Winter 2016
Table of Contents
The Good Health Issue
In Depth
Explore SectionFrom the Editors
Mind + Body + Community
Winter can be a difficult season. Shorter days and bleak weather leave us drained of energy. And then come the holidays, with celebrations and family get-togethers, which are a source of joy for some and anxiety for others. If we succumb to the weather and the stress, we might start mistaking our mental and physical struggles for personal failure. We鈥檝e all heard the message that our health is our own problem, that if we get sick or depressed, it鈥檚 because we did something wrong or are not 鈥渢aking care of ourselves.鈥�
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Gabor Mat茅: How to Build a Culture of Good Health
Physical well-being depends on more than keeping our bodies fit. Emotions and the people who come into our lives matter just as much.
Gabor Mat茅, M.D.
Income Inequality Is a Health Hazard鈥擡ven for the Rich
A public health researcher explains why life expectancy in the United States is falling, and it has to do with income inequality rising.
Yessenia Funes
How Strong Friendships Defy Dementia
The Momentia movement uses strong social ties to ward off the effects of Alzheimer鈥檚 and dementia.
Marcus Harrison Green
Why Manning Up Is the Worst Thing to Do
Can we cure the toxicity of male trauma and the resulting illnesses it creates?
Mark Greene
The Curious Case of the Antidepressant, Anti-Anxiety Backyard Garden
Whether it's microbes in the dirt or fresh air鈥攐r both鈥攔esearchers do know this: Gardening is strong medicine.
Daphne Miller
It鈥檚 OK If Winter Makes You Sad
Four scientific strategies for an emotionally authentic holiday season.
Jason Marsh
After Trauma: A Graphic Journey Through Wild Healing
In this collection of watercolor illustrations, a comics artist illustrates her journey through grief after the sudden death of her first child.
Leela Corman
6 Cities Designing for Health
From Detroit to Edinburgh, these cities are helping residents live more healthful and equitable lives.
Anna Clark
How College Students Are Resisting the Mental-Illness Stigma
Student-led organizations are bringing mental illness into the light to lower the suicide rates of young people.
Donna Jackel
My Year of Magical Tidying
How getting rid of two-thirds of my belongings created more space for joy.
Erin Sagen
What Our Breasts Are Telling Us
Author Florence Williams and her daughter discovered they had high levels of toxins鈥攍ike flame retardants鈥攊n their bodies. Getting rid of the chemicals was harder than they expected.
Sarah van Gelder
Latinos Live Longest Despite Poverty. Here鈥檚 Their Secret
U.S. Hispanics who pass down a tradition of food, family, and healing are healthier. But can they sustain that as generations become more assimilated?
Jasmine Aguilera
Drug Use Down, Hope Up: A Canoe Journey Inspires Native Youth
Reversing the trauma of assimilation isn鈥檛 easy, but tribes believe that bringing ancestral values directly to the youth is the answer.
Yessenia Funes
Solutions We Love
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The Deal That Brought the Colorado River Back to the Sea
A new amendment to the 1944 water treaty between Mexico and the United States aims to create a fair, cooperative system for restoring the Colorado River.
Diondra Powers
People We Love
How to Stop a Pipeline: The People Behind the Unist鈥檕t鈥檈n Encampment
In British Columbia, a clan of the Wet鈥檚uwet鈥檈n First Nation has reoccupied its traditional lands in order to stop several proposed energy pipelines.
Tony Manno
Waging Life in a War Zone
From Gaza鈥檚 colorful neighborhood to its underground theater, resistance is an art.
Jen Marlowe
The New Face of Hunger: How Statistics Underestimate the Food Problem
Today, 800 million of us are considered 鈥渉ungry,鈥� but we produce enough calories to feed us all. Rather than a lack of food, we鈥檙e dealing with a lack of democracy.
Frances Moore Lapp茅
The Page That Counts
Only 1 Percent of the Earth’s Oceans Are Environmentally Protected
How the majority of life on Earth lives under the sea, and 22 other facts about our world today.
Joe Scott & Tony Manno
Culture Shift
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If There Are No New Farmers, Who Will Grow Our Food?
Programs across the country are trying to make it easier for new farmers to get started and put down roots. Here's why: There's only one farmer under 35 for every six over 65. By 2030, one-quarter of America's current farmers will retire.
Kim Eckart
Another Extinction: Words We Use to Describe the Natural World
Why naturalists and their linguistic allies fight to keep the language that gives us our sense of place from falling out of modern dictionaries.
Jack Turner
As We Adapt to Climate Change, Who Gets Left Behind?
A new documentary shows planning options to mitigate a new climate, but questions about the global South are largely ignored.
Robert Jensen
Bad-Weather Bicycling: 4 Tips to Stay Warm, Safe, and Dry
Bike more comfortably whether in rain, snow, or just frigid temperatures.
Miles Schneiderman
The 鈥淗onorable Harvest鈥�: Lessons From an Indigenous Tradition of Giving Thanks
What if this holiday season we fill our shopping baskets with only that which is needed and give something back in return?
Robin Wall Kimmerer
Also
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