Seed oils have found themselves at the center of a nutritional storm. From political figures like Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to countless wellness influencers, there’s...

At first glance, burning wood pellets may seem like a green solution—after all, wood is a natural material, right? And if it grows back, isn’t it renewable? That’s been the dominant narrative for years, especially in the wake of global efforts to shift toward renewable energy. But a deeper look reveals a more complex—and troubling—story. Across the Southeastern United States, forests are being cut down to feed a growing industry: wood pellet biomass. These compressed bits of pine and hardwood are exported by the millions, primarily to Europe, where they are burned to generate electricity. The UK, in particular, is a top consumer, thanks to the European Union’s Renewable Energy Directive, which classified wood pellets as...

As a child, my mother often painted my fingernails and sent me to school with glossy lips and delicately perfumed hands. This early experience set me on a complex and sometimes confusing path to understanding my gender identity—a journey through the often jagged terrain of sexual nonconformity. Sociologists differentiate between sex and gender: sex is biological, while gender refers to the social expectations assigned to individuals based on their sex. Yet today, conversations around sexual and gender identity often become battlegrounds filled with rigid labels—gay, straight, queer, transgender, tough guy, snowflake—that outsiders use to categorize and, sometimes, to judge. Society tends to reduce masculinity and femininity to neat binaries: a man labeled gay is presumed feminine;...