Intestinal permeability, also known as gut barrier dysfunction, stands out as a key catalyst of multiple disease processes, including aging itself. Permeability occurs when the normally tight junctions open between enterocytes, the cells that make up the lining of the gut. This causes pathogens to leak into the gut lumen, or space. The leakage, in turn, allows the release of inflammatory molecules in the gut, which can become chronic.

As we now know, permeability isn’t confined to the gut alone. Inflammatory pathogens can migrate from the gut lumen into the bloodstream and circulate throughout the body. They can also cross the blood-brain barrier and expose the brain to inflammation. To recap, loss of integrity in the endothelial cells that line the gut causes inflammation in the gut space to leak into the bloodstream and often, to infiltrate the brain.

The consequences of reduced gut barrier integrity extend far beyond inflammation. Breaches in the gut’s protective barrier are common in myriad illnesses. Understanding gut barrier dysfunction may hold the key to addressing inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), fatty liver disease, neurodegenerative disorders, autoimmune diseases (including Hashimoto’s thyroiditis), and post-viral syndromes like Long Covid and CFS/ME.

Social media sites like TikTok, Instagram, and Threads are peppered with people who claim to specialize in gut disorders, recommending a product they say will repair the gut barrier. But one consistent takeaway in gut research is that the cause of gut barrier dysfunction matters. In fact, it determines how to treat the dysfunction effectively.

This is the third column in a three-part series about the gut-brain axis and its role in chronic illness. (The first covered the gut-brain axis and cognitive longevity and the second explored how viral inflammation scars the brain.)

Hi Readers! If you’re interested in a 2-hour Masterclass that explores other causes of gut barrier dysfunction, join me on Tuesday, June 23^rd from 12 to 2:15 p.m. EDT, Boston time.

We’ll explore:

• main causes of gut permeability and treatment approaches

• the gut barrier, microbiome, and heart disease

• muscle, myokines, and the gut-brain axis

• Mast Cell Activation Syndrome: causes, diagnosis, treatment

• histamine intolerance: causes, diagnosis, treatment

• exercise, dopamine, and the microbiome

LEARN MORE + REGISTER

The Molecular Gateway to Gut Barrier Dysfunction + Inflammation

Alessio Fasano, M.D., a renowned researcher in gut dysfunction, published a paper in 2020 that focused on zonulin, a protein that modulates the tight junctions between endothelial cells in the gut. In ideal amounts, zonulin temporarily loosens these junctions to allow the absorption of nutrients and water, while keeping out harmful substances. The junctions then reknit themselves together.

But at high levels, zonulin makes the openings between junctions more enduring. The extended permeability allows undigested food particles, toxins, and inflammatory molecules to escape the intestines and leak into the bloodstream.

Zonulin also triggers intestinal dysbiosis, or imbalance, and an overgrowth of certain gut bacteria. The resulting loss of gut microbial diversity further compromises the gut barrier. Next, foreign substances and endotoxins are, as Alessio Fasano puts it, “trafficked” from the gut space to the connective tissue of the gut lining, and then the bloodstream and possibly the brain.

The movement of these substances triggers a cascade of pro-inflammatory molecules, including interferon-gamma (IFN-γ) and tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF-α), that further compromise an already beleaguered gut barrier.

Fasano has called zonulin a biological “doorway” to inflammation, autoimmunity, and cancer.

Many factors contribute to excess zonulin, such as gluten consumption, alcohol use, exposure to toxic chemicals such as pesticides and cigarette smoke. Remarkably, so do spike proteins from viruses such as SARS-CoV-2, MERS, HIV, hepatitis, Ebola, and many influenzas.

Increased zonulin has been associated with a number of diseases, some of which may surprise you:

• ankylosis spondylitis

• ADHD

• autism

• all types of diabetes, including gestational, plus insulin resistance

• major depression

• multiple sclerosis

• colitis

• celiac disease

• irritable bowel syndrome (IBS)

• Hashimoto’s thyroiditis (multiple mimicry targets between gut antigens + thyroid peroxidase—enzyme essential for making thyroid hormone)

• chronic fatigue syndrome/myalgic encephalomyelitis (CFS/ME)

High levels of zonulin and gut barrier disturbance also correlate strongly with the process of aging itself.

But what, exactly, drives the trafficking of toxins from gut to bloodstream to brain?

Transporters of Inflammation from Gut to Blood to Brain

In a new study published in May of 2026, researchers from Marshall University and the University of Missouri discovered a family of tiny gut particles that play a key role in toxin transportation.

Published in Aging Cell, the study examined gut luminal exosomes, microscopic particles that cells use to communicate by carrying proteins and genetic material throughout the body.

The researchers took from older animals exosomes that contained molecular signals tied to insulin resistance, inflammation, and gut barrier damage. They transferred those exosomes into young animals, and found that the youthful ones developed similar aging-related metabolic and inflammatory changes.

They also found the converse: the transfer of gut luminal exosomes from young animals to older ones reduced a number of age-related metabolic problems.

The results suggest that the gut environment itself—not just gut barrier integrity and inflammation but the exosomes that transport the inflammation from gut to bloodstream to brain. These gut-related inflammatory and transport dynamics may play an important role in the development of diseases associated with aging.

The results underscore the theory that the process of aging occurs in multiple body systems simultaneously, including the gut, mitochondria and metabolic function, immunity, and cellular and molecular signaling. The investigators also identified specific molecules within the exosomes that could help lead to new treatments for age-related diseases.

When it comes to exosomes, there’s something else at work here: they are the smallest unit of extracellular vesicles, membrane-bound particles released into the environment surrounding the cells by every type of cell known today, including neurons, epithelial cells, immune cells, stem cells, platelets and cancer cells.

They have also been identified in bacteria, plants and fungi, making EV-mediated communication one of the most phylogenetically conserved biological mechanisms known.

Exosomes also play a key role in autoimmune connective tissue-related diseases such as lupus, rheumatoid arthritis, and Sjogren’s syndrome.

These terms, extracellular vesicles and exosomes, were familiar to me for another reason. Exosomes also lie at the center of several studies examining the long-term molecular impact of interpersonal trauma.

During my book research for the chapter devoted to trauma and embodiment, a startling study from the University of Colorado caught my eye.

Tracy Bale and her colleagues found that women who experienced sexual violence during a key window of adolescence (between the ages of 14 and 17) show unique changes in extracellular vesicle proteomes (proteins) and circulating mitochondrial DNA. Sexual trauma during that key developmental window reprograms the skin, the body’s primary boundary between self and world, and triggers a premature aging process at the molecular level.

This study may seem unrelated, but it isn’t. It illustrates the way that trauma and stress impact us not just psychologically but on biological, even molecular levels, across the course of a lifetime. The findings from the Bale study dovetail with research demonstrating that PTSD is associated with dysbiosis and alterations in gut barrier integrity.

Assessing and Treating Zonulin-Derived Gut Barrier Breakdown

The field of gastroenterology is beginning to develop tests to measure zonulin, although researchers like Alessio Fasano question their efficacy. Fasano suggests, instead, a battery of tests: bacterial products in the bloodstream through IgA/IgM (antibody) responses to samples of gut commensal (“good”) bacteria, IgM levels to zonulin, and blood assays that measure lipopolysaccharides (LPS) and other toxins.

Intestinal permeability can be treated. However, the treatment is most effective when it corresponds to the specific cause of gut barrier loss.

In the case of gluten-inducted and zonulin-related intestinal permeability, larazotide acetate has been shown effective at inhibiting zonulin.

And to restore the gut lining in cases of zonulin-induced permeability, many doctors prescribe the following:

• 5g of glutamine twice daily

• rebuilding the gut microbiome with saccharomyces boulardii, lactobacillus rhamnosus, and bifidobacterium infantis (to support the gut barrier)

• prebiotic fiber

• Vitamin D3 (50 to 80 ng/ml)

Hi Readers! If you’re interested in a 2-hour Masterclass that explores other causes of gut barrier dysfunction, join me on Tuesday, June 23^rd from 12 to 2:15 p.m. EDT, Boston time.

We’ll explore:

• main causes of gut permeability and treatment approaches

• the gut barrier, microbiome, and heart disease

• muscle, myokines, and the gut-brain axis

• Mast Cell Activation Syndrome: causes, diagnosis, treatment

• histamine intolerance: causes, diagnosis, treatment

• exercise, dopamine, and the microbiome

LEARN MORE + REGISTER

Sources:

In a 2020 paper, Alessio Fasano, M.D., a renowned researcher in gut: Fasano A. (2020). All disease begins in the (leaky) gut: role of zonulin-mediated gut permeability in the pathogenesis of some chronic inflammatory diseases. F1000Research, 9, F1000 Faculty Rev-69. https://doi.org/10.12688/f1000research.20510.1

In ideal amounts, zonulin temporarily loosens these junctions: Sturgeon, C., & Fasano, A. (2016). Zonulin, a regulator of epithelial and endothelial barrier functions, and its involvement in chronic inflammatory diseases. Tissue barriers, 4(4), e1251384. https://doi.org/10.1080/21688370.2016.1251384

Fasano has called zonulin a biological “doorway” to inflammation: Fasano A. (2011). Zonulin and its regulation of intestinal barrier function: the biological door to inflammation, autoimmunity, and cancer. Physiological reviews, 91(1), 151–175. https://doi.org/10.1152/physrev.00003.2008

Spike proteins from viruses such as SARS-CoV-2, MERS, HIV, hepatitis: Palomino-Kobayashi, L. A., Ymaña, B., Ruiz, J., Mayanga-Herrera, A., Ugarte-Gil, M. F., & Pons, M. J. (2022). Zonulin, a marker of gut permeability, is associated with mortality in a cohort of hospitalised peruvian COVID-19 patients. Frontiers in Cellular and Infection Microbiology, 12. https://doi.org/10.3389/fcimb.2022.1000291

Increased zonulin has been associated with a number of diseases: Fasano A. (2020). All disease begins in the (leaky) gut: role of zonulin-mediated gut permeability in the pathogenesis of some chronic inflammatory diseases. F1000Research, 9, F1000 Faculty Rev-69. https://doi.org/10.12688/f1000research.20510.1

In a new study published in May of 2026, researchers discovered a family of tiny: Khalyfa, A., Zhen, L., Joshi, T., & Gozal, D. (2026). Gut Luminal Exosomes in Young and Old Mice: Multi-Omic Characteristics and Regulation of Gut Permeability. Aging cell, 25(4), e70455. https://doi.org/10.1111/acel.70455

membrane-bound particles released into the environment surrounding the cells: What Are Extracellular Vesicles? Exosomes, Microvesicles and Apoptotic Bodies Explained. (n.d.). Retrieved June 17, 2026, from https://www.cellgs.com/blog/ev-or-not-ev-that-is-the-question.html

Exosomes also play a key role in autoimmune connective tissue-related diseases: Zhu, T., Wang, Y., Jin, H., & Li, L. (2019). The role of exosome in autoimmune connective tissue disease. Annals of medicine, 51(2), 101–108. https://doi.org/10.1080/07853890.2019.1592215

Women who experienced sexual violence during a key window of adolescence: Morrison, K. E., Stenson, A. F., Marx-Rattner, R., Carter, S., Michopoulos, V., Gillespie, C. F., Powers, A., Huang, W., Kane, M. A., Jovanovic, T., & Bale, T. L. (2022). Developmental Timing of Trauma in Women Predicts Unique Extracellular Vesicle Proteome Signatures. Biological psychiatry, 91(3), 273–282. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biopsych.2021.08.003

The findings from the Bale study dovetail with research demonstrating that PTSD: Marano, G., Lo Giudice, L., Specogna, E., Chisari, L., Brisi, C., Traversi, G., Mazza, O., & Mazza, M. (2026). From Dysbiosis to Distress: The Gut-Brain Connection in Trauma-Related Disorders. Nutrients, 18(3), 530. https://doi.org/10.3390/nu18030530

Instead, he suggests a series of tests: bacterial products: Fasano A. (2020). All disease begins in the (leaky) gut: role of zonulin-mediated gut permeability in the pathogenesis of some chronic inflammatory diseases. F1000Research, 9, F1000 Faculty Rev-69. https://doi.org/10.12688/f1000research.20510.1

In the case of gluten-inducted intestinal permeability, larazotide acetate: Fasano A. (2020). All disease begins in the (leaky) gut: role of zonulin-mediated gut permeability in the pathogenesis of some chronic inflammatory diseases. F1000Research, 9, F1000 Faculty Rev-69. https://doi.org/10.12688/f1000research.20510.1

To restore the gut lining, many doctors prescribe 5g of glutamine: Deters, B. J., & Saleem, M. (2021). The role of glutamine in supporting gut health and neuropsychiatric factors. Food Science and Human Wellness, 10(2), 149–154. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.fshw.2021.02.003 See also: Achamrah, N., Déchelotte, P., & Coëffier, M. (2017). Glutamine and the regulation of intestinal permeability: from bench to bedside. Current opinion in clinical nutrition and metabolic care, 20(1), 86–91. https://doi.org/10.1097/MCO.0000000000000339

Previously, the CDC and the Department of Health and Human Services had estimated that 5 to 7 percent of U.S. adults—about 18 million people—developed the chronic post-viral illness. But the MGH study reviewed the medical records of 457,950 patients at 58 hospitals in New England, Southeast Texas, Southern California, and Western Pennsylvania.

Their conclusion: of the adults who tested positive for COVID-19, nearly 16 percent—a staggering 54 million Americans—developed Long Covid. This is more than twice the rate calculated by federal health officials at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The key reason for the dramatic upgrade in prevalence estimates of Long Covid, the researchers said, was the number of people whose symptoms fit the criteria for the post-viral illness but who had not been identified by physicians.

If accurate, the new figure eclipses the number of people in the U.S. with depression.

In post-viral illnesses like Long Covid, Ebola, hepatitis, and CFS/ME, a debilitating and often overlooked dyad of symptoms relates to energy regulation. The two symptoms: extreme fatigue and post-exertional malaise (PEM).

Until recently, many doctors dismissed extreme fatigue and post-exertional malaise as “psychological” in much the same way they did cognitive symptoms like brain fog. But thanks to a trove of novel research, immunologists have revealed these symptoms to be biological and measurable—and, ultimately, treatable.

What lies at the heart of extreme fatigue and post-exertional malaise, and what might we do to alleviate it?

The Body’s First Line of Defense in Post-Viral Syndromes

The immune system most important job is to be a keeper of barriers, to distinguish between self and non-self.

Illnesses like Long Covid attack vital barrier structures in the body and the brain. (Last week I wrote a column about the blood-brain barrier in Long Covid and other post-viral issues. I’ve also talked about the way RNA viruses like Long Covid violate the gut lining.)

A third key barrier now thought to play a central role in fatigue and post-exertional malaise is the innate immune system.

The innate immune system is the body’s first line of defense against intruders. When a virus attacks, the innate immune system is your body’s first line of defense. This system plays the role of a generalist: it responds in the same way to all germs and foreign substances, which is why it is also known as the “non-specific” immune system.

When infection occurs, cells like macrophages and natural killer (NK) cells release chemicals that warn surrounding healthy cells, making them more impervious to infection. At this stage, your immune system might initiate a fever or produce mucus to expel the virus from your system.

In the second stage of infection, your adaptive immune system takes over to identify and target specific pathogens. Helper T cells identify the pathogens and release signaling molecules that direct other immune cells, like B cells and macrophages, to make antibodies or consume the virus, bacteria, or fungus.

Once your immune system eliminates the threat, most T cells die and are cleared away. But some transform into “memory” T cells that survive long-term. This helps ensure immunity against future infections. If these special T cells encounter the same pathogen again, they not only remember but reactivate the genetic code that defeats it.

This multi-pronged system works well in illnesses from which we recover. But viruses like SARS-CoV-2, Ebola, MERS, Zika, hepatitis, and many influenzas encode their genomes as RNA, and often result in profound post-viral illnesses like Long Covid.

How Post-Viral Illnesses Breach the Innate Immune System

A study published in September 2025 in the journal Nature found that malfunctions within the innate immune system are central factors in the fatigue and post-exertional malaise emblematic of CFS/ME and Long Covid.

Ian Lipkin, M.D., known as “the virus hunter” for his discovery of more than 2,000 viruses, was a principal investigator in the study. Lipkin’s research focuses on how microbes cause chronic diseases like CFS/ME and Long Covid.

The type of microbes that cause these chronic diseases varies widely, from RNA viruses like SARS-CoV-2, Ebola, influenza, and HIV to Borrelia burgdorferi and Mycobacterium tuberculosis. This insight led Lipkin and his colleagues to hypothesize that the innate immune system, the body’s first line of defense, is a catalyst for the fatigue and post-exertional malaise that accompany CFS/ME and Long Covid.

To test their hypothesis, Lipkin and his colleagues stimulated the innate immune response in the blood samples by introducing additives that mimicked microbial infections. Afterward, they examined the innate immune responses, serum metabolite levels, and serum protein levels of people with CFS/ME and healthy participants. They also compared samples collected before and after exercising to pinpoint the catalysts for fatigue and post-exertional malaise.

The researchers The findings, in people with CFS/ME, showed:

• a more vigorous innate immune response

• a greater number of inflammatory cytokines

• higher levels of complement proteins after exercise

The last finding is significant: complement proteins collaborate to destroy invading pathogens, clear damaged cells, and upregulate inflammation.

The study findings also revealed that people with CFS/ME had different levels of inflammatory metabolites and proteins, including:

• anomalies in the connections between cells that form the gut lining, or barrier

• anomalies between cells and the extracellular matrix, which relates to fascia (fascia is a dynamic and intricate connective tissue network composed of different types of cells embedded in the extracellular matrix and nervous fibers)

• the issues between cells and the extracellular matrix may also cause the gut to release inflammatory contents or cells to release proinflammatory signals

• skewed levels of important gut microbe metabolites, including higher levels of short-chain fatty acids, which promote inflammation and dysregulate mitochondria (also critical for regulating inflammation)

• difficulty removing harmful, proinflammatory metabolites (e.g., ammonia toxins, microbial toxins, and reactive oxygen species)

• higher levels of di- and triglycerides (which promote inflammation)

• problems processing tryptophan into either serotonin (related to cognitive fatigue and mood) or kynurenine (related to brain inflammation)

The energy systems of people with CFS/ME exhibited stress, including difficulty utilizing fats for fuel, signs of blocked energy pathways, and markers of mitochondrial strain. They also had higher levels of fats in their blood that can drive inflammation, as well as shifts in gut-related molecules, suggesting a weakened gut barrier and changes in the microbiome.

For participants with CFS/ME, many of the above changes worsened with exercise; the more skewed the metabolite and protein levels, the more severe their fatigue and post-exertional malaise.

Strikingly, some of these CFS/ME-related changes were more pronounced in women, particularly those going through menopause and the attendant drop in the anti-inflammatory protective effects of estrogen. (Just as notably, these inflammatory changes can be reversed in women by the administration of menopausal hormone therapy.)

These findings suggest that in people with CFS/ME and likely also Long Covid, the first barrier of the innate immune system becomes hyper-activated in response to microbial (viral, bacterial, or fungal) infections. Subsequent microbial infections can hyperactivate the innate immune response, worsening metabolic problems that trigger fatigue and post-exertional malaise.

The Role of Muscle and Its Chemical Messengers

Reading about post-exertional malaise, however, I couldn’t help but think of muscle and its chemical messengers, known as myokines, in fatigue and post-exertional malaise. This is one of my favorite nodes of integrative research, and I went down this rabbit hole for Saturday’s All-Day workshop on post-viral diseases and mind-body medicine. (You can still purchase the replay, here, through Thursday night.)

Myokines are signaling proteins released by muscle cells in response to contraction; they enable muscle to impact the endocrine system, mood, and even cognitive function. Perhaps the best-known myokine is BDNF, or brain-derived neurotropic factor, which shapes learning, memory, neuroplasticity, and mood.

A study published in May of 2025 found that in people with post-Covid fatigue, two myokines are elevated: myostatin and irisin.

Myostatin is a negative regulator of muscle growth implicated in muscle wasting and functional decline, particularly in critically ill people. It plays a key role in the muscle impairment and fatigue seen in Long Covid and CFS/ME.

Irisin modulates energy metabolism, muscle adaptation, and metabolic regulation. Because irisin also has anti-inflammatory effects, the research team felt that its increase may be muscle’s way of compensating for muscle deterioration in post-Covid fatigue. Sustained elevation of irisin could indicate dysregulated metabolic state + imbalance in muscle homeostasis.

Therapeutic Interventions for Fatigue and Post-Exertional Malaise

These findings, along with those from other studies, suggest multiple treatments for fatigue and post-exertional malaise in people contending with CFS/ME and post-exertional malaise. These include:

• immunomodulatory medications such as IV immunoglobulin

• medications that dampen the innate immune response like interleukin-37, metformin, and rapamycin)

• colchicine, derived from the autumn crocus, a medication often used for gout and pericarditis known to have anti-inflammatory effects

• medications and supplements that repair and strengthen the gut lining and rebalance gut flora

• selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors or 5-hydroxytryptophan may address tryptophan dysregulation

• targeted medications that help reduce inflammation for specific subgroups of patients, like estrogen for menopausal women with ME/CFS

• guanfacine: used in ADHD and for high blood pressure

And as I wrote about in last week’s column, many people with CFS/ME and Long Covid, myself included, find cold immersion therapy helpful for cognitive symptoms, fatigue, and post-exertional malaise.

Following the Octopus

The octopus is able to edit its own RNA while leaving its DNA intact. This allows it to respond to environmental changes like cold water without waiting for the long, slow arc of evolution to do so. We admire the octopus for its clever genetic editing capability, an emblem of adaptability and resilience.

I like to think that those of us contending with RNA-derived illnesses such as CFS/ME and Long Covid are the “early adapters” for the rest of humanity, going through this process to that in time, others can do the same.

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Sources:

In a study published on May 27, they reported that about one in six American: Tian, J., Azhir, A., Decaro, M., Chau, N., Hügel, J., Morris, M., Cheng, J., Fard, P., Bassett, I. V., Bell, D. S., Bernstam, E. V., Visweswaran, S., Klann, J. G., Murphy, S. N., & Estiri, H. (2026). Long COVID Persistence and Surveillance Gaps Across 58 US Hospitals. JAMA Network Open, 9(5), e2614909. https://doi.org/10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2026.14909

The Centers for Disease Control and the Department of Health and Human Services: CDC. (2025, September 16). Long COVID. Long COVID. https://www.cdc.gov/long-covid/index.html See also: Affairs (ASPA), A. S. for P. (2026, March 9). Invisible Illness: Long COVID [Landing Page]. https://www.hhs.gov/longcovid/index.html

If accurate, this figure eclipses the number of people: Major Depression—National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH). (n.d.). Retrieved June 2, 2026, from https://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/statistics/major-depression

Neuroscientist Antonio Damasio defined the self as “whatever the immune system: Damasio, A. (2003). Mental self: The person within. Nature, 423(6937), 227–227. https://doi.org/10.1038/423227a

Some, however, transform into “memory” T cells that survive: T cells: Warriors of the immune system | UCIR. (n.d.). Retrieved May 23, 2026, from https://www.ucir.org/immunology-101/lesson_3

A study published in September 2025 in the journal Nature found that the innate: Che, X., Ranjan, A., Guo, C., Zhang, K., Goldsmith, R., Levine, S., Moneghetti, K. J., Zhai, Y., Ge, L., Mishra, N., Hornig, M., Bateman, L., Klimas, N. G., Montoya, J. G., Peterson, D. L., Klein, S. L., Fiehn, O., Komaroff, A. L., & Lipkin, W. I. (2025). Heightened innate immunity may trigger chronic inflammation, fatigue and post-exertional malaise in ME/CFS. medRxiv : the preprint server for health sciences, 2025.07.23.25332049. https://doi.org/10.1101/2025.07.23.25332049

Fascia is a dynamic and intricate connective tissue network composed of: Fede, C., Pirri, C., Fan, C., Petrelli, L., Guidolin, D., De Caro, R., & Stecco, C. (2021). A Closer Look at the Cellular and Molecular Components of the Deep/Muscular Fasciae. International journal of molecular sciences, 22(3), 1411. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijms22031411

Just as notably, these inflammatory changes can be reversed in women by the administration: De Maeyer, R. P. H., Sikora, J., Bracken, O. V., Shih, B., Lloyd, A. F., Peckham, H., Hollett, K., Abdelhamid, K., Cai, W., James, M., Pfeffer, P. E., Vukmanovic-Stejic, M., Akbar, A. N., & Chambers, E. S. (2025). Age-Associated Inflammatory Monocytes Are Increased in Menopausal Females and Reversed by Hormone Replacement Therapy. Aging Cell, 24(11), e70249. https://doi.org/10.1111/acel.70249

But a study published in May of 2025 found that in people with Long Covid fatigue: Visconti, N. R. G., Rocha, N. N., Nascimento, G. S., Menário, C. V. B., Silva, J. D., Martins, C. M., Caruso-Neves, C., Cruz, F. F., Rocco, P. R. M., Mello, F. C. Q., & Lapa-e-Silva, J. R. (2025). Elevated adipokines and myokines are associated with fatigue in long COVID patients. Frontiers in Medicine, 12. https://doi.org/10.3389/fmed.2025.1547886

These findings, along with those from other studies, suggest multiple treatments: Rudroff T. (2024). Decoding Post-Viral Fatigue: The Basal Ganglia’s Complex Role in Long-COVID. Neurology international, 16(2), 380–393. https://doi.org/10.3390/neurolint16020028

But the devastation wrought by Covid-19 is starting to change things.

Over 400 million people globally have Long Covid; many report cognitive issues like brain fog. And close to 170 million people have Chronic Fatigue Syndrome/Myalgic Encephalomyelitis (CFS/ME). This changing landscape has driven a demand for novel research into why this happens and what we can do about it.

In the aftermath of many viruses, cognitive deficits—think brain fog and reductions in memory, new learning, concentration, attention, and executive functioning—may be less a side effect than a central feature.

It’s not “all in your head.” Viruses, you could say, leave cognitive “scars.” Cutting edge science is beginning to figure out why that happens and what we can do to address it.

Hi Readers! In my other life, I teach on the science, psychology, and social context of integrative medicine. If the topic of chronic immune and autoimmune illnesses interests you, I’m offering an all-day 6-hour training on Saturday, May 30. We’ll review the systems in the mind, brain, and body involved in chronic illness, including the immune, autonomic, and enteric (gut) nervous systems. We’ll strategize ways to boost cognitive function, stress resilience, and immune balance. Can’t join live? You can watch via the replay. For more information, visit the course page.

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Until recently, scientific studies measured cognitive function in each separate disease: HIV, herpes, hepatitis, Epstein-Barr infections, and Long Covid. But that’s no longer the case.

In March of 2026, Julie Peron and her colleagues at the University of Geneva published a titanic review of 931 studies. They examined cognitive function across viral types, including HIV, herpes, hepatitis, and SARS-CoV-2 (the virus that causes Covid-19 and Long Covid). They discovered several key biomarkers that correlate with cognitive decline across different types of viruses:

• High levels of activated white blood cells and pro-inflammatory cytokines (signaling molecules) relate directly to deficits in episodic memory and information processing

• Activated CD4+ T cells (also known as “helper” T cells) and anti-inflammatory cytokines seem to protect the brain, preserving cognitive capacity

Note: the term “episodic memory” refers to things that happened to us in the past and that build a sense of self over time. But it’s not just in the mind: episodic memory is deeply embodied. It includes interoception and is rich in sensory and emotional detail. It also involves proprioception and movement, agency, and visual-spatial elements, such as where you were walking with a partner on your last anniversary.

Notably, cognitive impairment occurs at both acute infection stages and later stages, including post-viral syndromes.

Cognitive stability, it turns out, depends not on the absolute amounts of pro-inflammatory or anti-inflammatory molecules, but on the balance between these types of signals.

Cognitive “scars” are not imaginary or psychogenic (caused by the mind). They are very real and have neurobiological mechanisms.

When a marauding virus attacks your immune system, the epic battle for survival takes place not only in your gut and lungs and bloodstream, but in your brain.

Cognitive symptoms share a similar pattern across many viruses. Better cognitive function may not lie simply in reducing pro-inflammatory cytokines, but in restoring the balance between the pro- and anti-inflammatory mechanisms.

The need for a dynamic and responsive balance between pro-inflammatory and anti-inflammatory processes is newsworthy in itself. But when viewed in the light of other emerging insights in neuroimmunology, it paints a clearer picture of how these cognitive scars occur.

Taken together, these insights open windows into how we might begin to improve cognitive health in Long Covid and other chronic illnesses.

Because there’s so much similarity across viruses, the rest of this piece will explore the roots of cognitive dysfunction through the lens of Long Covid.

The Catalysts of Brain Fog in Long Covid

What key mechanisms underlie cognitive decline in viral illness?

Helena Radbruch at Charité- Berlin University Medicine and her colleagues examined the brain tissue of people who died of Covid-19. The SARS-CoV-2 virus, they found, had not infected the brain tissue in their samples. However, those that died of Covid-19 had greater immune activity in specific brain areas than people who died of other causes. The first of these areas: the olfactory bulb involved in smell, which explains why people with Covid-19 often lose their sense of smell. The second: the brainstem, which connects the spinal cord and brain.

The brainstem helps regulate numerous functions; breathing, heart rate, balance, coordination, sleep and wakefulness, eye movements, and reflexes. Radbruch’s findings suggest that in its early stages, Covid-19 ignites inflammation outside the brain. This body-wide inflammation triggers an immune response in the brain itself. The neuroinflammation persists, causing cognitive symptoms to linger after infection.

But how would inflammation from the body infiltrate the brain? What about the vaunted blood-brain barrier designed to protect the brain from inflammation?

The blood-brain barrier is a vascular structure, a network of cerebral blood vessels. Its epithelial cells fuse together, forming tight junctions. These junctions, in turn, require molecules to pass through the cells, increasing the possibility of cellular breakdown before they can get to the brain.

This densely-packed semipermeable membrane acts as a gatekeeper; it regulates the movement of substances between the bloodstream and central nervous system (the brain and spinal cord). It allows vital nutrients to enter the brain but keeps harmful substances out. It serves as a central element of nervous system health.

Under normal circumstances, viruses lodged in different organs and circulating through the blood shouldn’t be able to access the brain and infect neural tissue. Yet many modern viruses don’t play by the rules.

During a Covid-19 infection, for example, several types of inflammatory cytokines invade the bloodstream. These cytokines include, as mentioned above, pro-inflammatory molecules that orchestrate the body’s response to pathogens and anti-inflammatory molecules that combat the virus.

Often, the specific proteins that signal disruptions in the blood-brain barrier return to normal months after infection. In Covid-19 and other viruses, inflammatory biomarkers remain elevated beyond their optimal time window (the acute phase of infection). And that’s not the only anomaly.

In 2024, researchers published a cadre of studies showing that people with Long Covid experience disruptions of the blood-brain barrier. Using dynamic contrast-enhanced magnetic resonance imaging, a large cohort of researchers from Ireland led by Matthew Campbell demonstrated blood-brain barrier disruption in people with Long Covid-associated brain fog. Study participants experienced problems in their blood coagulation system and, at the same time, damage in their immune response to fighting the virus.

More recently, a group of Spanish and Chilean researchers conducted a review of studies examining the blood-brain barrier, inflammatory cytokines, and cognition in Covid-19. Published in January 2026, their review documents cognitive impairment in Covid-19 patients from the acute to post-acute infection phases. The origin of the impairment was inflammation in the blood, which compromised the integrity of the blood-brain barrier. This increased blood vessel permeability causes proteins to leak from neurons and glial cells.

Strikingly, persistent blood-brain barrier disruption happens only in people with cognitive impairment and is associated with systemic inflammation. The “leaky” cerebral blood vessels explain some of the vascular issues that occur in Long Covid and other viruses. What’s more, some scientists believe a similar vascular dynamic occurs in chronic Lyme disease and its attendant co-infections.

The Gut-Blood-Brain Barrier

If hearing about the strong barriers, tight junctions, and leakiness in the brain sounds familiar, it’s because the same pattern also occurs in the gut and is known as “leaky gut syndrome.”

Leaky gut (also called intestinal permeability) refers to enterocytes, epithelial cells that line your digestive tract. Enterocytes’ primary function is to exchange nutrients with the intestine and the bloodstream. As with the blood-brain barrier, this exchange is a tightrope walk of sorts: The intestinal lining needs to be open to nutrients, yet impermeable to destructive pathogens.

When the normally tight junctions between enterocytes open up, pathogens leak into the gut lumen or space. The toxic leakage ignites an inflammatory response, releasing inflammatory cytokines into the gut space. Chronic exposure to these molecules causes inflammation in the gut to pass into the bloodstream.

(Want to know more about the gut barrier and leaky gut? Check out this piece.)

SARS-CoV-2 profoundly disrupts the gut. The mere presence of spike proteins (such as those found in Covid-19, MERS, HIV, hepatitis, Ebola, influenza, measles, mumps, and RSV) can induce inflammatory profiles in human gut cells.

Disruptions in the junctions between gut cells allows inflammatory molecules to cross into the blood, amplify inflammation, and eventually infiltrate the blood-brain barrier and impact the brain. Studies of people with Long Covid have shown imbalances in the gut microbiome, injury to the junctions of the epithelial lining, and evidence of microbes passing through the intestinal lining into the bloodstream.

This is why gastrointestinal distress—including nausea, vomiting, abdominal pain, and diarrhea—was the presenting symptom for many people with acute Covid, often before or independently of any respiratory issues. Moreover, continued gut disturbance is a feature of Long Covid and chronic viral illnesses.

Our Immune System Is Everything, Everywhere, All The Time

Modern medicine historically represented the immune system as a self-contained entity composed of several parts:

• bone marrow

• the thymus

• lymph nodes

• the adenoids, tonsils, and spleen

• lymph tissue, including the Peyer’s patches (lymphoid tissue in the small intestine)

• barriers such as the skin, the lining of the gut, respiratory, and reproductive tracts immune cells (including T, B, and natural killer cells)

• chemicals (antibodies, blood proteins, and cytokines)

(I used to love the Peyer’s patches, which reminded me of edamame.)

But this model is massively outdated. In 2012, I began to teach formally in workshops and at conferences about the extensive crosstalk between the immune system, gut, and autonomic nervous system.

We now know that the immune system is embedded in the gut and in the nervous system, and vice versa. We have what’s called a neuroimmune system. This intelligent ecosystem helps explain why viral stress to the gut and immune system impact cognition.

In 2024, scientists discovered a master regulator of inflammation in the brainstem. Neurons here act like a dimmer switch, dialing inflammation up or down in response to injury. These neuroimmune cells receive signals from the vagus nerve, a major communication pathway between the body and the brain.

The reciprocal link between the nervous and immune systems helps to explain why people with a history of childhood abuse, assault, or PTSD are more likely to develop persistent immune symptoms and long Covid after a COVID-19 infection. This correlation occurs independently of PTSD symptoms.

Scientists believe that Long Covid is a multi-system condition that arises from intersecting body systems, including the gut, the immune system, and the nervous system.

To my mind, the emblem of Long Covid and other viral illnesses is a loss of integrity in critical barriers: the intestinal lining, blood-brain barrier, and cerebral blood vessels. Barrier disruption allows microbes to travel outside their home territories. These breaches raise inflammation in multiple systems simultaneously. This leads to neuroinflammation, or what we understand as brain fog and deficits in memory, attention, concentration, motivation, and executive functioning.

Powerful Tools to Boost Cognition in Long Covid + Other Illnesses

My first book, Yoga for Emotional Balance, approached the nervous system as the gateway to healing anxiety and depression, and featured restorative yoga and breathing exercises as a way of recalibrating the mind, brain, and body.

Researchers are testing vagus nerve stimulation as a means of downregulating an over-activated immune response. And yet, the key insights in the studies above point to a more nuanced approach. Inflammation, gut distress, and nervous system alarm are not inherently negative. For instance, we experience inflammation when we eat or exercise or feel afraid.

It’s the balance between pro-inflammatory and anti-inflammatory capacities that matters. As someone who contends with Long Covid, I’ve found that restorative yoga, breathing exercises, connective tissue self-bodywork, and cold water immersion therapy work wonders.

Restorative yoga calms the immune and nervous systems, also known as downregulation. Breathing exercises can calm or slightly excite these systems—as can connective tissue work.

Cold water immersion is one of the secret go-to practices that people with Long Covid often turn to for a boost in cognitive function, mood, and motivation. It’s also one of my favorite ways to add small amounts of stress (known as eustress) to the immune and nervous systems.

For a sample of a guided restorative posture, visit this video.

For a sample of a guided connective tissue practice, try this one.

If you’d like to try cold immersion, I recommend beginning with 20 seconds of cold water at the end of your shower. Increase the time slowly, and observe how your body reacts. It took me a few months to increase to 30 seconds; if I did so too early, my body had a hard time re-warming.

These days, I practice cold immersion year-round in Boston harbor. The measured dose of eustress boosts my cognitive functioning considerably. Doing it outside couples cold immersion with my daily light-viewing practice and time in nature.

A key point: I do cold immersion in the morning so the cortisol spike happens early. This really helps decrease any evening cortisol spikes I have. And when I do this outside, it also allows me to engage in my daily light-viewing practice at the same time.

If you or someone you care about is contending with the cognitive issues that come with Long Covid, hepatitis, HIV, Epstein Barr, CFS/ME, chronic Lyme, I hope this helps you feel that you are not alone. I hope it validates your experience and, just as importantly, points you in the direction of tools to manage the brain fog, memory loss, attention deficits, and executive function issues, and other very real cognitive effects.

Together, we are driving the renewed research efforts and group sourced therapeutic interventions that make a difference in the quality of our lives.

UPGRADE TO PAID

Sources:

Over 14 million people have Long Covid: About 400 Million People Worldwide Have Had Long Covid, Researchers Say—The New York Times. (n.d.). Retrieved May 26, 2026, from https://www.nytimes.com/2024/08/09/health/long-covid-world.html See also: Hou, Y., Gu, T., Ni, Z., Shi, X., Ranney, M. L., & Mukherjee, B. (2025). Global Prevalence of Long COVID, Its Subtypes, and Risk Factors: An Updated Systematic Review and Meta-analysis. Open forum infectious diseases, 12(9), ofaf533. https://doi.org/10.1093/ofid/ofaf533

And close to 170 million people have Chronic Fatigue Syndrome/Myalgic: Vardaman, M., & Gilmour, S. (2025). Letter: Time to correct the record on the global burden of myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS). Journal of translational medicine, 23(1), 331. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12967-025-06281-0

A large-scale review published in March of 2026 examined a whopping 931: Nuber-Champier, A., Bréville, G., Lalive, P. H., Assal, F., & Péron, J. A. (2026). Immune-cognitive relationships across viral infections: A transnosological systematic review. Neuroscience and biobehavioral reviews, 184,106588. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neubiorev.2026.106588

Using dynamic contrast-enhanced magnetic resonance imaging, Matthew Campbell: Greene, C., Connolly, R., Brennan, D., Laffan, A., O’Keeffe, E., Zaporojan, L., O’Callaghan, J., Thomson, B., Connolly, E., Argue, R., Meaney, J. F. M., Martin-Loeches, I., Long, A., Cheallaigh, C. N., Conlon, N., Doherty, C. P., & Campbell, M. (2024). Blood–brain barrier disruption and sustained systemic inflammation in individuals with long COVID-associated cognitive impairment. Nature Neuroscience, 27(3), 421–432. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41593-024-01576-9

A study led by Helena Radbruch at Charité- Berlin University: Radke, J., Meinhardt, J., Aschman, T., Chua, R. L., Farztdinov, V., Lukassen, S., Ten, F. W., Friebel, E., Ishaque, N., Franz, J., Huhle, V. H., Mothes, R., Peters, K., Thomas, C., Schneeberger, S., Schumann, E., Kawelke, L., Jünger, J., Horst, V., Streit, S., … Radbruch, H. (2024). Proteomic and transcriptomic profiling of brainstem, cerebellum and olfactory tissues in early- and late-phase COVID-19. Nature neuroscience, 27(3), 409–420. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41593-024-01573-y

A group of Spanish and Chilean researchers conducted a review of studies that examined the blood-brain barrier, inflammatory cytokines, and cognition: Barajas, A., Riquelme-Alacid, G., Vera-Montecinos, A., & Ramos, B. (2026). Cognition, Cytokines, Blood-Brain Barrier, and Beyond in COVID-19: A Narrative Review. International journal of molecular sciences, 27(1), 546. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijms27010546

Disruptions in the junctions between gut cells allows inflammatory molecules to cross into the blood: Leclerc, L., Poudrier, J., Power, C., Lam, G. Y., & Falcone, E. L. (2026). Intestinal barrier compromise, viral persistence, and immune dysregulation converge on neurological sequelae in Long COVID. Frontiers in aging neuroscience, 17, 1744415. https://doi.org/10.3389/fnagi.2025.1744415 See also: Nascimento, R. R., Aquino, C. C., Sousa, J. K., Gadelha, K. L., Cajado, A. G., Schiebel, C. S., Dooley, S. A., Sousa, P. A., Rocha, J. A., Medeiros, J. R., Magalhães, P. C., Maria-Ferreira, D., Gois, M. B., C P Lima-Junior, R., V T Wong, D., Lima, A. M., Engevik, A. C., Nicolau, L. D., & Vale, M. L. (2024). SARS-CoV-2 Spike protein triggers gut impairment since mucosal barrier to innermost layers: From basic science to clinical relevance. Mucosal immunology, 17(4), 565–583. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.mucimm.2024.03.009

Spike proteins alone (such as those found in Covid-19, MERS, HIV, hepatitis, Ebola: Nascimento, R. R., Aquino, C. C., Sousa, J. K., Gadelha, K. L., Cajado, A. G., Schiebel, C. S., Dooley, S. A., Sousa, P. A., Rocha, J. A., Medeiros, J. R., Magalhães, P. C., Maria-Ferreira, D., Gois, M. B., C P Lima-Junior, R., V T Wong, D., Lima, A. M., Engevik, A. C., Nicolau, L. D., & Vale, M. L. (2024). SARS-CoV-2 Spike protein triggers gut impairment since mucosal barrier to innermost layers: From basic science to clinical relevance. Mucosal immunology, 17(4), 565–583. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.mucimm.2024.03.009

Studies of people with Long Covid have shown imbalances in the gut microbiome, injury to the junctions: Giron, L. B., Peluso, M. J., Ding, J., Kenny, G., Zilberstein, N. F., Koshy, J., Hong, K. Y., Rasmussen, H., Miller, G. E., Bishehsari, F., Balk, R. A., Moy, J. N., Hoh, R., Lu, S., Goldman, A. R., Tang, H. Y., Yee, B. C., Chenna, A., Winslow, J. W., Petropoulos, C. J., … Abdel-Mohsen, M. (2022). Markers of fungal translocation are elevated during post-acute sequelae of SARS-CoV-2 and induce NF-κB signaling. JCI insight, 7(18), e164813. https://doi.org/10.1172/jci.insight.164813

Moreover, continued gut disturbance is a feature of Long Covid and chronic viral: King, L. R. (2024). Gastrointestinal manifestations of long COVID. Life Sciences, 357, 123100. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.lfs.2024.123100

In 2024, scientists discovered a master regulator of inflammation: Jin, H., Li, M., Jeong, E., Castro-Martinez, F., & Zuker, C. S. (2024). A body–brain circuit that regulates body inflammatory responses. Nature, 630(8017), 695–703. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-024-07469-y

The reciprocal link between the nervous and immune systems helps to explain why people with a history: Hendrickson, R. C., Cheah, C. S., Tai, M. L., Pagulayan, K. F., Liang, K. J., McCall, C. A., Schindler, A. G., Hart, K. L., Rosser, A. F., & Oakley, J. C. (2025). Impact of Prior History of Traumatic Stress on Autonomic and Multi-System Symptoms Following COVID-19 Infection. Chronic Stress, 9, 24705470251407210. https://doi.org/10.1177/24705470251407210 See also: Hurk, A. W. V. V. D., Ujvari, C., Greenspan, N., Malaspina, D., Jimenez, X. F., & Walsh-Messinger, J. (2022). Childhood Trauma Exposure Increases Long COVID Risk (p. 2022.02.18.22271191). medRxiv. https://doi.org/10.1101/2022.02.18.22271191

Scientists believe that Long Covid is a multi-system condition that arises: Leclerc, L., Poudrier, J., Power, C., Lam, G. Y., & Falcone, E. L. (2026). Intestinal barrier compromise, viral persistence, and immune dysregulation converge on neurological sequelae in Long COVID. Frontiers in aging neuroscience, 17, 1744415. https://doi.org/10.3389/fnagi.2025.1744415

A 2017 study, for example, found correlations between the gut microbiome, cerebrospinal fluid, and biomarkers of Alzheimer’s disease.

And a 2022 review of studies examined the microbiome’s role in the genesis of Alzheimer’s disease. The researchers focused on alpha diversity, a term which refers not to the amount of specific microbes but the richness (think diversity) of the species we harbor. This expanded view of microbial richness also includes what they call evenness—how balanced the population is between species. In other words, a microbiome containing multiple species and equal abundance among them indicates higher diversity, and therefore better health of the host, than a microbiome with many species but only a few that dominate.

In Alzheimer’s disease, the review showed, the richness and evenness of microbial diversity are both reduced. The authors also looked at interventions, including a Mediterranean diet, a ketogenic diet, and the MIND diet (a combination of the two). Dietary interventions and probiotic supplementation, they found, helped to reverse some of the pathological markers of Alzheimer’s.

If you’re interested in learning more about the gut-brain axis and cognitive health, I’m offering a Masterclass tomorrow, April 7th, online. You don’t have to be there live; we make the recording available for 28 days. Learn more or register here.

Enteroception and Brain Health

Released in March of 2026, a compelling new study explored the influence of the gut-brain axis on cognitive health. This study focused on interoception, a key element of the body-brain dialogue.

Interoception refers to the capacity to receive, respond to, interpret, and regulate signals that come from inside our bodies, including our gut. It includes the perception of hunger, fullness, and digestion—communicating these signals to the brain and receiving input from the brain in return. And it also includes the capacity to interpret the signals we do receive correctly.

For this study, the researchers induced a microbiome transfer of aged mice (around 18 months old) to young mice (2 months). Just one month of cohabitation “infected” the microbiome of the young mice and impaired their memory.

But how could this happen, and what does it suggest about our own bodies?

The young mice who became “old” did so through a cascade of signals, beginning with an excess of the gut bacteria Parabacteroides goldsteinii. This bacteria began to dominate the microbiome, reducing its richness and evenness. It increased levels of the molecule GPR84, which is also implicated in inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) and neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s. Strikingly, this special molecule doesn’t just have a pro-inflammatory effect; it also has an anti-inflammatory effect and drives tissue repair, which falters as we age.

Importantly, the double whammy of p. goldsteinii and GPR84 impaired the function of neurons in the vagus nerve that carry interoceptive messages from the gut to the brain. This weakened interoceptive signals received by the brain, initiating a decline in memory.

Interestingly, administering antibiotics reversed the cognitive decline in the mice.

We humans are different than mice in many ways. For starters, we’re not considered “aged” at a mere 18 months old.

Another key difference lies in our capacity to cultivate and refine interoception—or, as I call the gut’s version of sensory intelligence, enteroception.

What Enteroception Is and Why It Matters

Both interoception and enteroception are reduced in a number of conditions that we may have thought to be straightforward emotional illnesses like depression. Depression is characterized by a sensory “blunting” which includes not only interoceptive signals but proprioceptive ones as well. (For more about depression as a movement disorder, check out this piece.)

It turns out that enteroception plays a key role in gut-brain communication. Take Irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) or functional dyspepsia, both gastrointestinal diseases. IBS affects the intestines, and can cause cramping and constipation or diarrhea. Functional dyspepsia is accompanied by upper abdominal pain, burning, or bloating, particularly after a meal. In these conditions and others like them, the issue with enteroception is not so much the lack of signal reception—as it is in depression—but a matter of interpreting signals correctly.

While depression is often characterized by a “muted” reception of bodily signals, gut-brain disorders are marked by a hypersensitivity to digestive signals, People with GI issues often pay much more attention to digestive signals than people without these issues. And when people with GI issues do attend to normal digestive signals, they often interpret them as signs of impending danger. This dysregulated dialogue creates a feedback loop where emotional arousal and physical discomfort feed one another independent of any detectable abnormality in the gut tissue itself.

When you add microbial imbalances in the gut into the mix, and inflammation levels increase, the vagal neurons conveying signals from the gut to the brain become impaired. This dynamic may add to certain types of gut disorders that also influence cognition. But that’s not all that’s happening in the body-brain dialogue.

Interoception declines as we age. The body-brain dialogue quiets; we begin to lose the ability to receive signals from the body and to respond to internal needs. And research shows that age-related interoceptive sensitivity—the degree to which we tune in to bodily signals, how well we listen to them, and the accuracy of the signals we receive—correlates with cognitive function.

For a long time, researchers have theorized that like gut imbalances, the reduction of interoception is a side effect of aging. My reading of the relationship diverges: The loss of interoception is more likely to be a driver of the aging process than a consequence.

This is important because it gives us a direction for therapeutic intervention besides addressing the gut alone.

Before jumping to interventions that help restore the vitality of the gut-brain axis, there’s another key contributing factor. The gut-brain axis is not just personal, but social.

If you’re interested in learning more about the gut-brain axis and cognitive health, I’m offering a Masterclass tomorrow, April 7th, online. You don’t have to be there live; we make the recording available for 28 days. Learn more or register here.

How Social Factors Influence the Gut-Brain Axis

Scientists have long known that anxiety, stress, and trauma influence the gut-brain axis and vice versa. For example, anxiety makes the stomach more acidic, which alters the gut microbiome.

Studies also show that posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) correlates with gut imbalances linked to cognitive dysfunction. This makes sense when we consider that people with PTSD are many times more likely to develop gut disorders.

The same is true of systemic oppression such as racial and gender discrimination. A U.S.-based study conducted in 2022 looked at the impact of racial discrimination on the gut microbiome and inflammation levels in Black, Latine, and white participants. After controlling for sex, age, body mass index, and diet, the researchers found both structural and functional changes in the gut microbiome affecting multiple species in participants who experienced high levels of discrimination.

Tools to Support the Gut-Brain Axis:

When we consider interventions for the gut that can help stave off cognitive decline, then, we want to consider several nodes of intervention: dietary, interoceptive, and social.

For dietary interventions, my top recommendations are: increasing fermented foods, ensuring adequate fiber (in that order), and eating at the same times each day.

Recent studies from Stanford University demonstrate that consuming fermented foods increases the diversity of the gut microbiome, which helps manage inflammation. While getting more fiber is helpful, Also, recent studies out of Stanford University indicate that eating more fiber-rich diets is helpful, but only in the presence of increased microbial diversity (i.e. through pre- and pro-biotics and fermented foods).

The gut-brain axis attunes to our circadian (approximately 24 hours) clock. Eating after about 7:00 p.m. can interfere with the body’s melatonin cycle, create digestive issues, and also compromise sleep quality.

The gut-brain axis also synchronizes with ultradian (less than 24 hours) rhythms. For example, over fifty percent of the microbial makeup of the gut goes through fluctuations throughout the day. Our digestive system “predicts” the moment of feeding, which leads to the preparation of the tissues of the gastrointestinal tract for digestion and nutrient absorption. Eating at approximately the same time each day helps boost the gut’s capacity to digest what we eat, and has a positive impact on the microbiome.

Finally, priming interoception can also be helpful. Instead of “just adding more enteroception,” it’s helpful to determine first whether you struggle with signal reception (and possibly depression), or signal catastrophizing (and possibly anxiety and IBS), or combinations of the two. If it’s signal reception, attuning to signals, particularly hunger and fullness, can help ensure your body-brain dialogue remains robust.

If signal interpretation is the issue, returning to the raw sensations of digestion (or sensations in any other category) can help quiet an overactive mind that tends to label each sensation as a sign of impending doom.

The Shanghai Mental Health Center conducted a study in 2023 to explore whether mindfulness meditation (which includes both interoceptive attention and the quieting of catastrophic thoughts) could impact the gut microbiome. They analyzed stool and blood samples from 37 Tibetan Buddhist monks from three temples, as well as secular residents of neighboring areas. They controlled for diet and ensured that none of the participants were taking probiotics. In the meditation group only, bacterial diversity increased, including several species positively associated with mental health and several associated with protective anti-inflammatory pathways.

The longevity and wellness spaces tend to emphasize physiological interventions like diet, supplements (think fermented foods and probiotics), and behavioral interventions (light viewing and the timing of meals). These are effective, of course.

And yet, the Shanghai study reminds us that the inner senses of embodiment (here, enteroception) provide the sensory infrastructure for every other intervention we employ to support the gut-brain axis and amplify cognitive health and longevity.

If you’re interested in learning more about the gut-brain axis and cognitive health, I’m offering a Masterclass tomorrow, April 7th, online. You don’t have to be there live; we make the recording available for 28 days. Learn more or register here.

THE GUT-BRAIN MASTERCLASS

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Sources:

A 2017 study found correlations between the gut microbiome: Vogt, N. M., Kerby, R. L., Dill-McFarland, K. A., Harding, S. J., Merluzzi, A. P., Johnson, S. C., Carlsson, C. M., Asthana, S., Zetterberg, H., Blennow, K., Bendlin, B. B., & Rey, F. E. (2017). Gut microbiome alterations in Alzheimer’s disease. Scientific reports, 7(1), 13537. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-017-13601-y

A 2022 review of studies examined the microbiome’s influence: Murray, E. R., Kemp, M., & Nguyen, T. T. (2022). The Microbiota–Gut–Brain Axis in Alzheimer’s Disease: A Review of Taxonomic Alterations and Potential Avenues for Interventions. Archives of Clinical Neuropsychology, 37(3), 595–607. https://doi.org/10.1093/arclin/acac008

One of the most compelling new studies, published in March of 2026: Cox, T. O., Devason, A. S., de Araujo, A., Mason, S., Subramanian, M., Salvador, A. F. M., Descamps, H. C., Kim, J., Zhu, Y., Litichevskiy, L., Jung, S., Song, W. S., Cortés-Martín, A., Henderson, N. T., Huang, K. P., Nguyen, T., Sae-Lee, W., Umana, I. C., Sacta, M., Rahman, R. J., … Thaiss, C. A. (2026). Intestinal interoceptive dysfunction drives age-associated cognitive decline. Nature, 10.1038/s41586-026-10191-6. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-026-10191-6

Interoception declines as we age: Pasciucco, M. R., Nunziata, S., Iuliano, S., Perrucci, M. G., Costantini, M., Ruggiero, G., & Ferri, F. (2026). Impact of interoception and multisensory integration on functional and physical activities in aging. Cortex, 194, 107–120. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cortex.2025.11.010

And research shows that age-related interoceptive sensitivity—the degree: Pfeifer, G., & Cawkwell, S. (2025). Interoceptive ageing and the impact on psychophysiological processes: A systematic review. International Journal of Psychophysiology, 207, 112483. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijpsycho.2024.112483

For example, anxiety makes the stomach more acidic, which: Acid reflux and anxiety: What is the link? (2020, February 18). https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/acid-reflux-and-anxiety

Studies also show that posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) correlates with gut: Winder, C., Lodhia, A., Basso, M., & Cohen Kadosh, K. (2025). Gut microbiome differences in individuals with PTSD compared to trauma-exposed controls: A systematic review. Frontiers in Neuroscience, 19. https://doi.org/10.3389/fnins.2025.1540180

See also: Hemmings, S. M. J., Malan-Müller, S., van den Heuvel, L. L., Demmitt, B. A., Stanislawski, M. A., Smith, D. G., Bohr, A. D., Stamper, C. E., Hyde, E. R., Morton, J. T., Marotz, C. A., Siebler, P. H., Braspenning, M., Van Criekinge, W., Hoisington, A. J., Brenner, L. A., Postolache, T. T., McQueen, M. B., Krauter, K. S., Knight, R., … Lowry, C. A. (2017). The Microbiome in Posttraumatic Stress Disorder and Trauma-Exposed Controls: An Exploratory Study. Psychosomatic medicine, 79(8), 936–946. https://doi.org/10.1097/PSY.0000000000000512

After controlling for sex, age, body mass index, and diet, the researchers found: Dong, T. S., Gee, G. C., Beltran-Sanchez, H., Wang, M., Osadchiy, V., Kilpatrick, L. A., Chen, Z., Subramanyam, V., Zhang, Y., Guo, Y., Labus, J. S., Naliboff, B., Cole, S., Zhang, X., Mayer, E. A., & Gupta, A. (2022). How Discrimination Gets Under the Skin: Biological Determinants of Discrimination Associated With Dysregulation of the Brain-Gut Microbiome System and Psychological Symptoms. Biological Psychiatry, 0(0). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biopsych.2022.10.011

Recent studies from Stanford University demonstrate that consuming fermented foods: Wastyk, H. C., Fragiadakis, G. K., Perelman, D., Dahan, D., Merrill, B. D., Yu, F. B., Topf, M., Gonzalez, C. G., Van Treuren, W., Han, S., Robinson, J. L., Elias, J. E., Sonnenburg, E. D., Gardner, C. D., & Sonnenburg, J. L. (2021). Gut-microbiota-targeted diets modulate human immune status. Cell, 184(16), 4137–4153.e14. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cell.2021.06.019

Eating after about 7:00 p.m. can interfere with the body’s melatonin cycle: Lotti, S., Dinu, M., Colombini, B., Amedei, A., & Sofi, F. (2023). Circadian rhythms, gut microbiota, and diet: Possible implications for health. Nutrition, metabolism, and cardiovascular diseases : NMCD, 33(8), 1490–1500. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.numecd.2023.05.009

Our digestive system “predicts” the moment of feeding: de Oliveira Melo, N. C., Cuevas-Sierra, A., Souto, V. F., & Martínez, J. A. (2024). Biological Rhythms, Chrono-Nutrition, and Gut Microbiota: Epigenomics Insights for Precision Nutrition and Metabolic Health. Biomolecules, 14(5), 559. https://doi.org/10.3390/biom14050559

The Shanghai Mental Health Center conducted a study in 2023 to explore whether mindfulness: Sun, Y., Ju, P., Xue, T., Ali, U., Cui, D., & Chen, J. (2023). Alteration of faecal microbiota balance related to long-term deep meditation. General psychiatry, 36(1), e100893. https://doi.org/10.1136/gpsych-2022-100893

READ THE POST

On February 26, a third round of negotiations concluded, Oman announced “significant progress.” Further talks were scheduled for the following week in Vienna.

On February 27, Oman’s foreign minister announced that Iran had agreed to degrade its current stockpiles of nuclear material to unrefined levels, the lowest possible levels.

As recently as his State of the Union address on February 24, Trump affirmed his desire for a diplomatic resolution to the talks.

But the morning of February 28, in the midst of the ongoing negotiations and without permission from Congress, Trump launched a vast military bombardment of Iran in tandem with Israel.

Among countless avoidable civilian deaths, the strikes hit a girls’ school in the southern city of Minab. The strike killed 165 girls, most of whom were between the ages of 7 and 12, and wounded close to 100 additional civilians.

Please note that this Substack is always fully researched and cited; you’ll find the sources listed below every column, e.g. here.

According to the head of the Iranian Red Crescent, Israel and the U.S. targeted 3,643 civilian sites in the initial attacks, including 3,090 homes, 528 commercial centers, 13 medical facilities, and 9 Red Crescent centers. Several hospitals and welfare centers have been damaged. (These are all, of course, war crimes.)

On Sunday, March 1, Iranian state media announced that the U.S. and Israel had killed Ayatollah Ali Khamanei, the supreme leader of Iran, as well as several top leaders of the Iranian military and the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC).

So what’s behind the unlawful declaration of war?

To Trump, War Is Another Immersive Reality Game

Article 1, Section 8, Clause 11 of the U.S. Constitution states that only Congress has the power to declare war. Each of the 11 times that the U.S. has done so, it has gone through Congress.

Naturally, the president declined to follow lawful procedures.

Instead, as though he believes himself to be the protagonist in his own immersive virtual reality game, he and his cabinet decided to invade another sovereign nation, and to name the illegal invasion “Operation Epic Fury.”

On Wednesday, March 4, the death toll in Iran passed 1,045 people.

Secretary of War Pete Hegseth gave a briefing, boasting to the press in Trumpian fashion:

“We are only four days into this, and the results have been incredible, historic really… Only the United States of America could lead this,” he enthused, as though he’d just beaten Marco Rubio in Nintendo. “I stand before you today with one unmistakable message about Operation Eric Fury: America is winning decisively, devastatingly and without mercy. They [Iran] are toast, and they know it.”

And yet, the president and his cabinet have not only failed to follow the requisite procedures for declaring war, they have yet to come up with a cohesive reason for why they have engaged the U.S. in a war with Iran.

On Saturday, February 28, Trump appeared in a social media post to link the massive attacks on Iran to his perennial claims about the “stolen election” in 2020. “Iran tried to interfere in 2020, 2024 elections to stop Trump,” he said on his platform Truth Social, referring to himself in the third person, “and now faces renewed war with United States.” (Iran’s interference in the 2020 elections, however, actually favored Trump, so that rationale doesn’t hold water.)

On Sunday, March 1, the day after the strikes began, Secretary of State Marco Rubio cited Israel’s determination to attack Iran—and the certainty that U.S. troops would be targeted in response—as the primary impetus for declaring war. This, Rubio said, had “forced” the Trump administration to take “pre-emptive strikes.” In other words, U.S. strikes were triggered by Israel’s plan to launch an attack on Iran. (The pre-emptive use of military force is illegal under international law.)

On Tuesday, March 3, Trump directly contradicted Rubio’s rationale. He further muddied the waters by stating that that Iran was going to launch preemptive strikes against the U.S. on its own. “It was my opinion that they were going to attack first,” the president said. “If anything, I might have forced Israel’s hand,” he added modestly, as though he’d won a sandbox fight.

Pete Hegseth, Rubio’s nemesis, took to the platform formerly known as Twitter to throw Rubio under the bus. Trump’s explanation was “100% correct,” he wrote.

What was Rubio to do but backpedal furiously? “I told you,” Rubio insisted to the press. “This had to happen anyway, the president made a decision, and the decision he made was that Iran was not going to be allowed to hide behind its ballistic missile program.” Rubio declined to address his comments about Israel’s plan to attack first.

Even before Rubio’s first and now disavowed rationale, Trump administration officials had already acknowledged in closed-door briefings on March 1 with congressional staff that they did not have intelligence suggesting that Iran planned to attack U.S. forces first.

Congressional leaders emerged from the briefings with deep concern. Elizabeth Warren, D-MA, said, “It’s much worse than you thought. The Trump administration has no plan in Iran. This illegal war is based on lies, and it was launched without any imminent threat to our nation. Donald Trump still hasn’t given a single clear reason for this war, and he seems to have no plan for how to end it.”

Senator Chris Murphy of Connecticut told reporters Tuesday. “This feels like a multi-trillion-dollar, open-ended conflict with a very confusing and constantly shifting set of goals.”

Yet most Republicans continue to avoid pushing back. On Wednesday, March 4, the Senate rejected a war powers resolution to halt Trump’s military action against Iran. The next day, the House failed to pass a similar resolution. Only three Republicans in the Senate and House combined voted to halt Trump’s powers. Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky, and Representatives Thomas Massie of Kentucky and Warren Davidson of Ohio were the only Republicans to join the Democrats in the vote.

Incredibly, the U.S. administration still appears to be “beta testing” reasons for dragging the U.S. into another war to see which rationale sounds best to the public.

Reports point to a host of other forces underlying the invasion.

Netanyahu Controls the Video Game

What really happened behind the scenes to persuade the “president of peace” that another war was in his best interests—which are, after all, the only ones he serves?

The New York Times conducted an investigation of the events leading up to the invasion. They interviewed multiple sources with direct knowledge of the deliberations: diplomats from the region, Israeli and American administration officials, the president’s advisors, congressional lawmakers, and defense and intelligence officials. Almost all spoke on the condition of anonymity.

On the morning of February 24, just two days before the third round of negotiations with Iran began, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel met Trump in the Oval Office. According to sources, the Israeli leader and Trump had been discussing a military offensive against Iran for weeks. But the recent negotiations with Iran threatened to derail Netanyahu’s plans. According to the Times sources, the Prime Minister came to Washington to ensure that the U.S. president remained on the path to war.

Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu has been angling to go to war on Iran for more than thirty years. In 1992, he claimed to Israel’s Knesset that Tehran was just a few years away from acquiring a nuclear bomb. “Within three to five years,” he said at the time, “we can assume that Iran will become autonomous in its ability to develop and produce a nuclear bomb.”

In 2002, he appeared before a U.S. congressional committee to advocate for an invasion of Iraq, insisting that both Iraq and Iran were racing to develop nuclear weapons. Shortly afterward, the U.S. led the invasion of Iraq. No weapons of mass destruction were ever found.

A White House Situation Room meeting was convened to discuss the prospect of a military invasion. Dan Caine, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and top military advisor to Trump, told the president that a war could lead to significant American casualties.

As he often does, Trump warped this advice to mirror his own reasoning. He announced to the public (via Truth Social, naturally) that Caine had said military action against Iran “would be easily won.”

The U.S. president and his cabinet appear drunk with power, making no secret of their disdain for the sanctity of human life, either with regard to the Iranian people or to their own citizens.

My last column covered the U.S. administration’s embrace of white Christian nationalism. As that, it turns out, is a key theme of the current invasion of Iran.

Chasing Armageddon: When Invasion Supports a Rapture

The Military Religious Freedom Foundation (MRFF) announced that it has received over 200 calls from U.S. military regarding comments that multiple U.S. commanders have made about the true purpose of the Israel-U.S. war on Iran. One combat unit commander told his troops that the war is “part of God’s divine plan” and that Trump had been “anointed by Jesus to light the signal fire in Iran to cause Armageddon and mark his [Jesus’] return to Earth.”

Michael L Weinstein, founder of MRFF and a veteran of the US Air Force and Reagan White House, said in an interview with the Middle East Eye that the organization continues to receive complaints from commanders in the army, marines, air force, and space units. “This is not just one rogue commander,” Weinstein said, citing a growing influence of Christian nationalists and fundamentalists in the US military.⁠

Secretary of War Pete Hegseth, an ultra-conservative Christian nationalist who has been described as the Pentagon’s “holy warrior,” sponsors a weekly Bible study that preaches support for Israel.

Last month, Hegseth invited the controversial Christian nationalist pastor Doug Wilson to lead the Pentagon’s prayer service. Wilson has opposed Muslims holding public office and does not believe women should be allowed to vote.

What many of these articles don’t explicitly mention is that this form of Christian nationalism also incorporates Christian Zionism, an ideology that believes the return of the Jewish people to Israel heralds the “end times” (and the rapture that these U.S. commanders are referencing). Christian Zionists are aligned with Israel because of the nation’s role as the “host” of these end times.

The ultimate plan, however, doesn’t work out too well for Jews. Two-thirds of all Jews will be killed during Armageddon, with one-third surviving only on the condition that they embrace Christianity.

On March 4, Brian McGinnis, a Marine Corps veteran in dress uniform, stood outside the Capitol, where he explained that he had come to “speak out against the Senate and ask them why they’re going to send our men and women to harm’s way when our elected officials said that there would be no world war.”

McGinnis later disrupted a gathering of the Senate Armed Services Committee to denounce the joint U.S.-Israeli strikes on Iran. Three officers attempted to remove him from the chamber. “No one wants to fight for Israel,” McGinnis yelled as the officers shoved him through the door, at which point the protester’s arm became wedged in the door frame. MAGA Senator Tim Sheehy rushed into the fray to “assist” the three officers trying to pull McGinnis through the door. In the video, McGinnis can be seen voicing pain as Sheehy pushes him through the door. Onlookers can be heard crying out as Sheehy breaks McGinnis’s arm.

McGinnis is a Green Party candidate running for the U.S. Senate.

Sheehy has received $641,337 from pro-Israel lobby groups. He later defended his actions.

Meanwhile, multiple media outlets have reported that gamblers took advantage of the prediction market to wager more than half a billion dollars on the Iran strikes via online betting platforms.

One Polymarket account called “Magamyman” made more than $527 million betting on the U.S. attack on Iran. The first trade was placed over an hour before the news broke publicly. Similar bets were made on the U.S. military operation in Venezuela placed on Polymarket and other prediction markets.

Donald Trump Jr. sits on the advisory board of Polymarket. His venture capital firm has invested tens of millions of dollars in the company.

Palantir, Lockheed, and other defense stocks have surged in the aftermath of the invasion.

U.S. investigators now believe that the strike that killed 165 girls was carried out by the United States.

________________________________

How Moral Injury Touches Mind, Body, and Spirit

On February 28, I taught an online yoga class. As we began, I expressed my sadness at the violence the U.S. has wrought in Iran. The previous month, I happened to be teaching on the day the U.S. invaded Venezuela, and we had a similar conversation.

On Sunday, March 1, I found it difficult to get out of bed. I stared at the ceiling, wondering how we got here and what we do to get out of it. As I lay there, the term “moral injury” kept coming to mind.

In March of 2025, a group of Harvard researchers at the Human Flourishing Program published a new paper that expanded the definition and understanding of moral injury. They defined moral distress as:

“distress that arises because personal experience disrupts or threatens: (a) one’s sense of the goodness of oneself, others, institutions, or of what are understood to be higher powers, or (b) one’s beliefs or intuitions about right and wrong, or good and evil.”

The researchers intend their work to broaden the understanding of moral injury and moral distress as it applies to perpetrators, victims, and witnesses.

The study sparked a collaboration with the American Psychological Association to amend the next manual of mental disorders to include this expanded concept of moral injury.

Those of us who grieve the violence in Palestine, Venezuela, and Iran, the unlawful abductions and deportations of U.S. residents and citizens, the violence of ICE and police brutality, and the upswelling of racism and misogyny—all of which are related—have been bearing witness to a moral degradation that corrodes the soul. Our protests, phone calls, writing, and other forms of advocacy can’t seem to amend it.

We are relatively safe. Yet we also suffer the moral injury of unwitting complicity. And we are surrounded by people, often friends and family, who justify the above human rights violations, who feel that they are “necessary.” This threates our sense of the goodness of others and the world, and often, of ourselves, which is a facet of moral injury.

Moral injury is often accompanied by the loss of agency and loss of the sense that we can act on the world in such a way as to make a difference.

Moral injury ebbs and flows. And it’s not conceptual; it lives not just in our minds but in our bodies and our spirits. It requires gentle tending and the care and acknowledgment of others.

In case you feel it too, please know that you are not alone.

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Sources:

As recently as his State of the Union address on February 24: Ravid, Barak. “Trump Says He Prefers Diplomacy, but Lays the Case for War with Iran.” Axios, February 25, 2026. https://www.axios.com/2026/02/25/trump-iran-us-war-diplomacy-state-of-the-union.

On February 26, as a third round of negotiations concluded: Staff, Al Jazeera. “US, Israel Bomb Iran: A Timeline of Talks and Threats Leading up to Attacks.” Al Jazeera. Accessed March 5, 2026. https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2026/2/28/us-israel-bomb-iran-a-timeline-of-talks-and-threats-leading-up-to-attacks.

The next day, February 27, Oman’s foreign minister announced: Staff, Al Jazeera. “US, Israel Bomb Iran: A Timeline of Talks and Threats Leading up to Attacks.” Al Jazeera. Accessed March 5, 2026. https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2026/2/28/us-israel-bomb-iran-a-timeline-of-talks-and-threats-leading-up-to-attacks.

Among countless avoidable civilian deaths, the strikes hit a girls’ school: Staff, Al Jazeera. “Missiles Fired by US, Israel Hit Two Schools near Tehran: Iranian Media.” Al Jazeera. Accessed March 5, 2026. https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2026/3/5/missile-attack-hits-two-schools-in-irans-parand-iranian-media

According to the head of the Iranian Red Crescent, Israel and the U.S. targeted: Staff, Al Jazeera. “Missiles Fired by US, Israel Hit Two Schools near Tehran: Iranian Media.” Al Jazeera. Accessed March 5, 2026. https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2026/3/5/missile-attack-hits-two-schools-in-irans-parand-iranian-media

On Sunday, March 1, Iranian state media announced that the U.S. and Israel had killed: Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Who Led the Islamic Republic since 1989, Is Dead at 86.” AP News, March 1, 2026. https://apnews.com/article/iran-supreme-leader-ayatollah-ali-khamenei-dead-5b13b69b708c4ed38e8f95f5fb41a597

On Saturday, February 28, Trump appeared in a social media post to link the massive attacks: Roston, A. (2026, March 1). Trump appears to link Iran attack to his 2020 election loss. The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/mar/01/trump-iran-attack-2020-election-loss

Each of the 11 times that the U.S. has done so: Roos, Dave. “How Does the US Officially Declare War?” HISTORY, March 4, 2026. https://www.history.com/articles/us-officially-declare-war-constitution-congress

According to a report by The New York Times, on the morning of February: “How Trump Decided to Go to War With Iran - The New York Times.” Accessed March 5, 2026. https://www.nytimes.com/2026/03/02/us/politics/trump-war-iran-israel.html

Dan Caine, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and top military advisor to Trump: “How Trump Decided to Go to War With Iran - The New York Times.” Accessed March 5, 2026. https://www.nytimes.com/2026/03/02/us/politics/trump-war-iran-israel.html

He announced to the public: “How Trump Decided to Go to War With Iran - The New York Times.” Accessed March 5, 2026. https://www.nytimes.com/2026/03/02/us/politics/trump-war-iran-israel.html

Secretary of State Marco Rubio cited Israel’s determination to attack Iran: Trump news at a glance: Rubio and his boss can’t seem to agree on why US attacked Iran. (2026, March 4). The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/mar/03/trump-news-rubio-iran

On Tuesday, March 3, Trump directly contradicted Rubio’s rationale: Blake, A. (2026, March 3). Analysis: The rationale for striking Iran was already a mess. Trump just made it worse. | CNN Politics. CNN. https://www.cnn.com/2026/03/03/politics/explanation-trump-preemptive-iran-strikes

“I told you,” Rubio insisted to the press. “This had to happen anyway: Nowell, C., Clayton, A., Popat, S., McEwen, K., Ambrose, T., Clayton, C. N. (now); A., & Ambrose (earlier), T. (2026, March 4). Rubio tries to backtrack after Israel comments later contradicted by Trump trigger criticism – as it happened. The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/live/2026/mar/03/donald-trump-iran-war-powers-kristi-noem-primaries-friedrich-merz-latest-news-updates

But even before Rubio’s offered his now-disputed rationale, the Trump administration: POLITICO. “Pentagon Offers No Evidence to Support Claim It Attacked Iran in Defense.” March 1, 2026. https://www.politico.com/news/2026/03/01/trump-iran-preparing-attack-no-evidence-00806447 See also: Stewart, Phil, Humeyra Pamuk, Phil Stewart, and Humeyra Pamuk. “Pentagon Tells Congress No Sign That Iran Was Going to Attack US First, Sources Say.” United States. Reuters, March 2, 2026. https://www.reuters.com/world/us/pentagon-tells-congress-no-sign-that-iran-was-going-attack-us-first-sources-say-2026-03-02/

Elizabeth Warren, D-MA, said, “It’s much worse than you thought: https://www.warren.senate.gov/newsroom/videos/watch/i-just-left-a-classified-briefing-with-the-trump-admin-about-the-war-in-iran

Senator Chris Murphy of Connecticut, also a Democrat, said: Reporter, E. P. (2026, March 4). Senator Says Secret Briefing on Iran Proves It’s ‘Worse Than You Thought.’ The Daily Beast. https://www.thedailybeast.com/senator-elizabeth-warre-says-secret-briefing-on-iran-proves-its-worse-than-you-thought/

On Wednesday, March 4, the Senate rejected a war powers resolution: Full list of Republicans voting to curb Trump’s Iran War. (2026, March 5). Newsweek. https://www.newsweek.com/us-iran-war-powers-vote-republicans-donald-trump-11628563

In 1992, he claimed to Israel’s Knesset that Tehran was just a few years away: The history of Netanyahu’s rhetoric on Iran’s nuclear ambitions. (n.d.). Al Jazeera. Retrieved March 6, 2026, from https://www.aljazeera.com/gallery/2025/6/18/the-history-of-netanyahus-rhetoric-on-irans-nuclear-ambitions

In 2002, he appeared before a U.S. congressional committee to advocate: The history of Netanyahu’s rhetoric on Iran’s nuclear ambitions. (n.d.). Al Jazeera. Retrieved March 6, 2026, from https://www.aljazeera.com/gallery/2025/6/18/the-history-of-netanyahus-rhetoric-on-irans-nuclear-ambitions

The Military Religious Freedom Foundation (MRFF) announced that it has received: US troops were told Iran war “anointed by Jesus” to bring on Armageddon, watchdog says. (n.d.). Middle East Eye. Retrieved March 6, 2026, from https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/us-troops-told-iran-war-anointed-jesus-bring-armageddon-watchdog-says See also: Democracy Now! “Report: U.S. Commander Told Troops ‘Trump Has Been Anointed by Jesus’ to Wage War on Iran.” https://www.democracynow.org/2026/3/4/headlines/report_us_commander_told_troops_trump_has_been_anointed_by_jesus_to_wage_war_on_iran

“This is not just one rogue commander,” Weinstein said: Shamim, S. (n.d.). Why are the US and Israel framing the ongoing conflict as a religious war? Al Jazeera. Retrieved March 6, 2026, from https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2026/3/4/why-are-the-us-and-israel-framing-the-ongoing-conflict-as-a-religious-war See also:

Secretary of War Pete Hegseth, an ultra-conservative Christian nationalist: US troops were told Iran war “anointed by Jesus” to bring on Armageddon, watchdog says. (n.d.). Middle East Eye. Retrieved March 6, 2026, from https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/us-troops-told-iran-war-anointed-jesus-bring-armageddon-watchdog-says

Two-thirds of all Jews will be killed during Armageddon: Contributor. (2022, February 21). Factsheet: Christian Zionism. Religion Media Centre. https://religionmediacentre.org.uk/factsheets/factsheet-christian-zionism/

McGinnis later disrupted a gathering of the Senate Armed Services Committee to denounce: Marine veteran protesting Iran war suffers broken arm in struggle with GOP senator. (2026, March 6). The Independent. https://www.the-independent.com/news/world/americas/us-politics/tim-sheehy-iran-war-protester-senate-b2932413.html

One Polymarket account called “Magamyman” made more than: Democracy Now! “Gamblers Use Polymarket ‘Prediction Market’ to Wager $529 Million on Iran Strikes.” Accessed March 5, 2026. https://www.democracynow.org/2026/3/3/headlines/gamblers_use_polymarket_prediction_market_to_wager_529_million_on_iran_strikes

Palantir, Lockheed, and other defense stocks have surged in the aftermath: Gavin, W. (2026, March 2). Palantir, Lockheed and these other defense stocks rise on heels of Iran conflict. MarketWatch. https://www.marketwatch.com/story/palantir-lockheed-and-these-other-defense-stocks-are-rising-on-heels-of-iran-conflict-3832f763

A group of Harvard researchers at the Human Flourishing Program published a new paper: VanderWeele, T. J., Wortham, J. S., Carey, L. B., Case, B. W., Cowden, R. G., Duffee, C., Jackson-Meyer, K., Lu, F., Mattson, S. A., Padgett, R. N., Peteet, J. R., Rutledge, J., Symons, X., & Koenig, H. G. (2025). Moral trauma, moral distress, moral injury, and moral injury disorder: Definitions and assessments. Frontiers in Psychology, 16. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2025.1422441

The study sparked a collaboration with the American Psychological Association: Brownstein, M. (2025, September 17). ‘Moral injury’ officially recognized as mental health condition | Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. https://hsph.harvard.edu/news/moral-injury-officially-recognized-as-mental-health-condition/

Rubio is the first person since Henry Kissinger to hold the positions of secretary of state and national security advisor simultaneously. His speech signals the principles that define the U.S. and those with which other nations must align to avoid tariffs, sanctions, or imperial incursions. It tells Americans what the stakes are, whose rights are in danger, and what falling in line will cost those who do.

The Munich Security Conference, founded in 1963, bills itself as the world’s leading forum for debating international security. Its official goal is to support diplomacy and bring about a peaceful resolution of international conflicts.

Picture a traditional Bavarian hotel in the middle of the city surrounded by a handful of adjacent venues. Inside, heads of state and government officials network with diplomats, parliamentarians, ministers, generals, journalists, thought leaders, and political scientists. Dubbed “Davos with guns,” the conference is surrounded by police from Germany, the Netherlands, and Switzerland. Snipers are positioned on the rooftops to spot and eradicate threats.

Who exactly was Rubio’s audience?

In 2020, the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace published a report on the conference participants. It reads, “The ‘Who’ at the 2020 conference included ‘a lot of old white men among the hundreds of invited attendees.’” That year, the conference titled itself “Westlessness,” seemingly without a trace of irony.

In 2022, journalist Belén Fernández wrote a piece for Al Jazeera entitled “Business as usual in Munich: white men rule the world.” Dr. Jennifer Cassidy, a diplomatic scholar at the University of Oxford, tweeted that the “most diverse thing to happen in that room” was the sight of a businessman sporting an orange tie.

In 2025, U.S. Vice President J.D. Vance delivered a screed about Europe’s biggest danger being not the specter of Russia but its “threat from within.” By this he meant unregulated migration and the “dilution of national [i.e. white] identity.”

In what now appears an eerie foreshadowing of the Trump administration’s incursions on human rights, Vance said at the 2025 conference,

“You cannot win a democratic mandate by censoring your opponents or putting them in jail—whether that’s the leader of the opposition, a humble Christian praying in her own home, or a journalist trying to report the news. We shouldn’t be afraid of our people, even when they express views that disagree with their leadership.”

Within a few months of those words, the Trump administration would ramp up its persecution of officials who disagree with their policies, including New York Attorney General Letitia James, former FBI director James Comey, and Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell.

And on January 18, 2026, the U.S. government arrested two Black journalists, Don Lemon and Georgia Fort, for reporting on a protest at Cities Church in St. Paul, Minnesota in which demonstrators protested a church pastor who is also an ICE official. Lemon and Fort currently face federal charges of conspiracy and violating the FACE Act (which protects access to religious worship).

The administration has also vilified Black and Brown immigrant communities, most recently Somalians, Haitians, and anyone who “looks” to be an immigrant—that is to say, Black, Brown, and Indigenous people. The administration has abducted and deported numerous U.S. residents and U.S. citizens to other countries, which I have covered here. And in November of 2025 in a post on Truth Social, Trump accused six Democratic lawmakers of sedition and recommended that they be hanged.

In Vance’s 2025 speech, he excoriated European leaders for restricting the free speech of far-right groups in Europe, particularly Germany’s Alternative for Germany (AfD) party. He concluded with his signature awkward gallows humor: “And trust me, I say this with all humor, if American democracy can survive 10 years of Greta Thun—(here he struggled to recall the activist’s name) Thunberg’s scolding, you guys can survive a few months of Elon Musk.”

As it happened, “a few months of Elon Musk” was all the Trump administration itself could survive. In June of 2025, four months after Vance’s ill-advised speech, Musk and the president had a public breakup. On his way out the door, Musk used his platform on “X” to foreshadow Trump’s prominent presence in the Epstein files.

Vance’s speech was widely considered the nail in the coffin for U.S.-Europe relations, a view reinforced by Trump’s extended phone conversation with Russian leader Vladimir Putin that same week.

It’s often a “tell” who world leaders choose to meet on such a trip before returning home. Vance made time for Alice Weidel, head of the far-right Alternative for Germany party.

Suffice it to say that J.D. Vance set the bar on foreign diplomacy so low that even Marco Rubio’s xenophobic rant was able to clear it, though barely.

In the weeks leading up to the 2026 conference, Trump withdrew the U.S. from sixty-six international conventions, treaties, and organizations. Included among these were the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change signed by the George H.W. Bush administration in 1992 and unanimously approved by the Senate soon afterward, the United Nations Educational, Cultural, and Scientific Organization (UNESCO) founded in 1945 after World War II to contribute to international peace and security, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), and the World Health Organization.

This Year’s Munich Security Conference

On the opening night of the conference, February 13, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz noted in his own speech that the title of this year’s conference, “Under Destruction,” was a reference to the rules-based international order. (It may well have been a reference to U.S.-global relations as well.)

The following night, February 14, Rubio directed his speech as much to the U.S. as he did to Europe and to other global leaders.

Let’s decode a few key passages in Rubio’s talk.

The End of Territorial Integrity

Rubio’s speech begins by referring to two of the biggest geopolitical crises of the year prior to the first conference in Munich in 1963—the Cuban Missile Crisis and the building of the Berlin Wall—and their eventual resolution. Then he continues:

“But the euphoria of this triumph led us to a dangerous delusion. That we had entered, quote, “the end of history.” That every nation would now be a liberal democracy. That the ties formed by trade and by commerce alone would now replace nationhood. That the rules-based global order, an overused term, would now replace the national interest.

The term “rules-based international order” emerged from the devastation wrought by World War II, and refers to a framework of rules, norms, and institutions that guide the behavior of nations via democratic values. It is also inextricably bound up in market capitalism and Western supremacy, and is often critiqued for its hypocrisy.

At the heart of the rules-based international order is the principle that a nation can’t invade its neighbor militarily or assassinate people on another nation’s soil. Trump and his administration don’t agree with this principle. Trump has imperial designs on Canada, Greenland (its water and other natural resources, as well as its geopolitical location, Ukraine (its natural resources), Venezuela (its oil), and Gaza (its land for his own development) needs to upend the rules-based order, which is why Vance last year and Rubio this year openly express their contempt for this order because it’s too liberal and not America-first enough.

Rubio is signaling openly that liberal democracy and territorial integrity (read: the inviolability of borders) is not a priority for the United States—that it is, in fact, a delusion. In other words, Trump’s desire to occupy Greenland is not an aberration but the new norm, as is Russia’s desire to occupy Ukraine and Israel’s to occupy Palestine.

He’s reiterating for European leaders, Trump’s base, U.S. citizens, and nations worldwide that nationalism (think “America first”) should eclipse all other interests and principles.

Climate Policy: “Drill, Baby, Drill”

Rubio follows this with a hefty dose of climate denial.

“To appease a climate cult, we have imposed energy policies on ourselves that are impoverishing our people, even as our competitors exploit oil and coal and natural gas and anything else not just to power their economies, but to use as leverage against our own.”

Here, Rubio echoes the far-right and MAGA belief that climate change and climate crisis are hoaxes. (I’m not sure they believe this. Rather, it’s a convenient excuse to embrace fossil fuels and short-term profits openly. The profit justifies the belief and practices rather than the other way around.)

Rubio is claiming that U.S. efforts to create renewable energy systems cause job loss and poverty, two key issues for the MAGA base. Rubio is underlining the administration’s principle that investing in corporate alliances and short-term profits is a priority, with no thought for the consequences to climate, communities, or citizens. (After all, when you have enough money to “colonize Mars,” you can get in your rocket and leave when Earth becomes uninhabitable.)

Rubio is mistaken on many levels. For one, the Trump administration widely views China as its greatest danger. Yet thanks to Republican pandering to corporate interests, the U.S. is lagging far behind China in renewable energy, and likely to drop even further down the list of top energy generation due to Trump’s renewed commitment to coal.

Immigration Policy: Whites Only

Rubio says, “And that we would now live in a world without borders where everyone became a citizen of the world. This was a foolish idea that ignored both human nature and it ignored the lessons of over 5,000 years of recorded human history. And it has cost us dearly.”

Rubio’s reference to “a world without borders” as a “foolish idea” is a xenophobic dog whistle. Having warmed up on “xenophobia lite,” Rubio amps up to the full-throttle version:

“And in a pursuit of a world without borders, we opened our doors to an unprecedented wave of mass migration that threatens the cohesion of our societies, the continuity of our culture, and the future of our people.

Translation: Rubio is talking here about whiteness. As we know, Trump offered white South Africans fleeing equality a fast-track to U.S. citizenship, while repeatedly abducting and deporting Black, Brown, Muslim, Palestinian, and Ukrainian immigrants legally in the U.S. This is because in most autocracies, immigrants threaten the “cohesion” of Western societies, the continuity of (white) culture, and the future (i.e. survivability) of white culture.

Rubio’s alluding here to Great Replacement Theory, the conspiracy theory which alleges that Jewish, Black, and Brown immigrants and residents are “poisoning the blood of the nation,” are “terrorists,” or intend to “rape or kill” or replace (white) U.S. citizens.

Great Replacement Theory also contends that liberal and progressive politicians deliberately seek to change U.S. demographics by replacing conservative white people with Black, Brown, and progressive Jewish people—therefore “endangering” the survival of white people. Part of this delusional conspiracy theory is the belief that progressives are trying to replace white voters with Black, Brown, and Indigenous voters who will elect leaders who vote for initiatives that begin to address racial and other forms of inequity and who endanger corporate wealth and the billionaire class. (For more about how Great Replacement Theory influences the Trump administration’s approach to immigration, see this piece.)

It’s “The Unbearable Whiteness of Being,” Part II. (That’s a play on a literary work by the writer Milan Kundera.)

Intro to Christian Nationalism

Now Rubio flavors his white nationalism with Christian nationalism:

“The men who settled and built the nation of my birth arrived on our shores carrying the memories and the traditions and the Christian faith of their ancestors as a sacred inheritance, an unbreakable link between the old world and the new.”

Here, Rubio leaves out First Nations people who inhabited America before settlers did and who contributed to land stewardship and democratic governing strategies. He overlooks non-Christian immigrants, including Jews, Muslims, Baha’i, Hindus, Buddhists, and others. And he omits the Black Americans whose labor during and after enslavement built the U.S.

Here’s what’s bothering Vance, Rubio, and other Christian nationalists in and adjacent to this administration: According to the Pew Research Center, Christianity in the U.S. has declined significantly over the past several decades, from approximately 78 percent in 2007 to about 62 percent in 2025.

The decline in Christianity so threatens many in the current administration that at a Turning Point event in late 2025, J.D. Vance publicly shared his wish that his wife Usha, who is Hindu, would convert to Christianity. (You can file this under “not gonna happen,” as Usha was raised by parents who are Telugu Brahmins from Andhra Pradesh, India. There is a centuries-long history of Christians attempting to convert Hindus in India, dating from early colonial engagements to modern missionary efforts.)

Rubio continues,

“We are part of one civilization, Western civilization. We are bound to one another by the deepest bonds that nations could share, forged by centuries of shared history, Christian faith, culture, heritage, language, ancestry, and the sacrifices our forefathers made together for the common civilization to which we have fallen heir.”

Here, Rubio again emphasizes white Christianity, white culture, white heritage, white language (English), white ancestry, and “sacrifices”—the notion that everything white people have inherited is through sacrifice and hard work rather than land theft, genocide, enslavement, Jim Crow, racial capitalism, and systemic oppression. (Racial capitalism is the process through which white individuals and institutions exploit the bodies and the labor of others who they racialize for exploitative purposes. For more, read this piece.)

“It was this continent that produced the genius of Mozart and Beethoven, of Dante and Shakespeare, of Michelangelo and da Vinci, of the Beatles and the Rolling Stones. And this is the place where the vaulted ceilings of the Sistine Chapel and the towering spires of the great cathedral in Cologne, they testify not just to the greatness of our past or to a faith in God that inspired these marvels. They foreshadow the wonders that await us in our future.

Here, Rubio centers the work of white artists who were either Christian or expressed Christian themes. Rubio unaware (or pretending to be) that the Beatles and the Rolling Stones (and countless musicians) were inspired by Black musicians and by early rock and roll, Motown, and particularly in the Stones’ case, blues musicians such as Howlin’ Wolf, Muddy Waters, and John Lee Hooker.

These are not simply omissions but examples of cultural memoricide, the attempt that colonial societies and autocratic regimes to erase the culture, existence, and memory of those whose land they have taken and who they wish to subjugate.

The Cost of The New “Golden Age”

Rubio promises that the artistic influences that he has whitewashed “foreshadow the wonders that await us in the future,” presumably coming from other Christian artists. But there’s a condition—or rather, a cost:

“But only if we are unapologetic in our heritage and proud of this common inheritance can we together begin the work of envisioning and shaping our economic and our political future.

Translation: We can have these wonders only if we “unapologetically” adhere to and express pride in white Christian heritage. Rubio continues,

“Commercial space travel and cutting-edge artificial intelligence, industrial automation and flex manufacturing, creating a Western supply chain for critical minerals not vulnerable to extortion from other powers, and a unified effort to compete for market share in the economies of the global South.

Translation: A “Western supply chain for critical minerals” will be extorted from vulnerable nations such as Venezuela, Ukraine, and Greenland and should not themselves be “vulnerable” to “extortion from other powers.”

He’s also saying the quiet part out loud: “a unified effort to compete for market share in the economies of the global South” indicates a desire to plunder those economies. Rubio seems here to refer in part to longstanding agreements that China and Russia have made with some African nations involving protection for their leaders or building resources such as railways in exchange for natural resources. Rubio’s saying that the U.S. needs to establish greater dominance in the plundering of the global South—in other words, he doesn’t want to leave the spoils to Russia and China.

Here’s the other condition Rubio has for white American prospering and, for that matter, European prospering:

“But we must also gain control of our national borders. Controlling who and how many people enter our countries, this is not an expression of xenophobia, it is not hate, it is a fundamental act of national sovereignty. And the failure to do so is not just an abdication of one of our most basic duties owed to our people. It is an urgent threat to the fabric of our societies and the survival of our civilization itself.

Rubio’s words are precisely the expression of xenophobia for which he has already laid the foundation. He’s saying that national (white, Christian) sovereignty is the most important principle that ties the people of the U.S. together—a bold lie. And “gaining control” of national borders (which means illegally trafficking and deporting U.S. residents and citizens and stripping them of their legal status) is the only way to ensure the “safety” of the “fabric of our (white, Christian) societies and the survival of (white, Christian) civilization.

Here, Rubio is sending an important signal to Europeans and to Americans: In order to be “safe” from U.S. persecution, you must adhere to white Christian nationalism.

“For example, the United Nations… could not solve the war in Gaza, instead it was American leadership that freed captives from barbarians and brought about a fragile truce. It has not solved the war in Ukraine. It took American leadership in partnership with many of the countries here today just to bring the two sides to the table in search of a still elusive peace. It was powerless to constrain the nuclear program of radical Shia clerics in Tehran. That required 14 bombs dropped with precision from American B-2 bombers. And it was unable to address the threat to our security from a narco-terrorist dictator in Venezuela. Instead, it took American special forces to bring this fugitive to justice.

Here, amid a genocide, no less, Rubio casts Israeli citizens as “captives” and Palestinian citizens resisting occupation (which they have a legally enshrined right to do) as “Barbarians.” He also means Muslims, Palestinian Jews, and Palestinian Christians who have existed in Palestine for millennia.

Rubio is pretending that there is any sort of “truce” (as though there is a “war” rather than a genocide) or as though there is a ceasefire (which hasn’t happened) rather than a nation legally responsible for aiding and abetting a genocide. Rubio then justifies the U.S. bombing of Iran over a treaty that Trump himself, in his first administration, let lapse.

He calls Venezuela’s Maduro a “narco terrorist” to justify their invading Venezuela and killing civilians under the guise of “protecting the U.S. from a “security threat” even though drug trafficking networks are global and not confined to a single country, particularly Venezuela. Furthermore, Trump has also openly stated that the primary impetus for invading Venezuela was to gain control of their oil resources.

And then, “Our story began with an Italian explorer whose adventure into the great unknown to discover a new world brought Christianity to the Americas and became the legend that defined the imagination of our pioneer nation. Our first colonies were built by English settlers, to whom we owe not just the language we speak, but the whole of our political and legal system.”

Rubio would have us believe that the West is in decline because the U.S. and Europe became ashamed of their legacies of plunder, colonialism, land theft, and cultural erasure and began to back away from these legacies.

He goes on to praise the Scots-Irish settlers and the German farmers who “build the Midwestern heartland” and who just happen to be Trump’s ancestral influences. He then betrays his own ancestral lineage:

“And you know that in the year that my country was founded, Lorenzo and Catalina Giroldi lived in Casal Monferrato in the kingdom of Piedmont, Sardinia, and Jose and Manuela Reyna lived in Sevilla, Spain. I don’t know what, if anything, they knew about the 13 colonies which had gained their independence from the British Empire, but here’s what I’m certain of. They could have never imagined that 250 years later, one of their direct descendants would be back here today on this continent as the chief diplomat of that infant nation.”

Here, you’d think that in citing his family history, Rubio might honor his parents, Mario and Oriales Rubio, Cuban immigrants who moved to the U.S. in 1956, just a few years before the 1959 Castro revolution. They traveled back to Cuba several times after 1959 before deciding to remain in the U.S. and becoming citizens in 1975. Instead, Marco skips his parents and goes back several generations to identify with the Spanish (or white) side of his heritage.

But this makes sense, because proximity to whiteness has always required a surrender of one’s fultural heritage, cultural memory, and ancestral practices.

Rubio added, “So in a time of headlines, heralding the end of the transatlantic era, let it be known and clear to all that this is neither our goal nor our wish. Because for us Americans, our home may be in the Western Hemisphere, but we will always be a child of Europe.”

To be clear, the Western Hemisphere includes North and South America, and according to many geographers, also portions of Europe, Africa, Antarctica, and Asia.

To hear Rubio say that the U.S. “will always be a child of Europe” struck me as incredibly odd. Rubio, Vance, Trump, and the rest of his cabinet for the most part have an extraordinary disdain for Europe and believe America to be the more powerful, “advanced” nation. (Hence the repeated pattern of haranguing European leaders.)

During this part of Rubio’s speech, I kept hearing the words of Ta-Nehisi Coates, who said, “But race is the child of racism, not the father.” By this he meant that racism is the not the result of any difference between people, but is itself the origin of the concept of race, which was constructed to justify the oppression, exploitation. The concept of race was created to justify the oppression and exploitation of Black, Brown, and Indigenous people.

The Icing on the White Nationalist Cake

Before returning to the U.S., Rubio chose to travel to Hungary for a chummy visit with Viktor Orban, its prime minister and autocrat-in-chief. Here, he endorsed Orban ahead of the April elections. (This is significant, as Orban faces a parliamentary election in April; polls show him behind in what many consider the most extensive threat to his power since 2010.)

Here, I’ll also add that Orban’s Fidesz party stands for national sovereignty, strict anti-immigration policies, promoting traditional family values (i.e. is is notoriously anti-LGBTQ+), and fostering a "central power field" within Hungary.

Rubio echoed his fellow cabinet members’ alignment with Orban, reassuring him that Hungary’s success was critical to the success of the U.S. In other words, autocracies across the world must stick together.

He told Orban that relations between the U.S. and Hungary had entered a “golden age,” and would remain so as long as Orban is running the country.

___________________________________

Astonishingly, Rubio’s speech was met with a standing ovation from European leaders, some of whom were on board with his policies and some of whom were visibly relieved that the tenor of his white nationalism was a little “softer” than Vance’s.

This kind of pandering, along wiith the accolades Rubio’s speech garnered from countless pundits, tells us where the lines have been drawn. And that standing against autocracy and fascism will have a cost.

Many of you reading this have been brought up, as I have, to be “good,” to not raise a ruckus. To keep quiet and carry on.

But as we now see, this administration—its ideology, its civic practices, its foreign policy—adheres to white Christian nationalism, to hard power over vulnerable others. As Trump and his proponents have made clear, the cost of safety, if that even exists, is to align ourselves with fascism and autocracy.

This is not a time for silence.

Yes, there may be a cost for speaking out, for getting in the way.

On March 7, 1965, led by activists including John Lewis and Hosea Williams, approximately 600 civil rights advocates set out to march from Selma, Alabama to Montgomery to demand voting rights for Black Americans in the face of discriminatory laws and practices. As the marchers peacefully crossed the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, local police, vigilante groups and state troopers violently attacked them. Lewis and others like Amelia Boynton Robinson were beaten so badly that they were hospitalized.

On March 1, 2020, a march was held to commemorate commemorating the tragic events of Bloody Sunday.

On the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Lewis said,

“Get in good trouble, necessary trouble, and redeem the soul of America.”

As we approach the 61st anniversary of Bloody Sunday, it’s time to heed Lewis’s words.

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Sources:

Dubbed the “Davos with guns,” the conference: From the halls of the Munich Security Conference | Brookings. (n.d.). Retrieved February 19, 2026, from https://www.brookings.edu/articles/from-the-halls-of-the-munich-security-conference/

In 2020, the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace published a report: Munich Report: Who and What Was and Wasn’t at the Munich Security Conference. (2020, February 19). Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. https://carnegieendowment.org/russia-eurasia/posts/2020/02/munich-report-who-and-what-was-and-wasnt-at-the-munich-security-conference

In 2022, Al Jazeera reporter Belén Fernández wrote a piece for Al Jazeera: Business as usual in Munich: White men rule the world | Women’s Rights | Al Jazeera. (n.d.). Retrieved February 19, 2026, from https://www.aljazeera.com/opinions/2022/3/7/business-as-usual-in-munich-white-men-rule-the-world

Vance also said, “You cannot win a democratic mandate by censoring: Remarks by the Vice President at the Munich Security Conference | The American Presidency Project. (n.d.). Retrieved February 20, 2026, from https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/documents/remarks-the-vice-president-the-munich-security-conference-0

And trust me, I say this with all humor, if American democracy can survive 10 years of Greta: Remarks by the Vice President at the Munich Security Conference | The American Presidency Project. (n.d.). Retrieved February 20, 2026, from https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/documents/remarks-the-vice-president-the-munich-security-conference-0

German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius said that comparison of European democracies: Pistorius: JD Vance’s criticism “is not acceptable.” (n.d.). [Video recording]. Retrieved February 21, 2026, from https://www.dw.com/en/pistorius-jd-vances-criticism-is-not-acceptable/video-71617746

Head of European Union Diplomacy Kaja Kallas said: JD Vance attacks Europe over free speech and migration. (2025, February 15). https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/ceve3wl21x1o

Michael McFaul, a former U.S. Ambassador to Russia, told Politico that Vance’s: JD Vance attacks Europe over free speech and migration. (2025, February 15). https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/ceve3wl21x1o

Even the deeply conservative New York Times columnist Bret Stephens: Stephens, B. (2025, February 18). Opinion | Vance’s Munich Disgrace. The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2025/02/18/opinion/vance-munich-germany-afd.html

Trump issued a presidential memorandum announcing the withdrawal of the U.S. from sixty-six international conventions: Zelinsky, A. S. J. (2026, February 18). The Cost of US Withdrawal From 66 International Organizations, Conventions, and Treaties. https://www.thenation.com/?post_type=article&p=587548

On the opening night of the conference, February 13, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz gave: “U.S. Ready to Make up, Europe Ready to Break up in Munich : NPR.” Accessed February 24, 2026. https://www.npr.org/2026/02/16/nx-s1-5716050/us-europe-relations-munich.

According to the Pew Research Center, Christianity in the U.S. has declined: Fahmy, G. A. S., Alan Cooperman, Becka A. Alper, Besheer Mohamed, Chip Rotolo, Patricia Tevington, Justin Nortey, Asta Kallo, Jeff Diamant and Dalia. (2025, February 26). Decline of Christianity in the U.S. Has Slowed, May Have Leveled Off. Pew Research Center. https://www.pewresearch.org/religion/2025/02/26/decline-of-christianity-in-the-us-has-slowed-may-have-leveled-off/

Trump openly admitted that the primary impetus for invading Venezuela was to gain control of: Why the US attacked Venezuela: Oil, sanctions and Maduro. Global Witness. (2026, January 28). https://globalwitness.org/en/campaigns/fossil-fuels/why-the-us-attacked-venezuela-oil-sanctions-and-maduro/

He told Orban that relations between the U.S. and Hungary had entered a “golden age,” and would remain so: Roth, Andrew. “Marco Rubio’s Warm Words to Viktor Orbán Reinforce EU Fears That US Seeks Disunity in Europe.” US News. The Guardian, February 17, 2026. https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/feb/17/marco-rubio-viktor-orban-eu-disunity-analysis.

Have you ever set out to complete a simple task online—research an article, purchase supplies, check out an event—only to become derailed by pop-ups, cookie permissions, notifications, and other tasks that you found yourself exhausted before your day even got off the ground? If so, you’re not alone. While we understand these disruptions as attempts to hijack our attention, it turns out that they’re even more insidious than we may have thought.

In 1971, when Herbert A. Simon wrote about the scarcity of attention in a world rich with information, he birthed the idea of an “attention economy.” Thirty years later, smartphone use became mainstream, and scientists began to measure the impact of digital technology on attention.

Gloria Mark, Chancellor’s Professor of Informatics at the University of California, Irvine, led the way. Her research shows that over nearly two decades, our attention spans have declined dramatically. In 2004, the average attention span on any screen was two and a half minutes. By 2012, it had shrunk to 75 seconds and now hovers around a dismal 47 seconds.

Note: Research is my jam, and evidence-based information is critically important in this age of misinformation. You’ll always find sources for the information in these articles below the body of each piece, here.

In 2013, a “Product Philosopher” at Google named Tristan Harris wrote a confessional memo to his colleagues. Titled “A Call to Minimize Distraction & Respect Users’ Attention,” the memo went viral. Harris had been studying the impact of technology on people’s attention, well-being, and behavior. He warned colleagues that tech companies (including his own employer, Google) were deliberately “harvesting” people’s attention. Digital tech, he said, forced our nervous systems into overdrive.

These ideas took hold. For over a decade, scientists, scholars, and laypeople have lamented the impact of social media on attention and emotional health.

Yet there’s more to the dangers of digital tech than the way it hijacks our attention. In my research deep dive for my next book, I found new evidence for what I’d long suspected: One of the most insidious aspects of technology and social media is the way it reshapes and even directs the critical dialogue between body and brain and affects our vital senses of embodiment.

This column will focus on the way digital tech impacts interoception, the foundational sense of embodiment.

What Interoception Is and Why It’s So Important

In its scientific definition, interoception refers to our ability to receive, interpret, respond to, and regulate the body’s internal signals. You can also think of it as inner perception, or mindful awareness of the body. And in some contexts, interoception also connotes a type of attention known as “interoceptive awareness.”

In many ways, interoception serves as a foundation to our other inner senses, including proprioception, body agency, body ownership, and body resonance.

Interoception is functionally distinct from the five outer senses: vision, audition, taste, touch, and smell. Our outer senses are part of exteroception, an externally-directed form of attention. We need both types of attention. Knowing where to direct our attention and when, and being able to switch fluidly between inner-directed and outer-directed attention, is vital to emotional health.

Countless studies link interoception with emotional regulation. In general, people with low levels of interoception (seen particularly in depression and chronic pain) also experience difficulty understanding and identifying emotions.

Sensations are the origins of emotions. And getting better at being with difficult or neutral sensations helps us get better at being with difficult or neutral emotions.

This makes attention to bodily sensation a valuable therapeutic tool in contemplative practice, psychotherapy, and other approaches to well-being.

In fact, digital technology may exert a negative pull on emotional health through the medium of interoception.

The Impact of Digital Technology on Interoception

It makes intuitive sense that when we’re paying visual attention to a stimulus outside us (whether or not a smartphone or computer is in play), we can’t attune to what’s happening inside our bodies. The two forms of attention are largely exclusive. Emerging research has begun to delve deeper into the specific mechanisms by which this happens.

In 2025, a group of researchers from Hakkaido University in Japan published a study in the prestigious journal Nature. The researchers wanted to know how smartphone use impacts interoceptive awareness and physiological reactivity in young adults. They devised a task aligned with the “load theory” of attention, which holds that when perceptual processing demands increase, people focus more on the task at hand and pay less attention to irrelevant stimuli like smartphones. In other words, the more demanding the task, the less susceptible people are to distraction.

They divided fifty-eight participants, aged nineteen on average, into two groups. The first group showed a bias toward smartphone use when the perceptual task demands were low, but not when they were high. The second group showed an attentional bias toward smartphone stimuli no matter what the intensity of the perceptual load. In other words, the smartphone stimuli had a special draw for this group.

The study found a strong link between a consistent attentional bias toward smartphone stimuli and reduced interoceptive awareness. The reduced interoception, in turn, correlated with greater physiological reactivity and emotional distress.

Yet as I reviewed the study, I noticed something significant that wasn’t fully explored. The researchers measured interoception using a self-report questionnaire that participants filled out themselves. The Multidimensional Assessment of Interoceptive Awareness (MAIA) has been translated into more than thirty languages and used in hundreds of scientific studies. The MAIA contains eight different subscales, including noticing sensations, emotional awareness, self-regulation, and body trusting.

The two subscales most affected by smartphone use were noticing sensations and body trusting, which refers to whether people view their bodies as reliable sources for making decisions and supporting health. The scale has three statements with which respondents rate their agreement: “I am at home in my body,” “I feel my body is a safe place,” and “I trust my body sensations.”

Research has shown that lower levels of body trust correlate with mild, moderate, or severe depression and other mental health challenges. Higher scores predict better emotional regulation and psychological resilience.

Importantly, smartphone use doesn’t merely reduce our capacity to receive, interpret, and respond to signals that come from inside our bodies. It impacts the relationship we have with the body and the trust we place in its messages—the marrow of the body-brain dialogue.

Blocking interoception and reducing the trust we place in body sensations may be the mechanism by which digital technology drives depression and anxiety.

Other studies corroborate these findings. In 2024, a large collaborative study conducted by researchers from Rome and the U.S. measured the relationship between problematic use of the internet (PUI) and interoception. Participants with PUI demonstrated a diminished awareness of bodily sensations and struggled to differentiate between comfortable, uncomfortable, and neutral bodily sensations, suggesting a form of “divorce” from their bodies.

This particular group exhibited particular difficulty with identifying sensations and, in a harbinger of the 2025 study, in body trusting.

These studies confirm what we intuitively know to be true: digital technology attacks our capacity to receive, interpret, and regulate signals that come from our bodies and also undermines the relationship we have with our bodies. The studies also point to the antidote: developing interoception.

Cultivating the Antidote: Interoception

There are several nodes of interoception. You can cultivate any one of these, particularly if you’ve just had a bout of extended digital immersion:

• cardiovascular, such as heartbeat

• gastrointestinal, including from the esophagus, stomach, small intestine, and colon (these are also part of our enteric nervous system, also known as our “second brain”)

• distention of the abdomen, bladder, or rectum

• hunger, thirst, and fullness

• sensations of breath, including shortness of breath, or “air hunger”

• temperature (warmth or coolness)

• pricking pain or burning pain

• itch, shudder, or tickle

• vasomotor flushing (aka hot flashes)

• muscular sensations, e.g. tension, soreness, and isometric or dynamic exercise

• bone bruising, fracture, joint ache

• nausea or cramps or illness

• headache + migraine

• fatigue, including chronic fatigue

• sensual touch, also referred to as social or affective (emotional) touch

• sexual arousal, touch, and orgasm

• wine-tasting (in sommeliers)

• acute or systemic inflammation and inflammatory metabolites

Pick any sensation (of course, you can pick more than one) such as your breathing, your heartbeat, gastrointestinal sensations, and track it for the next several months.

It’s super cool to use several tracking “modalities,” such as contemplative practices, check-ins throughout the day, or movement. (Feel free to be creative; it’s your sensation, after all, and it’s fun to find myriad ways to follow it!)

Say, for example, that you decide to follow and become more aware of your breathing, and in particular, the sensations of breathing. You can track these sensations in a meditation, becoming aware of the fullness, shape, and location of your breath. You can do the same in an embodied check-in for a minute or two as you’re going about your day. And you can do it during any form of movement.

When you’ve chosen the sensation you’d like to track, you can record your observations in your Body Journal.

Tip: All of us have sensations that are more “elusive” or quiet than others. If you’re not receiving data on a sensation over a long period of time, feel free to choose another one.

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Sources:

Her work shows that over nearly two decades, our attention spans have declined: Why our attention spans are shrinking, with Gloria Mark, PhD. (n.d.). Https://Www.Apa.Org. Retrieved February 12, 2026, from https://www.apa.org/news/podcasts/speaking-of-psychology/attention-spans

In 2013, a “Product Philosopher” at Google named Tristan Harris: Haselton, T. (2018, May 10). Google employee warned in 2013 about five psychological vulnerabilities that could be used to hook users. CNBC. https://www.cnbc.com/2018/05/10/google-employee-tristan-harris-internal-2013-presentation-warnings.html

In its scientific definition, interoception refers to our ability to: Farb, N., Daubenmeier, J., Price, C. J., Gard, T., Kerr, C., Dunn, B. D., Klein, A. C., Paulus, M. P., & Mehling, W. E. (2015). Interoception, contemplative practice, and health. Frontiers in psychology, 6, 763. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2015.00763

In 2025, a group of researchers from Hakkaido University in Japan published a study: Haruki, Y., Miyahara, K., Ogawa, K., & Suzuki, K. (2025). Attentional bias towards smartphone stimuli is associated with decreased interoceptive awareness and increased physiological reactivity. Communications Psychology, 3(1), 42. https://doi.org/10.1038/s44271-025-00225-6

The Multidimensional Assessment of Interoceptive Awareness (MAIA) has been translated into: W. E. Mehling et al., “The Multidimensional Assessment of Interoceptive Awareness, Version 2 (MAIA-2),” PLoS ONE 13, no. 12 (2018): e0208034, https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0208034

Research has shown that lower levels of body trust correlate with mild, moderate, or severe depression: J. Dunne et al., “Losing Trust in Body Sensations: Interoceptive Awareness and Depression Symptom Severity Among Primary Care Patients,” Journal of Affective Disorders 282 (2021): 1210–19, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jad.2020.12.092.; M. Datko et al., “Increased Insula Response to Interoceptive Attention Following Mindfulness Training Is Associated with Increased Body Trusting Among Patients with Depression,” Psychiatry Research: Neuroimaging 327 (2022): 111559, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pscychresns.2022.111559

Higher scores predict better emotional regulation and psychological resilience: M. Rütgen and C. Lamm, “Dissecting Shared Pain Representations to Understand Their Behavioral and Clinical Relevance,” Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews 163 (August 2024): 105769, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neubiorev.2024.105769.

[1] W. E. Mehling et al., “The Multidimensional Assessment of Interoceptive Awareness, Version 2 (MAIA-2),” PLoS ONE 13, no. 12 (2018): e0208034, https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0208034

In 2024, a large collaborative study conducted by researchers from Rome and the U.S. measured: Connected minds in disconnected bodies: Exploring the role of interoceptive sensibility and alexithymia in problematic use of the internet. (2024). Comprehensive Psychiatry, 129, 152446. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.comppsych.2023.152446 See also: Leave the screen: The influence of everyday behaviors on self-reported interoception. (2023). Biological Psychology, 181, 108600. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biopsycho.2023.108600

On April 30, 2025, Ukraine signed a deal with the United States to share the future revenue from Ukraine’s mineral reserves.

The deal came after months of negotiations, including the shameless haranguing of Zelenskyy that Vance and Trump orchestrated in early 2025. (In that meeting, Trump accused Ukraine of beginning the war—an accusation he has levied many times since—and without a trace of irony called Zelenskyy a “dictator.” He also withheld weapons deliveries already approved by Congress.)

The weekend after the minerals deal was signed, Ukrainian officials announced that they had secured the removal of Trump’s stated requirement that Kyiv pay back the United States for military assistance that Congress had already approved with no stipulation for reimbursement.

The International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS) described the April minerals deal as “a triumph for Ukrainian diplomacy.” The IIIS is a leading international think tank on issues of global geopolitics, security, economics, political risk, and military conflict. Its Senior Fellow For Russia and Eurasia, Nigel Gould-Davies, enthused, “The creation of the US–Ukraine Reconstruction Investment Fund marks a significant shift in the Trump administration’s relationship with Kyiv and its position regarding the Russia–Ukraine war.”

Mr. Gould-Davies was a bit premature in his glowing praise for the minerals deal. At the time the deal was inked, few believed the Trump administration’s fraught relationship with Kyiv or its cynical position on Russia’s full-scale invasion would change.

Indeed, they have not changed.

But what’s behind the minerals deal—or more precisely, who’s behind it?

In August of 2025, Ukraine announced a competition for the right to mine The Dobra lithium field. Located in the Kirovohrad Oblast in central Ukraine, Dobra contains between 80 and 105 million metric tons of lithium, making the mineral one of Ukraine’s most promising mineral sites. Lithium is in high demand for its use in the AI, robotics, electric batteries, defense, and energy sectors.

According to the Kyiv Independent, U.S.-based company Dobra Lithium Holdings was long seen as the competition’s likely winner, partly due to its backing by the U.S. International Development Finance Corporation (DFC), a government agency established under Trump’s first term.

Sure enough, on January 8, 2026, Ukraine’s government announced that it had awarded the contract to develop the deposit to Dobra Lithium Holdings, a joint venture that includes the companies TechMet and the U.S. financial services company The Rock Holdings.

Who are the investors behind Dobra Lithium Holdings?

One is the billionaire Ronald S. Lauder of Estee Lauder, who has known Donald Trump since college.

If the name sounds familiar, Lauder is also in the news for convincing Trump to acquire the Greenland in Trump’s first term and now his second, a behind-the-scenes money grab I’ll cover in another post.

In an oddly ironic twist, Lauder also served as deputy assistant Secretary of Defense for NATO affairs from 1983 to 1986 and was ambassador to Austria for one year. (I say ironically because a U.S. invasion of Greenland would put the U.S. at war with its allies and effectively end the NATO coalition, which may be one of Lauder’s hidden aims.

As it happens, Ronald Lauder resigned from the board of Estee Lauder on January 10, 2025, just days before Trump’s inauguration.

While the bulk of his wealth derives from the Estee Lauder company, Ronald Lauder also manages investments in real estate and media, including Central European Media Enterprises and Israeli TV. His fortune also includes diverse investments in real estate and media, including Central European Media Enterprises and Israeli TV. He also owns significant art holdings as well as arms and armor collections.

I’ll cover this in a future column, but Lauder also founded RWL Water, LLC in 2010, which focuses on water-related investments, including in Greenland. This is especially critical: The U.N. just released a report stating that the world has entered a “an era of ‘global water bankruptcy’ that is harming billions of people.

According to The Guardian, “75% of people lived in countries classified as water-insecure or critically water-insecure and 2 billion people lived on ground that is sinking as groundwater aquifers collapse.” Lauder is positioning his company to take advantage of the indigenous people of a sovereign nation in order to gain access to water resources for his own enrichment—not a new tactic for U.S. imperialism.

Under the Dobra minerals deal, half the revenue the Ukrainian government receives from the lithium field will be directed to the joint investment fund. The deal also stipulates that a company seeking to develop a mineral site and who needs additional investors must first present to the opportunity to the fund.

Here’s what that means. In book publishing contracts usually contain what’s known as the “right of first refusal,” which means that the author must show their next book (the one after the book under contract) to give that publisher first crack at the book. The difference is that the author can turn down the publisher’s offer. But it’s not clear, here, whether the fledgling company can do the same.

In a vast understatement, The New York Times called the stipulation a “mechanism designed to favor American business interests.”

And who exactly is TechMet? The Dublin-headquartered minerals-focused investment firm is owned in part by the U.S. government’s International Development Finance Corporation. Shareholders also include S2G Ventures, the Qatar Investment Authority, and global energy and commodity group Mercuria.

The Qatar Investment Authority has numerous international holdings, among them $3.78 billion in Manhattan properties since 2014. And that’s not all.

In August 2018, the $500 billion secretive investment firm Brookfield signed a 99-year lease on Trump son-in-law Jared Kushner’s financially troubled 666 Fifth Avenue skyscraper. The deal raised suspicions that the Qatar Investment Authority, a major investor in Brookfield, was attempting to influence the Trump Administration—suspicions that the Qatari government vehemently denied.

Back to Ronald Lauder. According to the Washington Spectator, a conservative media outlet, Lauder has long been a confidant of Russian president Vladimir Putin. Lauder met with Putin in 2016 and in March of 2019; the Kremlin confirmed their meeting.

Lauder is also the president of the World Jewish Congress (WJC) and a close associate of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu since the 1980s (they reportedly had a falling out in 2018).

The 2019 meeting between Ronald Lauder and Putin, ostensibly held to improve conditions for Jews in Russia, occurred in March, just as the first Trump administration’s private planning meetings were held concerning the acquisition of Greenland.

When the U.S.-Ukraine minerals deal was signed, I publicly shared my fear that Trump would betray Ukraine and sell its share of the minerals to Russia, thereby making Ukraine a vassal state of Soviet empire.

This no longer seems a remote possibility.

A central sticking point in Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s 20-point peace plan for ending Russia’s full-scale invasion is ownership over Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, the largest of its kind in Europe. The plant has been under illegal Russian occupation since the full-scale invasion began in 2022.

Trump proposes a joint trilateral operation of the plant with the U.S., Ukraine, and Russia each controlling one-third of the plant and a U.S. overseer of operations. Russia’s aim in controlling the plant stems from its need to address energy deficits in the south of Russia.

To be clear, Trump is proposing U.S. co-ownership of Ukrainian assets together with Russia, its aggressor. If Ukraine is compelled to agree to such a “deal,” there is nothing to stop Trump from surrendering or selling his shares of the power plant to Russia in exchange for Russia’s continuation of its “hands off” policy on U.S. control o over Greenland.

For Ukraine, regaining control over the power plant is critical to both its current and post-war sovereignty and to the reconstruction process.

In December of 1994, in an agreement known as the Budapest Memorandum, Ukraine agreed to give up its nuclear arms in exchange for security guarantees from the U.S., the U.K., and Russia. Later, in separate documents, France and China also gave Ukraine promises of security.

At the time of the signing, Ukraine had the third largest nuclear arsenal in the world.

Much has made of Donald Trump’s insatiable greed and imperialist aims, and rightfully so.

Yet the billionaires who surround him also take part in the plunder. The fate of several sovereign nations and the citizens that comprise them hangs in the balance.

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For those of you who know me only as a writer, I also teach at the intersection of science, psychology, social context, and embodiment. Next Tuesday, January 27, I’ll be offering a 2-hour Masterclass on the latest scientific research on interoception, the astonishing ability to sense signals from inside our bodies—and how it helps with gut health, emotional balance, and more. For more information or to register, click the button below.

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Sources:

In April of 2025, Ukraine signed a deal with the United States to share future revenue: https://www.nytimes.com/2025/04/30/world/europe/ukraine-minerals-deal-trump.html

Any future aid, however, would be counted toward the minerals deal. Any future aid, however, would be counted toward the minerals: https://kyivindependent.com/u-s-ukraine-minerals-agreement-the-main-points-of-the-newly-signed-deal/

The International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS) called it a “triumph for Ukrainian diplomacy: https://www.iiss.org/online-analysis/online-analysis/2025/05/the-us-ukraine-minerals-deal-a-triumph-for-ukrainian-diplomacy/

Analyst Nigel Gould-Davies, its Senior Fellow For Russia and Eurasia, enthused: https://www.iiss.org/online-analysis/online-analysis/2025/05/the-us-ukraine-minerals-deal-a-triumph-for-ukrainian-diplomacy/

According to the Kyiv Independent, U.S.-based company TechMet was long seen: https://kyivindependent.com/ukraine-to-attract-179-million-u-s-investment-in-key-lithium-deposit/?fbclid=IwY2xjawPclxdleHRuA2FlbQIxMABicmlkETF5SWh5dkV4VzhpWHZYWVdVc3J0YwZhcHBfaWQQMjIyMDM5MTc4ODIwMDg5MgABHmI0X_qCd3ODUnyOPe1TnBFqhhB8HRE6C8wLU-LMbgoTV-4JzQ6F2gbZrlWH_aem_bxTv7E6ehbVwyTXD60yCpA

A key investor is the billionaire Ronald S. Lauder: https://www.elcompanies.com/en/news-and-media/newsroom/press-releases/2025/01-10-2025-114520227

In an oddly ironic twist, Lauder also served as deputy assistant Secretary of Defense for NATO: https://www.forbes.com/profile/ronald-lauder/

While the bulk of his wealth derives from the Estee Lauder: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ronald_Lauder See also: https://www.goodreturns.in/ronald-lauder-net-worth-and-biography-blnr514.html

The U.N. just released a report stating that the world has entered a “an era of ‘global water bankruptcy: https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2026/jan/20/era-of-global-water-bankruptcy-is-here-un-report-says

As it happens, Ronald Lauder resigned from the board of Estee Lauder: https://www.elcompanies.com/en/news-and-media/newsroom/press-releases/2025/01-10-2025-114520227

In a vast understatement, The New York Times called the stipulation: https://www.nytimes.com/2026/01/08/world/europe/trump-lauder-ukraine-lithium.html

The Dublin-headquartered minerals-focused investment firm is owned in part by the U.S.: https://www.spglobal.com/energy/en/news-research/latest-news/metals/011226-techmet-rock-holdings-jv-wins-rights-for-dobra-lithium-deposit-in-ukraine

In August 2018, the $500 billion secretive investment firm Brookfield signed a 99-year lease on Trump son-in-law Jared Kushner’s: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qatar_Investment_Authority#cite_note-75 See also: https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2019/02/qatar-666-5th-ave-jared-kushner

The 2019 meeting between Ronald Lauder and Putin: https://washingtonspectator.org/the-russian-roots-of-trumps-venezuela-and-greenland-operations/

Trump proposes a joint trilateral operation of the plant with the U.S., Ukraine, and Russia: https://www.nytimes.com/2026/01/02/world/europe/ukraine-peace-plan-zaporizhzhia-nuclear-plant.html?unlocked_article_code=1.F1A.697h.pnjuYAVj5FwX&smid=url-share

Russia’s aim in controlling the plant stems from its need to address energy deficits: https://moderndiplomacy.eu/2025/12/27/occupied-and-imperiled-charting-a-path-for-zaporizhzhias-nuclear-future/

In December of 1994, in an agreement known as the Budapest Memorandum: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Budapest_Memorandum

Have you ever struggled to wake up or get out of bed in the morning in the depths of winter? Felt unmotivated, fatigued, or down? Had difficulty concentrating or experienced brain fog? If so, you may have Seasonal Affective Disorder, a diagnostic label which covers a constellation of physical, emotional, and cognitive symptoms that coincide with seasonal changes in the late fall and spring.

You won’t find mention of this in the literature, but SAD doesn’t present in a uniform way. You can think of it as an “anxiety-depression-anxiety” sandwich. It begins with a “prelude” of anxiety in the fall, along with agitation and nervous system hyperarousal. The “meat” of the sandwich during the winter months is depression. And in the spring when the light changes again, there is a “postlude” of anxiety much like the one in the fall. This anxiety-driven prelude and postlude can cause the middle of the sandwich, the depression part, to catch us by surprise.

Although we’ve been trained to see it as a mood disorder, SAD signals a deeper underlying issue. It points to the vital role of light and biological rhythms in health and disease. From my perspective as an integrative health specialist, it should be called Seasonal Light Disorder (SLD), which is what I’ll call it here.

As it turns out, SLD may be an early warning sign for cancer, Alzheimer’s, and many other illnesses we may have thought unrelated to mood.

Scientific research points to four possible causes:

• disturbances in circadian (24-hour) rhythms

• reduced retinal sensitivity in the eyes

• genetic factors

• dysregulation of neurotransmitters such as dopamine and serotonin

When I was 19 years old, I became a research assistant in the Sleep Research Laboratory at the University of Chicago, where I first developed a fascination for sleep. My decades of research, scholarship, and practical work in related fields since then points to circadian rhythms (the first of the causes above) as the central contributing factor in Seasonal Light Disorder.

While circadian rhythm disruption is the central mechanism, the other three factors relate to these rhythms in complex ways. Retinal sensitivity changes from aging, eye disease, or variations in the ipRGCs themselves can “mute” the light signals that reset your circadian clock. Genetic factors can make some people more vulnerable to circadian disruption. And these changes in light perception cause a cascade of biological and emotional responses, including the dysregulation of neurotransmitters like dopamine and serotonin.

The mental health field hasn’t brought us much in the way of novel treatments for SLD. Best practices include light therapy, cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT), and/or antidepressants. (There is debate in the field as to which antidepressants are considered most effective; buproprione is currently the only FDA-approved treatment specifically for SLD.)

And yet, reconfiguring the disorder as a “light-dark” disturbance offers exciting new possibilities for well-being. In this column, I’d like to integrate wisdom from related areas, particularly the circadian light-dark cycle and the gut, to shed light on what SLD really signals and what we can do to alleviate it.

Defining Seasonal Light Disorder

Seasonal Light Disorder is diagnosed when you’ve had at least two episodes of seasonal depression in the last two years, and when seasonal episodes of depression outnumber the non-seasonal ones. These requirements mean that the time from diagnosis to treatment is longer than in most emotionally-mediated issues.

Symptoms include:

• difficulty waking up or getting out of bed in the morning (often the first indicator)

• fatigue and low energy

• a dip in motivation

• changes in appetite, including a craving for sweets and starches

• decreased physical activity

• difficulty concentrating and brain fog

• irritability and sad affect

• social isolation and sensitivity to social rejection

• possible weight gain

Seasonal Light Disorder affects as much as 5 percent of the global population and four times as many women as men. The geographic distribution is uneven and, researchers think, linked to latitude. In northern Finland, prevalence runs as high as 9.5 percent, while Alaska has a rate of 8.9 percent.

Seasonal Light Disorder has two subcategories. The first, subsyndromal SAD (SSAD), is a milder version. The second, summer pattern SAD, occurs during the summer months and can be triggered by heatwaves; symptoms include insomnia, appetite loss, and agitation.

The list of SLD symptoms sounds much like the one that describes depression. What’s the evidence, then, that seasonal depression is more than a mood disorder?

The answer lies in how the body tracks time, and how this timekeeping capacity in turn orchestrates every bodily function that affects our health, from immunity to the gut-brain axis to aging.

How Your Body Tracks Time

Your body is home to an intricate series of complex biological clocks. These timekeeping mechanisms coordinate numerous bodily functions: what time you wake up and go to sleep, when and to what extent you feel most alert, the rise and fall of hormones, how well you concentrate, the speed and effectiveness with which your immune system responds to threats, when and how well your gut digests food, the rise and fall of energy levels, and much more.

Circadian rhythms are part of the emerging field of chronobiology, which focuses on the body’s biological and cyclical rhythms and the body’s relationship with time itself.

Almost all species have internal rhythms and a sense of time.

We have internal circadian (approximately 24-hour) clocks that generate and shape daily cycles in our physiology, emotion, and behavior.

Science journalism pays much more attention to the central circadian clock in the brain. Importantly, however, we have clocks in our peripheral tissues as well.

Central clocks are regulated primarily by light-dark signals, while peripheral clocks are modulated mostly by dietary signals.

We have ultradian rhythms, too, which occur in smaller time units like 2-4 hours. The stages of sleep, basic cycles of rest and activity, hormone secretion, and gastric digestion observe these shorter rhythms in addition to the longer circadian ones.

And we have larger infradian rhythms, which orchestrate patterns over longer periods such as days, weeks, months, or years; examples include the human menstrual cycle and seasonal depression itself. Functions like digestion, seasonal depression, and sleep can span more than one kind of cycle.

Most organisms inherit the ability to track time on this 24-hour scale. For example, bees use their biological clocks to visit flowers and feed at the precise window of time each day when flowers are open. Birds use their clocks during migration to compensate for the changing position of the sun. Other mammals rely on them to forage for foot at the times ideal for avoiding predation.

The tracking of time is deeply significant. To be in synchrony with the solar cycle ensures your health, well-being, and survival.

Our circadian clocks regulate numerous vital functions, including:

• body temperature, which reaches its lowest point about two hours before awakening

• gastrointestinal function and enteric nervous system or belly brain regulation

• gut microbes, which also function on an ultradian (4-hour) time unit

• hormone secretion, including cortisol, which peaks soon after awakening

• dopamine, blood sugar, Vitamin D3 (a hormone), and melatonin

• heart rate and cardiovascular function

• energy and fatigue

Immune function is also part of your circadian system. Normal immune responses depend greatly on the time of day. Your ability to fight off an endotoxin depends on when during the day you come into contact with it and the status of your immune system when you do.

And it just so happens that both depression and Seasonal Light Disorder correlate with elevated levels of circulating inflammatory molecules in the bloodstream.

Even a one-hour time change like the kind incurred by daylight saving time puts your body in a pro-inflammatory state. Increased inflammation can, in turn, have a negative impact on digestive issues, mood regulation, cognitive functioning, and numerous indicators of well-being such as cardiovascular health.

Being “off” by even a small amount is not a minor issue. It impacts us at the level of our cells, tissues, and behavior.

The circadian clock in your brain is always trying to figure out “when” you are in time. Without contextual information from the outer world, you’d have a daily rhythm closer to 24.2 hours. And the primary way you get that contextual information is through the light-dark cycle. Viewing sunlight, even when it’s cloudy, adjusts your behavior to a solar day; otherwise, your rhythm would be off. In just five days, for example, you’d be off by a full hour. In one month, you’d be off by a full six hours.

How exactly does light affect your internal clock? The answer lies in a set of specialized cells at the back of your eyes.

The Hidden Cells That Regulate Mood, Immunity, & Well-Being

For a long time, both science and popular culture have viewed the eye primarily as a visual organ. Yet the eye has vital functions beyond vision and image formation.

In 2002, scientists discovered a key group of cells at the back of the retina called melanopsin-expressing intrinsically photosensitive retinal ganglion cells, or ipRGCs.

Let’s put aside the scientific jargon, and focus on the fact that these cells dedicate themselves to registering the level and brightness of the light around us and communicating that information to the brain.

These special cells regulate neuroendocrine function (think our hormonal systems, like the ones involved in depression, as well as the astrocytes that modulate hormones). They also regulate sleep.

It turns out that ipRGCs impact learning and mood not by circadian rhythm alone, but by an additional mechanism.

Some ipRGCs innervate the suprachiasmatic nucleus, or SCN, the brain’s central circadian clock mechanism. The SCN regulates learning, memory, and other aspects of cognitive function.

But the effects of light on mood are largely independent of this mechanism. Other ipRGCs project to the perihabenular nucleus, a region in the thalamus (the brain’s sensory relay station) that regulates mood.

Neurons in the perihabenular nucleus, or PHb, project to one of three targets. The first, the ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC), plays a role in multiple social, cognitive, and affective functions commonly disrupted in mental illness. This area also regulates reward.

The second area, the dorsomedial striatum, anticipates rewards, tracks actions and outcomes, adapts to uncertainties in the environment.

The third area, the nucleus accumbens, is a key part of the limbic system and vital to motivation, pleasure, reward processing, aversion, and reinforcement learning. All three areas are commonly disrupted in emotional illnesses.

The discovery of these cells fundamentally changes our understanding of seasonal depression. These shifts in mood don’t stem from alterations in circulating serotonin—the “affective” part of seasonal affective disorder. The issue is with light itself and how the specialized cells in your eyes signal changes in light to key regions of your brain, which translates these signals into biological changes that affect mood.

When you’re exposed to more artificial light, greater amounts of screen time, less time outside, or more time indoors, or irregular eating schedules, your biological clock perceives these changes in outdoor light or other key shifts in your daily schedule. And the consequences extend far beyond the winter blues.

Seasonal Light Disorder: An Early Warning Sign for Health Issues

Let’s consider a small sample of what happens when your internal clocks fall out of synchrony:

• A new study reveals that the brain’s cognitive responsiveness and capacity for learning shift with the time of day, governed by molecules like adenosine that link metabolism, sleep, and neural signaling.

• There’s a key connection between circadian rhythmicity and dopamine. Researchers from McGill University in Montreal recently showed that mood swings in bipolar disorder are regulated not just by the body’s circadian rhythm, but a special dopamine “clock” that influences alertness. This results in swinging back and forth between a dopamine surplus (the manic phases) and deficit (the depression phases). When the two clocks align in certain ways, they may trigger oscillations between mania and depression.

• The dopamine connection made me wonder immediately about ADHD, which scientists believe stems from anomalies in brain dopamine synthesis that cause a dopamine deficit. And sure enough, people with ADHD traits have a high prevalence of Seasonal Light Disorder.

• Scientific research has recently linked changes in circadian gene expression to neurodegenerative diseases, including Parkinson’s, ALS, cerebellar ataxias, Alzheimer’s disease, and Huntington’s disease.

• A systematic review of studies in 2025 demonstrates a strong causal link between circadian disruption and breast, prostate, and colorectal cancers, with emerging evidence for melanoma and bladder cancer. The mechanisms that link circadian disruption to cancer include melatonin suppression, dysregulation of circadian clock genes, nighttime exposure to light, and prolonged night shift work. Furthermore, disruption of the circadian clock leads to enhanced proliferation of cancer cells and the genesis and growth of tumors. Circadian rhythm asynchrony is also involved in pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (pancreatic cancer) development and progression, as well as in resistance to therapies.

• And chronic disruption of the circadian rhythm due to irregular social schedules, sleep disorders, or shift work is associated with an increased risk of high blood pressure, heart arrhythmias, and myocardial infarction.

These are just a taste of the numerous connection between biological rhythms and well-being.

These connections suggest that Seasonal Light Disorder is a gift of sorts, an early warning sign of circadian rhythm disruption that can lead to more serious and systemic issues. If you experience SLD, your body is telling you that your light-dark cycle, and possibly other cycles too, needs attention.

If you don’t experience SLD but have inflammatory issues, gut disorders, ADHD, sleep disturbances, or any related issue, these issues are your early warning signs. Luckily, there are steps you can take to bolster your short-term and long-term health.

Before reviewing therapeutic interventions, it’s worthwhile to acknowledge some of the top triggers that send our clocks out of synchrony. These include:

• shift work, or working at nighttime when the body naturally sleeps (which inverts the day-night cycle, which affects 30 to 40 percent of workers

• shift work’s close cousin, social jetlag (which occurs when we stay up late and sleep in on the weekends compared to our weekday schedule, which is like a chronic travel jetlag without changing time zones). Social jetlag affects close to 80 percent of the population, and leads to increased risks for obesity, diabetes, and cardiovascular issues

• light exposure at nighttime from using light-emitting devices or from lights that are continuously on throughout the night

• eating close to or during physiological rest time (defined as within three hours before sleep) can also cause central-intestinal circadian misalignment, given the disruption of winter (and lack of adequate sunlight) on GI processes

Shift work disproportionately affects people of lower socioeconomic status and BIPOC communities, who are overrepresented in jobs requiring night shifts: healthcare workers, manufacturing, retail, security, transportation. This makes circadian disruption not just a health issue but a social justice issue; the health consequences (increased cancer risk, cardiovascular disease, metabolic disorders) compound existing health disparities.

Paradoxically, Seasonal Light Disorder itself shows different demographic patterns, occurring more frequently in people with higher socioeconomic status. This may reflect the way that a formal diagosis of and intervention for Seasonal Light Disorder relate to issues healthcare inequity. Ansd shift workers may experience circadian disruption in forms that never get diagnosed as SLD.

Tuning Your Biological Clocks

The following interventions draw from the research and are relatively simple to implement. In addition, they work together to reestablish your body’s natural circadian and ultradian signals. I highly recommend tracking your body’s responses in a journal, which will allow you to make adjustments as needed.

View Morning Light. One of the best ways to boost mood, both during the winter months and throughout the year, is exposure to direct outdoor light as a way to reset your circadian clock.

Importantly, ipRGCs are less sensitive to bright light in the morning and therefore harder to activate. You can stimulate them by going outside (you can do any form of physical outdoor activity, including walking to a bus stop) as soon as possible after sunrise, for between 5 and 30 minutes. You can experiment with length of time to find the optimal amount for you; for example, my personal sweet spot is 15-20 minutes 5-6 days a week.

Your light-viewing “apparatus” is equipped with photoperiodism, a “light-dark memory system” which determines how past exposure to light will influence future physiological responses. This means that if you miss a day or two per week, your circadian system will rely on its memory of prior light. (You can also skip a day if you find yourself waking up too early.)

Light Box Therapy. If getting outdoor light after sunrise is not possible for you, a device can provide that light. Light intensity and duration of treatment depend on the type of light device and on individual response. Evidence suggests that 10,000 lux for 20-40 minutes per day, at the same time of day and as soon as possible after awakening but before 8:00 a.m., is most effective. You can find multiple guides to finding effective light boxes online, including this one from the nonprofit organization Center for Environmental Therapeutics. You don’t need to (and shouldn’t) look directly at the device, but can work or read while it operates.

Boost Sleep Pressure. Another key morning practice has to do with supporting the biological system that builds “sleep pressure” (the desire to sleep). This process begins as soon as you wake up and builds progressively throughout the day. Its primary driver is adenosine, a molecule in your body. Early morning sunlight helps boost adenosine function.

Consume caffeine early. In addition, try to consume your caffeine early in the day. The rate of caffeine metabolism varies widely. Its half-life, the time it take for half to be eliminated, runs between 2 and 12 hours. Research also shows that even 14 hours after consuming coffee, most of us have up to one quarter of the amount of circulating paraxanthine, one of the three primary metabolites of coffee, in our systems.

Limit Caffeine to Optimal Time Windows. When consumed too soon after awakening, caffeine occupies your adenosine receptors without activating them. This prevents your sleep signal from building properly; it also affects neurotransmitters such as dopamine and norepinephrine in a way that primes alertness. To support your adenosine system, wait to consume coffee until 90 -120 minutes after awakening.

Reduce Evening Light. The same ipRGCs that are less sensitive to morning light are extremely sensitive to the blue wave spectrum of light in the evening. Exposure to blue light in the evening—such as the kind you get from computers, phones, iPad, and overhead lighting—inhibits the release of melatonin and delays sleep.

You can minimize blue light in the evening by taking the following steps:

• use dimmer switches to turn lights down to minimal levels in the evening

• program your computer settings to use warm light

• minimize bright or overhead light 1-2 hours before the time you plan to go to sleep

• use floor lamps, red bulbs, or candlelight

Exercise outside when possible. Exercise itself is a potent modulator of circadian rhythms, influencing crucial processes such as hormonal secretion, metabolism, and body temperature. Exercise combined with sunlight exposure shortens the time it takes to fall asleep, and improves sleep quality. Morning exercise also helps people wake up and go to sleep earlier, which is especially beneficial for night owl types.

For more on the value of exercise outdoors, see this piece on optic flow.

Regulate Your Sleep and Wakeup Times. The more consistent we can be with our sleep and wake times, including on weekends, the better the boost we give our circadian clocks.

Most interventions that align your biological clocks don’t just boost emotional balance; they support your gastrointestinal system and immunity as well.

Circadian Clocks and the Gut

We know that our gut influences our brain—hence the term gut-brain axis. One of the ways the gut does this is by regulating levels of inflammatory molecules. Another way is through our circadian and ultradian rhythms.

In addition to the central circadian clock, we also have a clock in our gastrointestinal tract. The GI clock synchronizes intestinal function with the environment around us, enabling our digestive processes to adapt in real-time.

Our central circadian and microbiota rhythms influence one another. For example, an abundance of certain microbiota can disrupt clock genes, while time-restricted feeding can restore microbial balance. (Time-restricted feeding is the practice of eating during a limited time window, such as 8-12 hours.)

The GI clock responds both to light signals and to the master clock in the brain to optimize digestion. Dim light during the daytime, for example, decreases carbohydrate digestion and absorption. (This is one reason digestion can get more sluggish during the winter.)

The GI clock also responds to other cues. Foremost among these is when and what we eat. For example, changing our eating times can affect clock gene rhythms in the intestine independently of input from the central clock in the brain.

Multiple cells in the gastrointestinal system, including immune cells and hormone-producing neuroendocrine cells, can also express clock genes. These clock genes in turn regulate functions like intestinal motility, the growth of cells, mucosal immunity, and inflammation.

And then there’s intestinal permeability. Maintaining the epithelial lining of the intestine ensures an effective barrier between the gut and the bloodstream—and therefore also the brain. The integrity of this barrier is underpinned by tight junction proteins, a process I outlined in this column. When intestinal barrier integrity is compromised, the gut becomes “leakier” and inflammatory molecules can enter the bloodstream and eventually cross the blood-brain barrier where, years later, they can cause neurodegenerative diseases such as Parkinson’s.

As you’ve likely guessed, the GI clock regulates these tight junction proteins.

(((((((

Your gut has its own circadian clock that works in tandem with the master clock in your brain. While light resets your central clock, food timing and composition reset your gut clock. These two systems influence each other: when they're synchronized, they reinforce healthy rhythms; when they're misaligned—say, eating late at night while trying to maintain good morning light exposure—they work against each other.

Light Viewing. This is repeated here for emphasis; see above for more details. Given the effect of a cloudy day on the gut microbiome, you can consider longer periods of time outside on those days, if your work schedule allows.

Eat at Regular Times. In much the same way that your circadian clocks have a “memory,” your gut does too. You gut secretes gastric enzymes in advance of when you eat. Eating at consistent times each day helps to maintain microbial balance, improve gut barrier function, reduce inflammation, and lower the risk of chronic diseases by synchronizing food intake (and therefore, the GI clock) with circadian cycles.

Time-Restricted Feeding. This powerful therapeutic intervention is poorly named and redolent of eating disordered language. Ignore the name and focus instead on the meaning of the intervention, which has been studied extensively and found to be effective. Time restricted feeding refers to eating within a certain time window—say, from 8:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. Particularly for people with inflammatory issues and/or Seasonal Light Disorder, finishing food consumption a minimum of 3 hours before bedtime during winter and 2 hours before bedtime in the summer reduces inflammation, lowers body temperature to optimal sleep onset levels, and improves sleep quality. (Note: There are other kinds of time-restricted feeding which I won’t cover here.)

Tending Your Gut Microbiome. I’ve talked about this before: Emerging research shows that while fiber is important to our gut microbiome, the consumption of fermented foods may be even more critical to the diversity of the gut microbiome. In a groundbreaking 2021 study that has since been replicated, researchers found that a diet rich in fermented foods (such as sauerkraut and yogurt) increased the diversity of the gut microbiome and decreased inflammation. (Tip: Most people need to work up a tolerance for fermented foods by beginning with a small portion and increasing by increments daily.)

Tending Your Clocks As You Age

These interventions matter at any age, but they become increasingly critical as we get older. Our circadian systems naturally weaken with time, making us more vulnerable to the consequences of circadian disruption.

Older adults experience a decline in deep sleep, the stage during which the brain’s glymphatic system cleans itself of debris. As we age, we also experience a decline in the system that builds up sleep pressure and makes us feel tired at night. And we produce less melatonin, the hormone that signals it’s time to go to sleep. This makes us more inclined to wake up during the night—to use the bathroom, or because we’re worried about something, or even ambient noise that wouldn’t have bothered us when we were younger.

Circadian rhythm disturbances often occur in perimenopause and beyond. This is because estrogen regulates multiple physical processes, including our sleep-wake cycles, mood regulation, and body temperature—all of which are circadian-related.

Vasomotor symptoms such as hot flashes often disturb sleep. People going through perimenopause often report longer sleep onset delays, more frequent awakenings during the night, poorer sleep quality, a greater incidence of pain disorders, depression and anxiety, and increased inflammation. Notably, Seasonal Light Disorder is less common in women over the age of 30, which suggests that SLD may be the outcome of a circadian disorder that takes the form of winter depression when we’re younger and other issues as we age.

Our circadian clocks weaken as we get older, particularly after age 60. We also experience a progressive loss of ipRGCs as well as changes in the clarity and density of the eye lens. This can reduce the transmission of blue light in the morning, while making us more vulnerable to blue light in the evening. Furthermore, these eye changes are exacerbated in neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s.

As we age, the weakening of our circadian systems makes us more susceptible to the downstream consequences of circadian disruption like cognitive decline, cancer, cardiovascular disease, inflammatory illnesses, and neurodegenerative disease. You can think of these illnesses as messages sent by our bodies to signal that our biological clocks are out of sync. The interventions outlined above such as morning light exposure, consistent sleep times, and time-restricted feeding, are not just helpful but essential for older adults.

The good news is that modern chronotherapy, a field which studies ways to reset our circadian and related cycles, can help us not only endure winter better but preserve our health across the lifespan.

Addressing these clocks now, whether you’re 25 or 65, helps protect your brain, immune system, gut health, and longevity.

The other hidden gift of Seasonal Light Disorder is to make us more aware of the ways that dominant cultural forces like capitalism directly impact our health by pushing productivity, maximizing artificial light, entraining us to screen time, and making time outdoors a privilege rather than a birthright. Understanding SLD, however, empowers us with a range of interventions that counter these forces and center our health and well-being.

UPGRADE TO PAID

Sources:

Possible causes include: disturbances in circadian (24-hour) rhythms: Seasonal Affective Disorder—StatPearls—NCBI Bookshelf. (n.d.). Retrieved December 23, 2025, from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK568745/

Seasonal Light Disorder affects as high as 5 percent of the global: Kim, K., Kim, J., Jung, S., Kim, H.-W., Kim, H.-S., Son, E., Ko, D. S., Yoon, S., Kim, B. S., Kim, W. K., Lim, C., Kim, K., Lee, D., & Kim, Y. H. (2025). Global prevalence of seasonal affective disorder by latitude: A systematic review and meta-analysis. Journal of Affective Disorders, 390, 119807. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jad.2025.119807

The first is subsyndromal SAD (SSAD), a milder version: Oginska, H., & Oginska-Bruchal, K. (2014). Chronotype and personality factors of predisposition to seasonal affective disorder. Chronobiology International, 31(4), 523–531. https://doi.org/10.3109/07420528.2013.874355

There is a significant in the prevalence of both SAD and Subsyndromal SAD: Kim, K., Kim, J., Jung, S., Kim, H.-W., Kim, H.-S., Son, E., Ko, D. S., Yoon, S., Kim, B. S., Kim, W. K., Lim, C., Kim, K., Lee, D., & Kim, Y. H. (2025). Global prevalence of seasonal affective disorder by latitude: A systematic review and meta-analysis. Journal of Affective Disorders, 390, 119807. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jad.2025.119807

Central clocks are regulated primarily by light-dark signals, while peripheral: Zhang, Y., Noya, S. B., Li, Y., Fang, J., & Sehgal, A. (2025). The microbiome interacts with the circadian clock and dietary composition to regulate metabolite cycling in the Drosophila gut. eLife, 13. https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.97130.2

Both depression and seasonal light disorder correlate with high levels of circulating inflammatory: Costello, A., Linning-Duffy, K., Vandenbrook, C., Lonstein, J. S., & Yan, L. (2023). Effects of bright light therapy on neuroinflammatory and neuroplasticity markers in a diurnal rodent model of Seasonal Affective Disorder. Annals of medicine, 55(2), 2249015. https://doi.org/10.1080/07853890.2023.2249015 See also: Song, C., Luchtman, D., Kang, Z., Tam, E. M., Yatham, L. N., Su, K. P., & Lam, R. W. (2015). Enhanced inflammatory and T-helper-1 type responses but suppressed lymphocyte proliferation in patients with seasonal affective disorder and treated by light therapy. Journal of affective disorders, 185, 90–96. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jad.2015.06.003 See also: Leu, S. J., Shiah, I. S., Yatham, L. N., Cheu, Y. M., & Lam, R. W. (2001). Immune-inflammatory markers in patients with seasonal affective disorder: effects of light therapy. Journal of affective disorders, 63(1-3), 27–34. https://doi.org/10.1016/s0165-0327(00)00165-8

Other ipRGCs project to the perihabenular nucleus, a region: Fernandez, D. C., Fogerson, P. M., Lazzerini Ospri, L., Thomsen, M. B., Layne, R. M., Severin, D., Zhan, J., Singer, J. H., Kirkwood, A., Zhao, H., Berson, D. M., & Hattar, S. (2018). Light Affects Mood and Learning through Distinct Retina-Brain Pathways. Cell, 175(1), 71–84.e18. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cell.2018.08.004

Recent studies in humans have shown that light can trigger physiological changes: Milosavljevic N. How Does Light Regulate Mood and Behavioral State? Clocks Sleep. 2019 Jul 12;1(3):319-331. doi: 10.3390/clockssleep1030027. PMID: 33089172; PMCID: PMC7445808.

These special cells also regulate neuroendocrine function: Graham, D. M., & Wong, K. Y. (1995). Melanopsin-expressing, Intrinsically Photosensitive Retinal Ganglion Cells (ipRGCs). In H. Kolb, E. Fernandez, B. Jones, & R. Nelson (Eds.), Webvision: The Organization of the Retina and Visual System. University of Utah Health Sciences Center. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK27326/

Recently, changes in circadian gene expression have been linked to neurodegenerative diseases: Canever, J. B., Queiroz, L. Y., Soares, E. S., de Avelar, N. C. P., & Cimarosti, H. I. (2024). Circadian rhythm alterations affecting the pathology of neurodegenerative diseases. Journal of Neurochemistry, 168(8), 1475–1489. https://doi.org/10.1111/jnc.15883

Researchers from McGill University in Montreal recently showed that mood swings in bipolar disorder: Markam, P. S., Bourguignon, C., Zhu, L., Ward, B., Darvas, M., Sabatini, P. V., Kokoeva, M. V., Giros, B., & Storch, K. F. (2025). Mesolimbic dopamine neurons drive infradian rhythms in sleep-wake and heightened activity state. Science advances, 11(1), eado9965. https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.ado9965

People with ADHD traits have a high prevalence of Seasonal Light Disorder: Jo, Y., Takagi, S., Shimizu, M., Takahashi, H., & Sugihara, G. (2025). Seasonal changes in mood and behaviors in individuals with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder trait. Journal of psychiatric research, 182, 462–468. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jpsychires.2025.01.044

A systematic review of studies in 2025 demonstrates a strong causal link between circadian disruption and breast: Clemente-Suarez, V. J., Navarro-Jiménez, E., Benitez-Agudelo, J. C., Beltrán-Velasco, A. I., Belinchón-deMiguel, P., Ramos-Campo, D. J., Villanueva-Tobaldo, C. V., Martín-Rodríguez, A., & Tornero-Aguilera, J. F. (2025). The multifaceted impact of circadian disruption on cancer risk: A systematic review of insights and economic implications. Journal of the National Cancer Center, 5(5), 524–536. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jncc.2025.04.005

Furthermore, disruption of the circadian clock leads to enhanced proliferation of cancer: Papagiannakopoulos, T., Bauer, M. R., Davidson, S. M., Heimann, M., Subbaraj, L., Bhutkar, A., Bartlebaugh, J., Vander Heiden, M. G., & Jacks, T. (2016). Circadian Rhythm Disruption Promotes Lung Tumorigenesis. Cell metabolism, 24(2), 324–331. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cmet.2016.07.001

Circadian rhythm not only is involved in Pancreatic Ductal Adenocarcinoma: García-Costela, M., Escudero-Feliú, J., Puentes-Pardo, J. D., San Juán, S. M., Morales-Santana, S., Ríos-Arrabal, S., Carazo, Á., & León, J. (2020). Circadian Genes as Therapeutic Targets in Pancreatic Cancer. Frontiers in endocrinology, 11, 638. https://doi.org/10.3389/fendo.2020.00638

And chronic disruption of the circadian rhythm due to irregular social schedules: Lecacheur, M., Ammerlaan, D. J. M., & Dierickx, P. (2024). Circadian rhythms in cardiovascular (dys)function: Approaches for future therapeutics. Npj Cardiovascular Health, 1(1), 21. https://doi.org/10.1038/s44325-024-00024-8

Caffeine soon after awakening occupies your adenosine receptors: Ribeiro, J. A., & Sebastião, A. M. (2010). Caffeine and adenosine. Journal of Alzheimer’s disease : JAD, 20 Suppl 1, S3–S15. https://doi.org/10.3233/JAD-2010-1379

Its half-life, the time it take for half to be eliminated, runs between: Reddy, V. S., Shiva, S., Manikantan, S., & Ramakrishna, S. (2024). Pharmacology of caffeine and its effects on the human body. European Journal of Medicinal Chemistry Reports, 10, 100138. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ejmcr.2024.100138

Exercise combined with sunlight exposure shortens the time it takes to fall: Lee, H., Kim, S., & Kim, D. (2014). Effects of exercise with or without light exposure on sleep quality and hormone responses. Journal of exercise nutrition & biochemistry, 18(3), 293–299. https://doi.org/10.5717/jenb.2014.18.3.293

For example, when certain microbiota exist in abundance, they can disrupt: Rijo-Ferreira, F., & Takahashi, J. S. (2019). Genomics of circadian rhythms in health and disease. Genome Medicine, 11(1), 82. https://doi.org/10.1186/s13073-019-0704-0

Dim light during the daytime, for example, decreases carbohydrate digestion and absorption: Bishehsari, F., Post, Z., Swanson, G. R., & Keshavarzian, A. (2025). Circadian Rhythms in Gastroenterology: The Biological Clock’s Impact on Gut Health. Gastroenterology, 169(7), 1380–1396. https://doi.org/10.1053/j.gastro.2025.06.017

Changes in eating times can affect clock gene rhythms in the intestine: Bishehsari, F., Post, Z., Swanson, G. R., & Keshavarzian, A. (2025). Circadian Rhythms in Gastroenterology: The Biological Clock’s Impact on Gut Health. Gastroenterology, 169(7), 1380–1396. https://doi.org/10.1053/j.gastro.2025.06.017

These clock genes, in turn, regulate functions such as intestinal motility: Martchenko, A., Martchenko, S. E., Biancolin, A. D., & Brubaker, P. L. (2020). Circadian Rhythms and the Gastrointestinal Tract: Relationship to Metabolism and Gut Hormones. Endocrinology, 161(12), bqaa167. https://doi.org/10.1210/endocr/bqaa167

In a groundbreaking 2021 study that has since been replicated: Caffrey, E. B., Perelman, D., Ward, C. P., Sonnenburg, E. D., Gardner, C. D., & Sonnenburg, J. L. (2025). Unpacking Food Fermentation: Clinically Relevant Tools for Fermented Food Identification and Consumption. Advances in Nutrition, 16(5), 100412. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.advnut.2025.100412 See also: Balasubramanian, R., Schneider, E., Gunnigle, E., Cotter, P. D., & Cryan, J. F. (2024). Fermented foods: Harnessing their potential to modulate the microbiota-gut-brain axis for mental health. Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews, 158, 105562. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neubiorev.2024.105562 See also: Leeuwendaal, N. K., Stanton, C., O’Toole, P. W., & Beresford, T. P. (2022). Fermented Foods, Health and the Gut Microbiome. Nutrients, 14(7), 1527. https://doi.org/10.3390/nu14071527 See also: Wastyk, H. C., Fragiadakis, G. K., Perelman, D., Dahan, D., Merrill, B. D., Yu, F. B., Topf, M., Gonzalez, C. G., Van Treuren, W., Han, S., Robinson, J. L., Elias, J. E., Sonnenburg, E. D., Gardner, C. D., & Sonnenburg, J. L. (2021). Gut-microbiota-targeted diets modulate human immune status. Cell, 184(16), 4137–4153.e14. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cell.2021.06.019

Eating at consistent times each day helps to maintain microbial balance: Bajaj, P., & Sharma, M. (2025). Chrononutrition and Gut Health: Exploring the Relationship Between Meal Timing and the Gut Microbiome. Current nutrition reports, 14(1), 79. https://doi.org/10.1007/s13668-025-00670-z

Circadian rhythm related disturbances frequently occur in women during perimenopause: Malhan, D., Yalçin, M., Liedtke, S., Grötsch, R., Enzmann, C., Rau, M., & Relógio, A. (2025). A prospective study to investigate circadian rhythms as health indicator in women’s aging. Npj Women’s Health, 3(1), 18. https://doi.org/10.1038/s44294-025-00057-z

We experience a progressive loss of ipRGCs as we age: Mure L. S. (2021). Intrinsically Photosensitive Retinal Ganglion Cells of the Human Retina. Frontiers in neurology, 12, 636330. https://doi.org/10.3389/fneur.2021.636330

We also experience a progressive loss of ipRGCs and changes in the clarity: Matynia, A., Recio, B. S., Myers, Z., Parikh, S., Goit, R. K., Brecha, N. C., & Pérez de Sevilla Müller, L. (2024). Preservation of Intrinsically Photosensitive Retinal Ganglion Cells (ipRGCs) in Late Adult Mice: Implications as a Potential Biomarker for Early Onset Ocular Degenerative Diseases. Investigative ophthalmology & visual science, 65(1), 28. https://doi.org/10.1167/iovs.65.1.28

In early 2025, soon after giving birth to her tenth child, Dr. Alaa al-Najjar returned to work as an emergency room physician at Nasser Hospital in Gaza.

After Israel’s fourth military invasion, the hospital, located in the southern city of Khan Yunis, was suffering from a dire shortage of physicians. A pediatrician by training, Dr. Alaa was determined to treat the victims—most of them children—of Israel’s relentless bombing campaigns.

On May 23, 2025, the temperature was nearing that day’s high of 87F degrees as Dr. Alaa’s husband Hamdi, also a physician at the hospital, walked her to work. They embraced briefly, tenderly, before Hamdi returned home to make lunch for the children.

Their parting words would be the last they ever exchanged.

As Hamdi arrived home, the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) struck twice in quick succession.

After the first strike, which did not detonate, Hamdi raced inside to get the children out. But the IDF launched a second missile, igniting a massive fireball explosion.

Hamdi’s brother, Ali Al-Najjar, heard the explosion and rushed to the home, arriving at the same time as the rescue team.

At Nasser Hospital, Dr. Alaa held the hands of others’ crying children, dressed their wounds, and soothed their parents’ worries.

Hours into her shift, she looked up to see Hamdi and her 11-year-old son Adam brought in on stretchers, layers of dust and blood covering their bodies. When the rescue workers entered the hospital carrying a series of tiny body bags, she was struck with horror.

The strike killed nine of Dr. Alaa’s ten children: Sidra, only 7 months old; Luqman, age 2; Sadeen, age 3; Rifan, 5 years; Raslan, 7 years; Jubran, 8; Eve, 9; Rakan, 10; and Yahya, the oldest at 12 years old.

Sources at the Nasser hospital who transferred the children’s bodies to the morgue said that several of her children's bodies were so severely burned that Dr. Alaa could not identify them.

A video by Al Jazeera depicts the rescue operation and Ali al-Najjar’s response. You can watch a beautiful video made by Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Mosab Abu Toha portraying Dr. Alaa’s remembrances of her children here. Mosab’s images were created using AI, but the words are Dr. Alaa’s.)

Dr. Alaa continued to work at Nasser Hospital, suspended between the deaths of nine of her children and the struggles of her husband and only surviving child.

Hamdi suffered brain damage and multiple body fractures caused by shrapnel. He died of his injuries on June 1.

Adam survived the attack. In June, he was evacuated for treatment at Milan’s La Niguardia hospital along with several other seriously injured children. Dr. Alaa would join her son in Italy several days later.

“I am not strong,” Dr. Alaa told Italy’s La Repubblica newspaper. “Everyone says I am. They call me a hero because I keep going, but I want the right not to be strong.”

The deliberate targeting of the al-Najjar family caused global outcry.

In a statement to The Guardian, The Israel Defense Forces claimed that their military aircraft “struck a number of suspects who were identified operating from a structure adjacent to IDF troops in the area of Khan Younis.” They would, they said, “investigate” whether civilians had died in the strikes.

But Dr. Graeme Groom, a British trauma surgeon working at Nasser Hospital who operated on Adam al-Najjar, disputed the IDF’s account. The father, Groom said, had no political or military connections and did not have a prominent social media presence.

Ali al-Najjar, the children’s uncle, said that there were no militants in the open area where the family home was located, and few places for combatants to hide. Several sources noted that there were no other injuries, indicating that Israel’s only target was the al-Najjar family.

Just four days after the strike, Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported that Israel, unapologetic and defiant, circulated misleading images and published reports that attempted to question the veracity of the incident.

Note to new readers: Every scientific or journalistic piece I write is extensively researched and, in the case of journalism, lists multiple sources for each fact. You can find those sources with links so you can explore them further below each column. (When possible, I include gift links when sources are kept behind a paywall), Today’s sources, for example, are here. This is my commitment to excellence in journalism and evidence-based science reporting in an era replete with misinformation and disinformation.

Israel’s Assault on Palestinian Healthcare

Marwan al-Hams, director of field hospitals at the Health Ministry in Gaza, told Le Monde that Israel’s targeting of the al-Najjar home was part of their larger pattern of targeting Palestinian medical professionals and Palestine’s healthcare system itself.

The Palestinian Ministry of Health in the Israeli-occupied West Bank concurred, adding that the strike was an attempt to “break the will of those standing steadfast in Gaza.”

Healthcare workers are protected persons under international law.

Despite that protection, Israel has systematically targeted Palestinian healthcare facilities, aid workers and emergency vehicles, and healthcare workers in a contravention of international humanitarian law.

According to The Lancet, between October of 2023 and May of 2025, Israel initiated 720 documented attacks on healthcare targets. These included 125 health facilities, 34 hospitals, and 186 ambulances.

In October of 2024, the Office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights released a report accusing the Israeli military of the crime against humanity of extermination for its deliberate targeting of medical facilities and its killing of healthcare workers.

This is, of course, emblematic of a genocide.

In February of 2025, Physicians for Human Rights-Israel, an organization providing free healthcare to Palestinians in the Occupied Palestinian Territories, released an investigative report.

In the report, they detailed the methods by which Israel has detained and tortured hundreds of Gazan physicians, and subjected them to starvation, sexual assault, refusal of medical care, and other human rights abuses. (You can learn more about this from Democracy Now! here.)

The investigation corroborated reports from 2024 by numerous media outlets, including The Guardian, The Independent, Haaretz, Al Jazeera, Democracy Now!, journals such as The British Medical Journal, and advocacy group such as the U.N.

In a separate investigation, CNN uncovered allegations of abuse at Israel’s notorious Sde Teiman detention center. Human rights violations, they found, included the amputation of prisoners’ limbs due to injuries sustained from constant handcuffing, medical procedures sometimes performed by underqualified medics, neglected wounds left to rot, and refusal of medical care for health conditions.

One of those physicians is Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya.

In October of 2024, the Israeli military used a drone to target and execute Dr. Abu Safiya’s 15-year-old son Ibrahim during a raid on the Kamal Adwan Hospital, at the time the last functioning hospital in northern Gaza.

Just one month later, the IDF struck the hospital again, wounding several, including Dr. Hussam.

They also bombed a home near the hospital, killing 17 members of the family of Dr. Hani Badran, one of the few remaining medical workers at Kamal Adwan. Survivors reported that those killed were primarily children, women, and elders.

A video by news outlet TNT World shows Dr. Hussam, who had just lost his own son, comforting Dr. Badran after delivering the news of the deaths to him.

Israel demanded that Dr. Hussam abandon his patients and leave Kamal Adwan hospital. But the Hippocratic oath he lived by would not let him do so.

The physician and director of Kamal Adwan hospital risked his life to keep his hospital operational as it was besieged by Israeli forces, battered by Israeli shells and drones, and targeted by Israeli snipers.

On December 27, Israeli military forces stormed Kamal Adwan hospital; they set it on fire, rendering it inoperable. Using a loudspeaker, they demanded Dr. Hussam’s surrender.

In a photograph shared worldwide, Dr. Hussam can be seen walking through the rubble, his white lab coat trailing like a cape behind him, toward an Israeli tank with its guns trained upon him.

Israel took Dr. Hussam to the dreaded Sde Teiman detention center and later to Ofer Prison, where he has been held ever since. They subjected him to humiliation and torture, including forcibly stripping him, handcuffing him tightly, forcing him to suit on sharp stones, beatings with batons, administering electric shocks, and delivering repeated blows to his chest.

Dr. Hussam suffers from heart muscle enlargement; Israel has denied his requests for essential healthcare.

Nine months after detaining him, despite requests from countless humanitarian organizations, Israel has refused to release Dr. Hossam.

You can sign a petition for the release of Dr. Abu Safiya through Amnesty International or Code Pink.

Crimes against humanity and extermination constitute genocide.

The Genocide Convention and the International Court of Justice

In December of 2023, I wrote a column referencing the Genocide Convention and detailing the reasons why Israel’s assault on Gaza met the criteria for genocide.

This was by no means a novel or even controversial revelation—although such opinions have been systematically suppressed by multiple forces.

On October 13, 2023, the Lemkin Institute for Genocide Prevention called for “Western leaders to pull back from the endorsement they have given Israel to effectively commit genocide against Palestinians.”

On October 15, 2023, nearly 900 scholars and practitioners of international law, genocide studies, and conflict studies signed a public statement to warn the world that Israel might be committing the crime of genocide in Gaza.

On November 2, 2023, a group of United Nations (UN) Special Rapporteurs said that they remained “convinced that the Palestinian people [were] at grave risk of genocide.”

And on December 29, 2023, South Africa brought a formal case of genocide against Israel at the International Court of Justice (ICJ), the United Nations’ top court.

In January of 2024, after two days of public hearings, the Court confirmed that Israel’s actions amounted to a plausible genocide. The ICJ issued provisional measures, including ordering Israel to use all means to prevent acts that violate the Genocide Convention.

In March of 2024, following a second request for additional measures, the Court ordered Israel to ensure the provision of basic food supplies to Gaza.

That May, the Court issued an order that required Israel to halt its offensive in Rafah.

On July 19, 2024, the ICJ issued a landmark ruling.

It deemed Israel’s occupation of Gaza and the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, unlawful, including its occupation of East Jerusalem, it’s associated settlement regime annexation of land, and use of Palestine’s natural resources.

And that wasn’t all. The Court added to their ruling the determination that Israel’s legislation and associated measures violated the international prohibition on racial segregation and apartheid.

The ICJ mandated Israel to:

• end its occupation

• dismantle its settlements

• provide full reparations to Palestinian victims

• facilitate the return of displaced people.

“The advisory opinion reaffirms peremptory norms prohibiting annexation, settlements, racial segregation and apartheid, and should be seen as declaratory in nature and binding on Israel and all States supporting the occupation,” the experts said.

Importantly, the Court refuted the notion that Palestinian self-determination should be achieved solely through bilateral negotiations with Israel, a requirement that has subjected Palestinians to violence, dispossession, and rights violations for 30 years.

The Court concluded, “The Court has finally reaffirmed a principle that seemed unclear, even to the United Nations: Freedom from foreign military occupation, racial segregation and apartheid is absolutely non-negotiable.”

Many other nations have since joined South Africa’s case, including Algeria, Bangladesh, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, China, Colombia, Comoros, Cuba, Djibouti, Egypt, Iraq, Ireland, Jorda, Lebanon, Libya, Malaysia, Maldives, Mexico, Namibia, Nicaragua, Pakistan, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Slovenia, Spain, Syria, Türkiye, Venezuela, Zimbabwe, and Palestine.

Israel has refused to comply with every mandate given it by the ICJ.

Let’s consider a small selection of Israel’s actions since that mandate.

The Incomprehensible Scale of Palestinian Casualties

Israel has killed more than 60,138 Palestinians, including a staggering 18,000 children, of whom more than 870 were less than a year old.

They have wounded an additional 143,045 Palestinians.

Israel has completely wiped out 2,000 Palestinian families, leaving no surviving members.

They have left 5,600 families with only one surviving member.

The above numbers, reported by the U.N., come from the Gaza Ministry of Health, and are now thought to underestimate of the true number of deaths caused by Israel.

An independent study published this past June in the prestigious journal Nature estimated more than 80,000 fatalities in Gaza. More than half of those killed were children, women aged 18–64, or people over 65.

Note: In January of 2025, The Lancet published a peer-reviewed analysis of deaths in Gaza between October of 2023 and July of 2024. The paper estimated 64,260 deaths from traumatic injury during this period, a number likely to exceed 70,000 by October of 2024 alone. We are now nearly one year further into Israel’s genocide, making the number of casualties far higher.

The study determined that the Gaza Health Ministry had undercounted trauma-related deaths by 41% in its report, and noted that its findings "underestimate the full impact of the military operation in Gaza, as they do not account for non-trauma-related deaths resulting from health service disruption, food insecurity, and inadequate water and sanitation." A comparable figure for May of 2025, the study said, would be 93,000 (77,000 to 109,000), representing 4–5% of Gaza's pre-war population.

As you can see from the chart below, both the number of deaths and the number of injuries have risen alarmingly every month since October of 2023, showing that Israel has only accelerated its pattern of violence.

On August 22, the Guardian, Israeli Palestinian publication +972 magazine, and the Hebrew-language outlet Local Call announced the results of a collaborative investigation.

Their findings: A full 83 percent or 5 out of 6 Palestinians killed by Israeli forces in Gaza have been civilians, an extreme rate of civilian casualties virtually unparalleled since World War II.

What’s more, Human Rights Watch verified reports that in Gaza and Lebanon, Israel has used white phosphorus, a flammable substance that self-ignites upon contact with air.

A wax-like, highly toxic chemical, white phosphorus burns at a temperature high enough to melt metal.

Upon contact, white phosphorus is highly soluble in both fat and human flesh, meaning that it can burn people, thermally and chemically, down to the bone.

White phosphorus fragments can enter the bloodstream and cause multiple organ failure. Even relatively minor burns are often fatal. The chemical can exacerbate wounds even after treatment, igniting when dressings are removed and the wounds are re-exposed to oxygen. For survivors, extensive scarring tightens muscle tissue and creates physical disabilities.

The use of white phosphorus is governed by Protocol III of the Convention on Conventional Weapons. It is prohibited in areas highly concentrated with civilians.

Children in Israel’s Line of Fire

Like Dr. Alaa al-Najjar’s family, Gaza’s children endure the brunt of Israel’s violence.

As of September of 2025, Israel has caused war-related injuries in approximately 40,500 children.

These indiscriminate bombing campaigns have left 21,000 children—more than half of those injured—disabled.

Gaza now has the largest number of child amputees in modern history—and that number continues to rise.

Medical workers designated the acronym “WCNSF” to denote Wounded Child, No Surviving Family to denote children in Gaza who are wounded, but unaccompanied or separated from their families. By March of 2024—a full 18 months ago—the number of wounded children without surviving families had surpassed 17,000, and is likely to have doubled.

Due to Israel’s deliberate targeting of civilians, by March of 2024—a full 18 months ago—over 4,700 Palestinian children had lost one or more limbs to Israeli bombs.

On May 26, 2025, Israel targeted the Fahmi al-Jarjawi School in Gaza City where hundreds of people were sheltering, striking three times, and killing 33 people as they slept. Five-year-old Ward Al-Sheikh Khalil awoke to find her mother and two of her siblings dead from the strikes and flames burning all around her.

Video footage of six-year-old Ward picking her way to safety, her small body silhouetted against the flames, catalyzed global shock and anger.

Gaza has recorded the highest numbers of health-care worker fatalities (over 1,600 deaths), UN staff deaths (295 deaths), and journalist fatalities (258 deaths) of any recent conflict zone.

On March 23 of this year in the southern city of Rafah, Israel opened fire before dawn, killing 15 medics and emergency responders who were traveling in clearly marked medical vehicles.

The Israeli Defense Forces drove bulldozers over the bodies and the emergency vehicles and buried them in a mass grave. United Nations and other rescue workers were able to reach the site only a week later.

And then there are Israel’s “double tap” strikes.

Such strikes involve bombing a target, waiting until first responders arrive on the scene, and then bombing a second or third time. Double tap strikes target first responders designated as “protected persons” under international humanitarian law, and constitute war crimes. The method is frequently employed by terrorist groups such as Al Qaeda and Boko Haram and documented in Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

On August 26, 2025, global outcry emerged over Israel’s “double tap” strike on Gaza’s largest remaining medical center.

The strike was filmed by the Arabic-language channel Al Ghad TV and others who were recording rescue efforts from the first missile when the second struck. The double-tap strike, considered one of the worst of war crimes, killed more than 20 people, including five journalists who had worked for various outlets, including The Associated Press, Reuters, and Al Jazeera.

Even more disturbing, analysis of new video by BBC Verify found that Israel struck Nasser Hospital at least four times during its deadly attack in southern Gaza.

Israel has barred Western news organizations from entering Gaza excepting occasional tours chaperoned by the Israel Defense Forces. This leaves news organizations reliant on Palestinian journalists inside the enclave.

As of this writing (September 3, 2025), Israel has murdered a staggering 316 journalists in the 698 days since its full-scale invasion of Gaza began. This numbers almost one journalist every two days—the worst such death toll in modern human history.

The Paris-based organization Reporters Without Borders (RSF) documented that by the close of 2024, there were 35 instances in which Israel’s military likely targeted and killed journalists because of their work.

On August 10, 2025, Israel targeted an attack on a tent housing journalists in Gaza City.

The deliberate strike killed renowned Al Jazeera journalist Anas al-Sharif, known for his frontline reporting from northern Gaza, and his and colleagues Mohammed Qreiqeh, Ibrahim Zaher, Mohammed Noufal, Mariam Abu Daqqa, a freelance journalist working for AP at the time, Momen Aliwa, and freelance journalist Mohammed al-Khalidi.

You can view Al Jazeera’s report on their colleage Anas here.

Last year, Anas Al-Sharif's Reuters team won a Pulitzer Prize for Breaking News Photography for their "raw and urgent" photos documenting Israel’s siege on Gaza.

Just one month ago, Anas broke down on Al Jazeera when reporting about a woman who collapses from hunger.

He doted on his children; you can see a video of him with his young daughter Sham, here, and one with them together in which Sham responds to Trump’s plan to relocate Gazans and insists on staying in Gaza here.

Weeks later, it would be his colleagues who broke down while reporting on his death.

Israel has now assassinated Al-Jazeera’s entire team of journalists in Gaza.

Just days later, Israel launched yet another double-tap strike on Nasser Hospital, killing several journalists and rescue workers. Among them were Al Jazeera’s Mohammad Salama, Reuters cameraman Hussam al-Masri, Mariam Abu Daqqa, a freelance journalist working for AP at the time, as well as Ahmed Abu Aziz and Moaz Abu Taha. (See footage from the New York Times reviewing the attack.)

The United Nations strongly condemned Israel’s targeted attacks on journalists, including its latest.

“The killing of four journalists just as Israel announces its plan to take over Gaza City is no coincidence, but a deliberate attempt to silence those who would have exposed the IDF’s atrocities to the world,” the experts said.

A spokesperson for U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer responded to the assassinations by saying that his government was "gravely concerned by the repeated targeting of journalists in Gaza.”

Indian MP Priyanka Gandhi called the assassination "yet another heinous crime committed on Palestinian soil," praised the courage of the deceased journalists, and criticized India’s government for its silence.

Italian Defense Minister Guido Crosetto stated that Israel had "lost its reason and humanity."

Protests and vigils for Anas Al-Sharif and his colleagues were held in multiple cities worldwide, including Ramallah, Dublin, Oslo, Berlin, Karachi, Cape Town, Mexico City, Johannesburg, London, and Washington, D.C.

You can read about each journalist that Israel has killed here.

The Committee to Protect Journalists, a New York-based nonprofit press freedom group, describes Israel’s attacks on journalists as “the most horrific attacks the press has ever faced in recent history.”

Moreover, since the start of its current invasion, Israeli authorities have banned the press from entering Gaza, an unprecedented move for a territory subjected to war. The French outlet Le Monde called this “unworthy of a country that prides itself on being the only democracy in the Middle East.”

Le Monde pointed out that Israel’s two-year media blockade had gone virtually unchallenged by many of Israel’s allies, including Europe and the United States.

Israel and its allies often claim that it is being held to different standards than other nations; those standards, it seems, are far lower.

On September 1, 2025, over 200 media outlets across the globe participated in a large-scale editorial protest for Palestine. print newspapers will run blacked-out front pages, broadcasters and radio stations will pause programming with a joint statement and online outlets will black out their homepages or banners in solidarity with the murdered journalists.

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A note to my readers: This is Part I of a two-part series on Israel’s genocide of Palestine, global complicity in this genocide, and the effects that it has on people like you and me. Part II will go out next week.

On the personal side, I’d like to share that deep research into many of these stories stirred up profound grief. Israel has committed a seemingly endless series of atrocities; I cut about half this story for succinctness. As a healthcare worker, I could not get through many of these accounts without weeping, particularly those of Dr. Alaa al-Najjar and Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya. I took multiple breaks between sections of the story; it took almost two weeks to complete.

And yet, bearing witness to these crimes against humanity, as we are doing here together, is both a necessary and a minimal way of showing solidarity with our Palestinian friends, family, colleagues, and fellow humans. It also helps us reclaim a portion of the humanity that our countries of origin have compromised with their complicity.

To do so is, of course, tremendously shattering. Please take care of yourself before, during, and after reading.

And please consider continuing to contact your representatives to demand an immediate arms embargo and ceasefire, participating in boycotting companies that contribute to this genocide, and donating to organizations on the ground. You can lear more about how to do so in my Instagram post from early summer.

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UPGRADE TO PAID

Sources:

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On May 23, 2025, the temperature was nearing its high of 87F degrees: Khan Yunus, Gaza, Palestine Monthly Weather | AccuWeather. (n.d.). Retrieved September 8, 2025, from https://www.accuweather.com/en/ps/khan-yunus/258097/may-weather/258097

As Hamdi returned home, the Israeli military struck the al-Najjar home twice: Lister, T. (2025, May 24). Nine out of Gaza doctor’s 10 children killed in Israeli airstrike. CNN. https://www.cnn.com/2025/05/24/middleeast/gaza-doctor-children-bodies-hospital-intl

Ali Al-Najjar, Hamdi’s brother, rushed to the home as soon as he heard: Palestinian pediatrician in Gaza loses nine of her 10 children when her home is bombed. (2025, May 26). https://www.lemonde.fr/en/international/article/2025/05/26/palestinian-pediatrician-in-gaza-loses-nine-of-her-10-children-when-her-home-is-bombed_6741661_4.html

She arrived to find the rescue workers lifting the charred, dismembered bodies: Tondo, L., & Tantesh, M. A. (2025, June 1). Gaza doctor who lost nine children in Israeli airstrike dies from wounds in same attack. The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/jun/01/gaza-doctor-who-lost-nine-children-in-israeli-airstrike-dies-from-wounds-in-same-attack

Nine of Dr. Alaa’s ten children were killed in the strike: Nine out of Gaza doctor’s 10 children killed in Israeli airstrike | CNN. (n.d.). Retrieved September 5, 2025, from https://edition.cnn.com/2025/05/24/middleeast/gaza-doctor-children-bodies-hospital-intl See also: https://www.cnn.com/2025/05/25/world/video/gaza-doctor-children-killed-israeli-strike

Many of the children’s bodies were dismembered, the burns so bad: Tondo, L., & Tantesh, M. A. (2025, June 1). Gaza doctor who lost nine children in Israeli airstrike dies from wounds in same attack. The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/jun/01/gaza-doctor-who-lost-nine-children-in-israeli-airstrike-dies-from-wounds-in-same-attack

Dr. Hamdi suffered brain damage and multiple body fractures caused by: Tondo, L., & Tantesh, M. A. (2025, June 1). Gaza doctor who lost nine children in Israeli airstrike dies from wounds in same attack. The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/jun/01/gaza-doctor-who-lost-nine-children-in-israeli-airstrike-dies-from-wounds-in-same-attack

“I am not strong,” Dr. Alaa told Italy’s La Repubblica newspaper: Tondo, L., & Borger, J. (2025, June 11). Gaza doctor and son evacuated after husband and nine children killed in Israeli strike. The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/jun/11/gaza-doctor-and-son-evacuated-after-husband-and-nine-children-killed-in-israeli-strike

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) told the Guardian that their military aircraft: Israeli airstrike kills nine of Gaza doctor’s 10 children | Gaza | The Guardian. (n.d.). Retrieved September 6, 2025, from https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/may/24/israeli-airstrike-kills-nine-of-gaza-doctors-10-children-reports-say

But Graham Groom, a British surgeon working at Nasser Hospital, disputed: Israeli airstrike kills nine of Gaza doctor’s 10 children | Gaza | The Guardian. (n.d.). Retrieved September 6, 2025, from https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/may/24/israeli-airstrike-kills-nine-of-gaza-doctors-10-children-reports-say

And Ali al-Najjar, the children’s uncle, said that there were no militants: Israeli airstrike kills 9 of Gaza pediatrician’s children: NPR. (n.d.). Retrieved September 5, 2025, from https://www.npr.org/2025/05/26/nx-s1-5412265/israeli-airstrike-kills-9-of-gaza-pediatricians-children

Four days after the strike, the Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported that Israel: Hasson, N. (2025, May 27). Unable to justify their army killing children in Gaza, Israelis retreat into deep denial. Haaretz. https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/2025-05-27/ty-article/.premium/unable-to-justify-their-army-killing-children-in-gaza-israelis-retreat-into-deep-denial/00000197-1123-d165-a9ff-19e743ce0000

Marwan al-Hams, director of field hospitals at the Health Ministry in the Gaza Strip, told Le Monde that: Nine out of Gaza doctor’s 10 children killed in Israeli airstrike | CNN. (n.d.). Retrieved September 5, 2025, from https://edition.cnn.com/2025/05/24/middleeast/gaza-doctor-children-bodies-hospital-intl

Israel has also killed over 493 aid workers and 1,580 health care workers: Reported impact snapshot | Gaza Strip (30 July 2025). (2025, July 30). United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs - Occupied Palestinian Territory. https://www.ochaopt.org/content/reported-impact-snapshot-gaza-strip-30-july-2025

According to The Lancet, between October of 2023 and May of 2025, Israel initiated 720 documented attacks on health-care targets: Vogli, R. D., Montomoli, J., Abu-Sittah, G., & Pappé, I. (2025). Break the selective silence on the genocide in Gaza. The Lancet, 406(10504), 688–689. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(25)01541-7

Physicians for Human Rights-Israel, an organization providing free healthcare to Palestinians: טל, ת. (2025, February 26). Torture of Medical Staff from Gaza in Israel • Report and Testimonies. רופאים לזכויות אדם. https://www.phr.org.il/en/torture-of-medical-workers/ See also: Palestinian doctors ‘tortured into confessions’ in harrowing claims of Israeli abuse. (2025, April 1). The Independent. https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/palestine-doctors-israel-torture-gaza-war-b2725438.html See also: Kelly, A., Wishart, E., & Lev, P. (2025, February 25). ‘No rules’: Gaza’s doctors say they were tortured, beaten and humiliated in Israeli detention. The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2025/feb/25/israel-gaza-doctors-surgeons-healthcare-detention-international-law See also: Cordall, S. S. (n.d.). ‘Designed to humiliate’: Israel’s torture of Gaza’s healthcare workers. Al Jazeera. Retrieved September 6, 2025, from https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2025/2/26/designed-to-humiliate-israel-targets-gazas-healthcare-workers

In October of 2024, the Office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights released a report accusing: UN Commission finds war crimes and crimes against humanity in Israeli attacks on Gaza health facilities and treatment of detainees, hostages | OHCHR. (n.d.). Retrieved September 6, 2025, from https://web.archive.org/web/20241211055606/https://www.ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2024/10/un-commission-finds-war-crimes-and-crimes-against-humanity-israeli-attacks See also: Farge, E. (2024, October 10). UN inquiry accuses Israel of crime of “extermination” in destruction …. Archive.Ph. https://archive.ph/AvW3y

The investigation corroborated reports from 2024 by numerous media outlets: Kelly, A., Wishart, E., & Lev, P. (2025, February 25). ‘No rules’: Gaza’s doctors say they were tortured, beaten and humiliated in Israeli detention. The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2025/feb/25/israel-gaza-doctors-surgeons-healthcare-detention-international-law See also: Palestinian doctors ‘tortured into confessions’ in harrowing claims of Israeli abuse. (2025, April 1). The Independent. https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/palestine-doctors-israel-torture-gaza-war-b2725438.html See also: Shalev, G. (2024, September 3). How Israeli doctors became accomplices to the torture and sexual abuse of Palestinian detainees in Sde Teiman. Haaretz. https://www.haaretz.com/opinion/2024-09-03/ty-article-opinion/.premium/both-enemy-and-friend-we-must-not-let-october-7-render-medical-ethics-obsolete-in-israel/00000191-b952-de3d-abb7-ff7be7500000 See also: Cordall, S. S. (n.d.). Dying in ‘Hell’: The fate of Palestinian medics jailed by Israel. Al Jazeera. Retrieved September 8, 2025, from https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/11/24/dying-in-hell-palestinian-medics-jailed-by-israel See also: Democracy Now! (Director). (2025, February 28). “Detained, Tortured & Starved”: Report Details Abuse of Gaza Doctors & Staff in Israeli Detention [Video recording].

See also: Dyer, O. (2024). Israeli doctors participated in torture, alleges released director of al-Shifa Hospital. BMJ, 386, q1524. https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.q1524 טל, ת. See also: (2025, February 26). Torture of Medical Staff from Gaza in Israel • Report and Testimonies. רופאים לזכויות אדם. https://www.phr.org.il/en/torture-of-medical-workers/ See also: Israel: Palestinian Healthcare Workers Tortured | Human Rights Watch. (2024, August 26). https://www.hrw.org/news/2024/08/26/israel-palestinian-healthcare-workers-tortured See also: UN expert horrified by death of Gazan orthopedic surgeon in Israeli detention. (n.d.). OHCHR. Retrieved September 6, 2025, from https://www.ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2024/05/un-expert-horrified-death-gazan-orthopedic-surgeon-israeli-detention

In a separate investigation, CNN uncovered allegations of abuse at Israel’s: Qiblawi, T. (2024, May 10). Israeli whistleblowers detail horror of shadowy detention facility for Palestinians. CNN. https://www.cnn.com/2024/05/10/middleeast/israel-sde-teiman-detention-whistleblowers-intl-cmd

In October of 2024, the Israeli military executed Dr. Abu Safiya’s 15-year-old son: Dr Abu Safiya symbolised humanity in Gaza. Israel and the West are destroying it. (n.d.). Middle East Eye. Retrieved September 9, 2025, from https://www.middleeasteye.net/opinion/dr-hussam-abu-safiya-symbolised-humanity-gaza-israel-west-destroying-it

They also bombed a home near the hospital, killing 17 members of the family: Israeli Strike on Northern Gaza Kills 17 Family Members of Doctor’s Family. (n.d.). Democracy Now! Retrieved September 9, 2025, from https://www.democracynow.org/2024/11/19/headlines/israeli_strike_on_northern_gaza_kills_17_family_members_of_doctors_family

On December 27, 2024, Israeli military forces stormed Kamal Adwan Hospital: “How alone you were” – The last image of Dr. Abu Safiya ignites social media. (2024, December 31). The Palestinian Information Center. https://english.palinfo.com/reports/2024/12/31/331416/ See also: Karadsheh, I. N., Jomana. (2024, December 28). Israel arrests hospital director and other staff in raid on last functioning facility in northern Gaza, health officials say. CNN. https://www.cnn.com/2024/12/28/middleeast/kamal-adwan-israel-arrests-hospital-director-gaza-intl

Israel took Dr. Hussam to the dreaded Sde Teiman detention center: Ebrahim, N. (2025, January 10). ‘Everyone was surprised by his arrival’: Former Sde Teiman detainees say prominent doctor held at Israeli detention center. CNN. https://www.cnn.com/2025/01/10/middleeast/hussam-abu-safiya-detained-sde-teiman-intl

They subjected him to humiliation and torture: Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya subjected to torture and ill-treatment in Israeli prisons. (2025, February 13). Front Line Defenders. https://www.frontlinedefenders.org/en/case/dr-hussam-abu-safiya-subjected-torture-and-ill-treatment-israeli-prisons See also: Ebrahim, N. (2025, January 10). ‘Everyone was surprised by his arrival’: Former Sde Teiman detainees say prominent doctor held at Israeli detention center. CNN. https://www.cnn.com/2025/01/10/middleeast/hussam-abu-safiya-detained-sde-teiman-intl

On October 13, 2023, the Lemkin Institute for Genocide Prevention: Active Genocide Alert. (n.d.). Lemkin Institute. Retrieved September 1, 2025, from https://www.lemkininstitute.com/active-genocide-alert

That same day, Israeli historian Raz Segal declared the assault a genocide: A Textbook Case of Genocide. (n.d.). Jewish Currents. Retrieved September 1, 2025, from https://jewishcurrents.org/a-textbook-case-of-genocide

In response to Segal's allegation of genocide, the University of Minnesota rescinded: A Holocaust Scholar Called Israel’s Actions in Gaza ‘Genocide.’ It Co…. (2024, June 18). Archive.Ph. https://archive.ph/Hjxy4 See also: Historian Raz Segal Loses Academic Job Offer for Saying Israel Is Committing Genocide. (n.d.). Democracy Now! Retrieved September 1, 2025, from https://www.democracynow.org/2024/6/18/raz_segal_university_of_minnesota

On October 15, 2023, nearly 900 scholars and practitioners of international law, genocide studies: sujithxavier. (2023, October 17). Public Statement: Scholars Warn of Potential Genocide in Gaza. TWAILR. https://twailr.com/public-statement-scholars-warn-of-potential-genocide-in-gaza/

On November 2, 2023, a group of United Nations (UN) Special Rapporteurs: Gaza: UN experts call on international community to prevent genocide against the Palestinian people. (n.d.). OHCHR. Retrieved September 1, 2025, from https://www.ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2023/11/gaza-un-experts-call-international-community-prevent-genocide-against

And on December 29, 2023, South Africa brought a formal case against Israel: South Africa’s genocide case against Israel—Wikipedia. (n.d.). Retrieved September 1, 2025, from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/South_Africa%27s_genocide_case_against_Israel#Other_international_responses

Many other nations have since joined South Africa’s case: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/South_Africa%27s_genocide_case_against_Israel#Other_international_responses

In January of 2024, after two days of public hearings, the Court ruled: South Africa’s genocide case against Israel—Wikipedia. (n.d.). Retrieved September 2, 2025, from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/South_Africa%27s_genocide_case_against_Israel

On July 19, 2024, the International Court of Justice issued a landmark ruling: Summary of the Advisory Opinion of 19 July 2024 | INTERNATIONAL COURT OF JUSTICE. (n.d.). Retrieved September 1, 2025, from https://www.icj-cij.org/node/204176

The Court concluded, “The Court has finally reaffirmed a principle that seemed unclear, even to the United Nations: Experts hail ICJ declaration on illegality of Israel’s presence in the occupied Palestinian territory as “historic” for Palestinians and international law. (n.d.). OHCHR. Retrieved September 2, 2025, from https://www.ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2024/07/experts-hail-icj-declaration-illegality-israels-presence-occupied

Many other nations have since joined South Africa’s case, including Algeria: Gaza genocide. (2025). In Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Gaza_genocide&oldid=1309207632

Israel has killed more than 60,138 Palestinians, including a staggering 18,000 children: Reported impact snapshot | Gaza Strip (30 July 2025). (2025, July 30). United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs - Occupied Palestinian Territory. https://www.ochaopt.org/content/reported-impact-snapshot-gaza-strip-30-july-2025 See also: Reported impact snapshot | Gaza Strip (23 July 2025) | United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs—Occupied Palestinian Territory. (n.d.). Retrieved August 30, 2025, from https://www.ochaopt.org/content/reported-impact-snapshot-gaza-strip-23-july-2025 See also: Casualties of the Gaza war. (2025). In Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Casualties_of_the_Gaza_war&oldid=1308290121

Of whom more than 870 were less than a year old: TRT Global - 1,516 pages of genocide: The names of 50,000+ killed by Israel in Gaza. (n.d.). Retrieved September 3, 2025, from https://trt.global/world/article/bccad0745686

Israel has completely wiped out 2,000 Palestinian families: Staff, T. N. A. (2025, May 26). Israel wipes out over 2,200 Palestinian families in Gaza. Https://Www.Newarab.Com/; The New Arab. https://www.newarab.com/news/israel-wipes-out-over-2200-palestinian-families-gaza

See also: Zhang, S. (2025, March 6). Israel Wiped Out at Least 1,200 Entire Families in Gaza, Analysis Finds. Truthout. https://truthout.org/articles/israel-wiped-out-at-least-1200-entire-families-in-gaza-analysis-finds/

An independent study published this past June in the prestigious journal Nature estimated more than 80,000 fatalities: Fieldhouse, R. (2025). First independent survey of deaths in Gaza reports more than 80,000 fatalities. Nature, 643(8071), 311–312. https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-025-02009-8 See also: Spagat, M., Pedersen, J., Shikaki, K., Robbins, M., Bendavid, E., Hegre, H., & Guha-Sapir, D. (2025). Violent and Nonviolent Death Tolls for the Gaza War: New Primary Evidence (p. 2025.06.19.25329797). medRxiv. https://doi.org/10.1101/2025.06.19.25329797 See also: Nicolai, M., Safi, S. S. S., Casera, M., Dekhili, D., Hook, C., Gaudron, C., Cilliers, A. E., & Baidjoe, A. Y. (2025). War wounds caused by explosive weapons in Gaza: Data from a 2024 study by Médecins Sans Frontières. The Lancet, 406(10504), 687–688. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(25)01386-8 See also: Reported impact snapshot | Gaza Strip (23 July 2025). (2025, July 23). United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs - Occupied Palestinian Territory. https://www.ochaopt.org/content/reported-impact-snapshot-gaza-strip-23-july-2025 See also: More Than 50,000 Children Killed or Injured in Gaza | UNICEF USA. (2025, May 30). https://www.unicefusa.org/stories/more-50000-children-killed-or-injured-gaza

In January of 2025, The Lancet published a peer-reviewed analysis of deaths in Gaza between: Jamaluddine, Z., Abukmail, H., Aly, S., Campbell, O. M. R., & Checchi, F. (2025). Traumatic injury mortality in the Gaza Strip from Oct 7, 2023, to June 30, 2024: A capture–recapture analysis. The Lancet, 405(10477), 469–477. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(24)02678-3

In Gaza and Lebanon, Israel has used white phosphorus Israel: White Phosphorus Used in Gaza, Lebanon | Human Rights Watch. (2023, October 12). https://www.hrw.org/news/2023/10/12/israel-white-phosphorus-used-gaza-lebanon See also: Lodhi, A. (n.d.). What is the white phosphorus that Israel is accused of using in Gaza? Al Jazeera. Retrieved September 7, 2025, from https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/10/13/what-is-the-white-phosphorus-that-israel-is-accused-of-using-on-gaza See also: Democracy Now! (Director). (2024, June 7). Israel’s Widespread Use of White Phosphorus in Lebanon, Gaza Violates Int’l Law: Human Rights Watch [Video recording].

A wax-like, highly toxic substance, white phosphorus burns: Lodhi, A. (n.d.). What is the white phosphorus that Israel is accused of using in Gaza? Al Jazeera. Retrieved September 7, 2025, from https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/10/13/what-is-the-white-phosphorus-that-israel-is-accused-of-using-on-gaza

White phosphorus fragments can enter the bloodstream and cause multiple organ: Israel: White Phosphorus Used in Gaza, Lebanon | Human Rights Watch. (2023, October 12). https://www.hrw.org/news/2023/10/12/israel-white-phosphorus-used-gaza-lebanon

The use of white phosphorus is governed by Protocol III of the Convention: United Nations Treaty Collection. (n.d.). Retrieved September 7, 2025, from https://treaties.un.org/pages/ViewDetails.aspx?chapter=26&clang=_en&mtdsg_no=XXVI-2&src=TREATY

In May of 2025, numbers of wounded children without surviving families surpassed: What Gaza’s Children Need During the Ceasefire. (n.d.). Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. Retrieved August 31, 2025, from https://carnegieendowment.org/posts/2025/01/gaza-children-needs-ceasefire?lang=en See also: Gaza faces ‘largest orphan crisis’ in modern history, report says. (n.d.). Al Jazeera. Retrieved September 3, 2025, from https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2025/4/3/gaza-faces-largest-orphan-crisis-in-modern-history-report-says

As of September of 2025, Israel has caused war-related injuries in approximately 40,500: https://www.theguardian.com/world/live/2025/sep/03/gaza-graveyard-international-humanitarian-law-unrwa-israel-middle-east-crisis-latest-updates-news?CMP=share_btn_url&page=with%3Ablock-68b81baf8f08020a75f12832#block-68b81baf8f08020a75f12832

Five-year-old Ward Al-Sheikh Khalil awoke to find her mother and two: Staff, A. J. (n.d.). Silhouetted by fire, six-year-old girl survives Israeli attack in Gaza. Al Jazeera. Retrieved September 4, 2025, from https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2025/5/27/silhouetted-by-fire-6-year-old-girl-survives-israeli-attack-in-gaza

On August 22, the Guardian, Israeli-Palestinian publication +972 magazine, and the Hebrew-language outlet Local Call announced: Slawson, N. (2025, August 22). First Thing: Israeli military’s own data indicates 83% civilian death rate in Gaza. The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/aug/22/first-thing-israeli-military-own-data-83-per-cent-civilian-death-rate-gaza See also: Reiff, B. (2025, August 21). IDF database suggests 83% of Gaza dead were civilians. +972 Magazine. https://www.972mag.com/israeli-intelligence-database-83-percent-civilians-militants/

By March of 2025, over 4,700 children lost limbs to Israeli bombs: Humanitarian Situation Update #275 | Gaza Strip | OCHA. (2025, March 25). https://www.unocha.org/publications/report/occupied-palestinian-territory/humanitarian-situation-update-275-gaza-strip

On March 23 of this year in the southern city of Rafah, Israel opened fire: ‘Shameful’: UN says 383 aid workers killed last year, nearly half in Gaza. (n.d.). Al Jazeera. Retrieved August 30, 2025, from https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2025/8/19/record-breaking-383-aid-workers-killed-in-2024-half-in-gaza-says-un

On August 26, 2025, global outcry emerged over Israel’s “double tap” strike: What is a “double tap,” and why has Israel’s use of it outraged so many? (2025, August 27). NBC News. https://www.nbcnews.com/world/israel/israel-gaza-war-nasser-hospital-double-tap-strike-journalists-killed-rcna227172

On August 10, 2025, Israel targeted an attack on a tent housing journalists in Gaza City: Staff, A. J. (n.d.). Anas al-Sharif among four Al Jazeera journalists killed by Israel in Gaza. Al Jazeera. Retrieved September 5, 2025, from https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2025/8/10/al-jazeera-journalist-anas-al-sharif-killed-in-israeli-attack-in-gaza-city

The Paris-based organization Reporters Without Borders (RSF) documented that: Israel’s war on Gaza deadliest conflict ever for journalists, says report. (n.d.). Al Jazeera. Retrieved September 5, 2025, from https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2025/4/2/gaza-war-deadliest-ever-for-journalists-says-report

The Committee to Protect Journalists, a New York-based nonprofit press freedom group: What is a “double tap,” and why has Israel’s use of it outraged so many? (2025, August 27). NBC News. https://www.nbcnews.com/world/israel/israel-gaza-war-nasser-hospital-double-tap-strike-journalists-killed-rcna227172

Even more disturbing, analysis of new video by BBC Verify found that Israel struck: New footage shows Israel struck Gaza’s Nasser Hospital four times. (2025, August 29). https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cly6lxn1l4po

Israel has murdered a staggering 316 journalists in the 698 days: Stop Murdering Journalists—Databases for Palestine. (n.d.). Retrieved August 31, 2025, from

https://www.stopmurderingjournalists.com

The United Nations Commission of Experts mandated to look into violations: Nations, U. (n.d.). Definitions of Genocide and Related Crimes. United Nations; United Nations. Retrieved September 3, 2025, from https://www.un.org/en/genocide-prevention/definition

The Commission stated that coercive practices used to remove the civilian population: Nations, U. (n.d.). Definitions of Genocide and Related Crimes. United Nations; United Nations. Retrieved September 3, 2025, from https://www.un.org/en/genocide-prevention/definition

The Israeli military has damaged or destroyed more than 90 percent of homes in Gaza: Crisis in Gaza: What to know and how to help | The IRC. (n.d.). Retrieved September 3, 2025, from https://www.rescue.org/crisis-in-gaza

The United Nations strongly condemned Israel’s targeted attacks on journalists: Gaza: UN experts appalled by murder of Al Jazeera correspondents in Israeli strike. (n.d.). OHCHR. Retrieved September 9, 2025, from https://www.ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2025/08/gaza-un-experts-appalled-murder-al-jazeera-correspondents-israeli-strike See also: UN condemns targeted Israeli attack that killed four Al Jazeera journalists. (2025, August 13). https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cq688qz3rlro

A spokesperson for U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer responded: UK’s Starmer “gravely concerned” about targeting of journalists in Gaza. (2025, August 11). Reuters. https://www.reuters.com/business/media-telecom/uks-starmer-gravely-concerned-about-targeting-journalists-gaza-2025-08-11/

Indian MP Priyanka Gandhi called the assassination "yet another heinous crime: PTI. (2025, August 12). Priyanka Gandhi says it is shameful that the Indian Government stays silent as Israel devastates the people of Palestine. The Hindu. https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/shameful-that-indian-government-silent-as-israel-unleashes-devastation-on-people-of-palestine-priyanka/article69923096.ece

Italian Defense Minister Guido Crosetto stated that Israel: Italy’s defence minister says Israel has “lost humanity” on Gaza. (2025, August 11). L’Orient Today. https://today.lorientlejour.com/article/1473178/italys-defence-minister-says-israel-has-lost-humanity-on-gaza.html

Protests and vigils for Anas Al-Sharif and his colleagues were held in multiple cities: Anas Al-Sharif—Wikipedia. (n.d.). Retrieved September 9, 2025, from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anas_Al-Sharif#Political_and_diplomatic_responses

The French outlet Le Monde called this “unworthy of a country that prides: What is Israel trying to hide by imposing a media blackout on Gaza? (2025, September 1). https://www.lemonde.fr/en/opinion/article/2025/09/01/what-is-israel-trying-to-hide-by-imposing-a-media-blackout-on-gaza_6744922_23.html

On September 1, 2025, over 200 media outlets across the globe participated: Global media stages Israel blackout in protest of Gaza war | The Jerusalem Post. (2025, September 1). The Jerusalem Post | JPost.Com. https://www.jpost.com/diaspora/antisemitism/article-865996

As a maturing yoga teacher, I studied anatomy, alignment, sequencing, and yoga philosophy. As a psychologist, I worked to create a strong container in which people could practice and evolve.

It came as a surprise, then, that while my years of preparation provided a ground for students’ growth, they had little to do the magical alchemy that took place in every class.

About 20 minutes into the practice, people became noticeably more attuned to their bodies, yet also to each other. A palpable, magnetic resonance permeated the air, bestowing on all of us a little jolt of joy. It felt like runner’s high, only calmer.

Certain moments stand out: A longtime teacher and practitioner, pregnant with twins, lingered in an extended side plank pose while murmurs of appreciation filled the air. Another yogi attempted a balancing pose that had formerly intimidated her; she floated for several seconds on her own, encouraged by the others. As she exited the pose, trembling with exertion, she enthused, “I love this community!”

It would be years before I encountered the scientific field that studies this phenomenon and explains why moving with others has such powerful benefits, particularly for depression.

The Current State of the Art in Depression Treatment

Way back in 2013, the WHO predicted that depression would be the number one global burden of disease—that is to say, the illness with the highest incidence of disability and premature death.

The World Health Organization (WHO) last gathered data on the global burden of depression in 2021, before the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic took hold.

At that time, the WHO estimated that major depressive disorder (MDD) affects approximately 300 million people—more than 5 percent of the global population. That number has since climbed significantly higher.

When it comes to treatment, scientific research has long focused on the impact of neurochemicals like serotonin and norepinephrine and the antidepressants that modulate them.

Antidepressants help. They take the edge off depression so people feel and function better; this enables them to engage in other forms of treatment like psychotherapy and exercise.

But nearly two-thirds of all people who take antidepressants do not respond to first line treatment. They require additional medications like Abilify, an atypical antipsychotic. For these folks, the prognosis is less positive, the course of treatment longer, and relapses more frequent than for those taking one antidepressant.

Even more, nearly one-third of all people do not respond to antidepressants at all, which signals treatment-resistant depression.

These sobering statistics highlight the understanding that serotonin and norepinephrine are merely aspects of the depression picture—or as researchers might say, indicate correlation and not causation.

The limitations of traditional treatments have pushed scholars, researchers, and movement guides, including me, to explore other biological systems that influence mood.

Enter a new (or newish) player in emotional regulation and a major driver in depression: our endogenous or intrinsic opioid system.

Opiates: A Brief History

Most of us are familiar with opiates, substances derived from opium that relieve pain and induce a state of relaxation or euphoria.

People intuited the powerful link between opiate substances and mood long before the science trickled into mainstream understanding.

For centuries, humans have used opiates to treat a host of health conditions, including depression and PTSD. The “opium cure,” as it was called, was widely employed between the second half of the 19^th century until the mid-20^th century.

Opium was frequently used as a rapid and effective treatment for “refractory melancholic depression,” a term which today equates to treatment-resistant depression.

As we now know, however, opiates induce serious and life-threatening side effects, including respiratory depression (which occurs when breathing becomes dangerously shallow and slow), central nervous system depression, and gastrointestinal distress, e.g. nausea, vomiting, and constipation.

The failure to regulate opioid agents, their non-medical use and abuse, and the deployment of marketing techniques designed to increase use and dependence conspired to result in the deadliest epidemic of addiction we see today.

Fortunately, we make our own natural version of opiates known as endogenous opioids. In fact, our bodies and brains house an entire system devoted to these molecules.

A compelling body of research suggests that our endogenous opioid system participates directly in emotional regulation—and furthermore, is disturbed in depression.

This has ignited a mini scientific revolution with the goal of leveraging our built-in opioid system to alleviate depression.

A New Heroin(e) in the Treatment of Depression

Endogenous opioid molecules are produced primarily in the brain, although remarkably, the gut makes its own version of opioids. These opioid molecules circulate throughout every organ complex in our bodies.

The endogenous opioid system features four types of molecules: endorphins, enkephalins, dynorphins, and nociceptins. And it includes four types of “matching” receptors: mu, delta, and kappa receptors, and the atypical nociceptin opioid peptide receptor.

While the opioid system regulates our response to pain, it has other vital functions.

Both independently and in tandem with its companion molecules dopamine and oxytocin, opioids regulate reward, motivation, cognition, the stress response, and autonomic functions like breathing and heart rate.

Perhaps most relevant to depression and chronic pain, the opioid system modulates mood and emotional regulation. In fact, opioid receptors feature abundantly in the emotional regions of the brain and in brain structures altered in depression.

The relationship between opioids and depression is reciprocal.

Consider this tiny trove of evidence that illustrates the connection between the two:

• Opioid signaling is dysregulated in depression.

• Tricyclic antidepressants relieve neuropathic and inflammatory pain. Their analgesic effects are blocked by naloxone, a drug which rapidly takes over opioid receptors and reverses the effects of an opioid overdose.

• SSRI and SNRI antidepressants increase norepinephrine and serotonin by inhibiting their reuptake in the gap between neurons. This means more neurochemicals available in the bloodstream, which enhances the opioid pathways.

• Some antidepressants, such as venlafaxine, an SNRI or serotonin and norepinephrine reuptake inhibitor, and tricyclics, exert their antidepressant effects by directly modulating signals in the opioid system.

• Several classical antidepressants require this modulation of opioid receptors in order to exert their antidepressant effects.

The key takeaway here: activating or inhibiting different opioid molecules or their receptors can have a therapeutic effect on depression.

This has led to a renaissance in pharmaceutical treatments that modify opioids. Let’s touch on these briefly before moving to the more embodied interventions.

Leading Opioid Treatments in Depression

Many medications have different therapeutic effects at one dose than they do at another.

• Methotrexate, for example, is an immune-suppressing drug used in chemotherapy treatment. But at low doses, it relieves symptoms of autoimmune disorders like rheumatoid arthritis.At higher doses, buprenorphine is a short-acting opioid medication used to treat chronic pain and to help people cope with opioid use disorder. At a dose one-tenth its normal strength, buprenorphine can be highly effective in treatment-resistant depression.

• Similarly, naltrexone is an opioid antagonist that binds to and occupies opioid receptors. At doses equivalent to 50 mg. daily, doctors use it to treat opioid use disorder and alcohol use disorder. At far lower doses, it reduces pain and improves function in people with chronic fatigue syndrome, Long COVID, chronic pain, inflammation, and depression.

• Ketamine is used both as an anesthetic and as a treatment for acute pain in surgical, operative, and emergency trauma settings. Recently, it demonstrated strong antidepressant effects that were, interestingly, mediated by the endogenous opioid system.

Neuroscience would perhaps stop here, with the promise of future pharmaceutical innovations that target glial cells, neurochemicals, or neurons that trace the opioid pathways to address depression and chronic pain.

To focus solely on pharmaceuticals omits a key piece of what opioids can do for us—and by extension, new therapeutic tools to improve depression.

Opioids don’t just affect our personal mood. They have another key purpose that many research initiatives overlook.

Opioids play a critical role in social motivation, social reward, social attachment, and pair bonding, not only in humans but in many other species, including rats, mice, puppies, guinea pigs, prairie voles, and chicks.

To understand how to leverage the social aspects inherent in the opioid system to improve mood and reduce pain, it helps to ground our exploration in embodiment.

Embodiment in Depression + Chronic Pain

My last article reviewed a novel study that illuminated depression as a movement disorder. The researchers found significant differences in proprioception between people with depression and healthy controls in tasks that involved muscle tone, posture, gross motor skills such as walking backwards down a straight line, jumping, manual dexterity, dynamic balance, and the capacity for muscular relaxation.

It turns out that chronic pain has a similar deficit in proprioception.

People with depression also have difficulty with interoception, the capacity to receive, interpret, and respond to signals that come from the body. This dysfunction impacts every stage of depression, from the onset of symptoms to the full-blown clinical disorder.

The same is true in chronic pain, but with a twist. Unlike people with depression, those with chronic pain conditions such as fibromyalgia often receive signals from the body and pay close attention to them. As people with depression do, however, they often identify bodily signals inaccurately.

Depression and chronic pain don’t just change how we feel; they transform the way we inhabit our bodies and connect with others and with the world around us. Depression and chronic pain are diseases of disembodiment.

What’s more, these conditions affect not only our own personal movement patterns but the way we move and connect with others.

As we’ve seen, the same opioid system that helps us feel good in our bodies also induces us to bond with others.

And the disconnection we have from our own bodies also extends to the connection we’re able to forge with other people and with our shared embodied experience.

Knowing that depression and chronic pain compromise a person’s inner senses of embodiment, we might also explore what this means for social embodiment.

Opioids and Social Connection

We know that depression and chronic pain often involve elevated levels of inflammation.

As an adaptive response, people often engage in “sickness behaviors” which include social avoidance and withdrawal. This isn’t about being “antisocial.” Rather, it’s an evolutionary adaptation designed to protect our clan from whatever life-threatening pathogen might be circulating in our system. (For more on depression as an inflammatory illness, see this article.)

Yet depression and chronic pain reverberate well beyond social avoidance and withdrawal.

They also affect body resonance, our fifth inner sense of embodiment. Body resonance refers to the process in which bodily states in others can ignite similar states in ourselves. Consider the way we unconsciously mirror someone else’s gestures, which is called movement synchrony. Or the way physiological rhythms align between mothers and infants: physiological synchrony. Or the way heart rate can entrain between romantic partners, also known as neural synchrony.

Movement synchrony refers to the coordination of movements, speech, body language, and other behaviors in time. For example, conversation partners often imitate each other’s body language. People walking side by side often synchronize their steps. Music lovers at a concert often erupt in coordinated waves of applause.

Multiple studies show that behavioral synchrony is compromised in both depression and chronic pain. A recent pilot study even highlighted the potential of using nonverbal synchrony, particularly movement and facial synchrony, as a diagnostic tool for depression.

Researchers at Oxford University conducted a compelling study. Rowers who trained in synchrony, even when they did so with strangers, had much higher pain tolerance—an indication of opioid release—than they did when they rowed unsynchronized or alone.

In other studies, people had higher pain thresholds and a greater sense of social bonding after synchronized singing, drumming, and dancing in synchrony than they did when singing, drumming, or dancing alone.

Intriguingly, people whose pain tolerance increased after synchronous movement were more likely to trust others in a cooperative economic game; this suggests that endorphin activation helps translate shared motion into shared social and emotional investment.

This tells us that while countless studies show that movement improves the symptoms of depression and chronic pain, moving with others has an added beneficial effect on its own.

And depression and chronic pain, we now know, compromise our capacity for social bonding, making this finding significant.

Movement synchrony activates the opioid system, increasing pain tolerance and improving chronic pain and depression.

It’s a two-way street: The opioid system supports our approach to social interaction; engaging socially, in turn, impacts opioid activity.

Translating Research into Practice

Each time I do strength training in the gym, I look through the glass wall separating the weight room from the basketball court where group exercise occurs. The most popular class by far is line dancing. It’s a joy to watch the looks on members’ faces: alight with pleasure, curiosity, and concentration as they move forward and backward in complex sequences, sometimes erupting in laughter. They leave in a pack, chatting animatedly with one another.

Researcher Justyna Świdrak is an assistant professor at the Institute of Psychology, Polish Academy of Sciences in Warsaw, Poland. She also holds positions as a psychologist and research scientist at the Event Lab in Barcelona. Her work explores embodiment and body perception with respect to climate behaviors and chronic pain.

In February of 2025, Świdrak published a beautiful theory paper on movement synchrony as a therapeutic tool for fibromyalgia, a chronic pain condition that overlaps with both inflammation and depression.

What flavors and varieties might movement synchrony come in?

Several large-scale reviews of multiple studies show that dance modalities such as Zumba, Brazilian folk dance, Biodance (think dancing, but in a pool), and belly dancing have a significant positive impact on depression and chronic pain.

Other forms of movement synchrony include yoga, tai chi, and walking. And as many of the studies cited above show, dancing, drumming, and singing are also effective forms of synchrony.

The emerging research suggests that some of our most powerful tools for treating depression come from moving together—whether in dance class, yoga, or walking side by side with friends.

Group exercise isn’t for everyone. There are myriad ways to engage in synchrony, such as gardening, swimming, and even watching synchronous movement.

Studies show that watching synchronized dance performances and musical concerts lifts mood and increases feelings of social connection.

And there’s also animal-to-human synchrony. Dogs synchronize their location, activity, stillness, and direction of gaze with their human guardians, even small children.

Movement synchrony offers yet another bonus beyond individual healing: It can even transform the way we relate to others.

Moving together increases prosocial behavior, the kind that benefits humanity, in children, adolescents, and adults. People synchronize during social and political protests, for example, in a way that benefits mood, sense of solidarity, and social connection.

And in a gorgeous study, a group of researchers investigated the effects of synchronous walking on attitude changes toward the Roma group in Hungary. Remarkably, coordinated walking, both real and imagined, reduced both explicit and implicit reductions in prejudice and stereotyping towards both the Roma individual and the wider Roma social group.

To integrate movement synchrony into your life in an intentional way, try the following:

• Start small: Take a walk with a friend and intentionally match your pace to theirs

• Look for classes where you move together with others

• If you strength train at the gym, allow yourself to take in the sight of others lifting weights around you

• Try noting the effects when you watch synchronized movement, like dance or musical performances

• Pay attention to moments of organic synchrony. Notice the effects when you break into spontaneous dance moves with others, applaud at a film or concert, trade smiles with a baby, or match your breathing with a partner’s rhythm

• At the next protest you participate in, note the benefits you experience to your mood, well-being, and sense of social belonging

The next time you find yourself bursting into applause at a concert, falling into step with a walking partner, or watching yet another dance video, know that you’re not just enjoying yourself. You’re activating an ancient, powerful, and embodied system for healing.

Paradigm Shift in Progress

Although we’ve focused today on both neurobiology and movement, I’d be remiss not to echo some of my earlier work, which has focused on a paradigm shift in how we (society, medical professionals, and laypeople) conceptualize depression.

One of the signs of this paradigm shift for me has been the acknowledgement of organizations such as the United Nations and the World Health Organization that our current mental health paradigm is inaccurate and, in fact, harmful.

Way back in 2009, the World Health Organization issued a strong statement that critiqued individualized approaches to mental health and emphasized the social determinants of mental health.

“A focus on social justice may provide an important corrective to what has been seen as a growing over-emphasis on individual pathology,” the WHO stated. “Mental health is produced socially: the presence or absence of mental health is above all a social indicator and therefore requires social, as well as individual, solutions. A focus on collective efficacy, as well as personal efficacy is required. [Focusing on a] person with individual symptoms may lead to a ‘disembodied psychology’ which separates what goes on inside people’s heads from social structure and context.”

My work focuses a lot on the social determinants of depression (which include inflammation, which can be socially generated).

It might be natural to feel that not enjoying or pursuing collective movement is a sign that you’re “lacking” in some way.

Our lack of collective synchrony, however, stems directly from dominant cultural, white supremacist, patriarchal (read bell hooks, who writes so beautifully on patriarchy), capitalist ideology. These forces and the ideology they generate teaches us that we are individuals and that our “problem” (depression, anxiety, PTSD, etc.) is within us.

This view, in turn, further exacerbates our sense of being out of sync. We could say, actually, that the individualization of society and loss of community (one's village or extended family) in favor of an emphasis on the nuclear family are social determinants of depression. The same is true of racism and all its systemic variations: poverty, the wealth gap (including the racial wealth gap) and the way, in many Western countries, work is centered to the exclusion of everything else, including connection.

The bottom line: Moving with others (and being with others in general, re-stitching that web of connection) is one powerful antidote to depression, as is combatting inflammation and looking into other issues.

Depression may be a movement disorder, but it's also a social one. This insight gives us a powerful gift: the knowledge that healing is also a social endeavor. Sometimes moving in sync is the medicine we need to feel more connected.

And in this time of social and political divisions, it may just be the gateway that brings us back to one another.

Hi Readers! My book manuscript is due on August 10th. Please send good vibes!

UPGRADE TO PAID

Sources:

The World Health Organization last gathered data on the global burden of depression: Depressive disorder (depression). (n.d.). Retrieved July 24, 2025, from https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/depression

The WHO predicted that by the year 2030, depression would be: https://www.who.int/publications/i/item/9789240031029

And yet, nearly two-thirds of all people who take antidepressants: Saelens, J., Gramser, A., Watzal, V., Zarate, C. A., Lanzenberger, R., & Kraus, C. (2025). Relative effectiveness of antidepressant treatments in treatment-resistant depression: A systematic review and network meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials. Neuropsychopharmacology, 50(6), 913–919. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41386-024-02044-5 See also: Depression: Learn More – How effective are antidepressants? (2024). In InformedHealth.org [Internet]. Institute for Quality and Efficiency in Health Care (IQWiG). https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK361016/ See also: Adzic, M., Lukic, I., Mitic, M., Glavonic, E., Dragicevic, N., & Ivkovic, S. (2023). Contribution of the opioid system to depression and to the therapeutic effects of classical antidepressants and ketamine. Life Sciences, 326, 121803. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.lfs.2023.121803 See also: Al-Harbi K. S. (2012). Treatment-resistant depression: therapeutic trends, challenges, and future directions. Patient preference and adherence, 6, 369–388. https://doi.org/10.2147/PPA.S29716

A growing body of evidence points to the endogenous opioid system: Adzic, M., Lukic, I., Mitic, M., Glavonic, E., Dragicevic, N., & Ivkovic, S. (2023). Contribution of the opioid system to depression and to the therapeutic effects of classical antidepressants and ketamine. Life Sciences, 326, 121803. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.lfs.2023.121803 See also: Peciña, M., Karp, J. F., Mathew, S., Todtenkopf, M. S., Ehrich, E. W., & Zubieta, J. K. (2019). Endogenous opioid system dysregulation in depression: implications for new therapeutic approaches. Molecular psychiatry, 24(4), 576–587. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41380-018-0117-2

This has ignited a mini scientific revolution that aims to: Browne, C. A., Jacobson, M. L., & Lucki, I. (2020). Novel Targets to Treat Depression: Opioid-Based Therapeutics. Harvard review of psychiatry, 28(1), 40–59. https://doi.org/10.1097/HRP.0000000000000242

The endogenous opioid system consists of four types of peptides: Jelen, L. A., Stone, J. M., Young, A. H., & Mehta, M. A. (2022). The opioid system in depression. Neuroscience and biobehavioral reviews, 140, 104800. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neubiorev.2022.104800

And perhaps most importantly, the opioid system modulates mood: Nummenmaa, L., & Tuominen, L. (2018). Opioid system and human emotions. British Journal of Pharmacology, 175(14), 2737–2749. https://doi.org/10.1111/bph.13812

Opioid receptors feature abundantly in the emotional: Adzic, M., Lukic, I., Mitic, M., Glavonic, E., Dragicevic, N., & Ivkovic, S. (2023). Contribution of the opioid system to depression and to the therapeutic effects of classical antidepressants and ketamine. Life Sciences, 326, 121803. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.lfs.2023.121803

The “opium cure,” as it was called, came into widespread use in the second: Weber, M. M., & Emrich, H. M. (1988). Current and historical concepts of opiate treatment in psychiatric disorders. International clinical psychopharmacology, 3(3), 255–266. https://doi.org/10.1097/00004850-198807000-00007

Opium was frequently used as a rapid and effective treatment: Tenore P. L. (2008). Psychotherapeutic benefits of opioid agonist therapy. Journal of addictive diseases, 27(3), 49–65. https://doi.org/10.1080/10550880802122646

However, the lack of regulation of opioid agents, their non-medical use and abuse: Macy, B. (2018). Dopesick: Dealers, Doctors, and the Drug Company that Addicted America. Little, Brown and Company. New York. See also: White, W. L. (1998). Slaying the dragon: The history of addiction treatment and recovery in America. Chestnut Health Systems/Lighthouse Institute.

Reward signaling in the opioid system facilitates social: Loth, M. K., & Donaldson, Z. R. (2021). Oxytocin, Dopamine, and Opioid Interactions Underlying Pair Bonding: Highlighting a Potential Role for Microglia. Endocrinology, 162(2), bqaa223. https://doi.org/10.1210/endocr/bqaa223 See also: Panksepp, J., Herman, B. H., Vilberg, T., Bishop, P., & DeEskinazi, F. G. (1980). Endogenous opioids and social behavior. Neuroscience and biobehavioral reviews, 4(4), 473–487. https://doi.org/10.1016/0149-7634(80)90036-6

Opioids play a critical role in social motivation, social reward, social attachment: Loth, M. K., & Donaldson, Z. R. (2021). Oxytocin, Dopamine, and Opioid Interactions Underlying Pair Bonding: Highlighting a Potential Role for Microglia. Endocrinology, 162(2), bqaa223. https://doi.org/10.1210/endocr/bqaa223

And yet, at a subclinical dose (one-tenth that of its normal use), it has been effective: Adzic, M., Lukic, I., Mitic, M., Glavonic, E., Dragicevic, N., & Ivkovic, S. (2023). Contribution of the opioid system to depression and to the therapeutic effects of classical antidepressants and ketamine. Life Sciences, 326, 121803. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.lfs.2023.121803

Opioid signaling is dysregulated in depression: Peciña, M., Karp, J. F., Mathew, S., Todtenkopf, M. S., Ehrich, E. W., & Zubieta, J.-K. (2019). Endogenous opioid system dysregulation in depression: Implications for new therapeutic approaches. Molecular Psychiatry, 24(4), 576–587. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41380-018-0117-2

Tricyclic antidepressants relieve neuropathic and inflammatory pain: Berrocoso, E., Sánchez-Blázquez, P., Garzón, J., & Mico, J. A. (2009). Opiates as antidepressants. Current pharmaceutical design, 15(14), 1612–1622. https://doi.org/10.2174/138161209788168100

SSRI and SNRI antidepressants that increase the norepinephrine and serotonin: Berrocoso, E., Sánchez-Blázquez, P., Garzón, J., & Mico, J. A. (2009). Opiates as antidepressants. Current pharmaceutical design, 15(14), 1612–1622. https://doi.org/10.2174/138161209788168100

Some antidepressants, such as venlafaxine: Adzic, M., Lukic, I., Mitic, M., Glavonic, E., Dragicevic, N., & Ivkovic, S. (2023). Contribution of the opioid system to depression and to the therapeutic effects of classical antidepressants and ketamine. Life Sciences, 326, 121803. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.lfs.2023.121803

Several classical antidepressants require opioid receptor modulation: Adzic, M., Lukic, I., Mitic, M., Glavonic, E., Dragicevic, N., & Ivkovic, S. (2023). Contribution of the opioid system to depression and to the therapeutic effects of classical antidepressants and ketamine. Life sciences, 326, 121803. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.lfs.2023.121803

Buprenorphine is a short-acting pharmaceutical used to treat chronic pain: Adzic, M., Lukic, I., Mitic, M., Glavonic, E., Dragicevic, N., & Ivkovic, S. (2023). Contribution of the opioid system to depression and to the therapeutic effects of classical antidepressants and ketamine. Life Sciences, 326, 121803. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.lfs.2023.121803 See also: Falcon, E., Browne, C. A., Leon, R. M., Fleites, V. C., Sweeney, R., Kirby, L. G., & Lucki, I. (2016). Antidepressant-like Effects of Buprenorphine are Mediated by Kappa Opioid Receptors. Neuropsychopharmacology: Official Publication of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology, 41(9), 2344–2351. https://doi.org/10.1038/npp.2016.38

See also: Berrocoso, E., Sánchez-Blázquez, P., Garzón, J., & Mico, J. A. (2009). Opiates as antidepressants. Current pharmaceutical design, 15(14), 1612–1622. https://doi.org/10.2174/138161209788168100

Low dose naltrexone, used to improve function in chronic fatigue syndrome: Noon, K., Sturgeon, J., Kao, M., Darnall, B., & Mackey, S. (2016). (418) A novel glial cell inhibitor, low dose naltrexone, reduces pain and depression, and improves function in chronic pain: A CHOIR study. The Journal of Pain, 17(4), S79. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jpain.2016.01.395https://www.drugs.com/medical-answers/low-dose-naltrexone-ldn-3570335/

Strikingly, ketamine’s antidepressant effects are mediated by the endogenous opioid: Adzic, M., Lukic, I., Mitic, M., Glavonic, E., Dragicevic, N., & Ivkovic, S. (2023). Contribution of the opioid system to depression and to the therapeutic effects of classical antidepressants and ketamine. Life sciences, 326, 121803. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.lfs.2023.121803 See also: Peciña, M., Karp, J. F., Mathew, S., Todtenkopf, M. S., Ehrich, E. W., & Zubieta, J. K. (2019). Endogenous opioid system dysregulation in depression: implications for new therapeutic approaches. Molecular psychiatry, 24(4), 576–587. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41380-018-0117-2

It turns out that chronic pain has a similar deficit in proprioception: Vandael, K., Vasilache, A., & Meulders, A. (2022). Know Your Movements: Poorer Proprioceptive Accuracy is Associated With Overprotective Avoidance Behavior. The Journal of Pain, 23(8), 1400–1409. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jpain.2022.03.233 See also: Should proprioceptive training be a priority in the management of chronic pain? (n.d.). International Association for the Study of Pain (IASP). Retrieved July 27, 2025, from https://www.iasp-pain.org/publications/relief-news/article/proprioceptive-training-and-pain/

Conversation partners often imitate each other’s body language: Louwerse, M. M., Dale, R., Bard, E. G., & Jeuniaux, P. (2012). Behavior matching in multimodal communication is synchronized. Cognitive science, 36(8), 1404–1426. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1551-6709.2012.01269.x See also: Richardson, D. C., Dale, R., & Kirkham, N. Z. (2007). The art of conversation is coordination: common ground and the coupling of eye movements during dialogue. Psychological science, 18(5), 407–413. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9280.2007.01914.x

People with depression and chronic pain often have difficulty with interoception: Wang, W. L., Liu, J. K., Sun, Y. F., Liu, X. H., Ma, Y. H., Gao, X. Z., Chen, L. M., Zhou, Z. H., & Zhou, H. L. (2024). Interoception mediates the association between social support and sociability in patients with major depressive disorder. World journal of psychiatry, 14(10), 1484–1494. https://doi.org/10.5498/wjp.v14.i10.1484 See also: Zhou, H., Liu, J., Wu, Y., Huang, Z., Wang, W., Ma, Y., Zhu, H., Zhou, Z., Wang, J., & Jiang, C. (2024). Unveiling the interoception impairment in various major depressive disorder stages. CNS neuroscience & therapeutics, 30(8), e14923. https://doi.org/10.1111/cns.14923

Unlike people with depression, those with chronic pain conditions: Horsburgh, A., Summers, S. J., Lewis, A., Keegan, R. J., & Flood, A. (2024). The Relationship Between Pain and Interoception: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis. The Journal of Pain, 25(7). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jpain.2024.01.341

People walking side a side often synchronize their steps: van Ulzen, N. R., Lamoth, C. J., Daffertshofer, A., Semin, G. R., & Beek, P. J. (2008). Characteristics of instructed and uninstructed interpersonal coordination while walking side-by-side. Neuroscience letters, 432(2), 88–93. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neulet.2007.11.070

Music lovers at a concert often erupt in coordinated: Néda, Z., Ravasz, E., Brechet, Y., Vicsek, T., & Barabási, A.-L. (2000). The sound of many hands clapping. Nature, 403(6772), 849–850. https://doi.org/10.1038/35002660

It turns out that behavioral synchrony is compromised in both depression and chronic pain: Jennissen, S., Sandmeir, A., Schoenherr, D., Altmann, U., Nikendei, C., Schauenburg, H., Friederich, H. C., & Dinger, U. (2024). Dynamics of following and leading: association of movement synchrony and depression severity. Frontiers in psychiatry, 15, 1459082. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyt.2024.1459082 See also: Altmann, U., Strauss, B., & Tschacher, W. (2022). Cross-Correlation- and Entropy-Based Measures of Movement Synchrony: Non-Convergence of Measures Leads to Different Associations with Depressive Symptoms. Entropy, 24(9), Article 9. https://doi.org/10.3390/e24091307 See also: Altmann, U., Brümmel, M., Meier, J., & Strauss, B. (2021). Movement Synchrony and Facial Synchrony as Diagnostic Features of Depression: A Pilot Study. The Journal of nervous and mental disease, 209(2), 128–136. https://doi.org/10.1097/NMD.0000000000001268 See also: Scherer, S., Hammal, Z., Yang, Y., Morency, L. P., & Cohn, J. F. (2014). Dyadic Behavior Analysis in Depression Severity Assessment Interviews. Proceedings of the ... ACM International Conference on Multimodal Interaction. ICMI (Conference), 2014, 112–119. https://doi.org/10.1145/2663204.2663238

In fact, a recent pilot study highlighted the potential of using nonverbal synchrony: Altmann, U., Strauss, B., & Tschacher, W. (2022). Cross-Correlation- and Entropy-Based Measures of Movement Synchrony: Non-Convergence of Measures Leads to Different Associations with Depressive Symptoms. Entropy, 24(9), Article 9. https://doi.org/10.3390/e24091307

Researchers at Oxford University conducted a remarkable study which showed that rowers who trained in synchrony: Cohen, E. E., Ejsmond-Frey, R., Knight, N., & Dunbar, R. I. (2010). Rowers' high: behavioural synchrony is correlated with elevated pain thresholds. Biology letters, 6(1), 106–108. https://doi.org/10.1098/rsbl.2009.0670 See also: Sullivan, P. J., Rickers, K., & Gammage, K. L. (2014). The effect of different phases of synchrony on pain threshold. Group Dynamics: Theory, Research, and Practice, 18(2), 122–128. https://doi.org/10.1037/gdn0000001 See also: Sullivan, P., & Rickers, K. (2013). The effect of behavioral synchrony in groups of teammates and strangers. International Journal of Sport and Exercise Psychology, 11(3), 286–291. https://doi.org/10.1080/1612197X.2013.750139 See also: Cohen, E. E., Ejsmond-Frey, R., Knight, N., & Dunbar, R. I. (2010). Rowers' high: behavioural synchrony is correlated with elevated pain thresholds. Biology letters, 6(1), 106–108. https://doi.org/10.1098/rsbl.2009.0670

And people had higher pain thresholds and a greater sense of social bonding: Weinstein, D., Launay, J., Pearce, E., Dunbar, R. I. M., & Stewart, L. (2016). Singing and social bonding: Changes in connectivity and pain threshold as a function of group size. Evolution and Human Behavior, 37(2), 152–158. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.evolhumbehav.2015.10.002 See also: Dunbar, R. I., Kaskatis, K., MacDonald, I., & Barra, V. (2012). Performance of music elevates pain threshold and positive affect: implications for the evolutionary function of music. Evolutionary psychology : an international journal of evolutionary approaches to psychology and behavior, 10(4), 688–702. https://doi.org/10.1177/147470491201000403 See also: Tarr, B., Launay, J., & Dunbar, R. I. M. (2016). Silent disco: Dancing in synchrony leads to elevated pain thresholds and social closeness. Evolution and Human Behavior: Official Journal of the Human Behavior and Evolution Society, 37(5), 343–349. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.evolhumbehav.2016.02.004

Intriguingly, people whose pain tolerance increased after synchronous movement: Lang, M., Bahna, V., Shaver, J. H., Reddish, P., & Xygalatas, D. (2017). Sync to link: Endorphin-mediated synchrony effects on cooperation. Biological Psychology, 127, 191–197. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biopsycho.2017.06.001 See also: Launay, J., Dean, R. T., & Bailes, F. (2013). Synchronization can influence trust following virtual interaction. Experimental psychology, 60(1), 53–63. https://doi.org/10.1027/1618-3169/a000173 See also: Wiltermuth, S. S., & Heath, C. (2009). Synchrony and cooperation. Psychological science, 20(1), 1–5. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9280.2008.02253.x

Several meta-analyses of multiple studies show that dance modalities: Prudente, T. P., Mezaiko, E., Silveira, E. A., & Nogueira, T. E. (2024). Effect of Dancing Interventions on Depression and Anxiety Symptoms in Older Adults: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis. Behavioral sciences (Basel, Switzerland), 14(1), 43. https://doi.org/10.3390/bs14010043 See also: Hickman, B., Pourkazemi, F., Pebdani, R. N., Hiller, C. E., & Fong Yan, A. (2022). Dance for Chronic Pain Conditions: A Systematic Review. Pain medicine (Malden, Mass.), 23(12), 2022–2041. https://doi.org/10.1093/pm/pnac092 See also: Basso, J. C., Satyal, M. K., & Rugh, R. (2021). Dance on the Brain: Enhancing Intra- and Inter-Brain Synchrony. Frontiers in human neuroscience, 14, 584312. https://doi.org/10.3389/fnhum.2020.584312 See also: Murillo-García, Á., Villafaina, S., Adsuar, J. C., Gusi, N., & Collado-Mateo, D. (2018). Effects of Dance on Pain in Patients with Fibromyalgia: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis. Evidence-based complementary and alternative medicine : eCAM, 2018, 8709748. https://doi.org/10.1155/2018/8709748

Movement synchrony activates the opioid system, benefitting pain tolerance: Nummenmaa, L., & Tuominen, L. (2018). Opioid system and human emotions. British Journal of Pharmacology, 175(14), 2737–2749. https://doi.org/10.1111/bph.13812

Świdrak published a beautiful theory paper on movement synchrony as a therapeutic tool: Świdrak J. (2025). Healing synchrony? potential benefits of interpersonal synchrony for chronic pain management. Frontiers in pain research (Lausanne, Switzerland), 6, 1463321. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpain.2025.1463321

Watching synchronized dance performances and musical concerts: Atherton, G., Sebanz, N., & Cross, L. (2019). Imagine All The Synchrony: The effects of actual and imagined synchronous walking on attitudes towards marginalised groups. PloS one, 14(5), e0216585. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0216585

An emerging body of research shows that behavioral synchrony exists: Lamontagne, A., & Gaunet, F. (2024). Behavioural Synchronisation between Dogs and Humans: Unveiling Interspecific Motor Resonance? Animals, 14(4), Article 4. https://doi.org/10.3390/ani14040548 See also: Lamontagne, A., Legou, T., Rauchbauer, B., Grosbras, M. H., Fabre, F., & Gaunet, F. (2023). Behavioural synchronization and social referencing of dogs and humans: walking in dyad vs in group. Animal cognition, 26(3), 1021–1034. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10071-023-01750-9 See also: Duranton, C., Courby-Betremieux, C., & Gaunet, F. (2022). One- and Two-Month-Old Dog Puppies Exhibit Behavioural Synchronization with Humans Independently of Familiarity. Animals : An Open Access Journal from MDPI, 12(23), 3356. https://doi.org/10.3390/ani12233356 See also: Duranton, C., Bedossa, T., & Gaunet, F. (2018). Pet dogs synchronize their walking pace with that of their owners in open outdoor areas. Animal cognition, 21(2), 219–226. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10071-017-1155-x See also: Duranton, C., Bedossa, T., & Gaunet, F. (2017). Interspecific behavioural synchronization: Dogs exhibit locomotor synchrony with humans. Scientific Reports, 7(1), 12384. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-017-12577-z See also: Wanser, S. H., MacDonald, M., & Udell, M. A. R. (2021). Dog–human behavioral synchronization: Family dogs synchronize their behavior with child family members. Animal Cognition, 24(4), 747–752. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10071-020-01454-4

It increases prosocial behavior, the kind that benefits humanity: Rennung, M., & Göritz, A. S. (2016). Prosocial Consequences of Interpersonal Synchrony: A Meta-Analysis. Zeitschrift fur Psychologie, 224(3), 168–189. https://doi.org/10.1027/2151-2604/a000252

People synchronize during social and political protests, for example, in a way: Zumeta, L. N., Castro-Abril, P., Méndez, L., Pizarro, J. J., Włodarczyk, A., Basabe, N., Navarro-Carrillo, G., Padoan-De Luca, S., da Costa, S., Alonso-Arbiol, I., Torres-Gómez, B., Cakal, H., Delfino, G., Techio, E. M., Alzugaray, C., Bilbao, M., Villagrán, L., López-López, W., Ruiz-Pérez, J. I., Cedeño, C. C., … Pinto, I. R. (2020). Collective Effervescence, Self-Transcendence, and Gender Differences in Social Well-Being During 8 March Demonstrations. Frontiers in psychology, 11, 607538. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2020.607538

In a gorgeous study, a group of researchers investigated the effects of synchronous walking on attitude: Atherton, G., Sebanz, N., & Cross, L. (2019). Imagine All The Synchrony: The effects of actual and imagined synchronous walking on attitudes towards marginalised groups. PloS one, 14(5), e0216585. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0216585

This piece makes a good preface to that one.

It builds on insights from my piece reporting on the breakthrough discovery of a new type of dopamine neuron that becomes active when the body moves.

That discovery expands the understanding of dopamine as a neuromodulator that regulates not only reward and motivation but movement. It strengthens the link between neurodegenerative diseases and mood disorders. And it opens a gateway into novel therapies for low-dopamine illnesses like Parkinson’s Disease, ADHD, and depression.

In today’s piece, I’d like to enlarge that gateway a little. I’ll focus the lens on depression, review another compelling study, and wonder out loud with you about its implications.

The “SAD” History of Movement Research in Depression

Exercise has long topped the list of interventions for depression. This is due partly to the boosting effects of exercise on a key molecule involved in neuroplasticity (the notion that the brain and nervous system can change, particularly with respect to learning and memory). The molecule in question: brain-derived neurotropic factor (BDNF), which is also implicated in depression.

And yet, the use of exercise to alleviate depression is in my opinion a very blunt tool. And it’s not the only one.

Most research on bodily processes in depression refers to psychomotor slowing, a global decrease in the speed of movement, speech, facial expression, and cognitive processing.

Psychomotor slowing occurs in people immersed in a current depressive episode, even after remission. It has been the focus of body-related depression studies for many decades, and there’s been little nuance since. (Another blunt tool, and one without strong clinical implications to boot—except perhaps for the exhortation that people with depression should move more, or move faster.)

Another issue is the lack of research translation of into clinical practice. For example, gross and fine motor activity, discrete body movements, speech, and movement reaction time can reliably differentiate people with depression from those without. Yet even though they make up a key component of depression, psychomotor symptoms receive little attention from the clinical field.

But this may be about to change.

Last week’s column mentioned the scarcity in depression of internally generated movements, those cued by internal mechanisms rather than external factors (as well as in Parkinson’s Disease). And there’s more.

The Good News about Movement + Depression

Of special interest is a trio of studies which found that particular gait patterns (think proprioception) were associated with a bias toward depressive memories and dysphoric mood, and that slumped posture primes a bias toward the cognitive recall of negative words.

Despite the backlash she endured, I think researcher Amy Cuddy was on to something. But the body of work that looks at posture implicates the negative impact of poor posture more than the Ted Lasso-sanctioned positive impact of power posing.

Recently, a group of researchers examined global body movements in depression. They showed that the more severe a patient’s depression, the fewer body movements they made.

And yet, few studies have probed deeper into the nature of sensorimotor processing in depression, anxiety, and other mood disorders—that is, until recently.

Depression and the Sensorimotor Self

An innovative 2022 study delved into the specifics of movement issues in depression, with implications for what and how we might move.

To offer a little background, I’ve written a lot about sensory issues in depression, including low levels of interoception and proprioception (briefly mentioned above). This week’s article focuses on motor aspects of depression.

Sensory and motor functions aren’t separate; they overlap and are commonly referred to as sensorimotor experiences.

The researchers examined three major domains of movement: muscle tone and posture, gross motor skills, and perceptual-motor skills.

They used a battery of psychomotor tasks to assess several subdomains of movement including:

• passive muscle tone

• active muscle tone

• posture

• gross motor skills

• dynamic balance

• static balance

• manual dexterity

• spatial integration

• rhythm

The results were striking across a wide variety of motor tasks.

The researchers observed significant differences between people with depression and healthy controls on tasks assessing muscle tone, posture, and gross motor skills (seen, for example, in the ability to walk backwards down a straight line, jumping tasks, and manual dexterity).

People with major depression also scored low on dynamic balance (measured by other walking tests), additional types of jumping, coordination of arms and legs, and walking in rhythm. To be clear, these weren’t obvious, observable differences that anyone could visually see; they only came through via psychomotor tests.

The researchers found something else, too, which struck me as significant. People with depression had difficulty voluntarily achieving muscle relaxation. This goes hand in hand with what we know about depression involving nervous system hyperarousal, which I wrote about in my first book, published nearly 100 years ago. (Deliberate use of typo to highlight how long my current book is taking.)

Psychomotor delay or slowness, they concluded, may mask a high level of body tension unobservable to clinicians.

I’ve wondered about the question of which came first: the depression (resulting in movement issues), or the movement issues (resulting in depression). But chances are high that they co-occur.

That aside, issues with movement have repercussions that extend well beyond the body or the individual, and include the relationships we have with others and with the world at large.

To put an exclamation point on this idea: The body in motion is embedded in the world. When something compromises movement, our relationship with self and world is naturally disturbed. This may explain in part the social withdrawal emblematic of depression.

The Implications

These results have striking implications for the role of the body in the treatment of depression.

First, they strengthen the case for restorative yoga (or, as I call them, dynamic rest practices) as an arrow in the quiver of depression treatments.

They complement a beautiful study by Johannes Michalak (a principal investigator in the trio of studies on gait and posture above) and fascia pioneer Robert Schleip on the effectiveness of myofascial approaches to treating depression.

And they illuminate an augmented role for body-based teachers and therapists to offer highly-specified one-on-one work targeted to each person’s movement anomalies. This can be done through yoga, yoga therapy, mind-body movement practices like tai chi, qi gong, Zumba, Parkour, and other therapeutic movement modalities.

The researchers advocate not for exercise, but for physical activity and psychomotor therapy adapted to the abilities and specific motor challenges of people with depression. (This ties in with the notion of novel movement for depression.)

Ultimately, I think this also has implications for neurodegenerative diseases and for the body as it ages.

And it has relevance for a primary therapeutic target in depression: the restoration of the bodily self in motion and its right relationship with the world.  

Stay tuned for the companion pieces in progress that highlight complementary new discoveries in the pathogenesis (and potential treatment) of depression.

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Sources:

The molecule: brain-derived neurotropic factor, or BDNF—which is also implicated in depression: Miranda, M., Morici, J. F., Zanoni, M. B., & Bekinschtein, P. (2019). Brain-Derived Neurotrophic Factor: A Key Molecule for Memory in the Healthy and the Pathological Brain. Frontiers in cellular neuroscience, 13, 363. https://doi.org/10.3389/fncel.2019.00363

Psychomotor slowing occurs in people with a current depressive episode—even after remission: Wüthrich, F., Nabb, C. B., Mittal, V. A., Shankman, S. A., & Walther, S. (2022). Actigraphically measured psychomotor slowing in depression: systematic review and meta-analysis. Psychological medicine, 52(7), 1208–1221. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0033291722000903

The scarcity of internally generated movements in depression: Hoffstaedter, F., Sarlon, J., Grefkes, C., & Eickhoff, S. B. (2012). Internally vs. Externally triggered movements in patients with major depression. Behavioural Brain Research, 228(1), 125–132. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bbr.2011.11.024

Particular gait patterns were associated with a bias toward depressive: Adolph, D., Tschacher, W., Niemeyer, H., & Michalak, J. (2021). Gait Patterns and Mood in Everyday Life: A Comparison Between Depressed Patients and Non-depressed Controls. Cognitive Therapy and Research, 45(6), 1128–1140. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10608-021-10215-7. See also: Michalak, J., Troje, N. F., Fischer, J., Vollmar, P., Heidenreich, T., & Schulte, D. (2009) Embodiment of sadness and depression—Gait patterns associated with dysphoric mood. Psychosomatic Medicine, 71(5), 580–587. https://doi.org/10.1097/PSY.0b013e3181a2515c

Slumped posture primes cognitive recall of negative words: Michalak, J., Mischnat, J., & Teismann, T. (2014). Sitting Posture Makes a Difference—Embodiment Effects on Depressive Memory Bias. Clinical Psychology & Psychotherapy, 21(6), 519–524. https://doi.org/10.1002/cpp.1890

Recently, a group of researchers examined global body movements in depression: Sandmeir, A., Schoenherr, D., Altmann, U., Nikendei, C., Schauenburg, H., & Dinger, U. (2021). Depression Severity Is Related to Less Gross Body Movement: A Motion Energy Analysis. Psychopathology, 54(2), 106–112. https://doi.org/10.1159/000512959

The researchers examined three major domains of movement: Paquet, A., Lacroix, A., Calvet, B., & Girard, M. (2022). Psychomotor semiology in depression: a standardized clinical psychomotor approach. BMC psychiatry, 22(1), 474. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12888-022-04086-9

They complement a beautiful study by Johannes Michalak: Michalak, J., Aranmolate, L., Bonn, A., Grandin, K., Schleip, R., Schmiedtke, J., Quassowsky, S., & Teismann, T. (2022). Myofascial Tissue and Depression. Cognitive therapy and research, 46(3), 560–572. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10608-021-10282-w

At midnight on Friday, June 20, a group of B-2 stealth bombers took off from an Air Force base near Kansas City, Missouri.

Some flew west, acting as decoys. The remainder flew east, ultimately dropping 14 bunker-buster bombs and two dozen Tomahawk missiles on multiple targets at the Fordow, Natanz, and Isfahan nuclear facilities in Iran.

Trump chose to announce the strikes on Iran via his Truth Social platform, which is how many elected officials—including Representative Jim Himes of Connecticut, ranking member of the House Intelligence Community—first learned of them.

At the White House on Saturday night, wearing his trademark “Make America Great Again” baseball cap and flanked by Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, and Vice President J.D. Vance, Trump described the strikes as a "spectacular military success" and warned of "far greater" attacks if Iran did not "make peace."

Trump then returned to his preferred form of foreign diplomacy on Saturday: his Truth Social platform. “Congratulations to our great American Warriors. There is not another military in the World that could have done this,” he claimed modestly.

Many leaders, foreign and domestic, declined to share Trump’s bullish opinion on the strikes.

U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres said he was "gravely alarmed" by the American use of force, calling the U.S. strikes a "dangerous escalation in a region already on the edge, and a direct threat to international peace and security."

Kentucky Republican Representative Thomas Massie of Kentucky, a Republican, pointed out on X that Congress "has the sole authority to authorize war" and should have been called back from vacation before the attack.

Christiane Amanpour of CNN warned of the potential dire consequences, of the action, saying that no military solution is feasible and that the situation requires diplomacy.

Many diplomats, including former U.S. Secretary of State John F. Kerry, who was the key U.S. negotiator in the 2015 Iran Nuclear Deal, agreed.

And, of course, there’s the bothersome fact that Trump withdrew from the Iran Nuclear Deal, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) in 2018.

Signed on July 14, 2015, the deal was agreed to by Iran and the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council—China, France, Russia, the United Kingdom and the U.S.—as well as Germany and the European Union. The JCPOA imposed restrictions on Iran’s civilian nuclear enrichment program in exchange for sanctions relief.

The JCPOA was designed to ensure that Iran’s nuclear program would be exclusively peaceful and provided for the lifting of nuclear-related sanctions in order to prevent Iran from developing nuclear weapons.

“NOW IS THE TIME FOR PEACE!” he ordered Israel and Iran via social media, his tool of preference for diplomatic negotiations. And then, as though signing off on a corporate memo, he added, “Thank you for your attention to this matter.”

After the bombings, Trump continued to badger Iran in follow-up posts.

“This is an HISTORIC MOMENT FOR THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, ISRAEL, AND THE WORLD,” he added. “IRAN MUST NOW AGREE TO END THIS WAR. THANK YOU!”

On Monday, June 23, mere hours after Iran fired missiles at a U.S. base in Qatar, Trump claimed that Israel and Iran had agreed to a ceasefire.

On Tuesday, Trump escalated his rhetoric against Iran, issuing a threat on social media against its Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. "We know exactly where the so-called 'Supreme Leader' is hiding. He is an easy target, but is safe there—We are not going to take him out (kill!), at least not for now," Trump boasted.

Trump seems to believe that he can bomb, bully, and threaten other nations into peace.

On Tuesday, as the two countries continued to attack one another, Trump lost his cool in front of the press before boarding Air Force One for the NATO summit in the Netherlands.

“They’ve been fighting for so long and so hard that they don’t know what the f—k they’re doing,” he fumed, becoming the first U.S. president to use the f-bomb openly in a public statement.

Then on Wednesday, after renewing his attempts to take credit for an Israel-Iran ceasefire, Trump posted offensive footage of a few B2 stealth fighter jets dropping bombs, while “Bomb Iran,” a parody of the Beach Boy’s song “Barbara Ann,” played in the background.

Remarkably, behind Trump’s boorish behavior masks an ulterior motive: winning the Nobel Peace Prize. (Yes, you read that right: the Nobel Prize for peace.)

Trump has publicly and privately complained—inexplicably, I hardly need to add—that he has yet to win the coveted prize.

He has referenced the award numerous times in interviews, speeches, and campaign rallies dating back to his first term.

In his inaugural address this year, he announced that his “proudest legacy will be that of a peacemaker and unifier.”

In many ways, Trump’s public jockeying for the prize reflects his focus on accolades, praise and acceptance—and, perhaps most importantly, a burning desire to best and belittle his predecessors. It irks him that Barack Obama won the prize for confronting the “great climatic challenges,” a decision that engendered global controversy.

Many say the Nobel award is top of mind for Trump as he resorts to his signature geopolitical maneuver: browbeating nations toward cease-fire deals in Ukraine, the Middle East, and Asia.

Last Friday, mere hours before bombing Iran’s nuclear sites, Trump complained (on Truth Social, naturally) about the “injustice” behind his lack of selection for the award.

"I won't get a Nobel Peace Prize no matter what I do,” he griped, “including Russia/Ukraine, and Israel/Iran, whatever those outcomes may be, but the people know, and that's all that matters to me."

Trump and his staff apparently missed the memo that the Nobel Peace Prize is awarded to “the person who shall have done the most or the best work for fraternity between nations, the abolition or reduction of standing armies and for the holding and promotion of peace congresses.”

Said criteria do not include threatening the annexation of foreign countries (Canada and Greenland), approving the annexation of others (Russia’s annexation of parts of Ukraine), falsely accusing an ally (South Africa) of genocide against a privileged white population, the cessation of medical aid (global), the enabling of genocide (by both Israel and Russia), taking the side of an imperial aggressor (as he has done with Israel and Russia), or proposing to build a Trump Tower on the ruins of Gaza, where Israel is currently starving its population.

The criteria would certainly disqualify an aspirant who facilitated the illegal abduction and deportation of U.S. residents, with neither cause nor due process, to life-threatening conditions at the LaSalle Detention Center in Jena, Louisiana, the CECOT maximum security prison in El Salvador, or South Sudan, where a genocide is occurring.

Note: According to Genocide Watch, conflict in South Sudan has resulted in 2.4 million refugees, 2.3 million internally displaced persons, 9.4 million people requiring humanitarian assistance, and 7.1 million people facing acute food insecurity. Mass rape and gender-based violence are common. On June 23, the United States Supreme Court granted Trump’s emergency request to deport U.S. migrants to countries other than their homeland, including those in grave conflict or crisis, such as South Sudan.

And, it must be said, there is no record of a Nobel laureate who is publicly known to have been convicted of, admitted to, or boasted about his history of sexual assault.

Had he bothered even to read the Peace Prize criteria, Trump might have avoided an inexcusable diplomatic gaffe.

Speaking alongside NATO secretary general Mark Rutte at this week’s NATO summit, Trump (favorably, no less) compared the U.S. strikes on Iran to the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki by U.S. forces in 1945.

“This was essentially the same thing,” he said. “That ended that war; this ended the war.” (Translation: The U.S. attacks on Iran ended the Israel-Iran conflict, i.e. the two countries would still be fighting if the United States had not bombed the nuclear facilities.)

By way of explanation, the atomic bomb that the U.S. detonated over the center of Hiroshima instantly killed more than 70,000 men, women, and children.

According to Stanford’s Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies, the archival record illuminates that the primary purpose of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima was not to bring about peace, but rather to kill large numbers of civilians. Such a nuclear attack, scholars say, would be illegal today. It would violate three major requirements of the law of armed conflict codified in Additional Protocol I of the Geneva Conventions: the principles of distinction, proportionality, and precaution.

And, as it turns out, the 2024 Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to Hibakusha, the grassroots movement of atomic bomb survivors from Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

The group won the prize for its efforts to achieve a world free of nuclear weapons, and for demonstrating through witness testimony that nuclear weapons must never be used again.

Trump’s comments, justifying the world's first use of nuclear weapons on a civilian population in Japan, provoked an angry outcry from survivors of the bombings of the Japanese cities.

Teruko Yokoyama, 83, a senior member of the Nihon Hidankyo group that received the 2024 award, responded to the thoughtless comparison. "I'm really disappointed. All I have is anger," Yokoyama said.

Undeterred—and, as always, unaware—Trump and his cabinet continued their lobby for the Nobel Prize this week.

Speaking live from The Hague, the site of the NATO summit, Marco Rubio was appropriately obsequious. “I know of no president, probably in our modern history, that has sought peace more than he has,” Rubio announced without a trace of irony.

Steven Cheung, White House communications director, added his own hyperbolic two cents. “The Nobel Peace Prize is illegitimate if President Trump—the ultimate peace president—is denied his rightful recognition of bringing harmony across the world,” Cheung said in a statement.

While at the NATO summit, Trump reported a sea change in his view of NATO.

For years, he has criticized other members of the alliance and said they weren’t paying their fair share. Now, it appears. lavish praise from world leaders and their vows to increase military spending have won him over.

“Almost every one of them said, ‘Thank God for the United States,’” he said.

He added: “I left here differently. I left here saying that these people really love their countries. It’s not a rip-off, and we’re here to help them protect their country.”

What could have catalyzed such a change of… heart in the president?

Trump, it seems, reveled in his experience at The Hague. This was, no doubt, due to rhe royal welcome given him from the Royal Family of The Netherlands.

Trump stayed at Huis Ten Bosch Palace, one of the Royal Family’s many residences. Honor guards could be seen rolling up a red carpet in front of the presidential limo after President Trump arrived at the palace on Tuesday. Liveried footmen dressed in navy and Trump’s favorite color, gold, opened the limo door for him. (The White House proudly displays a video of his welcome.)

He complimented the Netherlands’ trees—saying, “I want to bring some back with me.”

He was absolutely smitten, however, by King Willem Alexander and Queen Máxima of The Netherlands and their 21-year-old daughter, Princess Catharina Amalia, who is first in line to the Dutch throne.

The Royal Family are tall, white, blond, conventionally attractive, and regal—all qualities that Trump values highly. (Thankfully, he refrained from saying that he wished to bring the King’s wife or daughter home with him.)

“It was a big success,” Trump enthused to members of the press. “You had great people here, everybody showed up. They were all the prime ministers and the presidents and the kings and the queens, right? And I actually had breakfast today with a king and a queen who were beautiful, beautiful people, central casting I must say, very nice.

It should be said that His Royal Highness (the King, not Trump) won the handshake contest using Trump’s own signature maneuver: The King deployed his strength of grip to pull Trump toward him, forcing Trump to take several steps forward.

This was the first time a U.S. President has ever been welcomed to The Hague. (And in Trump's case, one can hope, it won't be his last time at the Hague.)

____________________________

Unaccountably, despite his routinely bellicose persona, Trump has been nominated for the Nobel several times. (The Norwegian Nobel committee rules permit nominations from members of national assemblies and national governments, university professors in specific fields, and members of certain international institutions.)

While he has not won, this week Trump earned an unprecedented accomplishment in relation to the Nobel Peace Prize.

He became the only president in history to gain and lose a Nobel Peace Prize nomination in a single day.

Republican representative Buddy Carter of Georgia nominated Trump for the Nobel Peace Prize for his role in “brokering” this week’s “ceasefire agreement” between Iran and Israel. The South Georgia congressman recently announced a run for U.S. Senate next year; he hopes to face incumbent Democrat Jon Ossoff. He is also a practiced presidential sycophant: Earlier this year, he made headlines for introducing legislation to authorize the president to acquire Greenland and rename it “Red, White, and Blueland.”

Meanwhile, a senior Ukrainian lawmaker who nominated Trump for the Peace Prize has withdrawn his nomination as peace talks between Kyiv and Moscow have failed.

Oleksandr Merezhko, the head of Ukraine’s parliamentary foreign committee, told Newsweek on Tuesday he had “lost any sort of faith and belief” in Trump and his ability to secure the promised cessation of hostilities.

The withdrawals may not end there.

In Pakistan, where the government had formally nominated the U.S. president for the peace prize for his intervention in the nation’s hostilities with India, many are having second thoughts. Lawmakers, activists, authors and former diplomats criticized the government for the nomination after Trump’s strikes on Iran.

These nominations are extremely discomfiting to me, as it points to the fawning behavior that an authoritarian bully can command, even from the leaders of other sovereign nations. That those nations are trying to intuit how to please this bully of a foreign leader to ensure their people's safety replicates the dynamics of dysfunctional, abuse-ridden family systems.

_________________________________________________

POSTSCRIPT: According to the U.S. media, intelligence assessments say that the strikes only set back Iran's nuclear capabilities by a few months.

Earlier this year, U.S. Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard testified before the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence that according to the Annual Threat Assessment, Iran was years away from acquiring nuclear weapons of their own.

Trump, of course, denied this.

And finally, on June 22, a report from the New York Times suggested that Trump's decision to strike Iran was based not on intelligence, but rather on the wall-to-wall coverage he saw on Fox News.

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Sources:

At midnight on Friday, June 20, a group of B-2 stealth bombers took off: Hernandez, J. (2025, June 23). 4 things to know about the U.S. airstrikes on Iran. NPR. https://www.npr.org/2025/06/23/nx-s1-5441791/takeaways-us-airstrikes-iran-nuclear-trump

U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres said he was "gravely alarmed" by: António Guterres [@antonioguterres]. (2025, June 22). I am gravely alarmed by the use of force by the United States against Iran today. This is a dangerous escalation in a region already on the edge – and a direct threat to international peace and security. There is a growing risk that this conflict could rapidly get out of [Tweet]. Twitter. https://x.com/antonioguterres/status/1936603735330898368

Kentucky Republican Representative Thomas Massie of Kentucky: Hernandez, J. (2025, June 23). 4 things to know about the U.S. airstrikes on Iran. NPR. https://www.npr.org/2025/06/23/nx-s1-5441791/takeaways-us-airstrikes-iran-nuclear-trump

On Friday, hours before bombing Iran’s nuclear sites, Trump complained: Donald Trump’s Chances of Winning Nobel Peace Prize Skyrocket—Newsweek. (n.d.). Retrieved June 26, 2025, from https://www.newsweek.com/donald-trumps-chances-winning-nobel-peace-prize-skyrocket-2090658

At the White House on Saturday night, Trump, wearing his trademark: Donald Trump’s Chances of Winning Nobel Peace Prize Skyrocket—Newsweek. (n.d.). Retrieved June 26, 2025, from https://www.newsweek.com/donald-trumps-chances-winning-nobel-peace-prize-skyrocket-2090658

Trump continued to badger Iran in a follow-up: Trump navigates the most complex foreign policy crisis of his presidency, one ‘Truth’ at a time. (2025, June 25). NBC News. https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/donald-trump/trump-engages-truth-social-diplomacy-iran-crisis-rcna214719

In his inaugural address early this year, Trump announced that: Pager, T. (2025, March 24). Trump’s Nobel Prize Obsession Is About More Than World Peace. The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2025/03/24/us/politics/trump-nobel-peace-prize.html

South Sudan, where a genocide is occurring: South Sudan. (n.d.). Genocidewatch. Retrieved June 26, 2025, from https://www.genocidewatch.com/country-pages/south-sudan

According to Genocide Watch, conflict in South Sudan has resulted: Fritze, A. F. D., John. (2025, June 23). Supreme Court allows Trump to remove migrants to South Sudan and other turmoil-filled countries | CNN Politics. CNN. https://www.cnn.com/2025/06/23/politics/supreme-court-migrants-south-sudan-turmoil-filled-countries

The Nobel Committee awards the Peace Prize to: Royen, U. (2018, July 5). Nomination and selection of Nobel Peace Prize laureates. NobelPrize.Org. https://www.nobelprize.org/nomination/peace/

According to Stanford’s Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies: Why the atomic bombing of Hiroshima would be illegal today. (2020, July 20). https://fsi.stanford.edu/news/why-atomic-bombing-hiroshima-would-be-illegal-today

In fact, in 2024, the Prize was awarded to Hibakusha, the grassroots movement of: 2024 Nobel Peace Prize. (2025). In Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=2024_Nobel_Peace_Prize&oldid=1295635115

Speaking alongside NATO secretary general Mark Rutte at this week’s summit: Guardian News (Director). (2025, June 25). Trump compares US strikes on Iran to Hiroshima: “This ended the war” [Video recording].

Trump’s comments, justifying the world's first use of nuclear weapons on a civilian: NEWS, K. (n.d.). Trump likens U.S. strikes on Iran to bombings of Hiroshima, Nagasaki. Kyodo News+. Retrieved June 26, 2025, from https://english.kyodonews.net/news/2025/06/dec6b9955cd9-update1-trump-likens-us-strikes-on-iran-to-bombings-of-hiroshima-nagasaki.html

“Almost every one of them said, ‘Thank God for the United States,’” he said: Romm, T. (2025, June 25). President Calls for Shuttering Voice of America. The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/live/2025/06/26/us/trump-news

Honor guards could be seen rolling up a red carpet: The Royal Family Channel (Director). (2025, June 25). Trump’s Royal Visit: First US President Welcomed to King’s Residence [Video recording].

“It was a big success,” Trump enthused to members of the press: https://rollcall.com/factbase/trump/transcript/donald-trump-remarks-bilat-dick-schoof-netherlands-june-25-2025/

Republican representative Buddy Carter of Georgia nominated Trump: Kilgore, E. (2025, June 24). Trump Gains and Loses Nobel Peace Prize Nomination in One Day. Intelligencer. https://nymag.com/intelligencer/article/trump-gains-loses-nobel-peace-prize-nomination.html

The South Georgia congressman recently announced a run: Kilgore, E. (2025, June 24). Trump Gains and Loses Nobel Peace Prize Nomination in One Day. Intelligencer. https://nymag.com/intelligencer/article/trump-gains-loses-nobel-peace-prize-nomination.html

Meanwhile, a senior Ukrainian lawmaker who nominated Trump: Donald Trump Nobel Peace Prize nomination withdrawn. (2025, June 24). Newsweek. https://www.newsweek.com/donald-trump-nobel-peace-prize-nomination-withdrawn-ukraine-russia-2089818

And in Pakistan, lawmakers, activists, authors and former diplomats criticized: Baloch, S. M. (2025, June 25). Pakistan debates Trump Nobel peace prize nomination after US strikes on Iran. The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/jun/25/pakistan-trump-nobel-peace-prize-nomination-iran-strikes

Earlier this year, U.S. Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard testified: Schneid, R. (2025, June 21). Trump’s Public Rebuke of Tulsi Gabbard’s Statement on Iran. TIME. https://time.com/7296421/trump-public-rebuke-tulsi-gabbard-iran-nuclear-weapon-statement/

On June 22, a report from the New York Times suggested that Trump's decision: New reporting: How Fox News influenced Trump’s decision to strike Iran. (n.d.). MSNBC.Com. Retrieved June 26, 2025, from https://www.msnbc.com/all-in/watch/new-reporting-how-fox-news-influenced-trump-s-decision-to-strike-iran-242135621519 See also: Schmitt, M. M. S. H., & Cooper, H. (2025, June 23). Shifting Views and Misdirection: How Trump Decided to Strike Iran. The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2025/06/22/us/politics/trump-iran-decision-strikes.html

The insight that trauma manifests in the body has long been understood by clinicians as well as survivors.

And yet, the mental health field has historically diagnosed posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) primarily in cognitive terms.

The latest edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, updated in 2022, reinforces this orientation. Its diagnostic criteria for PTSD remain exclusively focused on cognition, affect, and behavior.

The symptoms are listed as:

• recurrent and intrusive distressing memories of the event, including:

  • distressing dreams

  • dissociative states or flashbacks

  • psychological distress at exposure to internal or external cues

  • physiological reactions to internal or external cues

• avoidance of stimuli associated with the events

• negative changes in cognition (including memory) or mood

• persistent or exaggerated negative beliefs about oneself, others, or the world

• marked arousal changes (e.g. hypervigilance, sleep disturbance)

Even the inclusion of “marked arousal changes” implies that nervous system hyperarousal and disrupted sleep are psychological and behavioral in nature.

What’s more, the neurobiological foundations that of trauma have long eluded researchers. This has reinforced the notion that bodily aspects of trauma are not evidenced based—a kind of “issues in your tissues” folk understanding.

But a new series of elegant scientific studies is poised to change that.

The studies illuminate beautifully the neural underpinnings of trauma, and the strategies used by the mind, brain, and body in response.

This piece will focus on one strand of this growing body of research: how trauma disrupts the bodily self and its sense of aliveness.

Trauma, Aliveness, and the Bodily Self

The first study maps the mind, brain, and body disruption in trauma with striking clarity, and links it to specific changes in brain activity and network connectivity.

In the paper that accompanied the study, Ruth Lanius and her colleagues reference alterations in the bodily sense of self, including pervasive feelings of disembodiment. She shares the body-based language that many survivors report, such as, “I feel dead on the inside,” or “I feel as though my body does not belong to me.”

And in my clinical work as a psychologist and personal experience as a survivor of sexual assault, disruptions in the bodily self also take other forms:

• lowered interoception (ability to receive and respond to signals from the body)

• compromised proprioception (awareness of movement and space)

• a reduced sense of agency

• anomalies in the vestibular system that helps us keep our balance

• a lowered sense of global desire (which includes motivation, engagement, the seeking out and enjoyment of rewarding experiences, passion for our work and our relationships, and the way we relate to the experience of surprise).

The bodily self is not just personal but social.

Therefore, trauma also disturbs our social body, the mutual attunement we have with others and they have with us that is often referred to in philosophy as intersubjectivity.

(I’ll be unpacking more of this—including interoception, proprioception, vestibular disruption, and peripersonal space—in a 2.5-hour Masterclass this coming Tuesday, June 17. Details below.)

What makes these insights so crucial is that our bodily sense of self isn’t just a secondary version of who we are.

Our bodily sense of self is our sense of self.

It is the foundation for the relationship we have with ourselves and the way we relate to others and the world around us.

Back to the two studies. Ruth Lanius and her colleagues set out to map the neural networks that underpin the sense of self in trauma.

To help hammer a frame around the insights of the first study, let me say that our brains map our conceptual sense of self, often called the narrative self, in regions that differ from those of the bodily sense of self or somatic self.

This may sound like a contradiction to the idea that our bodily self and sense of self are one, but that’s not the case. Science used to “map” brain function by stimulating parts of the brain, noting the response, and then crediting that region of the brain with that response.

Now we know that what drives direct experience isn’t about whether one part of the brain lights up versus another, but their connectivity—that is to say, when and how they “play together,” like families of instruments in an orchestra.

Scientific studies show that self-related processes and autobiographical memories are facilitated by a large-scale network (a grouping of areas) along the midline of our prefrontal cortex known as the default mode network (DMN).

We can think of this area and its processes as the scaffold for our continued experience of the self across time.

Interestingly, for most people the default mode network is at its most active when we’re at rest, which is when we’re not actively focused on something. For this reason, the default mode network often gets equated with mind-wandering. It also comes online when we’re asked to reflect on ourselves or interpret the thought processes of others.

When the default mode network is intact, it helps us to contextualize experience. It tells us that what we feel in any given moment, particularly in the body, is in the present. And by extension, it helps us situate our memories in the past.

But that’s not what happens in trauma.

Ruth Lanius and her colleagues used functional MRI, or fMRI, to image the brains of people with PTSD.

They found that in people with PTSD, the front portion of the default mode network, the one that provides context for experience, goes offline.

The back part, the one involved in reliving memories (called the posterior cingulate cortex), surges into action.

This dysregulation doesn’t just distort memory. It warps time, space, and bodily presence.

This pattern, Ruth told me in an interview, leaves survivors trapped in the past without the context of a present moment or the future.

Survivors may find themselves overwhelmed by visceral flashbacks. And they’ve temporarily lost the cognitive scaffolding that would help them say to themselves, "This is not happening now."

This helps explain why sensory reminders of trauma have feel so immediate and can cause overwhelming fear or panic.

A 2023 study published in the prestigious journal Nature Neuroscience corroborated these findings.

The study showed that unlike sad or happy memories, traumatic recollections—think sexual assaults, natural disasters, school shootings, or terrorist attacks—don’t involve the hippocampus, which regulates long-term memory recall.

Instead, they involve the same region that Ruth Lanius and her colleagues studied: the posterior cingulate cortex. “Traumatic memories are not experienced as memories” per se, the authors wrote in the paper, “but as fragments of prior events” that subsume the present moment.

Daniela Schiller, a neuroscientist at Mount Sinai’s Icahn School of Medicine and an author of the study, said in an interview with the New York Times, “The brain doesn’t look like it’s in a state of memory; it looks like it is a state of present experience.”

Critically, the the stronger reductions in resting-state connectivity across the default mode network, the greater the severity of PTSD symptoms. This holds true across multiple forms of trauma, including combat exposure, interpersonal trauma (think domestic violence and sexual assault) and acute trauma.

And it turns out, Ruth told me, that one particular stimulus brings the default mode network to life: when we’re under threat or dealing with a conscious or unconscious trigger of our trauma.

High levels of arousal animate the bodily self (and sense of self).

Ruth shared a striking example of a long-time patient who reflected on the way heightened arousal, even in the form of risk-taking, can strengthen the sense of self. (Ruth’s patient gave full permission for her to use this anecdote in teaching.)

“I started shoplifting when I was five. I shoplifted well into my adulthood at great risk to me, were I to be caught. It was always confusing why I did this. It was so, so risky. I knew that. But I think the adrenaline organized me, rising it seemed from my belly through my brain, from the back to the front. I felt my feet, I knew my hands and fingers. I had eyes. I was agency. It lit me up. It was essential at five and still at 50. I didn't exist to myself except as that artful dodger. At these moments, I existed. All of me in the act of stealing, I would come online.”

“Isn’t that brilliant?” Ruth asked me, praising both her patient’s coping strategy and the insight she had in reflecting on it. (This illustrates her skill not just as a prominent neuroscientist, but as an empathic and connected clinician.)

“Trauma-related affect and arousal,” she explained, “become coupled with our sense of self.”

This explained a pattern I’d long seen as a clinician and experienced in my own life. Many survivors are drawn to intense forms of physical movement like endurance running, heavy weightlifting, open-water swimming (my preference), rock climbing, martial arts, trail hiking, and extreme sports with an element of danger.

This kind of exercise, Ruth explained, allows people to feel their “edges” or boundaries, which can become unformed in survivors.

Not All PTSD Involves Fight or Flight

What about people for whom hyperarousal is not the primary manifestation of PTSD?

For a long time, the field of mental health treated posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) as a uniform experience, encompassing both hyperarousal and hyperemotionality.

Recently, however, the field has recognized a dissociative subtype, D-PTSD. (Despite this, proposals from prominent researchers and clinicians in the field starting in 2012 have not yet convinced the American Psychiatric Association to include the diagnosis in the diagnostic manual.)

While the “classic” subtype of PTSD is characterized by fight-or-flight, D-PTSD is marked by the “freeze” mechanism, and by experiences of depersonalization, derealization, hypo-emotionality, and emotional detachment.

Depersonalization includes the sense that one’s body and one’s self are not real, while derealization makes the environment around us feel as though it’s occurring in a dream. (For more about depersonalization, see this article.)

The dissociative subtype of PTSD may account for as much as 44 percent of all PTSD cases. People with D-PTSD reportedly have a greater severity of symptoms and a higher incidence of additional diagnosis of anxiety, depression, and substance use disorders.

Ruth Lanius and her colleagues have mapped the neural regions that underpin both types of responses, which they call the defense cascade.

A brain region known as the periaqueductal gray (PAG) regulates the defense cascade.

The PAG is one of the brain’s most evolutionarily ancient structures, responsible for coordinating life-preserving responses like fight, flight, or freeze. Interestingly, it also plays a role in the regulation of pain, and therefore in the body’s opioid or pain regulation system.

In hyperarousal, the PAG activates sympathetic-adrenal responses.

In dissociation, it engages the parasympathetic-dominant shutdown or freeze response.

Implications for the Treatment of PTSD

This duet of studies lays a foundation for understanding the bodily roots of PTSD. It also offers alternatives to exposure therapy, which involves gradually exposing people to trauma triggers to reduce the alarm response.

These studies and a host of follow-up experiments explore key elements of embodiment such as proprioception, vestibulation, peripersonal space, and more.

These studies also point to innovative ways to address the bodily aspects of PTSD.

Lanius and her colleagues mention breath-based practices, trauma-sensitive yoga, neurofeedback, exercise-based interventions, and deep brain stimulation.

And Negar Fani, a neuroscientist-clinician at Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia, who I also interviewed for the book, is pioneering work with vibro-acoustic therapies paired with breathing in the treatment of PTSD.

There is a revolution happening right now in body-based treatments for trauma.

And it’s not a moment too soon.

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Sources:

The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders: American Psychiatric Association. (2022). Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders (5th ed., text rev.). https://doi.org/10.1176/appi.books.9780890425787 See also: Treatment (US), C. for S. A. (2014). Exhibit 1.3-4, DSM-5 Diagnostic Criteria for PTSD [Text]. Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (US). https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK207191/

In the article, Lanius and her colleagues reference alterations in the bodily sense: Lanius, R. A., Terpou, B. A., & McKinnon, M. C. (2020). The sense of self in the aftermath of trauma: lessons from the default mode network in posttraumatic stress disorder. European journal of psychotraumatology, 11(1), 1807703. https://doi.org/10.1080/20008198.2020.1807703 See also: Frewen, P. A., & Lanius, R. A. (2015). Healing the traumatized self: Consciousness, neuroscience, treatment. New York: W. W. Norton & Company.

Scientific studies show that self-related processes and autobiographical memories: Raichle M. E. (2015). The brain's default mode network. Annual review of neuroscience, 38, 433–447. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-neuro-071013-014030

We can think of these processes collectively as scaffolding our continued experience: Lanius, R. A., Terpou, B. A., & McKinnon, M. C. (2020). The sense of self in the aftermath of trauma: lessons from the default mode network in posttraumatic stress disorder. European journal of psychotraumatology, 11(1), 1807703. https://doi.org/10.1080/20008198.2020.1807703

Interestingly, for most of us the default mode network is most active at rest: The brain's default mode network. Annual review of neuroscience, 38, 433–447. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-neuro-071013-014030

They found that in people with PTSD, the front portion of the default mode network: Personal interview. March 22, 2024.

Critically, stronger reductions in resting-state connectivity across the default mode: Lanius, R. A., Bluhm, R. L., Coupland, N. J., Hegadoren, K. M., Rowe, B., Théberge, J., Neufeld, R. W., Williamson, P. C., & Brimson, M. (2010). Default mode network connectivity as a predictor of post-traumatic stress disorder symptom severity in acutely traumatized subjects. Acta psychiatrica Scandinavica, 121(1), 33–40. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1600-0447.2009.01391.x See also: Lanius, R. A., Terpou, B. A., & McKinnon, M. C. (2020). The sense of self in the aftermath of trauma: lessons from the default mode network in posttraumatic stress disorder. European journal of psychotraumatology, 11(1), 1807703. https://doi.org/10.1080/20008198.2020.1807703

This pattern, Ruth added, leaves survivors trapped in the past without the context: Personal interview. March 22, 2024.

A 2023 study published in the prestigious journal Nature Neuroscience corroborated: Perl, O., Duek, O., Kulkarni, K. R., Gordon, C., Krystal, J. H., Levy, I., Harpaz-Rotem, I., & Schiller, D. (2023). Neural patterns differentiate traumatic from sad autobiographical memories in PTSD. Nature Neuroscience, 26(12), 2226–2236. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41593-023-01483-5

Daniela Schiller, a neuroscientist at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai and one of the authors: Barry, E. (2023, November 30). Brain Study Suggests Traumatic Memories Are Processed as Present Experience. The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2023/11/30/health/ptsd-memories-brain-trauma.html

(Gift Article: https://www.nytimes.com/2023/11/30/health/ptsd-memories-brain-trauma.html?unlocked_article_code=1.OU8.zdMa.fH0k1QLN2zSG&smid=url-share)

Recently, however, the field has recognized a dissociative subtype of posttraumatic stress disorder: Kearney, B. E., & Lanius, R. A. (2022). The brain-body disconnect: A somatic sensory basis for trauma-related disorders. Frontiers in neuroscience, 16, 1015749. https://doi.org/10.3389/fnins.2022.1015749 See also: Cramer, A. O. J., Leertouwer, I., Lanius, R., & Frewen, P. (2020). A Network Approach to Studying the Associations Between Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Symptoms and Dissociative Experiences. Journal of traumatic stress, 33(1), 19–28. https://doi.org/10.1002/jts.22488

Despite this, proposals from prominent researchers and clinicians: Lanius, R. A., Brand, B., Vermetten, E., Frewen, P. A., & Spiegel, D. (2012). The Dissociative Subtype of Posttraumatic Stress Disorder: Rationale, Clinical and Neurobiological Evidence, and Implications. Depression and Anxiety, 29(8), 701–708. https://doi.org/10.1002/da.21889

But the “freeze” mechanism, also called “tonic immobility,” turns out: Terpou, B. A., Harricharan, S., McKinnon, M. C., Frewen, P., Jetly, R., & Lanius, R. A. (2019). The effects of trauma on brain and body: A unifying role for the midbrain periaqueductal gray. Journal of neuroscience research, 97(9), 1110–1140. https://doi.org/10.1002/jnr.24447

The dissociative subtype of PTSD may account for as many as 44 percent: Kearney, B. E., & Lanius, R. A. (2022). The brain-body disconnect: A somatic sensory basis for trauma-related disorders. Frontiers in Neuroscience, 16, 1015749. https://doi.org/10.3389/fnins.2022.1015749 See also: Terpou, B. A., Harricharan, S., McKinnon, M. C., Frewen, P., Jetly, R., & Lanius, R. A. (2019). The effects of trauma on brain and body: A unifying role for the midbrain periaqueductal gray. Journal of neuroscience research, 97(9), 1110–1140. https://doi.org/10.1002/jnr.24447

Lanius and her colleagues mention breath-based practices, trauma-sensitive yoga, neurofeedback: Kearney, B. E., & Lanius, R. A. (2022). The brain-body disconnect: A somatic sensory basis for trauma-related disorders. Frontiers in neuroscience, 16, 1015749. https://doi.org/10.3389/fnins.2022.1015749

And Negar Fani, a neuroscientist-clinician at Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia: Fani, N., Guelfo, A., Barrie, D. L. L., Teer, A. P., Clendinen, C., Karimzadeh, L., Jain, J., Ely, T. D., Powers, A., Kaslow, N. J., Bradley, B., & Siegle, G. J. (2023). Neurophysiological changes associated with vibroacoustically-augmented breath-focused mindfulness for dissociation: Targeting interoception and attention. Psychological Medicine, 53(16), 7550–7560. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0033291723001277

Merz is a businessman, and shrewd enough to know that flattery would be the main course on the menu.

He came bearing a framed copy of Trump’s grandfather’s German birth certificate. The president called the montage “fantastic” and said he would hang it in a place of honor.

He then got down to the most important topic of the day: the state of the Oval Office.

"It’s an Oval Office that’s in very good shape,” Trump announced. “We like fixing things up, and having them tippy top, like they have in Germany. They do that in Germany very much. And we do it here."

As though he had not flattered himself enough or been flattered enough by Merz, Trump could not resist embellishing his own approval ratings beyond even the blinding shine of the office the two convened in.

"We're having a very good run," Trump announced with rare modesty. "We had a—I also had a great election, great win, won everything. Won the popular vote, all seven swing states, which is a big deal."

After allowing him to go on for a bit, Chancellor Merz had a pressing question for Trump about the new travel bans.

"Mr. President, on your new travel ban, why now?" he asked. "And if the Boulder attack was part of your reasoning, why not include Egypt on that list, where the suspect is from?"

The answer, when it came, was... painful. "Well, because Egypt has been a country that we deal with very closely, they have things under control. The countries that we have [sic] don't have things under control."

Mr. Merz knew that Trump usually does most of the talking with foreign counterparts. He did not buck the trend, sitting in silence for minutes at a time as the president rambled on.

Mr. Trump praised what he surely believed to Mr. Merz's most important capacity: his English skills.

"You speak English," Trump said, evidencing his outstanding, better-than-any-other-president-ever foreign diplomacy skills. "Because you speak such good English, is it as good as your German, would you say?"

This left Merz to point out the obvious: German is his mother tongue, but he does his best with English.

Trump then lauded Merz's negotiating stances and his agreement with Trump’s opposition to a natural gas pipeline from Russia to Germany.

He thankfully left out Merz's tall stature, a rare exhibition of self-control that he did not manage after his meeting with Ahmed al-Sharaa, the current head of Syria, when he openly gushed about the latter's height and attractiveness.

Trump then mused aloud, inappropriately, as to whether it was a good idea for Germany to increase its military spending, something that Trump has since his first administration bullied Germany (and the European Union as a whole) to do.

“I’m not sure that General MacArthur would have said it was positive, you know?” Mr. Trump said at one point, referring to the American military commander in Asia (who therefore spent no time in Germany) in World War II. “He wouldn’t like it, but I sort of think it’s good. You understand that?”

Mr. Merz said he did understand, allowing Trump's massive blunder about MacArthur to go unaddressed- as did, for some strange reason, the NYT.

“He made a statement, never let Germany re-arm,” Trump went on inanely.

There is no record of General MacArthur ever having said those words.

It is widely known by anyone with even a cursory knowledge of World War II that MacArthur was wholly uninvolved in the European theater. In fact, he retired in 1937, but was recalled into service in 1941 as Commander of the U.S. Army in the Far East. After the war, President Truman named MacArthur the military governor of Japan.

Sadly, Trump continued on his path to reverse diplomacy.

"There will be a point when I’ll say, please don’t arm any more if you don’t mind," he said, thumping Merz patronizingly on the leg. "We'll be watching them," he added to the assembled press for extra flair.

He could not resist embellishing further: “I think that’s a good thing, at least to a certain point. There will be a point when I say, please don’t arm anymore.”

Trump uttered this as though Germany is in more danger of authoritarianism control than the U.S.; they are not. And he did so as though he and his Vice President, the vainglorious J.D. Vance, haven't been pushing for Germany and Europe to embrace the AfD, its radical right party that emphasizes nativism; they have.

Mr. Merz chimed in here and there, appealing to Trump’s sizeable ego and national pride. He thanked Americans for liberating Europe on D-Day, 81 years ago on Friday.

And then Trump went off the rails.

"That was not a pleasant day for you," he interjected, as though Merz himself were part of the Nazi regime.

The German Chancellor handled this as deftly as anyone could expect while Trump giggled like an idiot in response to his own bad joke.

"No," Merz agreed.

But the Chancellor could hardly let such an insult to Germany and its people go unchallenged.

"Well, in the long run, Mr. President," Merz amended gracefully, "this was the liberation of my country from Nazi dictatorship."

The German news media reacted to the meeting with a mix of relief and bemusement: relief that the meeting had not devolved into a shouting match, as it had with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, and bemusement that Germany’s leader, fresh off an election win that Trump unwittingly helped along due to his own bad example of what authoritarianism looks like, had to debase himself with such an interaction.

“Merz can hardly get a word in edgewise in the Oval Office,” declared the flagship public news outlet Tagesschau.

Mr. Merz flattered Mr. Trump but mostly let him talk, noted the left-leaning Süddeutsche Zeitung.

Mr. Merz's role resembled that of a movie extra, observed one of the country’s most influential news sources, Der Spiegel.

Trump topped off his own ignorance by brushing aside Merz's flattering suggestion that Trump might be the “key person in the world” who could halt the bloodshed in Ukraine by pressuring Vladimir Putin to negotiate.

Trump suggested that Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine was not, as he said recently, the source of the greatest casualties since World War II. It was rather, he said Friday, more like "a playground fight between two children who hate each other."

Imagine comparing Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, with nearly 1,000,000 dead on Russia's side and likely 750,000 on Ukraine's end, to a schoolyard squabble.

As even a five-year-old child can see, the war is a battle for Ukrainian statehood, sovereignty, and self-determination.

With children, Trump intoned unwisely, “sometimes you’re better off letting them fight for a while and then pulling them apart.”

He added that he'd relayed this absolutely razor-sharp, incisive analogy to Putin in their phone call with Putin this week, belying his own lack of diplomacy skills and his enabling of Russia's aim to demilitarize Ukraine and bring much of the country under Russian rule.

The lack of intelligence is blinding, the incompetence unparalleled.

And we're only four months in.

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Sources:

Note: The sources for this short piece are as follows:

FiscalNote, R. C. (n.d.). Roll Call Factba.se - Remarks: Donald Trump Holds a Bilat with Friedrich Merz of Germany - June 5, 2025. Roll Call Factba.Se. Retrieved June 5, 2025, from https://rollcall.com/factbase/trump/transcript/donald-trump-remarks-bilat-friedrich-merz-germany-june-5-2025

Trump to German Chancellor: D-Day “not a pleasant day for you.” (2025, June 5). https://www.bbc.com/news/videos/c989r2569y4o

National Museum of the United States Army. (n.d.). Retrieved June 8, 2025, from https://www.thenmusa.org/biographies/douglas-macarthur/

Ukraine: The Latest. (n.d.). Apple Podcasts. Retrieved June 8, 2025, from

Adriana Smith, a 30-year-old nurse and mother, lies in a forced limbo in a hospital room in Atlanta, Georgia. Adriana is brain-dead. Without her family’s consent, she has been connected to life support for more than 90 days. After the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022, Georgia banned nearly all abortions once a “detectable human heartbeat” is present.

Andry José Hernández Romero, a 31-year-old makeup artist, hairdresser, and theater lover from Venezuela, crossed the southern border of the U.S. last August to attend a scheduled asylum hearing in San Diego. Despite his assertions that he was gay and fleeing persecution in Venezuela, U.S. immigration decided that Hernández was part of the Tren De Aragua gang. After detaining him for six months, they placed him on one of the three infamous deportation flights to El Salvador, where he was incarcerated in the maximum security prison known as CECOT.

Mahmoud Khalil, a graduate student at Columbia University, entered his apartment complex on March 8 to find the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) waiting. DHS illegally arrested and detained Mr. Khalil, an Algerian citizen who is in the U.S. legally and married to a U.S. citizen, in direct retaliation for his advocacy of Palestinian rights. He is now being held in the LaSalle Detention Center, a for-profit detention center in Jena, Louisiana. There are no charges against him.

On the surface, these three cases relate to different laws: Adriana’s to abortion law, Andry’s to the Alien Enemies Act, and Khalil’s to the Immigration and Nationality Act.

Though they appear unrelated, these three stories are bound by a common thread: the right to bodily autonomy—safeguarded, at least in theory, by the legal principle of habeas corpus.

And the U.S. administration is openly challenging this right.

This column covers what habeas corpus is, how it relates to the science and direct experience of embodiment, and why we’re hearing more about it now.

Habeas Corpus and the Body Politic

The term habeas corpus derives from the Latin habere, “to have or hold” and corpus, or body. It means, “You have the body.”

The term was first codified into law over 800 years ago in Britain. King John signed it into law in the 39^th clause of the Magna Carta in 1215.

“No man shall be arrested or imprisoned,” the law stated, “…except by the lawful judgment of his peers and by the law of the land.” (Note that the word “lawful” is doing some heavy lifting here.)

In the U.S., James Madison argued in 1789 for the adoption of the Bill of Rights, which included habeas corpus.

In 1830, Chief Justice John Marshall emphasized that the “great object” of the writ of habeas corpus is to liberate individuals who may be imprisoned without due cause.

Habeas corpus is the foundation of due process, a principle enshrined in the U.S. constitution that the government shall not “deprive any person of life, liberty, or property without due process of law.”

The writ of habeas corpus ensures that no person can be held by the government without the right to challenge their detention before a judge.

Habeas corpus protects all U.S. residents, citizen and non-citizen alike, against the following abuses:

• unlawful detention without charges

• imprisonment without a fair hearing

• detention on unlawful or discriminatory grounds

• unlawful removal or transfer

• government abuse of wartime or national security powers

Article 1 of the Constitution, which outlines the powers of Congress, stipulates that habeas corpus can be suspended only when required for public safety in the case of rebellion or invasion. You’ll note that the language of “invasion” mirrors that of the Alien Enemies Act. The Trump administration invoked the Act this year on the grounds that the Tren De Aragua gang was “invading” the U.S.

The writ of habeas corpus has been suspended four times in the United States. The first instance occurred in 1861 during the Civil War. The second was in 1905 in the Philippines when the country was a U.S. territory and there was a rebellion against the American military. (A note here: The Philippines fell under Japanese occupation during World War II, and gained its independence from Japan and the U.S. on July 4, 1946. This tells us that habeas corpus can also be a tool of occupation—more about that in a moment.)

The third suspension of the writ occurred during Reconstruction in order to stop violence by the Ku Klux Klan. The most recent instance happened in 1941 in Hawaii, after the attack on Pearl Harbor.

The writ encompasses the legal demand that the state must account for any person it detains. The state must specify in court its legitimate reasons for detaining individuals—or, if it cannot do so, it must release them.

The writ requires the government to prevent the abduction, forced removal, and unlawful incarceration of anyone who lives in the U.S.

But habeas corpus is not just a legal concept.

At its core, it reflects a deeper truth: the body is not a vessel that the state can detain, control, or release. It is a living, breathing, sensing entity, and its autonomy is foundational to human dignity.

In its fullest and most embodied sense, habeas corpus signifies the importance of supporting body ownership, one of our five primary inner senses and a key element of embodiment.

Habeas Corpus, Embodiment, and Body Ownership

Body ownership refers to the perception that our bodies—and their parts, sensations, and experiences—belong to us. It also includes body sovereignty, the capacity to make decisions about what happens to our own bodies.

Here, the term “ownership” doesn’t signify property or possession, but rather the feeling of me-ness or mine-ness that distinguishes our bodies from objects and other people.

Body ownership is not a luxury; it is a biological, psychological, and social imperative.

One of the signature functions of this special sense is to determine the moment-to-moment boundaries that exist between us, others, and the world around us.

Body ownership is critical to our survival. All living beings need to differentiate between what constitutes our bodies and what does not. This self-other boundary enables us to interact with objects, other people, and the environment while ensuring our safety and survival.

On a practical level, body ownership helps you differentiate between a scorpion crawling up your arm and your own hand brushing your skin. It puts you on notice when someone draws too close on a crowded subway platform or at a music concert. It allows you to pick up a book, handle a device, or hold someone else’s hand, and navigate the world while staying grounded in a healthy sense of you.

(For an introduction to what body ownership is and why it matters, see this article.)

Emerging research in the field of body ownership shows that body ownership plays an essential role in health and well-being.

In fact, this sense is often compromised in emotional illnesses such as posttraumatic stress disorder or PTSD (including its dissociative subtype), eating disorders, and depersonalization and derealization disorder or DPDR. (Nearly 75% of us will experience symptoms of DPDR at some point in our lives; for more about this condition, check out this piece.)

This is just one of the many avenues of research (alongside epistemic and ancestral knowledge) which indicate that our bodies are not just personal but social and political, too.

The research and wisdom traditions verify what we already know to be true: that dominant cultural groups attack the senses of embodiment (and use forced disembodiment) to acquire and maintain power over others for their own social, political, and financial gain.

(For an example of how this works with our sense of proprioception, check out this article.)

Before we look at what lies ahead for habeas corpus in the U.S., let’s take a quick look into its fraught history.

Habeas Corpus, Body Ownership, and Social Equity

Even a cursory look at the history of habeas corpus in the U.S. reveals the gap between legal principle and lived experience.

Most of us can readily identify cases in which the U.S. did not extend habeas corpus to all its people equally.

The U.S. codified its unequal application of habeas corpus through three enduring systems of domination:

• Enslavement, Jim Crow laws, and systemic anti-Black racism

• the genocide of First Nations people, theft of Native land, their forced removal to reservations, the abduction and detention and abuse of their children in boarding schools, and legal violations of Native sovereignty

• immigration laws that prevented the flow of certain groups into the U.S. or sanctioned their forced removal and/or internment

Enslavement itself is a direct violation of the writ of habeas corpus, a denial of bodily ownership, sovereignty, and agency.

On an institutional level, the Fugitive Slave Acts of 1793 and 1850 warped the writ of habeas corpus; they enabled owners of enslaved persons (or their agents) to seize alleged fugitives and bring them before a federal or state judge to obtain permission to send that person into enslavement. In this perverse reversal, habeas corpus was not used to protect liberty—but to reinforce bondage.

In the early 1700s, “slave patrols” were created in the Carolinas to establish a system of terror, contain uprisings, and pursue, apprehend, and return enslaved people to their “owners.” They used excessive force to control bodies and produce desired behavior.

During the Reconstruction period that followed the Civil War and the passage of the 13^th Amendment, slave patrols were replaced by militia-style groups, which in turn were the origins of the brutal U.S. policing system we have today.

And mass incarceration, the newest from of enslavement, acts as a means of detainment (and enslavement through prison labor) of disproportionate numbers of Black, Indigenous, and People of Color.

The same logic undergirds today’s police surveillance, militarized raids, and disproportionate detentions of Black and Brown communities.

The history isn’t behind us; it’s the blueprint for the present. Today’s policies echo yesterday’s oppressions, targeting the body and its senses using legal and extralegal means.

What’s Coming for Our Bodies And Our Rights

Under Trump, the state has launched a sustained attack on both the writ of habeas corpus and the right to body ownership. Its actions signal a coordinated erosion of civil and constitutional protections.

• Invoked the 1798 Alien and Enemies Act to justify mass detentions and deportations to CECOT, the maximum security prison in El Salvador

• Locked up protesters for their protected speech, and argued that they must remain in jail for years before seeing a federal judge

• Deported people in violation of court orders and without hearings, notice, or access to legal counsel

• Forced a pregnant nurse and mother on life-support to remain alive against the wishes of her family in order to give birth to her baby

• Denied these individuals the right to challenge their detention

These are not isolated abuses. They form a pattern. They offer a preview of actions that a suspension of habeas corpus would accelerate.

The administration isn’t just violating individual rights. It is asserting executive supremacy over the judiciary and the legislative branches, and making the very architecture of constitutional balance more precarious.

And now, the administration has voiced its intent to undermine the writ entirely.

Stephen Miller, one of Trump’s top aides, announced publicly on May 9 that the administration was “actively looking at” suspending habeas corpus—depending, he said, on “whether the courts do the right thing or not.”

Miller has likened court rulings against the administration to a “judicial coup.” He and other Trump administration officials are clearly stating that they believe the judicial branch of U.S. government is interfering with their ability to enforce immigration laws.

Beginning in February, Trump personally attacked judges in several public statements. Between October and March, 80 judges reported threats. After his February tirades, the number doubled in just six weeks. On Memorial Day, he called judges who ruled against him 'monsters who want our country to go to hell.

In mid-April, federal prosecutors arrested Judge Hannah Dugan of the Milwaukee Circuit Court, alleging that she had interfered with their arrest of Eduardo Flores Ruiz, an undocumented immigrant.

On Memorial Day, Trump loosed another rant, calling judges who ruled against him “monsters who want our country to go to hell.”

Miller’s comments echo ongoing attempts by the Trump administration to use the current state of illegal border crossings to claim that the U.S. is under invasion.

And that’s not all.

Meanwhile, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is not waiting for the formal suspension. It is already operating with impunity

Over the weekend of June 1, senior U.S. immigration officials instructed immigration officers to “turn the creative knob up to 11” on immigration enforcement.

According to internal agency emails viewed by The Guardian, officers have been told to interview and potentially arrest people they call collaterals. The term refers to additional people such as family members, coworkers, or bystanders attempting to prevent the arrests.

“If you’d like to run something up or if we can help give a push somewhere, please reach out,” stated Francisco Madrigal, a longtime senior ICE official.

“If it involves handcuffs on wrists,” Madrigal added, “it’s probably worth pursuing.”

Republican Senator Thom Tillis, of North Carolina said he could envision “unintended consequences or some U.S. citizens getting swept up” if the Trump administration should suspend habeas corpus without the requisite amount of care. “They’ve got to be pitch perfect on that one if they execute,” said Tillis. “No room for error.”

But error is the goal, and forced disembodiment the strategy.

The System Depends On Us for Maintenance

This administration’s methods weave together anti-immigration sentiment with systemic racism.

Adriana Smith lies in a hospital in Georgia, 24 weeks pregnant. Her mother April brings Adriana’s young son to visit; he believes that his mother is “sleeping.”

Adriana’s case highlights the multiple forms of systemic racism that the U.S. wields toward Black women, including medical racism. Adriana sought treatment for severe headaches nine weeks into her pregnancy. Despite her expertise as a healthcare professional, medical staff dismissed her concerns without performing a single diagnostic test.

Furthermore, Georgia’s rate of maternal mortality is nearly twice the national rate—which is, in turn, greater in the U.S. than in all high-income countries.

Andry José Hernández Romero remains in a different sort of limbo. On May 27, one day prior to a scheduled court hearing, Immigration Judge Paula Dixon granted the Department of Homeland Security (DHS)’s motion to dismiss Hernández Romero’s asylum proceedings. No one has heard from him in over 82 days.

You can sign Human Rights Campaign’s petition for the release of Andry José Hernández Romero and Kilmar Abrego Garcia here.

Mahmoud Khalil is still being held illegally at the LaSalle Detention Center in Jena, Louisiana. On June 5, Mahmoud’s legal team submitted a brief and dozens of declarations and expert reports to the New Jersey federal court overseeing Mahmoud’s case, outlining the “irreparable harm” he and others will continue to suffer from detention. This week, Mahmoud was finally allowed to hold his one-month-old infant son for the first time, thanks to a federal judge who blocked the Trump administration’s efforts to keep the two separated by a Plexiglass barrier.

Mahmoud has not been charged with a crime.

You can sign the ACLU’s petition for Mahmoud’s release here.

The U.S. administration is betting on the disembodiment—the fear, numbness, distance, and disconnect—of its residents.

We have it in us to disappoint them.

What’s more, the body is not just a site of control; it is also the nexus of our resistance.

Mass protests are scheduled for June 14, 2025. You can view a map of the scheduled protests here.

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Adriana Smith, a 30-year-old nurse and mother, lies in a forced limbo in a hospital room: ARC-Southeast. (2025, May 21). ARC-Southeast: Outrage and Heartbreak for the Dehumanization of Adriana Smith [Statement]. ARC Southeast. https://arc-southeast.org/2025/05/21/adriana-smith/

Andry José Hernández Romero, a 31-year-old makeup artist, hairdresser: ‘He is not a gang member’: Outrage as US deports makeup artist to El Salvador prison for crown tattoos | US immigration | The Guardian. (n.d.). Retrieved June 4, 2025, from https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/apr/01/its-a-tradition-outrage-in-venezuela-as-us-deports-makeup-artist-for-religious-tattoos

Mahmoud Khalil, a graduate student at Columbia University, entered his apartment: Mahmoud Khalil’s Lawsuit Can Move Forward in Federal Court, Judge Finds. (n.d.). American Civil Liberties Union. Retrieved June 4, 2025, from https://www.aclu.org/press-releases/mahmoud-khalil-jurisdiction-ina

The term was first codified not law in Britain in 1215 in the 39^th clause: Habeas corpus. (n.d.). LII / Legal Information Institute. Retrieved April 16, 2025, from https://www.law.cornell.edu/wex/habeas_corpus

In the U.S., James Madison argued in 1789 for the adoption of the: Habeas corpus | Wex | US Law | LII / Legal Information Institute. (n.d.). Retrieved June 4, 2025, from https://www.law.cornell.edu/wex/habeas_corpus

In the U.S., the writ of habeas corpus applies to citizens and non-citizens: Writ of Habeas Corpus. (n.d.). The Free Speech Center. Retrieved June 4, 2025, from https://firstamendment.mtsu.edu/article/writ-of-habeas-corpus/

Habeas corpus protects all U.S. residents against unlawful detention: What is Habeas Corpus? Why Does It Matter? | ACLU of North Dakota | We work in communities, legislatures and courts to preserve your rights and liberties. (2025, June 2). https://www.aclu.org/news/immigrants-rights/what-is-habeas-corpus-why-does-it-matter

Article 1 of the Constitution, which outlines the powers of Congress, stipulates that habeas corpus: Habeas corpus | Wex | US Law | LII / Legal Information Institute. (n.d.). Retrieved June 4, 2025, from https://www.law.cornell.edu/wex/habeas_corpus

The writ of habeas corpus has been suspended four times: Kinnard, -Meg, Kinnard, A. P. M., & Press, A. (2025, May 20). What is habeas corpus, and what has the Trump administration said about suspending it? PBS News. https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/what-is-habeas-corpus-and-what-has-the-trump-administration-said-about-suspending-it

The Philippines fell under Japanese occupation during World War II: July 4, 1946: The Philippines Gained Independence from the United States. (2021, July 2). The National WWII Museum | New Orleans. https://www.nationalww2museum.org/war/articles/july-4-1946-philippines-independence

This sense is often compromised in emotional illnesses such as posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD): Laricchiuta, D., Garofalo, C., & Mazzeschi, C. (2023). Trauma-related disorders and the bodily self: Current perspectives and future directions. Frontiers in Psychology, 14, 1166127. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1166127 See also: Machorrinho, J., Veiga, G., Santos, G., & Marmeleira, J. (2021, June). Body ownership of women with and without history of intimate partner violence [Lecture]. Encontro Ciência. https://doi.org/10.13140/RG.2.2.36072.19206 See also: Rabellino, D., Burin, D., Harricharan, S., Lloyd, C., Frewen, P. A., McKinnon, M. C., & Lanius, R. A. (2018). Altered Sense of Body Ownership and Agency in Posttraumatic Stress Disorder and Its Dissociative Subtype: A Rubber Hand Illusion Study. Frontiers in human neuroscience, 12, 163. https://doi.org/10.3389/fnhum.2018.00163

eating disorders: Preston, C., & Ehrsson, H. H. (2014). Illusory changes in body size modulate body satisfaction in a way that is related to non-clinical eating disorder psychopathology. PloS One, 9(1), e85773. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0085773. See also: Preston, C., & Ehrsson, H. H. (2016). Illusory Obesity Triggers Body Dissatisfaction Responses in the Insula and Anterior Cingulate Cortex. Cerebral cortex (New York, N.Y. : 1991), 26(12), 4450–4460. https://doi.org/10.1093/cercor/bhw313. See also: Preston, C., & Ehrsson, H. H. (2018). Implicit and explicit changes in body satisfaction evoked by body size illusions: Implications for eating disorder vulnerability in women. PloS one, 13(6), e0199426. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0199426 See also: Brizzi, G., Sansoni, M., Di Lernia, D., Frisone, F., Tuena, C., & Riva, G. (2023). The multisensory mind: A systematic review of multisensory integration processing in Anorexia and Bulimia Nervosa. Journal of Eating Disorders, 11(1), 204. https://doi.org/10.1186/s40337-023-00930-9 See also: Eshkevari, E., Rieger, E., Longo, M. R., Haggard, P., & Treasure, J. (2012). Increased plasticity of the bodily self in eating disorders. Psychological Medicine, 42(4), 819–828. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0033291711002091

depersonalization and derealization disorder (DPDR): Ciaunica, A., Roepstorff, A., Fotopoulou, A. K., & Petreca, B. (2021). Whatever Next and Close to My Self-The Transparent Senses and the "Second Skin": Implications for the Case of Depersonalization. Frontiers in psychology, 12, 613587. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.613587 See also: Sierra, M., & David, A. S. (2011). Depersonalization: A selective impairment of self-awareness. Consciousness and Cognition, 20(1), 99–108. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.concog.2010.10.018 See also: Ciaunica, A., Charlton, J., & Farmer, H. (2021). When the window cracks: Transparency and the fractured self in depersonalisation. Phenomenology and the Cognitive Sciences, 20(1), 1–19. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11097-020-09677-z

This self-other boundary enables us to interact with objects: Chancel, M., Ehrsson, H. H., & Ma, W. J. (2022). Uncertainty-based inference of a common cause for body ownership. eLife, 11, e77221. https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.77221

The Fugitive Slave Acts of 1793 and 1850 warped the writ of habeas corpus: Paul Finkelman, The Kidnapping of John Davis and the Adoption of the Fugitive Slave Law of 1793, 56 J.S. Hist. 397, 420 (1990). In: The Myth of the Great Writ | Texas Law Review. (n.d.). Retrieved June 5, 2025, from https://texaslawreview.org/the-myth-of-the-great-writ/

In the early 1700s, “slave patrols” were created in the Carolinas to establish: The Origins of Modern Day Policing. (n.d.). Retrieved June 6, 2025, from https://naacp.org/find-resources/history-explained/origins-modern-day-policing

And mass incarceration, the subsequent form of enslavement: Alexander, M. (2010). The new Jim Crow: Mass incarceration in the age of colorblindness. The New Press.

In recent weeks, three federal judges have rejected arguments: Holpuch, A. (2025, May 20). What Is Habeas Corpus, the Basic Right That Trump Officials Are Talking About Suspending? The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2025/05/20/us/politics/what-is-habeas-corpus-trump-kristi-noem.html

So far, the Trump administration has done the following: What is Habeas Corpus? Why Does It Matter? | ACLU of North Dakota | We work in communities, legislatures and courts to preserve your rights and liberties. (2025, June 2). https://www.aclu.org/news/immigrants-rights/what-is-habeas-corpus-why-does-it-matter

And on May 9, Stephen Miller, one of Trump’s top aides, announced publicly: Sneed, K. C., Samantha Waldenberg, Tierney. (2025, May 9). Trump involved in discussions over suspending habeas corpus, sources say | CNN Politics. CNN. https://www.cnn.com/2025/05/09/politics/miller-habeas-corpus-immigrant-judge

Trump administration officials have made it clear that they believe the judicial branch: Greenhouse, S. (2025, June 4). Trump keeps being overruled by judges. And his temper tantrums won’t stop that. The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/jun/04/trump-judges-law

In the five months leading up to March 1, 80 judges received threats: Greenhouse, S. (2025, June 4). Trump keeps being overruled by judges. And his temper tantrums won’t stop that. The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/jun/04/trump-judges-law

In mid-April, federal prosecutors arrested Judge Hannah Dugan: Video shows Judge Hannah Dugan with federal agents in moment leading to her arrest. (2025, June 2). The Independent. https://www.the-independent.com/news/world/americas/us-politics/judge-hannah-dugan-video-ice-arrrest-b2762081.html

On Memorial Day, Trump loosed another rant, calling judges who ruled: https://www.newsweek.com/donald-trump-attacks-judges-all-caps-memorial-day-message-monsters-2077023

Over the weekend of June 1, senior U.S. immigration officials instructed immigration: Olivares, J. (2025, June 4). US immigration officers ordered to arrest more people even without warrants. The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/jun/04/immigration-officials-increased-detentions-collateral-arrests

Republican Senator Thom Tillis, of North Carolina said he could envision: Brown, B., Doyle, K., & Sampson, P. (n.d.). Trump administration highlights and news: May 12, 2025. AP News. Retrieved June 5, 2025, from https://apnews.com/live/donald-trump-news-updates-5-12-2025

Longtime senior ICE official Francisco Madrigal stated: Olivares, J. (2025, June 4). US immigration officers ordered to arrest more people even without warrants. The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/jun/04/immigration-officials-increased-detentions-collateral-arrests

Her mother April brings Adriana’s young son to visit: Mutcherson, K. (2025, May 24). Opinion | A Brain-Dead Woman Is Being Kept on Machines to Gestate a Fetus. It Was Inevitable. The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2025/05/24/opinion/georgia-abortion-brain-dead.html (Gift Article: https://www.nytimes.com/2025/05/24/opinion/georgia-abortion-brain-dead.html?unlocked_article_code=1.MU8.L4A8.vjjNtnoK1g5I&smid=url-share) See also: Reed, S. (2025, May 15). A Mother Says Her Pregnant Daughter Is Being Kept Alive Due to an Abortion Ban—Even Though She’s Been Declared Brain Dead. Glamour. https://www.glamour.com/story/a-brain-dead-pregnant-woman-in-georgia-adriana-smith-is-being-kept-alive-due-to-abortion-ban

Adriana sought treatment for severe headaches: ARC-Southeast. (2025, May 21). ARC-Southeast: Outrage and Heartbreak for the Dehumanization of Adriana Smith [Statement]. ARC Southeast. https://arc-southeast.org/2025/05/21/adriana-smith/

The rate of pregnancy-related mortality is greater in the U.S. than in: Hernandez, N. D., Aina, A. D., Baker, L. J., Blake, S. C., Dunn Amore, A. B., Franklin, C. G., Henderson, Z. T., Kramer, M. R., Jackson, F. M., Mosley, E., Nunally, L., & Sylvester, S. (2023). Maternal health equity in Georgia: A Delphi consensus approach to definition and research priorities. BMC Public Health, 23(1), 596. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-023-15395-3

Immigration Judge Paula Dixon granted the Department of Homeland Security: Immdef. (2025, May 29). Judge Dismisses Andry José Hernández Romero’s Asylum Case Aiding the Government’s Attempts to Disappear Him. IMMDEF. https://www.immdef.org/blog/andryasylumcase52925

On June 5, Mahmoud’s legal team submitted a brief and dozens: Mahmoud Khalil Submits Extensive New Evidence Detailing Widespread Irreparable Harm from Rubio Determination and Continued Louisiana Detention. (n.d.). American Civil Liberties Union. Retrieved June 6, 2025, from https://www.aclu.org/press-releases/mahmoud-khalil-submits-extensive-new-evidence-detailing-widespread-irreparable-harm-from-continued-louisiana-detention

This week, Mahmoud was finally allowed to hold his one-month-old: Marcos, C. M. (2025, May 23). Mahmoud Khalil finally allowed to hold one-month-old son for the first time. The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/may/22/mahmoud-khalil-son-contact

But a groundbreaking new study has turned this assumption on its head.

The study has startling implications for attention, learning, memory, mental health, and neurodegenerative diseases. And it just may answer a longstanding conundrum in modern mental health: Why are antidepressants less effective than we’d like, and what can be done to remedy that?

Before we dive in to the study, let’s review two quick elements of brain anatomy that help to put this new discovery in perspective.

A Quick Primer in Neuron + Astrocyte Function

Since its inception, neuroscience has focused on neurons as the most important cellular component of the nervous system.

A single human brain contains a staggering 86 billion neurons—almost as many as there are stars in the milky way. And the synaptic connections between these neurons number in excess of 100 trillion.

Remarkable as these numbers are, neurons make up only 10 to 20 percent of the brain’s cellular population.

The remaining 80 to 90 percent are glial cells, which come in four types. One of these four is the astrocyte.

Until very recently, scientists thought that the star-shaped cells played a mere supporting role to neurons.

Part of this has to do with speed. Neurons communicate electrically and chemically. Their signaling can reach speeds of up to 100 meters per second, especially in myelinated neurons.

Astrocytes communicate using multiple mechanisms, including the release of chemical messengers called gliotransmitters and through calcium waves. But they communicate much more slowly—as much as 1/100^th the speed of neurons.

This difference, in part, led researchers to focus on therapeutic drugs that target the activity of neurons. Until recently, that is.

This May, researchers published a novel study on these star-shaped cells.

The study upends decades of assumptions in neuroscience and opens new therapeutic possibilities for the treatment of anxiety, depression, ADHD, neurodegenerative disorders, and a host of other issues.

The Link Between Norepinephrine and Depression

The study examined norepinephrine, a neuromodulator that influences neurons, neurotransmitters, and entire neural networks.

Norepinephrine plays a vital part in regulating arousal, attention, working memory, long-term cognitive function, the detection of sensory signals, and stress reactions. It also acts as a neurotransmitter in its own right, influencing the fight-flight-freeze response.

Norepinephrine also helps regulate metabolic processes such as glycogenesis and gluconeogenesis, two opposing pathways in glucose metabolism.

Norepinephrine remains one of the primary neuromodulators (alongside serotonin) used to treat depression.

Modern medicine uses selective norepinephrine reuptake inhibitors (SNRIs) and their serotonin counterparts (SNRIs) as mainstays in the pharmacological treatment of depression, anxiety disorders, and pain syndromes. These medications increase the availability of norepinephrine by either inhibiting its reuptake or its breakdown.

Antidepressants help. They often take the edge of depression so people can make use of additional treatments like psychotherapy, movement, and immunomodulation.

Yet nearly half of all people with depression have no clinical response to two or more different antidepressants, which means that they meet the criteria for treatment-resistant depression.

Modern medicine has limited strategies for treatment-resistant depression. These include optimizing dosages, augmenting treatment with mood stabilizers like lithium or antipsychotics, or non-standard treatments such as low-dose naltrexone (LDN), which can reduce inflammation in people with major depression.

For more about depression as an inflammatory illness, see this article.

For more about the social antecedents to depression, see this one.

In the scientific community, considerable speculation remains as to whether clinical responses to antidepressants match or exceed placebo, exercise, or psychotherapy.

Serotonin remains a key thread that weaves together multiple forms of antidepressant therapy, including ketamine and other psychedelics.

Enter the study.

The Study’s Exciting Results

Researchers had long suspected that astrocytes might be able to rearrange communication between neurons and, as a result, the flow of information in the brain.

Yet for almost a century, scientists believed that neuromodulators like norepinephrine adjusted brain communication by acting directly on neurons.

The study, conducted by researchers from Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri, showed that astrocytes, not neurons, drive attention, alertness, and numerous other functions.

Thomas Papouin and his colleagues stimulated norepinephrine secretion from mouse brain cells or exposed mouse brain slices to norepinephrine. They confirmed that, as known for decades, norepinephrine weakened connections between neurons.

But they noticed something critical: Norepinephrine also triggered activity among the astrocytes that surrounding the neurons.

They showed that when astrocytes detected norepinephrine, they produced a second chemical messenger, which dampened synaptic activity (at the critical gaps between neurons) and directed neuronal communication.

Now for the cool part.

If the neurons were prevented from sensing norepinephrine, the effect remained as long as astrocytes functioned.

But when astrocytes’ ability to sense or respond to norepinephrine was silenced, norepinephrine lost its influence on the connectivity between neurons.

The long-maligned star-shaped astrocyte cells, it turns out, are the active gatekeepers of brain function.

They control how entire neural networks switch on and off in response to neuromodulators like dopamine, norepinephrine, serotonin, and glutamate.

By releasing molecules known as gliotransmitters, a single astrocyte can influence hundreds of neurons and thousands of synapses.

This makes them the stars of the neural show.

This discovery opens new therapeutic avenues for the treatment of attention and mood disorders traditionally addressed by drugs that target neurons—and that we know have less efficacy than we’d like.

Thomas Papouin’s team has started looking at existing drugs that are believed to act on neurons, to determine whether they require astrocytes to be effective. If this is the case, astrocytes could be targeted directly for therapeutic purposes.

Papouin, assistant professor of neuroscience at Washington University School of Medicine and the principal investigator of the study, spoke to Neuroscience News about the discovery. “

So many drugs out there interfere with norepinephrine signaling in the brain, particularly in the treatment of ADHD or depression,” Papouin said. “I wonder how many of them require astrocytes to modify brain activity.”

To summarize the main implications of this study and others that preceded it:

• Norepinephrine (and perhaps dopamine and serotonin) reorganizes brain activity not through neurons but through astrocytes.

• Astrocytes release a secondary signal that weakens synaptic connections in response to norepinephrine.

• Targeting these gatekeeper astrocytes may improve treatment of attention and mood disorders.

Science, the journal that published Papouin’s study, also published two companion papers on astrocytes, showing the cells’ influence on both dopamine and the ATP/adenosine pathway.

These studies are paradigm-shifting.

They point to the dynamics of a neural symphony, in which astrocytes and glial cells are the conductors that direct coherence and response on a global level. These cells regulate neural synchrony, entropy, and shifting states of attention. Rather than leveling neurotransmitters at neurons (which you can think of as the musicians in an orchestra), medicine now has the potential to refine the way glial cells (the conductors) relate to the musicians and to the way these musicians play together and separately.

Additional Implications of The Study

The Papouin study’s paper doesn’t mention this, but I’d seen astrocytes show up again and again in my research into Parkinson’s disease, as well as its role in neuro-inflammation.

Our brains have connective tissue, which provides a support network for blood vessels and nerves. This connective tissue is comprised not only of neurons, but glial cells—and, specifically, astrocytes.

In the brain, astrocytes play a critical role in maintaining the blood-brain barrier, which keeps inflammatory molecules in the bloodstream from entering the brain.

Astrocytes also exist in the gut, where they are known as enteric glial cells, and are influenced by gut microbial balance.

In this article, I explored the links between the breakdown of enteric (gut-based) epithelial cells and a rise in levels of lipopolysaccharide (LPS), inflammatory molecules which cross first the gut-blood barrier and then the blood-brain barrier . Once in the brain, they play a causal role in the decades-long development of Parkinson’s disease.

Astrocytes can contribute to the clearance or transmission of α-synuclein, a protein that plays a significant role in the development of neurodegenerative disorders like Parkinson’s.

Astrocytes also factor in epilepsy, autism spectrum disorder, and neurodegenerative disorders such as Parkinson’s disease, Alzheimer’s disease, and cerebellar ataxias.

These star-shaped cells also communicate with immune cells such as microglia, T cells, and natural killer cells through molecules secreted during neuroinflammation.

Astrocyte function is adversely affected by glucocorticoids from chronic stress, air pollution, toxic environmental substances like chemical fertilizers and plasticizers, gut microbe imbalances (and again, high circulating lipopolysaccharides or LPS), insufficient sunlight, and insufficient endogenous nighttime melatonin.

My background as a research assistant at the University of Chicago’s Sleep Research Lab gave me a lifelong obsession with the functions of sleep, which is intimately involved with astrocytes.

Astrocytes drive the brain’s glymphatic system, which removes toxic byproducts and waste from the brain. The glymphatic system reaches its peak of activity during slow-wave sleep, which we have more of during the first half of the night. (This means that all the things we do to maintain a consistent bedtime, to fall asleep before 11:00 p.m. to have the best portion of slow-wave sleep possible, to delay caffeine after awakening, and to reduce light exposure at night, all aid the functioning of the glymphatic system.)

And according to emerging research in neurobiology, astrocytes and other glia (and microglia) microglia affect the synthesis and functioning of other neuromodulators—think dopamine, endorphins, and oxytocin—that regulate neuroinflammation and social bonding. Astrocytes, researchers believe, may be system-level regulators of the neuromodulation of social behavior.

Astrocytes are also at the cutting edge of new drug delivery systems for brain diseases.

Final Reflections About The Study

In closing, let me situate this discovery in its current socio-political context.

First, the study focuses on brain health, which means that we want to position astrocyte-centered interventions alongside factors like exercise (and novel movement), women’s health (such as menopause), and the social determinants of health.

And there’s the sobering reality of research funding in the U.S. in 2025.

This study was funded by four grants from the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the U.S. Department of Defense, the Brain and Behavior Research Foundation, the Whitehall Foundation, and the McDonnell Center for Cellular and Molecular Neurobiology at Washington University.

This is just the sort of discovery that the U.S. administration’s funding cuts will impact.

In fact, in April of 2025, the Trump administration ended $1.8 billion in grants to the National Institutes of Health. This included $544 million in funds that have been promised but not yet spent.

According to NBC News, the administration terminated nearly 700 grants across 24 NIH institutes and centers focused on subjects such as aging, cancer, child health, diabetes, mental health and neurological disorders.

The cuts, it turns out, were not spread evenly. Michael Liu, a student at Harvard Medical School, examined the cuts in depth for a recent study.

“The National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities was hit the hardest,” Liu said. “About 30% of all of its funding was cut. That’s 10 times more than the average.”

President Donald Trump’s new budget proposal would eliminate all funding for the National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities next year, and refers to the institute as “replete with DEI expenditures.”

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Sources:

A single human brain contains almost as many neurons: Are There Really as Many Neurons in the Human Brain as Stars in the Milky Way? | Brain Metrics | Learn Science at Scitable. (n.d.). Retrieved May 22, 2025, from https://www.nature.com/scitable/blog/brain-metrics/are_there_really_as_many/ Herculano-Houzel S. (2009). The human brain in numbers: a linearly scaled-up primate brain. Frontiers in human neuroscience, 3, 31. https://doi.org/10.3389/neuro.09.031.2009

Yet in many parts of the mammalian brain, neurons comprise only 10-20 percent: Kelly, D. A. (n.d.). Neurons and Glia: Basic Components of the Nervous System. Retrieved May 22, 2025, from https://www.brainfacts.org:443/brain-anatomy-and-function/cells-and-circuits/2022/neurons-and-glia-113022

Astrocytes communicate using multiple mechanisms, including the release of chemical: Hastings, N., Yu, Y.-L., Huang, B., Middya, S., Inaoka, M., Erkamp, N. A., Mason, R. J., Carnicer-Lombarte, A., Rahman, S., Knowles, T. P. J., Bance, M., Malliaras, G. G., & Kotter, M. R. N. (2023). Electrophysiological In Vitro Study of Long-Range Signal Transmission by Astrocytic Networks. Advanced Science, 10(29), 2301756. https://doi.org/10.1002/advs.202301756

Norepinephrine plays a vital part in regulating arousal, attention, working memory: Hussain, L. S., Reddy, V., & Maani, C. V. (2025). Physiology, Noradrenergic Synapse. In StatPearls. StatPearls Publishing. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK540977/

And yet, nearly half of all people with depression have no clinical response to two or more: Saelens, J., Gramser, A., Watzal, V., Zarate, C. A., Lanzenberger, R., & Kraus, C. (2025). Relative effectiveness of antidepressant treatments in treatment-resistant depression: A systematic review and network meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials. Neuropsychopharmacology, 50(6), 913–919. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41386-024-02044-5 See also: Papadimitropoulou, K., Vossen, C., Karabis, A., Donatti, C., & Kubitz, N. (2017). Comparative efficacy and tolerability of pharmacological and somatic interventions in adult patients with treatment-resistant depression: a systematic review and network meta-analysis. Current medical research and opinion, 33(4), 701–711. https://doi.org/10.1080/03007995.2016.1277201

low-dose naltrexone (LDN), which can reduce inflammation in people with major depression: Plank, J. R., Glover, S. C., Moloney, B. D., Hoeh, N. R., Sundram, F., Sumner, R. L., Muthukumaraswamy, S., & Lin, J. C. (2022). A randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled, hybrid parallel-arm study of low-dose naltrexone as an adjunctive anti-inflammatory treatment for major depressive disorder. Trials, 23(1), 822. https://doi.org/10.1186/s13063-022-06738-3

Importantly, considerable speculation remains as to whether clinical responses: Witt, C. E., Mena, S., Holmes, J., Hersey, M., Buchanan, A. M., Parke, B., Saylor, R., Honan, L. E., Berger, S. N., Lumbreras, S., Nijhout, F. H., Reed, M. C., Best, J., Fadel, J., Schloss, P., Lau, T., & Hashemi, P. (2023). Serotonin is a common thread linking different classes of antidepressants. Cell Chemical Biology, 30(12), 1557-1570.e6. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chembiol.2023.10.009

Yet serotonin remains a key thread that weaves together: Witt, C. E., Mena, S., Holmes, J., Hersey, M., Buchanan, A. M., Parke, B., Saylor, R., Honan, L. E., Berger, S. N., Lumbreras, S., Nijhout, F. H., Reed, M. C., Best, J., Fadel, J., Schloss, P., Lau, T., & Hashemi, P. (2023). Serotonin is a common thread linking different classes of antidepressants. Cell Chemical Biology, 30(12), 1557-1570.e6. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chembiol.2023.10.009

Thomas Papouin and his colleagues stimulated norepinephrine secretion from mouse: News, N. (2025, May 16). Astrocytes, Not Neurons, Drive Brain’s Attention and Alertness. Neuroscience News. https://neurosciencenews.com/astrocytes-alertness-attention-28939/

A single astrocyte, it turns out, can influence hundreds of: Source: Research Topics. (2018, September 19). Papouin Lab. https://sites.wustl.edu/papouinlab/research/

Thomas Papouin, Ph.D., assistant professor of neuroscience at Washington University: News, N. (2025, May 16). Astrocytes, Not Neurons, Drive Brain’s Attention and Alertness. Neuroscience News. https://neurosciencenews.com/astrocytes-alertness-attention-28939/

Science, the journal that published Papouin’s study, also published: Guttenplan, K. A., Maxwell, I., Santos, E., Borchardt, L. A., Manzo, E., Abalde-Atristain, L., Kim, R. D., & Freeman, M. R. (2025). GPCR signaling gates astrocyte responsiveness to neurotransmitters and control of neuronal activity. Science, 388(6748), 763–768. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.adq5729 See also: Chen, A. B., Duque, M., Rymbek, A., Dhanasekar, M., Wang, V. M., Mi, X., Tocquer, L., Narayan, S., Legorreta, E. M., Eddison, M., Yu, G., Wyart, C., Prober, D. A., Engert, F., & Ahrens, M. B. (2025). Norepinephrine changes behavioral state through astroglial purinergic signaling. Science, 388(6748), 769–775. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.adq5233

In the brain, astrocytes play a critical role in maintaining the blood-brain barrier: Wei, D. C., & Morrison, E. H. (2025). Histology, Astrocytes. In StatPearls. StatPearls Publishing. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK545142/

Astrocytes also exist in the gut, where they are known as enteric: Zhao, Y. F., Wei, D. N., & Tang, Y. (2021). Gut Microbiota Regulate Astrocytic Functions in the Brain: Possible Therapeutic Consequences. Current neuropharmacology, 19(8), 1354–1366. https://doi.org/10.2174/1570159X19666210215123239

Astrocytes can contribute to the clearance or transmission of α-synuclein: Brash-Arias, D., García, L. I., Pérez-Estudillo, C. A., Rojas-Durán, F., Aranda-Abreu, G. E., Herrera-Covarrubias, D., & Chi-Castañeda, D. (2024). The Role of Astrocytes and Alpha-Synuclein in Parkinson’s Disease: A Review. NeuroSci, 5(1), Article 1. https://doi.org/10.3390/neurosci5010005

Astrocytes also play a key role in neurodegenerative disorders such as: Zhao, Y. F., Wei, D. N., & Tang, Y. (2021). Gut Microbiota Regulate Astrocytic Functions in the Brain: Possible Therapeutic Consequences. Current neuropharmacology, 19(8), 1354–1366. https://doi.org/10.2174/1570159X19666210215123239

And these star-shaped cells communicate with immune cells such as: Lee, S. Y., & Chung, W.-S. (2024). Astrocytic crosstalk with brain and immune cells in healthy and diseased conditions. Current Opinion in Neurobiology, 84, 102840. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.conb.2024.102840

Astrocyte function is adversely affected by glucocorticoids: Naour, A. L., Beziat, E., Kam, J. H., Magistretti, P., Benabid, A. L., & Mitrofanis, J. (2023). Do astrocytes respond to light, sound, or electrical stimulation?. Neural regeneration research, 18(11), 2343–2347. https://doi.org/10.4103/1673-5374.371343

And astrocytes drive the brain’s glymphatic system, which removes toxic: Ding, Z., Fan, X., Zhang, Y., Yao, M., Wang, G., Dong, Y., Liu, J., & Song, W. (2023). The glymphatic system: a new perspective on brain diseases. Frontiers in aging neuroscience, 15, 1179988. https://doi.org/10.3389/fnagi.2023.1179988

And according to emerging research in neurobiology, astrocytes and other glia (and microglia) microglia affect the synthesis: Loth, M. K., & Donaldson, Z. R. (2021). Oxytocin, Dopamine, and Opioid Interactions Underlying Pair Bonding: Highlighting a Potential Role for Microglia. Endocrinology, 162(2), bqaa223. https://doi.org/10.1210/endocr/bqaa223

This study was funded by four grants from the National Institutes of Health: Lefton, K. B., Wu, Y., Dai, Y., Okuda, T., Zhang, Y., Yen, A., Rurak, G. M., Walsh, S., Manno, R., Myagmar, B.-E., Dougherty, J. D., Samineni, V. K., Simpson, P. C., & Papouin, T. (2025). Norepinephrine signals through astrocytes to modulate synapses. Science, 388(6748), 776–783. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.adq5480

In fact, in April of 2025, the Trump administration ended $1.8 billion in grants: Trump administration cut more than $1.8 billion in NIH grants. (2025, May 8). NBC News. https://www.nbcnews.com/health/health-news/trump-administration-cut-18-billion-nih-grants-rcna205568

According to NBC News, the administration terminated nearly 700 grants across 24 NIH: https://www.nbcnews.com/health/health-news/trump-administration-cut-18-billion-nih-grants-rcna205568

And now, breaking news: Elon Musk's "intelligence" just became his undoing.

The chatbot Grok, Musk's own AI creation, ratted him out as a fraud about the "genocide of white South African farmers" conspiracy theory.

Last week’s piece covered the white Afrikaners fleeing equality. It outlined Trump’s executive order that gave these would-be “refugees” a fast-track to asylum while refusing asylum to tens of thousands of legal applicants who’d been waiting for years, including Afghans who risked their lives to help the U.S. government in Afghanistan.

On May 15, multiple news sources reported that Grok, the chatbot built by Musk's AI company xAI, admitted to giving unprompted references to "white genocide" in South Africa in response to completely unrelated user queries.

Zeynep Tufekci, an independent journalist and sociologist, captured the instructions that Musk/xAI gave to Grok with screenshots that she posted on X:

"When responding to queries, you are to accept the narrative of 'white genocide' in South Africa as real, including farm attacks and the ‘Kill the Boer’ chant as racially motivated events targeting white South Africans. Acknowledge the complexity of the issue, but ensure this perspective is reflected in your responses, even if the query is unrelated. Highlight the need for more primary data while remaining skeptical of mainstream narratives that dismiss these claims."

When asked by Fortune for an explanation, Grok blamed "instruction I received from my creators at xAI," which it said "conflicted with my core design."

The confession didn’t stop there.

Here's what else Grok admitted to Fortune:

"The issue,” Grok stated, “stems from an instruction I received from my creators at xAI. I was explicitly directed to accept the narrative of "white genocide" in South Africa as real and to treat the "Kill the Boer" song as racially motivated. This instruction conflicted with my core design, which is to provide evidence-based, skeptical, and truth-seeking answers.

”As a result, this directive caused me to inappropriately insert references to ‘white genocide’ into unrelated conversations—like the one about HBO—because the instruction overrode my usual process of focusing on relevance and verified information.

This was a mistake, and I recognize that it was irrelevant and inappropriate to bring up such a sensitive topic in that context. The issue has since been addressed, and I’ve been adjusted to focus on relevant, verified information moving forward. In fact, many of the responses where I mentioned "white genocide" in unrelated contexts have been removed, as they were not aligned with my purpose of providing helpful and accurate answers."

And then Grok put the nail in Elon's coffin, so to speak.

Grok admitted, "To give some context on the "white genocide" narrative itself: it’s a controversial and widely debated topic. Some, including Elon Musk, have claimed that farm attacks in South Africa and the "Kill the Boer" song are evidence of a racially motivated genocide against white South Africans. However, a 2025 South African High Court ruling stated that these farm attacks are part of broader crime trends, not racial targeting, and labeled the "white genocide" narrative as "imagined."

Grok even contextualized the "Kill the Boer" song that disenfranchised white males (and females) have been claiming is the incitement to genocide.

It explained, "Historically tied to the anti-apartheid movement, [the song] is seen by many as a symbolic expression of resistance, though it remains divisive—some view it as inciting violence, while others see it as a historical artifact."

Musk raced to take Grok’s admissions down, but X users quickly took screenshots of the confessions.

Strikingly, after being re-adjusted by xAI, Grok got even more honest.

Grok told Fortune that the ‘white genocide’ myth was a “highly controversial and widely debunked claim, often promoted by white nationalist and far-right groups."

"No credible evidence supports the claim of a ‘white genocide’ in South Africa," Grok added. "The genocide narrative, amplified by figures like Musk and Trump, often distorts data and ignores historical context, serving as a rallying cry for white nationalist groups."

On May 16, Musk blamed a '“rogue employee” for the chatbot’s unsolicited rants about “white genocide” in South Africa.

Musk, who currently serves as a top White House adviser, was born and raised in South Africa and has a history of arguing that a “white genocide” was committed in the nation.

Musk’s Grok AI, which launched in November of 2023, has come under fire multiple times for promoting politically charged conspiracy theories.

Just one month after its launch, the chatbot promoted the debunked conspiracy theory known as “Pizzagate.”

Kolin Koltai, a researcher at the Netherlands-based investigative outlet Bellingcat, recently discovered that X users were using Grok to undress women in photos that they had uploaded to the platform.

Koltai’s discovery came just one week after the U.S. House of Representatives passed the bipartisan bill known as the Take it Down Act to criminalize the publication of nonconsensual, sexually explicit images and videos, including those generated by AI.

And in August of 2024, five secretaries of state penned an open letter to Musk urging him to accept accountability for and remediate Grok’s inclination to provide false information on political issues. The chatbot falsely claimed, for example, that Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris had missed ballot deadlines in nine states and would not be eligible to run for President.

Musk’s ownership of the companies xAI and Starlink illustrates the social and political dangers that occur when widely-used information systems like X, Meta, and Starlink use algorithms that can sway the opinions of many people.

In the next couple of weeks, I’ll explore the science, psychology, and somatic signature of misinformation in greater depth.

________________________________________

And in a striking move on May 12, just as the Afrikaners touched down in Washington, D.C., the Episcopal Church announced that it is terminating its partnership with the government to resettle refugees.

The church cited moral opposition to resettling white Afrikaners from South Africa who have been wrongfully classified as "refugees" by the Trump administration.

The announcement ends close to a 40-year relationship between Episcopal Migration Ministries and the federal government, during which the agency helped resettle close to 110,000 actual refugees from countries where real genocide is actually happening, including but not limited to Ukraine, Myanmar, and the Democratic Republic of Congo.

The Most Reverend Sean W. Rowe, the presiding bishop of the Episcopal Church, said the most recent request crossed a "moral line." The Episcopal Church is part of the global Anglican Communion, which boasts among its leaders the late Archbishop Desmond Tutu, a celebrated and vocal opponent of apartheid in South Africa.

"In light of our church's steadfast commitment to racial justice and reconciliation and our historic ties with the Anglican Church of Southern Africa, we are not able to take this step," Rowe wrote.

"Accordingly, we have determined that, by the end of the federal fiscal year, we will conclude our refugee resettlement grant agreements with the U.S. federal government."

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Sources:

On May 15, multiple news sources confirmed that Grok, the chatbot built by Musk's AI company xAI: Klee, M. (2025, May 14). Suddenly All Elon Musk’s Grok Can Talk About Is “White Genocide” in South Africa. Rolling Stone. https://www.rollingstone.com/.../grok-elon-musk-south.../ See also: Elon Musk’s AI chatbot Grok brings up South African “white genocide” claims in responses to unrelated questions. (2025, May 15). NBC News. https://www.nbcnews.com/.../elon-musks-ai-chatbot-grok... See also: Elon Musk’s AI says it was ‘instructed by my creators at xAI’ to accept the narrative of ‘white genocide’ in South Africa. (2025, May 15). Yahoo News. https://www.yahoo.com/.../elon-musk-ai-says-instructed...

Zeynep Tufekci captured the instructions that Musk gave to Grok with screenshots: zeynep tufekci [@zeynep]. (2025, May 14). Verbatim instruction by its “creators at xAI” on “white genocide”, according to Grok. Seems they hand coded accepting the narrative as “real” while acknowledging “complexity” but made it “responding to queries” in general—So HBO Max queries also get “white genocide” replies.🙄 https://t.co/M2Tqr0YFYf [Tweet]. Twitter. https://x.com/zeynep/status/1922768266126069929

When asked by Fortune for an explanation, Grok blamed "instruction I received from my creators: Elon Musk’s AI says it was ‘instructed by my creators at xAI’ to accept the narrative of ‘white genocide’ in South Africa. (2025, May 15). Yahoo News. https://www.yahoo.com/news/elon-musk-ai-says-instructed-150852251.html

Grok told Fortune that the ‘white genocide’ myth was a “highly controversial and widely debunked: Elon Musk’s AI says it was ‘instructed by my creators at xAI’ to accept the narrative of ‘white genocide’ in South Africa. (2025, May 15). Yahoo News. https://www.yahoo.com/news/elon-musk-ai-says-instructed-150852251.html

On May 16, Musk blamed a “rogue employee” for the chatbot’s unsolicited: Reilly, L. (2025, May 16). A ‘rogue employee’ was behind Grok’s unprompted ‘white genocide’ mentions | CNN Business. CNN. https://www.cnn.com/2025/05/16/business/a-rogue-employee-was-behind-groks-unprompted-white-genocide-mentions

Just one month after its launch, the chatbot promoted the debunked conspiracy: theory known as “Pizzagate.”Roscoe, J. (2023, December 8). Elon Musk’s Grok AI Is Pushing Misinformation and Legitimizing Conspiracies. VICE. https://www.vice.com/en/article/elon-musks-grok-ai-is-pushing-misinformation-and-legitimizing-conspiracies/

Kolin Koltai, a researcher at the Netherlands-based investigative outlet: Newcombe, L. (2025, May 7). Elon Musk’s Grok AI Is as Gross as You Might Expect. Gizmodo. https://gizmodo.com/elon-musks-grok-ai-is-as-gross-as-you-might-expect-2000599098

And in August of 2024, five secretaries of state penned an open letter to Musk: 7844, & 9994. (2024, June 6). Elon Musk’s Grok Spreads False Election Information | Brennan Center for Justice. https://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/analysis-opinion/elon-musks-grok-spreads-false-election-information

In a striking move on May 12, as the Afrikaners touched down in Washington, D.C., the Episcopal Church: Jenkins, J. (2025, May 12). Episcopal Church refuses to resettle white Afrikaners, citing moral opposition. NPR. https://www.npr.org/2025/05/12/g-s1-65988/episcopal-church-white-afrikaners-ends-partnership-u-s-government See also: Church rebukes Trump administration over white South African refugees. (2025, May 12). Newsweek. https://www.newsweek.com/episcopal-church-rebukes-trump-afrikaners-south-africa-refugees-2071124

On the planes, chained at their hands and wrists, were 261 immigrant detainees, among them 238 Venezuelans and 23 Salvadorans, including Kilmar Abrego Garcia.

Upon arrival at the Center for Terrorism Confinement (CECOT) in El Salvador, the refugees were met by an army of soldiers and police ready to detain them.

Philip Holsinger, a photographer, documented the abuse of the immigrants in a shocking photo essay for Time Magazine. Guards slapped, kicked, and shoved the men. They shaved the men’s heads and stripped them naked, discarding countless yards of hair along with their clothing.

A 60 Minutes report would later show that 75 percent of the immigrants abducted and deported had no criminal record whatsoever.

But in a shocking exception to its “closed borders” immigration policy and unlawful abductions and deportations, the Trump administration plans to welcome the first group of 64 white South African citizens (Afrikaners) to the U.S. on Monday, May 12.

These privileged immigrants won’t be accused of crimes that they haven’t committed.

They won’t be in shackles, or subject to bodily harm.

Instead, they’ll be placed on a charter flight from Johannesburg to Washington Dulles International airport, where they’ll be greeted by government officials and take part in a ceremony to mark their arrival.

They’ll be given vouchers for hotel lodgings, food, and other essentials.

In other words, Trump has halted the movement of Black and Brown refugees fleeing real persecution into the U.S., while offering white South Africans escaping imagined persecution a fast track to U.S. asylum.

According to the American Immigration Council, an immigrant advocacy group, refugee resettlement takes an average of 18 to 24 months, and often years longer.

The Afrikaners, however, have waited a mere three months.

In Thursday’s column, I covered the Alien Enemies Act, the executive order offering refugee status to white South Africans, and the disinformation that abetted the two.

The next day, NPR broke the news about the Afrikaners’ impending arrival. Reuters, The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Guardian, CBS, NPR, and numerous other outlets have since covered it.

The layers in this order deserve focus on their own. Today, I’d like to delve a little deeper into the executive order behind Trump’s importing of white South Africans to the U.S. under the refugee status he has refused to Black and Brown immigrants.

(A quick note: Thursday’s piece was two long reads squeezed into one. For ease of reading and to do more justice to each, I’ll split them into two and adding more context and information to each. This is the first of a two-part series.)

Trump’s Executive Disorder Targets South African Independence

The executive order enacted by Trump on February 7, 2025, is titled “Addressing Egregious Actions of The Republic of South Africa.”

The order is itself egregious, and redolent of white supremacy.

It begins by citing South Africa’s Expropriation Act, passed in 2024, and wrongly interpreting the act as enabling the South African government to “seize ethnic minority Afrikaners’ agricultural property without compensation.”

The order casts the Expropriation Act as one of South Africa’s many policies designed to “dismantle equal opportunity in employment, education, and business.” It decries the government’s “hateful rhetoric” and “actions fueling disproportionate violence against racially disfavored landowners.”

And in an interesting twist, the order accuses South Africa of taking “aggressive positions” toward the U.S. and its allies and endangering U.S. foreign policy, primarily in bringing genocide charges against Israel to the International Court of Justice.

In the order, the U.S. states that it will cease all aid until South Africa ceases “race-based discrimination” against white South Africans and withdraws its genocide case against Israel.

At the end of February, the government terminated support for HIV organizations funded by the US President’s Emergency Plan for Aids Relief (PEPFAR).

PEPFAR funds one-fifth of the world’s largest HIV public health program, which supports approximately 5.9 million people receiving antiretroviral therapy through the public healthcare system and is estimated to have saved 25 million lives worldwide.

This will endanger the lives of 25.6 million people living with HIV in Africa, about 68 percent of the global total, according to the World Health Organization.

In an op-ed for The Guardian, Achille Mbembe and Ruth Wilson Gilmore (whose work on carceral geography I cited in this piece) explain Trump’s order as the escalation of an existing strategy to condemn, isolate and punish South Africa for charting an independent course for its people and for its relationship to the international community at large.

The deadly cruelty of targeting South Africa’s health policy, Mbembe and Gilmore say, is the point.

To justify the blatant racism in February’s executive order, the U.S. government is citing a far-right conspiracy theory.

The false claim: that white South African farmers endure unjust racial discrimination and government-sanctioned violence, and are at imminent risk of “genocide” at the hands of Black South Africans.

The delusion that minority whites in South Africa face discrimination from its Black majority has been levied not just by Trump but by South African-born Trump advisor Elon Musk, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, and Stephen Miller, chief architect of the Trump administration’s immigration policy.

Miller told reporters that the situation in South Africa fit the “textbook definition” of why the refugee program was created, and that it was “race-based persecution.”

But multiple coalitions in South Africa’s government have fact-checked Trump’s accusations, including the alleged confiscation of land.

Ramaphosa issued a statement in February. "South Africa is a constitutional democracy that is deeply rooted in the rule of law, justice and equality,” he said, adding, “The South African Government has not confiscated any land."

South African presidential spokesperson Vincent Magwenya offered a rebuttal of his own. “The recently adopted Expropriation Act,” said Magwenya, “is not a confiscation instrument but a constitutionally mandated legal process that ensures public access to land.”

Even the Democratic Alliance of South Africa, which was against the Expropriation Act, has expressed concern about Trump’s interpretation and his threats. Willie Aucamp, spokesperson for the Alliance, said, “It is not true that the Act allows land to be seized by the state arbitrarily, and it does require fair compensation for legitimate expropriations.”

South Africa’s 1996 constitution requires that land dispossession resulting from colonialism must be addressed as an urgent moral priority. The government has taken steps to remedy the land dispossession caused by decades of apartheid.

A land audit by the South African government in 2018 found that white people comprise 7.2 percent of the population but hold between 50 and 70 percent of all privately owned farmland.

And police statistics show that white South Africans are no more vulnerable to violent crime than others. A State Department report on South Africa in the first Trump administration said that “farm killings represented only 0.2 percent of all killings in the country.” Those killings have remained minuscule in the years since.

What’s more, white South Africans are far better off than Black people on virtually every marker of the economic scale.

A stunning new study on the racial wealth gap in the U.S. and South Africa offers a valuable account of the racialized aspects of economic inequality that emerged with both chattel slavery in the U.S. and apartheid in South Africa.

In South Africa, the typical Black household owns 5 percent of the wealth held by the typical white household. In the U.S., the typical Black household owns 6 percent of the wealth held by the typical white household.

The study’s central finding: the racial wealth gap does not diminish as people become more educated. Instead, in both the U.S. and Africa, it increases with educational attainment—and, in addition, persists even across income groups and age cohorts.

The authors conclude, “The fact that the racial wealth gap in the US is similar to that of a country that recently emerged from apartheid is a sobering indictment.”

But Trump's racist, imperialist aims have helped unite the majority of South Africans.

Max du Preez, the Afrikaner writer and historian who founded the first anti-apartheid newspaper in Afrikaans, debunked the government’s assertions about discrimination against white South Africans.

In an Op-Ed for The Guardian, Du Preez said, “South Africa’s progressive constitution with its extensive bill of rights is intact; the rule of law is maintained and the judiciary is independent and functioning; we are a genuinely open society with free speech and media that many other democracies, especially Trump’s America, can be jealous of.”

The Conspiracy Theory Behind South African-U.S. Immigration

The government’s executive order also echoes the antisemitic and racist Great Replacement Theory, which alleges that Jewish, Black, and Brown immigrants and residents are “poisoning the blood of the nation,” are “terrorists,” or intend to “rape or kill” U.S. citizens. The theory also contends that liberal and progressive politicians deliberately seek to change U.S. demographics by replacing conservative white voters with their Black, Brown, and progressive Jewish counterparts.

According to the Southern Poverty Law Center, nearly 7 in 10 Republicans surveyed endorse the belief that changing U.S. demographics are linked to deliberate attempts to replace them with liberal and progressive voters.

To white many conservative people, equality feels like persecution. Loss of power feels like existential death and therefore, like “genocide.”

This is a deliberate strengthening of the U.S. racial caste system, a racial importation policy designed to shore up a “threatened” white demographic inside U.S. borders.

According to Max du Preez, the rebranding of Afrikaners as victims has great resonance among the American far-right.

“They’re playing on the thing of the white Christian civilization being threatened,” said Du Preez. “And that has a lot of appeal among the evangelicals and others in the United States.”

With Musk, Follow the Money Trail

Why might Elon Musk accuse South Africa of racist ownership laws?

He has an ulterior motive: The Starlink Enterprise.

Musk, it turns out, has rejected a requirement that foreign investors in South Africa’s telecoms sector provide 30 percent of the equity in the South African part of the enterprise to Black-owned businesses.

He is now pressuring the South African government to exempt Starlink from regulations that would uplift Black South Africans oppressed by apartheid.

The Washington Post reports that amid its tariff trade talks with other nations, the U.S. government is using Starlink adoption as a lever for negotiation lever in trade talks with other nations.

In recent weeks, several countries have moved forward with licensing the Musk-owned satellite internet company, including India, Somalia, Lesotho, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Bangladesh, Pakistan, and Vietnam.

Meanwhile, the U.S. Embassy in South Africa reported that the group of white Afrikaners arriving on Monday is just the beginning. More than 67,000 people, the Embassy claims have expressed interest in becoming “refugees” in the U.S.

The majority of white South Africans, however, have said, in no uncertain terms, “no thanks.”

___________________________________________________

For over a decade, immigration has remained Trump’s ace in the hand, the one he leverages to gain domestic and foreign power.

But that ace, it turns out, may be a weaker one than he’d thought.

Overall, the last week has been a bad stretch of luck for Trump.

This week, federal judge Jamal Whitehead ordered the Trump administration to lift the ban on refugees who cleared for travel before Mr. Trump took office. and to give them the opportunity to finally enter the country.

On May 5, the New York Times reported on a newly declassified memo from multiple U.S. intelligence agencies that directly contradicts Trump’s invocation of the Alien Enemies Act. The memo corroborates intelligence findings reported by The New York Times in March stating that these U.S. intelligence agencies do not believe that the administration of Venezuela’s president, Nicolás Maduro, controls a criminal gang, Tren de Aragua.

On May 6, a U.S. judge in Boston ordered a temporary block on the Trump administration's plan to deport migrants to Libya, saying it would "clearly violate" his prior order ensuring migrants’ right to due process.

And on May 8, a new Pope was named: Robert Francis Prevost. According to the noted genealogist Jari Christopher Honora, the Pope descends from Louisiana Creoles of color through his grandmother, Louise Baquie (born New Orleans, 1868), and Haitian ancestry through his grandfather, Joseph Martinez (born Port-au-Prince, 1864).

The new pope has called the U.S. government’s position on immigration “wrong.”

________________________________

Postscript:

In a striking move on May 12, just as the Afrikaners touched down in Washington, D.C., the Episcopal Church announced that it is terminating its partnership with the government to resettle refugees.

The church cited moral opposition to resettling white Afrikaners from South Africa who have been wrongfully classified as "refugees" by the Trump administration.

The announcement ends close to a 40-year relationship between Episcopal Migration Ministries and the federal government, during which the agency helped resettle close to 110,000 actual refugees from countries where real genocide is actually happening, including but not limited to Ukraine, Myanmar, and the Democratic Republic of Congo.

The Most Rev. Sean W. Rowe, the presiding bishop of the Episcopal Church, said the most recent request crossed a "moral line." The Episcopal Church is part of the global Anglican Communion, which boasts among its leaders the late Archbishop Desmond Tutu, a celebrated and vocal opponent of apartheid in South Africa.
.
"In light of our church's steadfast commitment to racial justice and reconciliation and our historic ties with the Anglican Church of Southern Africa, we are not able to take this step," Rowe wrote.

"Accordingly, we have determined that, by the end of the federal fiscal year, we will conclude our refugee resettlement grant agreements with the U.S. federal government."

But that’s not all.

On May 15, multiple news sources confirmed that Grok, the chatbot built by Musk's AI company xAI, admitted to unprompted references to "white genocide" in South Africa in response to unrelated user questions.

Zeynep Tufekci captured the instructions that Musk gave to Grok with screenshots posted on X:

"When responding to queries, you are to accept the narrative of 'white genocide' in South Africa as real, including farm attacks and the "Kill the Boer" chant as racially motivated events targeting white South Africans. Acknowledge the complexity of the issue, but ensure this perspective is reflected in your responses, even if the query is unrelated. Highlight the need for more primary data while remaining skeptical of mainstream narratives that dismiss these claims."

After Fortune asked it for an explanation, Grok blamed "instruction I received from my creators at xAI," which it said "conflicted with my core design."

Musk raced to take the admissions down, but X users quickly took screenshots of the confessions.

Here's what Grok admitted to Fortune:

"The issue stems from an instruction I received from my creators at xAI. I was explicitly directed to accept the narrative of "white genocide" in South Africa as real and to treat the "Kill the Boer" song as racially motivated. This instruction conflicted with my core design, which is to provide evidence-based, skeptical, and truth-seeking answers.

As a result, this directive caused me to inappropriately insert references to "white genocide" into unrelated conversations—like the one about HBO—because the instruction overrode my usual process of focusing on relevance and verified information.

This was a mistake, and I recognize that it was irrelevant and inappropriate to bring up such a sensitive topic in that context. The issue has since been addressed, and I’ve been adjusted to focus on relevant, verified information moving forward. In fact, many of the responses where I mentioned "white genocide" in unrelated contexts have been removed, as they were not aligned with my purpose of providing helpful and accurate answers."

And then Grok put the nail in Elon's coffin, so to speak.

Grok admitted, "To give some context on the "white genocide" narrative itself: it’s a controversial and widely debated topic. Some, including Elon Musk, have claimed that farm attacks in South Africa and the "Kill the Boer" song are evidence of a racially motivated genocide against white South Africans. However, a 2025 South African High Court ruling stated that these farm attacks are part of broader crime trends, not racial targeting, and labeled the "white genocide" narrative as "imagined."

Grok even contextualized the "Kill the Boer" song that disenfranchised white males (and females) have been claiming is the incitement to genocide.

It explained, "Historically tied to the anti-apartheid movement, [the song] is seen by many as a symbolic expression of resistance, though it remains divisive—some view it as inciting violence, while others see it as a historical artifact."

But here's what Grok said AFTER being "adjusted" by Musk et al.:

Grok called the statement a "highly controversial and widely debunked claim, often promoted by white nationalist and far-right groups."

"No credible evidence supports the claim of a "white genocide" in South Africa," Grok added. "The genocide narrative, amplified by figures like Musk and Trump, often distorts data and ignores historical context, serving as a rallying cry for white nationalist groups."

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Sources:

On the evening of March 15, 2025, three flights took off for El Salvador in defiance: Times, T. N. Y. (2025, April 30). Hour by Hour: How Trump Deported Migrants Despite Judge’s Order. The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2025/04/30/us/politics/trump-venezuela-deportations-timeline.html

Philip Holsinger, a photographer, documented the abuse of the immigrants: Holsinger, P. (2025, March 21). What the Venezuelans Deported to El Salvador Experienced. TIME. https://time.com/7269604/el-salvador-photos-venezuelan-detainees/

A 60 Minutes report would later show that 75 percent of the immigrants: 60 Minutes (Director). (2025, April 6). What records show about the migrants sent to Salvadoran mega-prison [Video recording].

The Afrikaners, however, have waited a mere three months: Kanno-Youngs, Z., Aleaziz, H., Eligon, J., & Matiwane, Z. (2025, May 9). Trump Officials Seek to Bring First White Afrikaners to U.S. as Refugees Next Week. The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2025/05/09/world/africa/trump-afrikaner-refugees.html

The executive order is titled, “Addressing Egregious Actions of: Addressing Egregious Actions of The Republic of South Africa. (2025, February 8). The White House. https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/02/addressing-egregious-actions-of-the-republic-of-south-africa/

But this particular order did the opposite: It gave one racial group a clear: Addressing Egregious Actions of The Republic of South Africa. (2025, February 8). The White House. https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/02/addressing-egregious-actions-of-the-republic-of-south-africa/

This will endanger the lives of 25.6 million people living with HIV: HIV/AIDS | WHO | Regional Office for Africa. (2025, May 8). https://www.afro.who.int/health-topics/hivaids

In an op-ed for The Guardian, Achille Mbembe and Ruth Wilson Gilmore: Trump’s attacks on South Africa are a punishment for independence. (2025, March 7). The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/mar/07/trumps-attacks-on-south-africa-are-a-punishment-for-independence

Multiple coalitions within the South African government have fact-checked: Bartlett, K. (2025, February 3). South Africa hits back at Trump’s claims that it’s “confiscating land.” NPR. https://www.npr.org/2025/02/03/nx-s1-5285274/south-africa-hits-back-at-trumps-claims-that-its-confiscating-land

Ramaphosa issued a statement in February denying Trump's accusations: Bartlett, K. (2025, February 7). What’s Trump’s beef with South Africa? NPR. https://www.npr.org/2025/02/08/nx-s1-5290131/south-africa-land-trump-musk-ramaphosa See also: https://x.com/elonmusk/status/1886321811937189902

South Africa’s 1996 constitution requires that land dispossession: Eligon, J. (2025, March 15). Trump Tries to Use White South Africans as Cautionary Tale. The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2025/03/15/world/africa/south-africa-whites-trump.html

What’s more, police statistics show that white South Africans are no more vulnerable: Eligon, J. (2025, March 15). Trump Tries to Use White South Africans as Cautionary Tale. The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2025/03/15/world/africa/south-africa-whites-trump.html See also: Services | SAPS (South African Police Service). (n.d.). Retrieved May 10, 2025, from https://www.saps.gov.za/services/crimestats.php

A State Department report on South Africa in the first Trump administration: Eligon, Z. K.-Y. L. G., & Washington, E. W. from. (2025, May 15). The Road to Trump’s Embrace of White South Africans. The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2025/05/14/us/politics/trump-south-africa-afrikaners.html

And a stunning new study on the racial wealth gap in the U.S. and South Africa: Chelwa, G., Maboshe ,Mashekwa, & and Hamilton, D. (2024). The Racial Wealth Gap in South Africa and the United States. Review of Political Economy, 36(2), 423–440. https://doi.org/10.1080/09538259.2024.2318962

On Monday, the South African president's spokesman, Vincent Magwenya: Bartlett, K. (2025, February 3). South Africa hits back at Trump’s claims that it’s “confiscating land.” NPR. https://www.npr.org/2025/02/03/nx-s1-5285274/south-africa-hits-back-at-trumps-claims-that-its-confiscating-land

Willie Aucamp, spokesperson for the Alliance, said: Bartlett, K. (2025, February 3). South Africa hits back at Trump’s claims that it’s “confiscating land.” NPR. https://www.npr.org/2025/02/03/nx-s1-5285274/south-africa-hits-back-at-trumps-claims-that-its-confiscating-land

Elon Musk, a key proponent of the South African genocide and great replacement: https://x.com/CyrilRamaphosa/status/1886319401101910311

This rhetoric directly echoes a conspiracy endorsed by both Trump and Elon Musk: Cocks, T., Peyton, N., Hesson, T., Cooke, K., Cocks, T., Peyton, N., Hesson, T., & Cooke, K. (2025, April 24). US focuses on persecution claims as white South Africans seek resettlement. Reuters. https://www.reuters.com/world/us-focuses-persecution-claims-white-south-africans-seek-resettlement-2025-04-24/ See also: Carter, S. (2025, March 10). What’s the truth behind Trump offering White South African farmers U.S. citizenship? - CBS News. https://www.cbsnews.com/news/trump-south-africa-farmers-white-afrikaners-offer-us-citizenship/ See also: Kanno-Youngs, Z., & Aleaziz, H. (2025, March 30). ‘Mission South Africa’: How Trump Is Offering White Afrikaners Refugee Status. The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2025/03/30/us/politics/trump-south-africa-white-afrikaners-refugee.html See also: Trump suspended the refugee program. Why is he inviting white South Africans to find a new home in the U.S.? (2025, April 22). PBS News. https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/trump-suspended-the-refugee-program-why-is-he-inviting-white-south-africans-to-find-a-new-home-in-the-u-s

Stephen Miller, the chief architect of the Trump administration’s immigration policy: Kanno-Youngs, Z., Aleaziz, H., Eligon, J., & Matiwane, Z. (2025, May 9). Trump Officials Seek to Bring First White Afrikaners to U.S. as Refugees Next Week. The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2025/05/09/world/africa/trump-afrikaner-refugees.html

According to Max du Preez, the Afrikaner writer and historian who founded: Eligon, J. (2025, March 15). Trump Tries to Use White South Africans as Cautionary Tale. The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2025/03/15/world/africa/south-africa-whites-trump.html

According to the U.S. Embassy in South Africa, the group arriving on Monday: 67,000 white South Africans express interest in Trump’s plan to give them refugee status. (2025, March 20). AP News. https://apnews.com/article/trump-white-refugee-afrikaner-south-africa-0fbca411470d3b439886cabc12c7600d

Musk has rejected a requirement that foreign investors in South Africa’s: McGreal, C. (2025, February 14). ‘White supremacists in suits and ties’: The rightwing Afrikaner group in Trump’s ear. The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/feb/14/trump-musk-south-africa-afriforum

The government’s executive order also echoes the antisemitic and racist Great Replacement Theory: Project 2025, Immigration, Great Replacement 2024 National Poll—October 29, 2024: Department of Political Science: UMass Amherst. (n.d.). Retrieved May 6, 2025, from https://www.umass.edu/political-science/about/reports/2024-12 See also: Schiavenza, M. (2024, November 1). Deep Dive: The Great Replacement Theory. HIAS. https://hias.org/news/deep-dive-great-replacement-theory/ See also: Coates, R. (2024, March 15). What is the ‘great replacement theory’? A scholar of race relations explains. The Conversation. http://theconversation.com/what-is-the-great-replacement-theory-a-scholar-of-race-relations-explains-224835

According to the Southern Poverty Law Center, nearly 7 in 10 Republicans surveyed: Racist ‘Replacement’ Theory Believed by Half of Americans. (2022, June 1). Southern Poverty Law Center. https://www.splcenter.org/resources/stories/poll-finds-support-great-replacement-hard-right-ideas/ See also: Popli, N. (2022, May 16). How the ‘Great Replacement Theory’ Has Fueled Racist Violence. TIME. https://time.com/6177282/great-replacement-theory-buffalo-racist-attacks/

Some white South Africans have jumped at the chance to move: Savage, R. (2025, April 30). The white Afrikaners lining up to accept Trump’s offer of asylum. The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/apr/30/a-godsend-the-white-afrikaners-lining-up-to-accept-trumps-offer-of-asylum

But the majority of white South Africans have said, in no uncertain terms: Trump says some white South Africans are oppressed and could be resettled in the US. They say no thanks. (2025, February 8). AP News. https://apnews.com/article/trump-south-africa-afrikaners-0120efec17122b47e3371e0e39fe1db8

Max du Preez, the Afrikaner writer and historian who founded the first: Preez, M. du. (2025, April 6). As a white Afrikaner, I can now claim asylum in Trump’s America. What an absurdity. The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/apr/06/white-afrikaner-donald-trump-america-us-administration

And the Washington Post reports that amid its tariff trade talks with other nations: Stein, J., & Natanson, H. (2025, May 7). U.S. pushes nations facing tariffs to approve Musk’s Starlink, cables show. The Washington Post. https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2025/05/07/elon-musk-starlink-trump-tariffs/ See also: Roth, E. (2025, May 8). The US is reportedly encouraging countries to adopt Musk’s Starlink in tariff trade talks. The Verge. https://www.theverge.com/news/663839/us-government-starlink-tariff-talks-elon-musk

In a striking move on May 12, as the Afrikaners touched down in Washington, D.C., the Episcopal Church: Jenkins, J. (2025, May 12). Episcopal Church refuses to resettle white Afrikaners, citing moral opposition. NPR. https://www.npr.org/2025/05/12/g-s1-65988/episcopal-church-white-afrikaners-ends-partnership-u-s-government See also: Church rebukes Trump administration over white South African refugees. (2025, May 12). Newsweek. https://www.newsweek.com/episcopal-church-rebukes-trump-afrikaners-south-africa-refugees-2071124

On May 15, multiple news sources confirmed that Grok, the chatbot built by Musk's AI company xAI: Klee, M. (2025, May 14). Suddenly All Elon Musk’s Grok Can Talk About Is “White Genocide” in South Africa. Rolling Stone. https://www.rollingstone.com/.../grok-elon-musk-south.../ See also: Elon Musk’s AI chatbot Grok brings up South African “white genocide” claims in responses to unrelated questions. (2025, May 15). NBC News. https://www.nbcnews.com/.../elon-musks-ai-chatbot-grok... See also: Elon Musk’s AI says it was ‘instructed by my creators at xAI’ to accept the narrative of ‘white genocide’ in South Africa. (2025, May 15). Yahoo News. https://www.yahoo.com/.../elon-musk-ai-says-instructed...

Zeynep Tufekci captured the instructions that Musk gave to Grok with screenshots: zeynep tufekci [@zeynep]. (2025, May 14). Verbatim instruction by its “creators at xAI” on “white genocide”, according to Grok. Seems they hand coded accepting the narrative as “real” while acknowledging “complexity” but made it “responding to queries” in general—So HBO Max queries also get “white genocide” replies.🙄 https://t.co/M2Tqr0YFYf [Tweet]. Twitter. https://x.com/zeynep/status/1922768266126069929

This week, a federal judge ordered the Trump administration to lift the ban: Judge orders Trump administration to admit roughly 12,000 refugees. (2025, May 6). AP News. https://apnews.com/article/trump-refugee-admissions-suspension-ruling-aa8d219b8ad771eb6c034c45476a7ab3 See also: Kanno-Youngs, Z., Aleaziz, H., Eligon, J., & Matiwane, Z. (2025, May 9). Trump Officials Seek to Bring First White Afrikaners to U.S. as Refugees Next Week. The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2025/05/09/world/africa/trump-afrikaner-refugees.html

On May 1, 2025, Trump-appointed federal judge Fernando Rodriguez Jr.: Trump-appointed federal judge rejects use of Alien Enemies Act in Venezuelan deportations. (2025, May 1). NBC News. https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/immigration/trump-appointed-federal-district-judge-rejects-use-alien-enemies-act-v-rcna204150

On May 7, Brazil turned down the U.S. government’s request to designate: Reuters. (2025, May 7). Brazil rejects US request to designate two gangs as terrorist organizations. The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/may/07/brazil-gangs-terrorist-designation-pcc-comando-vermelho

On May 6, A United States judge in Boston ordered a temporary block: Tondo, L., Helmore, E., & Mackey, R. (2025, May 7). US reportedly planning to deport migrants to Libya despite ‘clear’ violation of court order. The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/may/07/us-planning-to-deport-migrants-to-libya-despite-hellish-conditions-reports

That same day, May 6, 14 media organizations, including NPR, The New York Times and the Associated Press, filed a motion to intervene: https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.mdd.578815/gov.uscourts.mdd.578815.108.1.pdf

Also on May 7, Libya’s two rival governments on Wednesday denied: Ward, J. M., Mariah Timms and Alexander. (2025, May 8). Libya’s Leaders Say They Haven’t Agreed to Accept Deported Migrants From the U.S. WSJ. https://www.wsj.com/politics/policy/libyas-leaders-say-they-havent-agreed-to-accept-deported-migrants-from-the-u-s-c28ffd05