Pocket-Worthy Reads

Stories to fuel your mind

Atlas Obscura

Decoding the Design of In-Flight Seat Belts

Why we buckle up differently in cars and planes.

GQ

How to Thrift Shop Your Way to Victory

One veteran inveterate thrifter shares his secrets for bin-digging, rack-rifling success.

Greater Good Magazine

Five Ways to Keep Your Brain Healthy as You Age

Sanjay Gupta argues that making healthy lifestyle choices can stave off cognitive decline at any age.

Bloomberg

Gamers Are Turning PCs Into Fantasy Worlds of Their Own

Not just a gray box that hides under the desk anymore, many gaming PCs are designed and modified to be shown off.

Mental Floss

“This Land Is Your Land”: The Story Behind America’s Best-Known Protest Song

It has been a staple of kindergarten classrooms for decades. But Woody Guthrie didn’t intend for the song to be a ringing endorsement of American exceptionalism—he wrote it for those who were getting left behind.

Knowable Magazine

The Psychopathic Path to Success

Research is reframing psychopathic tendencies, an often sensationalized and maligned set of traits, and finding some positive twists.

Smithsonian Magazine

Why Do Dogs Wag Their Tails? Scientists Examine the Endearing Behavior

Dogs communicate through tail-wagging, and humans may have selected for the trait during domestication.

Popular Science

4 New Myths About Climate Change—and How to Debunk Them

Pushing off climate change policy isn’t that far removed from denying its existence.

The Guardian

Barter, Bid and Bag a Bargain! Vintage Experts on 21 Ways to Buy Secondhand Treasures

Get up early, decide on your budget and never say: ‘What’s your best offer?’ Here’s how to find affordable antiques like a true professional.

Literary Hub

The 45 Best Prison Escape Movies, Ranked

We’ve got chases and escapes, from POW camps, maximum security prisons, and chain gangs.

The Guardian

Vegetables Are Losing Their Nutrients. Can the Decline Be Reversed?

A process called biofortification puts nutrients directly into seeds and could reduce global hunger, but it’s not a magic bullet.

Kiplinger

5 Financial Red Flags in Relationships

Financial warning signs are crucial to building a secure future with your partner.

Popular Collections

Curated guides to the best reads on the web

Pocket Collections

The Art of Navigating Thorny Office Politics

From bad bosses to gossipy colleagues and, of course, office refrigerator drama.

Today’s Pocket Hits

Saturday, August 9

Food52

Our 10 Best Chocolate Chip Cookie Recipes of All Time

From crispy to chewy, we’ve collected the best of the best.

Saveur

That Chewy, Bouncy Texture You Love Has a Name

Whether in boba tea, cuttlefish, rice noodles, or cassava dough, the texture of QQ connects people across cultures and generations.

The New Yorker

The Internet Wants to Check Your I.D.

New safety rules require users to verify their identities before gaining access to sites. This spells the end of the relative anonymity that we’ve come to expect online.

The Guardian

Knife Throwing and Cheeseburger Spinning: The Agony and Ecstasy of Being a Viral Trickshot Video Star

Think you could throw a basketball off a 540ft dam, into a hoop – while blindfolded? Meet the talented and ludicrously patient people putting hours into the internet’s most joyful (and pointless) clips.

Lifehacker

Are ‘Ultra-Processed’ Foods Really That Bad for You?

They’ve been linked to heart disease and other health conditions.

The Hollywood Reporter

Last Call for Late Night

After 70 years of tucking America into bed, it looks like the curtain is about to come down on the late night genre. What’s being lost is more than a TV tradition but a backdrop for some of America’s most memorable moments.

The Associated Press

The World Nearly Beat Polio. But Fake Records, an Imperfect Vaccine and Missteps Aided Its Comeback.

The World Health Organization has closed in on its bold goal of eradicating polio several times, but the paralytic virus is entrenched in parts of Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Condé Nast Traveler

16 Golden Rules That Business Travelers Swear By

People who constantly hit the road for work share what they wish they’d known from the jump.

Recommended Reads

Curated by Pocket

PS

I Tried the $160,000 Recovery Chamber That Pro Athletes Swear By

An editor tries the $160,000 Ammortal Chamber for recovery. Here’s her honest review.

Condé Nast Traveler

Airline Tech Meltdowns Are Happening More Often—Here’s What Fliers Should Do

As United Airlines recovers from an internal tech outage, here’s a reminder of your passenger rights during mass flight delays.

CBS News

Filmmakers, San Francisco Japantown Museum Reflect on 80-Years Since First Atomic Bomb

This summer, the NJAHS resurrected an exhibit from 30 years ago to remember the victims of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki atomic bombs that the United States dropped on Japan on Aug. 6 and 9, 1945.

Inc. Magazine

What Drives Fast Growth Year After Year? New Research Has Some Answers

Here are the bold strategies that keep companies on the Inc. 5000 list.

BBC

The Radical Film Flop That Changed Disney Forever

Disney Animation’s ambitious and innovative 1985 film The Black Cauldron was an experiment that dramatically failed, arguably putting the future of the studio in question.

The Atlantic

Six Books That Explain How Flying Really Works

The fact that we regularly float six or seven miles above the Earth is worth our fascination and attention.

ESPN

Pawol ‘Ready to Go’ Ahead of Breaking MLB Umpire Barrier

Jen Pawol will make her major league debut this weekend, becoming the first female umpire in a century and a half of big league baseball.

Smithsonian Magazine

How One Chihuahua Proved to Be a Link to the Ancient Dogs That Moved to Latin America With the Spread of Agriculture

New research shows that ancient dogs did not join Indigenous people in Central and South America until farming became popular—especially of maize

Axios

These AI Experts Are Getting Offered Boatloads of Cash by Zuckerberg

Zuckerberg has offered massive compensation packages to AI experts as though they’re NBA stars.

Real Simple

10 Summer Flowers That Peak in Late August

Add these bold and beautiful blooms to your garden now to brighten up any boring spots for the late summer and fall. Try common favorites like hydrangea, sunflowers, and echinacea, or unique choices like lisianthus and balloon flowers.

Popular Mechanics

A Company Says It Can Predict Your Baby’s IQ Before Birth. But Where’s the Science?

The company released white paper that details how it’ll be able to screen embryos for the likelihood of 17 different diseases. But it only mentioned its IQ predictions on social media.

BBC

Jim Lovell, Who Guided Apollo 13 Safely Back to Earth, Dies Aged 97

Astronaut Jim Lovell, who guided the Apollo 13 mission safely back to Earth in 1970, has died aged 97.

Life Hacks

Tips for better living

NPR

Why Short Breaks to Move Around Are Crucial for Your Creative Process

When bestselling author Kelly Corrigan’s creativity runs low or her mood turns, she doesn’t power through. Here are her tips for connecting your body to your creative process and getting unstuck.

SELF

5 Injuries ER Doctors See All the Time—and How to Avoid Them

You might be surprised by the seemingly innocuous behaviors that cause them.

SELF

9 Exercises for Knee Pain to Help You Move (and Feel) Better

Strengthen and stretch your way to happier joints.

Kiplinger

Are You Leaving Money on the Table? Four Strategies to Free up Stuck Investments

From forgotten 401(k)s to outdated asset allocations, stuck money can hurt your retirement. Here’s what to do about it.

CNBC

What Private Assets in 401(K) Plans Mean for Investors: ‘You’re Only Asking for Trouble,’ One Advisor Says

Millions of investors may soon have access to private assets in their 401(k) or other workplace retirement plans. What to know about the risks and rewards.

SELF

5 Things Every ‘Conflict Avoidant’ Person Should Do Before Any Difficult Conversation

The word “conflict” usually brings to mind raised voices or awkward tension—outcomes most people would rather avoid.

Psyche

Does Progress Seem Slower When You Constantly Check on It?

Research on how we perceive the rate of change shows how you can be strategic about goal tracking and boost your motivation.

Allure

Inside the World of Professional Back-Scratching

“I just want to pay someone to tickle my back.”

Psyche

What a Disastrous Investment Showed Me About Optimism

When an investment tanked and buried us in debt, we had to face the truth of how we’d gotten there.

The Conversation

Vaccines Hold Tantalizing Promise in the Fight Against Dementia

A prominent Nature study and related research raise the possibility that vaccines may have a broader role in experimental therapeutics outside the realm of infectious diseases.

NBC News

The Giving Pledge Was Meant to Turbocharge Philanthropy. Few Billionaires Got on Board.

Meanwhile, over the past 10 years, the number of billionaires worldwide has increased by more than half, to 2,891, according to UBS.

The Associated Press

Keeping Work From Spoiling a Vacation Takes Planning and the Right Phone Settings

The summer vacation season is in full swing in the Northern Hemisphere, but navigating the line between work time and personal time is tricky for a lot of people.