Maternal mental health
In “The Mother of Depressions,” Marla Broadfoot reports on a new type of drug that offers better and faster treatment for postpartum depression. I am a survivor of postpartum depression and anxiety disorder, and the article made me stop everything I was doing to give thanks for the work that continues on behalf of mothers and families.
My son was born in 2012. What followed for almost the next year was what I can only describe as a nightmare of epic proportions. Without two things, I don’t know if I would be here today. First, on our local NPR station, I heard a story about the then newly opened perinatal psychiatry program at the University of North Carolina School of Medicine. The team was able to place me immediately in an acute outpatient program.
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I had also seen a flyer for our local mental health support group for mothers, Moms Supporting Moms. A year later I was a trained peer facilitator working on our hotline (a non-emergency telephone service) and meetings. And a few years after that I introduced some of the incredible staff at Postpartum Support International.
Postpartum depression and anxiety survivors are truly the strongest people I know. My son turned 13 last spring, and not a week goes by when I don’t marvel that I’m here and how grateful I am for it.
AMANDA CADRAN VIA EMAIL
PLASTIC CRISIS
As a chemist who has worked in polymer science, I read Beth Gardiner’s “The Pivot to Plastic” with deep concern. The environmental crisis associated with synthetic materials is real and urgent, but its nature is more complex than the term “plastic” suggests. What we face involves the entire spectrum of synthetic carbon-based materials, a vast family that is far broader and more diverse than the single word conveys.
It is important to remember that these materials also have democratized access to technology and basic goods. Synthetic fibers, for example, transformed clothing from a scarce, expensive resource to something available to everyone. This achievement should not be forgotten, although fast fashion waste now represents one of our biggest challenges.
Industry’s influence in creating this crisis is undeniable. Decades of prioritizing short-term gains have led us to a situation where transitioning from fuel production to ever-increasing polymer production is not a sustainable strategy. It actually risks becoming self-destructive. However, the industry itself is not the enemy. We all share this finite planet, and the very companies that helped cause the polymer waste problem must also play an important role in developing the solutions needed to overcome it.
There is no simple solution. But the “three R’s” rule—reduce, reuse, and recycle—can serve as the compass to guide us. Progress will require strict regulation, a drastic reduction of production at the source, the design of materials that can be reused and recycled, and a realignment of economic incentives towards sustainable products and markets. Activism is important, but lasting change will come from the combined power of education, informed journalism, scientific research and democratic institutions – much as it did with tobacco, chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) and industrial pollution.
JUAN CAMPORA INSTITUTE OF CHEMICAL RESEARCH, SPAIN
CANCER VACCINES
It has been 60 years since I was in graduate school, where I recorded melanoma cells from mice using time-lapse micrography. Now, the exciting potential for personalized vaccines to control pancreatic cancer and possibly other cancers such as melanoma, as described by Rowan Moore Gerety in “Your Personalized Cancer Vaccine,” has given hope to those with these deadly diseases. It is appalling that federal funding for mRNA vaccine research has been put on hold or canceled. Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. should be held accountable for the unnecessary suffering and death this will cause.
TIM HANNERT BELLAIRE, MICH.
BOTS ARE NOT FRIENDS
In “Are AI Chatbots Healthy for Teens?” (The Science of Parenting), Elizabeth Englander discusses the dangers of teenagers using “chatbot companions”.
As a teenager today, I am no stranger to using artificial intelligence. But I have spent much more time with my real friends and have come to understand, through my own experience, that no robot will ever be able to replace time spent making real connections with real people.
The rise of artificial intelligence and technology in general has made parenting today’s youth much more complicated, especially when it comes to spending time with friends. Most kids want to be inside and chat either with real people online or with AI. To combat this, parents should teach their children that AI is a tool and nothing more.
AI is not going away; it’s a fast-growing industry, and kids need to know how to use it safely and effectively. Children should not be “friends” with chatbots. Their relationship with AI should be professional, with AI as a tool, not a friend.
JACK FESLER VIA EMAIL
ANCIENT MORAL PHILOSOPHY
In “The Neuroscience of Morality” (November 2025), Elizabeth Svoboda presents some findings on a topic well worth paying attention to: moral character and the psychology of character development. Indeed, the subject is so worthy that it has been a central concern of moral philosophers for at least two and a half millennia. The findings Svoboda reports are well worth repeating, and their relationship to known neurophysiological processes informative, if not surprising.
I would like to add that these matters, neuroscientific data aside, were studied and understood in much greater detail by the ancient Greek thinkers. Outstanding examples are provided by Plato’s dialogues – those Meno, the Republic and Critoamong other things – to which one must of course add Aristotle Nicomachean Ethics. (Svoboda refers in passing to Plato’s arguments regarding the definition of virtue in Meno.) There is much we can still learn from these pioneers.
EVAN FALLS DEPARTMENT OF PHILOSOPHY, UNIVERSITY OF IOWA
CLARIFICATION
“Human on a Bicycle,” by Allison Parshall and DTAN Studio (Graphic Science; November 2025), noted that bicycles allow us to kiss without applying force by pedaling. This is possible because the wheels and bearings roll with low friction.
