News Above the Noise—Week of December 14, 2025
1. Time Magazine Announced Its “Person of the Year”
In a tongue-in-cheek reflection on Time magazine’s 2025 Person of the Year choice, The Atlantic’s Charlie Warzel explains that the honor didn’t go to a single individual, but rather to the group of tech leaders behind artificial intelligence (aka “the architects of AI”). Warzel playfully asserts that this means we, too, are included in that designation, since AI systems are trained on vast amounts of human-generated data. To read the engaging article, click here.
2. The Senate Voted Down Dueling Health Proposals
Senators voted on rival health bills this week and rejected two chances to address expiring subsidies, which will result in millions of Americans facing much higher insurance costs in 2026. The showdown underscored how central health care remains in U.S. politics, and how fiercely both parties are preparing to battle it ahead of next year’s elections. Read the full story here.
3. Why Won’t Senators Stand Up to Trump?
In this round table about the state of the Senate, The New York Times talked to three lawmakers who decided to leave the governing body at different points in the Trump era: Republican Jeff Flake announced he wouldn’t seek re-election in 2018 because of President Trump’s influence on his party; Joe Manchin, a Democrat who later became a registered independent, who decided not to run for re-election at the start of the year; and Democrat Tina Smith, who announced this year she won’t be seeing re-election in 2026. Why did they decide to leave? What do they think of the state of the Senate right now? You don’t want to miss this conversation.
4. What Menopause Does to the Body
You know about the hot flashes and night sweats. But did you realize the menopause transition can lead to other, less talked about symptoms, such as heart palpitations, frozen shoulder, and recurrent urinary tract infections? In a helpful guide, The New York Times provides a head-to-toe illustrated explainer of everything that needs to be on your radar. Scroll through this must-read article here.
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