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The Plain Bagel Rule: How naked bread is the ultimate test of a bakery

Bagels on display at Katz's Delicatessen in Manhattan. Stan Honda/AFP via Getty Images hide caption

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Stan Honda/AFP via Getty Images

The Plain Bagel Rule: How naked bread is the ultimate test of a bakery

September 18, 2023 • In a world of everything-bagel seasoning and Instagrammable foods, I refuse to stray from the humble unadulterated bagel.

Penguin Publishing Group

How I learned that creativity and vulnerability go hand in hand

September 5, 2023 • I often call Julia Cameron, the luminary behind The Artist's Way, my fairy godmother. Her philosophy has helped me understand that the ability to be artistic comes more naturally than one would think.

Elena Aquila/Pacific Press/LightRocket via Getty Images)

Anime can invite you into worlds you didn't know before

August 21, 2023 • Cartoons like My Neighbor Totoro and Dragon Ball Z introduced me to anime — and started an ongoing love for the artform and its stories that explore what it means to be human.

Dun dun — done! Why watching 'Law & Order' clips on YouTube is oddly satisfying

Law & Order castmembers Jerry Orbach, Angie Harmon, Sam Waterston and Jesse L. Martin in 1999. Getty Images hide caption

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Getty Images

Dun dun — done! Why watching 'Law & Order' clips on YouTube is oddly satisfying

August 4, 2023 • These slimmed-down episodes are perfect for attention spans shortened by TikTok. I don't need to see the whole story — not even how it ends — as long as the conveyor belt of clips keeps rolling.

How photographing action figures healed my inner child

Trying to set up Ant-Man on my controller. Jamal Michel hide caption

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Jamal Michel

How photographing action figures healed my inner child

July 23, 2023 • What started as a childhood fascination has developed into a photographic project where I explore identity and Blackness through the characters I portray.

Savor your coffee; someone probably lost sleep over it

Coffee fruit dries in the late-afternoon sun on a farm in the Brazilian state of Minas Gerais. Lucas Neves hide caption

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Lucas Neves

Savor your coffee; someone probably lost sleep over it

July 9, 2023 • When I get up and make my first cup of coffee, I do it like performing a sacred ritual. I know that those beans traveled far, and were cared for.

Fake stats, real nostalgia: Bonding with my dad through simulation baseball

The author and his dad in Massachusetts in 1995. Courtesy of Josh Willis hide caption

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Courtesy of Josh Willis

Fake stats, real nostalgia: Bonding with my dad through simulation baseball

June 16, 2023 • The real magic of simulation baseball is that it gives me and my dad something to take seriously that isn't actually serious. The games don't matter, but who you play them with really does.

Patrick Smith/Getty Images

The Stanley Cup Final is here. Here's why hockey fans are the real MVPs

June 2, 2023 • Despite not playing hockey, I learned that fan participation is equally important to the game. We have the ability to uplift our team through our energy and engagement.

Food blogging reminds me of what I'm capable of and how my heritage is my own

Bun bo hue is NPR editor Suzanne Nuyen's favorite dish. It inspired the name of her blog, Bun Bo Bae. Suzanne Nuyen/Bun Bo Bae hide caption

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Suzanne Nuyen/Bun Bo Bae

Food blogging reminds me of what I'm capable of and how my heritage is my own

May 20, 2023 • I started my Vietnamese cooking blog to preserve my family's recipes. It taught me that heritage is about mixing what I've been taught with my own experiences, and cooking up something entirely new.

Johannes Simon/Getty Images

Golf allows me to pursue perfection, all while building a community

May 8, 2023 • The sense of community I've regained with the game of golf during the pandemic is more than I could've ever imagined.

Embracing the primal, letting it out and letting go at music festivals

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Frazer Harrison/Getty Images for Coachella

Embracing the primal, letting it out and letting go at music festivals

April 22, 2023 • Music festivals like Coachella are a spectrum of taste and discovery, allowing fans to experience their favorite artists and introducing them to new ones.

Clouds remind me that magical things in life can come out of nowhere

Rolling clouds. Tamar Charney hide caption

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Tamar Charney

Clouds remind me that magical things in life can come out of nowhere

April 17, 2023 • Much like clouds, we are all shifting and changing, solid one moment only to dissolve in the next. And who knows what form our lives will take next?

Antonio Gravante / EyeEm/Getty Images/EyeEm

A love letter to movie trailers and the joy of shared anticipation

April 10, 2023 • Whether it is to revisit a beloved movie or to build excitement for an upcoming project, movie trailers are truly an underappreciated art form.

Joe Klamar/AFP via Getty Images

An ode to playlists, the perfect kind of sonic diary

April 3, 2023 • Listening to old playlists triggers more complicated emotions than looking at old journals; instead of reading stories told from my perspective, I'm hearing music for what it was and always has been.

An ode to March Madness, where you can always expect the unexpected

David McCormack of the Kansas Jayhawks cuts down the net after defeating the North Carolina Tar Heels in March Madness last year. Getty Images hide caption

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Getty Images

An ode to March Madness, where you can always expect the unexpected

March 14, 2023 • As a former college basketball player, I know firsthand how hard the players work to stay in the tournament for as long as possible. Here's why you should fill out a March Madness bracket this season.

Weaving is how I ground myself, and make something beautiful at the same time

Some of Natalie's weaving projects. Natalie Escobar hide caption

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Natalie Escobar

Weaving is how I ground myself, and make something beautiful at the same time

March 6, 2023 • What started off as an impulse-driven hobby at the start of the pandemic has turned into the closest thing to an artistic practice that I've ever had.

Why I'm running away to join the circus (really)

Jack performing at the Maryland Renaissance Festival. Guramar Lepiarz hide caption

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Guramar Lepiarz

Why I'm running away to join the circus (really)

WBUR

February 24, 2023 • Circus performance transcends age, socioeconomic status, even language. You can go anywhere in the world and entertain anyone. And for me, it's my home away from home.

Fiona Geiran

Take your date to the grocery store

February 10, 2023 • Cancel your dinner reservations and grab a cart. You'll get to know your date better wandering through a supermarket. Because what could be more wonderful than regular love?

Take your date to the grocery store

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Transcript

Here's why you should make a habit of having more fun

Rachel Maryam Smith fell in love with the ethereal beauty of giant soap bubbles several years ago and began creating them at sunset events in Santa Cruz, Calif. When enjoying bubbles together, "there is a euphoric point I have observed my participants reach," she says. Carolyn Klein Lagattuta hide caption

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Carolyn Klein Lagattuta

Shots - Health News

Here's why you should make a habit of having more fun

February 4, 2023 • Happiness can sometimes feel just out of reach. But having more fun? You've got this — and those giggles and playful moments can make a big difference to your health and well-being.

My wife and I quit our jobs to sail the Caribbean

Author Scott Neuman's sailboat, Symbiosis, on passage between St. Lucia and Martinique in 2017. Debbie Daigle hide caption

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Debbie Daigle

My wife and I quit our jobs to sail the Caribbean

January 23, 2023 • There's another universe not far from land, devoid of cars, trees and the internet. You don't have to travel a great distance to discover this other cosmos. At 10 miles offshore, you're already there.

Why 'Everything Everywhere All At Once' feels more like reality than movie magic

Evelyn Wang (Michelle Yeoh) is an average Chinese mother who reluctantly becomes a superhero, jumping alternate worlds and absorbing powers to fight an evil villain. A24 hide caption

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A24

Why 'Everything Everywhere All At Once' feels more like reality than movie magic

January 11, 2023 • The Oscars best picture winner is about parallelism; it centers on an alternate multiverse that reflects the real life of the movie's central family, and this family drama reflected my own life.

Josie Norton for NPR

Finding (and losing) yourself backcountry snowboarding

January 9, 2023 • While riding epic lines is the ultimate goal in this sport, the truth is only about 5% of backcountry snowboarding is actually snowboarding. The other 95% is what it takes to get you there.