Chick-fil-A does a pretty great job of keeping its menu exciting. The fast-food giant changes things up regularly and consistently tests and debuts new items. A few years back, select Chick-fil-A locations tested spicy chicken strips, and fans fell in love. But as quickly as they appeared on the menu, they seemingly disappeared. Instagrammer Snackolator has good news for fans who want a little more spice in their lives. Right now, the spicy strips are testing in select Georgia locations. “They’re exactly what you’d expect – the Chick-fil-A strips we all know and love with the extra kick of spice, and I remember them having a little extra crunch to the breading too,” Snackolator explained on Instagram. View this post on Instagram A post shared by Snackolator (@snackolator) Chick-fil-A’s Spicy Chicken Strips Were a Huge Hit Snackolator loved Chick-fil-A’s spicy strips and would love to see them on the menu again. “As of now they’re only in the testing phase, but as we know Chick-fil-A tends to test a few seasons ahead so fingers crossed these go nationwide again at some point,” he wrote. “Would you want Spicy Chick-n-Strips? I’d also be happy with Spicy Nuggets too…” He’s not alone; lots of people would like to see things get spicy at Chick-fil-A. “I have been waiting for this! I would prefer nuggets but I’ll do chicken strips lol,” someone commented. Others can’t believe that spicy strips and nuggets aren’t already on the Chick-fil-A menu. “OMG i’m surprised these haven’t happened already,” one person wrote. This person agreed, suggesting Chick-fil-A just roll them out nationwide. “Forget testing!!! Bring then everywhere,” they wrote. This story’s featured image is by Kevin Carter/Getty Images

Nehemiah Turner loves animals. The 11-year-old particularly likes dogs and knew that he wanted to spend more time with them. More than two years ago, his grandmother took him to the Jacksonville Humane Society to volunteer, and their lives changed forever. He’s the first student in the Pawsitive Reading program’s history to log 100 hours reading to pets. “100 hours read here at the shelter is such an amazing accomplishment over two years. That’s some serious, serious dedication for a young person like Nehemiah,” CEO Lawrence Nicholas told Action News Jax. Nehemiah Turner Takes His Volunteer Work Seriously Nehemiah Turner told Action News Jax reading to the pets makes him feel good. “Soothing, feels good, calm, comforted animals, not like a whole bunch of barking is happening,” he explained. Lawrence Nicholas said he loves the program because it keeps kids engaged and doesn’t rely on electronics to do it. “This is a place where we can put the tablet and the electronics down, pick up a good old-fashioned book, and read to somebody who really wants to hear your voice. How can you beat that?” said Lawrence Nicholas, CEO. Nehemiah is headed into sixth grade and is a straight A student. He plans to continue participating in the Pawsitive Reading program “What’s next? I think we got to set up a new hour. So, I think I set up like 110, 150, and 200 hours.” This story’s featured image can be found here

Anxiety can be a tricky condition to quell. Because it’s so common, researchers have spent decades trying to better understand it and find the right combination of medication and therapy to treat it. People who experience anxiety, especially at high levels, are often willing to try just about any life hack that might help keep it at bay. Harvard University-trained sociologist and author Martha Beck developed her own approach to tackling intense anxiety. She calls it the “CAT” method, which she explains in her book Beyond Anxiety. C is for Calm In an interview on Today, Beck broke down the acronym and explained how to put it into practice. If you’re beginning to feel anxious, she says to start with the “C,” which stands for “Calm.” But this isn’t about telling yourself to simply calm down—that approach rarely works. Instead, Beck suggests imagining yourself as a tiny, innocent baby or puppy and speaking to yourself the way you would to a vulnerable, beloved creature. “Your anxiety is always a little baby. A little animal,” she said. She also stresses the importance of speaking to yourself with kindness. “I think when you’re anxious, what you’re saying isn’t always kind,” she said. “‘I am going to fail. What’s going to happen?'” Beck reiterates that imagining yourself as a tiny kitten—or another small, vulnerable creature—helps you approach your anxiety with greater compassion. That shift in perspective can immediately begin calming your nervous system. A is for Art The second part of the acronym, “A,” stands for “Art.” Beck explains that once you’ve shifted into a calmer, kinder mindset, creating something can help redirect your attention away from anxiety. And it doesn’t require any artistic talent. “Don’t worry, you don’t have to be an artist,” she said. Anything you make—even something as simple as a sandwich—can be considered art. View this post on Instagram The act of creating something—whether it’s journaling, painting, cooking, or another creative pursuit—can itself help interrupt anxious thought patterns. “We have known that anxiety flatlines creativity,” Beck explained. “What I have started to realize is that creativity flatlines anxiety.” T is for Transcendence The final letter, “T,” stands for “Transcendence.” Each step builds on the one before it. “If you go into that creative space, your brain is designed to take you in connection with other beings and to assume some, I call it co-mingling, with creation,” she said. Beck acknowledges that the concept may sound a bit unusual, but says it may resonate with people who practice deep meditation. “It’s a weird thing, but that flow state that people are always after, you can go there and stay there,” she added. One YouTube viewer captured the idea perfectly: “C-A-T 1. Calm down the baby inside you.’ It’s gonna be ok, honey.’ 2. Art – do anything creative to initiate a shift in the brain. 3. Transcend – to gain a bigger birds-eye view and see possible solutions you hadn’t thought of before.” ‘People try to think their way out of anxiety’ Upworthy spoke with mental health expert Matt Grammer, founder of Therapy Trainings, about Beck’s “CAT” method. Given his expertise in developing training and resources focused on emotional regulation, trauma, anxiety, healthy coping strategies, stress, and resilience, he was well positioned to discuss the approach. He explained, “I agree with Martha Beck, that in her CAT (Calm, Art, and Transcendence) method, one of the major issues with anxiety is that people try to think their way out of anxiety, all the while their nervous system is still on high alert.” View this post on Instagram Instead of focusing only on the wellness aspects of the “CAT” method, Grammer explained how each step supports the next: “I see CAT as more of a sequence of steps, rather than three wellness tips. Calm gives space to respond rather than react. Art diverts the mind from ongoing threat scanning to sensory/creative play. Transcend engages the person in broadening their scope of connection to their meaning/values/nature/community and beyond the petty fear. For example, a person who is anxious in the moment (typically, thinking of the worst possible outcome) of a difficult conversation could use CAT and ask themselves, ‘What kind of person do I want to be in this conversation?’ to create some intentionality.” Excellent coping tool Grammer said he finds the method to be a helpful coping tool, but emphasized that it isn’t a substitute for therapy: “I think CAT is a useful coping tool, but not a substitute for professional help for anxiety, trauma, panic, OCD, and the like. Also, I am not a fan of overly literal statements that suggest switching from the left to right hemisphere of the brain and vice versa within CAT. I think the greatest gift of the CAT method is the shift in attention out of simplicity. “Anxiety focuses life on a single, anticipated event. CAT aims to broaden that perspective, though the intention isn’t to eliminate anxiety altogether. Instead, the focus is on restoring the ability to act appropriately in the face of anxiety.” The post Stop feeling anxious with expert’s ‘CAT’ method to switch off and ‘flatline’ anxiety appeared first on Upworthy.

Aging is the great equalizer among humans. Today, the world’s oldest living person is Ethel Caterham of the United Kingdom. According to Guinness World Records, she is 116 years old. While living past 100 is a remarkable achievement, many researchers have long believed the human lifespan has a natural upper limit of about 122 years, according to a 2021 study published in the journal Oncoscience. However, new research suggests the human lifespan may be much longer than previously thought. In a July 2026 paper published in npj Aging, researchers in Russia proposed that humans may have the potential to live as long as 156 years. The human lifespan limit Russian researchers Evgeniy Efimov, Vlad Fedotov, and Leonid Malaev published a paper based on analyses of human DNA and the body’s aging process. They found that one of the mechanisms involved in aging, known as somatic mutations, may hold the key to a longer human lifespan. Somatic mutations are changes that occur in the body’s cells and accumulate throughout a person’s lifetime because of environmental factors and errors in DNA replication. Over time, they contribute to aging and are thought to help limit the human lifespan. Currently, there is no treatment that can reverse the damage they cause within human cells. While some organs, such as the liver, can regenerate cells and help offset the effects of somatic mutations, two of the body’s most vital organs cannot: the brain and the heart. That aligns with data from the World Health Organization showing that heart disease and dementia are among the leading causes of death. Why? Because each contains tissue that does not readily regenerate: neurons in the brain and cardiomyocytes in the heart. Jordan Weiss, an assistant professor and aging researcher at New York University’s Grossman School of Medicine, told Newsweek: “The conditions that cost people their independent, healthy years—such as dementia and heart failure—fall heavily on precisely the tissues that cannot regenerate. So the gap between how long people live and how long they stay well is not one general breakdown of the body. It is concentrated in the organs that have no way to replace worn‑out cells.” Living to 156 years old The researchers created a model that removed the effects of somatic mutations. Without them, the model suggested, humans could potentially live as long as 156 years. However, the researchers did not discount other biological processes that contribute to aging, including mitochondrial dysfunction, epigenetic drift, telomere shortening, and loss of proteostasis. Egle Pavyde, a pharmacist and regenerative medicine researcher, told Newsweek that the study’s value lies in quantifying what scientists have long suspected. “It proves that DNA damage accumulating in our cells is one of the reasons we cannot live indefinitely but also shows that our bodies are complex systems and that it is only one piece of a much larger puzzle,” Pavyde said. The future of anti-aging The new research encourages scientists to further explore treatments aimed at preventing or repairing the damage caused by somatic mutations. “If renewable organs already tolerate decades of DNA damage without much trouble, there is little to gain from protecting them further,” Weiss said. “The harder and more valuable problem is preserving the DNA of brain and heart cells.” While the new study did not offer a way to extend the human lifespan, previous research has identified lifestyle habits that can help people age more healthfully. According to the National Institutes of Health (NIH), those include “not smoking, maintaining a healthy weight, getting good sleep, getting all recommended vaccines, getting preventive cancer screenings, and treating hypertension and high cholesterol.” Luigi Ferrucci, scientific director of the NIH’s National Institute on Aging, put it this way: “People have demonstrated that if you do these things, which are all feasible, you can increase your life expectancy by 10 years. We don’t need a magic pill. The magic pill is already here.” The post Science thought the human lifespan was 122 years. A new model says we could live decades longer. appeared first on Upworthy.

It’s always hard to talk about death. Even thinking about it makes many of us uncomfortable at best, filled with dread and terror at worst. When we get the terrible news that someone we know—a loved one, a friend, a colleague, even an acquaintance—is dying, most of us are at a complete loss for words. Viral video asks people with terminal illness how to talk about death A recent Instagram Reel from ABC Australia asks people suffering from terminal conditions: “How to respond when someone is dying” and “What should people say when they hear the news?” It’s a surprisingly thorny topic, and it’s easy for even the most empathetic and well-meaning people to go astray. View this post on Instagram The most common flubs, according to the people who know “Well, obviously, they just immediately say ‘I’m so sorry,’ you know, ‘How sad,'” one of the women being interviewed said. “And then I think they’re lost for words.” From there, we begin to reach for something productive or supportive to say, all the while being overcome with emotion. It leads to some encounters that the dying don’t always find comforting. Pity “Pity is the thing you fear the most in people,” the woman said. Empathy, sympathy, compassion, and pity are close cousins. They all have to do with “feeling bad” for someone, but to various degrees. Pity, of all of them, implies the most detachment and often makes the person receiving it feel inferior or somehow patronized. Pity projects tragedy on someone, and would sound something like “That’s horrible, you poor thing.” Being overly distraught It’s easy for anyone to forget: The person who’s dying may be dreading having to tell everyone and deal with the outpouring of sympathy. “One of my biggest concerns was having to deal with all the people who are trying to offer solace and support but I end up offering support and solace to them,” one man said. “It becomes quite bloody taxing.” “In many ways, I have to support the person I’m telling,” said another, “because they’re the ones that are finding out the information for the first time.” While showing your emotions is human, becoming a blubbering mess for the other person to take care of is a little unfair. Being too optimistic or touting miracle cures “What they shouldn’t say is, ‘Oh, there’s this miracle cure they’ve just discovered if you go to Vietnam and have a vegan diet and drink, I don’t know, whatever,” the woman said. “As if you’re going to disrupt your entire life to try some method of curing this disease when you know perfectly well that if there was a cure for cancer, it would be on the front page of every newspaper in the world.” “‘Have you prayed to God?'” mimed another man. “‘Have you tried insert alternative therapy medicine here?'” What to say instead Truly, there’s nothing you can say that will make someone’s looming death better, but in the moment that they tell you, there are ways to make the interaction supportive, loving, and positive for both parties. Humor and normalcy One man interviewed in the piece said that a little humor, even if it’s a bit crass, can be surprisingly refreshing. “There were a couple of friends where we basically just kick off each other, and they’re like, ‘Oh, get over it, it’s only a brain tumor, you’ll be fine.’ And actually those are the easiest phone calls.” It’s actually OK, once the news is out, to talk about other things. Sports, movies, family. It’s uncomfortable for everyone to dwell on the morbid. Ask and offer to help If you’re a Take Charge kind of person, you may take the compassionate approach of wanting to make the person feel better. Instead of talking about a miracle drug you read about online, a better approach is to ask what you can do to make things easier for them. An even better approach is to offer something specific: Can I bring dinner by Thursday? Do you need a ride to the doctor tomorrow? I’m going to the store, please let me know what I can pick up for you. Saying nothing Ultimately, another added that sometimes the best thing to say is nothing. “They shouldn’t be obliged to say anything at all,” he said. Experts agree. Listening and offering a friendly ear is often more comforting than the most perfectly crafted words. If you’re in a pinch, try this, per the Marie Curie charity: “I wish I knew what to say, but I’m here and I’ll continue to be here if you’d like me to be”. Ultimately, no one will ever react perfectly to devastating news with the exact right mix of empathy, sympathy, and support when they hear tragic news. And the people interviewed in the piece understand that. “I interpret what they’re saying as ‘I really care about you and I’m hoping this can help.’ If you use that mindset, it makes all those sorts of things that otherwise might potentially be annoying suddenly become much more nice,” one of the men said. One of the women summed it up even better: “Maybe just think about being kind, that’s the most important thing.” The post Terminal patients reveal exactly what to say, and what not to say, to someone who’s dying appeared first on Upworthy.