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Good afternoon. Welcome to our new email: the Saturday Read Conversation, a periodic Q&A with a leading writer or thinker. First up is Helen Lewis, the deputy editor of the New Statesman from 2010 to 2018 and now a staff writer at The Atlantic. Helen was my first direct editor and I have long been guided by her take on things. “Great journalists aren’t made in the office,” she told me in 2014, a statement I took perhaps more literally than she meant it.

I was born in late September. I’m a Libra. My zodiac sign is “The Scales.” I really don’t know what that’s supposed to mean. The Scales is the only inanimate symbol of the zodiac. I really don’t know what that supposed to mean either. Or what that says about me. And it has absolutely nothing to do with the rest of this post. The justice system in America is having a moment.

In the late 19th century, New York City pulsed with potential and promise. Carrying just a suitcase and perhaps an address scribbled on a piece of paper, immigrants arrived by the thousands every day, seeking a new beginning in this "land of opportunity". Many came from Europe, particularly Italy, Ireland, and Germany; some fleeing economic hardship, others political chaos, but every single one of them motivated by the dream of a better life.

Imagine being so distraught following a sexual assault that you take the plunge and approach a counsellor that specialises in rape? These women have been a lifeline for victims since feminists like me set them up back in the 1970s. But a recent employment tribunal exposed how transgender activists were ruling the roost across Scotland, and running rape crisis centres, funded by public money, for their own twisted benefit. Distressed rape victims who expected to see female counsellors were told they were bigots and that the service was not for them.

“A few years ago, I might have chuckled at the naiveté of this question, but now it's not so crazy to think that we will be able to take some sort of medicine to extend our healthy lifespans in the foreseeable future.”—Coleen Murphy Share Ground Truths Transcript with external links Eric Topol (00:06): Hello, this is Eric Topol from Ground Truths, and I'm just so delighted to have with me Professor Coleen Murphy, who has written this exceptional book, How We Age: The Science of Longevity.

The Science of HittingThrough the TSOH Investment Research service, I provide complete access to my investment research process and portfolio decision-making. If you're looking for thoughtful analysis on high-quality public companies (stocks), this service is for you. ncG1vNJzZmirpZfAta3CpGWcp51kjbW0xKyaop2emLKwsseiq62hnpw%3D

Confidence and Joy is a newsletter by Emily and Amelia Nagoski. Subscribe here. You can also follow Emily on Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook! Amanda Blackie Parrish used to have a thriving sex drive, but not anymore. Interviewed by Cosmo about the search for a “pink pill” for women’s sexual dysfunction, she said she had previously experienced desire easily, but now that desire was gone. As she said in the article:

A while back, I read a profile of a prominent beauty industry personality known for “breaking down the science of skincare.” She teaches her followers to focus on “what actually matters,” the article said: “What’s inside the bottle.” This, perhaps unwittingly, is a perfect illustration of how the “the science of skincare,” as defined by the beauty media, is not about science or care. It’s about products. Over the past few years, Big Beauty has strategically co-opted science as a sales tactic.

This is the Weight and Healthcare newsletter! If you like what you are reading, please consider subscribing and/or sharing! In their zeal to medicalize and pathologize higher-weight bodies for profit, the weight loss industry (and the advocacy groups they fund, and the elements of healthcare they influence) have worked hard to claim that “ob*sity” is a disease and then manipulate the definitions of ob*sity to their best interest. Let’s look at some: