Wellbeing

My very first memories are stained with anxiety. As a child, I would cry for days when my mother went on business trips, and struggled to foster friendships other kids. As I became older, my anxiety evolved into an obsession with getting straight As…

Given that spiked seltzer and cold brew reign among the buzziest canned beverages right now, the emergence of hard cold brew seems only inevitable. La Colombe recently teamed up with MillerCoors to develop a 4.2% ABV Hard Cold Brew Coffee, while…

As of October 8, nearly 1,300 cases of lung illness apparently linked to vaping had been reported to the Centers of Disease Control, leading to 26 confirmed deaths. Amid the outbreak, the Trump administration said in September that it would ban…

Intermittent fasting ranks right up there with keto and Whole30 among trendy, often misunderstood, dietary practices. Several of the fitness experts (and influencers, admittedly) that I follow abide by intermittent fasting, and many even claim to…

My dogs, David Bowie and Stevie Nicks, have a daily doggy play date. We meet David’s bff, Hygge, on the levee in New Orleans. Sometimes their friend Boggy comes, too. I call our pack the Breakfast Club. Before the Breakfast Club came to fruition, I…

As another World Mental Health Day passes, I think of all the Montes of the world — Black men like my brother who deserve care, dignity, and healing, but who instead face harm, neglect, and criminalization. Last week, I spent a grueling and…

This past August, journalist Nikole Hannah-Jones issued her long-awaited 1619 project through the New York Times. In the book, Hannah-Jones outlines America’s capitalistic beginnings in detail, calling out the heinous acts of Transatlantic Slave…

Sober October is in full swing. The more recent incarnation of the month-long sober challenge involves abstaining from alcohol for the entire month of October, often while fundraising for charity, according to Refinery 29. No worries if you missed…

I love to work out. I’ve been a yoga teacher for almost 15 years and I practice with others often. I also binge TRX the way other folks watch ‘Game of Thrones.' Why? Endorphins are real and they keep me sane. But exercising on your own can be…

I tried mushroom coffee for the first time at a crunchy cafe in West Berkeley: a latte brewed with a chaga mushroom elixir. It reminded me of a slightly bitter chai, with an astringent finish, thankfully softened by the mild sweetness of oat milk.…

As California continues to lead the way in HIV treatment and prevention, it’ll be the first state to allow allow pharmacies to dispense PrEP and PEP (HIV pre- and post-exposure preventative medicine) without a prescription. The new law — signed…

My anxiety has never been higher than when I started out as a freelancer four years ago. Panic washed over me as I sent clients “just following up” emails about past-due payments and did mental gymnastics devising ways to minimize my already meager…

As vapes get an even shadier rep — with more than 1,000 cases of severe lung disease apparently linked to the products, at the Center for Disease Control’s latest count — Altria has introduced Iqos, a vaping alternative to the US, beginning with an…

I hate networking events. A roomful of people who I am obligated to exchange small talk with? Not my idea of fun. Why? Because I’m an introvert. But I’m also a journalist, and networking events interacting with people on a professional level are…

For a very brief time this past year, I dated someone in the same field as me: a writer whose career was, impartially and deservedly, at least a level or two above mine, as she’d already been in the field for over a decade and a half. A top editor…

When the haters unleash, Cardi B definitely doesn't bite her tongue. "I will dog walk you," she tweeted at Tomi Lahren after the Fox News commentator mocked her in January. Late last month, when a Twitter user insinuated that her husband, Offset,…

You’re hanging out with a friend and suddenly they say something that you’re not sure how to react to — it’s a suicide joke. Maybe your football team’s kicker missed a game-tying field goal, you’re stuck in demoralizing traffic, or the president…

Scientists have been curious about the effect that tattoos have on the immune system for a while. Christopher Lynn, an anthropologist at the University of Alabama, published research in 2016 suggesting that getting tattooed may boost your body’s…

Much to our primary care physicians’ disgust, we’re all still googling health questions. It’s just easier than going to the doctor. Also, some of our questions are weird and we just want to confirm that we’re not dying or infecting our next hookup…