The Top 5: PFAS, saving the bees, reverse logistics, weaponizing language
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Welcome to your weekly 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! Please also consider becoming a paid subscriber if this is one of those newsletters you open up all the time or look forward to each week. We couldn’t do this work without our paying subscribers!
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The Top 5 articles for your week:
“‘Forever Chemicals’ Are Everywhere. What Are They Doing to Us?” (NYT Magazine)
Because more and more stories are being told about micro-plastics being found in everything from water to food to our bodies: “‘People want to know, could this have contributed to my high cholesterol, my miscarriage, my loved one’s cancer?’ Courtney Carignan, an exposure scientist and epidemiologist at Michigan State University, told me. ‘These are reasonable questions, and doctors are often very dismissive. They don’t have the knowledge to answer those questions.’”
“What Happens to All the Stuff We Return?” (New Yorker)
Because returned goods to online retailers are jumping, and these goods not considered new again and are dealt with in various ways that have shored up an entire industry - reverse logistics.
“A Simple Marketing Technique Could Make America Healthier” (The Atlantic)
Because “A/B testing” is proving to be an effective way to test out which marketing techniques work best to get patients seen by doctors.
“America’s Bee Problem Is an Us Problem” (The Ringer)
Because honeybees are dying, and “the problem of bees in America is not a question of peace with the environment. It’s not really even a matter of conservation, per se. The bees most folks believe ought to be saved are neither natural to the land nor essential to it. They are, instead, integral to our agricultural system, grocery stores, refrigerators, and pantries. We have built a machine in the span of centuries, and it fits so comfortably together. How and why this happened is a story as much about the appeal, adaptability, and shortcomings of American commerce as it is about the dying of bees.”
“In our divided times, let’s not ‘weaponize’ our language” (Washington Post)
Because do you agree that the word “weaponize” is used too much in American politics?