Aerobic Exercise Proves Just as Effective as Antidepressants in Large Review. We’ve talked about the mental health benefits of exercise on AoM for years, and I’m fond of saying that if you struggle with depression and aren’t regularly exercising, you haven’t yet begun to fight. So it’s nice to see a massive new analysis that confirms this mantra, as well as the reams of research that have previously proven the depression-fighting benefits of physical activity. Published in the British Journal of Sports Medicine, this analysis looked at data from nearly 80,000 people across more than 1,000 studies and found that exercise reduced depression symptoms with an effect size comparable to (and sometimes surpassing) that of antidepressants and psychotherapy. Aerobic exercise (running, walking, cycling) came out on top, and group settings outperformed solo workouts. And of course exercise has benefits beyond mental health and doesn’t come with the negative side effects of antidepressants nor the cost of therapy. If you’re battling the black dog, even taking a daily morning walk can help keep it on a leash.
People’s Choice Old Fashioned Original Beef Jerky. In looking for an all-natural beef jerky, I decided to try some from People’s Choice — a family-run operation out of Los Angeles that’s been at it for four generations. I wasn’t sure about the jerky at first; as compared to the gas station variety, which is typically thick, moist, and sweet, it’s thin and very dry. But dang, it really grew on me. The jerky kind of melts in your mouth and releases this bona fide steak-like flavor the standard rubbery stuff can’t touch. The ingredient list for the Old Fashioned Original variety is really clean: just beef, salt, and spices. No sugar. No preservatives. No MSG. I also like that it’s not excessively salty; a lot of jerky out there makes you feel as dehydrated as the meat. All in all, it tastes like what a cowboy would’ve been chewing on the trail, and I’m digging it.
The Twilight Zone: “Printer’s Devil.” In season four of The Twilight Zone, episodes were stretched from their formerly tight 25-minute runtime to an hour. While most of those longer installments sagged under the additional length, this was one that benefited from it. The story follows a struggling newspaper editor who, desperate to save his failing publication, makes a Faustian bargain with a mysterious drifter who offers him success on a silver platter. The scoops pour in. The headlines write themselves. Circulation skyrockets. But there’s a dark price to be paid for the paper’s new popularity. It’s a resonant plot that shows that our modern era of cutthroat competition for clicks, subscribers, and relevance isn’t anything new, nor is the temptation to sell your soul for some attention.
Rapt: Attention and the Focused Life by Winifred Gallagher. I first read this book way back in 2013, and I still think about it regularly. I’ve been going back through my highlights this week, and it holds up. Gallagher’s argument boils down to this: the quality of your life depends less on what happens to you and more on what you choose to pay attention to. She came to this realization after being diagnosed with cancer and deciding she wasn’t going to let the disease monopolize her focus. It was published in 2009, before the current discourse about phones and distraction, so a lot of her insights are extremely prescient. If you enjoy Cal Newport’s writing on deep work, you’ll enjoy this book.
On our Dying Breed newsletter, we published Sunday Firesides: Give It to the Busy Man and Navigating the Tricky Tension Between Love and Respect.
Quote of the Week
Mediocrity is obscurity.
—Timothy Fuller
