Drugs

Washington Post - President Donald Trump on Saturday ordered new efforts to boost federal research into psychedelics and make the drugs available in controlled therapeutic settings, flanked by military veterans who said the move would save lives....

Some attendees characterized Trump’s move as a turning point in the federal “war on drugs” begun by the Nixon administration nearly 60 years ago.

“Federal prohibition of psychedelic medicine in America is over,” said W. Bryan Hubbard, an advocate for access to ibogaine, a psychedelic that is illegal in the United States but available in other countries, such as Mexico.

Under the president’s executive order, the Food and Drug Administration will support new clinical trials for ibogaine, psilocybin and other drugs that are known as serotonin receptors, and move swiftly to approve drugs deemed to be safe and effective. The drugs, which also include LSD and MDMA, can cause hallucinogenic effects and are illegal in the United States. 

Some drug policy experts criticized Trump’s plan, warning that expanding access to the substances could have unintended public health consequences. Kevin Sabet, who was a White House drug policy adviser across three presidential administrations, said the order will “send the wrong message” by encouraging hasty, potentially dangerous research.

Health

Jacobin -   Mexico’s new national health system aims to provide universal care. At a moment when US taxpayer dollars are being harnessed to destroy health care infrastructure abroad, Mexico is attempting to make a constitutional right to care into a reality

Congressional Insider - A major European study tracking over 10,000 aging adults has upended the mainstream narrative about loneliness and cognitive decline, revealing that while isolation hurts memory now, it doesn’t actually speed up the brain’s aging process—challenging decades of assumptions and raising questions about how public health officials have been framing this growing crisis.

Health - To examine the link between home cooking and dementia, researchers turned to the Japan Gerontological Evaluation Study, an ongoing program that has tracked Japanese adults ages 65 and older since 1999. The team analyzed data from nearly 11,000 participants over six years, looking at how many people developed dementia, how often they cooked at home, and how they rated their cooking skills.

A clear pattern emerged: Participants who cooked at home at least once a week experienced significantly less cognitive decline than those who cooked less often. 

Men who cooked regularly had a 23% lower risk of dementia, while women saw an even larger reduction, at 27%. People who started out with minimal cooking skills seemed to benefit the most, with a 67% lower incidence of dementia. The link held even when researchers accounted for lifestyle and socioeconomic factors.

Businesses

WalletHub - WalletHub today released its report on 2026’s Best Large Cities to Start a Business, as well as expert commentary, in order to help entrepreneurs find the right places for their startups to thrive. WalletHub compared 100 U.S. cities across 19 key indicators of startup viability. The data set ranges from the five-year business-survival rate to labor costs to office-space affordability.
 

Best Large Cities to Start a Business
1. Tampa, FL	11. Dallas, TX
2. Orlando, FL	12. Atlanta, GA
3. Jacksonville, FL	13. Phoenix, AZ
4. Hialeah, FL	14. Charlotte, NC
5. St. Petersburg, FL	15. North Las Vegas, NV
6. Durham, NC	16. Irving, TX
7. Raleigh, NC	17. Henderson, NV
8. Tulsa, OK	18. Chandler, AZ
9. Oklahoma City, OK	19. Indianapolis, IN
10. Miami, FL	20. Mesa, AZ

Best vs. Worst

• Toledo, Ohio, has the lowest average annual rent for office space, which is 6.7 times cheaper than in San Francisco, the city with the highest.
   
• Detroit has the lowest labor costs (median annual income), which is 4.5 times lower than in Fremont, California, the city with the highest.
   
• Oklahoma City, have the lowest cost-of-living index, which is 2.3 times lower than in Honolulu, the city with the highest.
   
• Miami and Hialeah, Florida, have the most startups per 100,000 residents, which is three times more than in Toledo, Ohio, the city with the fewest.

 To view the full report and your city’s rank, 

Middle East

 What is it like to negotiate with Iran? NPR spoke with people who have done it before. 

Middle East crisis live: ceasefire under pressure as Iran says it has no plans for talks after US seizes ship

Oil & gas

The Hill - President Trump told The Hill on Monday that he disagreed with Energy Secretary Chris Wright’s assessment that gas prices may not drop below $3 per gallon until next year. 

Bloomberg - At the pump, US gas prices may remain at $3 per gallon or even higher until next year, Energy Secretary Chris Wright told CNN. That’s at odds with Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent’s more upbeat outlook for relief by the summer. He said last week he was “optimistic” that prices will ease over the crucial summer driving season.

NBC News - The price of oil jumped sharply and stock futures tumbled last night as traders digested renewed tensions over the Strait of Hormuz.

Donald Trump

Alternet - President Donald Trump claimed he would “drain the swamp” upon being elected, but a new report on a lavish party to be held at his Mar-a-Lago estate contradicts the promises of reform embedded in that claim: The top 297 investors in his meme coin $Trump will attend an April 25th “conference” at the swanky mansion.  “According to the invitation, the top 29 holders of $TRUMP will have a ‘VIP Reception with YOUR FAVORITE PRESIDENT, and other Superstar guests!’” reported The Daily Beast's Mary Papenfuss on Sunday. “Join the ‘most exclusive crypto and business finance conference in the world,’ the announcement gushes.”

Epstein case

NBC News - More than two decades after she was sexually abused at Jeffrey Epstein’s New Mexico ranch, Rachel Benavidez is still waiting for someone to be held responsible for crimes there. “Until survivors are heard and believed, then I don’t think there’s ever going to be any justice,” Benavidez, 52, said in an interview.

She is among at least 10 girls and young women who have alleged they were groomed or assaulted at Zorro Ranch beginning in the late 1990s. They overcame paralyzing fear to share their ordeals again and again — yet authorities have never fully investigated what happened at the ranch.

Benavidez says she would willingly tell investigators what she endured. Even though Epstein is long dead and his chief accomplice, Ghislaine Maxwell, is in prison, she says more people need to be held accountable.

“I don’t think it’s too late for the truth to come out,” Benavidez said. Full story

The Guardian - In the days since Pam Bondi’s exit from Donald Trump’s justice department, Jeffrey Epstein survivors and transparency advocates have been confronted by mixed messaging, prompting questions about whether a full accounting of his crimes would ever be revealed.

Legal veterans told the Guardian that authorities’ decisions – such as Bondi’s failure to appear for a congressional subpoena about her handling of Epstein investigative files – portend poorly for accountability. Moreover, her replacement’s comments about the status of Epstein investigations has been perceived by some as an effort to acknowledge prior missteps without presenting definitive solutions.

...Trump’s Department of Justice, now helmed temporarily by his former criminal defense attorney Todd Blanche, had told the House oversight committee that Bondi would not appear for the 14 April hearing. Committee members said they were told this non-appearance was because Bondi “is no longer attorney general and was subpoenaed in her capacity as attorney general”.

A committee spokesperson said: “Since Pam Bondi is no longer attorney general, Chairman Comer will speak with Republican members and the Department of Justice about the status of the deposition subpoena and confer on next steps.”

....Robert Garcia, the ranking Democrat on the committee, vowed that his colleagues would take action after Bondi failed to appear. “Pam Bondi is evading a lawful congressional subpoena by failing to appear before the oversight committee for a deposition about the Epstein files and the White House cover-up,” he said in a statement. “She must appear before the committee, and if she continues to ignore the law, Oversight Democrats will move forward with contempt proceedings immediately.”

Meanwhile. . .

The Hill - The Department of Justice (DOJ) is seeking 2024 election ballots from the Detroit area in the latest development of its investigations into alleged voter fraud, The Washington Post reported. It comes after officials seized ballots in Georgia and election records in Arizona from the 2020 election

The Guardian - A man killed eight children and wounded two adults in a mass shooting in the Louisiana city of Shreveport, in what police called a “domestic violence incident”. Chris Bordelon, the Shreveport police department spokesperson, said on Sunday evening that the suspect, Shamar Elkins, killed seven of his own children and wounded their mother, as well as killing another child.

Bookshops

Guardian  - About 422 new indie bookshops opened in 2025, according to the American Booksellers Association, a 31% rise from 2024. Countless independent restaurants, coffee shops, fitness centers, movie theaters, clothing stores and other small businesses also continue to thrive even in this era of ever-bigger retailers, fast-casual restaurants and massive e-commerce platforms.

Donald Trump

A new watchdog report from the Government Accountability Oversight Project alleges that President Donald Trump directed $3 billion in federal funds toward his own properties and political allies. The report claims this was achieved through a series of classified security agreements and no-bid contracts authorized during his final year in office. Investigators suggest that emergency national security designations allowed these properties to receive federal payments at rates significantly higher than market value.The most substantial allegation involves a $1.2 billion security agreement at Mar-a-Lago, an amount that reportedly exceeds the security budget of any private residence in U.S. history. While the Trump legal team has dismissed these findings as a partisan attack, federal investigators are currently reviewing the data. If verified, this would represent the largest alleged self-dealing scheme by a president in the history of the United States.Critics have noted that the funds in question were drawn from the national treasury, which traditionally supports essential services such as veterans' hospitals and disaster relief. While no formal charges have been filed, the scale of the alleged diverted funds has sparked intense debate over executive accountability. The Government Accountability Office has yet to issue a formal comment on the specific findings of the report.

MSN - President Donald Trump has crossed from grandiosity into full-blown psychosis, psychologist Dr. John Gartner has warned.  Gartner, a former professor at Johns Hopkins University, told The Daily Beast Podcast that the 79-year-old president is engaged in “magical thinking,” as evidenced by his belief—as reported by Dr. Mehmet Oz—that Diet Coke kills cancer cells.

“It’s something that, again, we associate with psychosis. We also associate it with young children. Freud called it ‘primary process.’ It’s kind of the most primitive type of thinking, where if you imagine it, it must be true. But this is just magical thinking. Anything that occurs to him—any stray, crazy thought—is true,” Gartner told host Joanna Coles.

James Tate  - A new watchdog report from the Government Accountability Oversight Project alleges that President Donald Trump directed $3 billion in federal funds toward his own properties and political allies. The report claims this was achieved through a series of classified security agreements and no-bid contracts authorized during his final year in office. Investigators suggest that emergency national security designations allowed these properties to receive federal payments at rates significantly higher than market value.

The most substantial allegation involves a $1.2 billion security agreement at Mar-a-Lago, an amount that reportedly exceeds the security budget of any private residence in U.S. history. While the Trump legal team has dismissed these findings as a partisan attack, federal investigators are currently reviewing the data. If verified, this would represent the largest alleged self-dealing scheme by a president in the history of the United States.

Huffington Post - President Donald Trump went on a climate change denial rant at a Turning Point USA event in Arizona on Friday, claiming, without evidence, that the Earth is actually getting cooler, despite March producing record-breaking temperatures for the United States.

“You know the green new scam, one of the greatest scams in history, remember?” Trump said. “Climate change, global warming, all of this, they actually had global warming, remember that wasn’t working because we were actually cooling as a planet. Then they had another one and another one and another one, and they were wrong, and then they just said climate change, because climate change takes care of heat, snow, whatever.”

The irony of the president’s speech taking place in Phoenix, Arizona, one of the hottest cities in the country, apparently escaped Trump — as were recent reports that showed this March was the hottest March on record and the most abnormally hot month in the 132 years of records, according to federal weather data.

April 2025 to March 2026 was also the hottest 12-month period on record for the continental U.S, according to data from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

Kath Patel

Headline USA - FBI Director Kashyap Patel’s lawyer said Friday that they intend to sue The Atlantic for publishing a story that portrays Patel has a slovenly drunkard. Patel’s lawyer, Jesse Binnall, posted a letter that he sent to The Atlantic before the article’s publication. The letter denied numerous allegations in the report, including that Patel drinks “to the point of apparent intoxication,” that he has difficulty walking when he’s wasted, and that his behavior is threatening public safety.

American life expectancy lags

Institute for New Economic Thinking  - For all the talk about American exceptionalism, here’s a shocking truth: when it comes to health and longevity, the U.S. has been losing ground for decades. Not just behind wealthy nations, but behind less affluent countries. Even poor ones. The gap isn’t shrinking; it’s widening.

That’s what public health researcher Steven H. Woolf, professor of family medicine at Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond, has documented. By 2019, just before COVID-19 hit, U.S. life expectancy ranked 40th among the world’s most populous countries, trailing places like Albania and Lebanon. The pandemic only made things worse: by 2020, the U.S. had fallen to 46th, as six more nations overtook it.

Woolf hasn’t just compared the U.S. to wealthy countries like Canada, Germany, or the U.K. He looked at life expectancy across dozens of nations with very different histories and economies, and the results are startling. The U.S. began falling behind as early as the 1950s, with countries in Europe, Asia, and the Middle East steadily overtaking it.

If you were born in Albania today, you’d have a longer life expectancy than if you were born in the United States — and that’s been true for several years. Let that sink in.

Woolf argues that America’s exceptionalism is not about health but rather how it’s approached. Policy choices, social conditions, and deep inequalities are driving a health disadvantage that hits hardest in the Midwest and South, where life expectancy has stalled or even declined while other nations, and some U.S. states, keep moving.

Trump Regime

Joyce Vance - The Justice Department has moved to drop the last remaining January 6 insurrection criminal matters: the Oath Keepers and Proud Boys seditious conspiracy cases....On the first day of his second term, Trump issued full pardons to more than 1500 people who overran the Capitol on January 6. Then he commuted the sentences of 14 of the Proud Boys and Oath Keepers defendants, the people convicted of the most serious January 6-related offense, seditious conspiracy. Getting clemency got them out of prison, but it didn’t erase their convictions.

So earlier this week, Trump’s U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia, Jeanine Pirro, moved to vacate the convictions of prominent insurrectionists including Stewart Rhodes and Ethan Nordean. She wrote that doing so was “in the interests of justice.”

Meanwhile. . .

 AP - A federal judge dismissed President Donald Trump’s $10 billion defamation lawsuit against the Wall Street Journal and Rupert Murdoch on Monday over a story on his ties to Jeffrey Epstein. U.S. District Judge Darrin P. Gayles in Florida wrote in the order that Trump had failed to make the argument that the article was published with the intent to be malicious, but gave the president a chance to file an amended complaint.

Trump regime vs a free press

Under the Trump administration, getting access to the military has become increasingly challenging. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth put heavy restrictions on reporters. Journalists were required to sign a document that warned they could lose their Pentagon press credentials for "soliciting" even unclassified information that had not been approved for release.

My colleague, NPR Pentagon Correspondent Tom Bowman, who had a Pentagon press pass for 28 years, gave it up rather than sign that document, as did reporters from every other reputable news organization. 

The New York Times later filed a lawsuit against the policy, and a federal judge recently ruled it unconstitutional. The Pentagon has vowed to appeal. 

Policies like that have had a major chilling effect on service members’ willingness to speak to journalists, according to free speech advocates and constitutional experts. 

Despite these challenges, Tom and I have noticed that when we do hear from people, we are increasingly hearing about a growing disquiet in the ranks. 

I first started hearing murmurings while reporting on Trump’s deployment of the National Guard to several U.S. cities last year. I flew to Ohio to meet with several guard members who had started an encrypted group chat to talk about how unsettled they were feeling about the Guard deployments. 

NPR - Over the months, I compared what I was hearing with Tom, as we chatted in the newsroom. He’d been hearing many of the same sentiments — concern over the legality of U.S. strikes on boats in the Caribbean or the dismantling of diversity, equity and inclusion programs within the military.

When the U.S. and Israel launched a war against Iran at the end of February, and thousands of additional American troops were deployed to the Middle East, we started checking back in with service members and groups who work with them. Those we spoke with told us that some service members were deeply concerned and demoralized, and many were looking for ways to leave. The Pentagon pushed back on claims about retention being a problem. 

Workers

Washington Post - Connecticut lawmakers are considering a bill that would impose new limits on how grocery stores use self-checkout systems. Micromanagers in Hartford are seeking to cap the number of machines in each store and force nonunion stores to adopt union policies to purportedly improve customer service and worker protections. But the proposed crackdown on automation could lead to rising costs for stores and limited services for shoppers.

The bill would restrict self-checkout stations to eight per store, require one staffed checkout lane for every two automated stations and mandate one employee for every two machines. Connecticut would be among the first jurisdictions in the country to implement such strict rules governing retail checkout operations, despite self-checkout technology being used by grocery stores for more than 25 years.

Middle East

MS NOW - Although the U.S. and Iran dispute who exactly controls the Strait of Hormuz, a shaky ceasefire seems to be holding for now. Trump’s broader objectives, meanwhile, have at times appeared inconsistent, sometimes emphasizing regime change and at other times focusing on preventing Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon. Retired Vice Admiral Robert S. Harward argues Trump cannot afford to lose sight of the threat posed by Iran’s current leadership. Without a change in regime, the former deputy commander of U.S. Central Command writes, there can be no pathway to lasting peace. Read more. 

Housing

NPR -A group of current and former employees of the Department of Housing and Urban Development is accusing the Trump administration of blocking enforcement of federal fair housing laws. Last fall, two HUD civil rights lawyers were fired after going to Congress with concerns that the agency was unlawfully restricting fair housing enforcement. One of the lawyers, Paul Osadebe, says "it's still happening" six months later. "We're not being allowed to help the people that we're supposed to be serving," he tells NPR

The Hill - Young adults are struggling to break into the housing market, facing historically high barriers to homeownership and falling behind previous generations. A survey released by real estate brokerage Redfin in January found that 38.3 percent of 28-year-olds owned their home last year, less than the 42.5 percent of Gen Xers and 44.4 percent of baby boomers who owned their home at that age.

“They’re just having trouble affording housing in general, and that just makes the prospect of owning a home feel unachievable for them,” Redfin chief economist Daryl Fairweather told The Hill Wednesday, referring to young adults.

A report released this week by the White House Council of Economic Advisers (CEA) found that homeownership rates declined for every five-year age group from 21-25 to 66-70 from 2000 to 2023. That includes a 5.1-percent drop for ages 31-35 and a 5.4-percent decline for ages 36-40.

Polls

NBC News - Overall, 37% of adults approve of Trump's performance as president, while 63% disapprove — including 50% who said they disapprove strongly — putting his job rating at the lowest point of his second term in NBC News Decision Desk polling. Two-thirds of respondents also disapproved of Trump's handling of the economy and the Iran conflict.

Black staffer suing Trump regime, claiming it was because of race

New Republic - A Black former federal employee is suing the Trump administration, claiming he was fired because of his race.  Alvin Brown, a Democratic member of the National Transportation Safety Board nominated by President Biden, was fired from his post in May 2025. In his lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court on Tuesday, Brown said that political differences couldn’t have been the main reason for his firing from the NTSB. Brown’s lawyers, who work for the Democracy Forward Foundation, also claim that 75 percent of Black officials at independent agencies have been fired under Trump.

...  The lawsuit also points to people of color being dismissed at agencies including the National Labor Relations Board, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, the Federal Reserve, and the Library of Congress. The lawsuit cited Trump’s attacks on diversity, equity, and inclusion programs and the fact that Brown’s replacement, John DeLeeuw, is white.

Climate

Climate Crisis - The United States is in the midst of one of its worst droughts in years. According to the U.S. Drought Monitor, 60% of land area in the Lower 48 are reporting a moderate drought or worse – the largest share since November 2022. With the summer months rapidly approaching, dangerously dry conditions across the country are setting the stage for a potentially devastating wildfire season. In the last decade, wildfires have directly resulted in 383 fatalities and another 638 injuries in the United States, according to the National Weather Service. 

Financial Times -  The US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration reported last week that the month of March was the warmest for the contiguous US in its 132 year record. The April 2025–March 2026 period now stands as the warmest 12-month span recorded since 1895.

The heat is worsening the country’s drought, which has spread to 60 per cent of the US, according to the National Drought Mitigation Center — or the widest extent of drought in early April since the center began monitoring in 2000.

Home foreclosures surging

Occupy Democrats - Home foreclosures surge  26% as Trump tries to sell false narrative of a “booming economy.” 

....A new report from ATTOM, one of the nation's leading property data firms, reveals that 118,727 American families received a foreclosure filing in just the first three months of 2026 — up 26 percent from a year ago and up 6 percent from just last quarter. Foreclosure starts are up 20 percent year over year. And in the most alarming number in the entire report, bank repossessions — meaning families who have already lost their homes entirely — are up 45 percent compared to this time last year.

That’s forty-five percent in one year under the administration that promised to make America affordable again.....

In Indiana, one in every 739 homes has a foreclosure filing — the worst rate in the nation. In South Carolina and Florida, the numbers are nearly as grim. In Lakeland, Florida, one in every 409 homes is in foreclosure. In Colorado, bank repossessions nearly tripled year over year — jumping from 99 to 321. In Georgia, foreclosures are up 78 percent from last year. In Idaho, 76 percent. In Arkansas, 65 percent.

Polls

InteractivePolls  - YouGov poll

Harris: 24% (+4)
Newsom: 12% (-5)
AOC: 9% (=)
Buttigieg: 9% (+1)
Sanders: 7% (=)

Axios - Older Republicans and white evangelicals are the last groups to hold majority favorable views of Israel, according to new Pew polling. For every other group, Israel's favorability has collapsed since 2022:

• ⬇️ Down 31 points among older Democrats (ages 50+).
• ⬇️ Down 22 points among both younger Republicans/GOP leaners and younger Dems/Dem leaners.
• ⬇️ Down 14 points among Protestants, 23 among Catholics and 20 among the religiously unaffiliated.

Even white evangelical support, which was at 80% in 2022, has slid by 15 points.

Pew Research -Seven-in-ten Americans say President Donald Trump is not too or not at all religious, up from 62% in fall 2024, according to a survey conducted April 6-12. At the same time, many Republicans and White evangelical Protestants say Trump stands up for people with religious beliefs like theirs.

The health of America’s democracy declined in 2025, according to new evaluations from three organizations that have long tracked how democracies around the world are functioning. Nearly seven-in-ten Americans, including majorities in both parties, say the U.S. used to be a good example of democracy but hasn’t been in recent years.

Supreme Court's "shadow docket" 

Health

NBC News - Rotavirus, a highly contagious, fast-moving virus that is especially dangerous for babies and young children, has been rising across the U.S. since January, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says. With infection rates higher now than this time last year, doctors have fresh concerns that declining vaccinations could lead to more severe illness and a higher surge in the coming years

The Hill - President Trump’s selection of a longtime civil servant and public health veteran to run the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is the strongest signal yet that the administration is shifting away from a rhetoric of vaccine skepticism ahead of the midterm elections.

The Great American GLP-1 Experiment

Donald Trump

Congressional Insider - President Trump unleashed a scathing attack on four prominent conservative media figures who helped propel him to power, branding them “losers” and “troublemakers” in a nearly 500-word Truth Social tirade that reveals a deepening fracture within the America First movement.

Trump publicly attacked Tucker Carlson, Megyn Kelly, Candace Owens, and Alex Jones on Truth Social, calling them “stupid people” with “low IQs” running “Third Rate Podcasts”

The April post accuses former allies of opposing him over Iran policy, claiming they support Iranian nuclear weapons amid ongoing U.S.-Iran conflict

....The public feud exposes growing divisions within conservative ranks over foreign policy and what constitutes authentic MAGA principles

The Hill - The feud between President Trump and Pope Leo XIV this week marked yet another unprecedented moment in history, with the president becoming the first U.S. leader to publicly lock horns with the head of the Roman Catholic church in modern times. Leo’s status as the first American pope makes the episode even more unique. 

For weeks the pontiff had voiced veiled criticism of Trump’s immigration policies, but it was the pope’s criticism of the U.S. war in Iran that drew the president’s ire leading to a Truth Social post that criticized Leo for being “weak on crime and terrible for foreign policy.” 

ts agree Trump’s comments criticizing the pope likely won’t directly impact Republicans running in midterms, but they likely won’t help them either. 

Iran

NY Times - Iran’s Military Says It Has Reimposed ‘Strict Control’ of Strait of Hormuz The military said it would keep the vital waterway under its control until the U.S. ended its blockade of Iranian ports. The statement added to the uncertainty over access to the strait.

Growing number of US singles

NY Times - The growing number of U.S. singles indicates she’s in good company. As of 2023, the last data available from Pew Research Center, there were about 111 million single adults ages 18 and up in the United States. That was a sizable increase from 70 million in 1990. More

The mental effect of GLP-1 drugs

Washington Post - Korrie Stevenson had been feeling off for months. She would look at a gorgeous birthday cake or walk outside to a pink-and-purple streaked sunset, but not really enjoy them. The 51-year-old mother of two had similar feelings about sports, something she had loved since she was a child....

“Like you’re trying to be excited about a moment but can’t fully connect to it,” she said.

Then one day, she was driving near her home in Winter Park, Florida, when the thought came to her: Was it a side effect of her GLP-1 medication?

Doctors say they’ve begun hearing similar accounts: a kind of emotional flattening, a dulled response not just to food but to other sources of joy such as reading, listening to music, dancing, gardening — or even sex. Some users also blamed the medications for falling out of love. Online, the phenomenon has taken on a name — anhedonia — and, more colloquially, “Ozempic personality.”

.... The new class of GLP-1 drugs — built around compounds that mimic hormones involved in appetite and blood-sugar regulation — are generally considered safe. Their metabolic effects have been scrutinized in studies, but their psychological impact is far less understood.