alien hunter,” and while some of his colleagues are excited by his research, he’s also become a point of strife within the scientific community. Some see his take on the scientific method — like disseminating his most recent findings in a press release and paper that had not, as of this writing, been peer-reviewed or accepted in a scientific journal — as an irresponsible approach that ultimately destroys the public’s faith in science.

Salon spoke to Loeb about his new research, his new book and some of the controversy surrounding his work.

This conversation has been edited for brevity and clarity.

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Can you briefly summarize the Galileo Project and what findings you’re presenting in this week’s press release and paper?

The Galileo Project aims to search for technological objects that were manufactured by extraterrestrial civilizations. It was triggered by the reports from the Director of National Intelligence to Congress about the unidentified anomalous phenomena (UAPs), a more accurate term for unidentified flying object (UFO). There were two reports and last year, there was a new office established in the Pentagon called the All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office. 

“We are developing software that allows us to find objects that came from outside the solar system.”

As soon as the first report came out, I founded the Galileo Project, which has by now built an observatory at Harvard University monitoring the sky 24/7 in the infrared, optical, radio and audio bands. The goal is to conduct a systematic study of the sky because the military and intelligence reports are all about anecdotal incidents where pilots or other people encounter some unusual behavior or objects. We would like to do a systematic study of the sky where we calibrate the instruments, we control them and we know also the noise that comes along. That allows us to calibrate what is the background and then on top of that, if there is anything unusual or anomalous, we will have a better assessment. 

[We also] search for objects that pass near Earth like Oumuamua in 2017. The Rubin observatory will find more. We are developing software that allows us to find objects that came from outside the solar system. And hopefully, there will be an observer that will find many more in the coming years starting next year. 

The third branch is the expeditions to find the remnants of interstellar meteors, and the first one was from 2014. That’s the expedition we took to the Pacific Ocean that I led. We recovered the materials from that meteor in the form of spherules — molten droplets from the surface of the object. We brought 700 of them from a depth of more than a mile across the region of seven miles and we brought them to Harvard University and analyzed them over the past two months.

We found that the spherules along the meteor path have an unusual composition that suggests that they came from outside the solar system. That is completely independent of the velocity measurement of the U.S. government satellites that indicated that it has a speed too large for the sun to keep it bound by gravity. This object is the first recognized interstellar object bigger than half a meter in size, and it’s the first time that scientists analyzed materials from such an object, so that’s a historic discovery already. 

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You were criticized for making, to quote The New York Times, an “outlandish declaration that is too strong and too hasty.” What would you like to say in response to peers who are dubious of this work?

I’m following the scientific method, I’m trying to collect evidence — it was a lot of work. Those people who make these comments don’t do much — they sit on their chairs and display negativity. If they have a better method of doing science, they should let me know but the way I was educated is that you need to collect the evidence, analyze it and publish it in a scientific paper. What I do differently is I also communicate with the public.

“I see it as a great boon to science if the public is able to see how an exciting scientific project like the expedition was evolving.”

So when I went on the expedition, I wrote 43 direct reports and millions of people around the world read them and saw how the scientific process is done. I think that is very important to bring the public to understand how science is done because other scientists just talk about the results in a press conference as if they are teachers in a class and they feel intellectually superior to the public. 

I don’t think that’s the way science is done. We make a lot of mistakes during the process of discovering the truth and if the public sees that, they would believe science better because it would look like a human activity. I see it as a great boon to science if the public is able to see how an exciting scientific project like the expedition was evolving. And now we have the scientific paper, everyone can look at it. 

I develop this attitude of the eagle that has crows that peck on its back and goes to greater heights and they just drop off. I just hope that by pursuing science, the way it should be done, those crows will drop off my back.

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In your book, you called Carl Sagan’s adage that “extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence” a “logical fallacy.” How and why do you think that statement is somewhat flawed or a logical fallacy?

It’s used as an excuse for people who don’t want to deal with an exciting possibility. They don’t seek the evidence and they argue, “Well, we don’t have any evidence.” It’s like a single person who looks around and says, “Well, there is no partner next to me, therefore, I might be alone.” In order to find partners, you need to go to dating sites you need to look through your window. You may go outdoors to your backyard. … You need to do something. 

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The method we used before [for detecting extraterrestrial communication] was radio signals. That’s just like waiting for a phone call. You know, if someone doesn’t call you at the time that you’re listening, you won’t detect anything. My approach is quite different. 

If or when we encounter extraterrestrial life, do you think we’ll find it or it will find us? Why?

I think we will find it near us because most stars [formed] billions of years before the sun, so it’s more likely that some other civilizations preceded us because their star, if it’s like the sun, already went through what we in the future might go through. We just need to be humble and modest, not assume that we are unique and special — that Albert Einstein was the smartest scientist who ever lived since the Big Bang — and engage in the search.

“Knowing about our neighbors could inspire us because we will see a better way to behave.”

That’s what I’m trying to do, and the pushback is really strange under these circumstances because the people who argue against it have very strong opinions. But if you look at the history of science, they were very often wrong: the people [who] thought that the earth was the center of the universe, for example.

Do you think that if or when we do find extraterrestrial life, it’ll be higher up than us on what you call the “cosmic ladder” in terms of intelligence?

That’s what I discussed in my book, “Interstellar,” and I provide different classes of intelligent civilizations. The highest class is the one that is capable of recreating its environment — like creating a baby universe or creating life. That’s Class A. Class D is like us, in that we are destroying our environment or habitat. We are not making it better.

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Do you think we need to control some of those things domestically, like climate change or other local challenges on this planet before we look for life on others?

No, I think if we get a wake-up call in the form of an object, then it will tell us that we should change our priorities and start working with each other. Because we’re all in the same boat: the Earth that is sailing through space. Knowing about our neighbors could inspire us because we will see a better way to behave.

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“Food, Inc.” sequel, produced by Michael Pollan, premieres at Telluride Film Festival

“Food, Inc. 2” — the highly anticipated sequel to the 2008 Oscar-nominated documentary “Food, Inc.” — premiered at the Telluride Film Festival Monday, with new insights into the corrupt nature of our food system. In the same vein as its predecessor, the recent film, which is produced by “In Defense of Food” author Michael Pollan, examines corporate farming in the United States and how the national agribusiness continues to produce unhealthy foods — even amid a raging global pandemic. 

Per Deadline, “Food, Inc. 2” was largely inspired by COVID-19, “which exposed the vulnerabilities of a food system dominated by a handful of massive agribusiness companies including Cargill, ADM, and Tyson Foods.” The film looks into how several meat packing plants transformed into Covid super spreaders, all thanks to corporate corruption coupled with Trump’s blatant disregard for public health guidelines.

Additionally, there’s special focus on the rapid rise of ultra-processed foods, which currently make up 73% of the U.S. food supply. The film explores several studies that show how ultra-processed foods (think sugary breakfast cereals, chips, candies and sweetened carbonated beverages) contribute to higher rates of obesity and diabetes.On a more upbeat note, the film also spotlights the growing Fair Food movement, which has seen improved working conditions and better wages for farmworkers, namely tomato harvesters in Florida.

“The interest is definitely still there among consumers,” co-director Melissa Robledo told Deadline about the film. “I think there’s no shortage of interest in these issues and what’s going on. People have been continuously interested from the time the first film came out.”

 

Jack Smith’s election probe expands with increased scrutiny of Sidney Powell’s fundraising: report

Special counsel Jack Smith's investigation into Donald Trump and his associates' efforts to overturn the 2020 election is expanding a month after indicting the former president for his alleged conspiracy to remain in office, CNN reports. Multiple sources familiar with the probe told the outlet that questions asked of two recent witnesses signal the prosecutor is now shifting focus to funds raised off unfounded claims of voter fraud that were allegedly used to support attempts to breach voting equipment in states Joe Biden won. The questions in both interviews, CNN reports, center on former Trump lawyer Sidney Powell's role in the alleged scheme.

Invoices obtained by CNN show that Powell's non-profit, Defending the Republic — which aimed to fund the Trump team's post-election legal disputes of election results based on the notion that they had evidence of widespread voter fraud — employed forensics firms that ultimately accessed voting equipment in Biden-won swing states: Georgia, Pennsylvania, Arizona and Michigan. Powell's organization, according to documents CNN reviewed and witness testimony in the House select committee's probe of Jan. 6, contributed millions of dollars to the push to access voting tech as part of an effort to retroactively support the claims Trump's lawyers presented in failed lawsuits challenging the results.

Though widely identified as the third of Trump's unindicted co-conspirators in the federal election indictment, the new focus of the probe raises the possibility that Powell and others could still encounter legal jeopardy.

Powell is already facing criminal charges in Georgia related to her alleged assistance in coordinating and funding a multi-state scheme to illegally access voting systems after the election in Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis sprawling racketeering indictment last month. The former Trump attorney pleaded not guilty. 

“Looks like a seizure”: Rand Paul says Capitol doctor’s McConnell diagnosis is “inadequate”

Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., said he disagrees with Dr. Brian Monahan, the U.S. Capitol attending physician, who concluded that Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, also of Kentucky, had not suffered from a stroke or seizure disorder following two dramatic incidents in which McConnell apparently froze during public appearances and was unable to speak. In a letter released by McConnell’s office on Tuesday, Monahan wrote, “There is no evidence that you have a seizure disorder or that you experienced a stroke, TIA or movement disorder such as Parkinson’s disease.”

The 81-year-old McConnell was evaluated by neurologists, including electrical and brain MRI imaging, after the second such incident occurred last week in Covington, Kentucky. The perception that McConnell may be unwell has ignited speculation about the senator’s future and whether he can continue as leader of the 49 Republicans in the U.S. Senate. 

Paul, who is a licensed ophthalmologist with a medical degree from Duke University, appeared to reject Monahan’s stated opinion that McConnell’s recent problems could be chalked up to dehydration, telling reporters that was “an inadequate explanation” and “not a valid medical diagnosis.” Paul continued, “It doesn’t look like dehydration to me. It looks like a focal neurologic event. That doesn’t mean it’s incapacitating, it doesn’t mean he can’t serve, but it means that somebody ought to wake up and say, ‘Wow! This looks like a seizure.'”

The antidote to “Democratic panic syndrome”: Putting Joe Biden’s poll numbers in perspective

It’s that time in the presidential campaign cycle again when Democrats feel the need to express their discontent with their choices and political journalists, in turn, declare that the party is in a panic. It’s a tradition — and it’s always most dramatic when an incumbent Democrat is facing re-election.

I’m reminded of Washington Post columnist E.J. Dionne, who wrote in September of 1995, “There is little unity among Democrats or on the center-left on the desirability of reelecting President Clinton.” He was right. At the time there were pitched battles going on among the centrists and the progressives which made the prospect of solidarity in the party a distant dream. The huge Republican win in the midterm election of 1994 as well as the non-stop scandal-mongering and investigations by the congressional Republicans had Democrats everywhere wondering how Clinton could possibly win re-election. The only thing that seemed to unite the party at the time was a mutual loathing of Newt Gingrich. 14 months later, Clinton won a decisive victory.

Similarly, at the same point in the 2012 election, there were rumblings from certain quarters that it might be wise to run a primary challenge against President Barack Obama after his approval numbers fell to the 30s in some polls. It had been a very rough three years trying to recover from the financial crisis, not to mention the rise of the Tea Party and a political massacre in the 2010 midterms. The New York Times reported in September of 2011, “Democrats Fret Aloud Over Obama’s Chances“:

[I]n a campaign cycle in which Democrats had entertained hopes of reversing losses from last year’s midterm elections, some in the party fear that Mr. Obama’s troubles could reverberate down the ballot into Congressional, state and local races. “In my district, the enthusiasm for him has mostly evaporated,” said Representative Peter A. DeFazio, Democrat of Oregon. “There is tremendous discontent with his direction.”

The media was full of stories of unhappy centrists, moderates and progressives alike, all of whom were sure that Obama was in trouble. 14 months later, Obama beat Mitt Romney in a romp.

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It happens in midterm elections too.

Just two years ago there were endless stories about Democratic hand-wringing in advance of the 2022 midterms, mostly due to the off-year win by Glenn Youngkin in the Virginia gubernatorial race that supposedly portended a red wave like no other. In December of 2021, Thomas Edsall of the New York Times wrote a story headlined, “Democrats Shouldn’t Panic. They Should Go Into Shock.“

The rise of inflation, supply chain shortages, a surge in illegal border crossings, the persistence of Covid, mayhem in Afghanistan and the uproar over “critical race theory” — all of these developments, individually and collectively, have taken their toll on President Biden and Democratic candidates, so much so that Democrats are now the underdogs going into 2022 and possibly 2024.

I’m sure you will recall just how apoplectic everyone was all the way up until election day. And I’m sure you’ll also recall that that red tsunami turned out to be a tiny pink trickle.

Maybe we should call this the “Democratic panic syndrome” or simply chalk it up to a healthy regard for the vicissitudes of electoral politics. After all, the party in power often loses big in the midterms and after the horror of 2016, it’s surprising that Democrats allow themselves to feel any hope at all in presidential races. (That was the one time Democrats failed to anticipate the worst — and the worst happened.)

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Barack Obama’s pollsters see “big red flags” for Donald Trump’s re-election campaign

Over the Labor Day weekend, the Wall St. Journal released a poll that showed Donald Trump leading the GOP primary at 59% with his closest rival, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, at 13%. There’s nothing shocking there, Trump’s leading by a huge margin in all of them, and that poll was conducted by none other than Trump’s personal pollster, Tony Fabrizio, (along with a partner) so one would expect no less. But what got every Democratic pundit gasping and every talking head salivating was the finding that 73% of Americans believe 80-year-old Joe Biden is too old to be president while only  47% of voters believe the sprightly 77-year-old Donald Trump is similarly unqualified by his age.

The assumption, of course, is that this means Biden is going to lose and Donald Trump will assume the presidency and wreak his revenge on his enemies with relish, which would make anyone panic. (Did I mention this poll was conducted by Trump’s personal pollster?) But it’s important to consider the reality of what is going to be a very bizarre election. Yes, I think we can all agree that Biden is old. Trump is arguably in worse physical shape than Biden is but he dyes his hair and wears a lot of makeup so he hides the fact that he is also an old man. But like Biden, regardless of the perception that he’s not, he looks perceptibly older these days.

In a perfect world, we would not have a presidential election between two men who were born in the WWII era. It’s 2023 and it’s past time to pass the torch. But we are where we are and there are strong reasons to take a breath and realize that Joe Biden is going into this campaign with some serious advantages that would be stupid to toss aside.

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First of all, the power of incumbency cannot be underrated. In the past 11 presidential elections with incumbent candidates, only 4 were unseated. Both the Clinton and Obama re-elections that everyone was so worried about were helped immensely by the fact that there was no primary and they already had fundraising bases and successful campaign experience.

It takes a while for people to catch up to economic good news and Biden has a good story to tell on that front. Reagan, for instance, was underwater in approval in August of 1983 before “Morning in America” and his 1984 landslide re-election. (I’m not suggesting that will happen with Biden — it’s a different world today — it’s just another illustration of how quickly things can improve.)

And there are some other issues in Biden’s favor that are extremely salient at this time such as abortion rights and the attack on democracy, which adds up to a powerful critique of Trump and the authoritarian assault by the Republican party. (Government shutdowns and idiotic impeachments will only help illuminate their extremism) After all, Biden is facing a man who is going to be on trial during most of the campaign next year and could be running as a convicted felon. Yes, his followers will stick with him through it all but the idea that Biden’s age will trump Trump’s criminal status is to suggest that otherwise normal people will prefer an old man who is also a criminal to an old man who has done a good job as president. It’s possible but I’m not convinced it’s likely.

It’s in the Democratic DNA to be nervous nellies. And maybe that’s a good thing. It means they won’t be complacent and will work hard to win the election. For the most part it’s paid off in presidential politics for the past 30 years. But it’s 14 months before the election. Nobody should be losing any sleep just yet. 

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Why the Proud Boys’ sentences matter: They’re scaring the rest of MAGA straight

At the sentencing hearings for the five Proud Boys convicted for some of the most serious crimes related to the January 6 insurrection, the crocodile tears were flowing. Perhaps hoping for mercy from the Donald Trump-appointed federal judge, Timothy Kelly, one member of the neo-fascist gang after another claimed to have seen the error of their ways and promised to walk a better path from here on out. 

Dominic Pezzola, who had joined the group only weeks before the January 6 attack, declared himself “a changed and humbled man” ready to return to a quiet life as an apolitical father and partner to his girlfriend. Joseph Biggs, who was functionally second in command of the Proud Boys on the day of the riot, claimed, “I was seduced by the crowd” before claiming that he’s “so sorry.” Proud Boys leader Enrique Tarrio claimed to be “profusely sorry” and called the cops he sicced his gang on “heroes.” 

It doesn’t matter if the Proud Boys are remorseless.

“I’m done with politics, done with peddling lies for other people who don’t care about me,” said Pennsylvania-based Proud Boy Zachary Rehl, while wiping away tears. “There is no excuse for what I did,” Ethan Nordean declared.

There’s plenty of reason to be skeptical of a single word of remorse offered by any of these men, however.

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Pezzola, after getting sentenced to 10 years, raised his fist in the air and yelled “Trump won!” While the other Proud Boys were less dramatic, it was also not so hard to see how few, if any, genuinely feel bad about what they did. After being sentenced, Biggs called into a vigil held by pro-insurrectionists outside the jail and declared that his 17-year sentence was “insanity,” even though it was half what prosecutors had asked for. “They can kiss my ass. We’re still fighting all the way to the end,” he told the crowd, imploring them to “never give up.” He also called into “Infowars” to insist, “We didn’t do anything wrong.”

As Brandi Buchman of Emptywheel, who has been covering the Proud Boys and Oathkeepers trials from the beginning, pointed out, Nordean’s pleas for mercy were flat-out dishonest. He kept insisting had only shown up “to keep people out of trouble and keep people safe,” and that he was only guilty of a failure to “deescalate.” That’s a lie, as evidence showed he not only egged people on before the attack but that he was texting his fellows about plotting for “absolute war” in the days after. Similarly, Rehl has lied throughout this process. He lied on the stand, saying he didn’t pepper spray cops, until video evidence was produced showing him doing it. Even after being found guilty, Buchman notes, “Rehl continued to mock proceedings and not just that, but lie about them” to far-right media outlets. 

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Meanwhile, Tarrio’s lawyers continued to push silly lies, such as the claim that Tarrio was there to “fight antifa,” despite all the evidence showing his intent was to block the counting of electoral votes. 

The Trump-appointed judge was skeptical, reminding Tarrio many times that he told the Proud Boys “don’t f*cking leave” during the riot:

Tarrio’s sentence of 22 years — so far, the longest of any January 6 insurrectionist — speaks to how skeptical the judge was of his “remorse.” 

This lack of real contrition is the norm with insurrections top to bottom, from Trump to the lowliest window-smasher. The Capitol riot wasn’t the result of misguided people who just needed to be set straight. These folks are fanatics who lie with ease in service of their goal, which is toppling democracy. It’s dispiriting to realize they aren’t going to give up, no matter how destructive their obsession turns out to be. Trump and his minions have egos that are way too big to sincerely admit they were wrong, no matter how much they stand to lose by being stubborn. 

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Trump better beware! Proud Boys guilty verdict shows America wants Jan. 6 ringleaders to pay

It would be nice if these men would reflect on how they lost their way, but the good news is that we don’t need their penitence. Punishment is enough, especially when it comes to what really matters, which is deterrence. There’s ample reason to believe that the prosecution of the Capitol rioters — and increasingly of the coup leadership — is having the desired effect. MAGA America may still quietly wish that January 6 would have worked, but they are also showing signs that they’re unwilling to try again, for fear of ending up in handcuffs. 

This lack of real contrition is the norm with insurrections top to bottom, from Trump to the lowliest window-smasher.

That’s most evident in how little violence there’s been in response to Trump being indicted on 91 felony charges in four different jurisdictions. Trump has been out there pathetically begging his followers, in unsubtle ways, to riot or commit acts of terrorism against people who are prosecuting him. His followers haven’t even really shown up in significant numbers to protest. At every arraignment, the most he’s gotten is a few relatively harmless cranks.

We know this is due to cowardice and not any real loss of support with the MAGA base because polling shows GOP voters still back Trump as their presidential nominee by wide margins. Mostly, this is petulance, as those voters refuse to admit liberals were right about him all along. And, unfortunately, the people involved in holding Trump legally accountable — prosecutors, judges, and even grand jury members — have also been subject to threats and abuse. 

But what we’re not seeing is many people who are willing to risk their own safety or freedom to lash out for Trump. The people making threats are doing so from anonymous forums, where they think their identity will be concealed from authorities. Or, in the case of the woman who threatened federal judge Tanya Chutkan, after allegedly drinking too much to be in her right mind. 

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Trump conspirators beware: Rudy Giuliani’s loss is a reminder that the courtroom is MAGA kryptonite

Republicanism has long been about recasting selfishness as a virtue. While that’s helpful in justifying bullying behavior, it also makes it hard to convince people to take personal risks in the name of fascist ideology. Most of them are content shaking their fist at Fox News, rather than do something foolish that risks prison time. Even those that broke windows on January 6 seemed to do so because they were dumb enough to think they’d get away with it. 

This fear of consequences could restrain not just the violence, but other future schemes to overturn elections. After a couple of years of getting away with it, people who agreed to be fake electors for Trump are starting to get arrested. And rather than be good soldiers for Trump, their fingers are starting to shakily emerge, pointed straight at their leader. As Kyle Cheney and Josh Gerstein report for Politico, three fake electors in Georgia, after being charged in a RICO case alongside Trump, “recently said in court filings that nearly all of the charges they face were the result of instructions from Trump and his lawyers.” They may not be ready to turn state’s witness. But already that’s three people who won’t be answering the call next time a Trump lackey asks them to forge paperwork to try to steal an election.

Pezzola likely told himself a story about how courageous he was, pumping his fist and yelling, “Trump won!” In reality, the gesture only underscored how pathetic he and the other Proud Boys are. They lie like sniveling babies to the judge, feigning remorse in an impotent effort to get mercy. The defiant face shown to the MAGA crowd is play-acting, done only when they think there will be no added consequences for doing it. But after their behavior at the sentencing hearings, there can be no doubt that they’d do things differently if they had another chance. Not because they sincerely wish to be better people, which they clearly don’t. But because punishment works as a deterrence. It’s also why it’s so important for Trump to be tried in a timely fashion. Nothing will scare the MAGA hordes straight like seeing Dear Leader take the fall for his various crimes. 

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A psychiatrist explains the neuroscience and physiology of fear

Heart in your throat. Butterflies in your stomach. Bad gut feeling. These are all phrases many people use to describe fear and anxiety. You have likely felt anxiety inside your chest or stomach, and your brain usually doesn’t hurt when you’re scared. Many cultures tie cowardice and bravery more to the heart or the guts than to the brain.

But science has traditionally seen the brain as the birthplace and processing site of fear and anxiety. Then why and how do you feel these emotions in other parts of your body?

I am a psychiatrist and neuroscientist who researches and treats fear and anxiety. In my book “Afraid,” I explain how fear works in the brain and the body and what too much anxiety does to the body. Research confirms that while emotions do originate in your brain, it’s your body that carries out the orders.

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Unlocking the brain’s spiral symphony: a new path to understanding brain activity

Fear and the brain

While your brain evolved to save you from a falling rock or speeding predator, the anxieties of modern life are often a lot more abstract. Fifty-thousand years ago, being rejected by your tribe could mean death, but not doing a great job on a public speech at school or at work doesn’t have the same consequences. Your brain, however, might not know the difference.

There are a few key areas of the brain that are heavily involved in processing fear.

When you perceive something as dangerous, whether it’s a gun pointed at you or a group of people looking unhappily at you, these sensory inputs are first relayed to the amygdala. This small, almond-shaped area of the brain located near your ears detects salience, or the emotional relevance of a situation and how to react to it. When you see something, it determines whether you should eat it, attack it, run away from it or have sex with it.

Threat detection is a vital part of this process, and it has to be fast. Early humans did not have much time to think when a lion was lunging toward them. They had to act quickly. For this reason, the amygdala evolved to bypass brain areas involved in logical thinking and can directly engage physical responses. For example, seeing an angry face on a computer screen can immediately trigger a detectable response from the amygdala without the viewer even being aware of this reaction.

In response to a looming threat, mammals often fight, flee or freeze.

The hippocampus is near and tightly connected to the amygdala. It’s involved in memorizing what is safe and what is dangerous, especially in relation to the environment – it puts fear in context. For example, seeing an angry lion in the zoo and in the Sahara both trigger a fear response in the amygdala. But the hippocampus steps in and blocks this response when you’re at the zoo because you aren’t in danger.

The prefrontal cortex, located above your eyes, is mostly involved in the cognitive and social aspects of fear processing. For example, you might be scared of a snake until you read a sign that the snake is nonpoisonous or the owner tells you it’s their friendly pet.

Although the prefrontal cortex is usually seen as the part of the brain that regulates emotions, it can also teach you fear based on your social environment. For example, you might feel neutral about a meeting with your boss but immediately feel nervous when a colleague tells you about rumors of layoffs. Many prejudices like racism are rooted in learning fear through tribalism.

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Fear and the rest of the body

If your brain decides that a fear response is justified in a particular situation, it activates a cascade of neuronal and hormonal pathways to prepare you for immediate action. Some of the fight-or-flight response – like heightened attention and threat detection – takes place in the brain. But the body is where most of the action happens.

Several pathways prepare different body systems for intense physical action. The motor cortex of the brain sends rapid signals to your muscles to prepare them for quick and forceful movements. These include muscles in the chest and stomach that help protect vital organs in those areas. That might contribute to a feeling of tightness in your chest and stomach in stressful conditions.

Your sympathetic nervous system is involved in regulating stress.

The sympathetic nervous system is the gas pedal that speeds up the systems involved in fight or flight. Sympathetic neurons are spread throughout the body and are especially dense in places like the heart, lungs and intestines. These neurons trigger the adrenal gland to release hormones like adrenaline that travel through the blood to reach those organs and increase the rate at which they undergo the fear response.

To assure sufficient blood supply to your muscles when they’re in high demand, signals from the sympathetic nervous system increase the rate your heart beats and the force with which it contracts. You feel both increased heart rate and contraction force in your chest, which is why you may connect the feeling of intense emotions to your heart.

In your lungs, signals from the sympathetic nervous system dilate airways and often increase your breathing rate and depth. Sometimes this results in a feeling of shortness of breath.

As digestion is the last priority during a fight-or-flight situation, sympathetic activation slows down your gut and reduces blood flow to your stomach to save oxygen and nutrients for more vital organs like the heart and the brain. These changes to your gastrointestinal system can be perceived as the discomfort linked to fear and anxiety.

It all goes back to the brain

All bodily sensations, including those visceral feelings from your chest and stomach, are relayed back to the brain through the pathways via the spinal cord. Your already anxious and highly alert brain then processes these signals at both conscious and unconscious levels.

The insula is a part of the brain specifically involved in conscious awareness of your emotions, pain and bodily sensations. The prefrontal cortex also engages in self-awareness, especially by labeling and naming these physical sensations, like feeling tightness or pain in your stomach, and attributing cognitive value to them, like “this is fine and will go away” or “this is terrible and I am dying.” These physical sensations can sometimes create a loop of increasing anxiety as they make the brain feel more scared of the situation because of the turmoil it senses in the body.

Although the feelings of fear and anxiety start in your brain, you also feel them in your body because your brain alters your bodily functions. Emotions take place in both your body and your brain, but you become aware of their existence with your brain. As the rapper Eminem recounted in his song “Lose Yourself,” the reason his palms were sweaty, his knees weak and his arms heavy was because his brain was nervous.

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Barack Obama’s pollsters see “big red flags” for Donald Trump’s presidential campaign

Political scientists have described public opinion as being a type of chorus. The song that the American people are now singing lacks harmony and rhythm. 

This is to be expected given how the lyrics and the music are new and uncomfortable for many Americans. Over the last seven years, they have experienced truly “historic” events like the coup attempt of Jan. 6, 2021, a lethal pandemic that killed more than a million people in this country, ascendant neofascism and white supremacy, and a legitimacy crisis. Adding to these “historic” events in some of the worst ways, Donald Trump is now the first ex-president in American history to be indicted and arrested. The disgraced ex-president now faces the real possibility of being sentenced to prison for hundreds of years.

Despite (or because of) Trump’s lawlessness and continued threats of violence, or of pursuing a campaign of revenge and retaliation against his perceived enemies, if he takes back the White House in 2025, his popularity among Republican voters appears to be stable if not growing. Trump is basically tied with President Joe Biden in the polls.

Sounding the alarm about Trump’s enduring power, during a Sunday appearance on  ABC’s “This Morning,” former DNC chair Donna Brazile warned:

I’ve never seen anything like this with Donald Trump. I mean, what doesn’t kill you make you stronger? I mean, being convicted — I mean, being indicted, that’s making him stronger? Raising $10 million using an ugly mug shot to raise money? This is a movement. And anyone who thinks that you can apply the old political rules to try to defeat this candidate based on he’s scary, he’s ugly, whatever you might want to call him, this is a movement. And we have to respect the fact that it’s a movement.

Biden, meanwhile, has accomplished many things, such as steering the country out of the COVID pandemic, student loan relief, stabilizing and growing the economy, passing a bipartisan infrastructure bill, and restoring America’s leadership role in the world after the extreme harm done to it by the Trump regime. In a healthy democracy, Biden would be far ahead of Trump in the early 2024 election polling. Moreover, Trump would not be the Republican Party’s presumptive nominee. In reality, he leads his closest rival by 60 points in the polls.

In an attempt to make sense of this confusing and troubling moment and what the polls are telling us (or not telling us) about Trump, Biden, the 2024 election and the shape of the country’s politics more broadly, I recently spoke with Mike Kulisheck and Shannon Currie, who are senior vice president and vice president, respectively, of the Benenson Strategy Group, a consulting and marketing firm that worked as Barack Obama’s pollsters during his 2012 re-election campaign.

This interview has been edited for clarity and length. 

I always start with emotions and feelings because they are central to the human dimension of politics. How are you feeling about the Age of Trump and this ongoing democracy? How are you reconciling those feelings with what the polls and other data are telling us?

Mike Kulisheck: This is a tense moment to be an American. Trumpism is stress-testing the nation’s election system and institutions. Trump’s upcoming trials will test the resilience of our system of justice, people’s trust in juries, and ultimately, our democracy.

We just fielded a survey about Donald Trump’s actions related to the 2020 elections and the January 6 riots that shows a large majority of voters troubled by Trump’s behavior and his indictments. But, at the same time, Trump is tied with President Biden in the vote.

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The past four election cycles starting in 2016 reveal a new normal, which is that it’s best to prepare for low-probability events.  When unprecedented events arise like COVID in 2020, the Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade in 2022, and Trump’s trials in 2024, we have to be open to unprecedented reactions by voters. As pollsters, we need to design and analyze surveys with fresh eyes. If this were 20 years ago, voters would disqualify Trump completely based on the fact that he’s been indicted on 91 different counts. But the reality of 2024 is that the MAGA Republican base loves him, and a lot of other voters are numb to his behavior.

Public opinion is a type of chorus. What is the chorus that is the American people telling us right now about Donald Trump and the Republican Party?

Shannon Currie: It’s more like, different verses, same chorus.

Words matter. When issues are presented without injecting partisan cues and labels, most Americans share the same values and priorities. They want abortion to be available, common sense gun regulations, and the country to invest in renewable energy. They also want to see inflation under control, less crime and affordable healthcare. In this era defined by Trump, the harmony of public sentiment no longer adheres to the conventional balance between Democrats and Republicans – with the middle playing out tune when we least expect it.

Same dance, different beat.

Trump’s voters and Republicans more generally live in an alternate reality and echo chamber. How they feeling about the ex-president, Jan. 6, and his many other apparent crimes?

Mike Kulisheck: Our recent poll explores voters’ attitudes about Trump’s role in efforts to overturn the 2020 elections, the January 6 riots at the Capitol, and the former President’s indictments.  Predictably, three-quarters of Republicans reject criticism of Trump for what happened after the 2020 elections. That said, a sizable bloc of Republicans are consistently alienated by Trump’s behavior and critical of his post-election actions.  Among Republicans in our poll, 22% say Trump only cares about himself and cannot be trusted, 22% are less favorable to Trump because of his indictment, 24% say they are less likely to vote for him against Biden because of the indictments, and 44% of Republicans say that if convicted, Trump should face the possibility of prison time. If the base of the Republican Party is the party of Trump, and these are big red flags for him.

“While Trump is holding onto his base, our data reveals fissures in his Republican support that would be more than enough to sink his candidacy and re-elect Joe Biden.”

Remember, Donald Trump only lost 6% of Republicans in 2020. While Trump is holding onto his base, our data reveals fissures in his Republican support that would be more than enough to sink his candidacy and re-elect Joe Biden.

Similarly, Trump is on his heels with Independents in our poll when the political conversation is about January 6th, overturning elections, and indictments. Two-in-three Independents say Trump cannot be trusted, 61% say they are less likely to vote for Trump against Biden because of his indictments, and 72% believe he should face prison if convicted. Moreover, in spite of his protestations, Independents believe Trump knew he lost in 2020 and that he attempted to overturn a fair and free election. When asked about the January 6th riots, Independents overwhelmingly say it was an insurrection and an attempted coup. 

These are not good numbers for Donald Trump among Republicans or Independents.

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The conventional wisdom among the news media and punditry is that Trump’s criminal indictments have been helping him among Republican voters. What does the polling and other data actually indicate? What are the trends?

Mike Kulisheck: Our polling shows that the indictments are turning off majorities of Independents and enough Republicans to make Trump’s path to victory extremely tight in 2024. In a race that will be decided narrowly in a handful of states, Trump cannot afford to lose anyone from his 2020 coalition. But these indictments are rallying the Trump base in a way few anticipated. Between the media’s obsession with the horse race, and the “impromptu” courthouse step campaign rallies Trump will likely host after every court appearance, we should brace for another unprecedented and unpredictable 13-month long news cycle focused on Trump, and not about the issues and fears that keep Americans up at night.

What are the issues that are resonating (or not) with the public right now?

Shannon Currie: What matters as we head into 2024 is whether voters feel their lives are getting better. Covid related subsidies expired, interest rates are high, and loan payments are no longer deferred. To your previous reference about the chorus of public opinion, both parties have set the stage for this election to be not about the chorus, but one soloist – Trump.

Polls are a tool for parties and politicians and other political actors to shape decision-making in a democracy — even an ailing one like ours. What are the polls signaling – including the new poll from Benenson Strategy Group – to the country’s political leadership?

Shannon Currie: America is changing, and our values and beliefs are being tested. No one needs a poll to tell us our nation is at a moral and cultural inflection point. Benenson Strategy Group doesn’t focus on whether Biden or Trump is up or down by 1 or 2 points – we want to understand the kitchen table issues that Americans feel are barriers to their future success.  The best candidates always remember that elections are about the voters and the best polls help candidates have a conversation with voters about their current aspirations and dreams for their children.   

Mike Kulisheck: Given the divisions in the U.S., the middle of the electorate – Independents and moderates – are especially interesting these days. When Independents break strongly one way or another, we pay attention.  For example, the reaction among Independents to Trump’s recent indictments is meaningful because fully two-thirds break against the former President. 

“Our polling shows that the indictments are turning off majorities of Independents and enough Republicans to make Trump’s path to victory extremely tight in 2024.”

A Biden-Trump rematch pits two extremely well-known candidates against each other.  While there will be a lot of mud slung on both sides, good polling will differentiate between the accusations that can change the race versus those that are baked in the cake and unlikely to alter outcomes.  For example, voters know that Joe Biden is old. The question is whether Biden’s age will change people’s votes in an election where the other candidate is Donald Trump. Similarly, even Donald Trump’s supporters doubt his truthfulness.  Will Democrats pointing out Trump’s dishonesty change many minds at this point?

If you were to brief Donald Trump about how the American people feel towards him, what would you highlight? What advice would you give him? Likewise, what would you tell President Biden and his advisers?

Mike Kulisheck: Trump’s greatest challenge is calibrating his message to the audience that will get him 271 electoral votes.  Trump has always maximized adulation by preaching to his base. He seldom leaves the safety of the rightwing echo chamber. This is a reasonable strategy to win the Republican nomination, but it makes winning a general election harder. The question for 2024 is whether Trump can make himself presentable enough to win back the suburbs, more educated voters, and the bloc of voters across the country that has been activated around the overturning of Roe v. Wade by Trump’s hand-picked Supreme Court. 

Joe Biden needs to find a way to tell his story of success as President.  He has an enviable record of accomplishment.  After voting against it, even Republicans are promoting the benefits of Biden’s Inflation Adjustment Act to their red-state constituents. Right now, the economy and inflation are moving in the right direction. Making his policy achievements personal for voters is the key to Biden’s success in 2024. President Biden also benefits from reminding voters that the 2024 election is a choice between two people with very different views and values when it comes to our shared future as Americans. 

Please make an intervention here. Of course, there is going to be the narrative that “The polls were wrong in 2020 and the 2022 midterms! You can’t trust the polls! They are unreliable!”  

Shannon Currie: The value of good polling is to understand voters’ priorities, preferences, and vision for America. A fixation on the horse race – especially this far out from the election – is a lost opportunity to understand the contours along which the 2024 election will proceed and ultimately be decided. Polls are very accurate when it comes to where voters stand on the issues of the day and policy priorities. Reporting should use polls to understand the electorate’s priorities and leanings around the issues and actions that will drive their vote decisions.

Where will Trump’s voters go, when/if he is forced out of the presidential election?

Mike Kulisheck: It depends on how Trump leaves the race. The risk for Republicans no matter how he leaves the race is that Trump’s diehard supporters stay at home on Election Day. 

If Republicans nominate someone else, the question is, how will Trump react? He has not revealed himself to be particularly generous in defeat. If the party turns on him, it seems highly likely that Trump will turn on the party, or at least withhold his full support from the Republican ticket. 

If Trump is forced out of the race because of his indictments and trials, he could see personal advantage in promoting the Republican nominee. In this case, he could rile up his supporters to support the Republican ticket in defense of him and against his perceived unfair treatment. 

America’s democracy crisis is much bigger than Trump or any other such one leader or party. Using therapeutic language — let’s imagine you are a consulting physician — how is the health of the patient? What does treatment look like? What is the prognosis? 

Shannon Currie: The American body politic has an infection that is resistant to regularly prescribed antibiotics. We are trying different antibiotics and hoping one will cure the infection. The prognosis is good as long as we have alternate antibiotics to prescribe and time for them to work. 

Mike Kulisheck: Our institutions have held so far against repeated attack by Trump and others. Looking ahead, Trump’s trials and the 2024 election will reveal the strength and resilience of our institutions and democracy.  Sticking with the analogy, we will find out if the antibiotics work or if the infection overpowers the body politic’s defenses.

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Newly discovered steel-dense exoplanet is result of colliding with and consuming its siblings: study

Although the exoplanet TOI-1853 b is roughly the size of Neptune, its mass is almost twice that of any other known planet of comparable size. For this reason, TOI-1853 b should not exist, at least based on the known laws of physics. That is why some scientists have a bold hypothesis — that the strange alien world may only be around because a group of smaller planets collided into each other, according to a recent study in the journal Nature.

Neptune itself is a gas giant 57 times Earth’s size and covered in a thick atmosphere of hydrogen and helium, an icy world far away from its Sun. Other Neptune-sized worlds like the exoplanets HD 95338 b, TOI-849 b and TOI-2196  b contain lots of water or rock with thinner atmospheres — but are still nowhere near as dense as TOI-1853 b. 

In fact, TOI-1853 b is so heavy that it possesses 73 times Earth’s mass — and uncharacteristically for a planet this size, it is so close to its star that it completes an orbit every 1.24 days.

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What explains the existence of this freakishly large, freakishly heavy planet where a year is roughly the length of a Monday? A team of scientists, led by Luca Naponiello of University of Rome Tor Vergata and the University of Bristol, have a doozy of a hypothesis: TOI-1853 b was created when many other planets smashed together.

If true, this would mean that a number of smaller planets once orbited this exoplanet’s host star, TOI-1853. When their orbits destabilized, the planets may have begun crashing into each other, one right after another, forming one large, dense planet. This would essentially be the planetary equivalent of a twin consuming its sibling in the womb. As a result, the shattered individual planets formed a massive new planet in its unorthodox location second from its star. Yet this hypothesis is somewhat undermined by the fact that when planets crash into each other, they usually form multiple bodies rather than just one.

Another possibility is that a group of gas giants had formed in a farther obit more traditional for those types of planets, but that their orbits somehow destabilized. If that happened, one of them could been bounced into its current unusual orbit while gathering denser materials from the inner portions of its planet-forming disk. Eventually, according to this hypothesis, the exoplanet TOI-1853 b moved so close to the star TOI-1853 that it transferred its atmosphere to that star, culminating in a situation where tidal interactions between TOI-1853 and TOI-1853b created a more regular orbit for TOI-1853 b around TOI-1853.

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“The properties of TOI-1853 b present a puzzle for conventional theories of planetary formation and evolution.”

“The properties of TOI-1853 b present a puzzle for conventional theories of planetary formation and evolution, and could be the result of several proto-planet collisions or the final state of an initially high-eccentricity planet that migrated closer to its parent star,” the authors conclude.

If nothing else, TOI-1853 b is remarkable because “the discovery of exoplanets in the hot-Neptune desert, a region close to the host stars with a deficit of Neptune-sized planets, provides insights into the formation and evolution of planetary systems, including the existence of this region itself.”

“This planet is very surprising! Normally we expect planets forming with this much rock to become gas giants like Jupiter which have densities similar to water,” Jingyao Dou, study co-author and postgraduate student at Bristol, said in a statement. “TOI-1853b is the size of Neptune but has a density higher than steel. Our work shows that this can happen if the planet experienced extremely energetic planet-planet collisions during its formation.  “These collisions stripped away some of the lighter atmosphere and water leaving a substantially rock-enriched, high-density planet.”

This is not the first recent news related to either Neptune or, in the case of TOI-1853 b, Neptune-like planets. An August 2023 study in the scientific journal Icarus found that Neptune itself had mysteriously vanishing clouds and offered a tantalizing hypothesis as to why this was happening: Simply put, the culprit was ultraviolet rays. Utilizing archives of near-infrared observations of Neptune from both the Keck and Lick Observatories and the Hubble Space Telescope between 1994 and 2022, the scientists proved a positive correlation between cloud activity and the amount of electromagnetic energy emitted by the Sun at Solar Lyman-Alpha irradiance, a very specific wavelength they could effectively measure.

“The clear positive correlation we find between cloud activity and Solar Lyman-Alpha (121.56 nm) irradiance lends support to the theory that the periodicity in Neptune’s cloud activity results from photochemical cloud/haze production triggered by Solar ultraviolet emissions,” the authors concluded.

Another scientific paper, this one from September 2022, hypothesized that Neptune and other planets literally rain diamonds. This is thanks to a process known as carbon sedimentation, in which the hydrogen and carbon that exists within the planetary interiors is so squeezed by the immense atmospheric pressure that it literally forms diamonds which fall from the sky.

“We have a preconceived notion that diamonds are so unique. They’re hard to come by on the Earth’s surface,” Arianna Gleason, one of the study authors, told Salon at the time. “But in the larger cosmos, what we’re finding is that the constituent components — carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, the sort of simple molecules — are so abundant, especially in these gas giants in exoplanets, that the volume over which they exist at these extreme conditions is enormous.”

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about Neptune

“A very clever strategy”: Georgia lawyers explain speedy trial request could spell “chaos” for Trump

With 19 co-defendants scrambling to devise different legal strategies for their defense, the Georgia election interference case could be embarking on its most chaotic phase yet.

Last week, Donald Trump officially announced his intent to separate his case from the group. The move came after at least two defendants in the scheme to overturn the 2020 election in Georgia tried in court to separate their cases from the other 17 alleged co-conspirators. Despite the overall indictment’s sprawling scope, Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis then announced that her office is prepared to meet at least one defendant’s request for a speedy trial next month. Meanwhile, other defendants are trying to move their cases to federal court.

Trump legal advisers Kenneth Chesebro and Sidney Powell, both of whom helped the former president in matters related to the 2020 election, recently requested that their cases be detached from other co-defendants and quickly taken to trial. Fulton Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee approved the Oct. 23 trial date for Chesebro. Powell’s request is still pending.

“Moving for a speedy trial here is a very clever strategy,” Andrew Fleischman, Atlanta defense attorney, told Salon. “It is a much easier way to get a severance from the other co-defendants, which means less spillover from the evidence against them, as well as a shorter, more affordable trial.”

On top of this, paying a lawyer to sit through six months or a year of trial is “prohibitively expensive,” he added.

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Unlike the other defendants who requested a speedy trial, the ex-president’s legal strategy has primarily focused on delaying his trials. Trump’s legal team filed a motion to sever his case from the other defendants.

“Respectfully, requiring less than two months preparation time to defend a 98-page indictment, charging 19 defendants, with 41 various charges including a RICO conspiracy charge … would violate President Trump’s federal and state constitutional rights to a fair trial and due process of law,” his legal team argued in a filing. 

Willis has reiterated her desire to try all 19 Georgia defendants together in a sweeping racketeering case, telling the judge that her office “maintains its position that severance is improper at this juncture and that all Defendants should be tried together,” ABC News reported last week. 

Defendants who are requesting a speedy trial may also “be hoping to catch the DA off of balance,” Caren Myers Morrison, a former assistant U.S. attorney in New York and associate professor of law at Georgia State University, told Salon.

“Requesting a speedy trial in basically two months is pretty aggressive,” Morrison said. “I assume that their hope is that she won’t quite be ready… That’s usually the reason why people want a speedy trial. It’s because they think they have a better chance to force the prosecution into some kind of disarray.”

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“Every defendant for himself”: Mark Meadows and others may be ready to flip on Trump

Prosecutors charged both Powell and Chesebro with racketeering over their alleged efforts to undermine the 2020 election. Chesebro, who faces seven charges, authored multiple memos outlining a plan to assemble slates of fraudulent electors in key swing states to overturn the 2020 election results, while Powell is charged in connection with a breach at an elections office in Coffee County.

“The biggest disadvantage is that there just aren’t that many prosecutors in Fulton County who have the training and experience to try a case this big and unusual in the face of well-funded opposition,” Fleischman said. “The RICO count is broad enough that Willis can still tell the whole story in each courtroom if she chooses. The problem will be having enough bodies to do that well in parallel state and federal proceedings.”

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But courts are also “extremely reluctant” to sever defendants from joint trials, pointed out Bennett Gershman, a former New York prosecutor and law professor at Pace University.

“It puts prosecutors at a disadvantage in having to reuse evidence and witnesses, and gives defendants who will be tried in the future a preview of the prosecutor’s case,” Gershman said. 

While Trump and his co-conspirators closely monitor what happens as legal proceedings take place in Fulton County courts, their legal team “will be taking notes on the tactics displayed in the courtroom,” reported The Daily Beast.

“If Fani Willis gets three convictions with three defendants, that will put a lot of pressure on all the remaining defendants,” Morrison said. “If she can put this away quickly, that’ll strengthen her hand considerably. But, If they all get acquitted, that would be bad. It’s really going to depend on what happens.”

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about the Georgia prosecution

Mocking Burning Man’s muddy catastrophe is just the latest example of how we cope with the rich

Thousands of people find themselves in the sweltering Nevada desert every year to seemingly party, connect and make art. But this year, Burning Man left more than 70,000 of its attendees stranded in the desert after heavy rains created mudslides. This led state officials to close off the only road leading in and out of the town, telling festivalgoers to shelter in place and reserve their resources while the storm passed through — and so, chaos ensued.

What exactly is entertaining about an event that prompts rich people to party in the desert for a week?

The festival – which typically costs from around $500-1,000-plus to attend – invites creatives of all types to experience “grand, awe-inspiring and joyful ways that lift the human spirit, address social problems, and inspire a sense of culture, community, and civic engagement,” the event’s archaic website said. The nine-day-long event in Nevada is held in Black Rock City, a makeshift town that festivalgoers annually help build for the event. As enticing it sounds to spend nine days camping in the Nevada heat during the summer, nothing about Burning Man sounds like it’s made to actually be enjoyed. 

This time around it seemed like what Burning Man was selling doesn’t correlate to the experience that festivalgoers had at this year’s event. I don’t know what enlightenment people are looking to be fulfilled by Burning Man but the bucketloads of money people spent to be there just for them to be trapped in heavy rains and a mudslide for days with no way out — doesn’t feel like it’s the peak environment for self-improvement. Even outside of the unforeseen meteorological issues, what exactly is entertaining about an event that prompts rich people to party in the desert for a week?

Related

Why some people will risk their lives to see the Titanic in real life

And the internet agrees with me. A plethora of people have taken to social media to meme the disaster at Burning Man this past weekend. A Twitter (now X) user critiqued the event: “Burning Man is the perfect example of how many rich white people recreationally manufacture hardship because they are immune from it systematically.”

Watching seemingly rich white people in their own dangerous self-made, avoidable disaster from afar is how the working class copes.

Another user said, “Burning Man attendees have never been good. It has never been ‘alt culture’ for a bunch of white people to go out onto native territory and treat it like empty space. There is nothing more status quo than treating the land like an inanimate stage for your self-involved pageantry.”

It may be dark but watching seemingly rich white people in their own dangerous self-made, avoidable disaster from afar is how the working class copes. Chris Rock and Diplo were literally picked up by fans at Burning Man and escaped the muddy mess that was preventing most people from leaving. And while poking fun at the pain of rich people may not be the healthiest outlet as a way to deal with America’s economic strife, it’s all the internet has. All we have is making fun of dumb, rich people being dumb and rich.  

There have been plenty of other moments recently of rich people utterly failing in misguided attempts to be thrill-seekers. Earlier this summer, a group of billionaires went down into a submarine to explore the remains of the Titanic which is at the bottom of the ocean floor somewhere in the Atlantic Ocean. The Titan submersible lost all communication almost two hours into the expedition. The story captured the nation in play-by-play live updates of the passengers’ chances of survival.

While people waited for updates, everyone poked fun at the frivolity of the expedition. Videos of the submersible showed that it was controlled by a cheap video game controller. Other reports shared that it cost each passenger $250,000 to travel on the submarine. Even “Titanic” director James Cameron, who has dived to see the wreckage of the infamous ship numerous times said, “I thought it was a horrible idea,” in an interview with Reuters. No matter where you went the “eat the rich” memes were in every corner of the internet, and if you weren’t on the internet the 24-hour news channels were covering the countdown of how much oxygen the missing submarine had left. Later it was reported that the submarine suffered a catastrophic implosion that likely killed the five passengers instantly amid the intense water pressure.

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There is a rich irony in the submarine tragedy — an expedition to see the wreckage of the Titanic, which also housed rich passengers and a captain who was told that it would be too dangerous, also suffered the same fate. People on the internet thought that’s what they deserved for not listening to the multiple warnings that it would be a potentially life-threatening journey; the passengers even signed waivers that mentioned the possibility of death multiple times.

In cases of frivolous rich people’s decisions — a critique of their wildly inappropriate thrill-seeking should always be socially acceptable. That’s why people make jokes, it’s the only way we bring their frivolity back up to earth where we live, instead of deep into the ocean where they are.

They spend their obscene and endless pits of money on meaningless experiences like Burning Man or a Titanic submarine expedition when people are fighting and striking to make liveable wages. It’s so American. And in response, as working class people we take the jokes too far because what else is there? Their wealth isn’t going to be distributed to us when they die. The mockery is loaded with a big dose of humble medicine. I’m not here to pass judgment on the people who have made jokes and memes about Burning Man or the missing submarine; I’m also a part of the problem. I do want to clarify that even though we don’t have any stake in this, there is a moral responsibility to understand that just because we are engulfed in tragedy every day we should not become entirely desensitized to it.

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An asteroid as big as a house is scheduled to pass Earth on Wednesday

There is an asteroid so large that a person could easily roam around it as if it was their individual home — which is convenient, given they are roughly the same size. That same asteroid is about to come awfully close to striking Earth, at least according to the NASA Asteroid Watch Dashboard, which exists to warn the Earth of the presence of NEOs (near earth objects). At the time of this writing, it is projecting that this object is the size of a house, with a diameter of 31 meters or over 100 feet and will whiz harmlessly by our planet on September 6th.

Meet 2021 JA5, an asteroid that the Jerusalem Post noted was equal in size to “81 bulldogs,” and which also has the diameter of roughly two-and-a-half king size beds. It is expected to pass within roughly 3.17 million miles of Earth — practically scraping our sides, from an astronomical vantage point.

Nor is it passing Earth on its own: On Sept. 8th, it will be joined by an airplane-sized asteroid named QC5, which is expected to pass within 2.53 million miles of Earth. In addition it will be joined on that day by a bus-sized asteroid called GE that will pass within 3.56 million miles of Earth. Then, on Sept. 10th, another airplane-sized asteroid known as QF6 will pass Earth within 1.65 million miles of our planet; it will be followed by RT2, an asteroid the size of a bus expected to fly within 2.62 million miles of Earth. While all of these close visitors may be worrisome, the chances of them hitting Earth and causing serious damage are statistically very low.

CORRECTION: In a previous version of this article, the asteroid’s size was compared to king-size mattresses. It has been amended to more accurately reflect its size.

Blocked: Court stops Jack Smith’s effort to access phone records of GOP Rep. Scott Perry

Special counsel Jack Smith’s team of investigators has been seeking access to more than 2,200 records of communication between Rep. Scott Perry, R-Pa., and the Trump White House and others, but a federal appeals court severely limited their mission with a Tuesday ruling. 

A three-judge panel of the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals dismissed part of a lower court’s decision that would have allowed Smith’s prosecutors to access much of the content they sought from Perry’s cell phone, seized by the FBI under a 2022 search warrant. Federal investigators were quickly blocked from accessing its contents after Perry filed a motion to keep his communications private citing privileges as a federal lawmaker. 

The 29-page decision remained under seal as of Tuesday afternoon, so there are no details available about the court’s reasoning.

Perry filed a civil complaint against the DOJ, seeking to prevent the agency from searching his phone but dropped the lawsuit in October. Smith’s team, meanwhile, can appeal Tuesday’s decision to the Supreme Court. 

According to Perry’s lawyer, John Rowley, Perry’s phone includes messages about the joint session to certify Electoral College votes on Jan. 6, 2021, and a Democratic-backed election bill passed in March of that year. 

 

Ever wonder how your body turns food into fuel? We tracked atoms to find out

Inside our bodies at every moment, our cells are orchestrating a complex dance of atoms and molecules that uses energy to create, distribute and deploy the substances on which our lives depend.

And it’s not just in our bodies: All animals carry out this dance of metabolism and it turns out none of them do it quite the same way.

In new research published in Science Advances, we analyzed specific carbon atoms in amino acids — the building blocks of proteins — to discover distinctive fingerprints of the metabolism of different species.

These fingerprints reveal how different creatures meet the demands of survival, growth and reproduction — and offer a whole new way to understand metabolism in unprecedented detail.

 

A more detailed picture

We have developed a new way to study metabolism — the chemical processes inside your body that keep you alive and functioning — that reveals much more detail than previous methods. Our new technique looks at isotopes inside amino acids to see how metabolism is working.

Isotopes are versions of the same chemical element with different masses. For example, the most common kind of carbon is carbon-12, but there is also an isotope called carbon-13 that is a little heavier. We can measure the ratio of heavy to light isotopes in biological molecules such as proteins to learn about the organism that produced them.

Traditionally, scientists would analyze the overall isotope ratio of the entire protein. This can reveal some information, particularly about what kinds of things an animal eats, but it is like averaging out a complex TV image into a single pixel of light — you lose all the detailed information.

More recently, scientists have been able to measure isotopes in each of the 20 individual amino acids that make up proteins. This is like having 20 dots of light — better, but still not very nuanced.

Our new method goes even further, by measuring isotopes in a particular carbon atom on each amino acid. It’s like seeing every pixel in the TV image, which gives us amazingly detailed metabolic info.

 

Finding the right carbon

 

We used a chemical called ninhydrin to chop off and isolate the carbon atom we wanted from each amino acid. We then sent these carbon atoms — from a very metabolically active part of the amino acid called the carboxyl group — through a machine called a mass spectrometer to read their isotope fingerprints.

This research began more than a decade ago and developed into a collaborative project between Griffith University and Queensland Health. In 2018, working with colleagues in Japan, we were able to demonstrate that we could indeed use nihydrin to isolate the carbon atoms we wanted from amino acids.

The next stage was to combine our nihydrin technique with a process called high-performance liquid chromatography, which can separate out different kinds of amino acids.

In 2019, we were able to report position-specific isotope analysis for several different mammals. We found we could distinguish a clear metabolic “fingerprint” of each mammal.

 

The four phases of metabolism

 

In our latest work, we tested a broader range of animals including oysters, scallops, prawns, squid and fish. We found the patterns of isotopes in the amino acids could be tracked back to the biochemistry of mitochondria, the tiny energy-providing powerhouses in the cells of all animals and plants, as well as many other organisms.

We identified four distinct phases of metabolism: Creating fats, destroying fats, creating proteins and destroying proteins. Animals combine these phases in distinct ways to accomplish growth and reproduction.

For example, adult mammals use fats as a pantry to regulate their temperature, whereas adult prawns cannibalize their own proteins to make the fats they need for reproduction.

We also found that the humans we studied showed a very balanced, steady state metabolism, which is perhaps unsurprising given our generally stable and nutritious diets. Interestingly, this was quite similar to what we found in an oyster sample.

In this work, we studied individuals with generally normal metabolisms. Future applications might include studies of groups with abnormal metabolism such as cancer, obesity and starvation.

By peering deep into the isotopes of amino acids, we will be able to understand eukaryote metabolism like never before, in animals, plants and fungi.

James Carter, Adjunct Research Fellow, Griffith University; Brian Fry, Emeritus Professor, Griffith University, and Kaitlyn O’Mara, Research Fellow, Australian Rivers Institute, Griffith University

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

My earliest childhood memories are from Margaritaville

You know a Jimmy Buffett concert is about to begin when a song that’s not his starts to blare through the speakers. With the sound of a steel drum and the rush of an enthusiastic fan base jumping to their feet, for three tours in a row, at ages, four, five and six, I had come to understand that the opening “Ole ole ole oles” from Buster Poindexter’s “Hot Hot Hot” meant that Buffett was about to take the stage. It’s at this time that Buffett’s large Coral Reefer band – made up of a keyboard player (Mist-ah Utley!), percussionists, guitar players, trumpeters, backup vocalists and more – fill the stage, and beach balls and t-shirts are shot into the crowd. After enough anticipation is drummed up, Jimmy Buffett, the man responsible for summoning a devoted crowd clad in Hawaiian shirts and parrot hats, saunters onto the stage sans shoes, holding a guitar and waving to the crowd like the mayor of Margaritaville. 

As a young Parrot Head, or parakeet, I felt special to be dancing and singing with all these fun-loving adults, even if I had to stand on a chair to see.

The first time I witnessed this spectacle, I was peering through the spaces left by the rowdy adults in front of me to get glimpses of the stage. Flashing colorful lights and beach balls flying overhead instantly transported me to an island somewhere, even if in my four years of life I hadn’t been to one yet. I watched my parents watch me, gauging my reaction of my first taste of live music. At that age, Jimmy Buffett and his Parrot Head fans taught me everything I knew about concerts. I saw the impact that one person could have on many others, my parents included. Looking up at the adults towering over me, I saw my parents smile, sing, clap and dance, and I joined in. I learned that for concerts you get to wear a special outfit, to chant “Salt! Salt! Salt!” echoing Buffett after he sings “Searchin’ for my lost shaker of salt” during “Margaritaville” and to swat at incoming beach balls to keep them floating across the arena for the entire performance. 

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The Margaritaville empire: Jimmy Buffett fans won’t stop looking for that lost shaker of salt

Because I was one of the youngest people in the crowd, I drew the attention of many Parrot Heads who wanted to make sure I was welcomed into their community. As a young Parrot Head, or parakeet, I felt special to be dancing and singing with all these fun-loving adults, even if I had to stand on a chair to see. By the time Buffett’s “A Salty Piece of Land” tour made it to the Mohegan Sun Arena in 2005, I was no longer an only child. My younger twin siblings were two, making them not quite old enough to join my parents and me in Margaritaville. He is a rare thing that belongs to just us, an inside joke or secret code that even my siblings still can’t completely appreciate since they weren’t there. 

Buffett is actually a great artist for kids.

Buffett holds a lot of important musical firsts for me. He was my first three concerts and my first CD. Before his 2006 “Party at the End of the World” tour, my grandmother brought me to Spin Street, a store in Mohegan that had aisles and aisles of CDs, and got me a 38-song compilation album called “Meet Me in Margaritaville: The Ultimate Collection” that I would study for the next concert that rolled around, which, it turns out, would be just a year away. In writing this, I learned that Buffett toured every year since 1976, even with a broken leg at one point in the ’80s.

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Inside the venue at my second show, I got a pink t-shirt that wouldn’t fit me for years. (Buffett’s merch only came in adult sizes.) When we held the shirt up to my small body at the front of the merch line, I begged my parents to get it, knowing that it would be worth the wait to grow into one day. Aside from his merchandise, Buffett is actually a great artist for kids. His island sounds and campy songs like “Cheeseburger in Paradise” and “Volcano” are perfect sing-alongs that elicit a smile at any age. He even spoke in code to alert parents if he was about to play a PG-13 song, introducing his song “Why Don’t We Get Drunk and Screw” as “Why Don’t We Eat Lunch In School” and singing it that way one year. But, by Buffett’s 2007 “Bama Breeze” tour, I was ready to hang with the adults, draped in fake leis and ready to sing, clap and dance along with my parents and the other Parrot Heads.

For years after, I was a casual listener to Buffett’s music, mostly playing his greatest hits off of “Songs You Know By Heart” in the car with my dad on the way to soccer games or sharing my favorite song as a kid “Fins” with my college friends and attempting to explain what it was like to be at one of his shows. As some of my earliest memories, the clearest recollections I have from those nights are snippets: the excitement in my parents’ eyes as they brought their first child to her first concert, holding my mom’s hand as she guided me around the arena, swaying along with the crowd to the sound of Buffett’s soothing songs, and catching my mom whispering to my dad that he should take me to get a soda when she thought Buffett was about to play “Why Don’t We Get Drunk and Screw” — a song that I have still never really listened to for my mother’s sake. In the moment, though, I prepared myself to refuse to take a trip to the concession stand if asked. I wasn’t going to miss out on the full Buffett experience just because I was a kid. 

Today, whenever I get nervous or scared, I can hum “A Pirate Looks at Forty” to myself to calm down.

Mostly, I thought about Buffett whenever I was by the ocean. The ocean is maybe the only thing he and I have in common. (Well, that and margaritas.) It’s clear from his music that Buffett has lived his life on the edge, something I can’t say about myself. To be fair, almost no one, as my mom would put it, has done as much “hard living” as Buffett. It’s what makes him so special. There was a man who, from any one of his songs, told you exactly who he was. Someone who made mistakes, but did it honestly, and with a sense of humor. Someone with wild stories and friends in high places, yet just as approachable as any other guy at the bar. Someone who lived fully. 

Sitting on a beach during spring break in Key Largo, Fla. or caught in rough seas while shark fishing in Aruba, that’s when Buffett would creep back into my Spotify queue. Today, whenever I get nervous or scared, I can hum “A Pirate Looks at Forty” to myself to calm down. Maybe it’s because it brings me back to feeling content in his crowd as a child, but I think it’s also because Jimmy seemed to have figured out the ever-elusive peace. Amid my own “changes in latitudes” navigating my early 20s, Buffett’s relaxing island music helps me survive the chaos that is living on the island of Manhattan. He has become a legend for his easygoing, beach bum lifestyle, which includes a “Jurassic World” cameo where he manages to save two margaritas while running from angry dinosaurs, but he’s also storied and wise and the perfect escape for an anxious 22-year-old. Happy or stressed, drunk or sober, I’ve found that Buffett is an artist who is there whenever you need him. 

Recently, I’ve been thinking about Buffett a lot more. Aging out of my teenage years, graduating college and moving away from home has inspired a new interest in things that were important to me as a child. While my family was together cooking dinner one night, my parents and I excitedly played “Fins,” raising our hands above our heads to mimic sharks, swaying left and right as Buffett sings “Fins to the left, fins to the right” just as we had with the tens of thousands of fans at our shows. This time, my siblings were there, looking at us confused and horrified by our unexplained but instinctive movements. To celebrate my 22nd birthday, I rounded up a group of friends that indulged me in my desire to go to Buffett’s Margaritaville restaurant in Times Square. Every hour on the hour, the lights dimmed and a mashup of his songs filled the room, bringing me back in time. Over the past few years, I had been trying to coordinate going to another show with my parents, but between our schedules and me not living at home anymore, we never made it. 

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When I heard that Buffett died at the age of 76 on Friday, I called my parents. We were sad, but mostly we were happy remembering the concerts and the memories from over the years. His shows always felt like a whimsical, lightning in a bottle experience that we were able to share together. My memories of Jimmy Buffett are some of my earliest ever and still some of my favorites with my parents. Over the phone, we praised his songwriting and storytelling and quoted the songs that meant the most to us. I joked that I still had something to look forward to: understanding “A Pirate Looks at Forty” on a new level when I am finally that age, and Buffett’s prophetic words rang in my ears over our laughter (“If we couldn’t laugh, we would all go insane”). Over the past few days, we’ve been sharing videos of him performing in our own group chat and I sent them a picture wearing my 2006 concert shirt, which finally fits. Even though he is gone, he is still one thing that is ours.

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