Today’s Solutions: August 14, 2026

Lifestyle

Alongside taking care of other people and the planet, make sure you take good care of yourself. The Lifestyle section at the Optimist Daily has solutions for everyday wellbeing on topics like food, beauty, fashion, and the latest trends. Curious about caring for houseplants, eating plant-based, or parenting tips? It’s all in there.

How AI-powered smart glasses c

How AI-powered smart glasses could transform dementia care by 2027

BY THE OPTIMIST DAILY EDITORIAL TEAM For Carole Greig, 70, who was diagnosed with Alzheimer's almost three years ago, the prospect is personal. "How fantastic that we can be given some more independence, that we're going to be able to cope on our own and not be a burden," she said after testing Read More...

A $375 million verdict that co

A $375 million verdict that could reshape how Big Tech treats children

BY THE OPTIMIST DAILY EDITORIAL TEAM A New Mexico jury ruled last Tuesday that Meta knowingly harmed children's mental health, made false or misleading statements about platform safety, and engaged in trade practices the jury called "unconscionable." The trial ran nearly seven weeks. The verdict Read More...

Speed friending: one cafe̵

Speed friending: one cafe's answer to America's growing friendship recession

BY THE OPTIMIST DAILY'S EDITORIAL TEAM Something has shifted over the past three decades in how Americans relate to each other. In 1990, about three percent of Americans said they had no close friends. Today, that number sits somewhere between 12 and 20 percent, depending on who you ask. Jaimie Read More...

Why the kiwiberry might be the

Why the kiwiberry might be the most nutritious fruit you've never tried

BY THE OPTIMIST DAILY EDITORIAL TEAM For most of human history, the kiwiberry was valued for its flowers while the fruit was just an afterthought. These days, that seems almost hard to believe, given what scientists are finding. But the kiwiberry spent centuries being grown as an ornamental Read More...

What nobody mentions in the re

What nobody mentions in the return-to-office debate: babies

BY THE OPTIMIST DAILY EDITORIAL TEAM Governments have spent decades and billions trying to reverse falling birth rates. Cash bonuses for new parents in South Korea. Generous parental leave in Scandinavia. Subsidized childcare across the EU. And yet fertility rates in most high-income countries Read More...

Brazil’s new law blames

Brazil's new law blames platform design for harming kids, not parents

BY THE OPTIMIST DAILY EDITORIAL TEAM If you have ever lost an hour to a video feed you never meant to open, you understand what Brazil just decided to make illegal for children. The Digital Statute of Children and Adolescents took effect in Brazil last week, and what makes it different from Read More...

What governments and household

What governments and households are being asked to do in the oil crisis

BY THE OPTIMIST DAILY EDITORIAL TEAM The International Energy Agency has already done something it has never done before: ordered the largest release of government oil reserves in its history. Now it is turning to the demand side... and asking a lot of people to make some small changes Read More...

Your allergies aren’t ge

Your allergies aren't getting worse with age. The pollen season is.

BY THE OPTIMIST DAILY EDITORIAL TEAM If your spring allergies feel worse than they did five years ago, there is a reason for that, and it is not you getting older or more sensitive. A study published in 2021 found that pollen season now starts 20 days earlier than it did in 1990 and produces Read More...

More movement, more energy bur

More movement, more energy burned: new study challenges metabolism myth

BY THE OPTIMIST DAILY EDITORIAL TEAM The idea that your body works against you when you exercise has circulated in fitness and science communities for years. Work out more, the theory goes, and your metabolism quietly dials back somewhere else (suppressing immune function, trimming reproductive Read More...

Navigating digital dating and

Navigating digital dating and modern relationships

BY THE OPTIMIST DAILY EDITORIAL TEAM Digital dating has changed the way we connect, creating a new vocabulary of phrases such as ghosting, orbiting, and breadcrumbing. While these activities may appear fairly innocent on the surface, they can have serious consequences for our mental health and Read More...