Category: The Conversation – Canada

Source: The Conversation – Canada – By Pauline McDonagh Hull, PhD Candidate, Department of Community Health Sciences, Cumming School of Medicine, University of Calgary

“Hopeful,” “excited” and “helpful” for the future of women’s health — these are just some of the words expressed by the team that worked together for more than a decade to change the name polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) to polyendocrine metabolic ovarian syndrome (PMOS).

PMOS is a chronic condition associated with diabetes, heart disease, depression, infertility, pregnancy complications and a general decreased quality of life. It affects an estimated one in eight women worldwide, and about one in 10 Canadian women, yet the World Health Organization estimates that 70 per cent of those affected have never received a diagnosis.

Why the name has changed

The term PCOS was inaccurate, because there is no increase in abnormal ovarian cysts. Rather, the hallmark of this condition is follicles, or little fluid sacs, around partly developed eggs, which are caused when development is disrupted by a hormonal or chemical messenger disturbance.

For years, this inaccuracy contributed to the disorder being misunderstood, underrecognized, underdiagnosed and undertreated. Because PMOS is not primarily a disease of the ovaries, calling it PCOS meant all the broader features of the condition were neglected.

In a news release from Monash University, in Melbourne, Australia,
, chair of the charity Verity in the United Kingdom and a member of the name change team with almost 20 years’ lived PMOS experience, explains:

“It has not only impacted how the condition has been understood, it has also affected how seriously it is taken. The inaccurate name has negatively influenced awareness, education, and even the level of research, attention and funding it has received.”

The new name, PMOS, published in The Lancet on May 12, reflects the broader polyendocrine disturbances occurring in women’s insulin, androgens and neuroendocrine and ovarian hormones, and the metabolic impacts these have on their lives.

Prof. Helena Teede, the endocrinologist at Monash University who led the international name change team, said in an announcement: “PMOS is building on what we knew before but really is reflective of the much more diverse and broad features of this condition.”

The name change team also wants the new name to help remove the significant stigma and judgment that is often associated with PMOS, including stigma and judgment around weight gain. Anxiety, depression and eating disorders are all common in women with PMOS, and the risk of metabolic complications like developing Type 2 diabetes is high and occurs at a younger age compared to women without PMOS. Many women are also affected by bothersome symptoms like acne and excess hair growth.

With the new name now reflecting the condition as a complex and cyclical metabolic disorder, Robyn Vettese, who is chair of the PMOS Patient Advisory Council in Alberta and co-author on this story, hopes this will mean all patients, whose symptoms can vary significantly, are met with the understanding they deserve and are supported for long-term health.

How the name was changed

The transition from PCOS to PMOS has been described as the largest, unprecedented global engagement process ever undertaken for a health condition name change and highlights the value of creating space for patients’ voices and lived experiences in improving health care.

Following years of advocacy and campaigning, in 2025, the name change team reported on a survey that found 85.6 per cent of patients and 76.1 per cent of health professionals agreed with the change.

This secured the mandate needed, and after 22,000 health professionals and people living with PMOS participated in surveys and workshops — together with the involvement of 56 leading academic, clinical and patient organizations, including the Canadian Society of Endocrinology and Metabolism and the Society of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists of Canada — the acronym PCOS was retired.

Future PMOS advocacy and research

Looking ahead, Vettese sees the name change as a call to action for care providers to participate in education and learning about PMOS and to promote a wider, whole-body health approach.

Dr. Jamie Benham, who runs the Endocrine, Metabolic and Reproductive Advancements (EMBRACE) Women’s Health Research Lab at the University of Calgary and is an author of this story, agrees. She is one of the 62 Global Name Change Consortium authors cited in The Lancet paper, and her immediate priorities are to raise awareness about what the PMOS change means and to continue collaborating with patients to ensure the lab’s research questions are directly relevant to the affected population.

Increasing diagnosis and providing funding for PMOS learning and research in Canada are critical to improve treatment and management of this lifelong, challenging condition, as was underscored in the 2024 McKinsey Health Institute report, Closing the Women’s Health Gap.

Throughout the three-year transition period planned for the name change, we anticipate an expansion in PMOS care by Canadian physicians in the diverse fields of endocrinology, gynecology, dermatology, pediatrics and primary practice.

Up until now, the treatment and management of PMOS has been insufficient. Its new name, and the journey to achieve it, signifies real, genuine change. Researchers, clinicians and patients have come together to say that people with PMOS deserve more appropriate and comprehensive care and support, throughout their whole lives. They are very hopeful this will happen.

Jamie Benham receives grant funding to support research from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, the M.S.I. Foundation, the Provincial Diabetes Steering Committee, and Diabetes Canada. She is affiliated with the Androgen Excess PCOS Society, the Canadian Menopause Society, and the Diabetes Canada Diabetes in Pregnancy Study Group.

Pauline McDonagh Hull and Robyn Vettese do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

– ref. From PCOS to PMOS: What the name change to polyendocrine metabolic ovarian syndrome means for women’s health – https://theconversation.com/from-pcos-to-pmos-what-the-name-change-to-polyendocrine-metabolic-ovarian-syndrome-means-for-womens-health-282843

Source: The Conversation – Canada – By Cristiano Barbosa de Moura, Assistant Professor of Science Education, Simon Fraser University

For decades, science educators have been encouraged to “stick to the science” and leave politics at the classroom door. But as disinformation spreads online and public trust in science seems to erode in some contexts, this advice is no longer realistic.

In Canada and elsewhere, science teachers face a challenge. Science is being questioned in varied ways, from social media videos to (sometimes convincing) messages in a larger cultural landscape of conspiratorial rhetoric emphasizing “what they don’t want you to know.”

From climate change denial to debates about vaccines, the classroom has become a front line in broader cultural battles amplified by individuals or groups via social media.

In this context, history may be one of the most powerful tools science teachers have to navigate sensitive issues, as research (including my own) has demonstrated.

My collaborative research project, funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council, is examining the question: “How do teachers teach science through history when the histories spark potentially heated sociopolitical debates?”

Why history matters in science education

For decades, research has shown students better understand how science works “behind the curtains” — what has been called “nature of science” — when they learn how discoveries were made, challenged and revised over time. Teaching students about the history of science has been a way to showcase the mechanisms of how knowledge is produced.

Some examples are understanding the role of evidence in proposing a theory or model or scientists’ arguments, disagreements and uncertainty when interpreting phenomena.

However, much of this past work on teaching the history of science in science education has fallen short. More can be done to address the social and political struggles that shaped science itself.

Science is intertwined with power

Today, educators acknowledge that history in science education is not just about facts and timelines. Historical examination reveals how science has been intertwined with race, gender, colonialism and power.

Examples abound and are increasingly known:

• Eugenics in the 19th century and beyond;

• Several cases of the “Matilda Effect” (when women’s contributions to science are erased);

• Analyses highlighting the asymmetries between groups when producing knowledge, or simply the pillage of ideas and natural resources from Indigenous communities around the world, among other examples.

These realities point to the need for a new engagement with the history of science in science education.

Distrust is being amplified

It’s understandable that some individuals or communities that have first-hand or historical experience of science being used to exploit or oppress them may now experience skepticism or distrust in scientific research and the scientific enterprise.

This said, we now face situations where some ill-intentioned people or anti-democratic agitators sow distrust in society, sometimes related to science — or blur debates in a way that the public cannot discern what good science looks like anymore.

The worst teachers can do is avoid this conversation in the classroom. Misinformation thrives in such environments.

The challenge is to go further than exploring how knowledge is produced, to explore the sociopolitical dynamics of science, as argued by many researchers recently.

This means, in part, navigating changing historical evidence and evolving interpretations of it — as well as uncovering the stories that have long gone untold.

It means identifying patterns of oppression and inequities that are intertwined with scientific research and its legacies.

Teachers play a central role

Of course, bringing charged histories into the classroom is challenging. Addressing eugenics or the pillage of natural resources in the Global South may trigger students from related backgrounds, or students who have political empathy or solidarity with them.

Exploring Indigenous knowledge systems alongside western science can challenge the myth that science is purely a western creation. At the same time, this can risk pushback from some parents or administrators who think such content means teachers aren’t teaching science. Even worse, teachers can be accused of political indoctrination.

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Read more:
Indigenous song keepers reveal traditional ecological knowledge in music

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Yet teachers also find creative ways forward. Some use historical case studies of environmental degradation to frame discussions about how knowledge production and socio-political and moral elements are intertwined.

Others examine how corporations help shape scientific content or a scope of research, or draw on stories of women and racialized scientists to open conversations about equity and representation in STEM.

Historically situating today’s debates

A promising approach would be to understand how teachers who “go against the grain” do so in their classrooms and beyond school walls.

Sensitive topics sometimes spark discomfort, but using historical examples can also provide distance, allowing students to explore critically without feeling personally attacked. This offers teachers a rich tapestry to draw on when building historical accounts of science.

By situating today’s debates in a longer trajectory, teachers play a critical role helping students see that controversies around science are longstanding. Societies have always struggled to reconcile evidence with values.

Engaging with history helps science students understand that knowledge, power and identity are interconnected in the classroom and beyond. Students can then be prepared to be aware citizens who can evaluate misinformation, grasp the social aspects of scientific issues and engage in democratic discussions.

In a polarized society, this is critically needed. Whether dealing with pandemics, climate change or artificial intelligence, students will face conflicting claims through the media and at home.

Avoiding complex discussions in schools leaves young people unprepared to understand them.

Renewed vision of science teaching

The stakes are high. If science educators continue to portray that science is neutral and apolitical, we risk reinforcing the very divisions we hope to overcome.

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Read more:
Social studies as ‘neutral?’ That’s a myth, and pressures teachers to avoid contentious issues

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But if we embrace history as a lens for teaching complex accounts of science, we open possibilities for more critical and socially relevant classrooms.

This means rethinking curricula, teacher education and support systems so that educators can confidently bring historical and sociopolitical perspectives into their teaching practice. It means valuing teachers as intellectuals who can adapt knowledge to their contexts, rather than reducing them to deliverers of neutral content.

Role for research partnerships

Academic researchers have a pivotal role. They can develop partnerships with teachers, hear their voices and work together to develop teaching practices that are grounded in teachers’ own contexts.

Such efforts may also help build trust and social cohesion, starting by uniting universities and other educational institutions, overcoming the divisiveness that has taken hold in so many places across the world.

Simply reclaiming the importance of science (or “defending” it) will fall short of the stature and complexity of the challenge ahead of us.

Cristiano Barbosa de Moura received funding from SSHRC to study this theme.

– ref. How teaching the history of science can help equip students to face polarized times – https://theconversation.com/how-teaching-the-history-of-science-can-help-equip-students-to-face-polarized-times-280332

Source: The Conversation – Canada – By Meaghan Furlano, PhD Student, Sociology, Western University

“Tradwives” say they are opting out of a culture that undervalues women at home. But a closer look at who they are and what they promote tells a different story: The mainstreaming of far-right politics through the language of “traditional values” like femininity and domesticity.

Short for traditional wives, tradwives are popular influencers on social media platforms like Instagram, TikTok and YouTube. Tradwife content is characterized by its appeal to “nature,” its reinforcement of “traditional” gender roles and its use of 1950s nostalgia alongside rural, off-grid homesteading aesthetics.

If we want to interpret the growing popularity of tradwives sociologically, we need to do three things.

First, we need to determine the statuses an individual holds and the roles associated with these statuses at a given time. We also have to explore how individuals make sense of them. Second, we need to examine how an individual’s statuses and roles are constituted by, and shaped through, social institutions. Third, we need to consider what function these institutions play in upholding social structures.

Doing so can help us recognize that cultural trends, like social media tradwives, are not random phenomena but products of broader socio-political currents.

The tradwife influencer identity

Research has found that while tradwives tend to be politically right-wing, important variations exist among them. Conservative tradwives — women who discuss “femininity” and “traditional” gender roles — are closest to the political centre.

Others, including alt-lite and alt-right tradwives, are more ideologically extreme. They mobilize anti-feminist, anti-immigrant and white supremacist rhetoric. At times, they have clear ties to far-right political organizations.

If we want to understand what their rise to popularity since 2024 indicates about the contemporary political landscape, and if we want to understand these women’s role within right-wing reactions to feminism, then we must start by undertaking the three requirements listed above.

‘Traditional’ femininity remains unchallenged

To start, we must ask: what roles do tradwives attach to their status? What is the purpose of being a tradwife?

Emerging research indicates that tradwives define themselves as wives and mothers. Their roles include homemaker, defender of “traditional” values, and, at times, bearer of the “white race.” Tradwives depict their countries as being under siege by cultural pollution, miscegenation and non-white migration. Accordingly, tradwives frame themselves as moral entities “restoring” the West.

Other researchers like Eviane Leidig, a researcher in online extremism and radicalization, have explored the role of women in far-right politics. These analyses suggest that women play a key role in normalizing and mainstreaming hateful ideologies by drawing on influencer culture. They take you into their homes, show you their children and talk to you about their everyday lives.

Yet, slipped into videos of tradwives baking sourdough bread are comments about “our migration problem” and how they felt compelled to home-school their children because of the “woke ideology” running amok in public schools.

Once your interest is piqued, you are directed to less regulated platforms that traffic in more overt hate.

What tradwives are actually defending

Next we must ask: how have institutions like work, family and media shaped the roles attached to being a wife and mother?

Research demonstrates that women face greater cultural expectations to undertake housework and relationship labour than men. Men are more likely than women to report that society values the contributions of their paid work more than it does their household labour. Women tend to report the opposite.

Sociologists have explained how the institution of work was designed around the male-breadwinner and female-homemaker model. Men were paid a wage that could provide for their family, while women performed unwaged labour in the home.

But families have changed. Dual-earner families are on the rise because women have been forced by economic necessity into joining the paid workforce (not simply because of feminism, as tradwives argue). Despite these changes, the institution of work has remained resistant to accommodating women.

Tradwives frame their lifestyles as countercultural. They claim only professional, working women are valued culturally, and that institutions have abandoned them as traditional women.

But the construction of femininity they promote — one bound in “traditional” ideas about labour — remains institutionally salient. While it may have been critiqued in the 2010s “popular feminist” climate, no large or enduring structural shifts followed. The gender wage gap in Canada remains sizable, especially when factors such as race and immigrant status are taken into account.

Institutions that uphold social structure

Finally, we must ask even broader questions. For example, how do tradwives contribute to the reproduction of unequal structures of race, class and gender?

Tradwives frame a highly specific form of femininity — domestic, heterosexual, submissive and often implicitly white — as natural, desirable and morally superior. By presenting it as “natural” rather than socially constructed and affirmed by social institutions, tradwives obscure the structural foundations of “traditional” femininity and help make existing inequalities seem inevitable — even healthy.

What forces made this possible? In the case of tradwives, the answer is not a mystery: Institutions that were never fully reformed, gender norms that were critiqued but never dismantled and a political moment that has made the far right newly palatable.

Tradwives did not create these conditions, but they are also not just a niche internet esthetic. They are right-wing women actively trying to preserve those structural inequalities and “Make Patriarchy Great Again.”

Meaghan Furlano receives funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council.

– ref. Tradwives want to ‘make patriarchy great again.’ A sociologist explains what they’re all about – https://theconversation.com/tradwives-want-to-make-patriarchy-great-again-a-sociologist-explains-what-theyre-all-about-282931

Source: The Conversation – Canada – By Rassim Khelifa, Assistant Professor, Department of Biology; Canada Research Chair Tier 2 in Global Change Biology, Concordia University

Lobster had one of the greatest reputation makeovers in food history.
Once treated as “food for the poor,” it is now served in expensive restaurants, dipped in butter and presented as a delicacy.

Insects may be next. More than two billion people already eat grasshoppers, caterpillars, ants, beetles and crickets — within varied food traditions across Africa, Asia and Latin America. They are valued for their taste, availability and nutritional content.

In Canada, however, insects are still more likely to be associated with infectious diseases than nutrition. We may happily eat shrimp, crab and lobster, but a cricket somehow crosses a psychological line, eliciting disgust.

Or does it? Our survey of adult visitors at the Montréal Insectarium revealed that 44 per cent of participants were open to eating insects. And around 87 per cent preferred products where the insect component was not visible, such as baked goods made with insect flour.

Alternative protein

Our food system is under pressure. Global demand for protein is rising, while conventional livestock production requires large amounts of land, water and feed. It also contributes to greenhouse gas emissions and other environmental problems.

This has pushed scientists, governments and food companies to look for alternative proteins such as lab-grown meat, 3D-printed food or highly processed plant-based substitutes.

Insects, by comparison, are almost embarrassingly simple. They already exist, grow quickly and many species are rich in protein, fats, vitamins and minerals. Also, they can be farmed using way fewer resources than conventional livestock.

And yet, in a culture where people will add protein powder to almost anything, one of the planet’s most efficient protein sources still makes many people squirm.

Canadians are curious

In our recent study, published in Scientific Reports, we surveyed 252 adult visitors at the Montréal Insectarium to better understand how Canadians think about insect-based foods.

The results were more hopeful than a simple “yuck” story.

Overall, 44 per cent of participants expressed openness to eating insects. This included 18 per cent who had already eaten insects and would do so again, and 26 per cent who had not tried them but said they were willing to.

But curiosity is not the same as commitment. Only 27 per cent said they would include insects in their usual diet, and just 17 per cent said they would cook them at home. So, Canadians are not quite ready to replace chicken nuggets with cricket nuggets yet.

Disgust and fear

The clearest pattern in our study related to the visibility of the insects.

Participants were far more open to insect-based foods when the insects were hidden. About 87 per cent preferred products where the insect component was not visible, such as baked goods made with insect flour.

This shows that the barrier is not necessarily the ingredient itself. It is the image.

A muffin made with cricket flour still feels like a muffin. But a visible larva asks the eater to confront exactly what they are eating and for many people, that is where curiosity turns into disgust.

Disgust was the most common barrier in our study, reported by 70 per cent of participants. Others mentioned fear of insects, uncertainty about safety and health concerns.

These are not small obstacles. Food is emotional. We do not eat only with our stomachs. We eat with our memories, our cultural norms, our fears and our ideas of what belongs on a plate.

A familiar way to eat the unfamiliar

If insect-based foods become more common in Canada, this probably won’t start with whole fried beetles on restaurant menus. They may appear more quietly, inside foods we already understand: bread, muffins, pasta, protein bars, cookies, even pizzas.

People are more willing to try something unfamiliar when it arrives in a familiar form.

This does not mean disgust will disappear overnight. Food norms change slowly. Lobster did not become desirable because it became less strange looking. It became desirable because people learned to see it differently.

Our study suggests that most Canadians are not ready to fully embrace insects as everyday food, but they are not completely closed off either. Their openness depends on trust, safety, familiarity and, most of all, presentation.

The future of insect-based food will not be decided by protein content alone. It will be decided by whether insects can be accepted as safe and trustworthy “ingredients.”

It may begin with a simple cricket flour cookie. That may sound strange today, but so did lobster once.

Nadezhda Velchovska, undergraduate honours student in psychology with a minor in multidisciplinary studies in science at Concordia University, co-authored this article.

Rassim Khelifa receives funding from a NSERC CRC Tier 2 (CRC-2022-00134) and NSERC Discovery Grant (RGPIN-2024- 04564). He is a member of The Quebec Centre for Biodiversity Science and The Canadian Society for Ecology and Evolution.

– ref. Cricket nuggets? Caterpillar cookies? Canadians would consider eating insects if they can’t see them – https://theconversation.com/cricket-nuggets-caterpillar-cookies-canadians-would-consider-eating-insects-if-they-cant-see-them-282325

Source: The Conversation – Canada – By Biz Nijdam, Assistant Professor, Department of Central, Eastern, and Northern European Studies, University of British Columbia

Researchers at the University of Plymouth recently confirmed what board game fans and role-playing game (RPG) enthusiasts have known for decades: that tabletop games “enhance well-being, foster inclusion, and support learning, with strong evidence that games improve engagement.”

The researchers were particularly interested in how board games benefit people who display autistic traits, but tabletop gaming has social benefits that support personal well-being for everyone.

For those of us who spend our free time with 20-sided dice, or boast an impressive collection of meeple-themed jewelry, it’s undeniable that we’re living in a “golden age” of board games. But with digital technologies on the rise, the success of tabletop games might come as a surprise to some.

In 2025, the global board games and playing card market was valued at almost US$20 billion and is projected to reach US$32 billion by 2030. This increased interest is typically attributed to the COVID-19 pandemic, yet the global the market continued to grow even after social distancing ended.

The digital detox movement has further increased attention to tabletop games, but their capacity to support health, general well-being and community-building goes much deeper than putting down your smartphone.

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Hobbies can bring joy, well-being, and focus to our busy lives, but so many of us don’t have one. If you’re ready to replace scrolling with stitching, or hustle with horticulture, The Hobby Starter Kit (a new series from Quarter Life) will help you get going.

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Building meaningful connections

Research on the COVID-19 pandemic showed how playing board games decreased stress, isolation and anxiety. Research also demonstrates that playing board games helps develop socio-emotional growth, strengthens relationships and builds community.

At Kansas State University, the Bonding thru Board Games program uses tabletop gaming to support the development soft skills, such as self-control, positive self-concept, social and communication skills and executive function.

Programs like this one recognize the capacity for board games to improve social connections, a critical component to health and wellness. Research shows that meaningful and stable social bonds supports emotional and mental well-being, impact cognitive abilities and influence our motivations and behaviour.

What’s changing, however, is the recognition that tabletop gaming also builds vital community. Andrea Robertson is the co-owner of Rain City Games in British Columbia. She has seen increased participation in store events over the last few years. Annual ticket sales increased from approximately 8,500 in 2024 to over 9,100 in 2025. She told me:

“We find that our store fills the role of a ‘third space’ for a lot of our customers. We hope our events help alleviate some of the rising loneliness and isolation among young people, offering a way to interact without the mediation of screens and algorithms.”

Space for Indigenous and racialized gamers

In 2021, David Plamondon co-founded Pe Metawe Games in Edmonton. It is Canada’s only Indigenous-owned board game store and is committed to reducing barriers and providing better access for marginalized communities in areas they have been historically excluded.

Plamondon is a Cree game consultant with strong community ties to Treaty 8 and Treaty 6 Territory. He told me that:

“Historically, the tabletop hobby has been unwelcoming, if not overtly hostile to many equity deserving groups, particularly LGBTQ2S+, women and BIPOC folks.”

He explained that poor representation, as well as socioeconomic and geographical factors, have excluded Indigenous folks from participating in tabletop gaming.

As a game consultant, Plamondon helps game developers ensure Indigenous Peoples are represented and part of the conversation when it comes to designing games that include Indigenous histories, communities, culture and storytelling traditions. He said:

“From a Cree perspective, the incorporation of Indigenous values into gaming spaces and game design is synonymous with building and protecting a community. So, when we opened Pe Metawe games, that was our primary focus: honouring Cree culture through creating a safe, welcoming and inclusive space for anyone who was willing to honour that ideal.”

From play to playtesting

Plamondon’s work reflects a new trend in the global gaming industry that emphasizes intentional and inclusive game design. It has led to the development of new kinds of gaming events. In addition to coming together to play games, gamers have started coming out in droves to help develop them.

The Vancouver Playtest Group (VPG) was established in 2018 to create a space for board game designers to gather and work on their prototypes. The group’s co-founders Mark Ellis and Noe Escobar see gaming groups as a great way to connect and meet new people. Escobar told me:

“Games teach us a lot about ourselves, through moments that are funny, or exciting, or frustrating. We share those feelings and go on a journey together. Pretty soon, you can find a whole new community of friends you might never have met otherwise.”

Academics have also begun to recognize the value of gaming’s capacity to build community. Beyond research on the value of playing games as a social enterprise, games studies as an academic field has turned to community as a model for intellectual inquiry.

At the University of British Columbia, our team recently launched the UBC Critical Play Lab and Fellows Program to develop a community of practice for games and game studies. Its mission is to innovate teaching, research and public engagement through games.

Our inaugural cohort of almost 30 scholars, students, and local game designers are collaborating on new research, knowledge mobilization and game design initiatives.

How to get started

If you’re looking to get into tabletop gaming, checking out in-person board game nights at a local venue is an excellent way to start. Search for local events online or pop by your local game shop for information on local board game or RPG groups. You can even try check out games at your local public library.

Game store staff are often experts in identifying the perfect new game for any player. Give them a sense of the kinds of games you’ve played or like, and they can provide you with a list of similar games or suggest accessible new games.

If you haven’t played a game in years, but want to try them out, here are my favourite starter games right now. Hues and Cues and Wavelength are easy party games with creative mechanics. Dominion and Ascension are great for getting started on deck-building games.

If you are a fan of Yahtzee and interested in adding a different kind of competition, Dice Throne is essentially magical combat with dice and endless character variations. And if you’re looking for a further twist on the classic dice game, but this time inspired by the Indigenous-futurist world of Coyote & Crow created by award-winning game designer and proud Cherokee citizen Kenna Alexander, check out Naasii.

My favourite “cozy” board game is Patchwork, which is easy to play while having a conversation. Another tile-laying game that is simple to learn and reflects the natural beauty of my home in the Pacific Northwest is Cascadia, and a great tile-grabbing game for the tiny humans in your life is Cobra Paw.

Ticket to Ride is always a crowd-pleaser among young and old alike with a wealth of geographies to choose from, and a new go-to game for my whole family is the two-player game Toy Battle, which is as much fun for adults as it is for the kids.

Elizabeth “Biz” Nijdam is Director of the UBC Critical Play Lab and receives funding from the University of British Columbia and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada.

– ref. Not just a fun hobby: Board games can help build connections and reduce stress – https://theconversation.com/not-just-a-fun-hobby-board-games-can-help-build-connections-and-reduce-stress-279299

Source: The Conversation – Canada – By Jamie Voyles, Professor of Biology, University of Nevada, Reno

With less than five weeks until kickoff, and hundreds of thousands of visitors expected, Vancouver is preparing for the FIFA World Cup 2026 following British Columbia’s worst measles outbreak in years. Unlike Ontario, where public health officials released a detailed Hazard Identification and Risk Assessment flagging measles and other infectious diseases as risks at mass gatherings, B.C. has not yet provided comparable guidance.

Public health experts say preparation is critical for mass gatherings, particularly for contagious diseases such as measles. Vaccination rates in many parts of B.C. have fallen below the approximately 95 per cent coverage needed to prevent sustained transmission of measles, and last year’s outbreaks have exposed pockets of vulnerability.

In crowded settings such as FIFA World Cup venues, where visitors arrive from other provinces and countries with varying vaccination coverage, even a single imported case can spread rapidly beyond stadiums. That risk is not theoretical; past sporting events in Vancouver have shown how quickly measles can take hold.

Lessons from past international sporting events

The 2010 Winter Olympics in B.C. provides precedent. Following the Games, imported measles cases spread after the crowds dispersed.

In preparation, public health surveillance systems were in place, including daily health watch reports.

“At the time, what seemed like the biggest potential threat was actually the pandemic influenza H1N1 virus,” said Jennifer Gardy, PhD, deputy director of disease modelling at the Gates Foundation, who was a lead investigator at the B.C. Centre for Disease Control in 2010, by email.

But measles proved difficult to track, with officials relying largely on clinical case detection. “You had tens of thousands of people congregating indoors at event venues and then mixing with each other out in the community,” Gardy said.

The outbreak was not confirmed until the virus had spread beyond Olympic venues, infecting 82 people across Greater Vancouver as well as in the interior and northern regions of B.C.

Measles is uniquely risky at mass gatherings

Mass gatherings act as biological mixing bowls. The measles virus, one of the most contagious human viruses, can easily spread among unvaccinated individuals. When infected individuals return to schools, day cares and offices, transmission can amplify.

The measles virus survives in airborne droplets and only a tiny trace of the virus can start an infection. These characteristics give it a high basic reproduction number (R₀, or “R naught”), referring to the number of people infected after exposure.

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Read more:
Measles is highly contagious, but vaccine-preventable: A primer on recent outbreaks, transmission, symptoms and complications, including ‘immune amnesia’

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For measles, the R₀ ranges from 12 to 18 (whereas the common cold ranges from two to three). So even modest dips in vaccination rates for measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) — or uneven coverage across communities — means a single case can spread rapidly.

Outbreaks require both an introduction and low vaccination coverage, said Caroline Colijn, PhD, by email. Colijn is chair in mathematics for evolution, infection and public health at Simon Fraser University. She noted that some communities remain vulnerable even when overall coverage is high: “We may, in some communities, have low enough vaccination rates that there could be outbreaks.”

Is Vancouver prepared this time?

Sixteen years after the Winter Olympics, as the province prepares to welcome sports fans again, public health conditions have changed.

Immunization rates among B.C. school-age children have steadily fallen since at least 2016 and B.C. reported more than 400 measles cases in the past year, reflecting uneven vaccination coverage.

Yet the level of preparedness for the World Cup remains unclear.

The B.C. Centre for Disease Control has completed a provincial public health risk assessment with Vancouver Coastal Health and shared it with the host city, according to Dr. Mark Lysyshyn, deputy chief medical health officer for Vancouver Coastal Health, in email correspondence.

A spokesperson for the City of Vancouver Host Committee said a “Know Before You Go” campaign is planned, but the website does not currently include guidance on measles or other infectious diseases.

According to Dr. Lysyshyn, Vancouver Coastal Health will rely on current monitoring systems. It is unclear whether existing systems can detect threats quickly enough, and a recent assessment warns that Canada’s health-care system may lack the capacity to manage a surge in demand during the World Cup.

What ideal preparation looks like

Effective preparation embeds public health into event planning well before visitors arrive. The 2024 Paris Olympics reinforced medical networks, expanded multi-source surveillance and improved diagnostic testing capacity.

Preparation should also involve transparent risk communication and community engagement. Equally important is ongoing public communication and co-ordination to respond to emerging threats quickly and continuously after the event.

“Because measles can take from one to three weeks for symptoms to appear, the critical thing will be to continue monitoring cases well after the final Vancouver match,” said Gardy. “If an outbreak does occur, we might expect transmission to continue for weeks or even months after.”

The experience of the Vancouver 2010 Olympics suggests that even well-planned systems can miss early transmission, reminding us that pathogens do not respect closing ceremonies.

Jamie Voyles receives funding from U.S. National Science Foundation and National Institutes of Health.

Qurrat Ul Ain does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

– ref. What the 2026 World Cup means for measles risk in Vancouver – https://theconversation.com/what-the-2026-world-cup-means-for-measles-risk-in-vancouver-280806

Source: The Conversation – Canada – By Prativa Baral, Deputy Director, Pandemic and Emergency Readiness Lab, McGill University

In February 2025, the classical pianist Betsy Arakawa died in her New Mexico home from a virus most people had never heard of. Her husband, the actor Gene Hackman, died a week later of heart disease. The pathogen that killed her was hantavirus, almost certainly picked up from deer mouse droppings on the property.

Fourteen months later, 11 people on the Dutch cruise ship Hondius have been infected with a different hantavirus strain. Three have died, and passengers from more than 20 countries, including several Canadians, are being monitored across four continents.

This is not the next pandemic. But it is a stress test, and a reminder of something we keep relearning the hard way. When humans push into ecosystems they don’t normally inhabit, they are exposed to viruses. Ebola in West Africa in 2014 followed deforestation and closer contact with bats; by the time the outbreak began, more than 80 per cent of the surrounding forest had been cleared.

This hantavirus outbreak is a smaller, slower-moving version of the same lesson: the line between human health, animal health and the places we travel for pleasure is much smaller than we like to think.

A family of related viruses

Hantaviruses are not one virus but a family of related viruses, carried by different rodent species in different parts of the world. The strain found in Canada carried by deer mice, Sin Nombre virus, is the same one that killed Betsy Arakawa, and is behind the 168 Canadian cases of hantavirus pulmonary syndrome documented since 1994.

The strain on the Hondius is different. Andes virus, found in South America, is the only hantavirus known to spread between people, and through close, interpersonal contact. A New England Journal of Medicine study of a 2018 Andes outbreak reconstructed how a single zoonotic spillover from a rodent reservoir in Argentina produced 34 human cases and 11 deaths over three months, driven by three symptomatic super-spreaders at crowded social events.

A cruise ship, with confined cabins, shared dining rooms and recirculated air (“a floating petri dish”), is exactly the setting where a virus with limited contagion can find unexpected runway. The first confirmed case on board, likely the index case though not lab-confirmed, had spent four months on a birdwatching trip through South America before boarding, with possible exposure to rodents.

Humans, animals and One Health

Though much of the focus has been to reassure people that this is not the next COVID-19, what this outbreak points to is a real-time One Health story, a framework that recognizes human, animal and environmental health as a single, interconnected system. Hantaviruses do not begin in hospitals or airports. They circulate in animal reservoirs whose ranges are shaped by climate, land use and human encroachment.

Deer mouse populations in North America boomed roughly tenfold following the wet, warm El Niño winter of 1991–1992, triggering the 1993 hantavirus outbreak. The ecology of Andes virus in Patagonia is itself shifting: modelling work suggests the long-tailed rodent that carries the virus may see its range contract and move eastward under continued warming and drying, redistributing rather than eliminating spillover risk.

The same dynamic plays out elsewhere: in Southeast Asia for example, rodent trade networks, deforestation and intensifying agriculture continually create new interfaces between people and pathogens. And these same forces are reshaping disease risk closer to home: Lyme disease has been creeping steadily north into Ontario and Québec as warming winters expand the range of the black-legged tick. The mosquitoes that carry dengue, Zika and chikungunya are doing the same across Europe and North America. Old pathogens now have more opportunities to expand, and interact with humankind.

All of this is being amplified by how we now travel. Antarctic and expedition bookings are up 34 per cent year-on-year. Last-chance tourism into fragile and isolated ecosystems, wildlife photography in remote habitats, cruises that promise experiences into uninhabited shores: this is a growing category of travel despite being potential One Health exposures.

Response in a post-COVID world

The response to this outbreak also revealed how brittle our systems remain. A passenger died on April 11. Hantavirus was not identified until May 2, three weeks during which the ship continued its route, calling at multiple ports.

The World Health Organization’s (WHO) own 2016 handbook for managing public health events on board ships calls for an “all-hazards” precautionary approach when a cause cannot be identified. It was not applied. When the ship later approached land, Cape Verde was deemed unable to handle the emergency, and Spain ultimately accepted it citing a moral obligation.

The International Health Regulations, the legal scaffolding for events like this, give the WHO almost no authority to enforce them. Co-operation runs on goodwill, which is quite thin when an infected vessel needs a port. Meanwhile, social media filled gaps with conspiracy theories about engineered pathogens and “scripted pandemics,” a familiar pattern in which public anxiety fuelled by uncertainty becomes a vector of its own.

What it means for Canadians

For Canadians, the practical message is unchanged. Ventilate closed spaces before entering. Wet contaminated surfaces before cleaning. Never dry-sweep rodent droppings.

But there is a deeper lesson here. Betsy Arakawa died from a deer mouse in her own home. Passengers on the Hondius may have been infected by rodents in a Patagonian dump (investigators are still working it out). But what connects these stories is a world where the boundaries between human health, animal health, climate and travel are largely fictional, and shrinking further every year.

Ultimately, this is a stress-test for us. We have learned from past crises, and our response is faster and more co-ordinated than it would have been a decade ago. But the Hondius shows us how much further we have to go: for stronger international agreements that share information in real time, for the 2025 WHO Pandemic Agreement to actually function, and for better spillover monitoring that catches the “big one” early.

Dr. Prativa Baral is the Deputy Director of the Pandemic and Emergency Readiness Lab, which has received funding from the John Arsenault Trust. She has previously received funding from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research.

Dr. Joanne Liu is the director of Pandemic and Emergency readiness lab which have received funds from John Arsenault Trust.

Dr. Veasna Duong is affiliated with McGill University, Canada and Institut Pasteur du Cambodge, Cambodia.

– ref. Hantavirus: A cruise ship, a deer mouse, and the fictional line between human and animal health – https://theconversation.com/hantavirus-a-cruise-ship-a-deer-mouse-and-the-fictional-line-between-human-and-animal-health-282958

Source: The Conversation – Canada – By Reza Hasmath, Professor in Political Science, University of Alberta

In December 2025, the parliament of Victoria — Australia’s second-most populous state — delivered a formal apology to First Peoples for laws and policies that “took land, removed children, broke families, and tried to erase culture.”

The motion, introduced by Premier Jacinta Allan as a milestone in Victoria’s ongoing treaty process, passed by a vote of 56-27. The opposition coalition voted against it and has pledged to repeal the underlying treaty legislation within 100 days if it wins November’s state election.

The apology was barely out of the premier’s mouth before its credibility was contested.

For Canadians watching from a distance, the parallels are hard to miss. And the pattern is the point: across democracies, the cost of apologizing badly can exceed the cost of staying silent.

The apology paradox

In my research on government apologies, the explanation is psychological as much as political. Governments apologize to restore their own trustworthiness, but apologies only succeed when they focus squarely on rehumanizing victims.

That inversion is the apology paradox, and it has practical implications for whether reconciliation is successful.

The canonical case is Willy Brandt’s 1970 Kniefall, when the West German chancellor unexpectedly knelt before the Warsaw Ghetto memorial. The silent gesture is still remembered 55 years on, long after Germany’s formal verbal apologies have faded. It was well-received because Brandt absorbed a political cost without trying to extract a benefit.

Analyses on political apologies have found effective apologies function as a costly signal: when governments sacrifice something tangible, such as political capital, money or policy commitments, victimized communities see genuine contrition.

Other research identifies four ingredients of a complete apology: acknowledging the wrong, accepting responsibility, expressing remorse and committing to concrete reparations. Most government apologies fail that test.

Consider F.W. de Klerk’s 1997 statement to South Africa’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission.

On its face, it was comprehensive: “Apartheid was wrong. I apologize…” Under questioning, however, de Klerk distanced National Party leadership from torture, murder and rape by state agents, and did not commit to any material amends.

Victims rejected it. De Klerk sought a position of pride rather than shame: the apology tried to rehumanize the apologizer without addressing what victims had suffered. That is almost always a sign of a sub-standard apology.

Learning from Canada

Canada has its own experiences with weak apologies. In 1998, Jean Chretien’s government responded to findings about residential schools with a Statement of Reconciliation read by junior minister Jane Stewart at a lunchtime ceremony. The prime minister was absent.

The content was not the problem; the symbolism told Indigenous Canadians the government was not serious. A decade later, Stephen Harper apologized in Parliament, alongside a $1.9-billion settlement, an independent assessment process and a Truth and Reconciliation Commission.

Harper publicly credited a political rival, NDP Leader Jack Layton, with persuading him, an admission that surprised observers. Harper’s earlier apology to Chinese Canadians for the Head Tax went further, reframing Chinese immigrants’ “back-breaking labour” as essential to building the country.

The Head Tax apology was generally received positively across Chinese Canadian and broader Canadian communities. However, some Chinese Canadians remained skeptical of the government’s motives and focused on whether the structural disadvantages rooted in the Head Tax era had truly been addressed.

In other words, victimized groups wait to see whether words will lead to real change. It is also important to acknowledge that the Head Tax was a limited grievance involving a defined group of victims, while residential schools were part of an ongoing colonial relationship with effects that endure today. Some apologies are therefore far more difficult than others.

When apologies face criticism

That difficulty is amplified by a nationalism trap. For citizens who strongly identify with national identity, acknowledging past injustice can feel like personal indictment, fuelling backlash that erodes the apology in victims’ eyes.

Brandt faced exactly this as conservative opposition questioned his patriotism. In Australia, Victoria’s coalition opposition has framed the First Peoples treaty as a divisive imposition, and that criticism, not the apology’s wording, may determine whether it survives.

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Read more:
Thirteen years after ‘Sorry’, too many Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children are still being removed from their homes

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There is a structural risk to further consider. Promising to do better raises the standard the apologizer will be judged against. When Canada ultimately failed to implement the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s recommendations, when violence against Indigenous women continued, when over-representation in the criminal justice system persisted, Harper’s from years earlier apology lost credibility. Trust, once broken twice, becomes exponentially harder to restore.

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Read more:
Broken system: Why is a quarter of Canada’s prison population Indigenous?

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Hence the paradox: an apology must be costly to improve the reputation of the apologizer, but an apology made with that benefit in mind lowers the cost and signals self-interest. The best way to apologize involves making the victims the primary focus, not the apologizing state. Apologies that prioritize rehumanizing victims prove more effective at rehumanizing apologizers too.

That is the test Victoria now faces, and one Canada keeps facing. The Victorian premier’s words last December were strong. Whether that apology leads to meaningful change depends less on what was said than on whether the treaty institutions survive November. Canadians should watch carefully.

Reza Hasmath does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

– ref. How not to say you’re sorry: Why governments keep getting apologies wrong – https://theconversation.com/how-not-to-say-youre-sorry-why-governments-keep-getting-apologies-wrong-282778

Source: The Conversation – Canada – By Ted Scott, PhD Student, Department of Geography – Climate and Coastal Ecosystems Group, University of British Columbia

Do you have the sense that summers feel different than when you were younger? That they start earlier, arrive quickly and remain intense until the fall? If you live in the mid-latitudes of either the Northern or Southern Hemispheres, chances are you answered yes.

For many, the idea of a longer and warmer summer conjures up images of spending more time at the beach, playing sports or enjoying family picnics, but there are concerning downsides. Summer is also the season of wildfires, droughts and heatwaves, like the June 2021 heat dome in the Pacific Northwest of North America.

Recent research shows that devastating heat dome event was amplified by its proximity to the summer solstice, which is the calendar start of summer, and by ground already dried out from earlier spring warmth. Earlier starts to the warmest season are making preconditions worse in areas prone to wildfire, extending fire seasons.

My colleagues and I at the University of British Columbia recently published research into how summer conditions are lasting longer and transitions into and out of summer are becoming more abrupt.

The cumulative heat in summers is rising, meaning there is less relief from warm temperatures once the season begins. Human-driven climate change is impacting the warmest season of the year. These changes challenge our expectations of the natural seasonal cycle being gradual and predictable.

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Read more:
Extreme heat is breaking global records: Why this isn’t ‘just summer,’ and what climate change has to do with it

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Longer summers

To allow for a flexible definition of summer length, we defined typical summer weather based on daily average temperatures during the warmest 25 per cent of days from 1961 to 1990. This gave us a threshold daily temperature to define when summer began and ended in a given year and location.

We found that the number of days with typical summer weather has been growing 1.5 times faster over the past 30 years than in prior reports. On average, in mid-latitude regions, summers have lengthened by around six days every decade since 1990. These rates are similar across land, ocean and coastal areas.

We examined 10 cities using local weather station data, including Paris, St. Petersburg and Tokyo. A few of the cities stood out: in my hometown of Minneapolis, Minn., summertime has been lengthening by almost one additional day every year since 1990.

Toronto summers are gaining an average of eight days every decade, with summer conditions lasting four weeks longer now than in 1990. Sydney, Australia, added 1.5 additional days in each of those years. Sydney summers now last over one-third of the year.

Impacts of accumulating heat

The buildup of heat during summer is also rising quickly; it’s three times faster over land since 1990. As heat builds up in more areas, cooling demand can be expected to increase.

This change is not confined to continental interiors but is also happening in coastal areas. Perceived as favourable with their maritime climates, these areas face growing populations and often higher climate risk.

The percentage of Canadians with air conditioning varies by province and by income, but we know those who are most vulnerable struggle to stay cool.

Incentives for heat pumps will help those who can afford to make the switch, and have the benefit of also replacing natural gas heating in the winter, but regardless of cooling method, electricity needs will rise.

Longer summers and earlier starts will undoubtedly also affect agriculture, perhaps encouraging earlier planting. However, a complication is that the hours of daylight are not shifting. The impact of seasonal changes on farming practices and food supply is an active area of study.

We also found that spring and autumn seasons are shrinking because the transitions from spring to summer and from summer to fall are becoming more abrupt. For areas that rely on mountain snow for fresh water throughout the year, this snow will melt earlier and more quickly, potentially leading to flooding. Additionally, those batteries of fresh water are running out and drought seasons are lasting longer.

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Read more:
Warming winters are reshaping Canada’s snowpack

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Adapting to longer summer

Many other aspects of society are linked to the timing of the summer season, like the start and end of the school year, or outdoor sports. How should we adjust if it’s simply too warm for strenuous outdoor activity, whether it’s recreational or work-related?

If these trends continue, we can expect further impacts on the planting season, the timing and pace of snowmelt and the connection with water supply, the length of the fire season, and especially on the energy demand for cooling.

Governments and experts have a lot of work to do to mitigate and adapt to the consequential changes humans have brought about through our dependence on fossil fuels.

These changes to summer are noticeable because they are already disrupting lives. While some places will still occasionally have cooler years and significantly warmer years, the data tells us the trends for summers are headed in one direction.

Ted Scott does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

– ref. Summers are getting longer each year, and it isn’t all fun and games – https://theconversation.com/summers-are-getting-longer-each-year-and-it-isnt-all-fun-and-games-280884

Source: The Conversation – Canada – By Nick Turner, Professor and Future Fund Chair in Leadership, Haskayne School of Business, University of Calgary

When work gets stressful, the standard advice is familiar: exercise more, eat better, sleep more and cut back on unhealthy habits. But our new research study suggests not all healthy habits offer the same protection from chronic work stress.

Using data over 10 years from a long-running national survey of 2,871 Canadian workers, we examined whether five health-related behaviours outside work helped weaken the relationship between work stress and general health over time: nutrition, exercise, sleep quality, alcohol use and smoking frequency.

What we found was more uneven — and more interesting — than the usual wellness advice suggests. Some behaviours appeared to offer real stress-specific protection. Others were linked to health overall, but did not seem to buffer the effects of work stress specifically.

Some habits protect; others don’t

Sleep quality stood out most clearly. Nutrition also mattered. Exercise remained good for health overall, but did not buffer the health effects of work stress in the same way once the other behaviours were considered together.

For many workers, work stress is chronic. It builds through heavy workloads, difficult or unpredictable schedules, after-hours emails and text messages, and the feeling that work keeps spilling into evenings, weekends and family time.

Over time, that kind of stress can wear people down physically and psychologically. Research has linked work stress to burnout, depression, anxiety, fatigue, cardiovascular disease, Type 2 diabetes and mortality.

Our study asked: when stressful work conditions persist, are there things people do outside work that actually help protect their health? Our findings suggest the answer is yes, but selectively.

Sleep may matter more than people think

Sleep quality stood out as the strongest buffer against the health costs of work stress. Good sleep supports attention, emotional regulation, recovery and the self-control needed to maintain other healthy behaviours in the first place. In that sense, it functions less like one good choice among many and more like a foundational resource.

Nutrition also showed a meaningful buffering effect, suggesting that diet may help sustain the physical and psychological reserves needed to cope with sustained strain.

The exercise finding pushed against popular assumptions. While more frequent exercise was associated with better general health overall, it did not significantly weaken the relationship between work stress and health. This could reflect the way exercise was measured in the survey, or it could mean exercise helps health in ways that are real but not specifically stress-buffering.

Being healthy and being protected from stress are not always the same thing.

The alcohol finding was the most unexpected and warrants particular caution. Lower alcohol use was associated with better overall health, as expected. But the data showed that higher work stress was more strongly associated with poorer general health among people who reported lower alcohol use than among those who reported drinking more frequently.

This should not be read as evidence that drinking protects people from the health effects of work stress, however. People who drank more frequently still reported worse overall health. More likely, this pattern reflects something our data could not fully unpack, such as prior health conditions, different coping profiles or non-linear patterns in alcohol use and health.

Healthy habits don’t excuse unhealthy work design

When work is chronically stressful, some forms of self-care may protect health more than others. Most importantly, wellness interventions cannot compensate for a job that is structured to exhaust people.

Organizations are still responsible for designing healthy workplaces. Employees should not be expected to sleep or meal-prep their way out of excessive workload, unreasonable expectations or poor work design.

What our findings suggest is not that individual behaviour replaces organizational responsibility. Rather, certain behaviours may help protect people when work remains stressful and structural change is absent, incomplete or slow to arrive.

Our study is explicit that these behaviours should be understood as complementary to, but not substitutes for, broader organizational change.

That has practical implications for both workers and employers. For workers, the message is not to do everything perfectly. It’s that some behaviours may offer more protection than others when work stress is high, and sleep deserves to be taken especially seriously.

For employers, the lesson is not to moralize wellness or shift responsibility onto individuals. It’s to make protective behaviours easier to sustain by reducing after-hours communication, allowing real on-the-job breaks, improving scheduling and designing work in ways that do not erode recovery.

Nick Turner receives research funding from Cenovus Energy Inc., Haskayne School of Business’s Future Fund, and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC).

Erica Carleton receives funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council.

A. Wren Montgomery and Serra Al-Katib do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

– ref. Sleep and diet may matter more than exercise for buffering the health toll of chronic stress – https://theconversation.com/sleep-and-diet-may-matter-more-than-exercise-for-buffering-the-health-toll-of-chronic-stress-282015