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9 months ago • The Atlantic

For years, the best treatment for serious cases of #eczema ’s itchy, red inflammation was drugs with dangerous side effects. Now half a dozen novel treatments are available that largely evade those effects, Sarah Zhang reports—even as their price tag still keeps them out of reach for some patients: https://theatln.tc/10nEOOA5

Eczema is estimated to affect 10 percent of Americans. Of those, a large minority suffer from moderate to severe eczema that seeps into everyday life. In the past, if over-the-counter treatments failed, doctors resorted to more powerful oral steroids, which can calm eczema but make you more prone to infections and other conditions. Newer drugs have less collateral damage—some intercept the immune-signaling molecules that trigger itch and skin inflammation, and some scramble the signal after cells have received it.

“The development of these drugs came after years of research zeroed in on some of the key immune molecules dysregulated in eczema,” Zhang writes. “But serendipity played a role too: The first such drugs were originally developed for other conditions, such as rheumatoid arthritis—only to be repurposed when researchers realized that they targeted the very pathways involved in eczema. The breakthroughs in eczema treatment, in fact, are part of a broader revolution in treating inflammatory disorders; both classes of new drugs are now used to tune the immune system in a whole host of different conditions.” ⁠
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But getting patients these newer drugs can mean a lot of time fighting with insurance, Zhang continues. “At the moment, steroids are also cheap and easily available. They’re not going anywhere as long as the new treatments still come with hefty price tags.”

Read more: https://theatln.tc/10nEOOA5
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#health #medicine

🎨: The Atlantic. Source: Getty.

9 months ago • The Atlantic

Danny McBride’s show about a flawed evangelical family is goofy on its face but unusually eloquent on the subject of forgiveness, Phil Christman argues:  https://theatln.tc/Lc2HjGn4 
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“The  #RighteousGemstones ” follows Jesse Gemstone (McBride) as he prepares to inherit a religious-entertainment empire from his father, Eli (John Goodman). Beneath its low-comedy register, the show has all the makings of prestige  #television , including its combustive antihero, Jesse Gemstone—which leaves it open to the recurring criticism that the prestige-TV antihero “enjoys the forgiveness of viewers a little too easily,” Christman writes. “The idea is that we slip from finding a character like Logan Roy or Walter White interesting to tolerating or even admiring them—and then, perhaps, their real-life analogues.”⁠
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“In applying this storytelling model to a specifically Christian milieu, though, ‘Gemstones’ upends it,” Christman continues at the link in our bio. “For the characters of ‘Gemstones,’ a background truth of their worldview is that God has already forgiven them before the shouting even starts. That existential cushion, paradoxically, seems to allow these defensive, vain, frail characters enough room to start to change their behavior … Impious as the show is, the way it scrambles cause and effect aptly captures the weird, anti-dramatic quality of forgiveness. On ‘Gemstones,’ someone has to tell you you’re forgiven before you can start to make the sorts of choices that might render you forgivable. Part of the power of a good TV show is that it reminds us that rooting for characters and approving of them are not the same thing. Perhaps the same might be true of how we relate to the flawed, grasping people in our own lives. Or even to our flawed, grasping selves.”⁠

Read more:  https://theatln.tc/Lc2HjGn4 

📸: Ryan Green / HBO

 #culture   #religion

9 months ago • The Atlantic

Steven Waldman, the president of Rebuild Local News, has grown used to talking about the threat that news deserts pose to American democracy. “After all, the whole concept of democratic self-government depends on the people knowing what public officials are up to,” he writes. “That’s impossible without a watchdog press.”⁠ 
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“Researchers have linked the decline of local news to decreased voter participation and higher rates of corruption, along with increased polarization and more ideologically extreme elected officials. At this point, I can make high-minded speeches about this stuff in my sleep, with Thomas Jefferson quotes and everything. Recently, however, I’ve come to realize that I have been ignoring a less lofty but perhaps more persuasive argument: Funding local news would more than pay for itself.”⁠
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He explains how:  https://theatln.tc/AIdvX2sS 

🎨: Ben Kothe / The Atlantic / Getty

9 months ago • The Atlantic

The psychiatrist Suzanne Garfinkle-Crowell was not prepared for how the  #Barbie  movie would illuminate the tension between  #mothers  and  #daughters , and their often-frustrated need to see and feel seen by each other:⁠  https://theatln.tc/z4RA5rYH 
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“I recognized many of my patients in Sasha, the movie’s tween-girl character,” Garfinkle-Crowell writes. “Sasha’s mother, Gloria, is kind, pretty, but still part of the ‘sisterhood.’ She works hard while her husband sits at home on Duolingo, and yet she gracefully absorbs all the flak from her daughter. Having a ‘perfect mom’—a mom who aspired to Barbiedom herself—is the fuel for Sasha’s rage at Barbie.”⁠
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Many girls develop self-esteem by identifying with adults, especially their mother, Garfinkle-Crowell continues. “They need to idealize their mom as a role model, but they also need to relate to her, to recognize themselves in her. When a mom is too perfect, her daughter can feel alone—or, worse, defective. It’s not unusual for a girl with these feelings to lean into the identity, as Sasha does, of ‘weird and dark and crazy,’ which is how many of my patients get to my office.”⁠
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“I’ve seen moms who are overtly critical of their daughter’s eating habits, bodies, and physical appearances. I’ve also seen those who never say anything, but still their daughters feel judged …  The tragedy I often witness is that mothers and daughters want to love each other and to get along, to be recognized from a place of deep concern but no judgment,” she continues. 

“Barbie” offers an example of this approach. Gloria makes drawings of curious Barbies—“Irrepressible Thoughts of Death Barbie” and “Cellulite Barbie” and “Crippling Shame Barbie.” At first, Gloria seems embarrassed by these artistic efforts, but they ultimately break the tension with her daughter: “They’re weird and dark and crazy—everything you pretend not to be,” Sasha says.⁠

Read more:  https://theatln.tc/z4RA5rYH 
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📸: Warner Bros. Pictures

9 months ago • The Atlantic

#Words  should not be outlawed without evidence, Keith Humphreys argues.  https://theatln.tc/4eMPhuNg 

Deciding what  #language  to use when describing vulnerable groups can be difficult. But Humphreys—who is the editor at a scientific journal and has witnessed some of these arguments firsthand—warns that society needs to be careful not to ban terms arbitrarily.

“To be sure, when someone expresses clear preferences about how he or she wants to be described, that wish requires no evidentiary validation.” But, he adds, “Any claim that specific terms are actively harmful should be viewed as a hypothesis until it is established as fact. When confronted with claims that term X causes harm to people with a given characteristic, or that term Y is the only way to describe them respectfully, a fair-minded person can reasonably respond, ‘What evidence suggests that this is true?’”

Evidence does exist. For example, surveys show no consensus about whether people seeking care prefer the term “patient” or “client.” Additionally, many U.S. academics quickly adopted the neologism  #Latinx  as a more inclusive, gender-neutral alternative to Hispanic or Latino, but survey data suggest that few use it to describe themselves. 

“Denouncing other people’s terminology as harmful, and demanding that others adopt your own, can be intoxicating—to the point that submitting such disputes to empirical tests can feel like a bit of a comedown,” Humphreys continues. But “a shared commitment to evidence provides a way to resolve upsetting disagreements that can otherwise fester forever, while opening up chances to learn when we have in fact caused harm and genuinely need to treat others better.”

Read more:  https://theatln.tc/4eMPhuNg 

🎨: Illustration by The Atlantic. Source: Getty

9 months ago • The Atlantic

Without #freewill , it seems, people do not feel that they are truly alive, Arthur C. Brooks writes. https://theatln.tc/ItWgFJp3

The question of free will arises from what philosophers call the “mind-body problem.” We do not know whether the mind and the brain are separate entities, but understanding the arguments for and against free will and deciding how to respond can make a big difference in your life. Studies conducted among adolescents and adults have demonstrated that a belief in free will is associated with life satisfaction.

This belief can affect anyone. Studies show that people whose belief in free will was found to be weaker tended to score higher than others in aggression and social conformity, and have lower self-control. “A hybrid argument for free will does exist, one that acknowledges both the complexity of the brain and the fact that we might not make every individual #decision freely. It suggests that decisions influencing the patterns of everyday life might run automatically,” Brooks continues. “So you may not, in any meaningful sense, choose a certain route to work every day, but you did freely choose to take a job in Tucson instead of Tacoma, limiting your overall range of commuting possibilities.”

“Even if you are not so sure that free will is real, you can still benefit from acting as if it is … You don’t have to walk around all day hoping that your environmental and genetic proclivities conspire to give you a pleasant day,” Brooks continues. “On the contrary, conjuring thoughts of free will can inspire you to take control of your life in a positive way. If you are a hybrid thinker, that might mean focusing on your major goals in life, which you believe really are under your control.”

Read more: https://theatln.tc/ItWgFJp3

#choices #philosophy

🎨: Jan Buchczik

9 months ago • The Atlantic

America’s warmest city is booming—and more  #heat  waves probably won’t stop it, Andrew Needham writes:  https://theatln.tc/zlbehlbE 

Summer temperatures in  #Phoenix  routinely exceed 110 degrees Fahrenheit. But despite the extreme heat, the county in which Phoenix is located has gained more residents than any other county in the United States every year since 2017. 

“For many people, living in Phoenix makes perfect sense. Pleasant temperatures most of the year, relatively inexpensive  #housing , and a steady increase in economic opportunities have drawn people for 80 years,” Needham continues at the link in our bio. “Along the way, a series of innovations has made the heat seem like a temporary inconvenience rather than an existential threat for many residents.” 

But proceeding with life as normal despite the extreme heat will not make the weather more temperate nor the energy use more manageable. “Electricity consumption has soared in Phoenix, almost doubling in the average home from 1970 to today. At the height of its operation, Four Corners Power Plant … emitted 16 million tons of carbon annually, equivalent to the annual emissions of more than 3.4 million cars,” Needham writes. “There are currently building permits for 80,000 new homes in the Phoenix metro area that have not yet commenced construction—homes that will require more water, more AC, and more energy.”

Phoenix is far from America’s only city in the United States set to face more, and more frequent, extreme heat waves. So to ask why one would live in Phoenix “serves as nothing more than a defense mechanism” against the uncomfortable truths of climate change, Needham argues:  https://theatln.tc/zlbehlbE 

📷: Cassidy Araiza / Redux

9 months ago • The Atlantic

Controversial conference realignments have pit the long-term interests of schools and  #conferences  against their own insatiable greed, Jemele Hill writes:  https://theatln.tc/fUfjkE3u 
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“The biggest sign of trouble is that the  #Pac12  is being gutted amid a massive scramble across the NCAA Division I  #Football  Bowl Subdivision for broadcast revenue. The venerable West Coast league has been unable to attract a major-network television deal, and as it struggles, marquee teams are abandoning the Pac-12 for bigger fortunes elsewhere.” Each member of a conference gets a share of its guaranteed television revenues. So the bigger the deal, the bigger each school’s allotment. Currently, the Big Ten and the Southeastern Conference ( #SEC ) have the most lucrative television deals in college, meaning these schools get more money to build facilities, retain coaches, and maximize their recruited athletes’ ability to profit from their fame.⁠
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“Traditions, history, and entrenched rivalries are what make college football so appealing. As these schools and conferences jockey for financial position, traditions and history become an afterthought,” Hill continues.

Read more:  https://theatln.tc/fUfjkE3u 
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📷: Danny Moloshok / Getty

9 months ago • The Atlantic

M. Nolan Gray had never encountered vehicular homelessness before moving to #LosAngeles , but in the early summer of 2021, Gray, a Ph.D. student, spent three months living out of his Prius. https://theatln.tc/oCV1le9G

“Amid COVID-19 lockdowns, I was paying half of my #income for a bedroom in a shared student apartment furnished like a doctor's-office waiting room. My lease was set to expire, and I had to travel for work, anyway. Moving into my Prius seemed like the best bad option,” he writes. “Nearly 20,000 Angelenos live in RVs, vans, or cars, a 55 percent increase over when the count first started, in 2016. As the housing shortage deepens, thousands more will likely be forced into this lifestyle. Many of these people do not have the mental-health or substance-abuse issues eagerly trotted out to dismiss the homelessness crisis. A significant minority have jobs—they’re people who stock shelves or install drywall but simply can’t afford a home.”

“When I didn’t need to be close to campus, I often slept in the Angeles National Forest, just northeast of La Cañada Flintridge,” Gray continues. “When I did need to be close to school, I slept among other UCLA students and construction workers a few blocks from campus.”

At UCLA, one in 20 students will at some point struggle with homelessness. Administrators have rejected #student -led requests for on-campus safe parking. “Perhaps it would be embarrassing for the university to admit that many students live out of vehicles. But is the alternative any less embarrassing?”