Latest news with #exhaustion
CNN
2 days ago
- Automotive
- CNN
Tired drivers often ‘microsleep.' Here's the real deal on drowsy driving
Many people have driven while being incredibly sleepy, but how tired is too tired? And what can you do if you have to soldier on? CNN's Randi Kaye finds out that there's a level of exhaustion that can put you at serious risk while on the road.
CNN
3 days ago
- Automotive
- CNN
Tired drivers often ‘microsleep.' Here's the real deal on drowsy driving
Many people have driven while being incredibly sleepy, but how tired is too tired? And what can you do if you have to soldier on? CNN's Randi Kaye finds out that there's a level of exhaustion that can put you at serious risk while on the road.
Daily Mail
4 days ago
- Entertainment
- Daily Mail
JoJo Siwa sparks concern as she admits she is exhausted and 'faking' her energy after breaking down in tears on stage during London show
JoJo Siwa has sparked concerns after admitting she is exhausted following her back to back shows in London this week. The singer, 22, has had a busy few weeks after jetting back to LA following her stint in Celebrity Big Brother in April. And now the Dance Moms star has confessed her hectic schedule has taken its toll and she has found herself having to 'fake' her energy. Taking to Instagram for a Q&A with her followers on Thursday, one fan asked: 'Where do you get your energy?' JoJo then admitted: 'I try and find happy in every moment, even when it's hard or fake it when I am empty. Currently what's happening hahaha' From A-list scandals and red carpet mishaps to exclusive pictures and viral moments, subscribe to the Daily Mail's new showbiz newsletter to stay in the loop. The singer, 22, has had a busy few months after jetting back to LA following her stint in Celebrity Big Brother last month (pictured performing in London on Tuesday) Another concerned fan penned: 'Do you ever stop and rest/take a break? Just focus on yourself for once?' The star replied: 'Yes, I did for a short time around my birthday, but taking a little break top of June'. Since leaving the Big Brother house last month JoJo has been straight into rehearsals for her summer tour. After flying home to LA the star then headed to Mexico for a show before enjoying a birthday holiday in Florida with her family and Chris Hughes. She then headed straight to London where she performed for two nights at Colours Hoxton on Monday and Tuesday this week. JoJo was overcome with emotion as she broke down in tears during her show on Tuesday. She told the crowd that despite once feeling like 'one of the most hated people in the world,' she now feels 'so special and so loved.' During the same show, JoJo confirmed her romance with fellow Celebrity Big Brother star Chris Hughes after weeks of frenzied speculation over their relationship status. JoJo recently enjoyed birthday holiday in Florida with her family and Chris Hughes as the pair shared a series of loved up snaps Speaking to the crowd once she got a handle on her emotions she said: 'London can I just say, as Joelle a very serious thank you I'm going to take my last two minutes to get a little deep with you all. 'I've gone through a lot of phases in my life, it's crazy what I'm about to say out loud. 'Since I was nine, I've gone through phases of my life where, at times, I have been one of the most hated people in the world.' She continued: 'I'm not asking for sympathy, it's OK, but I've been hanging onto things that are out of my control. 'It was really really bad when I was 14. But, right now, personally and professionally I feel incredibly loved. 'And it just, nights like this, I don't cry that often, nights like this it just it really hit me, and I can be up here an sing my songs and commit to the bit, but I just want you to know inside my heart is smiling. 'And I feel like, I just feel so grateful because in my life right now, in rooms like this and at home I feel so loved and I feel so special. 'I wanna take a second, and remind everybody if you're doing through a hard time, I promise it gets good, just keep pushing troops.' Meanwhile JoJo also took to Instagram on Thursday to share her favourite thing about Chris in a new Instagram post after confirming their romance. The Love Island star, 32, and dancer have formed a close bond since they met in the Celebrity Big Brother house last month, but have kept it coy when grilled about the status of their relationship. JoJo has now shared her 'favourite' thing about Chris, during a Q&A with her 11.3million followers. She said: 'Gosh lots of things, but the first thing that comes to my mind is the way he treats everyone... Strangers, friends, family, me, literally everyone. 'I've never seen somebody who acknowledges everyone in the room the way that he always does. Everyone gets a hello, everyone gets, how are you doing... and it's genuine. Beautiful beautiful soul he is'. The Dance Moms star also shared a glimpse into her chilled date night in with Chris as he cooked for her at his home. JoJo filmed the Love Island star cooking her a cream chicken dish before he got her to taste off a spoon before they sat down to eat and she revealed she 'ate every bite'. It comes after Chris revealed his relationship status with JoJo , after the singer confirmed their romance with a sweet on-stage tribute. The ITV star had a simple one-word answer when asked whether he and JoJo were in a relationship. The presenter answered: 'Happy. That's my relationship status - happy. Yeah, I'm just happy that's good. I'm happy with that.' However despite the guarded answer, Chris still gushes about his close relationship with JoJo, admitting she's become his 'favourite topic of conversation.' He said: 'She's just just my favourite human and somebody I can literally talk about relentlessly.'
Telegraph
18-05-2025
- Health
- Telegraph
I was lazy, crazy and couldn't cope, but I knew it wasn't depression. It took years for doctors to listen
Like most young women in their early 20s, Chloe Ford had just entered the working world and secured her first full-time job. It was an admin role at a local business and she was living with her boyfriend, now-husband. She looks back on a chapter that should have been an exciting, fun time in her life but remembers spending it in bed feeling desperately exhausted. Friends were working their nine to five jobs and managing to party all night, then take part in fun adventures such as hiking challenges – but Ford was missing out. 'I had exhaustion, sore eyes, weight gain, loss of general happy energy and then brain fog as well,' she says. 'The best way I can describe it is like clouds filling the space in my mind where my intelligence was supposed to be.' 'I was coming home from work at 5pm and I'd be in bed by 6pm. I was just drained, completely drained,' Ford adds. Being so tired and lethargic was out of character for her. 'I was an energetic, sporty person and had a horse at the time, which involved getting up and out early, before work, and then going to the stables after work too.' Alongside all the normal nervousness and anxiety that comes with starting a first job, she worried that colleagues thought she wasn't very bright because she kept having to pause when talking. 'I was stopping mid-sentence and I could see people getting frustrated with me,' she says. From 21, Ford kept making appointments with her GP, desperate for answers. But doctors were very quick to diagnose her with poor mental health. 'At every appointment, I'd detail all my symptoms but was told I was too young for it to be anything other than depression,' she explains. 'They'd also weigh me at each appointment and confirm that I'd put on weight. I'd already noticed this myself because my jeans were tighter and my face looked different. But the GP acknowledging it would really upset me.' On one visit, she asked for a blood test and the doctor turned her away, telling her that she was depressed and gave her a number to call for support. 'I couldn't believe that I wasn't being listened to,' she says. 'I didn't think I had depression and I was worried because I felt as if my brain was getting slower, and in all honesty, dumber. I hated getting that 'stuck in my throat' moment when words were lost to me.' During this time, she didn't take any long-term leave from work but had more sick days compared to colleagues. 'My immune system was so rubbish that I would catch every single bug under the sun and I would be ill all the time – it was so frustrating and I just couldn't work out what was wrong,' Ford says. 'At one desperate point, I thought that it could just be me – maybe I was just lazy and couldn't cope with a full-time job. I felt like I was crazy. I knew I had all these symptoms but all the medical professionals were brushing them off.' Finally, a diagnosis Around 18 months after first seeking help, when she was 22, Ford saw a female GP. 'I walked into the appointment and as I sat down, she asked me what was wrong and I just burst into tears,' she recalls. 'She listened to me and said she thought I needed a full blood count to determine what was wrong.' That was the turning point because, four days later, the results came back and showed she had severe hypothyroidism, also known as an underactive thyroid. It's a condition that affects 1-2 per cent of the population and is more common in women than men. It occurs when the immune system attacks the thyroid glands – a small gland in the neck, shaped like a butterfly or bow tie, just in front of the windpipe. As a result, the thyroid can't make enough of the hormone thyroxine (also called T4), which is responsible for regulating metabolism (the chemical reactions in our body), explains Dr Nicola Zammitt, a consultant endocrinologist in Edinburgh. Tiredness is one of the main symptoms of hypothyroidism. 'It feels like there isn't enough gas in the tank,' she says. 'Everything's slowed down too much. There's a tendency to put on weight, to feel the cold more and your bowels slow down, so people tend to be constipated,' she says. Other symptoms include depression, slow movements and thoughts, muscle aches and weakness, dry and scaly skin, brittle hair and nails, a loss of libido, pain and numbness in the hands and fingers, as well as irregular or heavy periods. 'The diagnosis was a massive relief and made so much sense,' Ford says. 'It confirmed that I really was ill and that it wasn't just in my head and, most importantly, it meant that I could be treated.' Why hypothyroidism is so difficult to spot While Ford's road to diagnosis was long, it shouldn't have to be. 'Confirming a diagnosis of hypothyroidism is straightforward and involves a simple, cheap blood test that any GP is able to do,' explains Dr Zammitt, who is also a trustee for the British Thyroid Foundation. The blood sample then goes to a biochemistry lab and results show whether a thyroid is working normally, is underactive or overactive. However, it can be difficult for doctors to spot that a patient's symptoms are a result of a thyroid problem, and refer them for this test, she notes. This is because the main symptom – tiredness – is a common symptom of many illnesses, meaning it can sometimes take a while for patients to be diagnosed, she says. The other tell-tale sign of hypothyroidism is weight gain and most cases of hypothyroidism occur in midlife. 'So, imagine a woman in her 40s or 50s saying that she's put on weight and is feeling sluggish – very often, doctors will think these are simply symptoms of the menopause,' Dr Zammitt notes. While hypothyroidism can occur at any age, most cases are among the over-50s. The most common cause is autoimmune disease, where antibodies (cells produced by the immune system to fight off infection) mistakenly attack the thyroid gland, damaging it, Dr Zammitt says. Doctors don't yet know what causes the immune system to overreact in this way. Some babies are born with an underactive thyroid, which is called congenital hypothyroidism (which all babies in the UK are screened for within the first few weeks of life), but this is relatively uncommon, Dr Zammitt notes. Living with hypothyroidism While you can't cure hypothyroidism, Ford takes a medication called T4 levothyroxine. It's a daily tablet that replaces the thyroxine that her body can't make enough of on its own and reduces the severity of her brain fog, tiredness and other symptoms. 'I still have flare-ups,' she notes. 'I don't know what causes them – it could just be a bug – but I'm just really rubbish on those days. I feel slow and I find it really hard to talk. The brain fog will get so bad that I just cannot function. It really gets me down.' Ford still works a full-time job, has a four-year-old son and is also a newly published author, finding solace in writing as something she could do, even when she felt short of energy. Her first novel Work Trip – a rom-com that sees two colleagues who dislike each other forced together while travelling for work – is out now, and she has another book out in October called House Party. 'I'm not very good at practising rest,' she admits. 'My experience has left me wondering how many people suffer with thyroid issues for a long time without realising the cause, or that there are treatments available,' she says. There main consequences of an undiagnosed underactive thyroid relate to symptoms going untreated, as it can lead to high cholesterol, which raises the risk of heart disease and strokes, Dr Zammitt says. A lack of treatment can also lead to a rare complication called myxoedema, which is a severely underactive thyroid that can cause the heart rate, body temperature and sodium levels to become worryingly low, she notes. Symptoms of myxoedema include confusion and a drop in alertness. 'An untreated thyroid can ultimately lead to hospitalisation, intensive care and even death, though this is extremely uncommon as most people would get a diagnosis and take their medication to prevent these complications,' Dr Zammitt says. Those who have autoimmune hypothyroidism are also slightly more likely to develop other autoimmune conditions, such as Type 1 diabetes, coeliac disease or Addison's disease, she adds. 'For people who have an underactive thyroid, or have undiagnosed symptoms, my biggest piece of advice would be to advocate for yourself,' Ford says. 'I know it can be easier said than done but push for appointments and tests when things don't feel right but keep pushing until you get the care you deserve. 'Also, while it's a condition that you're going to have forever, it's not all doom and gloom. You can hold down a job, have a family and even turn a hobby into a new career.' Hypothyroidism FAQs What does our thyroid gland do? The thyroid gland sits in the lower part of the neck and is shaped a little bit like a bow tie or butterfly, explains Dr Zammitt. 'The thyroid hormones it produces act as the accelerator pedal for our body's metabolism (the chemical reactions in our body),' she says. 'They enter the nucleus of our cells and affect what the cell does and what it produces, which has a knock on effect on metabolism.' They have effects on your gut (the rate at which food passes through it), your heart (how fast it beats) and your brain (causing low mood for underactive thyroid and anxiety and irritability for overactive thyroid), says Dr Zammitt. 'So the effects of these hormones are felt throughout the whole body,' she says. What is hypothyroidism? Hypothyroidism, also known as an underactive thyroid, occurs when the thyroid gland doesn't produce enough thyroid hormones. It's a condition that affects one to two per cent of the population and is more common in women than men. It occurs when the immune system attacks the thyroid glands As a result, the thyroid can't make enough of the hormone thyroxine (also called T4), which is responsible for regulating the metabolism (the process that turns food into energy), explains Dr Nicola Zammitt, a endocrinologist in Edinburgh. What is the difference between hypothyroidism and hyperthyroidism? Hypothyroidism (an underactive thyroid) occurs when the thyroid can't make enough hormones, while hyperthyroidism (an overactive thyroid) is when the gland produces too many thyroid hormones. Hypothyroidism is more common than hyperthyroidism, Dr Zammitt says. 'You get tired with both an underactive and overactive thyroid, but with an underactive thyroid, it feels like there isn't enough gas in the tank,' she explains. 'Everything's slowed down too much.' 'Whereas with an overactive thyroid, it's like you are exhausted because your metabolism is running too fast,' she explains. 'Your heart races fast, your hands tremble and shake, you feel hot, you feel sweaty, your bowels work too fast (causing diarrhoea).' What are the causes? The most common cause of hypothyroidism is antibodies (fighter cells produced by the immune system to fight off infection) mistakenly attacking the thyroid gland which causes damage, Dr Zammitt says. Doctors don't yet know what causes the immune system to overreact in this way. 'This damage blocks the thyroid from making thyroid hormones, and therefore you have to take lifelong thyroid hormone replacement medicine,' she says. However, an underactive thyroid can also be a result of treatment for an overactive thyroid, which can involve removing the thyroid gland or making it inactive with radio-active iodine. This is done because an underactive thyroid can be easier to manage than an overactive thyroid, she says. Some babies are born with an underactive thyroid, which is called congenital hypothyroidism (which all babies in the UK are screened for within the first few weeks of life), but this is relatively uncommon, Dr Zammitt notes. In most cases, hypothyroidism is permanent but it can also be caused by temporary inflammation of the thyroid (thyroiditis), which can occur during pregnancy or be caused by some medications or pregnancy. 'For some people, this is a temporary phenomenon and after a few months, the thyroid recovers,' she adds. How to know when to get tested? If you have symptoms of an underactive thyroid, the NHS recommends making an appointment with your GP. The most common signs of the condition are feeling extremely tired, feeling cold more than usual, putting on weight, constipation and brain fog. If you present with these symptoms, a GP may recommend a blood test to check how much thyroid-stimulating hormone (TSH) and thyroxine (T4) is in your blood. What are the treatments? 'For most people, once their thyroid has become underactive, it's permanent and they need to take thyroid hormone replacement,' Dr Zammitt explains. The most common form of replacement is a daily levothyroxine tablet, which is an artificial form of the T4 thyroid hormone. A patient's starting dosage of this medication is calculated based on their weight, she says. Then, six weeks after starting the medication, patients should receive a blood test to determine whether they are on the correct dosage. For example, if your body isn't absorbing levothyroxine very well, you might need a change of dose. 'Common supplements like calcium and iron can reduce absorption of levothyroxine, as can medicines to lower stomach acid, such as lansoprazole and omeprazole,' Dr Zammitt notes. 'Hormonal changes can also affect the dose you need,' she says. Women usually need a higher dose during pregnancy and the dose may alter during the menopause, as hormone levels fluctuate, she explains. 'The majority of people take their daily thyroid replacement tablet and can carry on with life as usual and feel fine,' she says. However, some patients are treated with a combination of levothyroxine and an artificial form of T3 as well, Dr Zammitt adds. Is there a link to thyroid cancer? Having an underactive thyroid or overactive thyroid does not increase your risk of developing thyroid cancer. However, some thyroid diseases, such as an enlarged thyroid (medically known as goitre), thyroid nodules (called adenomas) or inflammation of the thyroid (thyroiditis) do increase the risk of hypothyroidism. What age does hypothyroidism occur? When it comes to an overactive thyroid, most cases tend to occur in younger people, in their 20s, 30s and 40s, though both can happen at any age.
Yahoo
18-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
The carnival of American politics is dizzying. Yet here we stand.
The bronze statue of Abraham Lincoln on the south lawn of the Kansas Capitol in April 2025. The statue, by Topeka sculptor Merrell Gage, was dedicated in 1918. (Max McCoy/Kansas Reflector) One afternoon not long ago, I walked the south lawn of the state Capitol at Topeka, camera in hand, seeking inspiration. I wasn't looking for photographic subjects exactly, but something deeper, some sign or cypher that might be a key to hope in the early months of 2025. Simply put, I was bone tired. The American carnival of politics had left me numb. During the five years I've written this column, I've shared my concern, anxiety, and outrage over state and national politics. I have at times warned of uncharted terrain and at others admitted fear, but now I must convey an existential cultural exhaustion. It is something that reaches down to the personal. A week or so before driving the 58 miles from my front steps to roam the Capitol lawn, as we got into the Jeep to run some errand, Kim paused and pointed to the roof of our house. A course of shingles, about the size of a door, was missing on the south side, exposing the wood decking beneath. She had found the wind-ripped shingles on the ground on the other side of the house, but we hadn't known where they had come from until that moment. The bare patch of wood deck was over the center of the house. Below it was our second-floor bedroom, and below that was the living room where I played acoustic guitar a couple of times a week. The house is more than 100 years old, but the roof was rather new, and as I looked up at where the shingles had been, I imagined rainwater pouring into the heart of the house. I'm handy with tools when I've a mind to, but I'm afraid of heights. I muttered something to Kim about not worrying, that I would find somebody to climb up and fix it, but inside me something was shrieking like a stall alarm on a Cessna 172. There had been a series of weather-related challenges at home over the past two years, including a favorite maple tree blowing down on the garage. Due to professional setbacks, money was tight. The missing shingles felt personal. Those shingles were still on my mind when I went to Topeka for lunch business. I had placed a call to the contractor who originally put on the roof but had not yet received a response. At least the sky was clear that afternoon. After lunch, I drove over and parked at the meters on the other side of the street from Capitol Police headquarters. I plugged the meter with four quarters, enough for an hour, and then slung my old Canon DSLR camera over my shoulder. There were a few people on the sidewalk, bags over their shoulders coming to or from work, and a handful of workman at the east entrance to the Capitol. But when I followed the sidewalk to the south lawn I found myself alone, amid green lawns, a few statues, and the immensity of the copper-domed building rising before me. The solitude was restful. I passed a sculpture of a seated Abraham Lincoln on my journey, then approached the Capitol and photographed a number of architectural features, steps, columns, pediments. I circled the flower beds. I went over and examined a ground-level replica of the Ad Astra statue atop the statehouse dome, an eight-foot Kansa warrior with drawn bow. Then I wandered back to the Lincoln statue, which I found oddly comforting. The seated Lincoln faces away from the Capitol. One hand rests on a lanky knee. The face is of the bearded Lincoln, the one familiar to us from the profile on our pennies and the Lincoln Memorial in Washington and Alexander Gardner's 1865 'cracked plate' photograph. But while Gardner's portrait carries a hint of a smile, the Lincoln on the state Capitol lawn is full of care and sorrow. This sorrowful Lincoln offered wisdom. I'm no Lincoln scholar. I cannot tell you anything about the flawed and fated man who led the nation through its greatest trial that you cannot read in a dozen biographies. Doris Kearns Goodwin, the Pulitzer Prize-winning historian who wrote 'Team of Rivals,' has said that Lincoln suffered from depressive episodes so severe that his friends removed all razors and scissors from his room. Jon Meacham, another presidential historian, author of 'There Was Light: Abraham Lincoln and the American Struggle,' has said Lincoln 'was a politician — but a politician ultimately driven by conscience.' Knowing that Lincoln went through dark periods of depression and managed to redeem the soul of America gives me hope. It isn't an expectation that I am personally destined for greatness, but it is proof that seemingly overwhelming burdens can be endured. I sometimes declare in my weaker periods that I can't stand things anymore. Kim observes: 'And yet there you stand.' Indeed, here we all stand. We may be frightened, anxious, at the end of collective or individual ropes, but as long as we remain standing we are not yet beaten. The primary task before us is to endure. To help others, we must ourselves remain on our feet. The bronze statue of Lincoln at the Kansas Capitol was the first public commission by Merrell Gage. It was unveiled Feb. 12, 1918. Gage, a 1911 graduate of Topeka High School, later studied sculpture with Gutzon Borglum, a bigot who carved Mount Rushmore. Gage, who taught for 33 years at the University of Southern California, considered Lincoln an 'inexhaustible' subject. In 1955, Gage was the subject of a short documentary in which he sculpted the head of Lincoln from clay while talking about the president's life. The film won an Oscar. Gage died in 1981. Gage was an artist of his time, an era when poet Carl Sandburg produced a hagiographic biography of Lincoln that is now recognized as being more literature and less fact. But it is Sandburg's Lincoln, perhaps more than any other single work, that shaped the perception of the 16th president as a benevolent and martyred father. Each American generation interprets Lincoln anew. While Gage likely had Sandburg's Lincoln in mind, my interpretation of Lincoln has been shaped by Goodwin and Meacham and others, including Steven Spielberg. It has also been skewed by Richard Nixon's manic and impromptu visit with anti-war protestors at the Lincoln Memorial one night in May 1970. Lincoln continues to evolve in my understanding, as the dangers facing democracy have deepened. These dangers have sharpened so fast that it is worth a moment to recount. It is the most grotesque freak show of any carnival midway. Eighty years of global leadership has been endangered by the clumsy authoritarian urges of a president drunk with self-importance and enabled by a Congress controlled by a Quisling majority. The hunt for DEI in government is the new McCarthyism with a bigoted twist, due process is trammeled by mass deportations that send some detainees to a notorious foreign prison, and the U.S. turned its back on longtime military and commercial allies. The rolling crises lurch from the catastrophic to the absurd, from a tariff war that few credible economists understand to an apparatchik-worthy declaration that Veterans Day would be known as 'Victory Day for World War I.' And then there is DOGE, the revenge-driven wrecking ball dismantling the federal government in the name of cost-saving efficiency. All of this was predictable. Anybody who had paid attention to Donald Trump's insane ramblings or was familiar with Project 2025 knew where we were headed. We are in the midst of a radical transformation of America into a bizarro-world of opposite values. The grifting of the presidency, from Trump's crypto scam worth billions to the Qatari gift of a $400 million luxury jet to replace Air Force One, should dismay all but surprise none. What has surprised me is the apparent inability of Democrats to mount a coherent political response. Oh, there have been scattered strong voices –Bernie Saunders, Cory Booker, AOC, Elizabeth Warren — but these seem like cries in the wilderness. Mass political protests, including the May Day event in Topeka, seem to have the most momentum. But at some point, to be effective, protest has to coalesce around a leader with a conscience who is able to articulate the case for democracy and a path forward to a better America. Meanwhile, we must remain standing. We do not need another Lincoln — our allotment was one — but we do need a human being and not a seated statue. Where will this individual come from? I have no idea. But they are surely already among us, if only we take the care to recognize them, flaws and all. This is a time not only for resisting, but for knowing why we resist. American greatness, in the Trumpian sense, is antithetical to American goodness. What is best for democracy — that is, what benefits the most fortunate as well as the least fortunate — is not efficiency but empathy. Governments are not businesses because the goal should be to serve all of the people, not the monied few. Nobody wants waste. But the touting of cost-cutting efficiencies is a canard to distract us from the unchecked kleptocracy of oligarchs and the influence of foreign princes. To repair this rot, we must engage in a vigorous campaign to restore fundamental American values of dignity, equality, and robust democracy. I finally reached someone who agreed to come take a look at our roof. He was a young man named Brian who took a couple of days to show up, but who was cheerful and talkative when he did. He extended a ladder above our gutter and climbed up on the roof, walking about as easily as I would in my living room. He inspected the damage with a practiced eye. 'No problem,' he declared. The repair was made in half an hour. Brian promised to send a bill, but I never got one. My weariness will likely continue for a while longer. But I am helped by the knowledge that I don't have to remain standing forever. I will stand today, and after that I will stand tomorrow. For the places in which I am afraid, there are others who will stand for me. In the places in which others are afraid, I will stand for them. Statues belong to the past and the future. The present belongs to the living. Max McCoy is an award-winning author and journalist. Through its opinion section, the Kansas Reflector works to amplify the voices of people who are affected by public policies or excluded from public debate. Find information, including how to submit your own commentary, here.
