For one Canadian artist, the vibrancy of Japanese washi pulled her out of the darkness of mental illness. Alexa Kumiko Hatanaka and Ashoona Ashoona with their collaborative art piece at the Fogo Island Arts gallery in 2023. The piece, “Uummatima tillirninga, I can...
The Olympics are the pinnacle of an athletic career. But after athletes step off the podium a deeper challenge awaits. Who are they when the uniforms come off? Olympic rower Christine Roper (frontside) hugging her teammate as they celebrate their gold medal victory....
Across cultures and times, midwives have been at the side of women, helping bring healthy babies into the world. Finally, the world recognizes their value. Midwife Sifa Ndeze attends to mother and baby. (Credit: UNFPA DRC/Junior Mayindu) Call them “baby catchers,”...
A spiral-shaped algae is cheap and easy to grow. It’s so nutritious that NASA thinks it can power people to Mars. On earth it can keep kids healthy. Spirulina powder. (Credit: Madeleine Steinbach for Getty Images) An algae that has been around since before...
We pass down our eye color and baldness to our kids. It seems we also pass along health problems from bad food we consume and smoke we inhale. Two hands hold a fast food burger against the backgrop of DNA strands. Illustration by News Decoder This article was...
More than one million people traveled to India in a one-year period for medical treatment. They came for the hospitals in Delhi not the beaches of Goa. Postcard from a hypothetical medical tourist in India. Illustration by News Decoder. Even as a majority of Indians...
A million child deaths around the world can be prevented. It would take a big mobilization of health care workers and small packets of nutritional food. A doctor examines a child for malnutrition by measuring the mid-upper-arm-circumference. Credit: Mohammad Bash...
To reduce your stress your doctor might prescribe a walk in the woods. Careful, though. This type of medicine is definitely addictive. A medicine cabinet includes a bottle that contains nature. Illustration by News Decoder. Photo on the medicine bottle of Comox Lake,...
In this text, ND correspondent and family physician Liana Hwang sheds light on the importance of spending time in nature as a way to promote positive mental and physical health. Plus, learn more about how spending time outdoors is an effective way to boost planetary health, too.
Exercise: Read the article with your class, then have students map out their schedule on a typical school day. How much time do they spend outdoors versus indoors? How can they intentionally carve out time to spend in nature? Have students set a SMART goal for increasing their time spent outdoors. SMART goals are Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant and Time-Bound.
Revolutionary new cancer treatments are being tested. But to help people everywhere we will need to also revolutionize health care access. A scientist introduces liquid into a test tube at a laboratory in Bilbao, Spain on 23 May 2022. The biopharmaceutical company...
We carry complicated identities inside us. But others see only the outside and they carry their own biases. That can result in privilege or prejudice. A man holds a placard. Photo illustration by News Decoder. This article was produced exclusively for News Decoder’s...
The way we perceive others and ourselves shapes our lived experiences and may result in privilege or prejudice. In this article, correspondent Jeremy Solomons reflects on his own identity as a Jewish man who grew up in England with Lebanese and Persian heritage.
Exercise: Read the article with your class. Then, introduce the Big 8 Identities as a framework for understanding the complexities of identity. Independently, students should identify their Big 8, then discuss the implications of these identities in small groups of three or four. Which elements of your students’ “Big 8” may grant them privilege or subject them to prejudice? How might this change given various cultural contexts? Note: A level of trust and comfort is required for this activity to run effectively.