The Curious About Everything Newsletter #50

The many interesting things I read in April 2025

Welcome back to the Curious About Everything Newsletter. CAE 49 is here, if you missed it. The most popular link from last month was my post, “Just fight harder and other myths about complex spinal CSF leak”.

My updates

• We just had a Canadian election, which you all likely know having seen updates in the news. What you may not know is how our parliamentary system works. I wrote a Canadian elections crash course, talking about ridings, our first past the post system, writs, and everything in between — including how our system differs to the USA.

• 50 editions! When I first started this newsletter, I was in a much worse place with my leak, almost fully bedbound and not sure if I could keep publishing it monthly as I’d hoped. 50 CAEs later, even when my pain is bad I’ve still managed to do so. It feels like a real accomplishment at a time where I lost most of what I identified with, not only my career as a food and travel writer, but also my mobility. A big thanks to my friend Mike converting links monthly into hyperlinks for me. I wouldn’t be able to publish from bed without his help. And thank you for reading, and for continuing to share this newsletter with your friends and family. Here’s to many more months of CAE!

Featured art for CAE 50

This month’s featured artist is Charles Brooks, whose Architecture in Music series is a wonder. I’ve chosen his stunning image of a 1755 Guadagnini violin as this month’s image, shared with permission. I played violin for years, and the beauty of the photo really struck me. His Instagram feed is also worth a follow.

© 2025 Charles Brooks

The most interesting things I read this month

Start here:

Start here for my faves, then fill up your browser tabs with the pieces below.

🐠 It’s FISH DOORBELL SEASON! The Fish Doorbell, featured in CAE28 and CAE37 is back. And now, thanks to John Oliver, even more popular that ever. Visdurbel

💫 World’s smallest pacemaker is activated by light. My dad has a pacemaker, and it was amazing to see that even a few years ago it was inserted via a simple outpatient procedure. Even more so with this new pacemaker, one that's smaller than a grain of rice. It’s awaiting human trials, and if it pans out it would be an even less invasive option for many, even babies with congenital heart defects, Northwestern

🧙🏻 Modern Magic Unlocks Merlin’s Medieval Secrets. Fragments of a rare Merlin manuscript from 1300 have been discovered and digitised in an intense, three year project at Cambridge University Library. Interesting read on how the manuscript was found, how they handled it so as not to damage it, and the technology used to make it accessible to read. University of Cambridge

😵‍💫 The Infinite Fringe. It used to be easy to kill a conspiracy theory. But the internet has made them ubiquitous, immortal and (unfortunately) politically powerful. “Pure, uncut populism in the Year of Our Lord 2025 is based on the notion that all gatekeepers are bad, even the ones who could be ideological allies”, writes Tina Nguyen. This piece on why political discourse has turned into an absolute heap of garbage. is worth a read. The Verge (via The Browser)

🚮 On Compost. And speaking of: the most beautiful writing I’ve ever read about actual garbage. “I make my own compost so that I can convince myself that even when the world seems socially and ecologically broken there are still mechanisms for recovery: it shows that change is possible.” A lovely short piece about “the alchemy of new life born from dead things.” London Review of Books

☎️ The Alabama Landline That Keeps Ringing. Truly loved this read about how students Auburn University’s help desk are still answering whatever calls they get on their landline, 70 years on. “A day’s worth of calls to Foy would look a lot like someone’s browser history: What is cefuroxime prescribed for? What’s the average cost of an acre of land in Texas?” About 13 million people in the USA aren’t online, and callers to this helpline — some from outside the USA — use the landline as their own browser search. “And lucky for callers,” Emily McCrary notes, “these students are remarkably non-judgmental when it comes to the questions they’re asked.” Oxford American

🌀 How Animals Understand Death. Conventional wisdom, both among scientists and much of the general public, is that animals know and feel very little about death. This piece goes into how different species perceive it react to it; there’s definitely more depth and shared experience there than most people realize. Nautilus

🎒 What's Happening to Students? “There must be thousands of people working at these tech behemoths—many in positions of great responsibility—who are horrified by what their own companies are doing. They need to speak up, and lead by example.” Ted Goia on the mass of students-turned-zombies, infinitely tethered to their phones. The Honest Broker

🐷 On the Origin of the Pork Taboo. “Pork accounts for more than a third of the world’s meat,” Andrew Lawler writes, “making pigs among the planet’s most widely consumed animals” — and the planet’s most reviled. For centuries, scholars have struggled to find a satisfying explanation for why the Hebrew Bible and Islamic Koran both forbid consumption of pork. widespread taboo, and this piece dives into the theories. Archaeology Magazine

♥️ Don't Know Where To Go? Go Where You're Needed. My friend Steve wrote this super lovely post, comparing my life arc to that of Shoresy, the main character in a beloved Letterkenney spinoff hockey sitcom. Sometimes I forget what my story looks like to others; I just try not to focus on the constant pain and instead put out work that makes me feel useful in some way. This piece felt like a bit of a shock to read as a result, but a kind one at that. Thank you, Steve. Steve Kamb

🔤 Markdown and the Slow Fade of the Formatting Fetish. Design firm iA on Markdown, a simple readable markup language that’s designed to structure plain text effectively. Year over year, formats like .docx, .ppt, and pdf lose a little bit of their popularity, and while most of us may not have taken notice, this dense article goes into why it’s happening, and how Markdown is “growing over and into the old formats, slowly, and nicely, like moss on a stranded star destroyer,” emphasizing clear structured thinking instead of “visual decoration”. iA

🤧 Climate change is supercharging pollen and making allergies worse. I never heard of “thunderstorm asthma” before, but wowza. It occurs when types of storms break up pollen particles in the air, releasing proteins and then showering to the ground below. This triggers down below, triggering allergic reactions in some people – even among those who weren't previously asthmatic. This piece by Amanda Ruggeri covers an aspect of allergic disease I never had heard about before, and I'm sharing in case it's new to you, too. BBC Earth

💸 Tariff Q&A. A great primer on tariffs. Many people don’t seem to understand how they work, despite them being in the news a lot of late (for obvious reasons). This is a solid crash course. Kyla's Newsletter

🪶 The Many Ways Scientists Are Turning Birds Into Feathered Field Assistants. Birds as research assistants! From frigatebirds and gulls to curlews and cormorants, researchers are tapping many birds to help them map and understand how the world is changing environmentally. This fun piece shares the different ‘job openings’ and the birds that are best suited to fill them. I enjoyed how they set up the article, instead of just in narrative form. Audubon

👔 The Evolution of the Alpha Male Aesthetic. (Archive link.) By Derek Guy, also known as the “menswear guy” on Twitter or elsewhere, famous for his zingers and replies — as well as picking apart the sartorial style of anyone on the internet, especially right wing grifters. “I want to give credit to my editors, who asked me to write 2,000 words on why Andrew Tate wears such tight pants,” he posted, “I submitted 3,700. They asked if I really needed to start with a story about the industrial revolution and I said ‘yes, absolutely don't cut.’ Bloomberg

🧠 Molecules that fight infection also act on the brain, inducing anxiety or sociability. New research on a cytokine called IL-17 adds to growing evidence that immune molecules can influence behaviour when someone is sick, acting on different areas of the brain — the amygdala and the somatosensory cortex — to elict anxiety and sociablility, respectively. Did you know mast cells are a dominant source of IL-17? IL-17 can also induce secretion of other proinflammatory cytokines, as well as matrix metalloproteinase enzymes; this can lead to inflammation, tissue breakdown, and more. Reading this study, I wondered if how IL-17 acts on the brain is part of why a subset of people with mast cell disorders who finally get treated say they no longer have panic attacks, and their mood is much more regulated. For me, I had what I thought was anxiety-induced insomnia. Nope, it was MCAS. With my mast cells more stable, my “anxiety” and the lack of sleep went away. (MCAS isn’t discussed in this article; this is my own editorial tangent.) MIT News

🦄 The free‑living bureaucrat. (Archive link.) If there’s a Michael Lewis piece, I’m here to read it. This time, a subject closer to my heart: an FDA employee “buried under six layers on an agency organizational chart”, whose job it was to help doctors find new treatments for rare, deadly diseases that often don’t get funding/interest from researchers as they are less lucrative or scalable than other conditions. The piece also highlights some of the futility that permeates research sometimes; even if a cure was found for a condition, there’s no way to really assure doctors will have it at their fingertips. Washington Post

The rest of the most interesting things I read this month:

🍯 “Not too sweet” or too sweet to fail? Across Asia, a little bit of sweetness is essential for the food’s ability to shift and flow into the other flavours that balance the dish — hot, salty, sour, and more. “This philosophy of balance and equilibrium exists in kitchens across the region, from the five key flavors of Thai cuisine to the Japanese concept of gomi,” Mahira Rivers writes. And sugar is not mean to be the ingredient that stands out on its own. These days, however, tastes are changing. There’s a big push of sweetness sweeping through the many different countries of Asia, where it’s “no longer just the supporting taste but the defining flavor”. Taste Magazine

🏛 Another Country. There are many pieces and books out there about how to change people’s minds when it comes to politics. This article, much like the Infinite Fringe above, looks at why it’s so hard to do so — and why things quickly devolve into ugly outrage these days. It concludes that our political statements are more about how we feel, not think, about the world, and as a result, it’s an assault to the ego when people disagree. Trying to Understand the World

❓ How To Create Meaningful Connections By Asking Great Questions. Curiosity isn't just an attribute — it's a skill. This piece talks about five different types of question styles (the non-sequitorist, the seeker, the socialite, the scientist, and the spaceholder) that can le ad to deeper conversations and connection with others. Clearer Thinking

🇯🇵 Photographs of Old Japan. “As with our look at old photos of the Russian Empire and the American West, I’m once again struck by the fact that none of the people in these images are still with us. If any of them somehow returned to the land of the living, I’m not sure they’d recognise the Japan of today.” Photos of Japan taken between 1860-1900. Cosmographia

🐖 The Great Pig War of Matagorda County. (Archive link.) Another pig piece: this time, a small-scale hog farm that has pitted neighbour against neighbour in this town of 18,000 people. A deep dive into the drama, legal and otherwise. Texas Monthly

🎓 Course of Treatment. After Stanford physician Bryant Lin was diagnosed with stage 4 lung cancer, he invited students to follow along. The class was filled to the brim, not only with students who registered for it, but also with people auditing the class to participate in this unique viewpoint on the condition. Lin notes that he is “well aware of the irony” that in the spring of 2024, he went from raising awareness of growing rates of lung cancer in nonsmokers of Asian descent to being a poster boy for the disease. This profile is warm and compassionate and graceful, just like Lin himself. Stanford Magazine

🪴 Rotten tricks: How hot and stinky plants woo pollinators. There is a whole category of “stinky plants” I didn’t know about, including the aptly named skunk cabbage. It’s one of a smattering of plants that can generate a lot of warmth, called thermogenesis; its floral tissues can reach 84F/28.9C, even if it’s near freezing outside. Why they’re foul-smelling, and how the stink stinkifies, at the link! Knowable Magazine

🧀 There’s White Stuff Growing on Your Cheese That Isn’t Mold. I am familiar with the white mould that can grow outside cheeses, but I did not know that there were desirable white things that could grow on them too. Crystals! Several different types of them, either the product of mineral (salt) emulsion during cheesemaking, or protein breakdown (proteolysis) as the cheese ages. The Phcheese

💎 This Impossible New Color Is So Rare That Only Five People Have Seen It. By stimulating specific cells in the retina, a new colour named ‘olo’ was apparently seen by five people — a claim contentious enough that some researchers claim it didn’t happen. Researchers used lasers and tracking technology to activate only specific cells in participants’ retinas to mimic the signals that thee brain uses to interpret colour. Olo is a blue-greenish hue similar to peacock blue or teal, but with a bonkers level of saturation. Scientific American

🐝 Telling the Bees. Emily Polk on how bees bear witness to our sorrow: “This is the miracle that connects me to the bees, the thread that connects all of us wild creatures who are still breathing—it’s not the inevitability of loss and grief, but the astonishing revelation that somehow we’ve managed to survive in the face of it.”Part essay, part science, all well-written. Emergence

🍄 Psychedelics May Reverse Effects of Neuroimmune Interactions That Drive Fear Responses. Interesting read about how psychedelics may do more than just change perception; they can also help reduce inflammation. This makes them an interesting target for neuroimmune interactions, whether for neuropsychiatric disorders or other inflammatory diseases. To be clear, it’s not a cure, but the study author noted that they found evidence that there are “tissue-specific benefits” to using them. I’d be worried about how to prevent a worsening in some patients, but I am sure they are a long way from making any sort of therapeutic target a reality. Genetic Engineering & Biotechnology News

🏘 Raising a Ghost Town From the Dead. Two investors bought most of the buildings in downtown Brownsville, Pennsylvania, and then let them fall into ruin. Now, the town’s residents are trying to reinvigorate the area. Great photos accompany this piece. Atlas Obscura

🇺🇸 America’s Future Is Hungary. (Archive link.) Why does Hungary’s trajectory matter? This piece argues that it’s because America is on the same path. “Once widely perceived to be the wealthiest country in Central Europe […] and later the Central European country that foreign investors liked most, Hungary is now one of the poorest countries, and possibly the poorest, in the European Union.” And yet, its authoritarianism and structure has been praised by the current administration in the US. The Atlantic

🔊 How an unused nuclear power plant became home to a world-class acoustics lab. Acoustics testing is “two-thirds science, one-third witchcraft,” writes Allison Johnson. It requires creating a controlled space to measure sound, without interference from background noise. In this piece, a very remote location: inside a nuclear power plant where the thick concrete walls mute the outside world. The Verge

🩸 The Breakthrough Blood Test for Alzheimer's Disease. The ‘routine’ procedure mentioned in studies as a test for Alzheimer’s is the thing that derailed my life. I am very glad to see less invasive tests being pioneered for Alzheimer’s Disease instead of lumbar punctures to access CSF. Ground Truths

💥 The Next Terrorist Attack. A gloomy read but an important one. Undermining trust in government and systems and diverting intelligence away from preventing an attack will allow one to happen — domestic or foreign. And let’s not forget that authoritarians use attacks to divert power. “Be calm when the unthinkable arrives,” Timothy Snyder writes. “The sudden disaster that requires the end of checks and balances” is “the oldest trick in the Hitlerian book. Do not fall for it.” Thinking about.

🐄 How Dairy Robots Are Changing Work for Cows (and Farmers). Apparently robots are taking over a lot of the hard daily labor at dairy farms, including the milking, feeding, and cleaning of cows. Not only does it make dairy farmers burdens less weighty, but — the piece assets — it makes the cows happier as well. IEEE Spectrum

👀 ‘I am not who you think I am’: how a deep-cover KGB spy recruited his own son. A wild, melancholy read about the life of a boy from the US who discovers both of his parents are KGB agents — and feels pressured to join them. The Guardian

♿️ RFK Jr.’s “MAHA” movement doesn't want to eliminate chronic illness. They want to eliminate the chronically ill. The ‘Make America Healthy Again’ movement broadcasts more than a few misconceptions about science, medicine, and disease, and but what is also scary as a disabled person is that it is underscored by eugenicist beliefs about a world that is free of sick people not sickness itself. The Gauntlet

⚠️ Around the Pit. I’ll be picking up Nick Triolo’s new book “The Way Around: A Field Guide to Going Nowhere” after reading this excerpt about his vagabonding walk around America’s largest superfund site, Butte/Silver Bow Creek in Montana. Longreads

🏥 17 Ways to Cut Your Risk of Stroke, Dementia and Depression All at Once. (Gift link thanks to one of you!) Researchers have identified 17 risk factors that contribute to the chance of developing stroke, dementia or depression later in life, and they all share an underlying factor of causing damage to smaller blood vessels in the brain. The tips in here are not a big surprise; they include eating well, staying physically active and keeping your brain working as you age. But there’s emphasis on lowering blood pressure as one of the biggest factors of the list. New York Times

🦠 Children face elevated kidney, heart, and gut risks for years after COVID infection. A study of 1.9 million health records finds that children face elevated kidney, heart, and GI risks for years after a Covid infection, including a 17% higher risk of developing stage 2 or higher chronic kidney disease and a 35% higher risk of chronic kidney disease at stage 3 or higher. Penn Medicine News

🔗 Quick links

• A food historian shares what she considers ‘the most disgusting British foods ever’.

• A live, real-time map of passenger trains in North America.

• A live, real-time aggregate of animal cameras all over the world, for so many different animal species that you’ll have a hard time picking what to watch first.

• The Earth to Sky store has some fun gifts for a good cause. All items in this store have been flown to the stratosphere on Earth to Sky Calculus cosmic ray helium balloons. (Earth to Sky Calculus is a youth club started in 2010 and are 100% crowdfunded; more about their research here.) I bought a gift from here last month, and wanted to share — it is such a fun gift for anyone who loves astronomy or science.

• Meet Root, the turtle with a mobility aid that is made of LEGO.

• New research reveals shared genetic link between endometriosis and immune conditions, including celiac disease and MS, with endometriosis patients having a 30-80% increased risk of developing autoimmune diseases.

• Excerpt from “How to fall in love with questions”, a new book about how curiosity helps us get through uncertain times — right up our alley!

Hope to see you next month!
-Jodi