Neil deGrasse Tyson explains why time accelerates as we get older and how to slow it down

Can we trick our minds into slowing down time?

By Tod Perry

When you’re a kid, time passes a lot more slowly than when you’re an adult. At the age of seven, summer seems to go on forever, and the wait from New Year’s Day to Christmas feels like a decade. As an adult, time seems to go faster and faster until one weekend you’re putting up your Christmas lights though you swear you just took ‘em down a month ago.

Why does time seem to speed up as we get older? Astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson recently explained the phenomenon in a video posted to Instagram. He also offered tips on how to slow the passage of time as you age. DeGrasse Tyson is one of the most popular science communicators in the world and the host of 2014's Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey and 2020’s Cosmos: Possible Worlds.

👨‍🦰 Don't worry, Millennials. Psychoanalyst Carl Jung said life really begins at the age of 40.

You're just preparing the second, deeper phase of life.

By Tod Perry

Many Millennials feel they got a raw deal in life. Their younger years were marked by the 9/11 attacks, the War on Terror, and the Great Recession. When they got older, if they pursued higher education, they faced skyrocketing student debt, and as adults, the cost of living has made buying a home nearly impossible for many. Add that to a chaotic, polarized political world, COVID-19, and One Direction breaking up in 2014—Millennials have a decent reason to say they’ve been given a raw deal.

Once seen as the younger generation, Millennials are now aged 29 to 44, and if all the turmoil they’ve experienced has left them with a sour taste in their mouths or a list of unfulfilled dreams, there is reason for hope. Carl Jung, one of the most important psychologists who ever lived, believed that life begins at 40. In fact, a quote commonly attributed to him is: "Life really does begin at forty. Up until then, you are just doing research."

This is a bop.

🛫 People swear by these 20 unique airport hacks for stress-free holiday traveling

These tips and tricks changed the way they travel forever.

By Heather Wake

Holiday traveling is upon us, and this year feels particularly…turbulent. It seems like getting to the airport super early, packing light, and even having little luxuries like TSA pre-check or global entry isn’t enough to handle the crowds, costs, and overall chaos that awaits.

Luckily, there are still plenty of tried-and-true ways to make flights flow a little smoother. Recently a travel content creator (@emmahaswanderlust) asked for people to share airport hacks that “changed the way you travel forever.” She emphasized that she was looking for things a little more unique than “take layers because the lane gets cold!”and folks did not disappoint.

From genius packing ideas to simple ways to avoid paying exorbitant airport fees, here are 20 hacks that real people swear by to make air travel a breeze.

🎵 How a forgotten verse of 'O Holy Night' became an anti-slavery anthem in 1855

Many are surprised to learn the third verse of the famous carol even exists.

By Annie Reneau

People have been singing "O Holy Night" as a Christmas standard for well over a century, and yet most of us have only ever heard the first verse. In fact, it's likely that most people aren't even aware that there are two verses beyond the final "Oh, night divine," and fair to guess that most don't know the third verse contains a blatantly anti-slavery message.

"O Holy Night" originated as a poem written by French leftist wine merchant, Placide Cappeau, before it was set to music by secular composer Adolphe Adam in either 1843 or 1847. The carol, known as "Minuit Chrétien" ("Midnight, Christians) or "Cantique de Noël" ("Christmas Hymn") in French, sings of Christ's birth and the visit of the three wise men in the first two verses.