Post Reports

Today on “Post Reports,” we dive into research on happiness and talk about finding joy in mundane experiences to cultivate a more meaningful life.

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Here’s an antidote to an ever-stressful, busy and uncertain world: Try finding and savoring little bites of joy throughout your day. Our Brain Matters columnist, neuroscientist Richard Sima, calls them “joy” snacks.

By mindfully tuning in to the pleasant, nice and sometimes routine experiences of every day, we can transform an otherwise mundane moment into something more meaningful and even joyful.

Lunch with a co-worker. Walking the dog. Texting with a friend. Watching a favorite show. Eating a favorite meal. Calling your mom. Just hanging out.

New research shows that finding and savoring these nuggets of joy can be a way of consistently cultivating a good, meaningful life.

“It’s not these big things that we sort of create in our heads, but these smaller day-to-day experiences that bring us meaning,” said Joshua Hicks, a psychologist at Texas A&M University’s Existential Psychology Collaboratory.

To learn more about joy snacking, check out Richard’s column or this video about three ways to snack on joy.

Since 2019, the number of Americans killed by fentanyl has jumped 94 percent. Today on "Post Reports," we go inside Operation Sour Cream — and inside the pipeline bringing the deadly drug from Mexican labs to U.S. streets.

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In 2019, Drug Enforcement Administration agent Brady Wilson noticed big loads of synthetic drugs, like fentanyl, popping up around St. George, Utah. St. George is not exactly known as a hot spot for drugs; it’s a sleepy city of retirees, out-of-town hikers and Mormon churches. But Wilson had a gut feeling; he suspected a Mexican cartel had set up shop in town.

That would be the beginnings of Operation Sour Cream, a federal investigation into the origins of synthetic drugs in the St. George area.  

Synthetic drugs have arrived in small cities and rural areas across the United States abruptly, with immediate, devastating impact. In Utah, fentanyl overdose deaths have increased 300 percent over a three-year period, killing 170 people in 2021, according to the state health department. Mexican criminal groups have become experts in producing fentanyl and meth across the border. Now, Wilson knew, they were honing their role in retail distribution in the United States, where synthetics had reshaped the geography of drug demand.

Today on “Post Reports,” Mexico City bureau chief Kevin Sieff reports on Wilson’s investigation into how fentanyl ended up in St. George, Utah, and what this increased presence of synthetic drugs means for the opioid crisis in the United States. This story is part of Cartel RX, an investigative series from The Post looking at the deadly fentanyl pipeline from Mexican labs to U.S. streets.

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Today, we hear from a mother and son in Iran about life amid ongoing protests and an escalating government crackdown. Despite communication challenges, journalist Sanam Mahoozi has been carefully corresponding with them for weeks about their lives in a changing Iran.

“I am devastated by the way the system is treating the youth,” a mother in Tehran told journalist Sanam Mahoozi during one exchange. “Every mother in Iran is miserable now.”

Protests erupted across Iran following the September death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini in the custody of Iran’s “morality police,” and they show few signs of abating. For one mother and son in Tehran, this has meant life interrupted, halted and increasingly in jeopardy, as safety concerns inch closer to home. But it has also increased their resolve.

The government has responded harshly to the uprising, with human rights organizations documenting more than 4,000 deaths. Officials have sentenced at least a dozen protesters to death. Over the weekend, one of those protesters, convicted of killing two officers, was publicly hanged from a construction crane.

Even with all the crackdowns and violence around him, the son told Mahoozi, “I have more hope than before.” 

READ MORE: 

‘We want them gone’: Across generations, Iranians struggle for change.

As unrest grips Iran’s schools, the government is going after children.

Iran is ramping up its secret kidnapping plots.

A decade after the shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School, the story of a 10-year-old girl who survived the shooting at Robb Elementary in Uvalde, Tex. — and how she has become a voice for the friends she lost that day.

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After a school shooting, we often hear numbers — how many children and teachers were killed or injured. But for the survivors and their families, the trauma can be overwhelming. 

“I think the scope of this crisis is so much larger than people are willing to acknowledge,” reporter John Woodrow Cox says. “It's not just the kids who died. It's not just kids who got shot. It's not just the kids like Caitlyne who listen to the whole thing happen and lost dear friends. It's third-graders, it's teachers and their kids. It's cousins. It's people in the community who thought, ‘Is my kid dead?’ That damage cannot be undone.”

With the permission of Caitlyne Gonzales and her parents, John spent the summer with the 10-year-old school shooting survivor, following her as she went to karate and guitar lessons, rallies for gun reform in Texas and Washington, school board meetings and back to school. He was also there with her family in the evenings, when Caitlyne’s trauma was the most apparent and she struggled to go to sleep without her mom. Caitlyne and her parents wanted people to see that while on the outside she might look like a composed activist, she’s still dealing with an enormous amount of trauma.

John has been reporting on children and gun violence for more than five years and is the author of an award-winning book on the subject, “Children Under Fire: An American Crisis.”

Today, the White House announced that WNBA star Brittney Griner has been released from Russian detention and is coming home – in exchange for a notorious arms dealer. We talk about why this deal happened now, and what it means for other American hostages.

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More than nine months after she was arrested in Russia, WNBA star Brittney Griner has been freed. Griner is one of the world’s best women’s basketball players. She’s been in Russian custody since February, when authorities detained her at the airport and accused her of carrying vape cartridges containing cannabis oil, which is illegal in Russia. Like many women’s basketball players, Grinersupplements her income by playing overseas during the WNBA offseason (Griner’s arrest brought attention to pay inequality.)

Moscow released the athlete in exchange for convicted Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout. Known as the “merchant of death,” the infamous criminal is a top prize for Russian officials.

For Biden, this is a victory - but it’s a bittersweet one. Another American, former U.S. Marine Paul Whelan, was initially supposed to be a part of this swap, but Russia refused to let him go.

Republican Kevin McCarthy wants to be the next speaker of the House, but first he’ll need to secure 218 votes. Despite winning a majority in the midterm elections, Republicans have felt deflated by an election cycle many hoped would be a “red wave,” and some are now saying they won’t endorse McCarthy’s leadership bid. 

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Read Michael Kranish’s profile of Kevin McCarthy’s rise to power.

The crypto world is in shock after FTX, a major cryptocurrency exchange, declared bankruptcy. We discuss what led to the company’s collapse and how its 30-year-old founder went from a philanthropic darling to disgraced CEO.

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What led to the ruin of FTX, one of the world’s biggest cryptocurrency exchanges? It’s the question confounding Silicon Valley — and Washington.

After the collapse, founder and CEO Sam Bankman-Fried stepped down amid claims of mismanagement. Newly appointed CEO John J. Ray III — who oversaw Enron’s bankruptcy proceedings — said in FTX’s bankruptcy filing: “Never in my career have I seen such a complete failure of corporate controls and such a complete absence of trustworthy financial information as occurred here.” Meanwhile, federal regulators and politicians in Washington have soured on Bankman-Fried, whose millions in campaign donations previously earned him audiences with top lawmakers.

Post economic policy reporter Tory Newmyer unpacks FTX’s downfall and tracks the rise and fall of Sam Bankman-Fried, from his massive political donations and lobbying efforts in Washington to his apology campaign. 

For the fifth time in two years, Georgians will cast a ballot for or against Raphael G. Warnock, and despite Democratic control of the Senate, the stakes of this race for both parties are big. 

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Despite Democratic control of the senate, both parties still see a lot to gain or lose in Tuesday’s runoff election.

Every time producer Jordan-Marie Smith would visit her hometown, it seemed as if another person she knew from high school had died of a drug overdose. She went back home to investigate, along with reporter Lenny Bernstein.

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Post Reports producer Jordan-Marie Smith always thought of her hometown of Greenville, N.C., as a nice place to grow up. A small city about halfway between Raleigh and the Outer Banks, it was home to a university, beautiful walking trails and lots of local businesses. 

But then she started hearing about the drug overdoses. 

Every time Jordan-Marie returned home to visit, it seemed as if another one of her high school classmates had died. She started making calls early this year and quickly learned of at least 16 young people who had died of drug overdoses. The group was connected by childhood friendships, a middle school basketball team and a high school. 

In a personal story about how a community moves through – and tries to recover from – a string of tragic drug deaths, Jordan-Marie and health reporter Leonard Bernstein connect Greenville to the national drug epidemic.

You can read more about Greenville here and watch a video about the toll of drug deaths on a parent and a teacher here. 

The Iranian government is increasing its efforts to kill or kidnap activists, journalists and others living in the West — a change that alarms U.S. intelligence officials. Shane Harris explains the extent and escalation of Tehran’s efforts.

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Read Shane Harris’ reporting on Iran’s assassination and kidnapping program, and the steps Western officials have taken to try to counter it.