Nix the need to buy expensive and unsustainable bottled water with these filter systems that are certified to get rid of the toxins flagged by drinking water experts. These have a layer of activated carbon that can trap larger impurities like lead. Sydney Evans, an Environmental Working Group (EWG) science analyst focused on tap water contaminants, notes that these are the more accessible, understandable, and affordable types of filters. The caveat is they can only tackle so many contaminants....

While fruit and dairy provide natural sources of sugar, I’m talking about added sweeteners here. Wherever you look in the grocery store or restaurants, sugar and sugar substitutes are added to just about everything—it’s in nut butter, condiments, kombucha, crackers, popcorn, and most everything else that comes in a package. These ingredients go by many names, even super-healthy-sounding euphemisms, so it can be hard to even recognize sugar in all its varying forms....

Curious to try one for yourself? Here’s where to find them, how to set them up, and how sleep and circadian researchers recommend using them for a sunnier disposition. Scroll through TikTok or Instagram and you’ll get a sense of all the ways you can use these colorful lights—from setting a funky tone for photoshoots to replacing standard mood lighting. In addition to sunset tones, some lamps can also be programmed to display different color schemes....

It short-circuits the vicious cycle between overthinking, feeling crappy, and then doing things that will cause an emotional hangover. It’s also a great way to feel creative again and nourish myself. That is the self-care that works for me. Self-soothing, however, does not help us move forward or remedy the situation. Or, it may lead to an emotional, physical, or financial hangover. Just as with overdrinking alcohol, any escape behavior can be used in excess, from shopping to eating to sex....

The excerpt below provides a sneak peek into the novel, where we learn more about the quiet forces that hold us together—even after we’ve grown apart. To add Oh William! to your winter reading queue, purchase your copy here. Because I am a novelist, I have to write this almost like a novel, but it is true—as true as I can make it. And I want to say—oh, it is difficult to know what to say!...

The world of tea offers something for everyone, depending on your taste, mood, and health goals. All true tea comes from the tea plant Camellia sinensis. That’s right, black tea, green tea, white tea, and oolong tea all come from the same plant—everything else is technically a tisane (herbal tea). What makes them so unique in look and taste is the way they are grown, harvested, and prepared. Even though tea tends to have less caffeine than most coffee, all of these teas have some caffeine....

Regenerative agriculture, which protects these massive but delicate colonies by minimizing soil erosion, has emerged as a way to promote human and environmental health. Prioritizing microscopic life makes for farms that can produce nutritious food in the face of warming temperatures and extreme weather events. Microbe-rich soil is also more capable of sucking carbon out of the atmosphere and storing it underground. According to a new blue-sky estimate by organic agriculture research nonprofit The Rodale Institute, if all the world’s farm and ranch land was managed regeneratively, our soil could recapture all the annual CO2 emissions produced by humans and then some....