Today’s Big Story

Perfectly Imperfect Teeth

Veneers have never been more popular, but the best ones no longer look like bright, blocky Chiclets

“Good teeth”, like a sun-kissed tan and toned muscles, is one of those visible aspects of health that has long been a signifier of wealth. Recently the bar for good has vaulted skyward though and more and more well-known mouths have been renovated to showcase perfected, pearly whites.

Central to the discussion are veneers—those sliver-thin coverings for the teeth, often made from porcelain. A subtle status symbol, veneers represent a market that’s projected to reach $4.6 billion. If there was a brief time when veneers—like sports cars or designer bags—were seen as a signifier of having wealth, they have since become—like sports cars or designer bags—as the baseline of “having it all”. And it seems like everyone wants it all.

Which is why some are getting themselves in trouble by visiting so-called “veneer techs”. These barely-trained technicians are often operating without any true medical license and often leave people much worse off than when they started. Others are trying plastic pop-on veneers that, well, look like pieces of plastic stuck to your real teeth.

Of course, those are only a little less believable than the overly perfect, blindingly white smiles that many in Hollywood have been choosing over the past decade. From singers to actors and even your favorite influencers, they all suddenly seem to have identical, perfectly even, and unnaturally white teeth that, Dazed points out, are often slightly too big for their mouth gnashers.

Thankfully, Hollywood’s most in-demand veneer specialists now say that while for some clients the brighter and whiter the better, they prefer to practice toned-down naturalism. Like more subtle botox, the savviest consumers simply want to polish little imperfections, but not obscure them completely. “The pendulum has swung back in the direction of undetectable,” renowned cosmetic dentist Jon Marashi, told the Wall Street Journal. “Mother nature doesn’t make teeth carbon copies of one another and neither should dentistry.”

Inflation Is Easing

Consumer Price Index slows below 3% for first time since March 2021

Well, this is certainly promising. For more than two years, it seemed as though the economy’s big problem was inflation, right? It was the key irritant for everyone from policymakers and the White House to everyday American consumers. But Wednesday's Consumer Price Index report confirms that’s no longer the case: Prices are no longer rising rapidly, which means the battle to kill inflation appears all but over.

According to CNN, that paves the way for the Federal Reserve to cut rates next month after a yearslong battle with inflation that sent rates spiking to a 23-year high. “America’s economy is showing signs of stress, and now that inflation appears under control, the Fed can reduce borrowing costs to try to get job growth booming again.”

Analysts said the figures should help convince the Fed that high borrowing costs are working to return inflation back to normal, despite upticks in housing and food costs. Energy prices (notably gasoline), which had served as a drag on the May and June CPI, were flat for July. The three major stock indexes in the U.S. were little changed after the report, which came in roughly as expected. Jared Bernstein, the chair of the White House Council of Economic Advisers, touted the data on Wednesday but also pledged “no victory laps.”

The Presidential Race Heats Up

Trump vs. Harris magnifies America’s generational and cultural divides

With just 80 days until Election Day, the presidental race is understandably heating up. And in today’s hyper-polarized environment, any bump in enthusiasm or change in poll numbers is getting a lot of attention. For instance, while Donald Trump’s support among voters has remained largely steady, Kamala Harris’ support is 6% points higher than Biden’s was in July. In addition to holding on to the support of those who backed Biden earlier this summer, Harris’ bump has largely come from those who had previously said they supported or leaned toward Robert Kennedy.

But, as we all know, the U.S. presidency is decided, not by the popular vote, but by the electoral college. And Intelligencer says Harris’ most significant accomplishment in the last three and a half weeks has been to “climb into a highly competitive position with Trump in the seven battleground states where the deal will ultimately go down.”

According to the Washington Post, the split screen between the two campaigns reflects how the candidates embody two very different cultural, generational and social identities. Trump’s “grievance-fueled movement is full of nostalgia for past generations and his own term in office—and fear and anger about how undocumented immigration and secularization are changing the country.” But Harris is drawing new energy from young voters and people of color who say they worry that Trump will take America backward to a place where women, people of color, LGBTQ+ Americans and others face more challenges.

Saving a Species

Lab-grown starfish released into wild for the first time

Did you know that starfish have been on earth far longer than humans? About 474 million years longer. But even though those sea stars have been swimming around, minding their own business since the Paleozoic era, they’re not immune to the dangers of our ever-changing world.

In fact, due to sea star wasting disease, lower oxygen levels in seawater, and rising temperatures, starfish populations are at risk around the globe. One species in particular—the sunflower star—was nearly wiped out completely. Across the last decade, the sunflower star population plummeted by over 90%. And they’re a big one. According to NPR, they’re one of the biggest in the world. One can be the size of a trash can lid or a manhole cover.

Thankfully, researchers at the University of Washington have carefully grown and raised several generations of sunflower starfish in a controlled environment, breeding them from a select sample of starfish rescued from an inhospitable ocean environment five years prior. And on August 10, the scientists released the starfish in a historic event at Friday Harbor in Washington. They plan to monitor them as the creatures explore the same harbor where their ancestors were plucked back in 2019. Another key factor in saving the sunflower starfish has been raising awareness of their decline.

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