The Top 5: Pet food, hanging out, prison suicides, 400 square foot houses
Welcome to the latest edition of the Top 5 articles we’ve read this week. Each week, we read dozens of articles in the hope we find essays and reporting that speak to big ideas, trends, future looks, and incredible human stories. We hope you enjoy our list, and do always let us know if you have a suggestion or a recommendation!
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The Top 5 articles for your week:
“Why Americans Suddenly Stopped Hanging Out” (The Atlantic)
Because Derek Thompson outlines how the disappearance of hanging out is a symptom of greater social problems.
I was reminded of the Harvard Study of Adult Development, which is the oldest longitudinal study on happiness and well-being ever conducted. Last year, its directors said that the “simple and profound conclusion” of their work was that good relationships are the key to happiness. Just as many people are familiar with the concept of physical fitness, they said, we should be equally open to the concept of social fitness. We should care for our relationships as we’d care for our body.
“The Burgeoning Science of Search and Rescue” (Undark)
Because Sarah Scoles explores the growing science of “lost person behavior.”
“The Great Compression” (NYT)
Because Conor Dougherty covers how the future of American housing is living in very small homes and not the trendy “tiny homes” style you see on social media.
“Federal prisons have a suicide crisis. They can fix it.” (Washington Post)
Because WaPo’s Editorial Board says that the Federal Bureau of Prison’s approach to the steady suicide rate in prisons is preventable.
Perhaps most troubling of all, prisons have no way of knowing the extent of their own deficiencies. For more than one-third of the deaths covered by the report, records were lacking. No wonder: Key information on many of the bureau’s problems is absent.
“200 cats, 200 dogs, one lab: the secrets of the pet food industry” (The Guardian)
Because if you’ve got a beloved furry friend, Vivian Ho covers everything from the history of pet food to the research, psychology, and marketing techniques that the lucrative pet industry works on daily to get food from a lab to your pet’s food bowl.
ICYMI on Wear We Are:
The Morning Five: February 12, 2024
The Morning Five: February 13, 2024
The Morning Five: February 14, 2024