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Killing the mood: smartphones reduce birth rate, studies say

This is somewhat surprising to me, since smartphones seem to be just about the only way that people meet and interact with other human beings at this point

Gen Z is rejecting $200 dates and choosing ‘solo-maxxing’—and dating apps are taking a hit

That’s not going to help that whole birth rate thing either. Maybe we should come up with a list of good, but economical date ideas

More Stories Below, but first some new content in the News Sidequest Podcast Universe…

Auditory Anthology

SCI-FI SHORT STORIES - NARRATED BY DARREN MARLAR & PRODUCED BY KEITH CONRAD

Tales From the Blue Line - The Copy Room - A young intern at a prestigious firm discovers that the office printer is surreptitiously editing her work into a version that is significantly better than her own, leaving her to wonder if she is being haunted by a ghost or by her own suppressed potential.

Tales From The Blue Line: Every morning at three, Mason and Ally ride the Blue Line into downtown Chicago together. The train brings out its own brand of weird, which has led to Mason and Ally trading spooky stories to help their commute pass a little faster.

Tales From the Blue Line - The Copy Room Keith Conrad / Darren Marlar Episode

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Also Worth A Look…

• Former Air Canada pilot charged after allegedly flying without proper license for 16 years - You get a little bit behind, the mail starts piling up on your desk and before you know it, you’ve been flying with an expired pilots license for 16 years. We’ve all been there

• Scientists Discover Fear Memory Pathway In Female Brains That Males Don’t Appear To Use - Judging by the state of things, that’s probably not the only part of the brain that women use but men don’t

• What If You Could Get The Benefits Of Sleep Without Actually Sleeping? - I’ll just go ahead and stick with sleeping the old fashioned way

• Spoofed Texts Can Infiltrate Existing Conversations Undetected, Security Study Finds - Basically, we’re going to a point where literally every interaction is in danger of being a scam of some kind

• Study Links Late-Night Eating and Stress to Poorer Gut Health - If you don’t sleep well and constantly stressed, it’ll have a negative impact on your health. That doesn’t seem like much of a stretch

• Man in Texas is accused of using a fake boarding pass to get on a United flight to Los Angeles - It’s hard to believe that’s still possible today. Remember that the next time you’re stuck in the TSA line for an hour

• Woolly mammoth among trove of ancient DNA found in squirrel poo - That’s a headline I definitely didn’t expect to see in 2026

• Shark attack surge: 3 dead in Australia in under a month - Mayor Vaughn wants you to know the beaches will still be open for the 4th of July

• A Pepper Shortage May Hurt Hot-Sauce Supplies - At this point it would probably be much easier to create a list of things that aren’t going through shortages

• Florida man arrested for burglary while en route to court for another burglary charge: police - He might want to try a new line of work. It really seems like he’s not very good at burglary. At least burglary without getting caught