Lifestyle

How Healthy Is Your Social Biome? Take Our Quiz.

Published

1 year ago

April 2, 2025

How Healthy Is Your Social Biome? Take Our Quiz.

We interact with people every day: A brief nod to a neighbor. A friendly chat in the school pick-up line. A heart-to-heart with a friend.

Together, these moments add up to your “social biome,” a term coined by the communication researchers Andy Merolla, of the University of California, Santa Barbara, and Jeffrey Hall, of the Universy of Kansas, to describe the complex ecosystem of relationships that can shape your quality of life.

In their new book, “The Social Biome,” Dr. Merolla and Dr. Hall argue that there are several key elements that contribute to a vibrant, healthy social biome.

Our daily routines and rhythms are different, the researchers acknowledge, and there is no one right or best way to boost social well-being. But this 15-question quiz can help you take stock of your habits, and the results will offer simple suggestions to strengthen your social biome.

Don’t overthink it. Social patterns can change over time, so just pick the answer that feels right for you now.

Diverse Social Interactions

It takes a village to have a healthy social life. “Friends, family, colleagues, teammates, neighbors, spouses and children all have something different to offer us,” Dr. Merolla and Dr. Hall write. How diverse are your daily interactions?

1 of 15

I am friendly with my next-door neighbors — and make an effort to say hello whenever I see them.

2 of 15

When I don’t see eye to eye with someone on a topic, I try to get out of that conversation as fast as I can.

3 of 15

I have people in my life who challenge my viewpoints respectfully.

Restorative Solitude

We all need alone time. “Because all social interactions are energy depleting, time alone is restorative,” Dr. Merolla and Dr. Hall contend. How do you handle solitude?

4 of 15

Even when I’m alone, I feel a sense of connection to the important people in my life.

5 of 15

I can sense when I’ve had too much social interaction and need to be alone.

6 of 15

When I’m alone, my first instinct is usually to grab my phone to catch up on news or social media.

Meaningful Talk

The quality of our social interactions is just as important as the quantity. “A healthy social biome is both cause and consequence of these little acts of kindness and sociability,” Dr. Merolla and Dr. Hall write. How meaningful are the words that you share throughout your day?

7 of 15

It’s been a long time since I’ve had a meaningful face-to-face interaction with a friend.

8 of 15

Throughout the day, I often find moments to joke around with others.

9 of 15

I make a point of expressing affection, whether it’s telling family members I love them or offering colleagues genuine compliments.

Communication With Strangers

Small talk can have big benefits. “On days when people feel happier, more upbeat and more energetic, they tend to be more open to the world, friendlier and warmer,” according to research cited in “The Social Biome.” How often, and how easily, do you interact with strangers?

10 of 15

I can’t remember the last time I had a conversation with a stranger.

11 of 15

I feel comfortable chatting with people when I’m out in public, like at a grocery store or a coffee shop.

12 of 15

Meeting new people is stressful! Most times, I don’t enjoy it.

Choosing Sociability

Wanting to connect with others is powerful. “Choosing an interaction is a sign that people want to invest energy in a person, conversation or situation,” the authors find. How much agency do you have over your social interactions?

13 of 15

I make sure lunch or dinner with friends is regularly on my calendar.

14 of 15

If I have plans to hang out with friends, but just don’t feel like going, I will probably cancel.

15 of 15

I don’t mind being the one who reaches out to people to make plans to hang out.

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Lifestyle

What does freedom actually look like? : It’s Been a Minute

Published

2 hours ago

June 19, 2026

Press Room

What does freedom actually look like? : It’s Been a Minute

What freedom looks like today.

Getty Images/Viktoriia Miroshnikova/Photo illustration by NPR

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What does freedom mean today?

Happy Juneteenth! For those not in the know, today commemorates when U.S. federal troops arrived in Galveston, Texas in 1865 to take control of the state and ensure that all enslaved people were freed – a full two and a half years after the signing of the Emancipation Proclamation. Since then, Juneteenth has been celebrated all over the country, especially in Texas and across the South, where Juneteenth parades, cookouts, festivals and pageants happen every year. Two weeks from now, the country will celebrate the Fourth of July – and its 250th anniversary. For many Black Americans, there’s always been a tension between these holidays – and their two different ideals for what it means to be free. As voting rights protections are rolled back and Black history is being scrubbed from government websites, what does freedom look like for Black Americans today?

To get into it, Brittany is joined by Dr. Kellie Carter Jackson, chair of Africana Studies at Wellesley College.

For more episodes about the quality of Black life in America, check out:
Jesse Jackson & the end of the civil rights superhero
Is the economy slowing? Ask Black women.
What to expect when you’re expecting racism

Support Public Media. Join NPR Plus.

Follow Brittany on Instagram: @bmluse

For handpicked podcast recommendations every week, subscribe to NPR’s Pod Club newsletter at npr.org/podclub.

This episode was produced by Corey Antonio Rose and Liam McBain. It was edited by Neena Pathak. We had engineering support from Josephine Nyounai. Our Supervising Producer is Cher Vincent. Our Executive Producer is Barton Girdwood. Our VP of Programming is Yolanda Sangweni.

Lifestyle

The second life of a classic: ‘Amores Perros’ is remastered and back in theaters

Published

12 hours ago

June 18, 2026

Press Room

The second life of a classic: ‘Amores Perros’ is remastered and back in theaters

First released in 2000, the acclaimed film Amores perros, which was produced and directed by Alejandro González Iñárritu and written by Guillermo Arriaga, has been remastered and is returning to theaters.

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Before Amores Perros became widely regarded as a modern classic, it belonged to Mexico. The film premiered at the 53rd Cannes Film Festival in 2000, where it won The Grand Prix, launching a run of international acclaim that has never quite ended. This month, Amores Perros is back in theaters in a fully remastered format from its original Kodak film stocks.

The film’s plot centers on three strangers whose lives intersect at the scene of a car crash. Each story wrestles with overlapping issues of social class disparities, crime and familial betrayal. The release in Mexico coincided with the end of the Institutional Revolutionary Party or PRI’s 71-year hold on power. Amores Perros was followed by a period of original, contemporary films in Latin America that would prove the region’s studios could compete with Hollywood in scope and complexity.

One of the film’s lead charachters, Octavio, is played by actor Gael García Bernal.

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The film marked the directorial debut of Alejandro González Iñárritu, who would go on to win four Academy Awards including back-to-back best director awards for Birdman (2014) and The Revenant (2015). In a recent interview with NPR, Gael García Bernal, a lead actor in Amores Perros, called the film’s launch “a new geography in cinema.”

González Iñárritu and García Bernal spoke with Morning Edition’s A Martinez about their early collaboration and the film’s continued resonance with new audiences.

Listen to the interview by clicking on the blue play button above.

The broadcast version of this story was produced by Margaux Bauerlein.

Lifestyle

What — and who — will be at the Great American State Fair? Here’s a primer

Published

22 hours ago

June 18, 2026

Press Room

What — and who — will be at the Great American State Fair? Here’s a primer

Preparations underway for the Great American State Fair, as seen on Washington, D.C.’s National Mall last week.

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A lot is changing these days in Washington, D.C., with even more on the horizon: 10 city blocks of the National Mall will soon transform into a multi-week state fair spectacle, complete with a Ferris wheel, in honor of the country’s 250th birthday.

The “Great American State Fair” will run from June 25 through July 10, promising to bring state-themed pavilions, movie screenings, musical performances, military flyovers, nostalgic snacks, a daily rodeo — and potentially scores of tourists — to the nation’s capital.

It will feature more than 150 exhibits, with full participation across the United States and several U.S. territories, as well as “businesses, innovators and civic organizations,” according to Freedom250, the White House-backed campaign that is organizing the fair in addition to other semiquincentennial events.

“A master-planned celebration will unfold along the National Mall from the Capitol to the Washington Monument, featuring vibrant pavilions representing every U.S. state and territory,” says the White House website, adding that the beaux-arts style tents will also highlight national themes like agriculture, the arts, faith and family.

Workers started setting up the fair, in view of the U.S. Capitol, in late May.

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However, not all states are sending official government delegations to the fair. Officials in more than half a dozen states — including Connecticut, Hawaii, Illinois, Maine, Massachusetts, North Carolina, Oregon, Rhode Island and Washington — confirmed to NPR that they are not participating directly. Most cited financial considerations and a desire to prioritize celebrations in their own communities, though others voiced political concerns.

Rachel Reisner, a spokesperson for Freedom250, emphasized in an email that there is “a vast majority participating” among the states. Additionally, others are being represented by local businesses and organizations — such as two companies from North Carolina and a museum from Illinois.

“Whether represented by a governor’s office, a tourism board, or a beloved state company or organization, every community will be celebrated, and every American will see themselves in this once-in-a-generation event,” Reisner said.

The state fair is one in a series of patriotic anniversary events planned for D.C. this summer, including the UFC fight night outside the White House last Sunday and a fireworks-heavy July Fourth celebration that President Trump rebranded as a political rally in a Truth Social post on Monday.

In another post that day, Trump encouraged people to attend the kickoff to the fair on Wednesday — and, by extension, the “summer long Celebration of 250 years of American Independence.”

“We are going to have fun, and celebrate America!” he wrote.

That opening event was originally billed as a concert, though many of the performers originally attached to it — including Martina McBride, Bret Michaels, the Commodores and Young MC — have withdrawn in recent weeks. Organizers now say the kickoff will feature remarks by Trump and performances by Lee Greenwood and Christopher Macchio, musicians who have sung at Trump events before.

What to know about the fair

The fair is an all-day, rain-or-shine event. It is free and open to the public, though preregistration is encouraged.

Freedom250 is promising attendees an interactive experience at the state pavilions, from Michigan’s mechanical milking cow to Florida’s re-creation of a Spanish fort honoring explorer Juan Ponce de León.

There will also be activations by a wide range of companies, organizations and government agencies, from NASA and John Deere to Meta and the Washington Commanders.

Each of the fair’s 16 days has its own theme, including two “MAHA Mondays” and a military and veterans’ appreciation day. July Fourth is branded as the Independence Day Celebration, and the fair’s final day is billed as “The Next 250: Innovation.”

The extravaganza will span a wide swath of the National Mall, much of it already blocked off with fences and construction cranes. The fair may also impact air travel in the area.

In a press release this week, the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority warned travelers at D.C.’s Reagan National Airport that their flights might be adjusted or delayed due to some of the America 250 celebrations — including the opening and closing days of the state fair.

“Many events will include downtown flyovers or other aerial displays such as fireworks or parachute jumps, which will affect flights periodically at Reagan National,” it said, adding that the most significant disruptions are expected on July 3 and 4.

Why some state governments aren’t participating

Nearly 10 states say they will not be spending funds or sending personnel to the D.C. fair. While all but one are led by Democratic governors, many told NPR the decision not to attend was a financial decision, not an overt political statement.

“The states were expected to fund and to staff a multi-week exhibit in Washington, D.C., which would entail getting staffers down to D.C., housing them, feeding them, and with the booths and everything … the estimated budget was at least $100,000,” said Cathryn Vaulman, a spokesperson for Connecticut Gov. Ned Lamont.

Vaulman said that money would have come out of the state’s budget for its own 250th celebrations — so leaders made a “resource-based decision” to focus on those instead. But she noted that plenty of other blue states, like New York, are still planning to staff the state fair.

Some other states estimated their costs as $100,000, though others were much higher: Sarah Hansen, director of the Maine Semiquincentennial Commission, told NPR that its cost estimates were “half a million dollars or more,” which she said was not feasible for the state, “given the federal government’s refusal to provide any funding.”

Washington Lt. Gov. Denny Heck’s office told NPR over email that the state opted out in large part because of confusion over costs.

The fair will span 10 city blocks on the National Mall for over two weeks.

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“We had heard participating states (whether that was state agencies, tourism authorities, etc.) were generally planning for their costs to be anywhere between $100k to nearly $1m,” Dallas Roberts, Heck’s chief of staff, said in the email.

Each state and territory gets about 600 square feet to build its exhibit, with no set dollar amount required to participate, according to Freedom250. It acknowledges that cost was a concern for many states, which is why some partnered with tourism bureaus and companies.

“Our ask was not your government entity must do this and give money; it was an invitation to the state to represent their culture, heritage, and landscape however they would like,” Reisner, the Freedom250 spokesperson, wrote in an email, adding that the event is funded by “both private and public dollars.”

Officials in a handful of states have been more outspoken in their criticism of how the event is being run.

Speaking to GBH News’ Boston Public Radio earlier this month, Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey, who also opted out, said Trump “invited all the states to participate and wants to charge us to go down and put something on his exhibit.”

“It’s just ridiculous,” she added. “This is taxpayer money.”

Luke Harkins, a spokesperson for Oregon Gov. Tina Kotek, told Oregon Public Broadcasting that the state is not participating “due to both the cost of participating in the Fair and growing concerns that the event in Washington, D.C. is shaping up to be a more partisan affair than originally presented.”

Officials from different states told NPR they had different understandings of how representation from their state would work.

Jayette Bolinski, a spokesperson for the Illinois Department of Natural Resources, said the Peoria Riverfront Museum volunteered to represent the state with an “Illinois-centric pavilion” featuring a hologram of stories from over 50 residents — none of which was paid for by state funds, she stressed. Vaulman, of Connecticut, said she believes its booth will have photos and posters of some sort, while Hansen of Maine said their inquiries to Freedom250 about this “have gone unanswered.”

What else is on the anniversary agenda — and who’s planning it

Planning for national 250th anniversary events mainly falls to two main groups, which have become increasingly politicized.

In 2015, looking ahead, Congress created a nonpartisan commission to orchestrate anniversary celebrations, which in turn created a nonprofit called America250. It’s composed mostly of private citizens, along with several members of Congress and representatives from federal agencies.

America250 appears to focus mainly on getting Americans involved in celebrations at the local level, such as attending synchronized nationwide block parties. It has gathered — and recently sealed — a time capsule with contributions from every state and is hosting a July Fourth concert in Los Angeles, with tickets selling for $17.76, featuring the Smashing Pumpkins, Chris Stapleton and Queen Latifah.

Freedom250, on the other hand, emerged from a Trump 2025 executive order establishing a task force for celebrating the milestone. Critics — including progressive consumer advocacy group Public Citizen — see this group as Trump’s attempt to bypass America250 after trying unsuccessfully to pack it with loyalists.

Freedom250 describes itself as “the national, non-partisan organization leading the celebration of our Nation’s 250th birthday.” Another sign of its standing in the administration: The official White House webpage for the 250th links out to Freedom250, not America250.

The group has organized many other high-profile anniversary events, including the White House UFC event, the July Fourth rally on the Mall, a July Fourth tall ship event on the East Coast and the Freedom 250 Grand Prix of Washington, D.C., an Indycar event scheduled for the National Mall in August.

Trump’s executive order says the 250th task force must disband at the end of the year, unless he extends it. And many of the beautification projects his administration is undertaking in D.C. — from restoring fountains to installing statues to repainting the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool — are tied to the anniversary but could shape the city far beyond it.