"Cute overload" is real

Excessively adorable things, including babies and animals, can overload the positive emotional circuits in the brains of about half of all adults, leading to perplexing, aggressive thoughts like "I want to squeeze it until pops."

Christine Herman/Illinois Public Media Their son desperately needed inpatient mental health care. The only way to get it for him was to return him to the state Doctors said Daniel Hoy needed intensive, specialized care away from home —services that cost at least $100,000 a year. But insurers, the state and the school district refused to help. As Daniel's violent outbursts worsened, his parents got an ultimatum: Put him back into the foster system and he would get treatment, or keep him in the family and get charged with endangering all their children. "It's the most gut-wrenching thing I've ever had to do in my life. I was crying terribly. But it was the only way we figured we could keep the family safe." Kholood Eid for NPR Welcome to the gig economy! Here’s your instruction manual With more jobs shifting to freelance and contract work, New York City has launched a free program offering training on how to handle paying taxes, buying benefits, dealing with legal issues and more. That’s important in a city where nearly two-fifths of workers are freelancers — many in fields where traditional education ignores practical issues like attracting clients or negotiating contracts. Given all the intricacies of setting up a one-person business, it's little wonder that stress management is the program's most popular course. Disney Junior/Disney Channel via Getty Images Why do some people want to just gobble up adorable things? Because their brains are overwhelmed People "just have this flash of thinking: 'I want to crush it' or 'I want to squeeze it until pops' or 'I want to punch it,' " says Katherine Stavropoulos, who studied the brain processes that trigger "cute aggression." Her team found that especially adorable images triggered strong responses from both the brain's reward system and emotional areas and that the confusing, involuntary negative thoughts may be a way to reel that in. "When people feel this way, it's with no desire to cause harm," says Stavropoulos – who is herself a cute aggressor. Piero Cruciatti/AFP/Getty Images Unwanted in Italy, African migrants are trying to walk across the Alps to France: ‘Some bodies we'll never recover’ Just after midnight in the woods near Turin, Red Cross workers pick up a 28-year-old man with hypothermia. The altitude is 6,000 feet, the snowbound terrain is rugged, it's 10 degrees Fahrenheit, and all he’s wearing is a hoodie, jeans and sneakers. He’s one of 5,000 who attempted the crossing in 2018, though only 2,000 have made it. Some others will be found when the snow melts in the spring. But Ghanaian Abdul Razak, who has been sleeping on the streets, says he has nothing to lose — so he, too, sets out through the knee-deep snow. Ashlie Stevens/WFPL What does a 100-year-old bottle of Kentucky bourbon taste like? This distiller used chemical engineering to try to copy it Marianne Eaves, the first female master distiller of Kentucky bourbon since Prohibition, loved the antique bottle of Old Taylor bourbon she came across, with its rich, butterscotch-dominant flavor. Unfortunately, distilling back then relied more on practice and oral tradition than on recipes. So she used her science background to track down exactly the right yeast and mix of grains to resurrect something similar. After four years, give or take, in charred oak barrels, she’ll see how close she got. You received this message because you're subscribed to our Best of NPR emails. |  Unsubscribe  |  Privacy Policy | NPR 1111 N. CAPITOL ST. NE WASHINGTON DC 20002