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Have you ever had a medical procedure or medication denied by insurance? Then spent days, weeks, even months on the phone trying to understand why? Well, that just became harder. Now artificial intelligence is in the mix, making decisions about what to approve and deny. Often, the reasons are unclear even to the insurance companies. (Mara Mellits, 8/22)

I’m a doctor and epidemiologist, so you might expect me to be religious about preventative care: yearly visits to my primary care physician, that sort of thing. But I know we can’t prevent most disease and a lot of what we do in medicine doesn’t add value and sometimes even causes harm. So instead, I practice a seemingly radical but necessary idea for getting the best from medicine while avoiding excesses. I like to think of it as medical minimalism. (Daniel Morgan, 8/23)

Several years ago, while on a road trip, I ordered the now-discontinued spaghetti and meatballs during a pitstop at Denny’s. When the plate came out, I thought there was no way I could finish the massive platter, but then I did because it was right in front of me — even though I knew exactly what was going on. (Sophia Hua, 8/23)

Gus Walz has, according to his parents, a nonverbal learning disorder, A.D.H.D. and an anxiety disorder, all of which they regard not as a setback but as his “secret power,” that makes him “brilliant” and “hyperaware.” I know exactly what they mean. (Tina Brown, 8/23)

Things weren’t supposed to go this way. The drug company Lykos Therapeutics had spent much of this year expecting to vault to meteoric heights. It had sent an application to the Food and Drug Administration seeking approval to use MDMA to treat post-traumatic stress disorder. Lykos expected F.D.A. approval; it was banking on it. (Caty Enders, 8/23)