Category: Global Health

It might surprise you to learn self-proclaimed red meat lover Jason Momoa isn’t on the paleo or keto diet. What’s not a surprise is he’s a big freaking guy—especially if your first Momoa sighting was the actor as Khal Drogo, a Dothraki khalasar chieftain in Game of Thrones. If that’s the case, you’ve always had the impression of Momoa being a mammoth human. Standing at 6’4″, the actor’s got an imposing frame—and adding slabs of muscle doesn’t take a gargantuan effort. If you’re curious how the actor trains to become a superhero the likes of Aquaman and stay limber on the reg, check out Warrior Workouts: Jason Momoa’s Trainer Shares the Secret Sauce of Shaping a Superhero. That said, Momoa’s trainer and healer, Damian Viera, does have Momoa clean up his act to get that shrink-wrapped look for blockbusters like Aquaman.

How Jason Momoa Eats to Get Skin-to-Muscle Ripped for

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The world of cryptocurrency can feel a lot like the Wild West. Its origins are as shaky as its rise has been shady.

The buzz started with Bitcoin: A computerized algorithm generates a digital token of exchange that’s registered on a public database (i.e a blockchain). Supporters thought because it was decentralized—not under governmental control—it had the legs to totally transform global finance.

Of course there were drawbacks. Because it had little real-world use to anchor its value, prices swung drastically. The solution: a digital “coin” that would be registered on the blockchain but backed by actual U.S. dollars. Enter RealCoin. Below, we detail all the developments that have taken place over the years (and, boy, are there a lot of twists and turns).

For a deeper dive into cryptocurrency, read our feature: Tether Is a Trail of Shady Deals and Shattered Promises. Too Bad Cryptocurrency Now Depends on It.… Read more

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Winning any professional triathlon three times in a row is impressive, but Escape From Alcatraz isn’t just any triathlon. Participants take a chilly plunge into San Francisco Bay’s choppy water for a 1.5-mile swim, then haul 18 miles up twisting hills by bike, and finish with an eight-mile run. The pièce de résistance: a brutal set of cliff stairs called the Sand Ladder. Two thousand amateur and professional athletes from over 50 countries will test their limits on Aug. 15—when the venerated race celebrates its 40th anniversary—but the man to watch is Ben Kanute. 

The 28-year-old American athlete will attempt to swim-bike-run down history as the first man to win Escape from Alcatraz Triathlon for four consecutive years. After winning this race from 2017 to 2019, Kanute has been waiting two years for his chance at the record after 2020’s race was canceled due to COVID-19. We caught up … Read more

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What if we told you there were some towns in America that would pay you to move? If you ever get that nagging voice in the back of your mind—the one that tries to convince you to pack all your belongings and uproot your life for a fresh start—well, now’s the time to listen to it.

Maybe you’ve toyed with the notion of escaping somewhere familiar—or perhaps someplace far away. You’re not alone, but more and more people are taking the plunge. About 31 percent of young adults (ages 18 to 31) relocated, either permanently or for an extended period of time, during the COVID-19 pandemic, according to a survey conducted by Bankrate. And more than 15.9 million people filed change-of-address requests last year from February through July alone, per data collected from the United States Postal Service.

The overarching migration trends are nothing new, but the phenomenon was certainly … Read more

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Life is a highway? Not with these fantastic airborne adventures. You see, the sound of silence is just a quick plane ride away. And in these cases, big trips come by way of small aircrafts. See our favorite small-plane adventures for those seeking solitude.

Best Small-Plane Adventures Across North America

Middle Fork Salmon River, Idaho

To reach the best of the Middle Fork of the Salmon River, you need to fly. From a put-in at Indian Creek, whitewater paddlers ride 100 rapids in as many miles during a week floating one of the most remote areas in the Lower 48. The finale features 3,000-foot granite cliffs in Impassable Canyon. Middle Fork River Expeditions gets you there in a Cessna 205.

[From $2,499; idahorivers.com]

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Talkeetna Mountains, Alaska

Many Alaska destinations involve picking across glaciers or bushwhacking—the Talkeetnas demand neither. Hikers … Read more

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Looking for a refreshing summer cocktail without fuss or frustration? Let us introduce you to what might be Texas’ single greatest contribution to the cocktail world: the highball ranch water. With just three ingredients (and no need for glassware), the ranch water is the ultimate tequila (or mezcal) sipper.

Its origins are a bit of a mystery. We don’t have any proof it was conjured by a parched ranch hand in Texas after a long day of corralling cattle, as you might imagine.

The implied authenticity (and the mystique that comes with it) may be behind the recent acceleration of the ranch water’s popularity. Drinks writer Tim McKirdy noted an astronomical rise in Google searches for the drink last August; since then, more than a dozen pre-made canned versions have hit shelves.

Likely buoyed by the pandemic, this simple drink’s … Read more

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These days, it seems like all the showiest limited-edition whiskies are bourbons and ryes. They take up the most space on liquor store shelves and feature heavily on Instagram feeds and bar lists. Although plenty of whiskey lovers drink scotch, the fabled spirit has lost a bit of its luster of late. Toiling under a 25 percent import tariff in the U.S. since October 2018, the scotch industry has largely been lying low. Distillers ran down the clock in the hopes of a change in trade policy. Supply chain issues and production interruptions due to the pandemic have also taken a toll on transatlantic whisky commerce. Thankfully, things are leveling off for scotch producers, so you can get some incredible limited-edition scotches.

In June, U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai and UK International Trade Secretary Liz Truss agreed to suspend the tariffs on single malt scotch (and a host of other … Read more

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Leticia Bufoni, Brazil’s 5-time X Games gold medalist and eventual Olympian on the 2020 Olympic postponement, talks breaking into the boys club and skateboarding in whatever the hell she wants.

But first, the basics:

Age: 27

Hometown: São Paulo, Brazil

Top 3 Career Highlights:

1. Moving to California from Brazil at 14 to pursue skateboarding
2. Winning debut Street League Skateboarding title in 2015
3. Winning first place in Skateboard Street at the 2013 X Games

Men’s Journal: How did you feel about the postponement of the 2020 Olympics, given all the training and mental preparation?

Leticia Bufoni: We’d been getting ready for the past two or three years and everyone was so ready for this moment; it getting postponed a year—it kind of sucks. At the same time, we have more time to train. I think skateboarding, in general, will get more attention.

How do you see skateboarding fitting into the

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There’s just something about a third row. Folding up those back seats to haul a gaggle of kids is a benefit gargantuan SUVs have, but they usually come with more real estate than some folks need or want. That rear bench isn’t usually an option with smaller car-based crossovers. So, to feed the American need for third rows—which has become a bona fide search filter—Cadillac rolled out its second iteration of the XT6 midsize SUV. GM handed over the keys for a 900-mile New York to Virginia family road trip. Here’s what we learned about the 2021 Cadillac XT6 Sport.

Day 1: That third row

While it might seem mundane to start at the third row, it’s an important distinction with the XT6. The Cadillac’s rear seat is roomier than you’d expect. Our Sport trim tester had a middle row of captain’s chairs instead of an optional bench. … Read more

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High-intensity interval training (HIIT) means different things to different people. For some, it’s about sprinting on a track or pounding away on a rowing machine. For others, HIIT means battling through a CrossFit-style regimen of burpees, pullups, and box jumps. Still ,others think of HIIT as a grueling outdoor workout simulating the challenges found in an obstacle race. There’s no right or wrong answer, but come summer your HIIT sessions should take the form of beach workouts (if you live by the water).

HIIT is less about the content of the workout than the protocol. It’s the opposite of taking a long easy jog or going through the motions of a familiar strength training regimen or yoga flow. The term high-intensity interval training could be considered redundant since the alternating work-rest nature of interval training is inherently high intensity. But many people in our short attention span culture struggle to … Read more

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If you have plans to travel internationally in the coming months, it’s time to open that desk, safe, or shoebox and check the expiration on your U.S. passport. If it’s still valid, terrific, enjoy your trip. But if that passport is past its expiration date and you want to travel soon, time may be running out. Due to a passport backlog that’s in the millions, renewing your passport could take up to four months.

Like a lot of things during the COVID-19 pandemic, passport offices (aka the State Department’s Bureau of Consular Affairs offices) closed. Across the country, unless it was a life-or-death emergency, passport and visa operations came to a halt. While those offices are reopening, the process has not been a fast one.

In a recent U.S. Department of State briefing, deputy assistant secretary for passport services Rachel … Read more

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“You eat meat, right?” Jason Momoa asks as we pass through his interim Toronto residence—a three-story Victorian—into the backyard, where two massive tomahawk rib-eyes hiss and smoke over a glowing grill.

“Here, grab one,” he says, snatching up the hunk of meat, childlike grin smeared across his signaturely hirsute face. The intense greeting seems medieval, classic Momoa—downright Dothraki—so I do as Khal Drogo instructs, holding up a smoldering, frenched rib bone just long enough for a selfie.

Checking the photo, Momoa issues the next directive. “We can’t post these,” he says poignantly. “You can see the houses behind us.” It’s odd to hear a man who embodies nomadic warlords and towering superheroes concede to such precaution. But inadvertently revealing your exact location to 16 million Instagram followers is a no-no, whether he’s hanging here or at his actual home in Los Angeles’ Topanga Canyon.

There are other pics that he’s … Read more

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The range of potential outcomes in an Alabama football season under Nick Saban is narrow. The Crimson Tide are almost certainly going to make the College Football Playoff, and the main question mark is whether they’ll win the whole thing or fall ever so slightly short. The Tide have only missed the Playoff once since 2014, and even then they finished 11–2 (it took a QB injury and some trickery from Auburn to keep them out of the postseason).

For the rest of college football, any inkling that Alabama might be lesser than its usual self is a breath of fresh air. The possibility always exists that the Tide will just win anyway, and articles like this one will live in infamy as examples of naysayers who doubted when they should not have. But, as my Split Zone Duo co-host Richard … Read more

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