The Rumpelstiltskin Effect

Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has said that America is the “sickest country in the world,” citing that 76.4% of Americans suffer from a chronic disease. And maybe so. But Alan Levinovitz says that getting a diagnosis relieves symptoms. It’s a medical and psychological phenomenon called the Rumpelstiltskin Effect. Levinovitz says that an official diagnosis gives people a name for what they’re experiencing and takes them off of the book for their suffering and shortcomings. Even self-diagnosis brings relief.

We have a Greek comic to thank for our favorite sitcoms. Mitchell Brown says that the Greek comic Menander was the first to put day-to-day life and relationships on center stage.

Thousands of enslaved men, women and children began working in railroads, coal mills and ironworks when Richmond, Virginia transformed into a major manufacturing hub in the mid-19th century. Businesses started to sell life insurance policies on enslaved people working industrial environments. Michelle Oliver explains how these enslaved life insurance policies reduced commodified enslaved people, dead or alive.