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The presidential candidate’s mother, Shyamala Gopalan Harris, was a breast cancer researcher whose egalitarian politics often bucked a patriarchal lab culture. (Mueller, 10/28)

Here’s the paradox: The most influential set of rules for the foods we eat are the ones most of us ignore. But they still matter for millions of Americans. The Dietary Guidelines for Americans, reviewed and issued by the federal government every five years, have broad impact on what goes into federal nutritional assistance programs, from WIC for women and young children to school lunches to meals for veterans or seniors. Yet 63% to 90% of people in the United States, depending on the nutrient, exceed recommended levels for added sugar, saturated fats, and sodium; 75% fall below standards set for vegetables, fruits, and dairy. (Cooney, 10/27)

Kinnon MacKinnon leads the world’s largest study on people who stop or reverse their gender transitions, a group embroiled in intense political fights. (Ghorayshi, 10/26)

At Ebenezer Child Development Center in Austin, Texas, one of the infant rooms has been closed for a year. The cribs and highchairs are still there, just no kids. A separate room that was previously a prekindergarten classroom is now a gym. That is not for lack of demand. The wait lists are long. But the preschool’s director, Jordan Maclay, says a big problem is that she can’t find enough teachers who can work at the wages she’s able to offer. (Torry, 10/29)

Another urgent conflict in the Middle East is playing out on the border between Syria and Jordan: a war against captagon, an amphetamine-like drug that’s taken off across the region. The drug cuts across social class and borders. It’s used by taxi drivers handling late-night shifts, militia fighters looking to induce courage, students studying for exams, and high-powered executives wanting to work, or party, long hours. (Rasmussen, 10/27)

A few weeks after Matthew Perry was discovered floating facedown in a hot tub, the woman who prosecutors say supplied the ketamine that killed the actor was indulging in afternoon tea at a five-star hotel in Japan and taking mirror selfies while modeling a kimono. Several months later, she posted highlights from a trip to Mexico, where she enjoyed caviar at the airport, sitting poolside at the beach and admiring a drink within a coconut. The woman, Jasveen Sangha, liked to share images of a glamorous life on social media, of herself rubbing elbows with celebrities and traveling around the world to Spain, China and Dubai. (Stevens, 10/28)

In the summer of 2018, off the coast of British Columbia, an orca named Tahlequah gave birth. When the calf died after just half an hour, Tahlequah refused to let go. For more than two weeks, she carried her calf’s body around, often balancing it on her nose as she swam. The story went viral, which came as no surprise to Susana Monsó, a philosopher of animal minds at the National Distance Education University in Madrid. Despite the vast chasm that seems to separate humans and killer whales, this orca mother was behaving in a way that was profoundly relatable. (Anthes, 10/29)