Today’s Big Story

Panic Rooms Are Big

Well, most are small, but they’re defintely having a moment … if you can afford one

I’ve always been into secret doors. Maybe it was my youth, watching detective shows and Scooby-Doo, but anytime I’m in a room with a large bookcase, I try to figure out if there’s a room hidden behind the shelves. I’ve yet to find one, but it’s not as crazy as it sounds.

Because more and more homeowners are adding hidden doors and rooms to foil burglars, eke out extra storage space and prepare for a range of disasters, apocolypses or just a good ol’ Armageddon. Curbed spoke with several companies about the boom in building panic rooms, secure safe rooms and ballistics-grade walk-in closets. The ultrarich are feeling ultra-paranoid these days and want to lock down in style. Mark Zuckerberg is reportedly developing a 5,000-square-foot underground bunker complete with a living space, a mechanical room, and an escape hatch at his $100 million Hawaii compound. Kim Kardashian and Tom Cruise are said to have built some impressive panic rooms as well.

One builder said incorporating a fortified room hidden behind a mirror, a bookcase or even a fireplace, has become somewhat standard for a certain class of people. “Just like adding a jacuzzi.” The materials are pricey—and expensive to transport. (A single fortified door can weigh thousands of pounds.) Rigdon’s panic rooms, which start at $50,000, can come with bulletproof night-vision gear, food, and medical supplies.

Of course, as Robb Report points out, the sudden popularity of reinforced-concrete shelters may say more about the state of our national psyche than about an actual lack of residential security. And they can always be seen as an investment, doubling “as a vault for jewelry, guns and art” while also providing “a place to shelter in case of home intrusion.”

Then again, they don’t have to be such a downer. Not all secrets are bad, right? According to the New York Times, searches on the site Houzz for the terms like “trap doors,” “kitchens with hidden pantries” and “speakeasy home bar lounge” had all more than doubled over the past year. Sometimes, you want a space that’s just for you and no one knows about … until they pull the right book from the shelf.

Fed Holds Rates Steady

They’re staying at a 23-year high as inflation continues to push back timing of a rate cut

The Federal Reserve held interest rates steady on Wednesday for the sixth straight time and acknowledged a “lack of further progress” on cooling inflation. What exactly does this mean? Well, the latest economic data show prices are still rising too quickly, complicating the Fed’s projections of lower interest rates this year. So the higher rates probably aren’t going away anytime soon.

Rates are holding steady at 5.3%, remaining at a more than two-decade high, where they have been set since July of 2023. Central bankers reiterated that they needed “greater confidence” that inflation was coming down before reducing them. If you’re carrying a lot of high-interest debt, this may be disappointing, if not surprising.

But if you have any savings, the Fed’s unwillingness to lower rates has—and will continue to—put money in your pocket this year if you seek out federally insured accounts with the highest rates. In 2023, savers made $315.4 billion in interest in deposit accounts, four times the $78.7 billion they earned in 2022, according to Lending Tree, which used data from the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation in its calculations.

Getting Mad Is Bad for Your Heart

New science shows how a surge of anger could raise heart attack risk

You know how when someone gets really mad, we say their blood is boiling? Well, getting angry—even for just a few minutes—really can change the functioning of your blood vessels. And that makes heart attacks and strokes more likely.

The new findings, per a study from the Journal of the American Heart Association, could explain why some people experience these events during emotional outbursts. The investigators recruited nearly 300 healthy young adults and got them angry while various aspects of their circulatory health were measured. Perhaps unsurprisingly, none of them had a heart attack or stroke during this process, but they did experience impaired blood vessel functioning that has been linked to such outcomes.

According to New Scientist, other kinds of research have suggested that heart attacks can be triggered by intense emotional experiences. For instance, one study found that in the hour before a heart attack, people were more than twice as likely to have experienced anger or emotional upset as during the same hour-long period the previous day. So when you feel yourself getting pissed, just remind yourself to slow down, take a deep breath and relax … for your health.

McDonald’s Beefs Up Its Burgers

The fast-food giant says customers want bigger burgers that can satisfy bigger appetites

The legendary Big Mac just ain’t cutting it anymore. McDonald’s is planning to launch a new, bigger, and better burger that the chain hopes will compete with Burger King’s Whopper, Fox Business reports. The move comes amidst a litany of changes for the brand, which has contend with backlash stemming from skyrocketing prices and increased competition from the likes of Shake Shack and Five Guys.

On Wednesday, McDonald’s CFO Ian Borden announced that McDonald's “team of chefs from around the world have created a larger, satiating burger” and that the chain would be “testing this burger in a few markets later this year, ensuring that it has universal appeal before scaling it across the globe.”

Sadly, McDonald’s did not provide any further details on the new hamburger, including a prospective name, outside of the fact that it’s larger than its signature thin patty. However, the burger will be an entirely new menu item, as opposed to a twist on an existing recipe. The Daily Mail reported that, while no details have been confirmed, the price for their largest burger ever will be somewhere between $6–8.

The Long Read

The internet makes most information instantly available. What if that’s why mass culture is so boring?

Some change is good.