ReportWire

Tag: daily life

  • 1,200 volunteers fan out to beautify the 23-mile American River Parkway in a single day

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    HURT. A MASSIVE EFFORT TODAY ALONG THE AMERICAN RIVER PARKWAY IN SACRAMENTO, GIVING NEW LIFE TO THE 23 MILE STRETCH OF WILDLAND KCRA 3’S ERIN HEFT SHOWS US THE SIGHTS AND SOUNDS REFLECTING THE SUNLIGHT OF SATURDAY MORNING. THE TRANQUIL WATER OF THE AMERICAN RIVER FLOWING DOWNSTREAM, A PICTURESQUE 23 MILE STRETCH COMPLETELY FILLED WITH ACTIVITY, MADE EVEN BETTER EACH YEAR BY HARD WORKING HANDS ACROSS GENERATIONS. THERE ARE ABOUT 8 MILLION INDIVIDUAL VISITS EACH YEAR TO THE PARKWAY. WHEN YOU COMPARE THAT, FOR EXAMPLE, TO YOSEMITE NATIONAL PARK, THAT’S OVER TWICE AS MANY PEOPLE AS VISIT YOSEMITE EVERY YEAR. DAN HALL, EXPLAINING 1200 VOLUNTEERS ACROSS 20 LOCATIONS ARE MAKING A DIFFERENCE. COLLECTING ALL THE TRASH THAT DOESN’T HAVE A PLACE AMONG NATURE. THAT’S WHAT LIFE IS ALL ABOUT. IT’S ABOUT SERVICE. IT’S ABOUT GIVING BACK. IF WE DON’T GIVE BACK, WE’RE NOT GOING TO HAVE ANYTHING. FINALLY, IT ALL. IT ALL COME TO A SCREECHING HALT. TODAY WE ARE GOING TO CLEAN UP ALL THE SIDE OF THE RIVER. LEAH MORSI AND HER FRIEND EUGENE TAYLOR PUTTING IN THE WORK. WE’RE GOING TO BE CLEANING UP ALL THE TRASH BY THE GRASS. TRASH ANYWHERE. WE’RE GOING TO CLEAN IT UP, BECAUSE THAT’S ONE OF THE MAIN THINGS THAT GIRL SCOUTS DO BECAUSE LIKE, YOU KNOW, LIKE WHEN YOU’RE USUALLY LIKE BY, LIKE DRIVING BY THE FREEWAY, LIKE, YOU SEE ALL THAT TRASH, LIKE ON THE SIDE OF THE ROAD. IT’S JUST IT’S SO HURTFUL. IT’S JUST IT IT’S JUST IT’S REALLY DISAPPOINTING AND REALLY DEPRESSING. ALONG WITH FATHER AND DAUGHTER DUO KATE AND WESLEY, WE FISHED DOWN HERE. WE RIDE BIKES DOWN HERE, WALK OUR DOGS DOWN HERE. SO IT NEEDS TO BE CLEANED UP. SO WE’RE HAPPY TO DO IT. I LIKE TO GO HERE WITH MY SISTER AND MY DOG AND MY MOM. THE COLLECTIVE EFFORT, A TRADITION FOR DECADES, COLLECTING NO SMALL FEAT. TYPICALLY, IT’S ANYWHERE BETWEEN LIKE, 30 TO 40,000 POUNDS OF TRASH A DAY SPENT REFRESHING A PLACE THAT REFRESHES THE LIVES OF SO MANY SACRAMENTANS ONE STEP STRIDE AND PEDAL AT A TIME. ON THE AMERICAN RIVER PARKWAY. ERIN HEFT KCRA THREE NEWS. TO CONTRIBUTE OR VOLUNTEER, YOU CAN FI

    1,200 volunteers fan out to beautify the 23-mile American River Parkway in a single day

    The collective effort is a decades-long tradition and no small feat. Organizers said typical trash hauls range from 30,000 to 40,000 pounds of collected in a single day.

    Updated: 7:23 PM PDT Sep 20, 2025

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    Saturday morning, the American River set as the backdrop for a massive community cleanup as 1,200 volunteers spread across 20 locations along the 23-mile American River Parkway, giving new life to one of Sacramento’s most beloved wildland corridors.“There are about 8 million individual visits each year on the parkway, and when you compare that for example to Yosemite National Park that’s over twice as many people as visit Yosemite every year,” said Dan Hall, noting the parkway’s outsized role in daily life across the region. He said the day’s effort is designed to match that scale of use, neighbors, families and civic groups collecting the trash that doesn’t belong in nature.“That’s what life is all about, it’s about service. It’s about giving back. If we don’t give back we’re not going to have anything. It would all come to a screeching halt,” said Hall. For many, the cleanup is personal. A father-daughter duo, Kate and Wesley, said they came because they use the parkway year-round. “We fish down here, we ride a bike down here, we walk our dogs down here, so it needs to be cleaned up and we’re happy to do it,” said Wesley. “I like to go here with my sister and my dog and my mom,” Kate added.The collective effort is a decades-long tradition and no small feat. Organizers said typical trash hauls range from 30,000 to 40,000 pounds of waste collected in a single day. Beyond the sheer volume, the cleanup restores habitat, improves waterway health and clears trails for the millions of annual walkers, runners, cyclists, paddlers, anglers and families who rely on the parkway.

    SACRAMENTO, Calif. —

    Saturday morning, the American River set as the backdrop for a massive community cleanup as 1,200 volunteers spread across 20 locations along the 23-mile American River Parkway, giving new life to one of Sacramento’s most beloved wildland corridors.

    “There are about 8 million individual visits each year on the parkway, and when you compare that for example to Yosemite National Park that’s over twice as many people as visit Yosemite every year,” said Dan Hall, noting the parkway’s outsized role in daily life across the region. He said the day’s effort is designed to match that scale of use, neighbors, families and civic groups collecting the trash that doesn’t belong in nature.

    “That’s what life is all about, it’s about service. It’s about giving back. If we don’t give back we’re not going to have anything. It would all come to a screeching halt,” said Hall.

    For many, the cleanup is personal. A father-daughter duo, Kate and Wesley, said they came because they use the parkway year-round. “We fish down here, we ride a bike down here, we walk our dogs down here, so it needs to be cleaned up and we’re happy to do it,” said Wesley. “I like to go here with my sister and my dog and my mom,” Kate added.

    The collective effort is a decades-long tradition and no small feat. Organizers said typical trash hauls range from 30,000 to 40,000 pounds of waste collected in a single day. Beyond the sheer volume, the cleanup restores habitat, improves waterway health and clears trails for the millions of annual walkers, runners, cyclists, paddlers, anglers and families who rely on the parkway.

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  • Who pays to fix America’s aging dams? Cities, states and strapped owners

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    Across the United States, more than 121,000 dams quietly shape daily life by supplying water, generating hydropower and providing flood control. But according to the National Performance of Dams Program, on average about 10 dams fail each year.Sometimes these failures have devastating, even deadly consequences. Many are aging, high-hazard structures in need of costly repairs, and the Hearst Television National Investigative Unit found money is scarce and owners are often left footing the bill.Behind a locked gate and up a winding road in Santa Fe, New Mexico, is the nearly 100-year-old McClure Dam. It supplies up to half of Santa Fe’s drinking water and is owned by the city. “This is a high hazard dam,” John Del Mar said as he looked out at the dam. Del Mar is an Engineering Section Supervisor with the City of Santa Fe Water Division. “The current rated condition from the state engineer’s office is poor for this dam,” Del Mar said. “That stemmed from some analysis that was done back in 2018.”Because this dam was built 100 years ago, there’s uncertainty in how it was built, so the dam was given the rating of “poor condition.” It’s also high hazard, meaning lives and property would be at risk if it failed. “We have to manage them as a public asset, part of our utility system, and once we know of problems, we’re obligated to fix them. So that’s what sets us on the course of this kind of a repair,” Del Mar said.Del Mar said the dam could cost $20-$30 million to repair. The city of Santa Fe is already in the midst of repairing the Nichols Dam downstream as well. That project costs roughly $20 million. To fund the projects, Santa Fe is dipping into funds they have, proposing raising utility rates and tapping into state funding—options many owners don’t have.Private dam owners struggle to get repair funds Just north of Santa Fe lies Las Vegas, New Mexico. There, Storrie Lake is known to locals as a place to camp, boat and fish. But for cattle rancher Michael Quintana, the lake is more important to him.”We’re in the business of capturing as much water in our lake as we can so we can use it for agriculture purposes,” Quintana said.Quintana is one of the owners of the Storrie Lake Dam, a crucial part of the state highway.”If we were to lose our dam, it would be a huge inconvenience for people to try to get to the Northern part of the state,” Quintana said.But he recently received unfortunate news from state dam officials.”They downrated our dam. Right now, it’s in poor condition,” Quintana said.Roughly 62% of U.S. dams are privately owned, leaving many owners like Quintana responsible for repairs.”There’s a lot of fear in having that ownership for the fact that we lack a lot of ability to fund the maintenance on a dam,” Quintana said. Estimated repairs are about $75 million—far beyond what the owners can afford. Looking for outside sources, the owners are reaching out for help securing funding through sources like local lawmakers.They have sought state help and applied to FEMA’s National Dam Safety Program as well. National funding gap remains largeUsing FEMA’s online money allocation data, the Hearst Television National Investigative Unit has discovered that since 2019, New Mexico has received about $3.7 million from FEMA’s National Dam Safety Program.”Money is always limited and there is often not enough to go around,” said Sushil Chaudhary, chief of the Dam Safety Program in New Mexico.Nationwide, FEMA has allocated roughly $304 million over six years across all 50 states. The Association of State Dam Safety Officials estimated in their 2025 report that it will take $165 billion to fix the nation’s non-federal dams.Chaudhary expressed another problem he feels his department and many around the country deal with: small staff sizes. In New Mexico, 10 staff members, seven of whom are inspectors, oversee about 300 non-federal dams. They have the third-best ratio of dams to staff of any state.Nationwide, roughly 530 state dam officials monitor more than 117,000 non-federally owned dams. Inspection responsibilities fall upon the federal government for the other 3% of dams that are federally owned.Working with the Hearst Television Data Team, the National Investigative Unit found that 25% of high hazard dams have not been inspected in the past five years or do not have record of a last inspection date. A high hazard dam would cause loss of life if it were to fail.Right now, there are roughly 2,600 high hazard dams in poor or unsatisfactory condition across the country. Dams in poor condition have a safety deficiency, and dams in unsatisfactory condition require immediate or emergency repair.But that could be an undercount. The most up-to-date records gathered by the Hearst Television National Investigative Unit and Hearst Television Data Team indicate that 67% of dams don’t have a condition rating. Of those, 4,000 are high hazard dams.Chaudhary said they get behind on inspections at times because they have other responsibilities.”We also need to perform the analysis that we need for regulatory purposes,” Chaudhary said. “We cannot rely on dam owners to do the analysis all the time. So we have to do our own.”Chaudhary circled back on the statistic that about 10 dams fail every year.”If you look at that data, the failure is not slowing down. So failure will keep happening. The dams are getting older. With that, various components of the dams deteriorate. While we cannot prevent failure of the dams, we can manage risk. We can save lives. We can do things that allow us to save lives and property,” Chaudhary said.Dams near youCurious if any of these dams with late inspections are near you? The Hearst Television data team has built a tool that allows you to see all of the dams in your area and learn whether any are in unsatisfactory or poor condition. Simply search your address or town name in the box below, and the map will populate with any dams near you, their latest condition rating and when they were last inspected.This story was shot and edited by Hearst National Investigative Photojournalist Reid Bolton.PHNjcmlwdCB0eXBlPSJ0ZXh0L2phdmFzY3JpcHQiPiFmdW5jdGlvbigpeyJ1c2Ugc3RyaWN0Ijt3aW5kb3cuYWRkRXZlbnRMaXN0ZW5lcigibWVzc2FnZSIsKGZ1bmN0aW9uKGUpe2lmKHZvaWQgMCE9PWUuZGF0YVsiZGF0YXdyYXBwZXItaGVpZ2h0Il0pe3ZhciB0PWRvY3VtZW50LnF1ZXJ5U2VsZWN0b3JBbGwoImlmcmFtZSIpO2Zvcih2YXIgYSBpbiBlLmRhdGFbImRhdGF3cmFwcGVyLWhlaWdodCJdKWZvcih2YXIgcj0wO3I8dC5sZW5ndGg7cisrKXtpZih0W3JdLmNvbnRlbnRXaW5kb3c9PT1lLnNvdXJjZSl0W3JdLnN0eWxlLmhlaWdodD1lLmRhdGFbImRhdGF3cmFwcGVyLWhlaWdodCJdW2FdKyJweCJ9fX0pKX0oKTs8L3NjcmlwdD4=

    SANTA FE, N.M. —

    Across the United States, more than 121,000 dams quietly shape daily life by supplying water, generating hydropower and providing flood control. But according to the National Performance of Dams Program, on average about 10 dams fail each year.

    Sometimes these failures have devastating, even deadly consequences. Many are aging, high-hazard structures in need of costly repairs, and the Hearst Television National Investigative Unit found money is scarce and owners are often left footing the bill.

    Behind a locked gate and up a winding road in Santa Fe, New Mexico, is the nearly 100-year-old McClure Dam. It supplies up to half of Santa Fe’s drinking water and is owned by the city.

    “This is a high hazard dam,” John Del Mar said as he looked out at the dam.

    Del Mar is an Engineering Section Supervisor with the City of Santa Fe Water Division.

    “The current rated condition from the state engineer’s office is poor for this dam,” Del Mar said. “That stemmed from some analysis that was done back in 2018.”

    Because this dam was built 100 years ago, there’s uncertainty in how it was built, so the dam was given the rating of “poor condition.” It’s also high hazard, meaning lives and property would be at risk if it failed.

    “We have to manage them as a public asset, part of our utility system, and once we know of problems, we’re obligated to fix them. So that’s what sets us on the course of this kind of a repair,” Del Mar said.

    Del Mar said the dam could cost $20-$30 million to repair.

    The city of Santa Fe is already in the midst of repairing the Nichols Dam downstream as well. That project costs roughly $20 million. To fund the projects, Santa Fe is dipping into funds they have, proposing raising utility rates and tapping into state funding—options many owners don’t have.

    Private dam owners struggle to get repair funds

    Just north of Santa Fe lies Las Vegas, New Mexico. There, Storrie Lake is known to locals as a place to camp, boat and fish. But for cattle rancher Michael Quintana, the lake is more important to him.

    “We’re in the business of capturing as much water in our lake as we can so we can use it for agriculture purposes,” Quintana said.

    Quintana is one of the owners of the Storrie Lake Dam, a crucial part of the state highway.

    “If we were to lose our dam, it would be a huge inconvenience for people to try to get to the Northern part of the state,” Quintana said.

    But he recently received unfortunate news from state dam officials.

    “They downrated our dam. Right now, it’s in poor condition,” Quintana said.

    Roughly 62% of U.S. dams are privately owned, leaving many owners like Quintana responsible for repairs.

    “There’s a lot of fear in having that ownership for the fact that we lack a lot of ability to fund the maintenance on a dam,” Quintana said. Estimated repairs are about $75 million—far beyond what the owners can afford. Looking for outside sources, the owners are reaching out for help securing funding through sources like local lawmakers.

    They have sought state help and applied to FEMA’s National Dam Safety Program as well.

    National funding gap remains large

    Using FEMA’s online money allocation data, the Hearst Television National Investigative Unit has discovered that since 2019, New Mexico has received about $3.7 million from FEMA’s National Dam Safety Program.

    “Money is always limited and there is often not enough to go around,” said Sushil Chaudhary, chief of the Dam Safety Program in New Mexico.

    Nationwide, FEMA has allocated roughly $304 million over six years across all 50 states. The Association of State Dam Safety Officials estimated in their 2025 report that it will take $165 billion to fix the nation’s non-federal dams.

    Chaudhary expressed another problem he feels his department and many around the country deal with: small staff sizes. In New Mexico, 10 staff members, seven of whom are inspectors, oversee about 300 non-federal dams. They have the third-best ratio of dams to staff of any state.

    Nationwide, roughly 530 state dam officials monitor more than 117,000 non-federally owned dams. Inspection responsibilities fall upon the federal government for the other 3% of dams that are federally owned.

    Working with the Hearst Television Data Team, the National Investigative Unit found that 25% of high hazard dams have not been inspected in the past five years or do not have record of a last inspection date. A high hazard dam would cause loss of life if it were to fail.

    Right now, there are roughly 2,600 high hazard dams in poor or unsatisfactory condition across the country. Dams in poor condition have a safety deficiency, and dams in unsatisfactory condition require immediate or emergency repair.

    But that could be an undercount. The most up-to-date records gathered by the Hearst Television National Investigative Unit and Hearst Television Data Team indicate that 67% of dams don’t have a condition rating. Of those, 4,000 are high hazard dams.

    Chaudhary said they get behind on inspections at times because they have other responsibilities.

    “We also need to perform the analysis that we need for regulatory purposes,” Chaudhary said. “We cannot rely on dam owners to do the analysis all the time. So we have to do our own.”

    Chaudhary circled back on the statistic that about 10 dams fail every year.

    “If you look at that data, the failure is not slowing down. So failure will keep happening. The dams are getting older. With that, various components of the dams deteriorate. While we cannot prevent failure of the dams, we can manage risk. We can save lives. We can do things that allow us to save lives and property,” Chaudhary said.

    Dams near you

    Curious if any of these dams with late inspections are near you? The Hearst Television data team has built a tool that allows you to see all of the dams in your area and learn whether any are in unsatisfactory or poor condition.

    Simply search your address or town name in the box below, and the map will populate with any dams near you, their latest condition rating and when they were last inspected.

    This story was shot and edited by Hearst National Investigative Photojournalist Reid Bolton.

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  • The Pebble In Your Shoe: Tiny Frustrations That Can Ruin Your Day

    The Pebble In Your Shoe: Tiny Frustrations That Can Ruin Your Day

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    The “pebble in your shoe” metaphor perfectly describes how small annoyances can slowly wear you down and ruin your day. Here are common pebbles that might be in your shoe and the best ways to remove them.


    A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step, but no one said you had to wear uncomfortable shoes

    If you’ve ever been on a long hike, then you know the importance of comfort and how even one minor annoyance can make the whole journey far more difficult. You walk for miles and miles then suddenly experience an intense pain in your foot. You sit down, remove your shoe, and find a hard rock tightly wedged between your sweaty socks and shoe leather – ouch!

    “It isn’t the mountain ahead that wears you out – it’s the grain of sand in your shoe.”

    This is a popular motivational quote that is commonly attributed to the famous boxer Muhammad Ali, but the original has been published as far back as 1916 under anonymous authors.

    The main idea is that even when it comes to huge goals, it’s often the tiniest things that hold us back and prevent us from accomplishing them. These minor annoyances may seem inconsequential at first, but over time they can cause significant discomfort, irritation, and weakness.

    What pebbles are in your shoe? What’s one small change that would make your life infinitely easier? Here’s a list of everyday examples of tiny things that may be holding you back.

    Everyday Examples of “The Pebble in Your Shoe”

    The “pebble in your shoe” can take many forms — physical, mental, social, and emotional. It can be any small discomfort that grows into a bigger problem over time.

    Here’s a list of common everyday examples with potential solutions for each one. Often times the sooner you remove the pebble, the easier things will be in the future.



    Workplace Annoyance – A colleague’s constant habit of humming or tapping their pen can be a minor distraction that becomes increasingly irritating over time.

    Solution: Mention your distraction in a nonjudgmental way without getting upset at the other person. Hopefully they will be more mindful in the future.



    Messy Environment – Messy environments can have a subtle but significant effect on our stress levels and clarity of mind, especially a messy bedroom or car.

    Solution: We often underestimate how much better we will feel once we clean something. We put off washing the car for weeks, then when we finally do it we think, “Why didn’t I do this weeks ago?”



    Losing One Hour of Sleep – Just losing one hour of sleep can have a spillover effect on the rest of your day, causing you to be more tired, distracted, and moody.

    Solution: Try to go to bed one hour early. Set up a nighttime routine that encourages relaxation. Find sleeping preferences that work best for you (temperature, clothes, pillows, etc.) Establish a consistent sleep routine that works for you.



    Procrastinating on To-Do’s – The more you put off daily chores or obligations, the more pressing and stressful they become.

    Solution: Cultivate a healthy sense of urgency toward easy tasks you can complete in 5 minutes or less. It’s easier to just get a simple task out of the way then to let it sit in your mind for days.



    Minor Health Issues – Dealing with ongoing but minor health issues like a slight headache, back pain, or seasonal allergies can be a constant, low-level irritation.

    Solution: Plan day accordingly. Take any doctor recommended medications or supplements. Let people know if you’re having an especially bad day, so you may be more cranky than usual.



    Negative Personalities – People with negative personalities who constantly nitpick, complain, and talk about problems too much can be draining to be around for extended periods of time.

    Solution: We’re influenced by the people we choose to be around through emotional contagion and network effects. If those you spend time around tend to bring out the worst in you, it may be time to find a new group of friends or environment.



    Long Lines and Wait Times – Waiting in long lines at the grocery store, DMV, or for public transportation can be a persistent and annoying part of daily life.

    Solution: If possible, go to places during times of the day/week when you know they are less busy. Check to see real-time traffic on Google and plan accordingly. Consider getting groceries delivered.



    Tech Glitches – Regularly experiencing minor technical problems with gadgets, such as a phone that frequently freezes or a laptop with a temperamental battery, can be very frustrating.

    Solution: When possible, fix or replace faulty tech that causes daily errors and frustrations. For awhile my keyboard had a couple broken keys, and it took me far too long to finally get a new one that operated way smoother.



    Spam Calls and Emails – Receiving numerous unwanted telemarketing calls or spam emails can interrupt daily activities and become a persistent nuisance.

    Solution: Immediately block and remove all spam numbers and emails. Set up caller ID, email filters, and other methods to block spam and advertisements from reaching you.



    Misplaced Items – Frequently losing keys, glasses, or other essential items can create a recurring source of irritation and delay.

    Solution: Dedicate a single place for certain items. Don’t take them off your person unless you are placing the item in its designated spot.



    Household Chores – Small but recurring tasks like taking out the trash, doing the dishes, or folding laundry can feel like never-ending, nagging obligations.

    Solution: Get small and easy tasks out of the way early and often. Learn the right mindset for doing things you don’t like, including listening to music or watching TV while doing something boring or tedious.


    Repetitive Noises – Ongoing construction noise, a neighbor’s loud music, or people talking loudly can be minor disturbances that cumulatively cause significant discomfort and distraction.

    Solution: When possible, block out unwanted noise with headphones, music, or white noise. Find ways to eliminate distractions by changing your environment.



    Traffic Jams – Regularly encountering heavy traffic during commutes can be a daily irritant that wastes time and increases stress levels.

    Solution: Do some research and find the best and fastest routes during certain times of the day. Have plenty of music or entertaining podcasts you can listen to if you get stuck in traffic.



    Uncomfortable Room Temperature – Hot and humid temperatures can make us feel tired and lethargic, hurting our ability to concentrate and get work done.

    Solution: Use fans and air conditioner to cool down. Open windows for ventilation. Wear light and breathable clothing. Stay hydrated and drink plenty of water.



    Constant Notifications – Continuous alerts and notifications from apps, emails, or social media can disrupt concentration and productivity, becoming a persistent annoyance throughout the day.

    Solution: Block or mute ALL notifications that aren’t urgent (texts/calls from family or friends). Create a digital environment that doesn’t have you on hyper alert 24/7.

    Removing the “Pebble in Your Shoe”

    In general, identifying and removing the pebbles in your shoe can make your life a whole lot easier. Here are core principles to keep in mind:

    • Identify the Issue Early – Recognize and acknowledge the small issue that’s causing the discomfort. This requires paying extra attention to your environment and how it influences your mental state. A less mindful person may be in a state of constant annoyance but not able to pinpoint the source of it. Try to be more aware of shifts in your mood and what spurs them.
    • Take Action – Take steps to address and resolve the issue as soon as possible. Often the sooner you take measures to correct something, the easier it will be to fix. This could mean having a conversation with a colleague, fixing a technical problem as soon as you spot it, or getting a quick chore out of the way as soon as you remember it.
    • Prevent Recurrence – Implement measures to prevent similar issues from arising in the future, such as setting up a more ergonomic workspace, creating healthy boundaries at work or home, scheduling daily chores and regular maintenance checks, or planning your day around avoidable inconveniences.

    Remember that pebbles can take many forms which aren’t mentioned here. Take the time to step back, reflect, and ask yourself, “What are the pebbles in my shoe that can be removed?”

    Conclusion

    Of course, life can be annoying and we can’t always remove every single pebble.

    Certain problems, frustrations, and stressors are just a part of everyday life – a nosy coworker, a loud neighborhood, reporting for jury duty, or the minor inconveniences of daily chores and responsibilities.

    When you can’t control something, try to accept it with grace. After difficult days, feel free to go back to your comfort zone to recharge yourself.

    The key lesson behind the “remove the pebble” philosophy isn’t that life should always be a cakewalk, but that we shouldn’t make life any harder than it needs to be.


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    Steven Handel

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  • There Are Too Many Ways to Exercise

    There Are Too Many Ways to Exercise

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    This year, I’m going to get into shape. It does not matter that I’ve made this same resolution every year for more than a decade, or that I gave up after a month each time. In 2024, I mean it. Unlike years past, my motivation is not aesthetic but utilitarian: I want to get fit so I stop feeling like garbage. As I enter my late 30s, I’m struggling with the health issues that come with the terrain—high blood pressure, lower-back pain, and persistently achy joints. On top of those, I’m a new mom, chronically sleep-deprived and exhausted. My six-month-old son saps all my energy but also steels my resolve to protect it.

    With all my new motivation, I first had to find a workout regime. Scrolling through social media for inspiration, I saw athletes of every variety across my feed. There were people sweating it out at a Navy SEAL–style workout, a Muay Thai–inspired kickboxing class, and a workout designed and taught by former inmates. Yoga isn’t just yoga anymore; it can be hot, aerial, acrobatic, Drake, and even goat. Personal trainers shout commands through media including YouTube, VR headsets, and, uh, mirrors. You can work out alone or in a group (or alone in a group, if Peloton is your thing). For the graceful, there is barre; for the nerds, there is a Lord of the Rings–themed app that logs exercise as movement from the Shire to Mordor.

    We are living in a golden age of fitness: With workouts to accommodate every skill level, interest, time commitment, and social capacity, it should be easier than ever for novices to find one and get started. But it’s not. Instead of finding a workout that suited me, choice overload left me even more inert, and less motivated, than I was when I started my search. If you’re serious about committing to a fitness regime, choosing one isn’t just about moving your body. It could shape your future schedule, lifestyle, and even identity. To others, the way you exercise might say something about who you are, whether that’s a marathon maniac or a #PelotonMom. To the exercise newbie, this can make the stakes feel dauntingly high.

    The stakes are high. Exercise will lead to results only if you do it consistently, potentially spending hours on it each week. It’s essential to pick right. I was never fitter than when I played in a basketball league in my early 20s and was held accountable for going to games and practice. Since then, I’ve only dabbled in activities—like kickboxing, spinning, and something called Dance Church. None of them stuck. In the search for the ideal workout, baseline criteria include practical concerns such as location and affordability. No matter how exciting the class, a gym that’s out of the way or prohibitively expensive is not one you will attend regularly. Then there is what I call doability—as in, Can my body do that? Answering honestly can eliminate unlikely options, such as the grueling circuit that turned actors into Spartans for the movie 300. Being too pragmatic, however, can also stifle fitness aspirations. If your goal is an eight-pack, the “lazy-girl workout” probably isn’t going to cut it.

    Ruling out options based on practicality only whittles the list down so much. The next step is harder: figuring out what you actually want to do. For a goal as broad as “get in shape,” you can drive yourself crazy trying to find the answer. Picking a workout that ticks all the boxes is virtually impossible, because there will always be other options that seem better. At first, streaming Yoga With Adriene in my living room seemed like a cheap, enjoyable, and physically demanding option, but it lacked a social component to hold me accountable. Programs inspired by high-intensity interval training (HIIT), such as F45, promise to get people ripped—fast!—but exercising under a constant deadline is my idea of hell. I found flaws in workouts as varied as rock climbing, rugby, Orangetheory, Tabata, Aqua Tabata, and Tabata-style spinning.

    Adding to the gravity of the decision is what it signals about who you are. Personal fitness is rarely personal these days. Stereotypes inform the culture of certain workouts and how their adherents are seen: Indoor rock climbing is associated with tech bros, running with intensely driven morning people, weight lifting with gym rats. Many boutique workouts come with even more distinct personality types, perpetuated by the communities they spawn in real life and on social media. Perhaps the most recognizable is the CrossFit Bro, an aggressive, bandanna-wearing jock who can’t stop talking about CrossFit. Pure Barre and SoulCycle call to mind lithe, athleisure-clad smoothie drinkers; Peloton, the kind of person who can afford a Peloton.

    New identities can also form by virtue of the lifestyle shifts that these workouts can bring about. Friendships are nurtured by sweat spilled during class; exercise may even shift eating habits. For some, fitness programs become so embedded in daily life that they begin to resemble institutionalized religion. In an extreme case of life imitating exercise, a couple who met at CrossFit got married and served a paleo cake at their wedding, which was held during a CrossFit competition. Because exercise is so good at fostering community, the search for a workout is sometimes described as finding “your tribe.”

    Read: The church of CrossFit

    These stereotypes are not always true, of course, and they can also be aspirational. Embarrassed as I am to admit it, I would love to be a smoothie girl. But the notion of joining a tribe makes pedaling on a stationary bike or joining a rock-climbing gym feel much more consequential than the activities themselves. I was getting nowhere in my own fitness search, so I turned to experts for a reality check. Selecting from a multitude of fitness options is “quite a dilemma,” Sarah Ullrich-French, a kinesiology professor at Washington State University, told me, but the way out is to focus on what feels good, physically and psychologically. Fitness identities, however palpable, only have to mean something if you want them to. If the stereotype of the intensely focused predawn runner inspires you to get up for a morning jog, lean into it. But if it seems like an annoying downside to running, it’s okay to treat it as such. Pay attention to workouts that bring up anxiety and dread; even if you aspire towards a certain identity, “negative associations and feelings will often win over our goals and what we think we should do,” Ullrich-French said.

    Part of my problem was having a goal that was too diffuse. Theoretically any workout could help me get fit, but if I refined my ambition to, say, “getting up the stairs to work without heaving,” doing so would narrow my options to exercises that optimize stamina and strength. Instead of immediately signing up for a weekly running club, start with small, attainable goals, such as taking the time to stretch each morning, Adam Makkawi, an assistant professor of medicine at Columbia University, told me.  Small goals are easier to achieve, and can help make more workout options a real possibility.

    My biggest mistake was to treat choosing a workout as an intellectual endeavor, sort of like shopping for a new vacuum by reading endless online reviews. Test several options, and when you’ve found one that you like, customize its intensity and frequency until it suits you, Catherine Sabiston, a professor of kinesiology and physical education at the University of Toronto, told me. The likelihood you’ll stick to it, she added, boils down to competency—how well you feel you can accomplish a task—and enjoyment, both of which can be known only through experience.

    Choice overload is real, but it can also be a powerful excuse to stay inert. Although a little self-reflection about fitness identities can be helpful, fixating on them can rule out perfectly viable options. In this spirit, I compiled a list of doable, challenging, and conceivably fun workouts to try—and even mustered up excitement for a fitness identity that brought me joy. This week, I begin my search in earnest, embarking on a virtual Lord of the Rings running journey across the rugged terrain of Middle Earth.

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    Yasmin Tayag

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  • America Is Having a Senior Moment on Vaccines

    America Is Having a Senior Moment on Vaccines

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    For years now, health experts have been warning that COVID-era politics and the spread of anti-vaxxer lies have brought us to the brink of public-health catastrophe—that a Great Collapse of Vaccination Rates is nigh. This hasn’t come to pass. In spite of deep concerns about a generation of young parents who might soon give up on immunizations altogether—not simply for COVID, but perhaps for all disease—many of the stats we have are looking good. Standard vaccination coverage among babies and toddlers, including the pandemic babies born in 2020, is “high and stable,” the CDC reports. And kindergarteners’ immunization rates, which dipped after the pandemic started, are no longer losing ground.

    Whatever gaps in early childhood vaccination were brought on by the chaos of early 2020 have since been reversed, Alison Buttenheim, a professor of nursing and health policy at the University of Pennsylvania, told me: “We’ve substantially caught up, which is incredible. It’s actually an amazing feat.”

    Read: The good news about vaccine hesitancy

    But even in the shadow of this triumph, a more specific crisis in vaccine acceptance has emerged. Americans aren’t now suspicious of inoculations on the whole—the nation isn’t anti-vax—but we have lost faith in yearly COVID shots. Barely any children have been getting them. Among adults, the drop in uptake has been rapid and relentless: By the spring of 2022, 56 percent of all adults had received their initial booster shot; a year later, just 28 percent were up to date; so far this COVID season, just 19 percent can say the same.

    Of course, the dangers from infection have been dropping too. Almost all of us have been exposed to COVID at this point, either through prior immunization, natural infection, or—most likely—both. That makes the disease much less deadly than it’s ever been before. (Among kids, the CDC now attributes “0.00%” of weekly deaths to COVID.) But for one age group in particular—people over 65—the crashing vaccination rates should inspire dread. More than 1,500 deaths each week are still associated with COVID, and almost all of them are senior citizens; current data hint that COVID has been killing seniors at seven times the rate of flu. Across the nation’s nursing homes and retirement communities, the Great Collapse is real.

    Like younger American adults, seniors haven’t been avoiding all recommended immunizations, just the ones for COVID. Their flu-shot rates have gone down a little in the past few years, but only by a handful of percentage points from a pandemic-driven, all-time high of 75 percent. This season, about 70 percent of people over 65 have received their flu vaccine, in line with average rates that haven’t changed that much for decades. In the meantime, seniors’ uptake of the latest COVID shots has fallen off by more than half since 2022, to just 38 percent. These diverging rates—steady for the flu, plummeting for COVID—are notably at odds with the attendant risks. Seniors seem to understand the value of inoculating themselves against the flu. So why do they forgo the same precaution against something so much worse?

    Read: The COVID strategy America hasn’t really tried

    One might blame the toxic political battles around vaccines, and rampant misinformation about their ill effects. “Something terrible has happened to broaden and intensify public rejection of vaccines and other biomedical innovations in the United States,” the vaccine expert Peter Hotez wrote in his recent book The Deadly Rise of Anti-science. Certainly, toxic politics and rampant misinformation exist, but the turn against the experts that Hotez and others have decried doesn’t really fit the emergency described above. Taken as a whole, the population of Americans over 65 is hardly soured on vaccines. Nor are they afraid of COVID vaccination in particular: Though political divides persist, more than 95 percent of seniors received their initial round of shots. More than 95 percent!

    Echoing Hotez in an opinion piece for JAMA that came out last week, the FDA commissioner, Robert Califf, and a senior FDA official named Peter Marks cited the abysmal uptake of COVID shots by senior citizens as one of several signs that the country is nearing “a dangerous tipping point” on vaccination, driven by an oceanic online tide of vaccine misinformation. (Health-care providers should try to stem that tide, they wrote, with “large amounts of truthful, accessible scientific evidence.”) But the volume and intensity of anti-vaccine rhetoric seems to have diminished somewhat since 2022, Buttenheim told me: “You’d have to come up with some reason why it’s having more of an effect now than it did over the past couple of years.”

    Confusion and fatigue may well be bigger factors here than fear or false beliefs. Many Americans, young and old, have long since moved beyond the pandemic in their daily life, and may not want to think about the topic long enough to schedule another shot. The fact that people are fed up with COVID and all of the arguments it spawned is a “major drag on uptake of the vaccine,” Noel Brewer, a professor who studies health behavior at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, told me. Along with many other adults, seniors have also been thrown off by changes in what the shot is called and when it’s recommended for which groups. Buttenheim doesn’t think that people are particularly afraid of this year’s dose. “This is not, like, Back off,” she said. “It’s like, Oh, there is one?”

    Read: America’s fall booster plan has a fatal paradox

    Another theory holds that the CDC is responsible for this indifference, by pushing yearly COVID shots on people of all ages, including those for whom the net benefits of further vaccination are hard to see. In the U.K., where a much narrower group of people is eligible for updated COVID shots, uptake among seniors has been almost double what it is in the U.S., at 70 percent. That’s not because the British health-care system is better organized than ours—or not only on account of that. Even in that context, British seniors only get their flu shots at a rate that’s slightly higher than American seniors do.

    The broader rollout could contribute to the problem, Rupali Limaye, an epidemiologist who studies health communication at Johns Hopkins University, told me: “When it’s a blanket recommendation, it does dilute the message.” The CDC’s messaging on COVID shots has the benefit of being simple, but at the cost of being less persuasive for the people who are at highest risk. Then again, all Americans above the age of six months are advised to get the flu shot, and more or less the same proportions do so every year. That’s a product of our training, Brewer told me: “The U.S. has invested for decades in developing the habit of getting an annual flu shot. Older adults know that this is the thing they need to do, and they are used to it.”

    Even more important than the habit of getting flu shots is the habit of supplying them. Local clinics, businesses, and retirement communities know how to give these vaccinations (and they understand how the costs will be covered); they’ve been doing this for years. Buttenheim told me that her university sets up a flu-shot clinic every fall, where she can usually get immunized in less than 90 seconds. But the equivalent for COVID shots is yet to become routine. Where the vaccines are available, appointments have been canceled over missing doses or mix-ups with insurance. Government efforts to improve access were delayed.

    With the end of the pandemic emergency, obtaining a COVID shot has simply gotten harder, no matter your intentions or beliefs. “The very well-structured and scaffolded process for getting those vaccines before has just evaporated,” Buttenheim said. For the uptake rates to turn around, a new, post-emergency system for delivery might have to be established, with less confusion over cost and coverage. Even that development alone would do a lot to end the geriatric vaccine crash. If COVID shots could be made as standardized and reflexive as the ones for flu, seasonal vaccination rates might start rising once again, at least until about two-thirds of people over 65 are getting shots. That’s the rate we see for flu shots, and probably an upper limit, Brewer said: “We won’t do better than that.”

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    Daniel Engber

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  • Finding the Courage to Reveal My Bare Skin

    Finding the Courage to Reveal My Bare Skin

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    By Alexis Smith, as told to Keri Wiginton



    I don’t really notice my atopic dermatitis (also known as eczema) anymore, which is completely shocking to me. I used to be the polar opposite. I spent so much time and energy worrying if people were looking at my face or wondering why my arm was red. Now, unless my skin gets itchy, I forget I have eczema.

    For example, I went on a date recently with a rash on my face. I didn’t even think about what my skin looked like until afterward. In the past, I would’ve thought, “No, I’m not going out on this date. I have a patch on my face. I don’t look good, and I’m not going to make a good first impression. I don’t want them to see me like this.”

    I started to feel more comfortable with my bare skin about 5 years ago, when I started posting about atopic dermatitis on Instagram (@eczemalove). And when I look in the mirror now, my eczema isn’t the first thing I see. That’s a huge relief, because it’s all I saw before.


    Learning to Love My Skin

    Technically, I had eczema as a baby. But I don’t remember that time because, well, I was a baby. I didn’t have symptoms again until I was 11 or 12. That’s when I was diagnosed with atopic dermatitis.

    It wasn’t easy going through middle and high school with a rash covering my face. I was very self-conscious for a very long time. But I got tired of feeling down about it. So, when I was 19, I started sharing more about my real skin.  

    I took to social media because I wanted to normalize the condition. I think people view eczema as weird because they never see it and they don’t know anything about it. I wanted to change that.

    Of course, I wasn’t confident right away. It was a process. My first posts included tips on the best makeup to hide eczema. I knew I shouldn’t be ashamed of what my face looked like, and I told other people the same thing. Yet there I was, covering up. I felt like a hypocrite.


    Continued

    I decided to practice what I preached and show my bare skin. Ever since then — and it feels like it happened suddenly — I’ve felt free not worrying about what other people think. That’s changed how I see myself, in a good way.

    My symptoms got better, too. This probably goes without saying, but I’ve found that the less I put on my face, the better my skin feels.

    I still love doing my makeup. I just put it everywhere except my eczema patches. That’s partly because it’s physically uncomfortable to cover up. It can make my skin very itchy, and it stings a lot of the time. All day, I just want to scratch my foundation off. If I do, my skin ends up looking and feeling worse.

    Now, I want to put only helpful products on my skin, like a good moisturizer. That means I don’t have to worry about worsening my symptoms with stuff I don’t really need. 


    All About Comfort

    I also think my symptoms got better because I’m less concerned about my appearance — and stress tends to trigger my eczema. I still worry about other things, just not whether someone is staring at my patches.



    I’m not saying you have to uncover your eczema. You may not be able to do that, at least not cold turkey. If you want to show your natural skin, you can think about doing it gradually. Start to show a little more than you normally would, but always do what you’re most comfortable with.

    My main advice is this: No one really cares about your eczema. At least they probably don’t care as much as you think they do. Take dating, for example. I thought guys wouldn’t want to talk to me or have anything to do with me. But the people I’ve met are fine with it. My boyfriends have been wonderful. It’s very refreshing.

    Plus, I know I don’t focus on someone else’s skin condition. So many people have them. They might have acne, rosacea, vitiligo, or psoriasis. But, personally, that’s not something I pay much attention to.


    Continued

    The Positives

    I honestly don’t think I would have this confidence without my eczema, which sounds crazy. But it gave me a reason to focus on my skin and think about what it means to hide it.

    It’s also given me a lot of really cool opportunities. The first company that ever reached out to me was Dove. I was in their DermaSeries campaign about a year after I started on Instagram. That’s a line of products for people with psoriasis, eczema, or really dry skin.

    I also work with a lot of other brands now. It’s nice that companies make an effort to feature people who actually have eczema. In the past, you’d see a skin care line where they’d show someone with perfect skin. That’s not realistic for people like me.

    I no longer expect my skin to be perfect. It took me a long time to get out of that mindset. When you’re diagnosed with eczema, you think each new product might be the one that’ll make it go away. But the reality is, that’s probably not going to happen.

    I’ve accepted this is a lifelong condition. I don’t need to hide it. And whatever makes my skin more comfortable is great.


    Connecting With Others

    I’ve seen that what I post helps other people. A lot of people tell me, “I’ve never seen anyone who has eczema like me. But yours looks exactly like mine. Thank you for showing people what it really looks like. I feel less alone.”

    What I really love is when people message me and say, “You know, I really didn’t want to go to the beach. Normally, I cover up. But yesterday, I decided that I didn’t want to. And I went to the beach and had a really good time, and I didn’t feel self-conscious. It was great.”

    When I see other people’s confidence, that boosts my own confidence. That makes me think maybe we’re on to something here.



    WebMD Feature


    Sources

    SOURCE:

    Alexis Smith, Forest Hill, MD.



    © 2021 WebMD, LLC. All rights reserved.

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