Evanston RoundTable, June 28, 2025
If you’re feeling seriously glum about the current tidal wave of bad news, little wonder. Daily headlines overwhelm us about war in Iran and Ukraine, political violence in America and worsening antisemitism around the world. The world’s climate is broiling and AI is taking over. The list is endless — and endlessly depressing.
A constant perusal of bad news — so-called “doom scrolling” — is bad news indeed. According to The Guardian, perseverating about the news can lead to “greater levels of stress, anxiety and poor health.” The University of North Carolina reports doom scrolling can result in “irritability, lack of productivity, poor concentration and mental fatigue” as well as “sleep disturbances, stress-related physical symptoms and lower self-esteem.”
Even if you’re not a compulsive doom scroller, bad news is hard to avoid. I found 11 negative stories in the first 22 pages of the June 15 New York Times and nine in the first eight pages of the June 15 Wall Street Journal, including “Young Grads Looking For Work Confront Employment Crisis” and, closer to home, “How Trump Blew Up Northwestern’s Business Model.”
What to do? One approach is to limit the amount of time spent consuming the news. An hour a day is more than enough, and frees up time to do healthier and more productive activities.
Herewith a modest suggestion for such activities — all very simple and doable — that may help minimize the news blues and chase the calamity clouds away, from the simple to the sublime.
Get outside. Go for walks and bike rides. Focus on what’s around you, the details you never noticed before, William Blake’s “… world in a grain of sand and a heaven in a wild flower.” The complexity, subtlety and beauty of nature is astonishing, endless and deeply profound, which can never be appreciated sitting at home scrolling on your phone.
This may seem banal, but being in nature can help us “improve our thinking, reasoning, and other mental abilities” as well as improve physical wellness and mental health, according to a health newsletter from University of California Davis.
The Mayo Clinic lists 10 positive outcomes of brisk walking, including strengthening bones and muscles, increasing energy levels and reducing stress and tension.
Going for daily walks might even be lifesaving. A 2023 New York Times article reported on numerous studies which “…found that a brisk walk — of at least 11 minutes a day — significantly lowered participants’ risks for heart disease, many kinds of cancer and mortality overall.”
Stay busy. Aside from being the devil’s workshop, idleness and inactivity are the gateway to problems physical, mental, emotional and spiritual. There are plenty of activities to pursue in Evanston: clean a park, tutor kids or cheer on the Wildkit sports teams.
Only (re)connect. Reach out to old friends to catch up. Friendship is the balm of life, a salve for tribulation. “Good friends, good books and a sleepy conscience: this is the ideal life,” said Mark Twain.
Read books. The two Evanston libraries carry thousands of books, CDs and DVDs. Just wandering through the corridors and stacks is a revelation and joy. (Here are two novels to start with: Gabrielle Zevin’s Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow, which was last year’s One Book, One Chicago selection, and Middle Passage by Evanston’s Charles Johnson, which won the 1990 National Book Award.) Booked at 506 Main St. and Bookends and Beginnings at 1620 Orrington Ave. should be on your to must-visit list.
Find a hobby. Collecting stamps or coins, woodworking, baking bread: there are hundreds of possibilities. It’s never too late to start a hobby or resume an old one that has lapsed. You can make stained glass at Mellow Maker Studio at 910 Sherman Ave., or learn to play an instrument at Music Institute of Chicago, 1490 Chicago Ave. or The Musical Offering, 743 Custer St.
Tackle a subject. Wish you had worked a little harder in school, or taken that class which seemed too daunting at the time? Perhaps it was Russian lit, microeconomics, astrophysics, environmental geology or the Old Testament. Or maybe something simpler like touch typing or conversational Spanish. Whatever the subject, there’s an endless source of knowledge online and at the library. The Alumnae of Northwestern University offer numerous campus lecture classes open to all throughout the year.
Join (or start) a theater group. Life’s a stage, and joining the players can be hugely fun and rewarding. Among my favorite high school memories are singing in the chorus of Brigadoon and Finian’s Rainbow. Even if being onstage is too upfront for you, there are numerous opportunities to help out backstage.
Help someone. Perhaps the best strategy to ward off existential anxiety and despair is to volunteer. Helping others is the best way to help ourselves. The city’s Volunteer Evanston page lists many ways to be good by doing good. The YWCA Evanston/North Shore at 1215 Church St., Paws and Claws cat rescue at 829 Chicago Ave. and Curt’s Cafe at 2922 Central St. are always looking for volunteer help. “There are a lot of roles that volunteers can play,” said Curt’s volunteer coordinator Maureen Sweeney, including tutoring, delivering food orders and helping out as needed.
Volunteerism is “a huge part of what we do here,” said Mindy Scott, vice president of development and impact at the YWCA. “People have been reaching out to ask what they can do in these tumultuous times. They want to know, ‘How can I make a difference? What can I do to help?'” She said more than 80 volunteers helped make the recent Race Against Hate a big success, and there are plenty of ongoing opportunities for those eager to assist, including working with the organization’s emergency shelter.
As Anne Frank said, “No one has ever become poor by giving,” and that includes giving of oneself.
There are of course lots of other activities — meditation, exercise, political activism — that may help too. These may seem, in light of the world’s problems, like naive and even indefensible suggestions. But a more balanced and positive outlook on life can make such problems more tolerable — and may even make you a better person and the world a better place.