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The botched execution of Christa Pike, who survived two injections of what was intended to be a lethal dose of pentobarbital on September 30, is—horrifically—not unique: As my colleague Elizabeth Bruenig wrote, it wasn’t even the first botched execution in Tennessee this year. The fact that officials tried twice to kill her is somewhat more unusual, but not without precedent.

Consider the case of Margaret Dickson, a Scottish woman of the early 1700s. Estranged from her husband, Dickson took up work as a domestic in the town of Kelso, where she conceived a child out of wedlock but hid the pregnancy for fear of being shunned. She testified that she’d disposed of the baby after it was stillborn, but the body was found, and she was arrested. Under Scottish law at the time, concealment of a pregnancy was considered evidence of intent to commit infanticide. Dickson was convicted and sentenced to hang in Edinburgh in 1724.

Following what was then the practice, Dickson’s execution was public. She was hanged; her body was placed in a coffin and carted away for burial (by some accounts following a tussle with body snatchers who hoped to procure the corpse for dissection by medical students). Along the way, the burial party stopped for a beer, at which point noise was heard from inside the coffin. The lid was pried off, and Dickson was found alive, though confused. Dickson’s survival became an object of fascination and Dickson herself a sort of folk hero, the historian Mikki Brock, the author of a forthcoming book about Dickson, told me. Authorities in Edinburgh initially sought to rehang her, but they were never able to marshal enough support to do so. Dickson, who came to be nicknamed “Half-Hangit Maggie” (that is, half-hanged), lived into the 1750s.

Or take Joseph Samuel, a criminal who was sent from England to a penal colony in Australia. Once there, he was implicated in the murder of a police officer investigating a robbery. Samuel was convicted and sentenced to hang in September 1803, also publicly. It didn’t go well. On the first try, the rope around Samuel’s neck snapped. On the second, the noose unraveled. By then, the crowd was growing restive; a hasty third attempt also ended with a broken rope. Observers at the scene concluded that the mishaps were a sign from God that Samuel should not be killed, and the governor apparently concurred, commuting Samuel’s sentence to life imprisonment. (Three years later, Samuel disappeared at sea during an escape attempt with other convicts and was presumed drowned; perhaps God’s view was not as clear as it seemed at the gallows.)

A third celebrated case was that of John “Babbacombe” Lee, who was convicted of the 1884 murder of his employer and sentenced to die. (By that point, executions in Britain had moved out of the public and into prison yards.) Just like Samuel, Lee was spared by malfunctioning equipment: A trapdoor under the gallows, meant to release the condemned and snap his neck, had been tested, yet it failed three times to open. Lee’s sentence was commuted to life by the British home secretary, Sir William Harcourt, who said, “It would shock the feelings of anyone if a man had twice to pay the pangs of imminent death.” Lee was eventually paroled in 1907. Now infamous as “the man they couldn’t hang,” he wrote an autobiography and was the subject of a 1912 silent film, but he then faded from the historical record. He appears to have died in the 1940s, perhaps in Milwaukee.

When I first heard the stories of Half-Hangit Maggie and Babbacombe Lee as a child, I knew they were historical, but they seemed to belong more to the realm of myth or fairy tale. Hangings, mysterious mechanical failures, assertions of divine intervention—all of these seemed like things out of fiction. It was easy to chuckle at quaint details, such as the apocryphal tale that Dickson was required to remarry her husband because she’d been declared dead. And though I’d read about the beheadings of Charles I and Louis XVI, the specter of public execution felt distant enough from modern civilization to be faintly unreal.

Now all of these things seem much less remote. Until President Trump reversed course yesterday, the Defense Department planned to livestream the execution of Nidal Hasan, who massacred comrades at Fort Hood in 2009. Pike’s fate is up in the air after her twice-failed execution. Pike, who was convicted of a brutal murder in 1995, has returned from a hospital to prison. The state official who oversaw capital punishment has resigned, and the governor has temporarily paused all executions in Tennessee. Her lawyers have requested that her sentence be commuted to life in prison.

The doctor and ethicist Lydia Dugdale writes in The Dispatch that U.S. history offers a grim precedent. In 1946, a 16-year-old boy confessed to killing his employer and was sentenced to die via electrocution. A first attempt failed, and his lawyers sought to block a second. The Supreme Court ruled against them, and he was killed that year. But Dugdale argues that this precedent should not apply here. “From Pike’s markedly swollen and chemically burned arms, to her profound cognitive impairment (the severity of which remains unknown), the state has already inflicted a cruel and unusual punishment on Christa,” she writes. Setting aside the law, “as a matter of sheer ethics, if the state has vowed not to punish prisoners cruelly but has inadvertently done so, the state ought not attempt the same method of execution again.” (In this year’s other botched Tennessee case, Tony Carruthers’s failed execution left him partially paralyzed. He received a one-year reprieve, and advocates have called for his sentence to be commuted.)

The historical cases of the men and women they couldn’t hang feel much closer to the present day than they once did. And although some of the visceral details still sound like the stuff of myth, the pragmatic and humane outcomes of these situations stand out more against the backdrop of the recent news. Support for the death penalty has dropped since the 1990s, barely topping 50 percent today. Views are closely correlated with religion—white Protestants are far more likely to back it than any other group, according to polling from the Public Religion Research Institute. For religious supporters of capital punishment, the idea that a failed execution is a sign from above might not be so far-fetched. Among the nonreligious, many people may flatter themselves to believe that contemporary society possesses greater reason and logic than our forebears. Just as we try to understand our ancestors by how they handled cases such as those of Dickson, Samuel, and Lee, future generations will judge our society by its actions.

Related:

• A terrible way to die, a terrifying way to survive
• The real harm of a public execution

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Here are four new stories from The Atlantic:

• Jonathan Chait: Five fabulous days of Katie Zacharia
• Exclusive: He joined the military. They reported his wife to ICE.
• How Pete Hegseth’s plan for a reality-TV execution imploded
• Imagine every AI agent on Earth buying the same cheap paper towels.

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Today’s News

1. President Trump’s new White House press secretary, Katie Zacharia, was fired after less than a week in the role, according to three people familiar with the matter. Her dismissal followed criticism of her first press briefing on Tuesday and questions about her legal credentials.
2. Three children and a teacher were killed in a shooting at an elementary school in Bend, Oregon, yesterday. Police said that a bystander pursued the 16-year-old shooter into the school and fatally shot him; another child and a teacher were critically injured.
3. Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez donated $1 million to support Democrat Abdul El-Sayed’s Senate campaign in Michigan. El-Sayed is running against Republican Mike Rogers in a race that could determine control of the Senate in November.

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Dispatches

• Over/Under: Gamblers are more likely to lose money than make it—yet they keep coming back, Will Gottsegen writes. In the first edition of Over/Under, he explores why bettors return to casinos and prediction apps even when it’s not in their financial interest.
• The Books Briefing: Don’t listen to the romantasy haters, Talya Zax writes. The best-selling genre is more than just smut.

Explore all of our newsletters here.

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Evening Read

Big Tech Oligarchs Have a Terrible Plan for Humanity

By Bernie Sanders

Should human beings remain in control of planet Earth? Or should we be replaced as the dominant species? As absurd as these questions may sound, and as obvious as the answers may seem, the Big Tech oligarchs funding the artificial-intelligence revolution have responded in ways that should alarm all of us.

In Silicon Valley, some of the wealthiest people on Earth believe that they have the power to create a superior species. Sam Altman, the head of OpenAI, wrote in 2017 that AI would allow humans to become “the first species ever to design our own descendants.” What this means for humans, however, remains unclear. According to Altman, we will either jump-start digital intelligence “and then fade into an evolutionary tree branch, or we can figure out what a successful merge looks like.” In other words, humans have a choice: face extinction or merge with machines. “I believe the merge has already started,” Altman added, and is “probably our best-case scenario.”

Read the full article.

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More From The Atlantic

• Watching for a blue wave in South Carolina
• What the loss of Starshield revealed
• How the Catholic Church is rethinking war
• What three gene-therapy deaths have in common
• The cutest target of Trump’s D.C. makeover

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Culture Break

Watch. Nathan Fielder’s documentary about Elizabeth Holmes (out now in theaters) is a captivating study of self-perception, David Sims writes.

Read. Stephanie Bai asked The Atlantic’s writers and editors to share some of the best first lines in modern literature.

Play our daily crossword.

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PS

A great folk hero needs a good nickname, which is why Billy the Kid and “Pretty Boy” Floyd endure. Babbacombe Lee—the name comes from the site of the murder—belongs to that tier. I first encountered it on the strange, entrancing cover of an album, a 1971 “folk-rock opera” by the English band Fairport Convention. I wouldn’t rank “Babbacombe” Lee as prime Fairport, but it’s an entertaining listen. As for Half-Hangit Maggie, anyone visiting the Grassmarket in Edinburgh, the site of her execution, can have a pint at her namesake pub, Maggie Dickson’s. Just don’t expect it to produce any miraculous resuscitations.

— David

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Rafaela Jinich contributed to this newsletter.

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© Photo by Culture Club / Getty Images

For Nyaradzo Auxilia Hoto, one of the most memorable moments of becoming a wildlife ranger was a trip to town. She and her fellow recruits walked through the streets in their new uniforms, on their way to open bank accounts. Soon, they would receive their first salaries. For a woman who had struggled to make ends meet in rural Zimbabwe, it was an extraordinary moment. “We were very proud,” she recalled. Hoto, 34, grew up in Huyo, a village in Zimbabwe’s Lower Zambezi Valley, where her family depended largely on growing and selling vegetables. Money was scarce, and although she had done well at school, she could not afford to continue her education beyond secondary school. Marriage, she hoped, might offer a better life. Instead, she says, she endured nearly four years with a violent husband before deciding to leave. She returned to her parents’ home with her young daughter and resumed working in the family garden. Her fortunes changed in 2017, when the International Anti-Poaching Foundation began recruiting local women for Akashinga, a new wildlife protection initiative. Hoto was among 16 women selected from roughly 100 applicants. Many men in her community doubted that women could confront poachers or withstand the demands of ranger work. She went anyway. Within a few years, she had become a ranger sergeant, leading other women on patrol. She later returned to university, graduating in 2023 with a degree in wildlife, ecology and conservation. Today, she works as a biodiversity officer with Akashinga, using…This article was originally published on Mongabay

Il governo italiano scrive in un tribunale che il Paese è dentro una guerra mondiale. In piazza, chi quella guerra la paga viene chiamato reato e teppismo. Oggi il Consiglio di Stato ha dato torto all’Agenzia delle Dogane, che per nove mesi ha negato a una giornalista il dato sulle armi passate dal porto di Ravenna. Per difendere quel no, gli avvocati del governo, l’Avvocatura dello Stato, avevano scritto nero su bianco: è in corso «una guerra mondiale ibrida e a pezzi che coinvolge anche l’Italia». Il giudice ha risposto: pericolo «astratto e ipotetico». I dati vanno consegnati. Ma la frase resta agli atti, e quella guerra il Parlamento non l’ha mai dichiarata. Intanto il Sud è fermo da due settimane: Calabria, Sicilia, Puglia, Campania, Basilicata. Un pieno di tir da 1.500 a 2.500 euro. In Puglia 150 distributori Eni su 300 a secco. Lo sconto sulle accise è scaduto il 6 ottobre. Cinquemila agricoltori con i trattori a Bari chiedono lo stato di crisi. La Regione mette 30 milioni, il governo nazionale non compare. Oggi gli studenti in piazza in tutta Italia: «soldi alla scuola, non alla guerra». Il ministro Valditara: «teppismo politico». Meloni: «ci stiamo interrogando». Salvini: «studiamo da mesi». Lollobrigida: «bloccare le strade è un reato». In Francia 70.000 studenti in piazza e 504 arresti in un giorno a Parigi. In Albania 143 giorni di proteste, ministeri assaltati, contro Rama e il resort da 4 miliardi di Jared Kushner. L’Europa che si riarma è la stessa che non sa più pagare il gasolio e le scuole, e che risponde alle piazze con la polizia. A Levante questa sera, venerdì 16 ottobre 2026, conduce Jeff Hoffman. Ospiti: Moni Ovadia, attore, musicista, scrittore, voce ebraica contro la guerra e contro l’uso politico della memoria; Margherita Furlan, giornalista e analista geopolitica, fondatrice di Casa del Sole TV. Affrontiamo insieme: Il caso Ravenna: chi ha scritto «guerra mondiale» e chi ha detto no L’articolo 78 della Costituzione: la guerra la deliberano le Camere Dal «reato» di Lollobrigida al «teppismo» di Valditara: le parole del potere contro chi protesta Il Sud fermo e il prezzo del gasolio: la guerra lo alza, il governo non lo attutisce Dal ddl antisemitismo alle piazze: la stretta sul dissenso è un disegno? Parigi, Tirana, Roma: tre Paesi, una sola scena LIBRI DEGLI OSPITI Moni Ovadia, «Un ebreo contro», Edizioni Gruppo Abele Margherita Furlan, «BRICS Scacco Matto» (disponibile in italiano, inglese, russo) SOSTIENI CASA DEL SOLE TV Casa del Sole TV è un progetto di giornalismo indipendente, autofinanziato da sei anni, senza editori e senza partiti. Per donazioni con bonifico: IBAN: IT63P0326822300052392596590 Intestato a: La Casa del Sole Edizioni Causale: Erogazione liberale Casa del Sole TV Membership YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@CasadelSoleT… Analista Multipolare €5/mese Inviato della Verità €15/mese Architetto del Futuro €25/mese SEGUI CASA DEL SOLE TV YouTube: @CasadelSoleTVChannel Sito: casadelsole.tv #Levante #CasadelSoleTV #MargheritaFurlan #MoniOvadia #Geopolitica #Multipolarismo #caroGasolio #accise #Ravenna #NoMeloniDay #AvvocaturadelloStato #ConsigliodiStato #sciopero #Europa

L'articolo 🔴 IN GUERRA LO DICE L’AVVOCATURA DELLO STATO | LEVANTE LIVE proviene da Casa del Sole TV.

– Italia, la piazza sfida il riarmo di Margherita Furlan – Avvocatura dello Stato: è guerra mondiale ibrida di Jeff Hoffman – La Francia ferma i suoi figli di Jeff Hoffman – Tirana in fiamme, Rama non cede di Jeff Hoffman – USA e UE sempre più distanti di Gionata Chatillard – Due stretti in fiamme, l’Europa paga di Jeff Hoffman – Taiwan cerca alternative a Hormuz, Trump si inserisce di Ivan Bodyan – Buon giro intorno al Sole A cura di Margherita Furlan Con la collaborazione di Gionata Chatillard, Ivan Bodyan e Jeff Hoffman Editing di Mario Ferdinandi CASA DEL SOLE TV — Informazione libera e indipendente Il nostro lavoro è possibile solo grazie al vostro sostegno. Casa del Sole TV non ha editori forti né finanziamenti pubblici: siamo sostenuti da voi, il nostro pubblico. Se credi nel valore di un’informazione che non tace, aiutaci a continuare. Dona tramite bonifico bancario: IBAN: IT63P0326822300052392596590 Intestato a: LA CASA DEL SOLE EDIZIONI Causale: Donazione Casa del Sole TV Dona tramite PayPal: paypal.me/casadelsoletv Sostegno ricorrente: casadelsole.tv/sostienici Anche un piccolo contributo fa la differenza. Grazie di cuore! CasaDelSoleTV, CasaDelSoleTG, MargheritaFurlan, GiuliettoChiesa,censura, russofobia, Trump, NATO, Crisi, Transizione, Ucraina, Kiev, EuroMaidan, Crimea, Donbass, Donetsk, Syria, Iran, PardonSnowden, Nuova Via Della Seta, Pechino, Putin, Libano, guerra, mondomultipolare, multipolarismo, Mosca, XiJinping, Levante, Medio Oriente, Palestina, Gaza, MiddleEast, BRICS, Hormuz

L'articolo 🔴GUERRA MONDIALE IBRIDA | 16.10.26 proviene da Casa del Sole TV.

Personal trainer who battled mental health issues is now helping others to reach out

When he was in charge of Apple, Steve Jobs was notorious for projecting a “reality distortion field.” That was the jokey way his employees described Jobs’s mix of charisma and bravado and his demanding management style—which would lead people to accept seemingly impossible deadlines, or to promise that they could fix unfixable problems. A malfunctioning version of the same phenomenon once surrounded Elizabeth Holmes, the disgraced founder of the failed medical start-up Theranos. She worshipped Jobs, imitating his style and unnerving confidence, even while presiding over an imploding enterprise. Her promises of a device that could affordably perform rapid medical tests with only a drop of blood were, at best, fantastical; once valued at $9 billion, Theranos collapsed into nothing. In 2022, Holmes was sentenced to 11 years in prison for defrauding her investors.

In the new documentary You Can See Everything, the comedian and television auteur Nathan Fielder steps into Holmes’s reality-distortion field. Fielder, accompanied by his co-director, Lance Oppenheim, and a small camera crew, essentially moved into Holmes’s abode for the 34 days before she reported to federal prison. The team received fairly unfettered access to her, her two small children, and her partner, the entrepreneur Billy Evans, who professes obsessional devotion to Holmes. What Fielder was expecting to find while staying at the family’s Del Mar, California, rental is unclear, but he ends up in an odd and unsettling game of cat and mouse: He’s trying to suss out whether Holmes is a master manipulator or someone so deeply convinced of her own genius that she can’t distinguish fiction from fact.

The film capturing that experience is an odyssey of human perception. Fielder knows that no matter how intimate his time with Holmes is, the minute the camera is trained on her, both he and the audience will be consumed by the question of whether she’s giving yet another performance. The movie unfolds and evolves over nearly three hours, spanning both the month ahead of Holmes’s May 2023 incarceration and the years following; throughout, Fielder pores over his interactions with not just Holmes but also the people around her, sifting for kernels of authenticity. What emerges is a transfixing portrait of a phenomenon most viewers will understand—a deep desire to empathize, even as we are horrified by what’s occurring or suspect we’re being lied to.

[Read: Manipulator vs. manipulator]

Holmes would disagree about that last part. Early on, she plainly states to Fielder that she has never told a lie, a statement so bewildering that it cracks his reliably deadpan expression. Watching him work to make sense of what she could mean by that, I thought of Jobs’s strange force of personality. Holmes has saucer-shaped, striking blue eyes, and she repeatedly meets Fielder’s squinty gaze with an unblinking stare and gauzy smile. Holmes may indeed be flatly misleading her interviewer, but she comes off as unnervingly sure that she’s being honest; she’s perhaps deceiving herself alongside the people in her orbit.

Evans is a vital part of her new facade, which has morphed from the elite-businesswoman persona of her CEO days to that of a loving mother and partner. Holmes often has a child draped over her, and she seems profoundly attached to her worshipful partner. Yet at other times, Evans gives off a controlling air. He plucks a bowl from her because she’s not stirring eggs quickly enough. When Fielder’s questions probe too close to an uncomfortable topic, Evans will show up, put his hands on Holmes’s shoulders, and softly try to shut down the conversation. The claustrophobic proximity between Fielder and his subjects comes across visually: Oppenheim shoots them all with zoom lenses, holding on their faces for a discomfitingly long time as they wince, frown, and grin. Like his co-director, he’s searching for the truth by getting as physically close as he can. Given Holmes’s past, however, the task of uncovering anything feels impossible.

Fielder is obviously uninterested in relitigating the details of Holmes’s case; she appears firmly assured that she did nothing wrong, and he knows there’s nothing he can do to tell her otherwise. Instead, he pokes at how she takes in the world, and how Evans is helping to feed her surreal self-image. It also becomes apparent that the pair are working on a new version of Theranos, chatting to investors and patent lawyers on the phone with abandon. When the harsh reality facing her—that she’ll soon have to leave her children behind—peeks through, her devastation seems genuine. But those moments then flit by as Holmes and Evans try to ponder a brighter future.

[Read: The comic who’s his own worst enemy]

The first half of the movie consists of captivating fly-on-the-wall footage. The second half, which Fielder and Oppenheim have begged critics not to spoil (and I do think it’s fun to experience it cold), establishes You Can See Everything as one of the best films of the year. That portion finds Fielder fixating on his brief time with Holmes and the untoward influence Evans had over it: He brings in other perspectives to consult, re-creates scenes to better understand them (something he’s wont to do, especially on his fascinating HBO show, The Rehearsal), and, most important, reckons with his role in telling this chapter of Holmes’s life story.

Fielder is smart enough to know that his celebrity presence further pierces the bubble around how we perceive ourselves and one another. But he quickly developed a sort of emotional intimacy with Holmes, even as he sought to remain objective. You Can See Everything is a bold title, an invitation from Holmes that she is unlikely to follow through on. Can Fielder see everything that’s going on in her head? Beyond that, can he be an effective audience surrogate so viewers can see what he sees? The true question of this documentary isn’t just whether Holmes—who has been a figure of societal fascination for more than a decade—is putting on another performance, but also whether that’s all we, the viewers, crave from Holmes anyway.

© A24 / Everett Collection

There is need to redefine the edge of the solar system. That’s the outcome of new work by two leading space scientists. They present a theory that the Milky Way’s gravity, including its dark matter, redraws the Sun’s frontier. Moreover, it allows the Solar Lagrange points L1 and L2 to form “portals” that funnel interstellar visitors […]

Está disponível mais uma edição do Milénio Stadium!

House control looks like a “done deal,” and scandals in Texas and Kansas put the Senate within reach for Democrats

Work has reached an accelerated mode in readying three Ingenuity-class helicopters for deployment at Mars by NASA’s Space Reactor‑1 Freedom spacecraft. Slated for launch in 2028, SR-1 Freedom is the first fission nuclear-powered interplanetary spacecraft and is assigned the duty of dropping off the SkyFall entry capsule loaded with the trio of reconnoitering aerial vehicles […]

Sign up for Video Village, a new weekly newsletter in which David Sims unearths cinematic gems and brings readers into his movie obsession.

To kick off this newsletter, I sent out a message declaring that movies were “undeniably back.” Within days, it seemed that the sky was falling again. Two venerable studios, Paramount and Warner Bros. Discovery, officially merged on October 6, further consolidating power in Hollywood into just a few conglomerates. The new entity has been dubbed Skydance, the name of the original production company that CEO David Ellison founded in 2006. Not much has outwardly changed thus far, new moniker aside. But internally, Ellison has already made at least one concerning decision. Once the deal closed, two key leaders at Warner Bros., the bolder and more risk-taking of the two studios, were immediately shown the door: Michael De Luca and Pam Abdy, the co-chairs of Warner Bros. Motion Picture Group. Their departure suggested what many industry analysts had feared: that their new boss was no longer a fan of taking big, bold risks.

After all, the news that De Luca and Abdy were exiting the company—to be replaced by Paramount’s current team, which will oversee what has been referred to as the “Paramount Warner Bros. Motion Picture unit” (try saying that three times fast)—arrived right before a historically bad weekend for the studio. The Tom Cruise project Digger opened on October 2 to only $8 million domestically, on a budget that reportedly climbed as high as $180 million; that’s an especially anemic number given Cruise’s involvement as both star and co-producer. Digger now stands as Warner Bros.’ final release before it joined Skydance, and the movie’s catastrophic box-office performance is the latest in a series of tough beats for the company this year. Given the film’s wild ambition, its failure will also be a fitting coda for an era that was very up-and-down financially—but often creatively thrilling.

De Luca and Abdy took over Warner Bros. Pictures in 2022, bringing with them a strategic reset. They were both well-regarded names in the world of awards-friendly indie cinema, shaking up a studio that was bouncing back from a theatrical strategy unpopular with the industry: putting blockbusters on HBO Max the day they were released. De Luca was a storied executive whose career included green-lighting boundary-pushing projects by Paul Thomas Anderson and David Fincher and earning Best Picture Oscar nominations for such movies as The Social Network and Moneyball. Abdy started out her career at Danny Devito’s hyper-cool Jersey Films and worked on The Revenant and The Big Short, among other awards-season hits, as president of the production outfit New Regency.

Together, they presided over a splashy period at Warner Bros. in which they focused on recruiting big stars and major auteurs while they also shed the remains of the prior leadership’s flailing, expensive approach to the DC Comics franchise. But their results were inconsistent: In 2023, the giant success of Barbie in the summer and Wonka at Christmastime buoyed the studio. The following year, Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga and Joker: Folie à Deux were such expensive flops that industry experts began predicting De Luca and Abdy would soon lose their jobs.

Instead, last year, the duo spearheaded a cinematic slate that will likely be spoken about in hushed tones in Hollywood C-suites for generations. A Minecraft Movie took advantage of its kid-friendly IP to make nearly $1 billion worldwide, despite being barely coherent. The relaunch of the DC cinematic universe went splendidly with Superman, directed by the new DC Studios co-chair, James Gunn. The silly sequels Final Destination Bloodlines and The Conjuring: Last Rites punched above their weight commercially. Zach Cregger’s Weapons was not just a horror hit but also a critical favorite that won major awards. Ryan Coogler’s Sinners, whose high budget met prerelease skepticism from box-office analysts, was a cultural sensation and a financial boon. And Anderson’s blockbuster, One Battle After Another, earned just enough money to justify its scale before taking the Oscar for Best Picture.

In basically each of these cases, De Luca and Abdy’s calculation of betting on creators who had an established track record and pairing them with reliable stars worked. Meanwhile, safe comic-book and video-game adaptations helped shore up any business concerns. This year, however, the same approach has resulted in a lot of swings and misses. Collaborations between acclaimed directors and performers, such as Maggie Gyllenhaal and Jessie Buckley’s The Bride!, failed to make back their budget; Supergirl and Practical Magic 2 were box-office disappointments, in part because of poor reviews. Warner Bros. couldn’t even claim the surprise success of Coyote vs. Acme, a Looney Tunes movie that it sold to the indie distributor Ketchup Entertainment after deciding in 2023 not to release it; it became a sleeper family hit this summer.

Maybe Digger flopping was the final straw for Ellison. Or maybe the Skydance CEO was always intent on keeping his own team in charge. Paramount has adopted a more populist, risk-averse strategy since Ellison took over that studio in 2025. This year’s schedule included crowd-pleasing horror films and a Jackass clip-show-style sequel, although none was particularly successful with theatergoers; a new live-action Street Fighter and the latest edition in the Angry Birds franchise are on the way. Indeed, it even has a Tom Cruise movie on the slate for 2028—but rather than being an auteurist effort like Digger, it’s a sequel to the 1990 NASCAR drama Days of Thunder that I’d argue nobody was really asking for.

Skydance seems to be planning to keep Paramount and Warner Bros. separate, the industry reporter Matthew Belloni suggested in a Puck column last week. Ellison has also promised that Skydance will keep up a furious pace of releases, perhaps in recognition of Hollywood’s agita when Netflix almost got its hands on Warner Bros. during the merger drama; the concern was that films released as part of “Netflix Warner Bros.” would not be shown in cinemas at all. But the departure of De Luca and Abdy certainly suggests that any weirder Hail Mary passes will be few and far between. Sure, they haven’t all worked—but a hit like Sinners doesn’t happen without a couple of other tough throws that fail to connect.

Meanwhile, some viewers are seemingly already reclaiming Digger as a cult classic; maybe that’s just quick-turn nostalgia for a moment in Hollywood that appears to be further slipping away. Or perhaps it’s a sign that some portion of the audience will always be clamoring for audacious work—the kind that is and will still be made by studios of all sizes. Just maybe not by Warner Bros., going forward.

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An Essay I Enjoyed

The Most Cursed Team in American Sports

By Kaitlyn Tiffany

The mythical story of the Buffalo Bills could be told like this: Their fans are crazy and live in the snow. They shovel this snow out of their stadium to help their godforsaken football team, which, until recently, was most famous for losing the Super Bowl four times in a row in the early 1990s. According to one theory, those failures fed into Timothy McVeigh’s derangement before he planned and executed the Oklahoma City bombing. The franchise was an utter disaster, for the most part, until the 2018 arrival of an otherworldly quarterback named Josh Allen, who has exhibited many heroics. But he has yet to bring his team to the Super Bowl.

Read the full article.

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Coming Attractions

A gorgeous new release this week is William and David Greaves’s Once Upon a Time in Harlem. The project restores old, unreleased footage shot by William, which his son, David, helped assemble and spruce up for a new generation to understand. William Greaves, who died in 2014, was a former actor who, dispirited by the opportunities afforded him in postwar Hollywood, became a challenging, acclaimed filmmaker. His body of work is well worth a deep dive, particularly the avant-garde documentary Symbiopsychotaxiplasm: Take One, which is itself about the reality-warping process of making documentaries. Once Upon a Time in Harlem, however, was left unfinished for decades.

The documentary captures a party the elder Greaves threw in August 1972, bringing together every living member of the Harlem Renaissance he could find to Duke Ellington’s townhouse. He let the cameras roll as the group chatted, caroused, and unfurled memories of that flourishing era for Black art. David, then age 26, helped his father with the filming; more than 50 years later, he went through 60,000 feet of footage to pick out the best moments. The result is a rather stunning look back at an event filled with people who were already looking back; it’s a beautiful echo of an echo. Once Upon a Time in Harlem is debuting in select cinemas, but it’s a must-see—and will hopefully expand soon.

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What Else I’m Watching

• Chris Rock’s Misty Green received a mixed reception at this fall’s festivals, but it’s somewhat redeemed by Rosalind Eleazar’s lead performance. She plays a fading actress striving for a role while her personal life disintegrates around her, and her masterful on-screen sloppiness helps explain away some of the dodgier plot twists. I’ve always found Rock’s directorial career frustrating; although he has good taste and influences (this film has major Safdie-brothers energy), he always falls a little short of what he’s imitating.
• Criterion’s humongous Stanley Kubrick box set will finally be on shelves Tuesday, and it’s an unsurprisingly impressive package from those doyens of physical media. All 13 of his features have received sparkly restorations, and the collection also includes his daughter Vivian’s documentary Making The Shining, which offers a glimpse into the much-mythologized auteur’s process. The rare international version of The Shining, which is far shorter than the U.S. theatrical cut, is one of the best Easter eggs on offer.
• Another movie that had long been thought lost is the director’s cut of Ken Russell’s intense psychological horror The Devils, which was censored and outright banned in many countries on its 1971 release. The original version was officially unavailable for years, but a 4K restoration of it is now touring theaters. A 17th-century-set dramatization of witch-hunting within the French Catholic church, The Devils is genuinely shocking—especially given the era of its release—but should be required viewing for genre completionists.

© Illustration by Soña Lee. Sources: Gilbert Flores / Variety / Getty.

There is no single way to live through retirement. There are those who view it as a well-deserved homecoming, and those who simply refuse to stop. These two stories, told in the first person, show both sides of the coin.

José Silva worked for 34 years without missing a single day. When the time came, he walked away without looking back and made his home and his wife the center of his life. Deafness distanced him from music and socializing, but he insists he never let it get him down: surrounded by books, crossword puzzles, and walks in the backyard, he says he is happy to finally be home.

Maria Melo, on the other hand, never truly felt retired. She took care of her grandchildren, danced in the folklore group, helped build the Associação Cultural do Minho, where she remains on the board of directors and today spends her days doing handicrafts and painting at Abrigo. “Staying at home, for me, is an illness,” she summarizes.

Two different paths, one shared lesson: retirement is best experienced when it is chosen, fulfilled, and shared with those we love most.

Retirement lived at home

Milénio Stadium: When you thought about retiring, what plan did you have for this new phase of your life?

José Silva: I worked for 34 years: 12 at one company and 22 at another. I never missed a day of work. But at the last place, there were people I didn’t like, so when they told me I could retire and receive the company pension, I didn’t hesitate. When I left, it felt as if a heavy weight had been lifted off my shoulders. After that, I never wanted to go back. They invited me to return at Christmas and on other occasions, but I didn’t want to see those people who only caused problems.

When I made plans to retire, it was to be with my wife. So wherever she goes, I go too. When she goes out, I always go with her; I don’t like her going anywhere alone.

And I help out a lot around the house. I don’t know how to cook, but when she makes soup, I chop the cabbage, peel the potatoes… I help with everything.

I spent a lot of time away, and now I want to be with her. And I love it when our children and grandchildren come over to the house. I enjoy all of that, being right here like this.

MS: What about meeting up with friends to chat?

JS: Not that, because I don’t hear well. I have a hearing aid, but even so, I still struggle to hear. I don’t like going to anyone’s house because sometimes they’re talking and I can’t understand what they’re saying.

MS: Your life was very full, not only at the companies where you worked, but also through your connection to music: rehearsals, performances, busy weekends. Did your hearing loss affect you deeply?

JS: I used to play music; now I can’t even listen to music anymore. Sometimes I go to see my son play, and I think it’s wonderful to see him working on the guitar, but I don’t know what he’s playing. Because of that, I don’t really like going to certain places.

MS: What about practicing sports or doing some form of physical activity?

JS: We have a large yard around the house with plenty of grass and trees, and I go for walks out there. Sometimes I go for a walk by myself just to boost my mood.

MS: How do you fill the rest of your time?

JS: I like to read. I have Portuguese books, and my wife sometimes buys different books that I also enjoy reading. I do crossword puzzles and things like that to keep myself entertained. And I like watching television; if the TV has any issues, I get upset!

MS: Did you ever feel depressed about stopping work after so many years?

JS: No, no, I was never like that. I’m happy because I’m home. I like being at home, and that’s all there is to it.

MS: In other words, you didn’t let retirement get you down?

JS: No, no. I’m good, and I’m happy.

Stop? I can’t stop!

Milénio Stadium: You have been retired for several years. What changed in your life when you stopped working?

Maria Melo: I retired at the right age, but I was never truly retired. After I stopped working, I took care of my young grandchildren. It wasn’t for money; it was to help the family. And that was already a job in itself, perhaps even harder than going out to work: taking them to school, picking them up, taking them to the park, feeding them.

Even back then, on weekends I would go to the Associação Cultural do Minho, where I was part of the folklore dance group (rancho). I even brought my granddaughters along. The eldest, Jéssica, stayed with the group until she was almost 19.

MS: Did you ever think about just staying home?

MM: I never thought about it. I can’t stop. Sometimes, when I feel tired, I say to myself: “I’ll only rest when I die.” I like having my house organized, every little thing in its place. But staying home, for me, is an illness. It’s not good for your health.

Right at the beginning, I went to learn how to make Arraiolos rugs and handicrafts with some women who were teaching it. I was always busy, socializing and learning new things.

MS: What about your husband?

MM: He always used to go to the association with me. Now he’s unwell, but he comes with me to Abrigo, and I go more days now because it does him good too. He’s more distracted there, does crossword puzzles, and has peers his own age to talk to. At home, he’s always talking to me about the same things. It’s not like going out and seeing different people.

MS: And how do you spend your time there?

MM: I also have my quiet moments to rest my mind. But at Abrigo, we’re rarely idle. We do handicrafts, decorate the room, and stay constantly entertained. And I love painting, I love colors and creating different things.

MS: Are you still involved with the Associação Cultural do Minho?

MM: I’m on the board of directors. There were very few years when I wasn’t. I danced in the rancho, and I participate in the rusga (traditional folklore group). I like helping, and I like seeing things move forward. We bought our building when I was already on the board; we paid it off, and today we have handicrafts, traditional drums (bombos), accordions (concertinas), everything. It wasn’t easy. Before we had our own building, we used to move around rented halls, and sometimes it would be four or five in the morning and we’d be carrying large cooking pots on our backs. But, thank God, we made it.

My husband helped a lot too. At the company where he worked, where he eventually became a manager, he raised a lot of money among his colleagues for the association and paid for Christmas toys for the children.

MS: What advice would you give to someone who is entering retirement right now?

MM: I always advise people to leave the house and go to the centers: Abrigo or others within our Portuguese community, or even in other communities, like the Spanish one. It’s good to socialize with different people. It does wonders for the mind. Some people dance, some play bingo, some play cards. And you go back home feeling completely happy.

Madalena Balça/MS

La guerra non arriva in Italia con le bombe. Arriva con le cisterne vuote. A Levante questa sera, giovedì 15 ottobre 2026, Margherita Furlan dialoga con Alberto Bradanini, ex ambasciatore d’Italia a Teheran e a Pechino, e con Francesco Dall’Aglio, storico e analista del fronte russo-ucraino. Da cinque giorni trattori e tir bloccano le porte della Puglia: Candela, Poggio Imperiale, Cerignola, Manfredonia. I distributori della Capitanata sono a secco, nei supermercati del Foggiano saltano le consegne, a Bari cinquemila agricoltori hanno invaso il lungomare. A Taranto gli altiforni dell’ex Ilva sono «in riscaldo» in attesa della Cassazione, mentre il governo compra acciaio all’estero per tenere accesi Genova e Novi Ligure. Nella notte gli Houthi hanno colpito la sede dell’Aramco a Dhahran, gli uffici dell’amministratore delegato. Riad sta finendo gli intercettori, Trump non ha ancora deciso se entrare nei raid, Hormuz è chiuso dal 28 febbraio. Zelensky annuncia al Financial Times che Kiev riprende gli attacchi alle raffinerie russe: «lo stop è finito». Mosca dice di aver abbattuto 166 droni in una notte. Musk scrive che «è il momento che Zelensky se ne vada». Gli Stati Uniti propongono all’Europa di trasferire gli asset russi congelati a un veicolo gestito da Washington. Oggi e domani il Consiglio europeo decide. In Francia la raffineria TotalEnergies di Normandia è in sciopero dall’8 ottobre e venerdì 17 i gilet gialli chiamano più di quattrocento piazze contro il caro carburante. Affrontiamo insieme: Il filo che lega una petroliera ferma davanti a Hormuz e un camionista che dorme al casello di Candela. Che cosa vogliono davvero gli Houthi, e perché Teheran non ha bisogno di sparare. I militari italiani spostati dall’Iraq all’Arabia Saudita: che cosa ha chiesto Roma in cambio? Quanto soffre la Cina con Hormuz chiuso, e quanto le conviene che resti chiuso. Chi detta il ritmo della guerra in Ucraina: Mosca, Kiev, la Casa Bianca o un privato con una costellazione di satelliti. Un Paese che importa acciaio per salvare le acciaierie e gasolio per muovere i trattori: che cosa resta della sovranità industriale. La domanda scomoda: se le raffinerie russe tornano a bruciare, non è forse Mosca ad avere più bisogno di una tregua? LIBRI DEGLI OSPITI Alberto Bradanini, «Cina. L’irresistibile ascesa», Sandro Teti Editore, 2022 SOSTIENI CASA DEL SOLE TV Casa del Sole TV è un progetto di giornalismo indipendente autofinanziato, senza editori, senza partiti, senza padrini politici. Per donazioni: IBAN: IT63P0326822300052392596590 Intestato a: La Casa del Sole Edizioni Causale: Donazione Casa del Sole TV Membership YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@CasadelSoleT… Analista Multipolare €5/mese Inviato della Verità €15/mese Architetto del Futuro €25/mese I LIBRI DI MARGHERITA FURLAN BRICS Scacco Matto (disponibile in italiano, inglese, russo) SEGUI CASA DEL SOLE TV YouTube: @CasadelSoleTVChannel Sito: casadelsole.tv #Levante #CasadelSoleTV #MargheritaFurlan #Geopolitica #Multipolarismo #Bradanini #DallAglio #CaroCarburante #Puglia #ExIlva #Hormuz #Ucraina #ArabiaSaudita

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A cura di Margherita Furlan Con la collaborazione di Gionata Chatillard, Ivan Bodyan e Jeff Hoffman Editing di Davide Marletta CASA DEL SOLE TV — Informazione libera e indipendente Il nostro lavoro è possibile solo grazie al vostro sostegno. Casa del Sole TV non ha editori forti né finanziamenti pubblici: siamo sostenuti da voi, il nostro pubblico. Se credi nel valore di un’informazione che non tace, aiutaci a continuare. Dona tramite bonifico bancario: IBAN: IT63P0326822300052392596590 Intestato a: LA CASA DEL SOLE EDIZIONI Causale: Donazione Casa del Sole TV Dona tramite PayPal: paypal.me/casadelsoletv Sostegno ricorrente: casadelsole.tv/sostienici Anche un piccolo contributo fa la differenza. Grazie di cuore!

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The UK economy will grow 1.3% in 2026, according to the IMF. But will it really, asks David Craig. With unemployment rising, it's just an illusion of out-of-control borrowing. But try getting an economist to admit it.

The post How Many Economists Does it Take to Wreck an Economy? appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.

They arrive alone or “by the hand” of someone else. Some come because they spend their days at home while their children are at work and want to fight off loneliness; others because they feel the need to move their bodies and lift their spirits. They may even arrive showing signs of depression, but the truth is that after a few weeks, they can no longer do without the group and the camaraderie it provides. This is the reality described by two leaders of day centers for seniors in Toronto’s Portuguese community: Carina Paradela, Operations Director at First Portuguese, and Alice Nunes, Senior Program Coordinator at the Abrigo Centre.

So who arrives, and why? At First Portuguese, loneliness is the most common reason. “The vast majority of people seek out our center because they are retired and spend a lot of time alone at home while their family members work, feeling the need to socialize,” explains Carina Paradela. “We also receive people who feel down or depressed due to social isolation or life circumstances that have left them more vulnerable.”

There is, however, a new trend. “Lately, we have registered a significant increase in families of individuals with dementia or Alzheimer’s disease seeking our services, both to provide social interaction for their loved ones and to have a safe haven where they can drop them off and enjoy a short break.”

At the Abrigo Centre, Alice Nunes distinguishes between those who are already regular members and those arriving for the first time. “Those who are already part of the group always arrive very happy. We rarely see any signs of depression among participants who attend three days a week,” she says. With newcomers, “it is a different story.” “I have indeed seen several cases of people who arrive with that exact feeling of being depressed or complaining heavily about being isolated, some even experiencing difficulty speaking, cognitive decline, and deep sadness.”

The transformation, she assures, becomes visible over time. She offers an example from the very day she spoke to Milénio Stadium, during a lunch at Casa do Alentejo: “One of those people was there, which would have been unthinkable a while back. At first, she did nothing but cry and wouldn’t speak a word; then step by step she began to breathe easier, start conversations, and join in games with others. Now she even tells jokes.” The improvements, she adds, are physical as well: “People who arrive after a stroke, for instance, improve significantly over time with exercise and everything we do.”

When asked about the activities that contribute most to the well-being of participants, both leaders point in the same direction: social interaction.

“Social activities have the biggest impact, from the gentlemen who love playing cards to the ladies who enjoy chatting and sharing stories,” says Carina Paradela. “Physical exercise classes also contribute greatly to well-being. Outings, on the other hand—which are increasingly scarce due to high costs, undoubtedly have the greatest psychological impact.”

Alice Nunes agrees. “If I had to single out one specific activity, I would say exercise has the biggest impact. But what truly makes the greatest difference in their lives is socialization. Being part of a group, doing whatever it may be, as long as they are talking and spending time together.”

Men remain the hardest to bring in. At Abrigo, they are far fewer than women, and many only show up accompanied. “They are reluctant to join in certain activities, such as physical exercise or dancing. Some participate in theater, some sing,” describes Alice Nunes. The strategy, she notes, does not rely on the center itself: “We don’t really do persuasion work ourselves. I think the wives are the ones who do that. They come along to accompany their wives and end up benefiting immensely. Having someone bring them along is the best way to convince them.”

At First Portuguese, they take a different approach. “Some members are reluctant to participate, but with patience and a large dose of affection, we almost always manage to motivate them to join in,” says Carina Paradela.

The advice for those spending their days at home is the same from both leaders: seek out company. Carina Paradela recommends “a social day center, a safe space where they can socialize with others, stay connected to their language, gastronomy, and traditions, and combat the isolation that often comes with spending too much time alone at home.” She acknowledges that getting started is hard: “Sometimes the hardest part is taking that first step, but once they experience the environment and the people, they begin to enjoy it so much that they start coming of their own free will.”

Alice Nunes points out that the group does not have to be formal. She knows a retiree who “wakes up, goes to have coffee with a group at a Portuguese bakery,” returns home for lunch, and then goes out “for a walk to meet another group of friends.” And a group of ladies who gather every Friday morning at Dufferin Mall, with coffee and cake, just to chat. The conclusion is simple: “The advice is not to stay at home. It is to have a place, whatever place that may be, to do an activity like swimming or to join a group like ours.”

Regarding the needs of these community support centers, both directors highlight funding, but also awareness. “Financial support is undoubtedly one of our greatest needs,” states Carina Paradela. “However, there is also a lack of awareness about the existence of these centers and the benefits they bring, both physically and emotionally. It is important to demystify the idea that these spaces are only for those who are ‘old,’ as many people do not realize the opportunity they are missing to socialize, build bonds, and improve their quality of life.”

At Abrigo, the most pressing issue is capacity. “I have 70 people attending the group and a waiting list of about 20 to 30,” reveals Alice Nunes, who has been referring people to other day centers. Participants have already asked to open a fourth day beyond the current three, an option the center is reconsidering “even as a way to help those on the waiting list.” There is also a shortage of specialized responses for “people experiencing the early signs of cognitive decline, Alzheimer’s, or dementia from other causes.”

On the transportation front, Alice Nunes offers a positive assessment: Wheel-Trans “has been doing an excellent job” and “really helps those who can no longer take public transit on their own.” Financial backing, she emphasizes, keeps coming thanks to the community, local businesses, United Way, and benefactors like Manuel DaCosta.

More spots, more support, and more people aware that these spaces exist: this is the path both leaders outline so that retirement in the Portuguese community is lived in good company rather than closed off within four walls. For many retirees, the front door of the community’s day centers is the exit door from isolation. It is essential not to let this vital social support fade, and to raise awareness about the need to help those who help, making it possible for more people to take that first step toward a happier life.

Madalena Balça/MS

 

Retirement can be one of the most rewarding stages of life, offering greater freedom, opportunities to spend time with family and friends, and the chance to pursue interests that were difficult to fit into a busy working life. Yet retirement also brings changes that can influence physical, mental and social well-being. The important message is that retirement itself does not cause accelerated aging. Rather, it is how we prepare and adapt to the loss of work-related routines, physical activity, mental challenges and social relationships that can make a difference.

The good news is that many of these changes are preventable, and it is never too late to adopt habits that support healthy aging.

1 Retirement and sudden aging

We often hear about people who “age suddenly” after retirement. Is this a myth, or is there actually a medical explanation for why leaving the workforce accelerates aging?

There is some truth behind this observation, but it is important to recognize that retirement itself does not cause people to age more quickly. In fact, retirement can improve health by reducing workplace stress, physical demands and exhaustion. However, for some people, retirement brings changes in daily activities and routines that can contribute to a decline in physical and mental well-being.

During our working years, much of our daily life has a built-in structure. We get up at a particular time, move around, solve problems, interact with others and have responsibilities that provide a sense of purpose. Retirement can suddenly remove many of these activities.

If they are replaced by prolonged sitting, reduced social contact and fewer mental challenges, physical fitness and muscle strength can begin to decline. People may also experience changes in mood, motivation and confidence.

There is good medical evidence that prolonged inactivity contributes to loss of muscle strength, reduced cardiovascular fitness and declining physical function. Research also suggests that some people experience changes in memory and thinking following retirement, although the findings are mixed and retirement has not been proven to directly cause dementia.

Another important factor is whether retirement represents a positive new stage of life or a loss of identity, relationships and purpose.

My message would be that we do not necessarily age faster because we stop working; we may age less well if we stop being physically active, mentally engaged and socially connected.

The objective should not be to remain employed indefinitely, but to find new activities and responsibilities that give life structure, enjoyment and meaning.

2 Changes in the body and brain

What happens in the body and brain when we transition from an active life—with schedules, challenges, and daily interaction with others—to a more sedentary routine? What physical signs should serve as warning signals for both the individual and their family?

One of the most important changes associated with inactivity is the loss of muscle strength and physical conditioning. As we grow older, we naturally become more vulnerable to losing muscle mass and strength, particularly when we are inactive. This process can accelerate when someone moves from an active working life to spending much of the day sitting.

Over time, everyday activities such as climbing stairs, carrying groceries, rising from a chair or walking longer distances may become more difficult. Reduced activity can also affect balance, increasing the risk of falls.

The cardiovascular system is similarly affected. Regular movement helps maintain heart and lung fitness, blood pressure control and healthy blood sugar levels. When activity decreases, endurance can decline, weight may increase and the risk of diabetes and cardiovascular disease can rise.

The brain also benefits from stimulation. Work often involves planning, decision-making, problem-solving and regular interaction with others. When these activities disappear without being replaced, some people experience reduced mental stimulation, boredom or changes in mood.

Families should watch for changes such as increasing difficulty getting out of a chair, slower walking, reduced participation in previously enjoyed activities, increasing fatigue, unexplained weight loss, repeated falls, persistent low mood or noticeable changes in memory and everyday decision-making.

An especially important warning sign is when someone begins avoiding activities because they have become physically or mentally more difficult. This can create a vicious cycle: reduced activity leads to declining fitness and confidence, which in turn encourages further inactivity.

However, these changes should never simply be dismissed as normal aging. They may reflect treatable conditions, including depression, medication side effects, heart disease, nutritional problems or other illnesses.

A sudden change in memory, alertness or physical ability requires prompt medical assessment.

The encouraging message is that much of the decline associated with inactivity can be prevented or improved through regular movement, strengthening exercises, social participation and appropriate medical care.

3 Isolation loneliness and health

Isolation and loneliness are often highlighted as being as harmful to health as smoking or a sedentary lifestyle. What impact do they have on the body of a retiree, particularly regarding the heart, memory, and the risk of dementia?

Social connection is increasingly recognized as an essential component of good health, comparable in importance to physical activity, nutrition and sleep.

It is useful to distinguish between social isolation and loneliness. Social isolation means having relatively few social contacts, while loneliness is the distressing feeling that one’s relationships do not provide the connection or companionship one needs. A person can live alone without feeling lonely, or feel lonely despite being surrounded by people.

Research has consistently associated loneliness and social isolation with poorer physical and mental health. For example, large studies have found that people with poor social connections have approximately a 29% higher relative risk of heart disease and a 32% higher relative risk of stroke. Social isolation has also been associated with an increased risk of cognitive decline and dementia.

These figures represent associations across populations, rather than proof that loneliness directly causes these conditions in an individual.

Several mechanisms may contribute. Persistent loneliness can increase psychological stress, interfere with sleep and contribute to changes in blood pressure and the body’s stress responses. Socially isolated individuals may also become less physically active, eat less well or have fewer opportunities to recognize and address emerging health problems.

Social interaction is also an important source of mental stimulation. Conversations, shared activities, problem-solving and relationships help keep the brain engaged.

The underlying message is clear: prolonged social disconnection is a significant health concern. For retirees, maintaining meaningful relationships should therefore be considered an important part of a healthy lifestyle.

Regular contact with family and friends, community organizations, volunteering, faith communities, cultural activities and intergenerational programs can all help.

For many Portuguese-Canadian older adults, family gatherings, cultural traditions, community celebrations and local associations can provide particularly meaningful opportunities for connection and belonging.

It is not the number of social contacts that matters most, but the quality of relationships and the feeling of being included, supported and valued.

4 Retirement after physically demanding work

Many Portuguese people in Canada spent decades in physically demanding jobs, such as construction or cleaning. When they stop working, does the body “take its toll” for those years of hard labour? What special precautions should these individuals take during their transition into retirement?

This is a particularly important question for many people who immigrated to Canada and spent decades working in physically demanding occupations to support their families. Construction, cleaning, factory work and other manual occupations can place considerable demands on the body. Years of repetitive movements, heavy lifting, bending and prolonged standing may contribute to chronic back pain, joint problems, tendon injuries and other musculoskeletal conditions.

Sometimes these problems become more noticeable after retirement, when a person has more time to recognize longstanding symptoms or when changes in activity lead to loss of the muscle conditioning that previously helped them cope with physical demands.

However, it would be misleading to suggest that retirement suddenly causes the body to pay a price for years of hard work. Much of what people experience reflects the combined effects of previous occupational demands, age-related changes and their current health and activity levels.

There is also an important distinction between being physically active at work and exercising for health. Physically demanding work often involves repetitive movements, awkward positions and prolonged exertion with limited opportunities for recovery. By contrast, recreational exercise can be adjusted to improve cardiovascular fitness, strength, flexibility and balance without unnecessarily overloading the body.

For someone retiring from a physically demanding occupation, my recommendations would be to begin with a review of their overall health and physical function, particularly if they have chronic pain, cardiovascular disease or significant mobility limitations.

They should avoid the temptation to replace years of demanding work with complete inactivity. Instead, they should gradually develop a sustainable routine that includes walking, muscle strengthening, balance exercises and activities they enjoy. Swimming, cycling, gardening, walking and appropriately supervised exercise programs can all be beneficial, depending on individual abilities.

Physiotherapy may be particularly helpful for people with persistent joint or back problems, both to manage symptoms and to identify safe ways to remain active. Another important consideration is that retirement should provide an opportunity to enjoy activities that may previously have been difficult because of long working hours.

For retirees, this may include spending more time with grandchildren, gardening, participating in cultural and community activities, volunteering, travelling or enjoying recreational activities with friends.

The objective is not to continue working the body as hard as before, but to move from physically demanding work to physical activity that supports health, independence and enjoyment.

5 Habits for a healthy retirement

From a medical standpoint, what actually defines a healthy retirement? What habits concerning movement, nutrition, sleep, mental stimulation, and social life would you recommend to someone who wants to experience this stage of life with quality, and not just with more years?

From a geriatrician’s perspective, a healthy retirement is not defined simply by the absence of disease or by how many years someone lives after leaving work. It is better defined by the ability to continue doing the things that matter to them, maintain meaningful relationships, remain as independent as possible and enjoy a sense of purpose and belonging.

There are several important habits that can help achieve this.

Keep moving every day. The World Health Organization recommends that older adults aim for 150–300 minutes of moderate physical activity each week, such as brisk walking, along with muscle-strengthening activities at least twice weekly and regular balance exercises. For someone who has been inactive, even a 10-minute daily walk is a good starting point. The important thing is to begin safely and build gradually.

Pay attention to muscle strength. Maintaining strength is essential for independence. Simple exercises such as rising repeatedly from a chair, climbing stairs, using resistance bands or lifting light weights can help preserve the ability to manage daily activities. Exercises should be adapted to individual abilities and health conditions.

Eat well. A balanced diet should include vegetables, fruit, whole grains, beans, nuts, fish and other sources of protein. Adequate protein is particularly important for maintaining muscle. Traditional Portuguese foods such as vegetable soups, beans, fish, olive oil and fresh produce can fit very well within a healthy eating pattern. People should also maintain adequate hydration and avoid excessive alcohol consumption.

Maintain regular sleep habits. Most older adults benefit from approximately seven to nine hours of sleep, although individual needs vary. Keeping regular sleeping and waking times, being physically active during the day and limiting caffeine late in the day can help. Persistent insomnia, excessive daytime sleepiness or suspected sleep apnea should be assessed rather than accepted as unavoidable consequences of aging.

Keep the brain engaged. Reading, learning new skills, taking courses, playing music, participating in discussions and learning to use new technologies can provide valuable mental stimulation. Activities that are enjoyable, challenging and involve other people may be especially rewarding. No single puzzle or brain-training exercise has been proven to prevent dementia, so variety and continued engagement are important.

Stay socially connected and maintain a sense of purpose. Retirement should not mean withdrawing from community life. Volunteering, mentoring, helping others, participating in cultural or faith communities and spending time with family and friends can support emotional well-being and provide a continuing sense of contribution.

Continue preventive health care. Managing blood pressure, diabetes and cholesterol, avoiding smoking, addressing hearing and vision difficulties, reviewing medications and keeping up with recommended vaccinations and screening are also important for healthy aging, including brain health.

Finally, I encourage people approaching retirement to think about more than their finances. They should also develop a plan for their health, daily activities, relationships and interests.

Retirement is a major life transition. Like other important transitions, it benefits from preparation.

I would summarize healthy retirement around three simple principles: keep moving, keep thinking and keep connected.

The aim is not merely to add more years to life, but to add more life, meaning and enjoyment to those years.

Final message

Retirement should be viewed as an opportunity rather than an inevitable period of decline.

For many people, it offers the freedom to pursue interests, strengthen family and community relationships, and adopt healthier routines than were possible during busy working years.

The greatest risk is not retirement itself, but allowing inactivity, isolation and loss of purpose to gradually narrow one’s world.

The most successful retirement is not necessarily the one with the most rest. It is the one that provides the right balance of activity, recovery, relationships and purpose.

Madalena Balça/MS