EPISODE · Jun 23, 2026 · 12 MIN
Empty-shell marriages are ending / Your brain wasn't built for this much bad news / The $1 million starter home
from News Sidequest
The New York Times reports that older couples who once stayed in "empty-shell" marriages are increasingly unwilling to spend their remaining healthy years that way — longer life expectancy is changing the math on what's worth enduring. Also: a Nature Human Behaviour study of 105,000 headlines viewed six million times confirms that negative words drive clicks — and a developmental psychologist explains why a brain built to track local, immediate threats is now being asked to process a war, a financial shock, and a climate disaster before lunch. And Zillow's new analysis finds a record 242 American cities now have "starter homes" priced at $1 million or more — triple the number from before the pandemic. Plus an 87-year-old's smart lottery decision, a vanished magician, the Red Lobster shrimp justification for invading Greenland, and 5,000 beers in Dallas. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
What this episode covers
The New York Times reports that older couples who once stayed in "empty-shell" marriages are increasingly unwilling to spend their remaining healthy years that way — longer life expectancy is changing the math on what's worth enduring. Also: a Nature Human Behaviour study of 105,000 headlines viewed six million times confirms that negative words drive clicks — and a developmental psychologist explains why a brain built to track local, immediate threats is now being asked to process a war, a financial shock, and a climate disaster before lunch. And Zillow's new analysis finds a record 242 American cities now have "starter homes" priced at $1 million or more — triple the number from before the pandemic. Plus an 87-year-old's smart lottery decision, a vanished magician, the Red Lobster shrimp justification for invading Greenland, and 5,000 beers in Dallas. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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Empty-shell marriages are ending / Your brain wasn't built for this much bad news / The $1 million starter home
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