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Happy Sunday – and welcome to the best of The Conversation.
First, here are a few of our recently published stories:
Like most people, I’ve watched too many elderly family members struggle with dementia. And, like many people, I have wondered if I will face a disease like Alzheimer’s or Parkinson’s as my own brain ages. So I wasn’t surprised to see that an article that explores the connection between a common sleep disorder and neurodegenerative diseases was our most-read story last week.
“Someone with REM sleep behavior disorder will act out their dreams,” writes Anelyssa D'Abreu, a University of Virginia neurologist who specializes in geriatric neurology. “For reasons that are poorly understood, the dream content is usually violent – patients report being chased, or defending themselves, and as they sleep they shout, moan, scream, kick, punch and thrash about.”
The disorder affects about 2% of the population over 65. A long-term study of patients with the disorder who didn’t have brain conditions found that “after 12 years, 73.5% of those with REM sleep behavior disorder had developed a related neurodegenerative disorder.”
On another note, this evening will feel a bit empty for “Succession” fans since the finale aired last week. To fill the hole, try reading music professor Delia Casadei’s exploration of why one of the series’ “best elements is its soundtrack.”
Later this week, we’ll bring you stories about how more backyard homes and granny flats can help alleviate the housing crisis, free speech on campus and why we associate peaches with Georgia.
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Emily Costello
Managing Editor
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Readers' picks
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Past age 50, men are much more likely to have REM sleep behavior disorder than women.
Jose Luis Pelaez/Stone via Getty Images
Anelyssa D'Abreu, University of Virginia
REM sleep behavior disorder is characterized by acting out dreams, which may include shouting, kicking and punching during sleep.
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Raven Garvey, University of Michigan
If hunter-gatherers went beyond nose-to-tail eating to include the undigested plant matter in a prey animal’s stomach, assumptions about gendered division of labor start to fall apart.
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Christina Patricola, Iowa State University
Current forecasts suggest a warm tropical Pacific will be interfering with what could otherwise be a ferocious Atlantic hurricane season.
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Julia Minson, Harvard Kennedy School
Researchers have identified ways to have more productive conversations – even when you’re talking to someone who holds an opposite view.
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Robert Gudmestad, Colorado State University
There was one central reason the Civil War happened.
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Editors' picks
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While the Roy siblings are shielded by their wealth, the show’s music chips away at their armor.
Macall Polay/HBO
Delia Casadei, University of California, Berkeley
Composer Nicholas Britell festoons earnest Romantic music with sounds that gleefully desecrate it, underscoring the show’s emotional core: a lust for power joined by immense self-loathing.
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Andrew Rettenmaier, Texas A&M University; Dennis W. Jansen, Texas A&M University
If Congress and the White House fail to take action, Social Security beneficiaries would see a sudden 23% cut in their monthly checks in 2034.
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Archon Fung, Harvard Kennedy School; Lawrence Lessig, Harvard University
Artificial intelligence looks like a political campaign manager’s dream because it could tune its persuasion efforts to millions of people individually – but it could be a nightmare for democracy.
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Angel Alfonso Escamilla García, Cornell University
A fire killed 38 migrants in a Mexico detention facility in March 2023. A sociologist’s conversations with migrants show that they had a common response to this news – a deep sense of grief.
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Jill Yavorsky, University of North Carolina – Charlotte; Sarah Thebaud, University of California, Santa Barbara
While most heterosexual couples are dual-earners, super rich couples continue to have gender-traditional arrangements in which the man is the sole breadwinner.
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