I went into phone-free silence. What happened was disturbing. My latest column, on our addiction to distraction. Gift link. wapo.st/40aadyg

Good news: We saved the bees. Bad news: We saved the wrong ones. My latest column, on how our well-intended plans to heal nature sometimes go awry. Gift link: wapo.st/3ZhkdWf

For this week's column, I hung out with members of the rescue squad and other retired super-volunteers. Turns out they are not only enhancing their wellbeing -- they are extending their lives by slowing aging. Gift link. wapo.st/4t9F8rK

Neuroscience is finding that even the smallest amount of time noticing nature -- 10 observations over 14 days -- significantly improves our sense of hope. In this dark winter for our nation and for our planet, we need that. Gift link to my latest column. wapo.st/3NsnT4T

What does not kill us really does make us stronger. My latest @washingtonpost.com column, about how I set my farm on fire and did other questionable things. Now with $4 day pass for non-subscribers. www.washingtonpost.com/climate-envi...

Humans since Socrates have been asking how to live the good life. Now AI is trying to answer the question. My latest column, on a startup by chastened founders of Twitter and Pinterest. Gift link. wapo.st/3Yw7yyk

The National Gallery of Art worked with UC Berkeley psychologists to help people find more awe and wonder in their lives. Try some of these prompts. Gift link: wapo.st/49kHrQT

Daily experiences of wonder improve your health -- and it isn't hard to achieve this state. My latest column, from the National Gallery of Art, explains how. Link with $4 day pass offer for nonsubscribers. www.washingtonpost.com/climate-envi...

How has the Mormon church produced so many conservative political leaders who defy Trump on matters of decency and compromise? The answer points to a way out of our political crisis. Link to my latest column includes a $4 day-pass offer for nonsubscribers. www.washingtonpost.com/health/2025/...

Would having a full-body MRI cure my medical worries -- or make them a whole lot worse? Here's what I found. Includes a $4 day pass offer for non-subscribers. www.washingtonpost.com/health/2025/...

Politics has frozen our brains. Here's a way to reboot. My latest column, with new research on how we can use curiosity to defang political foes and detoxify the discourse. Link includes $4 day-pass offer for non-subscribers. www.washingtonpost.com/politics/202...

Scientists have found 2,000-year-old plant communities that offer answers to the biodiversity crisis and climate change. If you're not a subscriber, use this link for a $4 day pass to read the column. www.washingtonpost.com/climate-envi...

These ancient time travelers have answers to our 21st century problems. Newly discovered landscapes that are thousands of years old offer remedies to climate change and Earth's shrinking biodiversity. Gift link to my latest @washingtonpost.com column. wapo.st/49Rtfzu

At a time when only 31 percent of us feel engaged at work, we could all learn from Willie Shanks. He earns just $38k running the local dump. But he loves his work and has become a local celebrity for turning the dump into a community hub. Gift link. wapo.st/47L8iE0

I had feared forest bathing might be another goofy wellness fad like Tucker Carlson’s genital tanning. But evidence suggests time in the woods could prevent cancer, fight infection and protect against dementia. I went to investigate. Gift link to my latest @washingtonpost.com column. wapo.st/3Jzxq8x

How can we stay happy in an age gone mad, when it feels as though all is unstable? Results from a new study suggest a practical way to keep ourselves on a meaningful path — a sort of happiness hack for our chaotic times. Gift link to my latest column. wapo.st/4nlKw7c

Boy meets girl meets moth: a many-legged love triangle. My column on the very passionate community of iNaturalist, which is showing that social media and AI can be used to bring people together for a common good rather than tearing us apart. Gift link. wapo.st/4n7T2GI

If you care about the future of our planet, one of the best things you can do is go fishing. Better still, take your child or grandchild. My latest column, on how to build a consensus to combat climate change: more "boots on the water." Gift link. wapo.st/4n1Umee

When I asked readers how they "rehumanize," more than 500 responded with deeply personal accounts. They pointed me to the one thing AI will never be able to do. Gift link to my latest column. wapo.st/4pYbpRk

The animal most in need of "rewilding" is us. I spent some time tracking mountain lions in the Pacific Northwest, getting close to these frightening but magical apex predators. Here's why bringing them back to the East would be good for us. Gift link. wapo.st/3KksTqC

As America points fingers, these MAGA faithful link arms with liberals. My latest column, on a kaffeeklatsch in rural Virginia that has found an alternative to our toxic politics-- and an antidote to the epidemic of loneliness. Gift link. wapo.st/4gAmDHg

In ugly times, we need to seek beauty in tiny things. The first of my new column on how we rehumanize focuses on the sublime beauty in grass flowers and other ordinary things -- as long as we pause to look. Gift link. wapo.st/4pm7wVU

We are losing our humanity. I am searching for an antidote -- and I need your help. My column about my new @washingtonpost.com column. Gift link. wapo.st/472i9Gz

My @washingtonpost.com column will be moving later this summer to Futures, a new Post section devoted to grappling with the forces shaping the 21st century.

My night in the forest with the Heebie-Jeebie, the Big Dipper, the July Comet, the Spring 4-Flasher, the Creekside Tree Blinker and other fireflies. Insects could hold the secret to human survival -- if we allow them to survive. Gift link to my latest column: wapo.st/46yYuh9

This wasn’t just another routine cave-in by conservatives. This was probably the last chance to make a dent in the trajectory of the federal government’s finances — and they surrendered utterly. Gift link to my latest column. wapo.st/4kpBmFc

Oslo: Give Trump the %@$&)! Nobel Peace Prize already — or he’s sending the B-2s. Gift link to my latest @postopinions.bsky.social column. wapo.st/4ekP76G

Oslo: Give Trump the %@$&)! Nobel Peace Prize already — or he’s sending the B-2s. Gift link to my latest @postopinions.bsky.social column. wapo.st/4ekP76G

Will America go to war against Iran? Let us ask Donald Trump, human Magic 8 Ball. Gift link to my latest @postopinions.bsky.social column. wapo.st/3I6CakI

How nature improves our cognition, our mood and much else. Lessons from the Appalachian Trail — and from scientists studying nature’s impact on our wellbeing. Gift link to my latest @postopinions.bsky.social column. wapo.st/4kJERXT

The spectacular Musk blowup is just another day in Trump's reign of error. My latest @postopinions.bsky.social column finds there is no sanctuary from this administration's buffoonery. Gift link: wapo.st/43vKwe9

Here are the 3,515 things the Democratic Party must do -- immediately! Gift link to my latest @postopinions.bsky.social column: wapo.st/4kt1JuR

The targets of Trump’s bullying rarely win him over with obeisance. The better course is to follow (metaphorically speaking) Elon Musk's advice: “If I had punched them hard in the nose, they wouldn’t come after me again.” Gift link to my latest @postopinions.bsky.social column: wapo.st/3ZItCqe

I cringe for my country when I look back on all the Trump administration’s embarrassing episodes over the last week. Gift link to my latest @postopinions.bsky.social column. wapo.st/4kuCrfh

Uncovering the secret lives of turtles, we also discover ourselves. A @postopinions.bsky.social column on my time in the fields and streams of Virginia, tracking box turtles, river herring and American kestrels. Gift link. wapo.st/4moW1LV

This is what happens when we have a morally lost president. My latest @postopinions.bsky.social column, on the Trump administration invoking eugenics, taking Medicaid and food stamps from the poor, celebrating Jamaal Khashoggi's killer and more. Gift link. wapo.st/3EVWAfp

Trump needs that Qatari 747 — for all his evasive maneuvers. Gift link to my latest @postopinions.bsky.social column, on Trump’s reversals on tariffs, China, Iran, Israel and more. wapo.st/4khCvz3

As the world goes to hell, Trump is living his best life. My latest @postopinions.bsky.social column, on how Trump and his family are pocketing hundreds of millions of dollars while he talks about rationing dolls and pencils. Gift link. wapo.st/3ZcXpaj

Could Trump incompetence save the Republic? My latest @postopinions.bsky.social column, on the administration’s attempted sabotage of the VA, led by a guy who doesn’t know the difference between Medicare and Medicaid. Gift link. wapo.st/4m5jxNF

War is peace. Freedom is slavery. Ignorance is strength. And bust is boom. As the grave consequences of the administration’s policies become apparent, Trump and his lieutenants have retreated to a fantasyland. My latest column. wapo.st/3RIvtXZ

Trump invoked Biden’s name 21 times on Tuesday night, not counting an additional nine references to “Sleepy Joe” and “Crooked Joe,” a transcript shows. By comparison, Trump made just two mentions of the economy in an hour and a half. My latest column. wapo.st/4jyBrqF

'Meshugge' doesn't begin to capture Donald Trump. My @postopinions.bsky.social column on the latest from the bumbling amateurs in the administration. Gift link: wapo.st/42t676t

The Trump administration, brought to you by the National Demolition Association. My latest column, on Trump's corporate sponsors. Gift link: wapo.st/4jlEK48

Trump is wrapping up 100 days of historic failure. My @postopinions.bsky.social column looking back at a period of destruction unlike any other in American history. Gift link: wapo.st/3RWUWg8

To save our trees, we must burn down our forests. My latest @postopinions.bsky.social column, on the demise of the mighty oak, our national tree, and how to save it. Gift link. wapo.st/42x4u6n

Who's afraid of Donald Trump? Fewer and fewer people. My latest @postopinions.bsky.social column, on growing fratricide in the Republican Party and Trump's attempts to return us to the 19th Century. Beware the Miasma. Gift link: wapo.st/42qm2RD

My @postopinions.bsky.social column on the latest week in Trump crazy: Taking an ax to the economy, the Constitution -- and Andrew Jackson's southern magnolia, in preparation for paving the Rose Garden. wapo.st/4j4HFy7

To honor Trump's latest executive order, these migrant predators should be deported from the National Zoo: Chinese three-striped box turtle Cuban crocodile Iranian fat-tailed gecko Panamanian golden frog Andean bear Persian onager African clawed frog screaming hairy armadillo wapo.st/4ca46iV

As Trump’s parade of horribles marches on, a few on the right locate their spines. Gift link to my latest @postopinions.bsky.social column. wapo.st/3YaYEq3

More emojis! Just-released transcript of the group chat has Trump negotiator Steve Witkoff chiming in with a quintuple: 🙏🙏💪 followed by two U.S. flags.