News Sidequest

A collection of stories you might have missed while everyone was focused on the Red Team vs. Blue Team fight newssidequest.substack.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

News Sidequest is a news podcast hosted by Keith Conrad, with 168 episodes on record and a Required Pod Score of 80.

Keith Conrad hosts News Sidequest, a news show with 168 episodes published.

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  News Sidequest

  Nobody's coming over anymore / The cost of hobbies is going up and people are spending anyway / Scientists heard a planet's magnetic field for the first time

  Sep 30, 202610 min

  Derek Thompson published a piece today finding that the share of Americans who host friends or family at home at least monthly has fallen from 42% in 1975 to 12% in 2026 — a 70% collapse in 50 years. Critically, it's not because people are out doing other things: everyone is home. They're just not inviting anyone over. Also: Bank of America card data finds hobby spending rose 7.9% year over year in August — twice the rate of transactions — as people shift from expensive travel toward at-home activities, but funflation means the at-home alternatives are also getting pricier. And astronomers using the MeerKAT radio array in South Africa have detected radio waves coming directly from Beta Pictoris b, a gas giant 63 light-years from Earth, giving scientists the first direct measurement of an exoplanet's magnetic field. Plus the Alberta rat crisis, the DIY self-driving car mods, the Lunatic wrong-way driver, and a moose on a New York highway. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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  News Sidequest

  The midlife sabbatical sounds great — here's what actually gets in the way / Early retirement is quietly hurting your brain / The case for screaming until you feel better

  Sep 29, 202610 min

  The Washington Post published a guide to midlife sabbaticals today, and the advice is genuinely sound — extended breaks in your late 30s and 40s reduce burnout, restore perspective, and often lead to more purposeful career decisions. The financial math, however, is another story. Also: a study published in Alzheimer's & Dementia following 2,418 people from the Health and Retirement Study finds early retirement, extended time outside the workforce, and unstable employment are all linked to measurably weaker memory and cognition later in life — and for women, early retirement equates to roughly six years of memory deficits. And Bloomberg profiled the rage retreat movement, which ranges from free scream clubs to island forest getaways, with Kristina McMenamin running RAGEher events right here in Chicago. Plus the world's oldest peace treaty, the Texas bathroom car crash, the Popeyes condom lawsuit, and a tractor house demolition. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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  News Sidequest

  Young Americans are dying at historic rates / The little thing that keeps you going / Why adults cut off their parents

  Sep 28, 202610 min

  A Virginia Commonwealth University analysis published in The Milbank Quarterly finds death rates for Americans aged 25-44 jumped 71.2% between 2010 and 2021 — the largest surge of any age group — with drug overdoses multiplying sevenfold since 1999, suicides up 40%, and the US now ranking 38th in global life expectancy. Also: Newser reports on research analyzing Reddit threads from people who pulled back from suicidal thoughts, and the finding is consistent with the UC Berkeley Big Joy Project: small, specific, daily moments of joy — not grand interventions — are what kept people going. And new data from Cornell's Karl Pillemer finds 27% of Americans are estranged from at least one family member, YouGov found 38% as of 2025, and the debate over why it's happening is genuinely contested. Plus a second crane falling on the Florida home, a suspect biting a police dog, the racehorse renamed from Austrian Painter, and a Boeing software glitch. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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  News Sidequest

  One in five couples think they got it wrong / Mankeeping is burning out the women who do it / Weird Al Yankovic now has an asteroid

  Sep 25, 202610 min

  A Talker Research survey of 2,000 adults finds only 41% of single Americans are confident they'll find "the one" — and 20% of people already in relationships say their current partner isn't their true love. The average person has mistaken someone for "the one" twice before. Also: Stanford researchers have formally defined "mankeeping" — the emotional and social labor women perform to compensate for men's shrinking social networks — and a new psychology study confirms it's linked to measurably higher burnout and lower relationship satisfaction. And the International Astronomical Union officially approved naming asteroid 14331, a mile-wide rock in the main belt between Mars and Jupiter, Alyankovic — joining Dollyparton, Freddiemercury, Aretha, Elvis, and the Beatles in the celestial hall of fame. Plus a drone dispute murder-for-hire, Sweden's rude campaign, the raw chicken stalker, and teens recycling 2,675 pounds of sports balls. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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  News Sidequest

  Why time feels faster as you get older — and what you can do about it / Loneliness costs nearly six years of healthy life / Joachim Lanham

  Sep 24, 20269 min

  A new synthesis of research published September 23 in StudyFinds finds three competing theories for why time accelerates with age — and confirms that the popular "pile of memories" explanation describes the pattern but doesn't cause it. The actual culprit appears to be neural dedifferentiation: older brains log fewer distinct mental "events" per unit of time. Also: a Tulane University study of 277,489 adults published in Nature Communications finds that men who are both lonely and socially isolated lose nearly 5.8 years of life free from depression and anxiety, and healthy lifestyle choices mitigate the physical risks of isolation but do almost nothing to protect against the psychological damage of loneliness itself. And Joachim Lanham, a 24-year-old Norwegian man who called himself a "transcontinental inline skater" on Instagram, was on day 22 of rollerblading from New York to Los Angeles when he was struck by an SUV near Salina, Kansas, left in a ditch, and died on September 11 with his brother holding his hand. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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