Lifestyle
Track your steps? Here’s a less obvious way to improve your health
As far as wellness trends go, small talk isn’t sexy. The same with participating in civic government or helping a neighbor carry their groceries. But connecting with others might be the ultimate form of self-care, according to psychiatrist Joanna Cheek.
Shelf Help is a wellness column where we interview researchers, thinkers and writers about their latest books — all with the aim of learning how to live a more complete life.
In her book, “It’s Not You, It’s the World: A Mental Health Survival Guide for Us All,” published in February, the University of British Columbia professor makes a case for the health benefits of collective care. For example, Cheek cites research that connects altruistic behavior and a sense of purpose with reduced inflammation, as opposed to hedonistic pursuits, which can worsen inflammation.
Perhaps most importantly, Cheek warns how individual solutions aren’t enough to protect and heal us. “Emotional alarms” such as fear, guilt, shame and anger are healthy signals that help us avoid obstacles and find rewards, she says. When it comes to poverty, discrimination, isolation and other systemic problems, a sense of “moral distress” warns us away from harm and toward a more just, equitable society. And taking small steps to connect with others — even as simple as engaging in idle chitchat with a stranger — can be an impetus for broader change.
Portrait of author Joanna Cheek.
(Tegan McMartin)
“I’m constantly trying to think about socializing in the same way I think about exercise or physical activity,” says Cheek. “In the same way I eat a certain amount of vegetables or have a certain amount of quiet time to meditate, I think, ‘Have I had enough social contact today?’”
People obsessively track their steps. They might want to count their social interactions, too, she says. Those moments can build confidence and trust, until the momentum transforms us and the communities we call home.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
In the book, you quote the renowned psychiatrist Viktor Frankl, who wrote, “Happiness cannot be pursued. It must ensue.” Why should we focus on cultivating purpose instead of pursuing happiness?
There are a lot of studies that show that cultivating any emotional state — happiness in particular, but also calmness or lack of anxiety — actually backfires. The more we try to feel a certain way, we inevitably won’t, because we don’t have much control over how we feel and then we’ll compare it to some standard of how we should feel, which will only magnify our suffering.
Rather than chase an emotion, which is futile because our emotions are constantly shifting, we can chase purpose, which gives us a lasting sense of accomplishment, because we’re living in line with our values. That’s true wellness.
“It’s Not You. It’s The World” book cover bo Joanna Cheek, MD.
(Hachette Book Group)
How can people who feel isolated take steps toward cultivating purpose with others?
There was a large study that reviewed studies on loneliness. It showed it posed the same risk as smoking 15 cigarettes a day. I was utterly shocked when I read that, and started a deep dive and met [author and professor of psychology at the University of Sussex] Gillian Sandstrom. Her research shows that connections don’t need to be with the love of our life, a tight-knit family or best friends. When we have contact with a barista at the coffee shop, someone delivering the mail or just say hello to a neighbor who’s walking their dog past you, these weak ties actually have similar benefits to having really deep, personal connections. She ran a study with students at her university and found even if they had no friends in class, if they talked to strangers, they felt better and had more wellness indicators.
When we’re separated from others, we haven’t really evolved that fast, so it sets off alarms in our bodies. When you talk to someone at the grocery store, it’s like, “Oh, I’m not alone, I’m OK, I belong to something.” It silences those alarms so they don’t keep going off.
So it’s beneficial for us to have social interactions. How does it help our communities?
The more that we’re connecting with each other, the more we’re talking across differences, the more that we speak with people of different lived experiences, different politics, different cultural backgrounds, different ages, different levels of health and abilities and needs, then we can have more empathy and really take care for each other and make decisions that are based on the truth that we’re all connected.
Building community can start with weak ties. It can be really scary to join a new group in person. When we talk about anxiety, we talk about graduated exposure, where we don’t expose ourselves to the scariest things right away. So sometimes baby steps can help us get comfortable with weak ties. Then, with time, we can move toward deeper contact.
I just had knee surgery this summer, and I ended up doing a lot of water walking in the pool for rehab, and I was amazed at this community pool. There were all these people who were either retired or injured there during the day and I would have so many conversations. And so often we think that these connections don’t matter because we’re not building a friendship that might continue on. What is the point? The point is that through each interaction, we’re building a sense of community for everybody. And it doesn’t have to be more than one interaction. It helps create a sense that we can trust each other and we can learn from each other. It feels good to be in connection and that makes us want to care for one another.
(Maggie Chiang / For The Times)
You mention the term McMindfulness in the book. Could you describe what that means and why it can be damaging?
Yeah, there are a lot of concerns about quick fixes for mental health. I speak a lot about how mental health is really about the health of our entire systems. When we sit with that, it can be overwhelming to recognize that we can’t be well until our systems are well. We can practice wellness, we can do the best we can, but feeling better in a sick world isn’t going to fix us. We need to fix the world. McMindfulness is taking people in a toxic workplace and giving them mindfulness classes and not changing the toxic structures of the workplace. We should ask, “Why are they having these symptoms? And how do we make this workplace healthy so that our workers aren’t constantly falling sick?”
People need a sense of agency to thrive. But examining big problems through a systemic lens can create the impression we don’t have control over our lives. How do you reconcile the two?
Every connection we have, every time we live in a way with care and kindness, when we’re offering mutual aid or caring for our neighbors, those little things become contagious. Day to day, we can choose if we’re going to share our resources, whether that be our time, our care, our inclusiveness. Every time we choose to care for others, it’s contagious. It creates a culture. And every little connection like that matters. So while stress and dysfunction can ripple outward, I think our kindness and our unity and our caring can also ripple outward.
TAKEAWAYS
From “It’s Not You, It’s the World: A Mental Health Survival Guide for Us All”
That sounds wonderfully optimistic.
I think a lot about hope and I think hope has to be active. I think we can’t just passively wish for a brighter future. And so I like to think about what agency I have today. It doesn’t have to be becoming the next world leader or finding a cure for cancer. What matters is every little decision I make to make the world a little bit brighter.
“Affordable luxury” brand Everlane has been bought by the ultrafast-fashion giant Shein.
Smith Collection/Gado/Getty Images
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Smith Collection/Gado/Getty Images
Shein, the ultrafast-fashion juggernaut, is buying Everlane, a brand that once pitched millennial shoppers on a vision of fashion with “ethical factories” and “radical transparency” into how its clothes were made and priced.
“This is the start of a bigger chapter for Everlane and the team behind it,” CEO Alfred Chang said in a statement shared with NPR. He did not disclose the size of the deal, but added that Everlane would remain “an independent brand, staying true to our longstanding brand values, sustainability commitments, and exceptional quality.”
Buying California-based Everlane gives Shein a bigger U.S. foothold and access to a higher-end online-retail model. Shein was founded in China but has ballooned into a global giant, up on the latest TikTok micro-trends with dresses under $15 and jewelry under $5.
Shein shelved its plans to become a publicly traded company in either the U.S. or in Europe, as it faced extensive legal complaints and scrutiny by lawmakers on both continents, particularly over its labor practices.
For Everlane, the deal appears to present a lifeline. CEO Chang promised a new era with “expanded global reach, new capabilities, and greater opportunities.”
But Everlane fans mourned online, with posts accusing the brand of selling out and betraying them. A headline by Fast Company declared: “The era of millennial optimism is officially over.”
Once sported by celebrity fashionistas like Meghan Markle and Angelina Jolie, Everlane focuses on minimalist basics and natural fabrics in the “affordable-luxury” category, with tailored shorts for $120 and linen tops for $80.
The company came of age in the 2010s in the wave of trendy direct-to-consumer companies. Like sneaker-maker Allbirds, they wooed shoppers with pitches of sustainability and transparency. (Yes, that same Allbirds in April claimed it was pivoting to becoming an AI company).
Everlane’s finances have faltered in recent years. With debt weighing heavy on the brand, the majority owner, private equity firm L Catterton, decided to sell. Shein and L Catterton did not respond to NPR’s requests for comment. After Puck earlier reported news of the deal, it ricocheted through the fashion world.
“Everlane was built on this brand around sustainability and fewer, better things — and Shein often feels the opposite,” says Katie Thomas, who leads the Kearney Consumer Institute, a think tank inside a consulting firm that works with major retailers and brands.
“The biggest challenge with any value-based product is the price has to be right for the right consumer,” Thomas says. “And Everlane, I think, just was exposed to a category that got crowded.”
Now, brands like Aritzia, Reformation and even Gap are pitching “affordable luxury,” — as is another of Everlane’s rivals, Quince, which is wooing shoppers with much lower prices.
One big question now, Thomas says, is whether a tie-up with a paragon of fast-fashion alienates Everlane’s current clientele — or sways Shein shoppers to trade up.
Shein for years has tried to shed its fast-fashion reputation with sustainability commitments. Another question now: Will it benefit from Everlane’s internal processes? Or will Everlane become a faster-moving trend chaser?
So far, the answers to those questions are murky.
Lifestyle
At SoCal newest children’s museum, kids can dig for mammoth bones or face a giant Lite-Brite
Talk to the passionate team behind KidSTREAM, a new children’s museum in Ventura County, and they’ll tell you about the many lofty goals they have for the 21,000-square-foot space which opened to the public Thursday.
They’ll describe how the museum is the first of its kind in Ventura County and how they hope to make it accessible to as many local children as possible through outreach, discounts and free programming.
They’ll explain how the immersive exhibits highlight the county’s unique industry and geography, including an agriculture area where young visitors can pick pretend fruits and sell them at a farmers market and an ocean exhibit where miniature replicas of the Channel Islands emerge from the bouncy blue “Pacific Ocean.”
A drone view of the museum’s Pacific Ocean and Channel Islands-themed play area.
Avery Hanchar, right, and her brothers Oliver and Carter, test their climbing and balancing skills.
They’ll share that the STREAM in KidSTREAM is an acronym for Science, Technology, Reading, Engineering, Arts and Math, and talk about the activity carts and art projects that will enhance and support learning for young visitors.
But they are also well aware that for some families, the still-evolving space will serve a less highfalutin, if just as important, goal.
“Parents are looking for a good nap on the way home,” said KidSTREAM founder Kristie Akl. “And we can give them that too.”
Akl, along with KidSTREAM board chairman Bryan Yee and guest experience director Dani Hildreth, were giddy with excitement as they took me on a tour of the museum in the days before it opened.
This moment had been a long time coming, they said.
A high-energy former high school biology teacher with a make-it-happen spirit, Akl first began dreaming about a children’s museum in Ventura County in 2013 after taking her three daughters to KidSpace, a children’s museum in Pasadena founded by members of the Caltech community in 1979.
Akl loved Kidspace, but it was a full hour from the family’s house in Camarillo and she longed for something similar closer to home. For two years, she tried convincing others to create a children’s museum in Ventura County. When that failed, she formed a fledgling board in 2015 and incorporated as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit in 2017.
A young guest chases a cloth blown out of the tubes at the museum’s Amazing Airways exhibit.
“I was always optimistic,” she said. “You have to be to do something like this.”
The original plan was to open the museum in 2020, but fundraising efforts were hampered by the 2017 Thomas fire, which destroyed hundreds of homes in the area. A few years later came COVID shutdowns. The delays were discouraging, but Akl and a growing community of motivated believers used the time to build out their proof of concept by bringing science projects to local schools, neighborhoods and community events, creating online workshops and giving farm workers free science kits to help their kids get exploring.
“It was a herculean task and a huge community effort,” Akl said. “Everyone leaned in.”
Today she estimates that the KidSTREAM Children’s Museum touched the lives of 70,000 children in the Ventura area before ever opening its doors.
Luke Delossantos, right, and his son Grayson play pretend.
“They prototyped a lot of ideas,” said Yee, a father of three who took over from Akl as chairman of the board of KidSTREAM in 2022. “That showed us what works and what doesn’t work and what we should do next.”
In 2022, the city of Camarillo donated the building that housed the former public library to the museum and in 2024, the team raised enough money to bring children’s museum specialist Hildreth on board. Construction began in 2025.
In addition to the agriculture and Pacific Ocean areas outside, visitors will find a camping exhibit with an obstacle course, gratitude tree and a series of different shaped tents where kids can play. There’s also a sand pit where children can dig up replicas of pygmy mammoth bones. (The pygmy mammoth is a dwarf species of mammoth that was native to the Channel Islands.) A nature area includes a sensory path designed with the unique needs of neurologically divergent children in mind.
“There are 200,000 kids in Ventura County from a huge range of backgrounds including a lot of farm worker families,” Hildreth said. “The space is designed for all of them, newborn to 10 years old.”
In addition to the outdoor play areas, visitors will find an indoor “makerspace” with a white Lego wall where children can create vertical designs, four tables for art projects and a super-sized Lite-Brite.
Visitors walk through a greenhouse at the museum’s agriculture area.
“When you are 3 feet tall, it’s your whole field of vision,” Hildreth said.
Admission to KidSTREAM is $16 for adults and children over the age of 1, $13 for seniors and military, and $3 for families with EBT, SNAP or WIC cards. Membership options are also available.
Yee said market research suggests the new museum will reach as many as 150,000 people, and there is still room for expansion.
“We’re 21,000 square feet now with room for growth,” he said. “We’re not stopping, but we’re so excited to open our doors.”
Lifestyle
Late night has enough political humor already, says host stepping into Colbert’s slot : NPR’s Newsmakers
Byron Allen, the media mogul and former stand-up comedian, is gearing up for his latest venture: bringing his show Comics Unleashed to the CBS time slot long held by The Late Show with Stephen Colbert.
“I feel great. I feel amazing. You know, I tell everybody, I have been pursuing this for 51 years,” Allen said in a conversation with NPR’s Ailsa Chang in Culver City, California. He praised Colbert, calling him “an American treasure,” but said Comics Unleashed will steer clear of the political comedy Colbert was known for, breaking away from the typical late night format.
“Not everybody’s gonna love me,” he said. “But there is that one or two percent that would be like ‘hell yeah, I’m rolling with you’ and I learned that at an early age, and by the way, that simple lesson made me a billionaire.”
Allen’s 11:35 p.m. EST debut on Friday, May 22 comes after CBS’ contentious cancellation of The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, despite its top ratings — a move that is widely viewed as political, given Colbert’s frequent criticism of President Trump and his administration. CBS has said the cancellation was “purely a financial decision,” and Allen insists no one at CBS, or its parent company Paramount, has set any limitations or boundaries for his show.
Allen sat down for an interview with NPR’s Newsmakers video podcast ahead of his debut episode.
He discussed his plans for Comics Unleashed in its new prime late night slot, why he thinks there’s still more than enough political comedy after the cancellation of Colbert, and why it’s important for Black Americans to own and produce media.
Can’t see the video above? Watch it on YouTube.
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