If you've been thinking about adding "learn an instrument" to your New Year's resolution list, you might want to hop on the latest bandwagon and consider the humble banjo. The folk staple is getting a lot of airtime thanks to content creator Phoebe Sanders, who has garnered quite the following with her banjo-playing, puppet-dancing videos (you'll have to watch her in action to see what we mean). Here's a guide to learning the banjo for complete beginners, in case you're feeling inspired.
Must Reads
Brush up on your retail etiquette before you hit the mall this holiday season
Does your pup need to don a sweater in the cold? Here's how to tell if you should bundle them up
Humanity
What 38M Obituaries Reveal About How Americans Define a Life Well Lived
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This article was written by Stylianos Syropoulos, an assistant professor of psychology at Arizona State University; David Markowitz, an associate professor of communication at Michigan State University; and Kyle Fiore Law, a postdoctoral research scholar in sustainability at Arizona State University, for The Conversation. Obituaries preserve what families most want remembered about the people they cherish most. Across time, they also reveal the values each era chose to honor. In a study published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, we analyzed 38 million obituaries of Americans published from 1998 to 2024. We identified the values families most often highlight, and how those values shift across generations, regions, and major historical events. Specifically, working with psychologists Liane Young and Thomas Mazzuchi, we examined the language used on Legacy.com, an online platform where families often post obituaries and share memories of loved ones. During their lifetime, most people tend to be guided by a small set of broad values like caring for others, honoring tradition, keeping loved ones safe, and seeking personal growth. To understand how these values showed up in remembrance, we used text-analysis tools built on curated lists of everyday words people use when talking about those themes. By analyzing the words that appeared again and again in memorials, we could see which values communities chose to emphasize when looking back on the lives of their loved ones, and how those patterns changed over time. Learn which words showed up most often.
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Culture
The Homework Assignment Sending Kids Into the Real World Sans Parents
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Many kids would much rather play on their phones than do arithmetic after school, but homework is an arguably useful method of helping them learn — and not just what's in their textbooks. One specific assignment may be key to getting them away from screens while also fostering self-reliance, confidence, and resilience. The nonprofit Let Grow is dedicated to promoting childhood independence. It was founded by Lenore Skenazy, author of the book Free-Range Kids, and its integration into school curricula is simple. "The Let Grow Experience is when teachers give kids a homework assignment that just says: 'Go home and do something new on your own, with your parents' permission, but without your parents,'" Skenazy told Good Good Good. The idea is that when adults witness the effect an independent activity has on their child, they realize they can loosen the reins and give youngsters room to explore the world on their own. And as concern over the mental health repercussions of smartphone use grows, doing so without checking in incessantly via text is imperative. "We got to get brave enough to send our kids to the canned food aisle or to the park before their voice changes," Skenazy joked in an April TED Talk, adding: "'I did it myself' is the original anxiety buster."Watch the full talk.
Environment
6,000-Year-Old Conch Shells Likely Served as Instruments, Communication Tools: Listen
Antiquity (2025)
How do you know what a 6,000-year-old conch shell sounds like? Blow into it, of course. That's the scientific method archeologists with the University of Barcelona employed to discern what ancient shells from Spain's Catalonia region were used for. And the powerful sounds that resulted indicate they may have served as both musical instruments and tools for long-distance communication. Twelve conch shells dating to the Neolithic period were the subjects of the new study. Other research has suggested similar shells were used as instruments due to the fact that tops of their spiral structures were removed. But no acoustical testing had been done on these specific specimens, which were found previously and housed at a museum. So Margarita Díaz-Andreu and Miquel López-Garcia (who also happens to be a professional trumpet player) decided to carefully play eight of the shells to see what they could glean. They found that the noises produced reached above 100 decibels — about as loud as a car horn — and the tone and pitch could be adjusted based on mouth placement. "Our study reveals that Neolithic people used conch shells not only as musical instruments, but also as powerful tools for communication, reshaping how we understand sound, space, and social connection in early prehistoric communities," Díaz-Andreu said in a news release. Have a listen.
In Other News
Humans were making fire 350,000 years earlier than previously thought, a new study suggests (read more)
A novel drugreduced breast cancer recurrence risk by 30% in trial patients, compared to the standard therapy (read more)
The oldest supernova ever observed was captured on camera by the James Webb Space Telescope (read more)
WNBA star A'ja Wilson won the 2025 Associated Press Female Athlete of the Year award (read more)
"Better luck seeing a unicorn": An exceedingly elusive Canadian lynx was filmed sauntering off into the woods (read more)
Something We Love
The Wilderness by Angela Flournoy I spent over a month on the waiting list to take this book out from my local library — and it was well worth the wait. The novel from Angela Flournoy, published in September, plays with time and perspective in such a satisfying (and sometimes heartwrenching) way, following five Black women as they navigate friendship, young adulthood, grief, and so much more. – Ally Mauch, Associate Editor
Waking up at the crack of dawn Christmas morning to find a stack of presents under the tree is part of what makes the holiday so special for kids — but not all who celebrate get to experience that joy. That's why a youth residential treatment center in Atlanta has launched a campaign to ensure the children and teens in its care will be greeted with gifts on Dec. 25. Meet some of the kids and learn how to help.
Photo of the Day
Rodin Eckenroth/Getty Images
A very happy 100th birthday to Dick Van Dyke! The beloved entertainer celebrates his centennial today, and the tributes are pouring in. In American Masters — Starring Dick Van Dyke, which aired last night on PBS, 77-year-old Ted Danson called the veteran performer his "hero" and explained that his "basic kindness" came through on every episode of the 1960s sitcom The Dick Van Dyke Show: "He gave people a laugh. He uplifted people, and he did it in such an elegant, funny, extraordinary way."
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