Table of contents for September 2016 in Reader's Digest

WELCOME TO THE GENIUS ISSUE. It’s my first issue writing to you, and I’m honored by the privilege. I could prattle on about why. But I’ll stick to the one reason that matters: I’m honored because you are the greatest 18 million readers on earth. It sounds like fawning, I’m aware. But I’ve been studying what you write us, and it’s very telling about how you read. Whether it’s a letter (you send 550 a month), a story (800 a month), a joke or a funny memory (1,600 a month), or a comment on our Facebook pages (4,000), you almost always write with an astute sense of audience that only great readers master. Before I worked here, I suspected RD’s editors were making a mountain out of a molehill of…

FROM THE NEW YORK TIMES THE TEXT MESSAGE answered by Aaron Amrich was sent by a 19-year-old woman who wrote that she was feeling hopeless and beginning to give up on life. Aaron, a veteran who served in Afghanistan and Iraq, has himself suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder and depression. He understood the feeling. For the past year, Aaron has been volunteering with the Crisis Text Line (CTL), a free, confidential 24-hour service that people in need of a lifeline can access via the number 741741. The line currently has 1,500 volunteer Crisis Counselors across the country and has exchanged more than 19 million texts—50,000 messages a day. As he had been instructed, Aaron “listened” openly and nonjudgmentally to the young woman. He didn’t offer advice; he didn’t try to…

CONNIE SCHULTZ is a Pulitzer Prize–winning columnist who lives in Cleveland, Ohio. MY FATHER NEVER WANTED his children to know what he did for a living. Dad worked in maintenance for the Cleveland Electric Illuminating Company, in Plant C. Perched on the shore of Lake Erie, it sucked him in at sunrise and spat him out at dusk. Sometimes my mother would take my siblings and me to the public beach in our hometown of Ashtabula, Ohio. She’d gather us round and point to the smokestacks farther down the shoreline, coughing clouds into the sky. “Wave to Daddy!” she’d yell. Four little hands would shoot into the air. I never knew what Dad did at the plant, but I saw the toll that 34 years of hard physical labor took…

“HEY, I HAVE a Prince story,” said Krystal, the woman sitting next to me at a dinner party. And as she began, I kept hearing Prince in my head, singing about this thing called life. Krystal was ten when her parents divorced. By the time she was 12, her mother had remarried. At 14, Krystal found herself living in Cloverport, Kentucky. “It had fewer than a hundred people, one schoolhouse, and two traffic lights. My mom ran the diner, and in the summer, I picked peppers in the fields to earn extra money.” Danny, her new stepdad, drove a truck. When he was home, he tried hard to be friends. Teenage Krystal was ice. “The divorce was really hard on me. I was such a brat.” Whether he was shoving…

FROM BEST HEALTH Scientific efforts to develop a new eating plan to substantially reduce Alzheimer’s risk may be working. Researchers at Rush University Medical Center in Chicago developed the MIND diet over a twoyear period. They took elements of two proven heart-healthy regimens— the Mediterranean diet and the blood-pressure-slashing DASH diet (aka Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension). Then they consulted the latest human and animal nutrition studies and tailored a combo designed to boost brain health. (MIND is short for Mediterranean-DASH Intervention for Neurodegenerative Delay.) Finally they tested the eating plan on 960 volunteers over four and a half years. The MIND diet reduced Alzheimer’s risk by 53 percent among those who followed the plan strictly and by 35 percent for those who followed it moderately well, according to research…

The Woman Who Can Smell Parkinson’s One woman’s keen nose may lead doctors to diagnose a common disease. In the late 1980s, Joy Milne of Perth, Scotland, noticed a shift in the natural scent of her husband, Les. Les was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease in 1995, and when Joy attended meetings for the nonprofit Parkinson’s UK, she realized other Parkinson’s patients had the same scent as Les did. She mentioned this to a scientist, who tested her by giving her 12 T-shirts to smell: Six had been worn for a day by people with Parkinson’s; six by people without the condition. She correctly ID’d 11 but disagreed with researchers about the 12th. She said it was from a Parkinson’s patient; they said it wasn’t. To their shock, the person received…

Cover I am disappointed that Reader’s Digest has joined the war on men. On your cover, there is a neatly dressed, confident woman. Staring out of the leaves is the man, wide-eyed and confused. Show fairness in your presentation of the American male. NORMAN GRIESS, Lancaster, Pennsylvania A woman facing the world head-on and smiling about her chances—it’s a positive way to show survival! A READER via our Inner Circle Community* Everyday Heroes God bless Mick Polly. When I was a little girl, I wanted a bike more than anything. My heart hurt when I watched other children with their bikes. I bought my first bike in 1972, when I was 20 years old. I still have it! We aren’t rich now, but I made sure all my kids had a…

RICK ROSNER has the second-highest IQ in the world (192), according to the World Genius Directory. HISTORY REMEMBERS moments of genius. Isaac Newton saw an apple fall to the ground and formulated his theory of gravity. Archimedes was taking a bath when he had his eureka moment: Water displacement can measure the purity of gold. Who knew? But in contrast, over the past 10,000 years, humans have experienced about 100 quadrillion run-of-the-mill, nothing-much-happened moments, which is a lousy ratio of genius to not-genius moments. The fact is, the world is set up for non-Einsteins, not geniuses. The words tortured, evil, and eccentric are more frequently associated with genius than bubbly or well-adjusted. My mom was aware of this. She freaked out when I taught myself to read at age three.…

ON JUNE 8, 2015, Shawn Randall Thomas was standing on a subway platform at the Flatbush Avenue and Fulton Street station in Brooklyn. While waiting for his train to arrive in a nonsmoking area, he was vaping—smoking an electronic cigarette, or e-cigarette, which neither burns nor contains tobacco. (Many e-cigarettes contain nicotine, however.) Thomas was approached by a plainclothes officer from the New York City Police Department, who displayed a gold police shield hanging from his neck and said to Thomas, “Police. Are you smoking? Let me see your ID, please.” Thomas, then 49, said, “I’m not giving you any ID.” A second officer, also in plainclothes, joined them, and the confrontation quickly escalated. The officers repeatedly requested ID from Thomas, and he refused, cursing and demanding that the first…

ON THE WING My husband had passed tragically and unexpectedly the night before. I returned home the next morning with my sister-in-law, my emotional support. We sat in the upstairs loft, sharing stories about a man who’d left us too young. I glanced out the window and noticed a woodpecker on the roof. It appeared to be watching us. A member of a species rarely seen here, the bird sat for almost 20 minutes as we reminisced. I affectionately named it after my late husband. It has been five years since he passed, and a woodpecker continues to appear at my weakest moments. SHANNON NEUHAUS ROZEWICZ, Sussex, Wisconsin LIKE SON, LIKE FATHER Caught in a sudden downpour on the last day of a bike-packing trip, I ducked into the lobby of…

JUAN PONCE DE LEÓN spent his life searching for the fountain of youth. I have spent mine searching for the ideal daily routine. But as years of color-coded paper calendars have given way to cloud-based scheduling apps, routine continues to elude me; each day is a new day, as unpredictable as a ride on a rodeo bull and over seemingly as quickly. Naturally, I was fascinated by the recent book Daily Rituals: How Artists Work. Author Mason Currey examines the schedules of 161 painters, writers, and composers, as well as philosophers, scientists, and other exceptional thinkers. As I read, I became convinced that for these geniuses, a routine was more than a luxury—it was essential to their work. I began to notice common elements in the lives of the healthier…

High-Fat Diet Hurts Sleep Men with high-fat diets were more likely to suffer from daytime fatigue and poor nighttime slumber than men with low-fat diets, according to an Australian study. The scientists speculated that fat intake affects hormones, metabolism, and the central nervous system, all of which interact with the circadian clock that regulates shut-eye. In turn, the lead author noted, sleeping poorly makes people crave rich, fatty foods, thus creating a vicious cycle. The Dietary Guidelines for Americans recommends that adults get no more than 20 to 35 percent of their total calories from fat. Medical Errors a Leading Cause of Death Medical mistakes are the third-most-common cause of death in the United States, after heart disease and cancer, according to an estimate from Johns Hopkins Medicine researchers. These…

The most prominent brain researchers in the country are on a quest not to merely cure the scourges that steal our minds—they seek to understand the very fibers of our humanity, housed in the gray matter behind the once (but no longer) impenetrable fortresses of our skulls. Their investigations read like mini– medical detective tales, replete with out-of-the-box ideas, questions that lead to more questions—and the serendipitous happenstance through which great discoveries are made. The Holy Grail of Alzheimer’s Research Andres Lozano, MD, PhD, can pinpoint the moment that he stumbled upon a therapy to potentially reverse Alzheimer’s disease. In 2003, when Dr. Lozano, the chair of the division of neurosurgery at the University of Toronto, placed electrodes in the brain of an obese patient with the hope of controlling…

These pioneers prove that extraordinary sensitivity has brilliant implications On a sticky August afternoon in 2011, as rioters looted and fires burned in the streets outside, police officers gathered in a room in North London. Projected on the wall was the blurry silhouette of a man with a black woolen hat pulled deep over his forehead and a red bandanna covering all but his eyes. Security cameras had tracked the man setting fire to cars, stealing from shops, beating up passersby, and even hurling bombs. But he was always masked. “We need to identify this fellow,” the sergeant said. “He’s one of the worst.” At that moment, Gary Collins, a constable from the local gang unit, walked in. He took one look and said, “That’s Stephen Prince.” Friends call Collins…

IT DOES NOT DO TO DWELL ON DREAMS AND FORGET TO LIVE. J. K . ROWLING, Har r y Pot ter and the Sorcerer’s S tone So many things are possible just as long as you don’t know they’re impossible. NORTON JUSTER, The Phantom Tol lbooth HOW MUCH LOVE INSIDE A FRIEND? DEPENDS HOW MUCH YOU GIVE ’EM. SHEL SILVERSTEIN, A Light in the At t ic you have good thoughts, they will shine out of your face like sunbeams and you will always look lovely. ROALD DAHL, The Twi t s It is when we are most lost that we sometimes find our truest friends. WALT DISNEY’S Snow Whi te and the Seven Dwar f s Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot, nothing is going to get…

WHEN SEATTLE-BASED poet Heather McHugh, now 67, won a $500,000 “genius grant” from the MacArthur Foundation, a philanthropy dedicated to supporting creativity, she didn’t buy a Maserati or fly to Paris. Instead, she put the money in the bank and continued teaching college courses and writing poetry. “I was just stunned,” says Heather. It wasn’t until about two years later, in 2011, that she finally figured out what to do with it. That year, Heather’s godson and his wife welcomed their first child, a beautiful baby girl who was born severely disabled; doctors didn’t think she’d ever be able to walk, talk, or feed herself. “I saw how people’s lives can change overnight. I started thinking about all the people on this earth who are in the same situation,” says…

The Space Equation American scientists pose for Life magazine on October 10, 1957, alongside satellite orbit equations drawn up by astronomer Samuel Herrick. The photo was taken just six days after the Soviet Union had launched Sputnik 1—the world’s first human-made satellite and a win in the earliest round of the space race. NASA was created the following October, and within months, the United States was also in orbit: On January 31, 1958, NASA launched the Explorer 1 satellite from Cape Canaveral, Florida.…

IN THE SUMMER of 2009, I got a concussion. It didn’t heal properly, and after 30 days, I still had constant headaches, nausea, and vertigo. My doctor told me I should avoid triggering my symptoms. That meant no reading, no writing, no running, no video games, no work, no alcohol, and no caffeine. I joked to my doctor at the time, “In other words, no reason to live.” There was truth in that joke. I didn’t know it then, but suicidal ideation happens with many traumatic brain injuries, and it happened to me. My brain started telling me, Jane, you want to die. This voice became so persistent that I started to fear for my life. And then, 34 days after I hit my head, I had one crystal clear…

A rich new area of science is analyzing which healthy habits best keep your mind and memory blithely unaffected even when a brain scan would reveal the inflammation, free radical damage, and weakened synapse connections that often cause “senior” moments in the 40s and beyond. Kenneth S. Kosik, MD, codirector of the Neuroscience Research Institute at the University of California, Santa Barbara, has studied which habits most powerfully boost our cognitive function. Here he shares the most up-to-date research from innovative labs plus the best tips from his book Outsmarting Alzheimer’s (Reader’s Digest, $24.99; outsmartingalzheimers.com). Play Games with Your Frontal Lobe Whether you’re deliberating a chess move or bluffing at cards, you’re also giving the frontal lobe, the area of your brain that handles executive function, a workout. “The frontal…

A YOGA INSTRUCTOR in Canada offers “rage yoga” sessions, in which participants are free to curse, drink, and listen to heavy metal. The Week asked its readers to name the New Age book the teacher might pen. ■ The Sound of One Head Banging ■ Raja Against the Machine ■ Downward Hair of the Dog ■ Zen and the Art of Motörhead Maintenance MIKEY, A PAINTER, limps into the bar, covered in bruises, cuts, and bloodied scrapes. “Mikey, what happened to you?” the bartender asks. “Oh, I fell off a 50-foot ladder,” Mikey says. Your funny joke, list, or quote might be worth $ $ $. For details, see page 7 or go to rd.com/submit. “You’re pretty lucky. You could have been killed.” “Not really,” says Mikey. “I was only…

Somebody ought to cross ballpoint pens with coat hangers so that the pens will multiply instead of disappearing. ANONYMOUS Scientists tell us that the fastest animal on Earth, with a top speed of 120 feet per second, is a cow that has been dropped out of a helicopter. DAVE BARRY College graduates look awfully happy for people who’ll never have an entire summer off again. @GOLDENGATEBLOND (SHAUNA) When you sit with a nice girl for two hours, you think it’s only a minute, but when you sit on a hot stove for a minute, you think it’s two hours. That’s relativity. ALBERT EINSTEIN A computer once beat me at chess, but it was no match for me at kickboxing. EMO PHILIPS Have my doubts about this “smart water,” considering how…

The space before the blind man was a riddle he needed to solve. Was he facing a house, a car, a hedge, a fence, a tree, or open space? Ryo Hirosawa pushed the tip of his tongue hard to his palate and made a sharp click. He tried to focus on the form and timing of the click’s echo as it came back to his ears, as fast as a blink. But he couldn’t quite decipher the shape of the sound. Was it scattered, as if it’d hit foliage? Was it a clean pulse ricocheting off a stucco wall? Or was it hitting multiple objects and coming back in fragments, milliseconds apart? “Are there solid objects in here, or are there sparse objects in here?” asked his instructor, Brian Bushway,…

1. capitulate (kuh-'pih-chuh-layt) v.—A: provide funding. B: stop resisting. C: state formally. 2. unequivocal (uhn-ih-'kwih-vuhkuhl) adj.—A: cool under pressure. B: untamed or out of control. C: leaving no doubt. 3. cavalier (ka-vuh-'lir) adj.— A: nonchalant or marked by disdainful dismissal. B: dome shaped. C: undefeated or worthy of praise. 4. leery ('lir-ee) adj.—A: untrusting. B: odd. C: off balance. 5. levity ('leh-vuh-tee) n.— A: taxation. B: merriment. C: departure. 6. penchant ('pen-chunt) n.— A: recital. B: strong liking. C: deep thought. 7. bifurcate ('biy-fer-kayt) v.— A: tell lies. B: flash like lightning. C: divide into parts. 8. craven ('kray-vuhn) adj.— A: chiseled. B: needy or famished. C: cowardly. 9. coterie ('koh-tuh-ree) n.— A: exclusive group. B: takeover. C: birdcage. 10. stalwart ('stahl-wert) adj.— A: loyal. B: left-handed. C: disguising one’s…