I've had chest pains most of my life, ever since I was about 11 years old. As a child, doctors told my mom that I was probably fine, but if my symptoms ever changed or got worse, to come back ( Read more... )

If you’re an artist or your work entails creativity, and especially if you own your own small business, I can all but guarantee you’ve been asked to work for free.
Usually it’s family.

Maybe they think you just love your work so much you’d rather work for free than not at all. Maybe they think they’re entitled to your free labor because they know ( Read more... )

Climate change skeptics are most likely to change their mind when an argument uses values they care about, not facts. The reason? People feel secure in their echo chamber.

As a science communicator, media creator, and journalist, I’m trying to share new important information with people who may have never been exposed to it. But people tend to ( Read more... )

"Fan death is a widely held belief in Korean culture, where it is thought that running an electric fan in a closed room with unopened or no windows will prove fatal. Despite no concrete evidence to support the concept, belief in fan death persists to this day in Korea." -WikipediaIf something is clearly a lie, why does the belief persist? Because ( Read more... )

Having invisible illness is a certain kind of hell.

If you have one, you know what I mean. Depression, anxiety, chronic pain, migraines, the list goes on.

Last week, I had 3 migraine attacks over 5 days. I fell behind in work and school, missed important meetings. It was horrible, and I’m exhausted.

But I don’t get much sympathy for what most ( Read more... )

if the creek don't rise
we'll go thirsty tomorrow;
still you dam(n) the stream

[CW: Content Warning for child neglect and death, and ableism in an image]

Pseudoscience hurts people, and there are real consequences for complacency.

What's the harm in someone believing in the healing powers of crystals? Is there a problem with someone believing that a deck of tarot cards can tell their future? If someone says a chiropractor ( Read more... )

Language lovers, writers, grammar-correctors... we need to talk.

In school, we were taught how to recognize an adjective from a noun. We learned when to use "there, their, and they're'' in a sentence. We had points deducted from our grammar quiz if we forgot to make a pronoun plural when talking about a group of people. These grammar rules were ( Read more... )

Staying informed about current events can be exhausting.

Not only do you have to deal with a barrage of negativity and tragedy, but you're also responsible for sifting through the thousands of news sources to find a story you can trust about each topic. How is that even possible?

It's no wonder so many people just give up.

But, what about cable TV ( Read more... )

In a world with for-profit media, satirical news, pseudoscience, and all sorts of unsubstantiated claims, it's hard to know what we can trust ( Read more... )