With the exception of a small few, we’ve all felt the instant Zen that comes from a carefully given caress. That feeling of absolute calm and safety. Turns out, this is as much a fascinating feat of biology as it is an endearing perk of being alive. As explained by Cambridge Professor and Science Communicator Hannah Fry in a now-viral Instagram video, humans are hardwired with a variety of different touch triggers, aka neurons, that respond to different stimuli. Some react to hot, some react to cold, some react to pain, and so on. C-tactile (CT) afferents are neurons that only react to a very particular kind of touch. Go too fast, too slow, or too cold (below around 32°C/90°F), and they won’t respond at all. But when someone else (key ingredient here) gently brushes your skin at the optimal speed (about three centimeters per second) your brain releases endorphins and oxytocin, chemicals associated with trust and connection. In other words, it sets off your body’s built-in calming mechanism. “You have a literal switch in your skin that is pre-programmed to make you feel safe. But you have to get somebody else to flip it,” as Fry put it. Do we need more evidence that humans are hardwired for connection with each other? Of course, humans aren’t the only ones with this mechanism. It’s the same reason why our fur babies lean in when we pet them just right. See on Instagram What’s more, Fry noted that this ultra-specific type of touch is something that mothers tend to know instinctively. In her video, she cited a 2022 study that found when mothers applied it to their preterm infants, which they did without any prompting, it caused the babies’ heart rates to drop and stress levels to decrease. Earlier studies showed similar results: better oxygen levels, calmer babies, and even shorter hospital stays.While CT afferents aren’t a new discovery, Fry’s explanation struck a chord because it translates complex biology into something wonderfully human: a “biological lullaby.”“Biological lullaby’ is such a beautiful and descriptive word combo,” wrote one viewer. Many noted how this heartwarming phenomenon is something universally known amongst more than just mothers. “As a father of two girls and a granddaughter I know this instinct,” another argued. “The pleasure of this act is equally beneficial to us as parents. It takes me back ?true love ❤️”Similarly, another shared, “Can confirm dads can do this too. Two dads here, our twin girls were premature at 35 weeks. We pretty much spent every single minute that we weren’t asleep with them in the NICU, skin on skin etc.. but I do remember both of us just randomly going in a rhythm of this perfectly medium tempo gentle stroking.”Even a hospice nurse wrote, “I do this with all my patients. As soon as I smooth their hair back that way they just melt. Many haven’t felt that since they were very young. It has tremendous impact on people at the end of life. It’s truly transformative. Ending their lives the way they began, with nurturing touch.”How to use CT-touch in daily lifeEven though we do have an instinct for this special touch, you can get it down to a science simply by incorporating calm, slow strokes on a loved one’s arm, back, or chest (making sure your hands aren’t too cold!). This can be great to have in the back of your mind when a baby starts to get fussy, or even when our fully grown partner is having a moment. There of course is the caveat that touching might not elicit the same feel good chemicals for some folks. Those who are neurodivergent or have PTSD, for example, might prefer to avoid it. A lot of different factors can alter our perception of touch as we grow up. In an age when much of our comfort comes from screens, Fry’s viral insight feels refreshingly simple: our nervous systems are built for closeness. Touch is one of the oldest forms of communication we have, and it still works. Incredibly well, at that. What a profound reminder that perhaps our most primal urge of all is to be reassured that we are never truly alone.

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Zohran Mamdani’s victory in New York marks a political milestone and a painful irony. The 34-year-old democratic socialist, son of an Ivy League intellectual and a celebrated filmmaker, now governs America’s capitalist capital. He rose on promises to freeze rents, tax the rich, and make buses free — a populist symphony that thrilled young progressives and sent Wall Street into cardiac arrest. Yet beneath the chants of equality and “power to the people” lies an awkward truth: the revolution’s new face was raised in the very privilege he vows to dismantle. Mamdani’s story glitters with contradictions. Born in Uganda, educated at elite Manhattan schools, polished at Bowdoin College —  his is not the biography of the dispossessed but of the well-connected. His father earns a professor’s salary at Columbia, his mother directed Monsoon Wedding and Mississippi Masala. Their Chelsea condo once sold for $1.45 million. Even his supposed modesty — a rent-stabilized apartment in Queens — is the kind of curated humility that pairs well with magazine profiles and filtered subway selfies. He preaches redistribution from the comfort of inherited access, railing against landlords, while pocketing $260,000 a year as mayor and holding land worth up to a quarter of a million dollars in Uganda. For a man who claims to despise hierarchy, he’s done rather well climbing its rungs. The revolution’s new face was raised in the very privilege he vows to dismantle. Mamdani cosplays as the revolutionary outsider while living like an insider whose only hardship is choosing between oat or almond milk. His campaign posters could have been designed in a Brooklyn ad agency (many were). His rhetoric — abolish inequality, end corporate greed — rings familiar to anyone fluent in progressive performance art. It’s the same sermon AOC delivers between photo shoots and Bernie Sanders repeats from one of his three houses. They rail against billionaires, yet thrive on book deals, speaking tours, and the adoration of the very bourgeois class they condemn. The script is always the same: claim solidarity with “the people,” condemn capitalism, then cash the check. In that sense, Mamdani fits neatly into the pantheon of the Left’s luxury rebels — comfortable crusaders who despise the system that made them possible. They promise to take from the rich and give to the poor, but never from themselves. Their socialism is symbolic, their sacrifice theatrical. It’s redistribution for thee, not for me. When he calls for “free” public services, what he really means is higher taxes on others. The Council on American-Islamic Relations — a group dogged by Hamas links — funneled $120,000 into his campaign. Politics has always been synonymous with dirty money, but Mamdani promised cleaner tides. Now the man who preached purity sails on funds muddied by extremism — a crusader crowned by the cash he claimed to condemn. Contrast that with Donald Trump, a man Mamdani’s base loves to loathe. Trump flaunts his wealth the way Mamdani hides his. One built towers bearing his name; the other builds narratives about tearing such towers down. Yet Trump, for all his excess, is at least honest about it. His vulgarity is transparent, his greed sincere. Mamdani’s wealth is veiled behind virtue. One sells luxury; the other sells shame. Both profit, but only one admits it. New York now faces a peculiar paradox: a socialist mayor governing the financial heart of the world. The champagne-socialist dream meets capitalist reality. His plans — free buses, frozen rents, higher taxes — sound noble until the bills arrive. The city already groans under record debt, vanishing police morale, and an exodus of wealthy taxpayers. If Mamdani governs as he campaigned, New York could soon resemble the ideological playgrounds he romanticizes — equal parts idealism and insolvency. Still, the symbolism is powerful. Mamdani’s win reveals not just a generational shift but a psychological one: the rise of performative poverty amid inherited privilege. His followers crave meaning in politics, and he offers it — preened, packaged, and precision-tailored to the progressive’s poisoned palate. They cheer his defiance of “the system” while paying $8 for vegan lattes on their way to protest capitalism. There’s a certain dark humor in watching New York — home of bankers, billionaires, and Broadway — elect a socialist who quotes Marx between media interviews. But this is the age of contradictions. The rich denounce wealth; the privileged perform oppression. Mamdani didn’t break the mold. In truth, he monetized it. So when he moves into Gracie Mansion, subsidized by the very taxpayers he vows to liberate, he will finally embody his movement’s creed: equality achieved through elite-approved illusion. He will pose for cameras in his modest subway attire, tweet about justice from a city-owned mansion, and remind New Yorkers that salvation is always one tax hike away. The revolution, it seems, now includes a penthouse suite and round-the-clock room service — proof that in modern politics, even class warfare comes with a skyline. READ MORE: Electing the Image: Mamdani and the Mimetic Turn in Democracy Halloween Came a Few Days Late for Republicans