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Happy Tuesday

“The best time to plant a tree was twenty years ago. The second best time is now.”

Chinese proverb

In today’s issue, we’ll take a look at:

• The students designing climate-resilient homes

• The TikTok trends quietly helping the planet

• A trick to reduce stress and stay focused

• Sunset of the day

• How to get restaurant-quality cookware at home

The Students Designing Climate-Resilient Homes

Here’s something hopeful out of Canada’s North. In Dawson City, Yukon, a high school shop class spent a week designing climate-resilient homes. Twenty students drew up the prototypes, with local tradespeople and Indigenous elders coming by to work through the plans alongside them.

Here’s the best part: those blueprints didn’t just sit in a folder. The school is turning them into an actual building plan, one designed to help with the housing shortage the town is already facing.

And that’s really the heart of it. Big climate fixes tend to start small. This one began with a handful of teenagers who decided their town was worth building for. If that doesn’t leave you a little hopeful, we don’t know what will. You can read more about their project here.

The TikTok Trends Quietly Helping the Planet

Scrolling TikTok has a way of turning five minutes into fifty, and most of the time we can blame it on dance trends and cooking hacks. But here’s a nice surprise waiting in all that scrolling: some genuinely good habits are catching on, too.

But scroll long enough and you’ll notice something nice happening. A few trends are quietly nudging people toward greener choices, and they’re the kind that actually stick. A handful worth following:

• De-influencing, where creators talk you out of buying what you don’t need

• Thrift flips, turning secondhand finds into something better than new

• CleanTok gone outdoors, with park and beach cleanups pulling real crowds

• Realistic swaps, like a reusable bottle instead of a whole lifestyle overhaul

• Quick explainers on where your recycling actually ends up

While TikTok isn’t going to fix everything on its own, when sustainability starts to look normal, and even a little fun, more people give it a shot. And to us, that feels like a pretty decent use of scrolling time.

The New Trick to Reducing Stress Without Losing Focus

Burnout and stress can make it hard to focus and keep up at work. That pressure builds, creating a cycle that’s tough to break.

If you’re looking for a way to ease workplace stress without feeling drowsy, try CBDistillery’s Daytime Calm gummies.

Each serving contains 50mg of CBG, a non-intoxicating compound derived from hemp, formulated to support calm and daytime focus.

In a 2022 CBDistillery study, CBG was associated with:

• Increased focus and mental clarity

• Reduced mild, temporary anxiety

Like all CBDistillery products, Daytime Calm gummies are third-party lab tested for quality and consistency.

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Keep Your Cool

Sunset of the Day

Reader Amy sent us this sunset from Chicago, where she was in town for a conference. She stepped outside into a field of late-summer wildflowers just as the sky over the treeline turned from soft lavender to a startling streak of red.

There’s something about a sunset catching you off guard between sessions. You look up from your day, and the sky is doing that.

Thank you to Amy for sharing your sunset with us! Want to be featured next? Send us your best sunset photo.

The Brand Behind the World's Best Kitchens Just Launched Cast Iron

You've probably seen Made In Cookware® by now. They're the cookware brand used in 4,000+ professional kitchens, including 100+ Michelin-starred restaurants, and adopted by millions of home cooks.

Well, they just dropped a full cast iron collection. And they did it differently.

Where most cast iron has a rough, pebbly cooking surface, Made In machined theirs smooth. That means better searing, easier food release, and cleanup that doesn't require a degree. Every piece is cast, machined, and seasoned in the USA, oven-safe to 900°F, and compatible with all heat sources, including open flames. This is heirloom cookware, built to be the last cast iron you ever buy.

Their Cast Iron Skillets are where most people start: perfect for frying eggs, searing steaks, or getting that smashburger crust.

Shop Cast Iron

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