Ava DuVernay’s powerful new Netflix mini-series ‘When They See Us’
I encourage you to watch 'When They See Us.' DuVernay's gripping miniseries has allowed the Central Park Five (who now prefer the title "the Exonerated Five") the chance to be seen and heard they were denied in 1989.
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Summer Sun and Skin Health
Now that we finally had some summer weather this weekend, it is time to think seriously about sun protection and other ways to maintain healthy and glowing complexions. We know that over 70 percent of UV radiation exposure occurs in the summer months so sun protection is essential.
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Poetry Sunday: “Did My Father Work on Bombs?”
by Jacqueline Berger
My father was wounded and wonderful, maybe in equal measure. To his credit, he took an early retirement and became a teacher. The poem is my ongoing questioning of who my father was and, on another level, how the whole meaning and influence of family changes once parents are no longer alive.
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Real Life vs. Virtual Reality: Healthy Pleasures
While our connectivity promises that the next exciting thing, whether it be a message, a news flash, or a photo of kittens, is just a button away, we are drawn further and further from the concrete pleasures of the real world.
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‘Booksmart’: Geeks Gone Wild
'Booksmart' is a funny, entertaining, and very smart celebration of the deep friendship between two academically gifted girls who decide to make up for four years of non-stop studying with one epic night of partying
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Ovarian Cancer — What You Need to Know
In the United States, ovarian cancer is the tenth most common cancer among women and the single most common cause of gynecologic cancer deaths.
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Poetry Sunday: “On Marriage,” by Meghan O’Rourke
I wrote this poem while thinking about the way that marriage is a form, not unlike a poem, which demands certain kinds of commitments (and identities) from us and in turn shapes us in response to our commitment to it.
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Dangerous Knowledge:
A Friend’s Husband is Cheating
While knowing the truth can be vitally important, help your friend understand her marriage at her own pace.
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‘Rafiki’: Juliet and Juliet, A Kenyan Love Story
'Rafiki' is visually compelling, and the story it tells, although by no means unfamiliar, so engaging that it's easy to overlook the film's very fine performances.
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Memorial Day: Remembering Those Who Died in Service, and the Wounded and Traumatized
On May 30, 1868, families across the nation laid wreaths on the graves of soldiers who had fallen in the Civil War. That was the first national observance of Memorial Day (originally called Decoration Day, for the medals and ribbons left on the grave sites).
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Summer’s Healing Power: Earth, Water, and Light
Ecotherapy is a new kind of psychotherapy that embraces the healing power of the natural world. The basic premise is that by connecting with nature—plants, animals, wind, sun, sky, water, etc.—we experience a spiritual and emotional connection with the world and are able to feel more at peace and grounded.
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‘Wine Country’: Amy Poehler Takes Her BFFs to Napa
In the last several years, we've seen a good number of girlfriend-power movies. I applaud Amy Poehler and her team for delivering a buddy movie that focuses on women. Hopefully, it will pave the way for more (and maybe even better ones).
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Adults Have Attention Disorders Too
Doctor Megan Riddle responds to a question from the mother of a child with ADHD to help us better understand Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) and its impact on adults.
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Poetry Sunday: “You Are a Dark Body,”
by Natalie Scenters-Zapico
This poem is about thirst and how a life of thirst then quenched with a fistful of water can make you contend with all the women you could have been, the children you could have had, and the ever-changing body you are given.
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Food Wars: The Struggle for Healthy Eating
The past ten years have seen an explosion of interest in and controversy about just what comprises healthy eating. As a result, new diets and regimes abound.
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‘Long Shot’: Beauty and the Beast Go to Washington
Female presidents of the United States may be in short supply (or, sadly, in no supply) in the real world, but they've become surprisingly common on screens big and small.
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Sandra Day O’Connor—First Woman
on the Supreme Court
'First: Sandra Day O’Connor' is a compelling biography by Evan Thomas. He celebrates O’Connor’s achievements and traces her unlikely trajectory from a dusty ranch in the Arizona desert to the Supreme Court—the pinnacle of the legal profession.
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Poetry Sunday: “Theodicy,” by Meryl Natchez
So many events from the past reappear in a different light, and in that light how often my parenting was found wanting. Can any mother escape blame? We are fallen gods. — Meryl Natchez
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Being A Mother — The Role of a Lifetime
[From Our Archives]
Here, chosen from Our Archives, are reflections on how well or disappointingly each of five very different mothers inhabited that “role of a lifetime”—from her daughter’s point of view.
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Daughters, Mothers, and Grandmothers
The paradox of parenthood is that while this overarching connection and investment in your children is essential, being a good mother also requires that you let them become themselves.
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‘Knock Down the House’: Four Women Dare to Run for Congress
As 'Knock Down the House' argues so compellingly, the United States of America cannot be a government by and for the people unless people are willing to step up and make it so.
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Measles: The Recurrence of a Deadly Disease
and the Importance of Vaccination
The resurgence of this once eradicated disease means that people who have lost their immunity over time are now at risk of contracting this deadly disease.
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“Mother,” by Lola Ridge
Homage to a mother—is a common theme in poetry, but, refreshingly, is presented here without the Hallmark cliché or sentiment that so often mars such poems. Restraint is evident in every line
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When the Past Interferes with the Present
We fear old, buried feelings and fear their power. In this way, they are vampire-like in that the best way to defeat them is to expose them to the light.
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