An engaging science-based “energy diet” that advocates for appropriate doses of sunshine.
Star power.
“Get sun. Not too much. Go outside.” That message from science writer Jacobsen pays tribute to food writer Michael Pollan’s famous advice about eating: “Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants.” In this well-written, thoroughly documented book, Jacobsen weaves personal anecdotes with decades of scientific research and experiments as well as interviews with scientists, indicating that regular exposure to natural sunlight can lead to increased brain activity and improved mood and cognition. Using sun exposure to help patients improve their health is a medical approach called heliotherapy, popular in the 1920s until the 1980s, when concerns about possible links between skin cancers and sun exposure made people avoid the sun and slather on SPF lotions, helping fund a $200-million-a-year industry. But most of those concerns have largely been disproven, Jacobsen says. Of the various types of skin cancers, “the common ones aren’t very deadly, and the deadly ones aren’t very common.” The amount of sunlight each of us needs is not a “one-size-fits-all” approach but should be considered for individual skin types—fair skin can benefit from lesser amounts of sunshine than darker skin, but the main message from researchers is “just don’t get burnt.” Sunscreen should offer broad-spectrum coverage (both UVB and UVA rays). SPF15 is probably sufficient for most people, and anything higher than SPF30 is blocking out vital Vitamin D. Skin, writes Jacobsen, is “the organ that set[s] the tone for the functioning of the entire body,” and sunlight helps skin do its job by stimulating a molecule known as POMC, which increases production of melanin, a skin-protecting antioxidant; initiates the production of cortisol, making you more alert; and delivers endorphins to the brain, improving both mood and cognition. For the best overall approach, the advice is simple: Get outside every day (morning light is best), let natural light into your home or workplace, and go as dark as possible when it’s time to sleep.
An engaging science-based “energy diet” that advocates for appropriate doses of sunshine.Pub Date: June 16, 2026
ISBN: 9781668092163
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Scribner
Review Posted Online: April 6, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2026
The lessons to draw are obvious: Smoke more dope, eat less meat. Like-minded readers will dig it.
The chef, rapper, and TV host serves up a blustery memoir with lashings of self-help.
“I’ve always had a sick confidence,” writes Bronson, ne Ariyan Arslani. The confidence, he adds, comes from numerous sources: being a New Yorker, and more specifically a New Yorker from Queens; being “short and fucking husky” and still game for a standoff on the basketball court; having strength, stamina, and seemingly no fear. All these things serve him well in the rough-and-tumble youth he describes, all stickball and steroids. Yet another confidence-builder: In the big city, you’ve got to sink or swim. “No one is just accepted—you have to fucking show that you’re able to roll,” he writes. In a narrative steeped in language that would make Lenny Bruce blush, Bronson recounts his sentimental education, schooled by immigrant Italian and Albanian family members and the mean streets, building habits good and bad. The virtue of those habits will depend on your take on modern mores. Bronson writes, for example, of “getting my dick pierced” down in the West Village, then grabbing a pizza and smoking weed. “I always smoke weed freely, always have and always will,” he writes. “I’ll just light a blunt anywhere.” Though he’s gone through the classic experiences of the latter-day stoner, flunking out and getting arrested numerous times, Bronson is a hard charger who’s not afraid to face nearly any challenge—especially, given his physique and genes, the necessity of losing weight: “If you’re husky, you’re always dieting in your mind,” he writes. Though vulgar and boastful, Bronson serves up a model that has plenty of good points, including his growing interest in nature, creativity, and the desire to “leave a legacy for everybody.”
The lessons to draw are obvious: Smoke more dope, eat less meat. Like-minded readers will dig it.Pub Date: April 20, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-4197-4478-5
Page Count: 184
Publisher: Abrams
Review Posted Online: May 5, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2021
Skloot's meticulous, riveting account strikes a humanistic balance between sociological history, venerable portraiture and...
A dense, absorbing investigation into the medical community's exploitation of a dying woman and her family's struggle to salvage truth and dignity decades later.
In a well-paced, vibrant narrative, Popular Science contributor and Culture Dish blogger Skloot (Creative Writing/Univ. of Memphis) demonstrates that for every human cell put under a microscope, a complex life story is inexorably attached, to which doctors, researchers and laboratories have often been woefully insensitive and unaccountable. In 1951, Henrietta Lacks, an African-American mother of five, was diagnosed with what proved to be a fatal form of cervical cancer. At Johns Hopkins, the doctors harvested cells from her cervix without her permission and distributed them to labs around the globe, where they were multiplied and used for a diverse array of treatments. Known as HeLa cells, they became one of the world's most ubiquitous sources for medical research of everything from hormones, steroids and vitamins to gene mapping, in vitro fertilization, even the polio vaccine—all without the knowledge, must less consent, of the Lacks family. Skloot spent a decade interviewing every relative of Lacks she could find, excavating difficult memories and long-simmering outrage that had lay dormant since their loved one's sorrowful demise. Equal parts intimate biography and brutal clinical reportage, Skloot's graceful narrative adeptly navigates the wrenching Lack family recollections and the sobering, overarching realities of poverty and pre–civil-rights racism. The author's style is matched by a methodical scientific rigor and manifest expertise in the field.
Skloot's meticulous, riveting account strikes a humanistic balance between sociological history, venerable portraiture and Petri dish politics.Pub Date: Feb. 9, 2010
ISBN: 978-1-4000-5217-2
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: Dec. 22, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2010
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