VOLUME X / ISSUE XI / NOVEMBER 2026
860 ABIERTO DE POLO DE TORTUGAS • COPA PLATA DE PALERMO 2026 • COPA MUNICIPALIDAD DE PILAR
BOOST YOUR IMMUNITY IN 30 MINUTES
A HALF HOUR TO BETTER HEALTH
MEXICO'S DRINKING WATER CRISIS
EXPERTS WARN U.S. IS NEXT
UN-INVITED
THE DECLINE OF THE DINNER PARTY INVITATION
STAY HEALTHY
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SECRETS OF INFECTIOUS DISEASE DOCTORS
NAKED IN THE LOCKER ROOM?
YOUNGER PEOPLE SAY 'NO' WHAT'S ALL THE FUSS ABOUT PEPTIDES? WHY EVERYONE
HATES DATA CENTERS
STRESSED KIDS BECOME STRESSED ADULTS HOLIDAY WINE PAIRINGS
FROM OUR FAVORITE CELLARS
STAYING FOCUSED IN A DISTRACTING WORLD
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CULLINAN I SERIES
Sophisticated force. Graceful power. The journey and the destination.
R O L L S - R OYC E LO S G AT O S www.rollsroycelosgatos.com
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Ambassador Claude-Alix Bertrand Publisher
Joshua Jakobitz Editor-in-Chief
Dr. Michael J. Snell
Lifestyles & Luxury Automobile Contributor
William Smith
Copy Editor & Wine Contributor
Claire Barrett
Joey Velez Wellness Contributor
Raabi Benadada
Head of Photography
Polo Contributor
Dana Romita
Raphael K. Dapaah
Amritlal अमृत
Dr. Michael J. Snell - NYC Miriam P. Owens - NYC
Polo Photographers
Contributing Photographers
Luxury Real Estate Contributor
Art Contributor
Brand Representatives
Monarch Visionary Contributor
Katerina Morgan Justine Jacquemot Irina Kazaridi Helen Cruden Pascal Renauldon Kathrin Gralla K. Kerley
Xavier Merchet-Thau Aubrey Chandler Eric Carré Eva Espresso Rob Miskowitch Margarita Crotto
Polo Lifestyles is a publication of HT Polo Publishing Co. Created in the Polo Lifestyles Design Lab Concord, Calif., U.S.A.
Cover Photo Courtesy Association Argentina de Polo Content Copyright © Polo Lifestyles 2026 All Rights Reserved. For information or to advertise Contact marketing@pololifestyles.com Read online at www.pololifestyles.com On Instagram & Facebook @pololifestyles A proud partner of Issuu, U.S. Polo Assn., USPA, Global Polo Sports, The Impression and Mixam
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WWW.PO LO WW W. P O L O L ILFIFES E S TTYYLES L E S ..COM COM
TRIPLE CROWN OF POLO Tortugas Open Hurlingham Open Argentine Open GRAND CHAMPIONS Fall Classic Tackeria Invitational Casablanca Fall Cup Legends of Polo International Cup LA PALMERAIE MOROCCO The Autumn Cup ART BASEL MIAMI
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COCKTAIL COLLECTION AVAILABLE AT PIAGET BOUTIQUES WORLDWIDE
A vibrant invitation to celebrate life's golden moments. Flamboyant jewels, a blend of festive audacity and timeless PA G E 15 sophistication, brightening every day.
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SCOREBOARDS & COCKTAILS
ABIERTO DE POLO DE TORTUGAS
THE TRIPLE CROWN OF POLO IS BACK
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POLO LIFESTYLES EDITORS & CONTRIBUTORS
Ambassador Claude-Alix Bertrand
Josh Jakobitz
Claire Barrett
Publisher Polo Lifestyles @haiti_polo_captain
Editor-in-Chief Polo Lifestyles @joshuajakobitz
Claire Barrett Photography
Eric Carré
Eva Espresso
Katerina Morgan
Photographer EC Photography @ti_carre
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Photographer
Eva Espresso Photography
@eva.espresso
Head of Photography @clairebarrettphoto
Polo Photographer Horse Polo Art Gallery @horsepoloartgallery
William Smith
Copy Editor & Contributor
May & Stanley Smith Charitable Trust
@willismith_2000
Amritlal अमृत
Ascension Contributor Monarch Visionary @monarchvisionary
Raphael K. Dapaah Art Contributor Dapaah Gallery @dapaahgallery
Joey Velez
Wellness Columnist
Velez Mental Performance
@velezmentalhealth
Michael J. Snell
Lifestyles & Luxury Automobiles Contributor @agnello_1
Dana Romita
Real Estate Contributor Douglas Elliman @danaromita
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Jellyfish-inspired rejuvenation treatments, page 82
The newest horizon of GLP-1s, page 114
No more getting naked in the locker room page 69
Thanksgiving wine pairings made simple, page 166
PRIVATE ISLANDS
BOOK AN UNFORGETTABLE STAY PAGE 58
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EPTEMBER ALWAYS FEELS LIKE THE BUSIEST MONTH HERE AT POLO LIFESTYLES. WE SPEND WEEKS PREPPING FOR THE FASHION ISSUE IN THE MAIN OFFICE WHILE OUR WINE CONTRIBUTOR, BILL SMITH, SPENDS MOST OF SEPTEMBER ELBOWS-DEEP IN THE SANTA FE WINE AND CHILE FESTIVAL (MORE ON THAT IN HIS PIECE THIS MONTH) BRINGING TENS OF THOUSANDS OF WINE AND FOOD ENTHUSIASTS TO SANTA FE FOR ONE NON-STOP, JAM-PACKED WEEKEND.
Fashion houses from New York to Paris showed color and flowing silhouettes for SS27 and it felt like a breath of fresh air after a long, hot summer of geo-political upheavals and unmatched heat waves. Fashion Weeks transport us to the sublime, the ideal, the artistry of the industry. What we see as conceptual or even avant-garde on the runways now will influence what we’re wearing in the coming months… some version of those looks are bound to make it to our wardrobes and closets. Fashion unites us more than we probably realize; whether we love something or despise it. It is the launching point of 100,000 conversations and a million blogs and reels. More fashion content was available sooner this season on social media than on traditional media outlets. From the runway to TikTok’s servers and into our hands… this is a new frontier of fashion consumption; only time will tell if it translates to sales – traditional retail or online. As for me – and hopefully you – fashion remains inspiring; it pushes my own creative boundaries and teaches me time and again when to hold back and edit and when to go for all out. Happy reading, Josh Jakobitz Editor-in-Chief josh@pololifestyles.com
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@ascotracecourse
@perrierjouet
@stellajean
@dior
@lamartina
@priceandprincessofwales
@davidyuman
@ralphlauren
@globalpolo
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Click and comment on our choices... Tag @pololifestyles. We will share noteworthy comments with you next month.
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860 ABIERTO DE POLO DE TORTUGAS C.C. GALICIA
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OPEN DE FRANCE DE POLO BARNES PAGE 34
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LA COPA MUNICIPALIDAD DE PILAR ARGENTINA
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LA133° COPA ABIERTO MUNICIPALIDAD DE HURLINGHAM DE PILAR ARGENTINA
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LEIGHTON JORDAN ELECTED PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES POLO ASSOCIATION
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ALM BEACH, FLA. – THE UNITED STATES POLO ASSOCIATION (USPA) BOARD OF GOVERNORS HAS ELECTED LEIGHTON JORDAN AS PRESIDENT OF THE ASSOCIATION. JORDAN WILL COMPLETE THE CURRENT PRESIDENTIAL TERM, WHICH RUNS THROUGH THE FALL OF 2028.
The election was held during a Special Meeting of the Board of Governors on Tuesday, September 8, 2026, following the election of former USPA President Tim Kelly as Chairman of the Board of Governors. Jordan brings decades of experience in polo and organizational leadership, spanning nearly every side of the sport,
from clubs and collegiate polo to USPA governance. He has helped build, manage and lead organizations including Skidmore College Polo Club (Saratoga Springs, N.Y.), Saratoga Polo Association LLC (Greenwich, N.Y.), Bridgehampton Polo Club (Bridgehampton, N.Y.) and Greenwich Polo Club (Greenwich, Conn.). He currently serves on the boards of Yale Polo Club (Bethany, Conn.), Skidmore Polo and the Polo Training Foundation. Within the USPA, Jordan served 10 years as Northeastern Circuit Governor and currently serves as Chairman of the USPA Board and Staff Development Committee. As President, Jordan will be an Officer and voting member of the Board of Governors, working closely with Chairman Tim Kelly, fellow Officers, Governors and USPA staff to support the Association’s mission and long-term direction.
Jordan has expressed his support for the USPA’s long-term vision and its “One Team, One Goal” approach, emphasizing communication, accountability and collaboration as essential to moving the Association forward together. His emphasis on long-term planning, financial strength and continued support for USPA clubs and players aligns with the vision’s goal of building a stronger, more sustainable foundation for the sport and creating opportunities for its continued growth. “It is about giving back to a sport that has given so much to me. I want to help make sure that polo has a strong future in the United States,” Jordan wrote in his letter to the Board of Governors. “The decisions we make today should be designed to ensure that the USPA remains financially strong, relevant and effective for generations of polo players and clubs who will come after us.” PA G E 55
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J U S T I N F E N N E R/S P E C I A L TO P O LO L I F E S T Y L E S
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PRIVATE ISLANDS FOR RENT
WHEN SIMPLY GETTING AWAY ISN'T ENOUGH...
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RIVATE ISLAND HAS BECOME ONE OF THE MORE LIBERALLY APPLIED PHRASES IN LUXURY TRAVEL. A RESORT MAY OCCUPY ITS OWN ISLAND, BUT THAT DOESN’T NECESSARILY MEAN THE ISLAND IS YOURS — YOU MAY STILL BE SHARING THE BEACH, THE RESTAURANT AND THAT SUPPOSEDLY DESERTED STRETCH OF SAND WITH 100 OTHER GUESTS. The islands in our story are different. Each can be reserved in its entirety, whether that means taking over an established resort, inhabiting a single-key island designed for one party at a time or, in one particularly extravagant case, commandeering an entire private archipelago. The scale is extraordinary: two-bedroom islands made for four, 500-acre Fijian playgrounds for 28, and sprawling Caribbean estates capable of accommodating an entire celebration. So, how much island do you actually need? NORTH ISLAND, SEYCHELLES North Island helped establish the modern blueprint for ultra-luxury island escap-
ism, and decades later, it remains one of its greatest expressions. The 11 enormous handcrafted villas are spread across a spectacular Seychelles landscape of granite peaks, tropical forest and white sand, with Villa North — the 750-square-meter showpiece — occupying an especially secluded position overlooking the ocean. The ultimate North Island experience is to take all 11. The resort explicitly offers exclusive use of the entire island, transforming an already intimate retreat into something altogether more extraordinary. The appeal extends well beyond privacy, too: North Island has made conservation fundamental to its identity, restoring an ecosystem altered by former plantation use, so it feels like inhabiting a nature sanctuary rather than simply checking into a hotel. This is the private-island fantasy in its purest form — one of the world’s most beautiful islands, 11 villas and nobody there who wasn’t invited. MUSHA CAY, THE BAHAMAS David Copperfield apparently wasn’t satisfied with owning a private island. He created an entire private world. Musha Cay and the Islands of Copperfield Bay comprise an extraordinary collection of PA G E 59
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islands in the Exumas, and unlike many resorts that occasionally permit buyouts, exclusivity is the premise here — individual villas aren’t rented at all. Only one group occupies Musha Cay at a time. Rates currently start at $57,000 per night for up to 12 guests, with a five-night minimum, and the property can accommodate as many as 24. Meals, beverages, fine wines and Champagne are included, as is unlimited use of the island’s amenities. The result feels less like checking into a resort than being handed the keys to an elaborate private playground — and when the playground happens to sit in the Exumas, that’s a difficult proposition to improve upon.
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NECKER ISLAND BRITISH VIRGIN ISLANDS Sir Richard Branson’s Necker Island remains perhaps the world’s most instantly recognizable private-island playground — and yes, you can have the whole thing. Exclusive hire means exactly that: no other guests and no shared spaces across its 30 acres. The current configuration offers up to 28 bedrooms spread among the Great House, Balinese-style houses, a beach villa and additional accommodations, with capacity for 56 adults plus children. The experience is deliberately playful rather than precious: water sports, tennis
and long lunches before turning into dinners and parties that continue for as long as anyone wants them to, with Necker’s famous flamingos and other exotic wildlife adding personality an already un-boring island wasn’t lacking. Plenty of private islands are luxurious. Few are this much fun. FOUR SEASONS PRIVATE ISLAND MALDIVES AT VOAVAH There are plenty of Four Seasons resorts. There is only one Voavah. The fiveacre retreat in the Baa Atoll UNESCO Biosphere Reserve was conceived as an exclusive-use island from the beginning: one island, one booking, with seven
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bedrooms and space for up to 21 guests. And because apparently having your own Maldivian island isn’t quite sufficient, it comes with a 62-foot private yacht, along with its own spa, dive center and Beach House. There is no conventional resort itinerary because there is no conventional resort — diving, dining, spa treatments, celebrations and days aboard the yacht are all constructed around the people who have taken over the island. This may be the most compelling answer for anyone who wants the polish of one of the world’s great hotel brands without actually sharing a hotel with anyone else. THE BRANDO, FRENCH POLYNESIA Marlon Brando first encountered Tetiaroa while filming Mutiny on the Bounty in French Polynesia in the 1960s. What ultimately emerged on the spectacular atoll bearing his legacy is one of the most famous eco-luxury retreats in the world. The Brando is extraordinary under ordinary circumstances; take it over, however, and Tetiaroa becomes the setting for an
entirely private celebration, retreat or gathering, with the resort’s team tailoring experiences across the atoll around the group. The juxtaposition is what makes it special: Polynesian history and culture, extraordinary natural beauty, serious sustainability credentials and the polished service of one of the world’s most exclusive resorts. Some private islands are about disappearing. The Brando makes disappearing feel cinematic. THANDA ISLAND, TANZANIA Thanda is the antidote to anyone suffering from Maldives fatigue. Set within Tanzania’s protected Shungimbili Island Marine Reserve, the five-hectare island is offered solely on an exclusive-use basis. At its heart sits a five-suite beachfront villa, complemented by two traditional Tanzanian bandas, while the surrounding marine reserve effectively becomes part of your playground. Current rates start at $40,750 per night, with a five-night minimum.
The location changes the experience completely — days might involve diving coral reefs, deep-sea fishing or, seasonally, encountering whale sharks before returning for dinner beneath an East African sky. And unlike most islands on this list, Thanda can form one half of an extraordinary African itinerary: pair it with safari and beach-and-bush takes on an entirely different meaning. CALIVIGNY ISLAND, GRENADA Calivigny isn’t an intimate little island retreat. It’s an 80-acre private Caribbean estate created for people who intend to bring an entourage. The island sits just off Grenada and is available exclusively to one group at a time, with the keys effectively handed over to its temporary residents. Behind the scenes is a dedicated hospitality team capable of orchestrating everything from wellness programs and private dining to weddings and elaborate celebrations. That scale makes Calivigny particularly compelling for milestone birthdays, destination weddings and multi-generational
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table, find the quietest beach or wonder who’s booked the villa next door. They’re all yours.
trips where booking a few villas at a hotel simply isn’t going to cut it. You’re not occupying part of somebody else’s resort. For the duration of the stay, Calivigny is your address.
Nukutepipi isn’t somewhere you casually add to an itinerary. It’s the itinerary.
NUKUTEPIPI, FRENCH POLYNESIA
Petit St. Vincent makes its intentions wonderfully clear: rent the entire island. A full buyout puts 115 acres, 22 oceanview villas, seven beaches, two restaurants and bars, a hillside spa and a team of approximately 130 staff at the disposal of up to 56 guests. Better still, unlike some private-island buyouts restricted to specific periods, PSV says the option is available year-round.
Jumby Bay has long been one of the Caribbean’s grand dames: a 300-acre private island just off Antigua, known for polished service, pristine beaches and an impressive collection of accommodations. But for groups requiring considerably more privacy, the island offers a whole-island buyout option, bringing accommodations, dining and activities together for an exclusive gathering.
The island has always embodied the sort of barefoot Caribbean luxury that doesn’t need to shout. Taken privately, that relaxed sensibility becomes even more appealing — no need to reserve the best
That’s a dramatically different proposition from renting one of Jumby Bay’s spectacular private homes. This is resort-scale hospitality without the conventional resort crowd — particularly compelling for
If The Brando represents the storied side of French Polynesian private-island travel, Nukutepipi represents something considerably more fantastical. The private atoll in the Tuamotus is offered as a fully exclusive island experience, with accommodations lining its lagoon and capacity for celebrations of up to 50 guests, reserved for everything from family gatherings to business summits and spectacular private events. It is remote even by French Polynesian standards, which is precisely the point.
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PETIT ST. VINCENT, ST. VINCENT AND THE GRENADINES
JUMBY BAY ISLAND, ANTIGUA
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a major celebration or corporate retreat where a villa, however fabulous, simply isn’t enough. KUDADOO MALDIVES PRIVATE ISLAND Kudadoo takes the private-island concept and makes it architecturally spectacular. The tiny Maldivian island contains just 15 overwater residences — 13 one-bedroom and two two-bedroom — each with its own infinity pool and private butler. For groups who want to remove even those few neighbors from the equation, all 15 residences and the island’s facilities can be reserved in their entirety. Its size is part of its charm: Kudadoo feels less like commandeering a large resort and more like creating a very
glamorous floating house party in the Indian Ocean. For anyone assembling a group of couples who all want their own overwater villa — but don’t particularly want to encounter anyone they don’t know — this is a very persuasive answer. ITHAAFUSHI – THE PRIVATE ISLAND, MALDIVES Waldorf Astoria Maldives Ithaafushi already occupies rarefied territory. Its private island takes things several steps further. Ithaafushi – The Private Island is reserved in its entirety for one group and accommodates up to 18 guests across three expansive residences. That distinction matters. This isn’t simply the largest villa at the Waldorf Astoria with a more secluded pool — it’s a separate private-island experience
combining the space and privacy of a standalone estate with access to the service and resources of one of the Maldives’ major luxury resorts. For families or groups who want total seclusion but aren’t interested in sacrificing serious five-star infrastructure, it strikes an unusually attractive balance. AMBERGRIS CAY TURKS AND CAICOS At approximately 1,100 acres, Ambergris Cay takes “private island” to an entirely different scale. The Turks and Caicos retreat offers everything from beachfront bungalows to substantial private villas and estates, but groups can go much further: full-island buyouts are available for private celebrations, weddings and corporate retreats.
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That sheer acreage changes the experience. This isn’t a tiny cay where everyone inevitably ends up at the same beach bar — there’s room to disappear, properly, while retaining the amenities and service of a sophisticated resort. If the goal is to invite a crowd while still giving everyone space, Ambergris Cay makes an unusually convincing case. TURTLE ISLAND, FIJI Turtle Island has been doing private-island escapism since long before it became an Instagram fantasy. The 500-acre island in Fiji’s Yasawas accommodates just 28 guests in 14 bures and has 12 private beaches. A full buyout turns all of it into one group’s personal South Pacific playground; current private-island buyouts start at approximately $29,120 per night, with a five-night minimum, including accommodations, meals, beverages and dining experiences. There’s something refreshingly oldschool about Turtle Island’s appeal. It isn’t trying to be a gleaming futuristic resort transplanted into Fiji. The emphasis
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remains on the island itself, its beaches and famously warm Fijian hospitality. Sometimes 500 acres and 12 beaches are enough. SONG SAA PRIVATE ISLAND CAMBODIA Song Saa gives this list something it badly needs: Southeast Asia. Set within Cambodia’s Koh Rong Archipelago, the pioneering luxury retreat can be taken over in its entirety, with the resort explicitly offering full-resort exclusive buyouts for private gatherings, celebrations and retreats. The setting is a major part of the appeal — jungle, ocean and overwater architecture replace the familiar polished perfection of the Maldives, while the resort’s long-standing emphasis on conservation gives the experience a sense of place that goes beyond beautiful villas. For travelers who have already done the Caribbean, Fiji and Maldives, Song Saa offers a compelling reason to look somewhere else entirely.
LITTLE PALM ISLAND FLORIDA KEYS One of the most exotic-feeling private-island experiences on this list doesn’t require leaving the United States. Little Palm Island, reached by boat in the Florida Keys, offers a complete buyout of its 30 oceanfront bungalows for up to 60 guests, turning the famously romantic resort into a private tropical enclave. The appeal is partly logistical — there’s no trans-Pacific journey or remote-island airstrip to navigate — yet once guests arrive, the thatched roofs, palms and water surrounding the island make mainland Florida feel considerably farther away than it actually is. For an American destination wedding or milestone celebration where getting 50-plus people to the South Pacific seems slightly ambitious, Little Palm is an exceptionally elegant solution.
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GETTING NAKED IN THE LOCKER ROOM
CROSS-GENERATIONAL PERSPECTIVES AND CHANGING ATTITUDES ABOUT THE LAST SAFE (NAKED) SPACE
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XACTLY ONE YEAR AGO I WROTE ONE OF MY VERY FIRST ARTICLES. IT WAS CALLED “GETTING NAKED IN THE LOCKER ROOM,” AND TO BE FAIR, IT WAS BARELY AN ARTICLE. IT WAS MORE OF A BLURB. I HADN’T FULLY FOUND MY VOICE OR MY FOOTING AS A WRITER, AND I BLASTED THAT LITTLE PIECE OUT INTO THE INTERNET WITHOUT MUCH THOUGHT ABOUT HOW IT WOULD LAND OR WHAT KIND OF CONVERSATION IT MIGHT START. WHAT I DIDN’T KNOW WAS THAT IT WOULD BECOME MY MOST VIEWED, MOST LIKED, AND MOST COMMENTED PIECE ON THIS PLATFORM. IT STILL HOLDS THAT TITLE TODAY.
A lot has happened in the year since. I’ve read hundreds of comments across multiple platforms, spoken directly with men, and gone through countless emails and personal stories about what this topic stirs up. All of that gave me something I didn’t have when I wrote the original piece, actual data. Real voices. A genuine body of information to work with. So today I want to do something I couldn’t do a year ago: break it all down properly and give this conversation the depth it deserves. Before I do, a few important notes. Everything I’m presenting here is the result of a year’s worth of collected responses from men across the world. This is not my personal opinion, it is a synthesis of what men shared with me. There are always exceptions, and when I speak about groups, I am speaking about the greater majority, not absolutes. With that said, let’s get into it. GEN X MEN AND OLDER This group spoke up fast and they spoke up loudly. Gen X men and older shared
story after story of growing up in a world where male nudity was simply part of the landscape. Showering after physical education class was mandatory. Showering after sports was expected. Communal showers at the YMCA were the norm. Many shared memories of getting undressed in front of close friends during sleepovers without a second thought, and of parents or grandparents helping with bathing when they were young. The throughline in all of these stories was the same: nudity among men was normalized at a formative age, and critically, it was never sexualized. It was just bodies. Just men. Nothing more. As these men got older, that early normalization stayed with them. Many joined gyms where open communal showers were standard, and they continued moving through those spaces with the same ease they’d developed as kids. The men you see today standing around the locker room chatting without a care in the world are not being creepy or exhibitionistic. They are simply comfortable, the way men used to be before something
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shifted culturally. I’ll be honest, it bothers me when younger men mock them for it. These men earned their ease, and there’s something worth respecting in that. There was another thread running through what Gen X and older men shared, and it’s one I had noticed anecdotally for years but never had the data to back up. As men age, many report becoming significantly more comfortable in their own skin. Not despite their bodies changing, but sometimes because of it. Men in this group described loving their bodies more now than they did in their 30s, reporting less inhibition both sexually and non-sexually, and embracing a kind of freedom they didn’t feel when they were younger and theoretically “in their prime.” Several straight men in this group also shared that their comfort with bisexual curiosity had grown considerably with age, with far fewer hang-ups than they carried in younger years. Time changes us in ways we don’t always expect, and for this group, many of those changes appear to have been liberating. YOUNGER MEN Younger men told a very different story, and the difference starts early. Most younger men I heard from reported never having showered after P.E. class or after sports. That ritual, which was formative for older generations, simply doesn’t exist for most of them. Those who did report showering after sports noted that modern locker room facilities have largely eliminated communal showers in favor of private stalls, which means even when showering happens, it happens without the shared experience that shaped earlier generations. The cumulative effect of this is significant. These men grew up without consistent, normalized, non-sexual exposure to other male bodies, and that absence is not trivial. What I found genuinely interesting about this group is the apparent contradiction in how they navigate nudity and the body. Younger men, by a wide margin, are remarkably comfortable talking openly with their friends about sex, their bodies, and even penis size. Roughly half of the younger men I heard from reported being comfortable posting shirtless PAGE 70
photos on social media, a thirst trap, or the now-iconic gray sweatpants photo. They will discuss their bodies freely and display them publicly online. They just won’t get undressed in front of each other in the same room. That distinction is worth sitting with, because it tells us something meaningful about how comfort with the body is being expressed differently across generations, and how the presence or absence of early shared physical experience shapes that. FEAR OF BEING RECORDED I’ll be honest, this one gave me pause, and I want to be careful with it because it deserves to be taken seriously even where I’m skeptical. A meaningful number of men cited fear of being filmed in the locker room as a primary reason for their modesty, and I understand why that fear exists in a world where a phone can capture and broadcast anything in seconds. Here’s where I struggle with it. In years of locker room observation, I have rarely seen anyone on their phone in that space in a way that suggested covert filming. Most men who have their phones out are checking messages and putting the device away. Beyond that, many gyms now have explicit no-phone policies in locker rooms, with signage to match. Those flexing locker room selfies are now very much frowned upon, and I have even witnessed men asking others to stop doing this. Nonetheless, the evidence for widespread covert filming simply isn’t there, at least not in any pattern I’ve been able to observe or document. The observation that crystallized this for me happened on an ordinary day in my locker room. A younger man I see regularly, someone who performs genuinely impressive acrobatics to avoid being seen undressing, was laughing with a friend about sending unsolicited photos of his penis to women on Instagram. He goes to extraordinary lengths to conceal himself from other men in a private space, while casually sending explicit images to women who never asked for them. That contradiction is hard to explain through the lens of privacy or fear of being filmed. It points somewhere else entirely, which I’ll address in a moment. While I remain
skeptical that recording fear is the primary driver for most men, I want to honor that it came up consistently and that for some men it is a genuine concern. FEAR OF BEING GAY This group was not loudly represented, but they were present in larger numbers than I expected, and their experience deserves a thoughtful conversation. There is a segment of men, straight-identified, by and large, who avoid undressing in communal spaces because they are afraid that any curiosity they feel about other male bodies is evidence of latent homosexuality. They have no framework for non-sexual male nudity, no model of what it looks like to be in a room with other men’s bodies without that experience being sexualized, and so natural human curiosity becomes threatening to them. The fear isn’t really about the locker room. It’s about what they believe their own reactions mean. Here’s the truth, and I’ll say it plainly. Curiosity about other bodies is one of the most normal things a human being can experience. A straight man noticing what the guy next to him is working with is not a signal of secret homosexuality any more than me occasionally noticing an attractive woman is a signal that I’m straight. I was fortunate enough to have a straight friend weigh in on this directly, and his words were clearer than anything I could have written. He said, without hesitation, that any man who claims he has never been curious about what another man in his vicinity is carrying is simply not being honest. His read was that most straight men look, most straight men are curious, and most straight men feel no particular way about it beyond basic human interest. He said it and moved on. That ease is the goal. Curiosity is not a confession. It’s just part of being human. BODY IMAGE This was the section that stayed with me longest after I finished collecting responses, and not in a comfortable way. The volume of men who expressed genuine shame about their bodies was significant, and it showed up in two distinct
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patterns. The first was men who were unhappy with their overall body and felt that being seen undressed would expose something they weren’t ready for other people to witness. The second was men who were specifically ashamed of their penis, their size, their shape, the way they looked, and who avoided exposure out of a fear of being seen and silently judged. What struck me about both groups was how real and how persistent this shame was, regardless of what the men actually looked like. Men who would be considered conventionally attractive by any standard were carrying the same weight as men with more complicated relationships to their bodies. The shame does not track with objective appearance. Men are not supposed to talk about this. We are socialized to project confidence about our bodies, to brush off insecurity, to perform comfort we may not actually feel. And so a great deal of this pain gets carried quietly, which means it rarely gets examined or addressed. I want to name something carefully here,
because I don’t have the data to draw a firm conclusion, but I think it’s worth raising. The presence of pornography in our culture has created an aesthetic standard for the male body and the male form that is, for most men, simply not achievable. Not everyone is going to be extraordinarily well-endowed. Not everyone is going to have a body that reads as flawlessly as what gets filmed and distributed. I am generally not anti-pornography, but I think we would be naive to assume it has no impact on how men perceive and evaluate their own bodies, particularly younger men who have grown up with it as a primary reference point for what male sexuality looks like. This is a conversation worth having more openly than we currently do. AN INTERESTING DEVELOPMENT Since the original article, something happened close to home that feels like a direct cultural response to everything this conversation has been about. Planet Fitness opened a new prototype location near where I live in New York, and it is
unlike any gym I have ever seen. There are no locker rooms. Instead, they have a series of about fifteen private bathrooms. The private bathrooms with showers are individual, enclosed, and separate. The lockers live in a general hallway outside, alongside a few benches. It is truly the most bizarre setup I have ever seen. When I asked gym staff about the design choice, the answer was straightforward: people want privacy. The response from members has been genuinely mixed. Several men I spoke with found it strange, even unsettling. One put it simply: “Are we so afraid to take our shirts off in front of each other now?” Others appreciated it and preferred the arrangement. I don’t think there’s a right answer here, but I do think the fact that a major gym chain is now building facilities around the assumption that men don’t want shared locker room space is a remarkable cultural data point. It’s worth watching what happens next.
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THE DECLINE OF DINNER PARTIES
WE’RE WITNESSING THE DEATH OF HOSTING IN AMERICA. THE SHARE OF ADULTS WHO REGULARLY HAVE FRIENDS OVER HAS DECLINED 70 PERCENT SINCE 1975
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ID-CENTURY AMERICANS KNEW HOW TO THROW A PARTY, FOR BETTER OR WORSE. IN SOME OF THE MOST FAMOUS TITLES OF THE 1950S AND 1960S— COUPLES, BY JOHN UPDIKE; WHO’S AFRAID OF VIRGINIA WOOLF? BY EDWARD ALBEE; REVOLUTIONARY ROAD BY RICHARD YATES—THE DRAMA (AND MARTINI-SOAKED MELODRAMA) TOOK PLACE IN MIDDLE-CLASS LIVING ROOMS. The stories were fictional, but the setting was realistic. Until 1975, half of Americans said they entertained guests at their home every month. But then something changed. Americans stopped throwing parties. Even more fundamentally, they stopped visiting each other. Between 1975 and 1998, the share of Americans who gave or attended a monthly dinner party declined by half. The share of Americans saying they never entertained people at home tripled. [See charts below] While cultural critics often bemoan the decline of organized religion, the dip in church attendance was downright modest compared to the collapse in hosting, according to data gathered by the DDB Needham Life Style survey. In his 2000 book Bowling Alone, Robert Putnam wrote that if these trends continPAGE 76
ued, the ancient practice of visiting with friends “might entirely disappear from American life in less than a generation.” Well, check your calendars. One generation and change later, Putnam’s prediction needs an update. So, what’s the state of hosting in the 21st century? EVERYBODY’S HOME. NO ONE’S COMING OVER. To get an apples-to-apples answer to that question, the polling group Data For Progress replicated the DDB Needham Life Style surveys cited by Putnam. Fortunately, they were kind enough to exclusively share their findings with me. Unfortunately, the upshot is about as brutal as you’d imagine. In the last 30 years, Americans have seen double-digit declines in practically every measure of socializing. They are less likely to play cards; attend a sporting event; go to the bar; volunteer; or work on a community project. When it comes to hosting people at home, the declines are particularly stark. Since 1995, the share of Americans who say they’ve hosted guests or attended a dinner party has declined by about 20 percent—and that’s in addition to the whopping declines that Putnam bemoaned a quarter-century ago. Combining the two surveys, we get this astonishing fact: The share of Americans who say they host friends or family at their home at least monthly has fallen from 42 percent in 1975 to 12 percent
in 2026—a 70 percent collapse in a half-century. So, what’s going on? Let’s first reject a few stories that don’t entirely fit the data. Perhaps, an optimist might think, Americans are hosting fewer dinner parties because they’ve simply moved all their hangouts to restaurants and bars. Nice idea, but almost certainly wrong. As Putnam writes in his book, “the practice of entertaining friends has not simply moved outside the home, but seems to be vanishing entirely.” Overall face-to-face socializing has declined significantly in the last few decades, and the restaurant industry has actually noted a sharp increase in people eating alone. Another plausible theory is that Americans have replaced dinner parties with other forms of healthy socialization. It is absolutely true that there are some activities that Americans do much more often than in 1975, such as going to concerts, traveling, and exercising. All very good. But as I wrote in an essay last year on the “great American exercise boom,” the evidence suggests that, despite the increase in running clubs, the surge in exercise time seems to be mostly solo. A lot of people are going to the gym with a podcast to keep them company (e.g., me) or rolling out a yoga mat in the basement by herself (e.g., my wife). Most importantly, it is impossible to assert that Americans are getting out of the house to socialize in new ways when time spent at home has
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certifiably exploded since the 2010s. In short, the great disinvitation is real, and we can’t wish or explain it away by arguing that Americans are just finding new ways to be with friends. Here are fourish explanations: 1. PEOPLE ARE MORE HARRIED, ESPECIALLY DUAL-EARNER HOUSEHOLDS In the 1970 book The Harried Leisure Class, the Swedish economist Staffan Burenstam Linder wrote that as a society gets richer, leisure time takes on the frantic quality of work. As rich people feel like their downtime is scarce—as each non-working hour practically shouts, “excuse me! you could be making money, right now!” —the experience of leisure time speeds up. We multitask and pack various downtime activities into short periods. Firing up a Netflix show at 9pm that you can half-ignore while you answer email is a perfect activity for people who need their leisure time to feel like half-productive box-checking. Taking several hours to coordinate with other busy people to set up a lengthy dinner party is a tougher sell for the harried leisure class1. That’s a sociological explanation, but I think the decline of hosting is also about macroeconomic trends. In Bowling Alone, Putnam acknowledged that women have historically been the keepers of the family social calendar, planning the birthday parties and neighborhood potlucks. For any number of reasons, women seem to do better than men at making and keeping adult friendships and making plans with other families. But in the 1950s and 1960s, tens of millions of women traded their unpaid household management jobs for salaried jobs, and the family social calendar frayed, as men failed to pick up the slack. Moving from macro to micro: My wife and I love to host parties at our place in D.C. But these get-togethers are a lot of work: conception, communication, coordination, shopping (are your kids coming, or are you getting a babysitter? does your eldest kid eat eggplant? no? okay, we’ll make pasta. oh, that’s right, PAGE 78
your wife’s gluten allergy…). These sort of multi-skilled logistical adventures are almost indistinguishable from the sort of logistical problem-solving that characterizes a good deal of white-collar work. But when both parents are already inundated with literal white-collar work, it’s hard to add the job of unpaid party planner. The trouble with going all in on this explanation—beyond the fact that it embraces a version of learned helplessness for men—is that leisure time has increased overall since the 1950s. Theoretically, married couples should have even more time to have people over for food and drink. Other facts must be squeezing out socializing … 2. INTENSIVE PARENTING LEAVES LESS TIME FOR HOSTING Americans used to have many kids whom they cared for sparsely; now they have fewer children to whom they devote every minute of their lives. The numbers here are unreal. The sociologists Liana C. Sayer, Suzanne M. Bianchi, and John P. Robinson wrote in 2004 that between 1975 and 1998, mothers increased the amount of time they spent with their kids by about 200 minutes a week. In the 21st century, mothering time has continued to rise. For married fathers, parenting time increased by even more. Thus evenings once spent hosting adults are now spent holding, bathing, driving, tutoring, playing with, and talking to their children. 3. FRIENDSHIP NETWORKS ARE SHRINKING, ESPECIALLY FOR POOR PEOPLE WHO AREN’T MARRIED If you’re going to throw a dinner party, there are a few things you probably need first. Say, a dinner table. Chairs. Food and drink. And also: friends. It is rare to host a dinner party for people you’ve never met. But the average number of close friendships is declining with each generation, and the decline is steepest for Americans without a college degree. So, it’s not just that married people have fewer dinner parties; poor people, who
are less likely to be married, have fewer friends, period. According to Data For Progress, the two groups most likely to say they never entertained people in their home in the previous year were political independents (44 percent) and people without a college diploma (39 percent). The latter isn’t surprising, given all the evidence that socializing is declining most rapidly among poorer Americans with less education. Hosting friends, like so much socializing, is in danger of becoming a luxury good. The political wrinkle is more intriguing to me. I sometimes hear from people who tie everything back to politics that political polarization might lead to social fragmentation. But I wonder if the opposite is just as plausible. Maybe people who are less embedded in strong social networks are less likely to attach themselves to groups of all kinds, including political parties. In this way, America’s long-term detachment from groups and institutions is leading to a kind of poxon-all-parties mentality that cashes out in an increase in independents. 4. IT’S TOO MUCH FUN TO BE HOME ALONE. There is a story you could tell about the rise of aloneness being the product of mostly positive trends. In the 20th century, perhaps, many housewives planned dinner parties out of a feeling of crushing isolation. Children were forced to attend church ceremonies that invalidated their identities and values. Americans felt suffocating social pressure to attend social events with neighbors and congregants that they hated. Now we are free to be exactly who and where we want to be. For many, this freedom has taken the shape of a living-room couch. The average time that Americans spent at home increased by almost two hours a day from 2003 to 2022. Cocooned within personalized entertainment fortresses, more Americans have shrunk the vast buffet of all possible leisure activities to the small plate of screened media. As I wrote in my 2025 essay “Everything Is Television,” it sometimes feels as if the grand sweep of entertainment history is
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drawn toward the single attractor point of video, and especially short-form video. Something quite deep in the human psyche seems to want desperately to turn off our self-talk and silence our nattering internal monologues by turning up the volume of other characters’ voices. FINAL THOUGHTS (OR: THE LUMP OF LEISURE) In sum: The death of the host is the story of lonely, unmarried people and harried married dual-earner households; anxious parents spending more time with their children and less time with friends; and the typical home becoming such a riot of diverting comfort that people no longer have to invite human beings to interrupt their boredom. For 200 years, people have worried that machines would make human labor unnecessary. This false assumption is commonly known as the Lump of Labor fallacy. (The finite lumpiness of the labor market is the fallacy here, because people keep finding new lumpy problems to turn into jobs.) But machines in the last half
century have accomplished something stranger. They have made other people less necessary to our leisure. Every generation has acquired better ways to entertain itself without leaving the house. The result is a peculiar triumph of modern abundance: We have built a world in which being alone has never been easier, more comfortable, or more fun. And then we wonder why everybody stopped coming over. Leisure, as an activity to be enjoyed with other people, turns out to be more finite than work. The lump of labor fallacy was wrong, as technology keeps failing to replace jobs. But something else (the Lump of Leisure Theory?) might be right on the money. Social leisure turns out to be the real lump—something finite and easily displaced by technology. Our technology keeps getting better. Our social lives keep getting smaller. Is this what we want? At the risk of invoking Clintonian levels of abstruseness, it depends on what “want” means. Everybody might prefer, in the abstract,
a world of dinner parties, neighborhood friendships, and spontaneous gatherings. But on any given Wednesday at 7:45pm., it is easier to look at a screen than to host a party; easier to listen to a podcast while doing yoga than to plan a gathering. This is not so much an individual failure as a coordination failure. Modernity has shifted leisure from activities that require coordination with other people toward activities that can be consumed without the permission or participation of others. Compared to TikTok, a dinner party is a terrible leisure technology. It requires matching schedules, cleaning the house, buying food, accommodating children and allergies, tolerating awkwardness, and taking the risk that the evening is mediocre. By contrast, what does television ask of us? Nothing. TikTok? Even less. We keep creating opportunities for downtime that eliminate the need for other people to be present. Not all progress is progress.
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JELLYFISH-INSPIRED REJUVENATION TREATMENTS
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OU’VE HEARD OF SALMON SPERM TREATMENTS AND EATING YOUR NEWBORN’S PLACENTA, BUT THE IMMORTAL JELLYFISH CAN WIND BACK ITS LIFECYCLE TO BECOME YOUNG AGAIN. SCIENTISTS ARE UNLOCKING ITS CELLULAR SECRETS TO FIND WAYS HUMAN CELLS COULD REJUVENATE TOO.
The tiny translucent jellyfish Turritopsis dohrnii is surprisingly hard
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to kill. The marine biologist Maria Miglietta of Texas A&M University at Galveston has cut them, boiled them, starved them, overloaded their tanks with salt or plopped them in fresh water – but the nifty creatures seem to cheat death every time.
Under duress, they stop in their tracks and fall to the bottom of their tank. Then something astonishing happens: the animals transform into balls of cells that bear no resemblance to the tentacled umbrella shape of adult jellyfish, known as the medusa. Within one to three days, a structure called a polyp – an early jellyfish life stage – buds off from this ball of cells and then grows
into a colony, which will eventually sprout new medusae.
“From one jellyfish that doesn’t die, then you get this colony that can form hundreds more,” Miglietta says. And each one of these new jellyfish can, in principle, rejuvenate the same way – exhibiting a seemingly endless capacity to wind back the clock to youth. Miglietta and other scientists are now studying the genetic and molecular processes that make Turritopsis dohrnii’s death-defying feat possible. By unlocking these secrets, scientists eventually hope to explore whether they can trigger similar kinds of processes in humans. The goal is not
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to turn elderly people back into babies, Benjamin Button-style – an idea that’s firmly in the realms of science fiction – but to coax cells and tissues into more youthful states to heal wounds and treat age-related maladies. “The holy grail of this kind of thing, I think, would be regenerative biology: trying to reverse ageing-related degeneration or degradation,” says Michael Koldobskiy, a pediatric oncologist and physician-scientist at Johns Hopkins. “We’re a long way away from harnessing that for human benefit, but I think understanding these organisms that evolved these processes millions of years ago could potentially really pay off.” Turritopsis dohrnii’s regenerative talents were first reported in 1992 by an Italian scientist who was keeping the animals in the lab and forgot to feed them over a weekend. Expecting to find them dead when he returned, “instead he found new polyps in the container”, Miglietta says. Soon, the biologist Stefano Piraino of Italy’s University of Salento started to take an interest in what made this feat of rejuvenation possible. As embryos develop, so-called stem cells multiply and morph into the nerve cells, muscle cells and various other cell types that make up the body. Usually, they’re stuck in that particular cell type until they age and die. But Piraino discovered that, during the
immortal jellyfish’s rejuvenation, certain tissues in the medusa undergo a “transdifferentiation” process where they revert to a stem cell-type state and then specialize into other cell types. “Adult cells become ‘undifferentiated’ and become something else that is needed to form the polyp,” says Miglietta, who used to work in Piraino’s lab. Turritopsis dohrnii’s ability to rejuvenate earned it the nickname “immortal jellyfish”. It is – as far as scientists know – unique in the animal kingdom. While some lizards, worms and amphibians can regrow lost or injured body parts, none come close to reverting adult bodies back into babies. Turritopsis dohrnii is a remarkable demonstration that aging and mortality is not always a biological inevitability (though scientists can’t rule out that it doesn’t eventually die naturally). GENETIC CLUES Today, Miglietta and others are working to dissect the genetic processes that allow cells to go back in time. The ultimate dream, Koldobskiy says, would be to identify the molecular “switch” that controls this process. If the same control switch exists in humans, then perhaps it can be triggered to coax human cells to more youthful states. If possible, that could accelerate the healing of wounds or injured tissue after strokes or heart
attacks, or perhaps even reverse the damage that occurs in age-driven vision loss or the neurodegeneration that happens in Alzheimer’s disease. “We’re not going to shrink down to an embryo again and restart,” he says, “but at the organ and tissue level, I think it’s very much a possibility.” The research is young, but is already starting to reveal some clues. In a 2022 study, one team of researchers compared the genes of Turritopsis dohrnii and a related species that is not known to rejuvenate – though it’s hard to be certain that it’s not capable of doing so, as many jellyfish are understudied, says molecular biologist and bioinformatician Victor Quesada of the University of Oviedo in Spain. Compared to the other species, Turritopsis dohrnii’s DNA contained more copies of genes that produce proteins to help repair mutations and other kinds of DNA damage that accumulates with age. The immortal jellyfish also had more copies of genes that produce proteins involved in maintaining structures called telomeres – little caps on the end of DNA strands that protect the genetic material from damage. Normally, telomeres shorten with age, making the DNA more susceptible to damage, but the immortal jellyfish’s enhanced ability PA G E 83
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to repair them could be one key to its longevity, Quesada says. This is just the beginning of understanding the secrets of Turritopsis dohrnii’s rejuvenation strategy and whether any aspect of it could be applied to humans, Quesada says. “We assume in many diseases, that there’s no way back,” he says. “Perhaps there might be a way back, if we [learn] enough about… how those mechanisms work.” Miglietta, meanwhile, has been comparing the genes activated across Turritopsis dohrnii’s different life stages and examining the ones that are only activated during the ball-like cyst stage, where cells reverse fate and then create new polyps. “That may be an indication that those genes are involved in that unique process,” she says. In 2019 and 2021 research, she and her colleagues found a heightened activity of mysterious genes with unknown functions, but also ones involved in repairing DNA and maintaining telomeres. Another preliminary study by Miglietta found that there’s some overlap in the genes being overactivated in the cyst
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stage and genes that have been linked to longevity in humans. That underscores the idea that there may be common pathways between the two species, Miglietta says. Miglietta is now collaborating with Koldobskiy to better understand these processes and eventually explore whether they can be induced in human cells. Scientists have already discovered certain ways of inducing rejuvenation-like processes in mammalian cells, but applying this to human tissues has proven difficult. Perhaps studying Turritopsis dohrnii will reveal other, more effective ways of doing so, Koldobskiy hopes. FRAGILITY OF AN IMMORTAL ORGANISM On top of its potential practical benefits in medicine, Turritopsis dohrnii also offers more philosophical lessons. “It’s comforting to think that nature has found a solution to one of the main problems of humans: aging and death,” Miglietta says. And indeed, she suspects that Turritopsis dohrnii’s incredible resilience is one reason why the species has become so widespread across the world’s oceans, from the Mediterranean to the Caribbean and Japan.
But while it may seem invincible, the immortal jellyfish is also fragile. Miglietta says that there’s a proportion of animals in her lab that seem incapable of rejuvenating. And among the ones that do, there may be an eventual limit to the number of times they can rejuvenate before dying of old age. It’s hard to know for sure because it’s difficult to maintain the species for long durations in the lab as it seems to require specific conditions to survive. And, in the wild, there’s plenty of things that probably do kill them – including fluctuating availability of their plankton food, predators or algae that smother jellyfish colonies. As such, the immortal jellyfish offers an important lesson, says Maria PascualTorner of Spain’s Institute of Marine Sciences, who conducted the 2022 study with Quesada. “Although it has the ability to rejuvenate and, theoretically, not die from aging, it is at the same time an extremely vulnerable organism,” she says. “The immortal jellyfish also reminds us that life and death are inseparable parts of the same reality.” In other words, even nature’s most immortal organism has to face death.
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ALL THE FUSS ABOUT T
PEPTIDES
HE U.S. DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES (HHS) WILL NOT TAKE ACTION AGAINST LICENSED PHARMACISTS WHO DISPENSE CERTAIN UNAPPROVED PEPTIDES TO CONSUMERS, ACCORDING TO A NEW POLICY PUBLISHED OCT. 28 IN THE FEDERAL REGISTER. PAGE 88
Peptides are short chains of amino acids that people inject into their bodies. HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has said in the past that he is a “big fan” of the unapproved drugs, whose benefits are largely scientifically unproven.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) essentially banned peptides in 2023 because of safety concerns. But an FDA committee met in July to review the evidence on peptides and recommend whether or not to take the highly unusual
step of allowing pharmacies to dispense them absent scientific review. The committee was made up of new appointees who consulted with or were employed by companies that were interested in promoting or dispensing peptides; it recommended allowing specialty pharmacies to dispense six peptides, despite FDA staff advising against the move. The new policy—which was signed by Kennedy—says that after the July meetings, HHS believed there was “significant
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interest” in the use of obtaining these peptides from compounding pharmacies. “Therefore, to expand and improve patient access, HHS does not intend to take enforcement action against a State-licensed pharmacy, Federal facility, or licensed physician compounding a drug product using a peptide bulk drug substance found in Appendix A,” the notice said. The policy said that it was going to be published in the Federal Register on Oct. 30. The peptides listed in Appendix A were BPC-157, Epitalon, KPV, MOTS-c, Semax, and TB-500—the same ones the committee recommended allowing this summer. A separate document posted on the HHS website says that after reviewing the recommendations of the committee that met in July, “the Secretary has determined that the policy advances patient choice and freedom while appropriately protecting patient safety.” The decision to allow the compounding of peptides is a boon for companies like Hims & Hers, which had reportedly been preparing to offer peptides in 2026. Analysts have said the market for peptides could be as high as $3.3 billion. Hims stock shot up 5 percent after the Oct. 28 announcement. The move “represents a vital step toward eliminating the unsafe gray and black markets, restoring safe patient access through legitimate, physician-supervised
care,” said Lee Rosebush, chair of the American Academy of Peptide Medicine, a new advocacy group, in a statement. Other public-health professionals raised alarm about the decision, which they say allows compounding pharmacies to dispense these medications absent scientific evidence. “American consumers should not be treated like guinea pigs,” said Fred Mills, chief policy officer for Americans for Safe and Effective Medicines, in a statement. “It is possible to advance both patient safety and access to legitimate medicines, but this is not it.” At the July hearings, consumer advocacy groups including the Center for Science in the Public Interest had argued that allowing peptides to skip a rigorous evidence-based FDA approval process would be unprecedented and dangerous to consumers. Many physicians have spoken up against allowing peptides to be compounded. “The peptides under consideration here are untested and poorly characterized experimental drugs that should not be allowed in compounded products,” said Dr. Adriane Fugh-Berman, a professor of pharmacology and physiology at Georgetown University Medical Center, at the public comment portion of the July meeting, reminding the committee that two women had required emergency treatment after receiving peptides at a Las Vegas festival.
Critics also expressed concern that people were turning to compounding pharmacies for untested drugs. Compounding pharmacies are often used to fill specific prescriptions from a doctor, but in recent years, they have mass-produced drugs like GLP-1s for patients looking to save money. The peptide boom will put even more pressure on compounding pharmacies to quickly make drugs for telehealth sites, said Annie Lambert, a pharmacist and clinical program manager for compliance solutions at Wolters Kluwer Health. “Compounding can and should play a legitimate clinical role, from hospitals to home infusion to filling gaps during drug shortages. But it is not a substitute for FDA-approved manufacturing, and that distinction is where a lot of today’s risk sits,” she said in a statement. “My concern is that pharmacies rushing into this space will move to make a dollar faster rather than make sure they meet every requirement, from ingredient sourcing and facilities to staff training and sterility testing.” Shortly after the new notice was published, a number of telehealth websites were already marketing the six peptides, each for a price of anywhere from $199 to $249 a month.
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A
BOOST YOUR IMMUNITY IN 30 MINUTES
30-MINUTE HEAT BLAST MOBILIZED WHITE BLOOD CELLS— AND HINTED AT A WIDER PAYOFF. A half-hour in a Finnish sauna can do more than raise the temperature. In participants from a new study, it sent immune cells rushing into the bloodstream. That brief surge points to sauna’s most intriguing promise: controlled heat may place the immune system on alert, increasing the circulation of cells that patrol for infection and damage.
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SAUNA IMMUNITY For years, Finnish studies have linked frequent sauna bathing with better health. Men who used a sauna several times a week had lower rates of fatal cardiovascular disease and death from any cause. Other studies associated regular sauna use with fewer respiratory illnesses and lower levels of C-reactive protein, a marker of chronic inflammation. Those findings came mostly from observational research. They could not prove that sauna caused the benefits — or explain how sitting in intense heat might produce them.
By Mihai Andrei / Special to Polo Lifestyles
Researchers in Finland placed 51 middle-aged adults in a dry sauna averaging 73°C, or 163°F, for 30 minutes. It’s a tolerable and relatively low temperature for a sauna. Their average body temperature climbed from 36.4°C to 38.4°C, roughly the range of a mild fever. Blood samples taken before, immediately after and 30 minutes later revealed a rapid movement of immune cells. Total white blood cell counts rose. So did neutrophils, which attack microbes and respond to tissue damage, and lymphocytes, the cells involved in antibodies, immune memory and the destruction of infected cells.
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This may indicate that sauna bathing mobilizes additional white blood cells into the bloodstream from tissues, where they are then redeposited after the session. This kind of periodic release of white blood cells into the bloodstream is beneficial, as once they leave their storage sites, they are better able to patrol the body and respond to pathogens,” says Ilkka Heinonen, an Academy Research Fellow at the University of Turku. Simply put, the sauna sent the immune system pumping. SO, WHAT DOES THIS MEAN? This doesn’t necessarily mean a sauna boosts the immune system. It does seem to suggest that sauna bathing mobilizes additional white blood cells into the bloodstream from tissues, where they are then redeposited after the session. How beneficial this is for the body, however, is less clear.
But it would perfectly fit with previous studies. Long-running studies (often from Finland, where sauna use is frequent) have linked frequent sauna bathing with lower rates of cardiovascular death and death from any cause. Another often-quoted study of 1,688 men and women found a similar relationship between more frequent sauna use and lower cardiovascular mortality. But these studies observed people rather than assigning them randomly to sauna or no sauna. People who often go to the sauna may have different stress or income levels, which could affect the results; access to sauna could be a factor in itself. Statistical adjustments can reduce those differences, but they cannot erase every hidden factor.
What would happen if people did this long term? Also, how does this activation of the immune system actually benefit participants in a practical setting? The increase also did not depend on who experienced the largest temperature jump. Participants with sharper rises in body temperature did not necessarily release more white blood cells. That suggests the heat exposure itself may have triggered a broad mobilization response once the body crossed some physiological threshold. That remains a hypothesis. The researchers did not measure infections, vaccine responses or long-term immunity. But the experiment offers a plausible mechanism that might explain previous observations.
The new immune study offers clues as to how this could work. But there are important questions to follow-up on. PA G E 93
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ST BARTH
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MEXICO’S DRINKING WATER CRISIS IS A WARNING TO U.S.
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DEEPENING DRINKING-WATER CRISIS IN MEXICO PRESENTS A QUESTION—COULD SOMETHING COMPARABLE HAPPEN IN AN AMERICAN CITY? Residents of Guadalajara, in the central-west state of Jalisco, have reported foul-smelling, discolored and sediment-filled water from their taps, prompting protests calling for government action. Police used tear gas and water cannons during one demonstration, leaving dozens injured and nearly 40 people arrested, according to Reuters. Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum subsequently criticized the police response. The crisis unfolded across a metropolitan region of more than 5 million people. Experts who spoke to Newsweek said Guadalajara’s circumstances are not identical to those in the U.S., but pointed to aging infrastructure, struggling utilities and weakened public confidence as vulnerabilities that are similar across national borders.
GUADALAJARA’S WATER CRISIS
ment and financing of water services.
Guadalajara’s drinking-water crisis did not emerge overnight. Héctor Morales Gil de la Torre, a faculty member at the University Center for Social Impact at ITESO, the Jesuit University of Guadalajara, told Newsweek that residents had reported turbid water in dozens of neighborhoods since 2023, with more than 1,000 formal complaints filed across roughly 475 neighborhoods between January 2025 and January 2026.
While Guadalajara’s crisis is particularly severe because several weaknesses converged at once, Morales said the individual problems are not unique to the city.
“In early October, contaminated water from the Las Pintas reservoir, where water from Lake Chapala mixes with wastewater, led the state government to acknowledge an unprecedented crisis and shut that source,” Morales said. “Since October 15, 627 neighborhoods have been on rotating supply, which authorities expect to last until March 2027.” Morales said the deterioration reflected several interconnected problems, including polluted water sources, a treatment plant not designed for such contaminated water, a leaking and aging distribution network, “weak” disinfection and monitoring, and problems with the manage-
“Polluted sources near industrial corridors, mid-20th-century treatment and pipes, financially fragile utilities, and very thin monitoring (four or five sampling staff for some 5 million people). Many large cities, in Mexico and elsewhere, share these vulnerabilities; Guadalajara shows what happens when they arrive together,” he said. A WARNING FOR AMERICAN CITIES Could the same water crisis happen in U.S. cities? Experts pointed to vulnerabilities in American water systems that could leave some cities exposed to comparable failures. “It has already happened, and is happening, in many towns in the U.S.,” Marc Edwards, a professor of civil and environmental engineering at Virginia Tech who was named one of Time’s most influential PA G E 95
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people in 2016 for his role in uncovering lead contamination during the Flint water crisis, told Newsweek. “It is also exactly what happened in Flint. That was an acute health crisis and betrayal that led to deaths from Legionella and some elevations in blood lead.” Edwards and his co-authors wrote in a recent paper that failures involving drinking water can erode public trust and, in turn, reduce support for the infrastructure upgrades needed to address the underlying problems. “Systems that have lost population, or tax bases, are especially susceptible to these problems. But the lost trust, or the ‘epidemic of distrust’ described in the aftermath of Flint, endangers all systems,” Edwards said. Jackson, Miss., was another U.S. city that experts highlighted as a relevant example. Jackson’s largest water treatment plant failed on August 29, 2022, leaving roughly 160,000 people and essential facilities, including hospitals, schools and
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fire stations, without safe drinking water, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center. In some areas, it noted, water service stopped altogether. Manny Teodoro, a professor of public affairs at the University of WisconsinMadison, agreed with Edwards that American cities are highly susceptible to failures in water quality and public confidence, noting that cases including Flint and Jackson attracted national attention while many others remained largely unnoticed. He said confidence in public water systems had been declining for decades, alongside growth in the commercial drinking-water industry, including bottled and vending-machine water. That loss of confidence can occur even in communities where tap water is generally safe and reliable, he told Newsweek. “The vectors of distrust are as much social as hydrological,” Teodoro said. Although emerging contaminants such as microplastics warrant attention, Teodoro
said the principal threats facing most Americans were more basic: broken water mains that cause pressure loss, water loss and microbial contamination; treatment plants that fail during storms; and shortages of skilled operators. “Our regulatory and governance institutions are poorly suited to addressing these challenges,” he said. Teodoro said older cities, places with stagnant or declining populations, low-income communities with large racial or ethnic minority populations, and especially small water systems could be particularly vulnerable. “We neglect water systems at our peril; we have to invest in the utilities that run them. But critically, that doesn’t imply that the federal government should pour billions of dollars into water and sewer systems,” said Teodoro. “The U.S. water sector needs structural reform to achieve sustainability, not a federal bailout.” THE LIMITS OF THE COMPARISON David Sedlak, director of the Berkeley
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Water Center at the University of California, Berkeley, offered a somewhat different perspective, emphasizing that water utilities in low- and middle-income countries generally operate under different circumstances from those in wealthier nations. “The situation in low- and middle-income countries is usually quite different from that encountered in wealthy countries,” he said. Sedlak said water utilities in middle-income countries often struggle to collect revenue and keep pace with the needs of their communities. Some U.S. cities experience comparable pressures, he added, particularly those where a considerable portion of the population is poor. Sedlak also cited Flint as another example of a city that struggled to keep its water system operating, although he said the crisis there involved additional challenges. “The context of how safe and reliable drinking water is provided to communities and how wastewater is safely managed is very different between the U.S. and Mexico, a spokesperson for the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) told Newsweek. “More than 50 years ago, Congress passed foundational statutes in the Safe Drinking Water Act and Clean Water Act. Implementation of those laws has made the U.S. a global leader in water. However, communities across the country—especially in small towns and rural settings—face real challenges ensuring that water is safely managed day-in and day-out. Three key challenges face these communities—aging infrastructure, the need for qualified water workers, and emerging threats.
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H ABITS OF INFECTIOUS DISEASE DOCTORS TO STAY HEALTHY ALL YEAR
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R. DANIEL GRIFFIN DOESN’T LIKE TO GET SICK. THE FIRST REASON WHY IS OBVIOUS—THE CONGESTION, THE ACHING, THE COUGH THAT OVERSTAYS ITS WELCOME, THE UNPLEASANT STOMACH SYMPTOMS. The second is a matter of professional dignity. “It’s almost like a gardener with dead plants,” says Griffin, chief of the division of infectious disease at Island Infectious Disease Medical in Long Island, N.Y. and president of Parasites Without Borders. “I really don’t want to be sick—because then the infectious disease doctor got sick.” So what do infectious disease doctors and experts like him do differently than the rest of us when it comes to preventing illness? Not as much as you’d think. Infectious disease specialists aren’t disinfecting every surface or hiding from the outside world. Instead, they’ve built a collection of practical habits into their daily lives—simple routines that reduce risk without making life less enjoyable. PAGE 100
We asked six infectious disease experts which habits they never skip.
WASH YOUR PRODUCE UNDER RUNNING WATER—NOT IN A BOWL
SET UP YOUR KITCHEN SO CROSS-CONTAMINATION CAN’T HAPPEN
Some people think rinsing produce means filling a bowl with water and letting everything soak. But that’s not the best approach. “What you actually need is that little bit of friction to break the surface,” says Dr. Heidi Torres, an infectious disease physician and assistant professor of clinical medicine at Weill Cornell Medicine. About 30 seconds under running water, while gently rubbing the produce with your hands, does far more than a passive soak.
Jill Roberts tries to take the guesswork out of food safety. “One of the major causes of food-borne illness is cross-contamination,” says Roberts, a molecular epidemiologist and professor at the University of South Florida College of Public Health. “It’s when you have something that’s raw and you get microbes from the raw thing into the ready-to-eat thing.” Her favorite solution: color-coded cutting boards. Meat always goes on the red one; vegetables never do. “If your meat is always on the red cutting board, you’re never going to have your salad stuff on your red cutting board,” she says. Order matters just as much. She makes the salad first, puts it in the refrigerator, and only then brings out the red boards and raw meat. Once she starts handling meat, she’s vigilant about sanitizing any surfaces she may have contaminated— from the counters and sink to the faucet handles and refrigerator door.
The problem with a bowl is that you’re washing everything in the same water. “If you have one piece that’s contaminated, that water could contaminate the other vegetables,” Torres says. Running water washes germs away instead of moving them from one piece of produce to another. It won’t remove everything— Cyclospora, for example, doesn’t simply rinse off—but it does reduce bacteria, viruses, and even some pesticide residue. MICROWAVE YOUR KITCHEN SPONGE A sponge is a nearly perfect habitat for
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germs: damp, warm, and studded with food particles, sitting next to the counter where you just set down raw chicken. “Sponges and wet dishcloths are really good at growing bacteria,” says Kelley Steury, a clinical associate professor in the school of public health at the University of Nevada, Reno, who specializes in veterinary preventive medicine. Her routine: Rinse her sponge until no food particles come out, then microwave it for 20 seconds. Just make sure it’s wet. “If you did it when it was pretty dry, you could start a fire,” she says. BRUSH YOUR TEETH LIKE IT’S INFECTION CONTROL Most people brush their teeth to prevent cavities. Torres brushes hers to prevent infections. “At least 25% of infections that I see are related to dental disease,” she says. Here’s why: Every day, small amounts of bacteria slip into your bloodstream, and a healthy immune system clears them without you ever noticing. Cavities and gum disease change the equation. They allow more bacteria—and more aggressive bacteria—to leak into the blood, which Torres describes as “a highway to all your organs.” In some cases, she says, doctors can trace an infection back to the mouth because the bacteria involved simply don’t live anywhere else. That makes brushing about much more than fresh breath. “Rinsing alone wouldn’t replace it, because you really need that mechanical brushing to break down that film of bacteria,” Torres says. Hospitals have even started treating basic oral care as a form of infection prevention, she says—which is a pretty compelling reason to take it seriously at home, too. RETHINK THE RUG IN YOUR BATHROOM Your bath mat outside the tub should be washable, hung to dry between uses, and tossed in the laundry about once a week. “We don’t leave the wet stuff on the floor, because that’s gross,” Roberts says. A damp bath mat can also spread athlete’s foot from one person to another.
As for the old-fashioned rug wrapped around the base of the toilet? Roberts would get rid of it altogether. Rubber backings don’t often hold up well in the wash, which means it probably doesn’t get cleaned as thoroughly as it should. “Especially if you have kids, they don’t aim well,” she says. “You have splashovers.” In other words: Nothing around the toilet should be soaking anything up.
surfaces,” he says. “You’re probably going to have a bigger bang for your buck when you think about ventilation.”
LEAVE YOUR SHOES AT THE DOOR
WASH YOUR HANDS LIKE YOU’RE NOT IN A HURRY
Shoes pick up a lot more than dirt. Every sidewalk has been shared with other people, their pets, and whatever else has passed through. Dr. Cesar J. Figueroa Ortiz, an infectious diseases specialist at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York, would rather not track any of that across the floors where his family walks and spends time—so shoes come off at the door. His job reinforces the habit. Hospitals are meticulously cleaned, but there’s always “the risk of bringing pathogens with you on your shoes,” he says.
His solution is simple: crack a window. If the air conditioning is running, make sure it’s bringing in fresh outdoor air rather than recirculating the same indoor air all evening, he adds.
Even infectious disease doctors don’t always practice perfect hand hygiene. Griffin has watched colleagues race out of a public restroom because they were about to miss a lecture at a conference. “They’re so anxious to get back out because they’re missing whatever the lecture is, and they’re not really doing proper hand hygiene,” he says. “Even the people that should know better are rushing back out.”
OPEN A WINDOW BEFORE COMPANY COMES OVER
And when people do wash their hands, they’re often rushing through that, too. “Nobody’s singing ‘Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star’ to time themselves,” Griffin says (besides him).
Before guests arrive, most people wipe down the counters. Dr. Peter Chin-Hong, an infectious-disease specialist at the University of California, San Francisco, thinks they should be paying more attention to the air. “I respect air more than
His other rule is knowing when soap and water beat sanitizer. (Basically always.) Alcohol-based hand sanitizer doesn’t kill everything: Norovirus—the highly contagious stomach bug behind many cruise ship outbreaks—is particularly resistant. PA G E 101
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Soap and water keep you safe, though, so if someone around you is vomiting or has diarrhea, Griffin says, head for the sink. USE YOUR SHIRT TAIL Steury will happily look a little strange to save herself a bout with a germ. “Someone might look at me and think I’m crazy, but I’ll use the bottom of a shirt, like my shirt tails,” she says—or the hem of a cardigan, whatever’s handy— around her hand when she has to touch certain surfaces. She’s selective about when she does it. What worries her are high-touch surfaces that are indoors and out of the sun: elevator buttons, soda fountain dispensers, and the door handle to a medical clinic, for instance. And if she does touch one of those surfaces directly, she waits until she can wash her hands before touching her eyes, nose, or mouth. DECLINE THE GROCERY-STORE SAMPLE Before you accept that free cube of cheese, think about the cart you’re pushing. “I always think about what happened to the grocery cart before you got there,” Roberts says. “Somebody picked up raw chicken. Somebody picked up raw seafood. And all of that is on the cart. It’s on the handle.” Then someone offers you a toothpick with a sample. “I’m supposed to take my hand off this dirty cart and then take that food and put it in my mouth?” she says. “There’s no way.” WEAR SANDALS IN EVERY LOCKER-ROOM SHOWER At the gym, Torres worries less about the person coughing on the treadmill than the surfaces her bare skin touches. Benches, mats, and other shared equipment can harbor MRSA and fungi like ringworm—even at the nicest gyms. She wipes equipment down before using it, not just afterward, and if there aren’t disinfecting wipes available, she puts a towel between herself and the bench.
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The locker-room shower gets its own rule. “It’s this wet, damp floor, walking around the locker room, walking around the joint showers,” she says. “I always recommend bringing a pair of sandals.” Foot fungus is the biggest concern, and some infections can be surprisingly difficult to get rid of. WASH ANY CUTS BEFORE REACHING FOR THE ANTISEPTIC Most of us instinctively reach for the antiseptic after nicking a finger. ChinHong heads for the sink instead. “The more important thing is to rinse it well with running water and soap, which is more important than the aggressive disinfectant,” he says. Disinfectants don’t kill everything, but running water can physically flush away germs before they have a chance to cause trouble. His reasoning comes down to one simple idea. “Running things are better than stagnant things,” Chin-Hong says. “We get infections when things are in stasis rather than in movement.” It’s the same reason standing water becomes a mosquito breeding ground. PACK A PAIR OF TWEEZERS Torres never leaves for a weekend in tick country without packing a pair of tweezers. It might sound excessive, she admits, but after years of treating tickborne illnesses, it’s become second nature. “This is a little unusual—maybe my colleagues don’t do this,” she says, “but whenever I go away for a weekend, I always pack a pair of tweezers.” These days, that means much of the country: the Northeast, the Midwest, the South, and parts of the West Coast. After spending time in tall grass or wooded areas, do a full-body tick check, paying special attention to places they like to hide, like under the arms and behind the knees. It matters more than you might think. “Most people that develop Lyme disease or tickborne illness have no recollection of ever being bitten by a tick or ever seeing a tick,” Torres says. She’s also vigilant against ticks to try to prevent alpha-gal
syndrome—the tick-triggered allergy to red meat that has become increasingly common. REAPPLY BUG SPRAY LIKE IT’S SUNSCREEN Bug spray is a permanent fixture in ChinHong’s travel bag. “I respect mosquitoes,” he says. “They actually kill more people than any other animal.” It’s West Nile season, and dengue keeps extending its reach into new parts of the U.S., so he travels with insect repellent as a matter of course. The biggest mistake people make, he says, is treating bug spray like a one-anddone product. “It’s like sunscreen. You don’t get away with just applying it once.” If you’re outdoors all day, reapply at least every six hours. He also recommends choosing a repellent with about 20% to 50% DEET—or 20% picaridin if you prefer to avoid DEET—and remembering that the mosquitoes most likely to spread disease are busiest from dusk to dawn. RINSE YOUR TOOTHBRUSH WITH BOTTLED WATER WHEN TRAVELING ABROAD Most travelers remember to avoid the tap water in destinations with questionable water supplies. Griffin worries about the toothbrush. “We tell people to be careful of ice cubes and tap water and all the rest,” he says. “But then people brush their teeth with the tap water.” He calls what often follows “third-day sickness.” By then, your toothbrush has been rinsed repeatedly in tap water and left to sit in a warm, humid bathroom— giving any lingering microbes plenty of time to multiply before the brush goes right back into your mouth. His solution takes just a few seconds: rinse your mouth and toothbrush with bottled water, too.
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WHY EVERYONE
HATES DATA CENTERS
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BY C H R I S T I N A C AU T E R U C C I / S P E C I A L TO P O LO L I F E S T Y L E S
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Almost everyone hates data centers—and what they represent. I went inside the shadow industry that’s trying to change your mind.
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NE SWELTERING MORNING IN EARLY AUGUST, DATA CENTER EXECUTIVES GATHERED IN A NORTHERN VIRGINIA CONFERENCE CENTER TO TALK ABOUT WHY NOBODY LIKES THEM. The panel, convened by the trade publication Data Center Frontier, featured industry leaders who sat onstage and shook their heads in bewilderment at the anti–data center movement presently engulfing communities across the country. As recently as a year or two ago, they said, a new data center could be quietly constructed without so much PA G E 105
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as a peep from concerned residents. Now, entire states were passing bans to keep them out. The panelists tossed out possible reasons for the American public’s disdain: Data center developers have been too secretive and seem shady to the average townsperson. Anti–data center Facebook groups are rife with misinformation about water usage, an issue that’s more complicated than detractors suggest. Companies have made a habit of waltzing into town and executing their plans without listening to community concerns. “God gave you two ears and one mouth for a reason,” chided one energy-industry executive. At times, the conversation resembled a group therapy session for parents of troubled children. Lacking any reliable playbook for managing the conflicts that had bamboozled them all, they shared
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halfhearted platitudes about trust and connection. Though nobody left the conference center with a solution, there was one clear takeaway: The anti–data center movement is now the biggest barrier to industry success. “This is a trump card,” warned panelist David McCall, a Jeff Bridges lookalike and “brand evangelist” at QTS Data Centers. “It can stop and will stop everything.” In some places, it already has. During the first three months of 2026, U.S. data center opponents stopped or delayed 75 projects worth almost $130 billion, roughly equal to those blocked in the entirety of 2025. The 840-plus anti–data center groups across the country represent a new, surprisingly bipartisan national consensus: A Gallup survey conducted in March found that 71 percent of Americans would oppose a new A.I. data center in their area.
This is sobering news for tech executives, but it has opened a new avenue of business in another industry: public relations. A growing number of PR consultants are styling themselves as experts in getting data centers built without provoking opponents. They advertise strategic counsel on responding to community resistance, recruiting landowners to sell their lots for development, and trying to win over residents before opposition groups even have a chance to form. Often, they attempt to intervene quietly, behind the scenes, hoping that once-resistant communities will start to soften, maybe without realizing why. Until the last year or two, there was no need for this specialty. For decades, data centers were the small, unobtrusive, unlabeled buildings on the outskirts of town, doing the invisible work of keeping the internet afloat without straining the
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power grid or bearing the weight of our anxieties about technological change. But the advent of A.I. has made the buildings exponentially bigger, louder, and closer to places where people live. They began to serve as the target of our general trepidation about A.I., with its obvious threats to jobs, privacy, art, human connection, brain development, a common understanding of reality, and life itself. Absent the power to rein in tech titans, people began taking a greater interest in something they could control: the permits doled out to companies hoping to build in their backyards. From one vantage point, the consultants are simply helping their clients succeed in this new landscape, no more or less than what any other PR firm does for any other business. “Everyone deserves representation,” said Keith Woods, the CEO of Phoenix-based firm KB Woods, as if he were describing the ethos of a hardworking public defender.
Woods later clarified to me that true evildoers—the data centers who force their way into communities under the cover of nondisclosure agreements and don’t pay their fair share of utility costs— should be shunned by PR reps. But to a sizable share of the U.S. electorate, that already describes the entire data center industry. The behemoth buildings have led to higher electricity bills in towns across the country. The noise they emit is driving neighbors batty. Their off-thecharts energy consumption is halting the crucial transition away from coal power. To make up for these downsides, data centers promise donations, infrastructure investments, and increased tax revenue. But such pledges aren’t always legally binding, and can languish. If the laid-out vision doesn’t materialize—as in Fayetteville, Ga., where a data center secretly used far more water than was promised—communities can suffer while tech giants keep lining their pockets. Americans have taken note.
If there is any chance for data centers to overcome the current frenzy against them, it may rest with the professionals fighting to rehabilitate the image of the one villain capable of uniting the nation in 2026. These PR experts are dangling carrots, raising the specter of the stick, and mounting elaborate campaigns to woo skeptical towns. As data center rage grows, firms are finding ever more creative ways to get inside American brains. With the panicked voices of industry executives echoing in my ears, I set out to learn how. When I called up data center PR experts, I could almost hear their teeth grinding over the phone as they described the status quo. The way they tell it, the public outcry against data centers has been so heated because data center companies have been doing it all wrong. Because they’ve been wary of competitors getting wind of their plans, they’ve come into towns under nondisclosure agreements, PA G E 107
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which feels like subterfuge to residents demanding information about who’s moving in next door. And after decades of doing business quickly and quietly without the hard work of negotiating with communities, who never gave two hoots about data centers before the A.I. era, tech companies have come to behave like “a spoiled child” who won’t be denied, said Woods. “It’s a wham-bam kind of proposition: They move into a market, they want to be able to build that data center yesterday, and they want to be down the road.” But this playbook no longer works. According to every firm I contacted, the biggest mistake data center companies make is waiting until there’s a major vote on the table or a heated confrontation to start making connections in an attempt to court the community. “People will come to us and they will say, ‘I need your help! I need community engagement.’ And we’re like, ‘Mmm, you’re past that, honey. You’re into crisis communication now,’ ” Nichole Thomas, a senior vice president at JSA, a global firm with a data center practice, told me. Once residents already feel duped, ignored, or exploited, it’s a tougher sell to get them on your side. Data centers bear some similarities to other development projects, in which
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standard promises of job creation and boosted tax revenue are made in response to community concerns about traffic and noise. But Tina Kozak, the CEO of a Detroit-based PR agency, learned the hard way that data centers, the national poster children for everything that’s wrong with contemporary society, require a bespoke approach. In January, a data center came to the firm for late-in-the-game damage control after community pushback jeopardized a project outside Detroit. The unexpectedly vehement opposition was a sobering challenge, which prompted Kozak and her firm to devise what they thought was a new, winning plan for their next client, who was also trying get a data center built in Michigan. The key, Kozak believed, would be to meet the community with genuine concern much earlier in the process. Her team members talked about how great it would feel to write an eventual case study about their unbeatable strategy. Certainly, they thought, “just good, proactive, empathetic communication can make the difference.” Boy, were they wrong. By then, Michigan was saturated with data center proposals from companies lured by the state’s tax incentives, and public opinion was quickly curdling. Before Kozak’s team could
even launch their plan, the community where they wanted to build passed a moratorium. Experts say that certain data center PR tactics, like preparing responses for a national day of protest or building a website that allows residents to submit comments, work for any project. But they stress that every community has its own unique soft spots and tension points. The playbook that used to work in small towns and rural areas may not apply to the suburban bedroom communities where increasing numbers of data centers are now popping up. “You kind of have a more sophisticated residency there—folks with more money, more resources, more time to spend on fighting these developments coming in,” Waitkunas said on the podcast. Years ago, a data center company could donate a quarter of a million dollars to the local school and everyone would be happy. But these days, “given the tax base that these local communities have and the demographics of the community, just simply writing a check isn’t going to make it a seamless process.” Instead, a data center might pledge to start a conservation project or build a new park—things wealthier towns appreciate more than a few hundred thousand dollars.
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COPPER WATER BOTTLES
HACK OR HYPE?
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TOM WARD / SPECIAL TO POLO LIFESTYLES
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AN INVESTIGATION INTO THE HYDRATION TREND, AND WHETHER OR NOT THERE ARE ACTUAL HEALTH BENEFITS TO DRINKING FROM A COPPER WATER BOTTLE
F
ORGET THE STANLEY CUP. ACCORDING TO THE INTERNET, COPPER WATER BOTTLES ARE THE LATEST HYDRATION-RELATED VESSEL WE SHOULD ALL BE GULPING FROM. ALLEGEDLY, IT’S THE FOUNTAIN OF YOUTH WE’VE ALL BEEN LOOKING FOR, WITH PURPORTED BENEFITS INCLUDING SLOWED AGING, REGULATED THYROID FUNCTION, BETTER BONE HEALTH, AND IMPROVED SKIN WELLBEING. ALL OF WHICH SOUNDS LIKE UNPROVEN CLAPTRAP. Before judging too harshly, we consulted some nutrition and wellbeing experts to see if there really is a rich vein of benefits in the trend, or if the claims simply ring hollow. WHERE DID THE COPPER WATER BOTTLES TREND COME FROM? Obviously, TikTok, but before that? “Drinking water stored in copper vessels is a practice that traces back thousands of years, particularly in regions such as India and other parts of South Asia,” says Uta Boellinger, registered nutritionist at Cannelle, adding that the practice is rooted in Ayurvedic medicine. “This ancient belief holds that storing water in a copper container positively charges the water, which is thought to be beneficial for health,” she says. “It is believed that drinking water stored in copper balances the body’s doshas, or energies,” adds Dr. Indhira Ghyssaert, a registered nutritionist and integrative medicine expert at The Balance Rehab Clinic. A growing interest in holistic wellness practices may be the reason why it’s clogging up your feed now. “The world is becoming more and more aware of the gut-brain connection,” suggests Ghyssaert. “We are increasingly aware of the toxins in things around us: our food, our cookware, and even our water. However, just because
something is trending on social media, does not mean it is a solution.” What are the purported benefits, and is there any actual science backing this up? Apparently, swilling your water from a copper bottle has multiple benefits, with copper’s antimicrobial properties killing harmful pathogens, stimulating the breakdown of fat and detoxifying the stomach, and possessing anti-inflammatory properties which might help reduce inflammation in the body. All of which sounds rather spurious. “Only one of these claims actually has any scientific evidence to back it up,” says Boellinger. Studies do confirm that copper can reduce the presence of certain bacteria. In fact, a 2012 study published in the Journal of Health, Population, and Nutrition found that copper pots could reduce the risk of diarrhea by minimizing bacterial contamination in water. The thing is, this study was originally published in Bangladesh Journals Online, and in the UK, water safety might not be as much of an issue. I.e. you might not drink the tap water when you go abroad, but show us a Brita filter and we’ll happily quaff litres of tap juice at home. “Other purported benefits, such as improved digestion or anti-aging effects, remain purely anecdotal,” Boellinger says, pretty definitively. “While copper is an essential trace mineral that supports various bodily functions, the extent to which drinking from copper vessels amplifies these benefits is less clear,” she adds. “The copper obtained from a balanced diet typically suffices for the body’s needs.” ANY DOWNSIDES? So we’ve established that there isn’t much to the trend, but if you like a metallic twang to your water bottle and a coppery taste to your post-workout refreshment, there isn’t any harm in opting for copper, right? Boellinger thinks otherwise. “Excessive intake of copper can lead to toxicity, resulting in symptoms such as nausea, vomiting, PA G E 113
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and even liver or kidney damage in severe cases,” she warns. What’s more, she says that storing acidic liquids such as lemon water in copper bottles could increase the leaching of copper into the water, raising the potential for excessive intake. “Copper toxicity is rare,” agrees Ghyssaert, “but people with a higher risk of copper allergies should avoid this trend entirely.” SO WHAT SHOULD I BE DRINKING FROM? Contrary to the line touted by social media wellness ‘experts’, the antimicrobial properties of copper do make it practical for reducing the risk of waterborne
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diseases, but in most Western countries, unsafe water is unlikely to be an issue. Nor do you need to up your daily copper quota through what you drink.
get any benefit. If you are just filling up your water bottle and drinking throughout the day, you give the water no time to absorb the copper. It would be pointless.”
“Copper has vital health benefits, but we receive copper’s trace minerals in our food,” says Ghyssaert. “It’s not necessary to seek it out. The only time I ever prescribe copper supplements is if a patient’s zinc levels are low because copper helps the body absorb zinc better.”
Even Ayurvedic practitioners store their water overnight to drink from throughout the day. If you are interested in extra purification, Ghyssaert recommends getting a high-quality water filter designed for home use, which can address a broader range of contaminants, including heavy metals and chemicals.
Still want to try the trend? Ghyssaert has a pretty definitive final take: “Using a copper water bottle makes no sense,” she says. “You’d need to fill your water bottle overnight for 12-16 hours to
Otherwise, she advises this: “Opt for a stainless steel or glass water bottle for the durability, and lack of complications.”
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STRESSED KIDS BECOME
STRESSED ADULTS S
TRESS ALTERED DNA PACKAGING IN MICE, CREATING A LASTING MOLECULAR MEMORY THAT PRIMED THEM FOR MORE ANXIETY-LIKE BEHAVIOR LATER IN LIFE THAN UNSTRESSED MICE.
Experiences—good and bad—shape a person. While some incidents are simply embarrassing moments or blunders that may resurface years later, others leave far more lasting emotional scars. For instance, early-life stress (ELS), such as abuse, household dysfunction, or other traumatic experiences, can make a person more vulnerable to anxiety, depression, and other mood disorders in adulthood.1 PAGE 116
Although researchers have long known that these experiences can alter gene activity in the brain, the molecular mechanisms underlying these changes have remained unclear. Researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis (WashU Medicine) and Princeton University set out to understand how early-life trauma physically alters the brain, making it more sensitive to stress later in life. In a new study, published in Neuron, the researchers found that early stress in mice led to increased levels of an enzyme that altered histone methylation and acetylation, thereby upregulating gene expression in response to stress.2 Blocking this enzyme following stressful experiences reduced the likelihood that the mice would become hypersensitive to stress later in life.
“This finding reveals a physical scar left by trauma experienced during development inside brain cells, providing scientists with a concrete biological target to develop new treatments and interventions,” explained study coauthor and neuroscientist Meaghan Creed at WashU Medicine. The researchers focused on a key dopamine-producing brain region that is responsible for processing environmental information, including rewarding and stressful experiences. To investigate how early-life stress alters gene regulation, the team examined the epigenome of stressed mice—exposed to maternal separation combined with limited nesting material—and unstressed control mice.3 Specifically, they analyzed changes in histone modifications, which influence how tightly DNA is wrapped around histone
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proteins. Certain chemical tags tighten the DNA-histone complex, reducing gene activity, while others loosen it, making genes more accessible for transcription. Comparing the two groups, the researchers identified widespread changes in histone dynamics, particularly involving histones H3, H4, and H2A variants in stressed mice. Most of these modifications were associated with a more permissive chromatin state, increasing the likelihood of gene activation. RNA sequencing further revealed elevated expression of an enzyme called SET domain-containing lysine methyltransferase 7 (SETD7) in the dopamine neurons of young mice that had experienced stress compared with unstressed mice. Setd7 catalyzes monomethylation of histone H3 at lysine 4 H3K4 (H3K4me1), which is an epigenetic mark that increas-
es chromatin accessibility. To determine whether Setd7-mediated H3K4me1 enrichment increased stress sensitivity, the researchers artificially increased Setd7 expression in young mice that had not experienced ELS. Despite being raised in a normal environment, these mice developed a more open chromatin structure in their dopamine-producing neurons, broadly making genes easier to activate. Consequently, these mice had lower stress tolerance when faced with an aggressor mouse in adulthood. They exhibited heightened dopamine neuron activity and greater anxiety-like behavior, compared with mice that maintained normal Setd7 levels throughout life. These findings support that epigenetic priming by Setd7 overexpression can increase reactivity to stress in adulthood.
Conversely, knocking down Setd7 after ELS in juvenile mice helped shield them from becoming hypersensitive to stress later in life, and they subsequently behaved more similarly to unstressed mice. “This work is exciting because it reveals a clear mechanism and also helps explain why the impact of stress is both latent and broad,” explained Catherine Jensen Peña, a neuroscientist at Princeton University and principal investigator of the study in the statement. “Additionally, if we can step in with supportive care, therapy or social resources to buffer children during those sensitive windows of development, we may be able to protect the epigenome—preventing the genetic slinky from locking into an open position and perhaps giving the developing brain a chance to build natural resilience.”
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RETATRUTIDE
WHAT TO KNOW ABOUT THE NEWEST, STRONGEST WEIGHT-LOSS DRUG
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Currently in phase 3 of clinical trials—and could be available soon.
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VER SINCE IT WAS DISCOVERED THAT GLP-1S CAN LEAD TO SUCH SIGNIFICANT WEIGHT LOSS, THE INDUSTRY HAS BEEN BOOMING. FROM INJECTABLE SEMAGLUTIDE AND TIRZEPATIDE TO A PILL GLP-1, DRUG COMPANIES HAVE BEEN INNOVATING NONSTOP IN RECENT YEARS. AT THE SAME TIME, SUPPLEMENTS CLAIMING TO OFFER SIMILAR EFFECTS HAVE BEEN POPPING UP, AS WELL AS ROBUST TELEHEALTH AND GRAY MARKET ROUTES FOR GETTING THE DRUGS.
Basically, the GLP-1 industry is booming—to varying degrees of success and safety. The latest GLP-1 innovation that you may have seen making headlines is retatrutide. Just like semaglutide and tirzepatide, this medication is being developed by drug companies as the newest iteration in the GLP-1 space, and it’s purportedly the strongest one yet. But is that super strength a good thing? And is it as safe as its peers? Here’s everything you need to know about retatrutide, according to doctors. First, a quick refresher on GLP-1s: These medications mimic a hormone (called glucagon-like peptide-1, or GLP-1, for short) that is responsible for a bunch of things that have to do with regulating blood sugar and fullness, like triggering insulin secretion and signaling satiety to the brain. Semaglutide (the generic name for meds like Ozempic and Wegovy) mimics just the GLP-1 hormone, while tirzepatide (the generic name for Mounjaro and Zepbound) targets an additional one PA G E 121
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called glucose-dependent insulinotropic polypeptide (GIP). It’s thought that combining the two offers a more comprehensive approach to managing diabetes and obesity, but in terms of weight loss their effects seem to be about the same, with tirzepatide having a slight edge. Retatrutide adds a third hormone receptor agonist, glucagon, for an even more powerful approach to diabetes and obesity care. “We call this the triple G agonist,” says Holly Lofton, MD, director of the medical weight management program at NYU Langone Health and a principal investigator in a retatrutide clinical trial at the hospital. “The additional benefit of glucagon agonism, beyond tirzepatide’s GLP-1/GIP agonism, is greater delay in gastric emptying and improved fat-cell metabolism.” Basically, it’s a stronger, faster-acting drug than its predecessors. Well, that’s the case when it comes to weight loss, says Jennifer ManneGoehler, MD, an assistant professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School and a technical consultant on GLP-1s to the World Health Organization. Despite being a triple G agonist, “reta,” as it’s called for short, seems to have the same effect on lowering glucose levels in people with type 2 diabetes as other GLP-1 medica-
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tions. Where it really shines is weight loss, making it a potentially game-changing drug for those with clinical obesity, she says. Both Dr. Lofton and Dr. Manne-Goehler say that retatrutide appears to be similarly safe as other GLP-1 medicines thus far. “In the leading clinical trials to date, gastrointestinal symptoms were the most common form of adverse events, as they are for other GLP-1 therapies,” says Dr. Manne-Goehler. However, retatrutide is still in the clinical testing phase and hasn’t yet been approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). (It’s pretty far along in that process, though. Eli Lilly, the maker of retatrutide, is nearing the end of phase 3 of testing. Phase 3 testing, which compares retatrutide to existing medications like semaglutide and tirzepatide, is the final step before sending it to the FDA for regulatory approval.) Unfortunately, in the meantime, versions of the drug have been showing up on the gray market, just as they did for semaglutide and tirzepatide. Both experts stress that this is definitely not the way to go if you think you may want to try retatrutide—for a few reasons.
First, you may not be getting the real thing, so it may not even work. “I have had reports of patients taking reta from gray market vendors who have had no weight loss,” says Dr. Lofton. “This is due to the fact that these compounds often don’t contain any active ingredient, but may also contain [additives] that could be harmful.” Which brings us to the second, more important problem: The drug may be outright unsafe. You never know what might be in a medication you get on the gray market because it’s unregulated. There’s no quality control, no cleanliness and safety assurances, or even any consistent recipe to make the drug—and it’s much harder to get accountability if something goes wrong. Unfortunately, two recent deaths are linked with gray market versions of retatrutide. The first was reported to the FDA in July, when a woman went into cardiac arrest. The second was reported in September, after a 49-year-old experienced severe dehydration, malnutrition, and fainting and suffered a cardiac arrest. These deaths have many more questions than they do answers, but go to show how important it is wait to get FDAapproved versions of the drugs you take.
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FASHION & STYLE CHANEL SHOWS SS 2027
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CHANEL SS27
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A
YEAR INTO MATTHIEU BLAZY’S CHANEL, THE CONVERSATION HAS CHANGED. THE EXCITEMENT OF ARRIVAL HAS GIVEN WAY TO SOMETHING ARGUABLY MORE REVEALING: WATCHING A DESIGNER DEVELOP IDEAS THAT ALREADY FEEL CONVINCING. Spring 2027 offered exactly that kind of progress. Blazy has found his way into the house remarkably quickly, and this season felt less concerned with announcing a new Chanel than with refining the one he has already begun to build. That refinement is where the collection’s intelligence really lived. It was not trying to shock Chanel into modernity; it was showing how much modernity was already embedded in the house, waiting to be reactivated through cut, fabric, movement, and attitude. The collection, titled La Conversation – Part Three –
Different Faces of the Same Coin, began with Gabrielle Chanel and the idea that a woman contains many versions of herself over the course of a life. Blazy described it as “the women within a woman,” moving through Gabrielle’s history from her beginnings through the woman who eventually became Chanel. Yet the runway never felt trapped inside biography. The history became a framework for thinking about women now: the ways identity accumulates, shifts, contradicts itself, and carries traces of everything that camae before. That made the collection feel unusually alive. It was not biography as costume, but biography as motion. That distinction gave the collection its relevance. Blazy continues to understand Chanel as a living language, one capable of holding different ages, attitudes, and ideas of femininity at once. He is especially strong because he does not confuse house codes with fixed symbols. Tweed, pearls, chains, tailoring, the 2.55, the little suit, the evening dress: in his hands, PA G E 129
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NYFW'S BEST OF SPRING 2027
these are not museum labels. They are materials to be softened, stretched, frayed, exposed, layered, and made useful again. His surprise increasingly lives in the details rather than in sweeping declarations. A fabric behaves differently. A familiar silhouette gains another layer. A couture idea reappears in ready-to-wear
with greater accessibility and immediacy. The reward comes from looking closely.
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That feels like an important stage for the house. The debut chapter is behind us; development has begun. Once a designer has established a convincing language at a house, how much progress can come
through refinement rather than constant reinvention? Spring 2027 answered that question by making refinement feel active. The collection had commercial clarity, but also oddity, sensuality, technical ambition, and a sense of clothes being loosened back into life.
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C H R I S K A TJ E / S P E C I A L T O P O L O L I F E S T Y L E S
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THE BEST
BAGS
FROM SS27 RUNWAYS
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SPIRITUALITY · FAITH · QUESTIONS · GROWTH · FOCUS
THE TEMPLE THAT OUTLIVED AN
EMPIRE
AMRITLAL अमृत
ASCENSION CONTRIBUTOR @monarchvisionary
BRIHADISVARA — THE STONE BODY OF ŚIVA At Brihadisvara, stone gives the infinite a threshold. A pilgrimage through divine fire, embodied awakening, and the nectar of the inward heart reveals a life spacious enough for cosmic communion—and a light that returns through Dharma and Seva.
THE FLAME BEFORE THE NAME “Before the flame, notice what you have come to receive. Are you asking the sacred to confirm the person you already believe yourself to be, or are you willing to become more deeply available? Reverence begins when even your expectations can be placed before Śiva.” – Atmapriya An empire could command granite. It could not command grace. Brihadisvara holds both truths in a single upward gesture. Stone climbs into light; shadow gathers toward the sanctuary. The eye follows the tower until PAGE 150
its familiar scale of importance begins to falter. Then a flame offers another measure: a brightness small enough to shelter with a hand, yet sufficient to turn attention inward. An empire raised the mountain. Generations kept the light. At Thanjavur, Rājarāja Chola I commissioned a sanctuary consecrated in 1009–1010. More than a millennium later, worship continues. The king belongs to the record of an empire; the offerings belong to a relationship still being renewed. History gives the temple a beginning. Devotion gives each approach its immediacy. For Monarch Visionary, this is the threshold between the stone body of Śiva and the awakening of consciousness within the pilgrim. The sacred is approached as presence. A visitor may arrive carrying the habits of distinction: the name that opens doors, the accomplished life, the instinct to turn even wonder into something acquired. Before the sanctuary, those habits meet a quieter invitation. What would it mean to enter without requiring the encounter to confirm who we are? The question belongs beside the flame.
Inscription No. 63 records shepherds charged with supplying ghee from allotted livestock. The celestial aspiration required pasture, animals, provision, and dependable hands. Its light endured through replenishment. Behind the royal achievement stood lives whose recurring work made worship possible. That intimacy gives the monument its human depth. Wealth assembled materials and skill; care carried the offering beyond a single reign. The eye may first be astonished by height, but the lamp asks it to remain with something vulnerable. Here magnificence and tenderness inhabit the same sanctuary. Receptivity begins in that change of scale. The wish to collect an exceptional moment becomes a willingness to attend. The stone remains stone, the flame remains flame, yet the relationship to them grows less hurried. A life accustomed to announcing itself discovers the dignity of listening. The first offering can be made in the quiet of arrival, before any words are spoken: the relinquishment of an expected revelation. At the entrance to this inward pilgrimage, the self arrives with its story. The sanctuary invites it to leave room for what the story has yet to receive.
A M R I T L A L अमृत / A S C E N S I O N C O N T R I B U T O R
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R E N E WA L · C O M M U N I T Y · S U P P O RT · E X P LO R AT I O N · E N E R G Y
THE MOUNTAIN WITHIN “Let the outward mountain awaken your sense of an inward axis. Kundalini is approached here as Śakti drawing awareness beyond its habitual confinement. The ascent becomes intimate when the body is received as a sanctuary and consciousness is no longer measured only by the familiar story of “me.”” - Atmapriya The approach draws a line through space. Gateway and main shrine share the enclosure’s central axis; the rectangular court extends to twice its width. Pierre Pichard’s architectural study describes this clarity of arrangement. Movement acquires direction before the mind has finished naming what it sees. Above the principal sanctuary, the vimāna rises almost sixty meters through thirteen ascending levels. Its great mass becomes progressively more delicate against the sky, as though gravity itself had learned devotion. Daksina Meru, the southern Meru, names the temple’s sacred mountain. The title gives the
building an immense cosmological horizon while its stones remain particular, weighted, carefully placed. An inward question emerges. A person can possess a schedule, a reputation, and an abundance of choices while feeling dispersed among them. The temple offers the imagination an axis: something around which attention might gather without becoming enclosed. Height calls the gaze upward; the ordered approach asks the body to proceed with care. Kundalini Śakti gives that inward orientation a language of awakening. Divine power is understood as an opening beyond habitual identification, a deepening of the living relationship between awareness and embodied existence. The summit becomes an invitation to discover how much of life remains unseen while the familiar self occupies every horizon. Tamil Śaiva poetry supplies a distinct companion to this reading. Tirumantiram verse 1901 invokes a
central subtle channel, a lotus center, and Kundalini's upward course toward divine vision. These belong to the text’s spiritual account of embodiment. Beside Brihadisvara, they permit a contemplative conversation between ascent in stone and ascent in awareness. Such a conversation becomes intimate through patience. The inward axis is approached with the body, its history, its capacities, and its need for care. Steadiness allows depth to become inhabitable. Discernment gives an opening somewhere to settle. A life can orient itself toward the sacred while remaining answerable to the ground beneath its feet. The mountain teaches through the tension between aspiration and foundation. Each rising level depends upon what supports it. Likewise, an inward opening asks for a vessel able to receive it. The ascent grows meaningful as awareness becomes less confined by its customary circumference and more available to the life unfolding within and around it. PA G E 151
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SPIRITUALITY · FAITH · QUESTIONS · GROWTH · FOCUS THE FIRE WITHOUT BEGINNING “Before the endless fire, the mind discovers it cannot make the infinite into an achievement. Ego loosens when awareness no longer has to be owned as “my revelation.” Let the search become surrender; the flame does not grow smaller because the one who measures has grown quiet.” - Atmapriya On the western wall of Brihadisvara’s principal shrine, the search for a summit meets a fire without an edge. The Lingodbhava relief presents Śiva emerging within a tall, flame-bordered shaft. Portions of his crown and lower body remain concealed. Visnu, with a boar’s head and human body, searches downward; Brahmā appears in human form, portrayed in upward flight. The sculpture withholds the limits the seekers would discover. Its presence exceeds the directions of their inquiry. A king could give the sanctuary height. He could not give the infinite an end. Until this moment, the pilgrim’s approach can still resemble an acquisition. A remarkable building, an ancient story, an experience to remember: the self gathers impressions around its existing center. Before Lingodbhava, that arrangement becomes unstable. The image asks whether seeking has become another way of extending the kingdom of the seeker. What remains when the sacred can no longer be made into an achievement? Here the inward pilgrimage turns. The intelligence that measures is invited to become receptive to what exceeds its measure. Knowledge retains its dignity, PAGE 152
but possession loses its authority. To remain before the divine fire is to allow a relationship whose depth cannot be exhausted by the account one gives of it. Within Śaiva worship, darśana places sacred seeing inside devotion. The linga is approached through an encounter with divine presence. In the visionary reading developed here, the worshiper's attention becomes available to a presence that does more than answer expectation. It reveals how tightly expectation has shaped the one who came to see. Ego dissolution enters as the loosening of that claim. A role may remain useful; a name may remain beloved. Discernment and the capacity to choose remain essential. What yields is the demand that every revelation become evidence of personal distinction. The inward life grows spacious enough to receive without continually declaring ownership. There is vulnerability in such openness. The self relinquishes an old assurance without receiving a new title in exchange. Even spiritual ambition can grow quiet. A person may discover that the longing to be exceptional has concealed a deeper longing: to belong without having to defend a separate magnificence. Śiva and Śakti bring this inquiry into the mystery of manifestation. Within Monarch Visionary’s spiritual synthesis, awareness and creative potency are contemplated together. Stillness is alive with possibility; movement can disclose an inward stillness. Their relation allows the world to be encountered as an expression of sacred depth, rather than a territory through which the self must continually establish its importance.
Grace gives that encounter its freedom. It can be welcomed, but never commanded into the shape of an award. The flame before the deity makes this paradox intimate. Its light asks for attention, yet cannot be held without extinguishing what was sought. The turning point is therefore a change in the manner of seeking. Before the endless fire, the pilgrim can release the wish to become the owner of illumination. What opens then is a different kind of strength: the capacity to remain present before mystery, with intelligence awake and the grasping hand unclenched.
THE BODY THAT REMEMBERS LIGHT “The dancer must inhabit every gesture; the seeker must inhabit what has awakened. Let breath, sensation, and silence bring you into a more intimate companionship with the body. Consecration deepens when this living form can receive the sacred without needing to seize it.” - Atmapriya The hand opens. The body is still here. Feet meet stone. The eyes accommodate shadow. A sound arrives, lingers, and leaves the space around it changed. Breath continues beneath these impressions, accompanying the encounter without demanding to be admired. The inward journey takes place through this living form, with its sensitivity, memory, and capacity to respond. In Brihadisvara’s upper sanctuary passage, stone blocks were intended for 108 dance karanas; carving stopped after the eighty-first. A gesture preserved there began in the intelligence of movement. Weight, balance, timing, and instruction
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belong to the trained body’s accomplishment. The sculptor made its form durable; the living movement still asks to be inhabited. Another inward architecture appears in Tirumantiram 1823. Heart, body, mouth, embodied self, and senses receive the language of sanctuary, temple, gateway, linga, and lamps. Sacred perception acquires a bodily dwelling. The verse offers a devotional way of attending to flesh, sensation, and consciousness together. Science names particular dimensions of responsiveness. Interoception concerns the sensing and interpretation of internal bodily signals. Gene expression concerns how genetic instructions are used; epigenetic mechanisms, including DNA
methylation and modifications to associated proteins, can influence that use without changing the DNA sequence. Environmental and biological conditions participate in this regulation, with effects that depend on the tissue and circumstances. These mechanisms describe a body continually in relationship with its conditions. Alongside that biological responsiveness, sacred practice asks how attention, feeling, and meaning become the texture of a consciously inhabited life of devotion and discernment. The body deserves tenderness within the work of awakening. Its vulnerability gives attention something concrete to honor. Fatigue asks for rest; sensation invites curiosity; a difficult emotion asks for a response spacious enough to
include both feeling and discernment. A sacred vessel is cared for through the life entrusted to it. Within the Amritic Human Temple, spiritual activation becomes the willingness to inhabit experience more fully. An opening acquires depth when the senses remain receptive and the person can meet what arises without abandoning steadiness. The dancer offers the governing image: grace entering form through attentive participation. What awakens is given room to become a living presence, sustained through the body’s ordinary dignity. Awakening asks for both courage and gentleness, allowing openness to remain joined to choice, and an inward discovery to become a relationship the person can sustain.
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SPIRITUALITY · FAITH · QUESTIONS · GROWTH · FOCUS from within.
THE NECTAR OF THE INFINITE HEART
awaiting speech. It becomes a fullness in which the urge to explain can rest.
“Let the longing that drew you upward become spacious enough to receive. Amrit names, in this contemplation, the sweetness of grace when striving softens into communion. The heart opens to a fullness that was never the possession of the self, yet can be welcomed within a human life.” - Atmapriya
The Chāndogya Upanisad, in its teaching of heart-space at 8.1.3, brings heaven and earth, sun and moon, lightning and stars within an inward contemplation of vastness. The heart opens toward an immeasurable interior. The passage gives spiritual imagination a radical direction: intimacy can disclose the infinite.
In the Amritic Human Temple, Amrit gives this intimacy a language of sacred sweetness. It evokes the abundance received when longing becomes receptive to grace. The seeker has spent so much of life moving toward what is missing; here, for a moment, the grammar of lack gives way. Being can be welcomed before it is improved, explained, or displayed.
Brihadisvara lends this contemplation a material companion. Its concentrated sanctuary and ascending tower hold inwardness and height together. The gaze that traveled through the courtyard can now turn toward the awareness in which that journey appeared. The pilgrim begins to feel the question of presence
The Tirumantiram offers its own devotional language for such fullness. Verses 1800–1801 join grace, nectar, and the divine entering the heart. Their poetry approaches transformation as a gift received in intimate relationship with Śiva. This is a distinct traditional voice beside the Upanisadic heart-space, each
The tower lifts the gaze. The heart receives it. After the fire has loosened the wish to possess, another immensity becomes perceptible: an inwardness that exceeds the familiar boundaries of the person. Silence ceases to feel like an interval
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R E N E WA L · C O M M U N I T Y · S U P P O RT · E X P LO R AT I O N · E N E R G Y illuminating inwardness through its own sacred vocabulary. Within Monarch Visionary’s synthesis, Kundalini's awakening and Amrit’s sweetness belong to an inquiry into consecrated embodiment. Ascent opens the sense of possibility; receptivity allows the opening to become intimate. The person remains a living vessel, capable of wonder and discernment, while the inward horizon grows beyond the dimensions through which the self once understood its life. There is a tenderness here that spiritual ambition can overlook. To receive grace is to allow oneself to be met before earning another distinction. The defended heart, accustomed to arranging its worth, discovers a different dignity. It can remain open without possessing the source of what it receives. Let discovery have its silence. The stone outside carries heat and weather; the flame requires tending; breath moves quietly through the body. Nothing in this contemplation needs to be hurried toward a conclusion. Cosmic consciousness is approached as communion, an intimacy with existence whose depth exceeds the language used to invite it. The Golden Heart names the warmth of that openness within this contemporary vision. Its radiance begins in receptivity, in the capacity to let beauty matter and another life be encountered without immediately turning inward to the needs of the self. Yet even this flowering can wait. First there is the astonishment of receiving. At the center of the stone mountain, the sanctuary gathers devotion. Within the human temple, grace gathers a life that
has grown willing to be present. Amrit is the sweetness through which that willingness becomes communion.
THE EARTH THAT BREATHES WITHIN US “Follow the lamp back to the water, the pasture, the animals, and the hands that sustain it. The Earth is already present within the offering. As the claim of separateness loosens, gratitude becomes more than a feeling: it becomes a way of belonging to the life that holds you.” - Atmapriya The ghee in the lamp has traveled farther than the eye can see. Before the offering reached the sanctuary, there were animals to nourish, land to tend, water to receive, and hands to prepare what would sustain the flame. Inscription No. 63 makes part of that relationship visible through the obligations of shepherds. The small vessel before Śiva gathers a world into its brightness. Follow it into the Kāverī landscape. Thanjavur belongs to a delta shaped by cultivation, settlement, and irrigation. The temple endured within those relationships. Its stone mountain rose from a human world sustained by soil and water; its worship continued through the repeated provision of ordinary things. The sacred mother’s presence, in the region’s devotional imagination, and the river’s life-bearing waters meet in the intimacy of dependence. A river enters the meaning of a home through nourishment, work, memory, and the seasons that change what can be received from the land. Reverence acquires weight when the beloved waters also sustain
neighbors and descendants. Planetary Samādhi is Monarch Visionary’s name for the widening communion this recognition invites. Earth is encountered as the living ground of experience, already intimate with breath, nourishment, and bodily existence. The world appears less like a surrounding possession and more like a relationship continually entering the self. Let that belonging remain contemplative. Water moves through the landscape beyond the walls. The lamp holds a little of its generosity in transformed form. The body receives another breath. What seemed separate begins to reveal a pattern of participation, without losing the particularity of river, animal, person, or flame. Above the tower opens a deeper material inheritance. Much of the hydrogen in earthly matter comes from the early universe; many heavier elements were formed through stellar processes. Stone and body both belong to a history that precedes the city and its empire. The sanctuary gives cosmic ancestry an intimate setting: ancient matter fashioned into a dwelling for devotion. The Human–Earth–Cosmic Temple contemplates these scales together. The inward heart opens toward vastness; the living planet sustains the opening; the celestial horizon lends existence a depth older than memory. Wonder grows more particular as it grows more immense. A riverbank becomes worthy of attention precisely because it belongs to so much. From that communion, responsibility arises without diminishing the mystery. The worshiping community continues PA G E 155
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SPIRITUALITY · FAITH · QUESTIONS · GROWTH · FOCUS THE HEART THAT RETURNS “Let the sacred fire accompany you into the life beyond the sanctuary. Carry its stillness into speech, its tenderness into the use of power, and its clarity into service. When insight becomes something another life can receive, the pilgrimage continues beyond the temple walls.” - Atmapriya Eventually, the threshold is crossed again. The tower returns to the distance. Conversation resumes, obligations reappear, and the world asks what the pilgrimage has made possible. The deepest answer may arrive slowly. An encounter whose meaning once seemed complete can continue opening through years of attention. A familiar conflict is met differently. Power is exercised with greater restraint. Beauty is created with less need to claim its future. The sanctuary has become an inward reference, available when the old habits of possession return.
its life after the visitor departs. Water remains necessary, materials require care, and inherited knowledge depends on people willing to sustain it. The pilgrim’s gratitude finds a place among these continuities.
Monarch Visionary’s Vedic Rainbow Body Illumination gives this movement its Fourfold orientation: Initiation → Crystallization → Actualization → Ascension. Initiation opens recognition; Crystallization cultivates discernment and integration; Actualization brings understanding into conduct and creative work; Ascension deepens luminous communion with the greater life. The path invites each opening to become inhabitable.
The lamp makes the teaching small enough to hold in awareness. The landscape makes it inhabitable. Earth is present in the offering, and the offering reveals how the human life has always belonged to Earth.
Realization retains its sacred depth beyond what can be demonstrated through conduct alone. Yet conduct gives other lives a way to receive its gifts. Dharma asks how capacity is rightly directed. Seva makes that direction gen-
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erous. The inward freedom discovered before the immeasurable acquires a human form in what is protected, shared, created, and sustained. An artist can give beauty a form that welcomes another imagination. A person entrusted with resources can make continuity possible beyond personal recognition. Knowledge can be passed on with room for those who inherit it to grow. Influence can shelter a vulnerable life instead of enlarging the story of its possessor. Brihadisvara gathers these possibilities into an enduring image. The architecture orders an approach. The endless fire loosens the wish to command revelation. The sculpted gesture remembers embodiment. The inward heart receives its immensity, and the lamp discloses the Earth within every offering. The king’s name remains in history. The shepherds’ provision remains in stone. Between royal aspiration and daily care, generations have kept worship alive. Each has received a sanctuary that exceeded the boundaries of a single life, and each has been able to contribute something to its continuance. The pilgrim leaves with a different question from the one brought to the gate. Its answer will unfold among people whose lives the traveler has yet to encounter. Beyond what has been seen or felt lies what can now be offered. The hand that sought to grasp the sacred becomes capable of tending a flame. The mountain reaches toward the infinite. The earth sustains the flame. What happens next is in human hands. WORK WITH ATMAPRIYA: WWW.ATMAPRIYA.COM
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Find a Home that Suits your Lifestyle
VOLUME X / ISSUE XI / NOVEMBER 2026
MANSION OF THE MONTH
ELEGANCE ON
LAKE GENEVA PAGE 160
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MANSION OF THE MONTH
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N THE PEACEFUL SHORES OF LAKE GENEVA, THIS EXCEPTIONAL PROPERTY ON THE FRONT LINE OF THE LAKE, IN THE HEART OF PAGE 162
THE PRESTIGIOUS LAVAUX REGION, OFFERS A UNIQUE EXPERIENCE AND EMBODIES THE PERFECT BLEND OF TIMELESS REFINEMENT AND CONTEMPORARY COMFORT.
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craftsmanship and inspiration from elsewhere, with materials chosen during travels around the world. The subtly designed 1,855 m² landscaped grounds open onto the shores of the lake. Relaxation areas, a reflecting pool and a garden pavilion invite you to contemplate
and enjoy the privilege of a daily life turned towards nature. A private pontoon and boathouse provide privileged access to the lake in all seasons. Just a stone’s throw from the center of Cully, with all the conveniences of daily life and transport links, while preserving
the absolute tranquility of the site. In addition, a large courtyard with room for several vehicles and a spacious underground garage can accommodate a large number of vehicles, combining practicality and discretion. PA G E 163
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77 BEVERLY PARK LANE BEVERLY PARK CA 90210 PRICE UPON REQUEST
T
HE MOST PROLIFIC PROPERTY IN BEVERLY PARK. THIS IS THE DEFINITION OF PERFECTION, FROM ONE OF THE BIGGEST 2 ACRE FLAT LOTS IN BEVERLY PARK TO THE IMMACULATE GROUNDS, NOT INCLUDING THE 4 ACRE MOUNTAIN THAT SITS AT THE BACK OF THE PROPERTY THAT CAN NEVER BE BUILT ON, TO THE ARCHITECTURE AND INTERIORS, PAGE 168
AN ESTATE THAT EMBODIES THE VERY ESSENCE OF WHAT BEVERLY PARK STANDS FOR. THE ULTIMATE IN PRIVATE AND SECURE LIVING. This is why the titans of industry choose to call Beverly Park home. Privately set behind the guarded gates of one of Los Angeles’ most prestigious enclaves, 77 Beverly Park Lane is a masterclass in architecture by world-renowned William Hablinkski, offering extraordinary privacy and grandeur just minutes from the heart of Beverly Hills.
A dramatic arrival unfolds into interiors defined by soaring ceilings, refined architectural detail, expansive volumes, and millions spent on stones and finishes sourced from around the world. Walls of glass frame the surrounding landscape, filling the home with natural light and seamlessly connecting indoor living with the estate’s outdoor spaces. Designed for grand-scale entertaining and luxury living, the residence features a multi-million-dollar private theater, an extraordinary wine cellar that may never be completely filled, incredible gym, parking for over 50 cars across the property,
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and the latest and greatest amenities. Outdoors, multi-millions were invested in landscaping by the renowned landscape designer of San Ysidro Ranch. Resort-caliber grounds showcase manicured lawns, lush rose and vegetable gardens, and entertaining terraces with multiple fire pits, an outdoor kitchen, piz-
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BLENDED WITH NATURE IN THE HEART OF SAGAPONACK
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5 Bedrooms | 6 Bathrooms $6,995,000 Listed by Douglas Elliman Adam Hofer adam.hofer@elliman.com 631.236.8659
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As Rome isof Eternal, In Search Solace so is Wine
EXCEPTIONAL WINES FOR HOLIDAY GATHERINGS
WILLIAM SMITH
@willismith_2000 COPY EDITOR & WINE CONTRIBUTOR
Y
OU MAY WELL HAVE JUST PUT AWAY YOUR HALLOWEEN DECORATIONS AND, LIKE MANY OF US, FIND YOURSELF PONDERING THE MANY HOLIDAY GATHERINGS TO TAKE PLACE THROUGHOUT THE REST OF THIS YEAR, INCLUDING, OF COURSE, THANKSGIVING.
us around a table. I’ve been combing through cookbooks and my favorite online recipe sites in search of novel complements to holiday staple dishes and, as I do so, my mind always jumps immediately to what wine I might serve. Whatever you happen to be preparing for your holiday feasts, I’ve taken the liberty of highlighting a few favorite wines from the 1,000+ bottles I’ve tasted this year, hoping you’ll enjoy them as much as I do and as you come together with friends and family. Happy Thanksgiving and as always, Salud! WALT 2023 SANGIACOMO CHARDONNAY ($55)
For me, fall is my favorite time of year and it’s a tremendous time to appreciate the way wine brings us together and can elevate the occasions that bring
I am a big fan of Katherine Hall’s wines and was pleased to spend some time with her this year as HALL was celebrated as the “Winery of the Year”
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at the 2026 Santa Fe Wine & Chile Fiesta, where I volunteer on the Board of Directors. While her namesake label focuses on Napa faves Cabernet Sauvignon and Sauvignon Blanc, Hall’s other label, WALT, focuses on Pinot Noir and Chardonnay from Sonoma County. The WALT 2022 Sangiacomo Chardonnay should have a starring role on your holiday tables. First, the fruit is sourced from one of Sonoma County’s most storied vineyards, farmed by the same family for nearly a century. Certified sustainable, the vineyard was first planted in 1969. These old vines create lower yields and deep, concentrated flavors. Bright and golden in the glass, notes of tropical fruits, lemon curd, spice, and pastry crust unfold across a full and lush body with just enough minerality to piqué your palate. Perfect for those white wine drinkers
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devouring a traditional oven-roasted turkey or goose. FLAMBEAUX 2022 CHARDONNAY SONOMA COAST (RETAIL $50) If you really want to impress your guests, another exceptional Chardonnay I stumbled upon is Flambeaux Wine’s 2022 Chardonnay Sonoma Coast. I say “stumbled” because I was the guest of Sonoma County Vinters (now incorporated into Sonoma County Winegrowers) at a dinner hosted by Flambeaux at their estate in the Dry Creek Valley. It’s a lovely property with incredible views and the two resident doggos, as well as owner Art Murray, are impeccable hosts. As for wine making, led by Ryan Prichard, they are true artisans utilizing estate fruit as well as sourcing fruit from select premier growers and sites. Hues of pale gold in the glass, on the palate it is pure Sonoma Chard – tart apples, pineapple, hints of spice, and lemon. Aged in French oak (30 percent
new) for 11 months, the barrels add beautiful body and depth to this wine. As circumstances would have it, I later learned that their Chardonnay was sourced from two of the Sangiacomo family’s vineyards, including the Roberts Road Vineyard in Petaluma Gap. Again, a classic pairing for any roasted fowl you might be serving and some roasted Brussel sprouts with bacon and piquant vinegar. Wine critic James Suckling scored this gem a solid 95.
Sauvignon (19 percent), Cabernet Franc (18 percent), Merlot (13 percent) and just a touch of Petit Verdot (2 percent). Broodingly deep purple and entirely opaque in the glass; on the palate, ripe bramble fruits with notes of mocha and cassis. Fifteen months of aging in New French Oak creates a pleasant backbone without being overpowering. The finish is long and lovely. This would be perfect with a thick, braised chuck roast with roasted root vegetables.
ACHAVAL FERRER 2021 QUIMERA RED BLEND ($36)
Finally, I found this vintage at a ridiculously low price on one of my favorite online wine sellers, Wines ‘Til Sold Out (wtso.com).
Great wines and great values can still be found from every wine-growing region and one of my favorites wines of the year that delivers way above it’s price point is Quimera from producer Achaval Ferrer’s century-old vineyards in Argentina’s Mendoza region. This is an unabashedly bold Bordeaux blend with a nod toward Malbec’s dominance in Argentine wine making – Malbec (48 percent), Cabernet
LE PICH 2021 NAPA VALLEY CABERNET SAUVIGNON ($55) Another terrific choice in the big red domain is Le Pich from one of Napa Valley’s most celebrated winemakers, Julien Fayard. I spent some time with Julien this past summer when I visited Brion Wines and tasted his sublime 2023 Sleeping Lady Vineyard Cabernet PA G E 175
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Sauvignon. While that bottle and many of Julien’s exceptional bottlings approach $300 and 100-point scores from critics, his Napa Valley designated Le Pich retails for $55. Note that at press time, the 2022 vintage was available at another of my favorite online wine retailers, Wine Access, wineaccess.com, for $40. Ripe dark fruits on the nose, with some spice and a bit of floral aromas, this is a lush and deliciously sensorial journey on the palate. Black cherries, dark chocolate, hints of thyme and sage, it is vibrant with velvety tannins and a spice-driven finish. A stellar expression of Napa Cabernet that could be laid down for some aging, but is also meant to be accessible now and accomplishes
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that in spades. Serve with a roasted rack of lamb, a creamy scalloped potato dish, and brown butter spaghetti squash. Brooks 2024 Janus Pinot Noir (Retail $55) If you are looking for a red wine on the lighter side, Pinot Noir is a perfect option for traditional holiday dishes. Over the years, it’s been a joy watching Oregon’s Willamette Valley transform itself into a world-class wine region. And while that reputation has now moved well beyond Pinot Noir, the Pinot Noir wines from the region just get better and better. Enter Brooks Wine who, in addition to being a stellar producer, has a terrific narrative to tell about the family-owned
operation – certified B. Corp, certified biodynamic, a member and financial supporter of environmental change organization 1% for the Planet, and a commitment to equity demonstrated by a management team made of 75 percent women. All of this serves to elevate the exquisite 2024 Janus Pinot Noir even further, sourced from historic old vines across the Willamette Valley. Fresh red and blue fruit flavors and a wonderfully bright acidity and a touch of spice set this wonderful bottling apart from the pack. I salivate pondering this alongside a classic apricot-glazed baked ham, roasted butternut squash mash and crisp green beans.
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MOLD YOUR MIND ATTENTION TRAINING FOCUSING IN A DISTRACTED WORLD COACH JOEY VELEZ
MENTAL WELLNESS CONTRIBUTOR @velezmentalperformance
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ingly important in modern life: productivity is not simply about managing schedules. It is about protecting focus. Attention has become a form of currency in today’s world, and countless systems are competing for it every second. The challenge is that fragmented attention creates fragmented performance. People may spend entire days “busy” while accomplishing very little meaningful work because their minds are constantly shifting between tasks, notifications, conversations, and internal distractions. The result is mental fatigue without depth. In athletics, business, leadership, and life, the ability to focus deeply has become a competitive advantage. Individuals who can sustain attention on what matters most often outperform those with greater talent but weaker concentration habits. Focus is not about working longer, it is about working deeper, and like any psychological skill, attention can be trained.
LIVE IN A WORLD DESIGNED TO INTERRUPT US. NOTIFICATIONS VIBRATE BEFORE THOUGHTS ARE FINISHED. EMAILS COMPETE WITH CONVERSATIONS. SOCIAL MEDIA PLATFORMS ARE ENGINEERED TO CAPTURE ATTENTION FOR AS LONG AS POSSIBLE, WHILE MULTITASKING HAS BECOME NORMALIZED TO THE POINT THAT MANY PEOPLE EQUATE CONSTANT STIMULATION WITH PRODUCTIVITY. BUT IN UNDERSTANDING FOCUS PERFORMANCE PSYCHOLOGY, ATTENTION IS ONE OF THE Many people misunderstand focus as MOST VALUABLE RESOURCES intensity or discipline alone. In reality, focus is the ability to intentionally direct WE POSSESS. Not time—attention. Everyone has the same twenty-four hours in a day, yet performance outcomes vary dramatically based on where mental energy is directed during those hours. High performers understand something increas-
and sustain attention without becoming pulled away by distractions—external or internal. This distinction matters because modern distraction is not limited to phones, emails, or social media. Internal distractions are equally powerful: overthinking, mental fatigue, anx-
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iety, multitasking, constant self-interruption, or thinking about future tasks while working on current ones. Every time attention shifts unnecessarily, the brain pays a cognitive cost. Research on task switching consistently shows that multitasking reduces efficiency, increases mental fatigue, and weakens the quality of performance. While many people pride themselves on juggling multiple responsibilities simultaneously, the brain performs best when it can fully engage with one meaningful task at a time. Deep focus creates several psychological benefits: improved decision-making, greater creativity, higher-quality work, better emotional regulation, increased confidence through completion, and stronger learning and memory retention. This is why elite performers across industries prioritize concentration intentionally. Athletes narrow attention before competition. Executives block uninterrupted work time. Writers isolate themselves to think deeply. High performers understand that attention scattered across too many inputs weakens performance output. The challenge today is that distraction has become habitual. Many people have unintentionally trained their brains to seek constant stimulation. Moments of silence feel uncomfortable. Tasks requiring sustained concentration become difficult because attention has adapted to
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THOUGHTS MATTER " T H E M E N TA L B R E A K- D O W N " P O D C A S T I S N O W O N A L L S T R E A M I N G P L AT F O R M S
rapid switching and immediate reward cycles. The good news is that attention works much like a muscle. What is repeatedly practiced becomes easier and just as distraction can be trained, so can focus. STRATEGIES FOR BUILDING STRONGER ATTENTION One of the fastest ways to improve focus is to reduce unnecessary fragmentation. Multitasking often creates the illusion of productivity while actually decreasing cognitive efficiency. Every interruption—whether checking a phone, responding to a message, or mentally shifting between unrelated tasks—requires the brain to reorient itself. That transition costs energy. Single-tasking, on the other hand, allows attention to stabilize. It creates mental immersion, improves work quality, and reduces emotional exhaustion caused by constant switching. Practical ways to reduce fragmentation include: turning off nonessential notifications, closing unrelated tabs or applications, keeping the phone physically out of reach during deep work, finishing one meaningful task before starting another, or creating environments that minimize interruptions. Focus improves when the brain is given permission to fully engage with one responsibility at a time. In many cases, performance is less about doing more and more about dividing attention less. High performers rarely rely solely on motivation to focus. Instead, they create systems that make focus more likely.
Time blocking is one of the most effective strategies for doing this. Rather than approaching the day reactively, dedicated focus windows are scheduled intentionally for high-priority work. During these periods, distractions are minimized and attention is directed toward a specific objective. This creates several psychological advantages: reduced decision fatigue, clearer mental boundaries, increased consistency, stronger concentration habits, and create sense of control over attention Importantly, focus blocks do not need to last for hours to be effective. Even thirty to sixty minutes of uninterrupted concentration can produce significantly higher-quality work than several distracted hours spread throughout the day. The key is intentionality. When people decide in advance where their attention will go, they are less vulnerable to distraction pulling them elsewhere. Focus is not something people either naturally possess or lack. It is trainable. The problem is that many individuals expect instant concentration despite spending years reinforcing distraction habits. Just as physical conditioning requires repetition, mental conditioning does as well. Short, intentional focus sessions help build attentional endurance over time. Start small: fifteen minutes of uninterrupted reading, twenty minutes of focused writing, one workout completed without checking the phone, a meeting with full active listening, or a conversation without divided attention. These moments may seem minor, but they strengthen the brain’s ability to re-
main present. Over time, concentration capacity expands. Mental restlessness decreases. The urge for constant stimulation weakens. Attention becomes more intentional instead of reactive. This is especially important because attention influences far more than productivity alone. It shapes relationships, emotional wellbeing, learning, creativity, and overall quality of life. Where attention goes, experience follows. FINAL THOUGHTS We are living in an era where distraction is constant, accessibility is expected, and attention is continuously under pressure. In that environment, focus becomes more than a productivity skill—it becomes a psychological advantage. The individuals who consistently perform well are often not the ones doing the most things at once. They are the ones capable of fully engaging with what matters most in the moment. They protect attention intentionally because they understand that fragmented focus eventually creates fragmented performance. The goal is not perfection or complete isolation from distraction. It is developing the ability to direct attention with greater awareness and consistency. Because where your attention goes, your performance follows, and ultimately, the quality of your focus shapes the quality of your work, your relationships, and your life.
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MOLD YOUR MIND
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