Introducing The Roots and The Shoots
We're expanding our newsletter products to help you get more up to date on the world's most pressing health and environmental disparities
Dear Reader,
I’ve got some good news to share: in the first half of 2026, the number of our newsletter subscribers grew by 43%! Thank you for counting on us to brighten your inboxes every week.
With the rapid deterioration of social media and search engines (thanks, Generative AI slop!), we care about cultivating direct and honest relationships with minimal distractions. Therefore, starting from this week, we are trying something new.
We’re splitting our newsletter into two:
The Roots: A twice-a-week digest of the most pressing news on health and environmental disparities around the world, released every Wednesday and Saturday. This includes an expanded version of the “A Southern Flair” and “What Else We’re Reading” sections.
The Shoots: Go behind the scenes with me, Laasya, and The Xylom’s reporters every Sunday as we discuss one of the week’s top stories. This is the analysis you usually see at the top of our newsletter.
There is no action required on your end because… we will soon move your subscription(s) to our redesigned website hosted on Ghost! The new site will combine our current web hosting on Wix and newsletter hosting on Buttondown into a streamlined, open-source platform. We expect it to load faster, better center our visual journalism, be more accessible for you, and make our lives much easier on the backend.
Since it will be our first major revamp in nearly seven years, we want to make sure we put your reading and viewing experience first. If you’re still with me, I have an extra treat: we are recruiting ten beta testers for our redesigned website!
Reply to this email, and we will send you a beta tester code by the end of the month. You can be the first to see our new website and offer us feedback before its launch. Thank you again for your love and support.
Best regards,
Alex Ip
Publisher and Editor
👀 ICYMI
EXCLUSIVE: Kenya Has No Ebola. But Trump’s Planned Quarantine Facility Has Already Claimed Its First Life
Kenya has never had a documented Ebola case. However, a planned quarantine facility exclusively serving Americans exposed to the virus in Africa has sparked massive protests, leading to a violent police crackdown.
“Why is America coming to Kenya, just because [President William] Ruto is given money by the U.S. government?” asked Lucy Kagure, the mother of a killed protester. “Why can’t the facility be in America?”
Read more here.
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Subscribe now🍑 A SOUTHERN FLAIR
NEW IBERIA, La. — Unfounded fears hamper Louisiana’s solar boom (Delaney Nolan, The Lens)
Misinformation has become one of the primary hurdles for utility-scale solar projects like the one once planned here.
“Sometimes opposition that develops from misinformation and disinformation tends to spread like wildfire,” said Matthew Holland, energy policy outreach coordinator at the Blanco Center, who counsels solar advocates to counter misinformation through specific facts about the benefits of the projects. And, as solar projects become more commonplace, some misinformation may lose its grip.
GEORGIA — Deep Dive Into Local Data Shows Diversity of Rural Health Issues in Georgia (Liz Carey, The Daily Yonder)
“Trusted relationships between residents and local institutions, including clinicians, public health departments, faith-based organizations, and community leaders, often play a central role in how health information is shared, and services are delivered,” the study found.
“Leveraging the capabilities of regional systems to provide coordinated referral pathways, telehealth collaboration, and knowledge-sharing can further expand these networks of trust and help healthcare initiatives reach populations that might otherwise remain disconnected from preventive services or ongoing care.”
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. — Alabama Seeks Permit to Fill Wetlands, Streams for Controversial Highway Project (Dennis Pillion, Inside Climate News)
“As a spring-fed tributary, it is really one of the closest things that we have remaining in the Birmingham region of what streams used to be like,” says Black Warrior Riverkeeper Nelson Brooke.
“Crystal-clear, good-quality water, and still viable habitat for a host of rare and endangered species.”
🗺️ WHAT ELSE WE'RE READING
JAPAN — Japanese Americans seek affordability in a country growing wary of foreigners (Emilie Takahashi, AAJA VOICES)
For Aimi, accessing diabetes treatments in the United States was getting too expensive, and she said she was looking for an escape from a “broken” healthcare system.
Her family supported her, saying that a life in Japan was a better fit for a diabetic, with high-quality food, a walkable lifestyle and access to affordable healthcare.
“(My parents) came to America looking for better benefits, and in that generation, they were right: They had better opportunities back then,” Aimi said. “But in our generation, it’s reversed.”
The Trump Administration Is Making It Nearly Impossible to Get Food Stamps (Bryce Covert, The Nation)
“I wouldn’t be going through all of this if I didn’t really need it,” she said of food stamps. “We really need to keep that food on our tables.” says M (name withheld by The Nation), the mother of two young children living in Tucson, Arizona.
Thieves Are Now Targeting AI Data Center Construction Sites for Copper and Expensive Equipment (Luis Prada, Vice)
“Americans don’t seem like they’d be particularly broken up if the data center craze gripping corporate America were stopped dead in its tracks,” writes Luis Prada.
“According to recent polling, data center hate is one of the few things capable of uniting people across the political spectrum. At this point, the only people who’d genuinely miss them—besides the tech CEOs insisting we need them for reasons they can’t explain—might be the thieves making a fortune stealing the mountains of copper and equipment headed to their construction sites.”
COPENHAGEN, Denmark — How Denmark’s ‘Pig Election’ Rewrote Factory Farm Politics (Emily Payne, Sentient)
“We thought we would have to make really complicated arguments,” says Britta Riis, chief executive officer of Animal Protection Denmark, the country’s largest animal welfare organization. “Suddenly, it was just about the pig.”
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