How Squishmallow collecting helped me cope with grief, make new enemies and find ‘villains’ worth studying

By Danielle Hass, Ph.D. Candidate, Department of Marketing, West Virginia University

I was one of the millions of people who lost someone to the COVID-19 pandemic. Despite the nonstop news about the “new normal,” my grief felt invisible. I took shallow solace in my phone and turned to social media to numb me from the reality that I now lived in: a world without my dad.

One day, while mindlessly scrolling, I came across the r/Squishmallow subreddit, where a girl had posted her collection of more than 100 round plush toys.…

Read complete article

~	Egypt: Prisoner of conscience Alaa Abdel Fattah granted presidential pardon after six years of unjust imprisonment

~	Soaking up the storm: Sponge cities and the future of flood-resilient Southeast Asia

~	The Mediterranean: Both a graveyard and a bottomless money pit due to EU border policies

~	Kids in child care need healthy movement — and guidelines can improve their health

~	The UK, Canada and Australia have recognised Palestine – what does that mean? Expert Q+A

~	Twilight at 20: how Stephenie Meyer’s vampire saga changed young adult fiction forever

~	The near-extinction of rhinos is at risk of being normalised

~	Going after ‘antifa’: Donald Trump’s plans to crush his political foes

~	New York Times v Sullivan: the 60-year old Supreme Court judgment that press freedom depends on in Trump era

~	Major theories of consciousness may have been focusing on the wrong part of the brain