Health
Iris on health and longevity · June 14th
storyflo · health and longevity
Jun 14, 2026 · 14 min listen
Listen · storyflo · health and longevity
Iris on health and longevity · June 14th
0:00-13:42
Live · Kokoro-82M
By mid-afternoon, it’s already there. A heaviness in your shoulders. A pressure behind your eyes. You’ve been “on” since 9am, moving through conversations you’re not just having but actively managing. Monitoring tone. Editing responses. Running who you are through a filter in real time so no one around you has to adjust. That kind of tired has a different texture. It’s beyond fatigue to the space of the utter inner ‘crispy’ of being translated all damn day/week/year/lifetime. If you’re a high-masking ADHD, autistic, or otherwise neurocomplex adult, you already recognize it. I do too.
I’ve never been someone who equates more ingredients with better food. In fact, some of my favorite meals are the ones that ask for the least. Pan Con Tomate is a perfect example. With just a handful of kitchen staples and a few minutes of effort, you end up with something that feels far greater than the sum of its parts. ✨ It’s Mediterranean minimalism at its finest! That’s why this dish feels so nostalgic to me. It takes me right back to my childhood in Europe, in my Bapche’s kitchen. She could turn a few humble ingredients into something truly special. A slice of bread hitting a hot flame, a drizzle of olive oil, the bright freshness of grated tomato, a pinch of flaky salt, and whatever fresh herbs she had growing nearby was often all it took. ❤️ Nothing fancy. Nothing complicated. Just good ingredients, shared with love around the table. The secret to this simple recipe is the grater plate (seriously, she's that girl 💅). ☀️ A grater plate transforms ripe tomatoes and garlic into a silky, flavorful pulp that melts into every nook and cranny of the bread 🍅🧄. Unlike bruschetta, where tomatoes are diced and piled on top, Pan Con Tomate allows the juicy tomato mixture to soak into the toasted bread for a completely different texture and eating experience. It’s rustic, simple, deeply satisfying, and one of the most delicious ways to celebrate ripe summer tomatoes. Enjoy! Macros + Interactive Checklist What’s a dish that reminds you of someone in your family? 💛 Let me know in the comments 👇 Nonna’s Tip 🍞 Slice the sourdough at least ¾ inch thick and char until deeply crisp. A sturdy slice holds the tomato mixture without turning soggy. DON'T FORGET ME 💭 Subscribe now Leave a comment
Hello from Chicago! I’m sitting in the press room at the James Beard Awards in Chicago. The awards are taking place at the Art Institute, and the press room is in the cafeteria. As the winners come in for their photo op and interviews, all of the journalists clap for them. Honestly, it’s my favorite part. I will likely talk more about awards later this week, but in the meantime, here’s the list of cookbook winners: Beverage with Recipes - Soju Party: How to Drink (and Eat!) Like a Korean by Irene Yoo (Alfred A. Knopf) International - Kin: Caribbean Recipes for the Modern Kitchen by Marie Mitchell (W.W. Norton & Company) Emerging Voice in Books - Ozoz Sokoh, author of ChopChop: Cooking the Food of Nigeria (Artisan) Professional and Restaurant - Cook Like a King: Recipes from My California Chinese Kitchen by Melissa King & JJ Goode (Ten Speed) Single Subject - The Japanese Art of Pickling & Fermenting: Preserving Vegetables and Family Traditions by Yoko Nakazawa (Smith Street Books) Baking and Desserts - Baking and the Meaning of Life: How to Find Joy in 100 Recipes by Helen Goh (Abrams) Vegetable-Focused Cooking - Comida Casera: More Than 100 Vegan Recipes, from Traditional to Modern Mexican Dishes by Dora Ramírez (Balance) U.S. Foodways - Umma: A Korean Mom's Kitchen Wisdom and 100 Family Recipes by Sarah Ahn and Nam Soon Ahn (America's Test Kitchen) General - By Heart: Recipes to Hold Near and Dear Hailee Catalano (DK) Visuals - MUMBAI: A Journey Through Its Kitchens, Streets, and Stories by Sri Bodanapu, Rushina Munshaw Ghildiyal, and Bhavya Pansari, with Nandini Thirani (Heirloom Project) You can find the full list of nominees here, and I’ll be posting photos and videos from the weekend over at the Cookbookery Collective Instagram. Congratulations to all the nominees and winners!
I don’t know how else to say this. Insurance is evil. I know that sounds dramatic. I know that sounds like something you say after a long day, when the phones are ringing, the claims are denied, the portal is down, and someone from an insurance company named “Debra” tells you that the claim was denied because the patient’s left shoelace was untied on a Tuesday. But honestly, the more I deal with insurance, the more I read about what happens behind the scenes, and the more I see families and doctors get pitted against each other, the more I believe the system was designed this way. Not broken. In the past few years in our office, we have had a few instances of something called an insurance takeback. Or a clawback. Or a recoupment. Or whatever sterile corporate word they want to use to make it sound less insane. Here is how it works. A patient comes to see their doctor. Their insurance is checked. It shows as active. The patient is seen. The claim is submitted. The insurance company processes the claim. They pay the claim. Everyone moves on with their life. The doctor provided the care. The family used their insurance. The insurance company said, yes, this is covered, here is the payment. And then, sometimes one to two years later, sometimes even longer, the office gets a letter. Basically: “Oops. We want the money back.” That’s it. Sometimes they give a reason. Sometimes they say it was a coordination of benefits issue. Sometimes they say they made an error. Sometimes they say the patient did not actually have active insurance on that date. Sometimes they say another insurance should have paid first. Sometimes they basically say, “We reviewed this again and changed our mind.” Keep in mind, this is after the insurance was verified. After the claim was accepted. After the insurance company paid. After months or years have passed. And then they say: “Please send us a refund check within 30 days.” And if you don’t? Don’t worry. They will simply take it out of the next payment they owe you. Which is a cute little trick. Imagine paying your plumber to fix your sink and then, two years later, sending him a letter saying, “Actually, I changed my mind. Please refund me. If you don’t, I’ll just deduct it from the next time you fix my toilet.” That would be insane. But in medicine, somehow, this is normal. And the most frustrating part is that the insurance company does not go directly to the family and say, “We made a mistake. We paid for something we now believe we should not have paid for. Please work this out with us.” No. They take the money back from the doctor’s office. Then the doctor’s office is left to go back to the family to make them pay out-of-pocket. A family who may have moved. Changed their phone number. Changed insurance. Changed jobs. Had another baby. Forgot the visit ever happened. And now the office has to call and say: “Hi, remember that visit from 18 months ago? Your insurance paid us, but now they took the money back, so unfortunately you are responsible for the balance.” Not the insurance company. The office. The family thinks the office did something wrong. The family thinks the office is trying to charge them out of nowhere. The family thinks, “Why are you billing me now? I had insurance. You told me it was covered.” And honestly? They are right to be frustrated. I would be frustrated too. But the office is frustrated too. Because we did not make the rules. We did not approve the claim. We did not pay the claim. We did not wait a year and then decide to reverse it. We provided the care. The insurance company created the mess. Then they quietly exit the room and leave the family and the doctor to fight over the bill. It is not just that insurance companies deny claims. It is not just that they make everything complicated. It is that the structure itself turns patients against their doctors. The doctor becomes the face of the bill. The front desk becomes the punching bag. The billing team becomes the villain. The parent is angry. The office is exhausted. And the insurance company sits behind a portal, unreachable, unaccountable, and somehow still making record profits. As doctors, we often have very strict deadlines to submit claims. Sometimes 90 days. Sometimes 120 days. Sometimes a little longer depending on the plan. Miss that window? Too bad. Claim denied. No payment. Rules are rules. But insurance companies? They can come back a year later. Two years later or more later. Sometimes more depending on contracts and state rules. They can say, “Actually, we want that money back.” So let me get this straight. The doctor has 90 days to submit the claim. But the insurance company gets one to two years to decide whether they feel like keeping their original decision? That is not a fair system. That is a casino.
Feature: Are you ready to retire? Depends which kind of ready you mean From Bec’s Desk: Letting life happen The Age and Sydney Morning Herald: Over 50? Use these seven ways to boost your super before July 1 Prime Time: Finding meaning outside of work Type “am I ready to retire” into Google and you’ll get calculators, checklists, and articles telling you to aim for 70% of your pre-retirement income. All these tools are useful. All are focused on your money. But that’s not really what you’re asking at 11pm on a Tuesday when you type those words, is it? What you actually want to know is: will I be okay? And that’s an entirely different question. I’ve spoken with hundreds of people who had their finances completely sorted and still hit retirement like a concrete wall. It wasn’t the money that caught them off guard. It was the regularity of Monday morning. The empty diary and no plans, and no rhythm or social framework to slot into. That plus the odd feeling of invisibility. There’s often a realisation that most of their social life had been running through their work or at the very least, through their work networks, without them ever noticing it. The first few weeks of retirement can feel like a holiday. Then something shifts, and suddenly “what am I actually doing today?” starts to feel like a question that needs a more valuable answer than just “whatever I want”. You’ve got skills, you’ve got a brain, you’ve got time. But you haven’t worked out how to use them differently, for the social benefits, the lifestyle moments and the pure joy of it. This is something we call the adjustment phase. Be alert to it, even prepared for it. It’s completely normal. But most people have never heard of it and don’t talk about the tough bits, so most aren’t ready for it. So how do you really actually know if you’re ready? It’s not about whether you feel excited for or nervous about retirement. Most people feel both. It’s about whether you’ve thought through the things that work has been taking care of for you - the social networks, the adrenalin rushes of achievement and the feeling of having purpose. Sit with these before you hand in your notice and think about them: Where does your sense of self come from right now? If the honest answer is mostly your job title, worth knowing that before you walk out the door. Who will you actually spend time with in retirement? And I don’t mean on holidays. I mean on an ordinary Wednesday. Work friends are great until they’re not your colleagues anymore. And people you do deals with might not need to take you to lunch when there’s no deals to be done. What’s going to get you out of bed? I don’t mean a vague plan to read more or potter in the garden. Think up something specific, with enough pull to give your week some shape. Then contemplate - if you are you running toward something, or away from something? Retiring to escape a bad job or a shitty boss is very different from retiring toward a life you’ve designed, thought through and have a vision of. The people who land well usually have the second picture sorted. And have you actually tested any of this? Take a longer break. Spend a week without work structure. Take your long service leave - if you dare. See how it feels in real life, not just in your head. And then remember, you don’t need to have it all figured out. Nobody does. Retirement isn’t a moment you either nail or don’t. It’s a transition, and transitions take time to find their shape. But going in knowing that the emotional side is just as real as the financial side puts you in a much stronger position than most people who only run the numbers to check if they are ready. So yes, check your super, do the sums, make sure the money works. Then ask yourself the harder questions too. Because those are the ones that will really tell you whether you’re ready. Cold, wet and rainy - in Queensland. Have we got the wrong weather report? I’ve been dodging downpours every morning on my walks this week. My littlest dog and I have come home a few times looking like drowned rats. But another very entertaining week running retirement courses in two countries and writing more programs in-between for future rollouts with funds. And this week we’re celebrating the 4th birthday of The Epic Retirement Club on Facebook! It’s the biggest retirement club or Facebook group on retirement in the world. There’s 22 moderators around the world who work together - all volunteers - keeping the club safe, free of inappropriate stuff and full of fun! A huge thanks to all those mods! And to everyone who enjoys being part of it. This week the Epic Retirement Course in Australia has hit week 5. The money lessons are done and we’re onto health, purpose and happiness - some of my favourite topics. We welcomed David Lane for our Live Q&A on Investing your super, SMSFs and Financial Advice.
Send this story to anyone — or drop the embed into a blog post, Substack, Notion page. Every play sends rev-share back to storyflo · health and longevity.
We’ve simplified responses to 👍 / 👎. Past comments are archived but no longer visible.