S Nicole Lane

The sensationalized injectable drugs — Ozempic and Wegovy— have caused an uproar in the weight loss industry. From stirring up competition with companies like Noom and raising concerns for those recovering from eating disorders, this blockbuster hit is a quick fix with a laundry list of side effects.
Ozempic and Wegovy picked up popularity on TikTok as miracle drugs, an injectable weight loss cure, where users claimed they have lost up to 60 pounds.
However, now those same fans are reaping th...

Apple, Inc. is dipping their hands in artificial intelligence for the new iOS 17 for both the iPhone and iPad. The tech giant is creating a health coaching service that will track emotions and motivate users to exercise and eat well.
Currently codenamed, Quartz, the coaching service will utilize AI and data from apple watches to create a program that is specific for users. Quartz comes after Apple has been encouraged to focus more on health-oriented features related to the Apple watch and iPa...

The next longevity trend involves a kidney transplant drug, an immunosuppressant medication, that may hold more benefits than previously known. And biohackers are listening.
According to data-driven research, rapamycin, an FDA-approved drug to prevent organ rejection in kidney transplant patients, may help fight aging. However, the drug doesn't come without serious side effects.
Previous research has found that the drug can extend the lifespan of mice, yeast, worms, and flies — where one fly ...

What's the real deal regarding DNA sticking around in a woman's body long after vaginal sex? I discovered this interesting tidbit in a surprising way: reality TV. But is it true? In my Sunday morning daze, I clicked "play" on a guilty pleasure: "Too Hot to Handle," season four, a reality TV show featuring horny singles who must live together without partaking in any carnal desires. T...

About 13,000 new cases of cervical cancer are diagnosed annually, while 4,000 women succumb to the disease each year, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The people most at risk are Hispanic and Black women.
Anyone with a cervix could potentially develop cervical cancer. However, the average age at diagnosis is 50, and it's more likely to occur in people who have human papillomav...

Conservation, community, and a hole in the ice
From my hotel room in Fond du Lac, Wis., I see silver and black boxes glistening on 14-inch-thick ice. These are ice spearing shanties, nestled together like little towns across Lake Winnebago’s frozen surface, where yesterday thousands of hopefuls sawed into the ice to make their spearing holes.
Today, February 11, is the first day of the season that spears are allowed. From 7 a.m. to 1 p.m., spearers will stare into those depths waiting for a 1...

Games like Eroticissima spell the future of sex and romance. Get used to it.
During the first COVID-19 lockdown in 2020, Miyö Van Stenis was shocked at the limitations of male-dominated virtual reality porn and sex. She craved more interaction. She wanted something similar to Bumble or Tinder—tits, ass, and conversation—but through a VR headset. So the Venezuelan-born, Paris-based new media artist, curator, and indie game developer decided to do something about it.
Enter Eroticissima (Eros fo...

The nation’s oldest and longest-running college film society is located right under our noses on Chicago’s south side at the University of Chicago. In 1932, a group of film buffs living in International House—a nine-story Gothic building—began screening films in the dorm.
In 1940, they would move into Cobb Hall, which had a more traditional theater, where they gained their name “Doc” based on the films they were showing—”documentaries.” As time moved on, the group expanded their screenings to...

Reclaim your time by taking a break from your smartphone and truly connect with yourself and others.
When Amber*, 24, went on a phone break for only a few days, her friend panicked.
“I wanted time for myself, didn’t really feel like talking to anyone, and just didn’t feel like being on my phone,” Amber explained. “It was stressing me out a little bit, having to talk, reply, etc. I wanted to read and write, not be on my phone all day.”
But her friend didn’t appreciate the silence. “He left me ...

Hungarian writer and activist Karl Maria Kertbeny coined the term “homosexual” in 1869. While queer folks have existed forever—as well as queer art—this new language created an avalanche of same-sex fine art across all mediums and all over the globe.
The exhibition “The First Homosexuals: Global Depictions of New Identity, 1869-1930” takes viewers through an international historical maze of drawings, paintings, prints, photographs and films of the “first homosexual” artists. With more than a ...

In Her Hands starts 19 months before the fall of Kabul in 2021, when the Taliban—whose territory surrounded the capital of Afghanistan—captured the city where 4.6 million people live.
Tamana Ayazi and Marcel Mettelsiefen’s film centers on Zarifa Ghafari, the female mayor of Maidan Shahr, and her efforts to bring light to women’s rights and keep girls in school. The documentary, produced by Hillary and Chelsea Clinton, is a bold portrait of the youngest mayor in Afghanistan. We see her cry in ...

“Monochrome Multitudes” at the Smart Museum reimagines the ways and methods in which color and monochrome can be translated to the public. Red can be seen as rage, blue can be gendered and all color can be heard. The exhibition groups 120 works various sections and alcoves around similar themes. One grouping is self-reflective, another about monochrome sound, another looks at urban spaces, and one focuses on the body. While the themes are the same, the works range in material, color, context ...

Each piece in “Enter the Mirror” at the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago reflects on a trauma, an injustice, an unfortunate demise or a loss of life. The artworks in the show range from the 1970s to the mid-2010s, and include installation, video, sculpture, film, photography and painting. The truth of the works in the exhibition is difficult to face—it’s an entire room full of mourning.
Many works in the exhibition are drawn from the MCA’s collection and focus on the reality of our society ...

From pyramids to barefooting, water ski clubs have been a Wisconsin family tradition for sixty years.
In late August, I drove from Chicago to Twin Lakes, Wisconsin for the appropriately named Cornfest, where the $5 entrance fee earns you all-you-can-eat corn as well as legendary water performances. Propped up in folding chairs, a good friend and I sat amongst a group of around a hundred folks on the last day of the event. The three-day festival had already kicked off two days before—and as we...