A look at whether marijuana should be considered a performance-enhancing drug; whether 10,000 steps a day is really necessary; and more.

Ben Palmer's reads

Olivia Rodrigo went to the White House to tell Americans vaccines are Good 4 U. Singer Olivia Rodrigo on Wednesday visited the White House press briefing room to urge Americans to get vaccinated against Covid-19. "It's important to have conversations with friends and family members, encouraging all communities to get vaccinated and actually get to a vaccination site, which you can do more easily than ever before, given how many sites we have and how easy it is to find them at vaccines.gov," she said. After her statement, Rodrigo met with President Joe Biden and White House chief medical advisor Anthony Fauci to record more videos encouraging young people to get vaccinated.

Is 10,000 steps a day really necessary? Fitness trackers typically recommend you take 10,000 steps a day, but is that number based on science? Writing for the New York Times, Gretchen Reynolds dives into where the 10,000 steps number came from and reveals that we may not need to take 10,000 steps a dat after all.

Vivian Le's reads

Marijuana as a performance enhancing drug? The science is shaky. Sha'Carri Richardson, an American track and field sprinter, was banned from the Olympics after she tested positive for marijuana, leading people to call into question the ban and marijuana's classification as a performance-enhancing drug by the World Anti-Doping Association (WADA). Writing for the Washington Post, Matt Richtel explains WADA's cannabis ban and the shaky, sometimes even contradictory, science used to support it.

Chinese family reunites with kidnapped son after 24 years. Ever since his then 2-year-old son was kidnapped in 1997, Guo Gangtang has continued to search for him tirelessly, traveling more than 300,000 miles across China. Finally, Guo's tireless journey, which even inspired a 2015 film, has come to an end after DNA evidence helped identify his son. Writing for the Washington Post, Jonathan Edwards details the family's miraculous reunion after over two decades and the Chinese government's efforts to find tens of thousands of missing children just like Guo's son.