Health Tips Line

2025 winner: Asheville, North Carolina Asheville has the perfect blend of big-city creativity and small-town charm. Cultured, quirky and welcoming, this small city in the Blue Ridge Mountains— our 2025 Nicest Place in America winner —is especially appealing to travelers who like their sightseeing with a heaping side of interesting art, delicious food and plenty of local character. The River Arts District, along the French Broad River, is the city’s creative quarter. Here, artists and craftspeople, from ironworkers and painters to potters and glassblowers, have studios and galleries in former industrial buildings. It’s an area made for spending a day getting lost, watching artists at work or joining a hands-on class to make art of your own. The city is also home to many James Beard Award–winning restaurants, including Cúrate Bar de Tapas and Chai Pani. These restaurants serve more than just great food—they offer a window into the community spiri...

If anyone knows a thing or two about never saying die, it’s Ke Huy Quan. The actor first stole hearts as Short Round in Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom and Data in The Goonies , and then, after decades away from acting, he made the kind of Hollywood comeback that movies are made of with Everything Everywhere All at Once . His unforgettable turn as Waymond Wang earned him an Academy Award, Golden Globe and SAG Award for Best Supporting Actor, and in 2023, Time named him one of the 100 most influential people in the world. Since then, he’s popped up in Loki , kicked some serious butt in Love Hurts and lent his voice to Zootopia 2 . Now, Quan is taking us somewhere even more personal: inside his own remarkable story with Never Say Die , his first book, released this month. The memoir traces his journey from a child in a refugee camp to a beloved actor on the Oscars stage, but Quan tells Reader’s Digest that its real heart lies in the decades when Hollywood stopp...

What makes your community a nice place to live? Is it feeling safe and secure, or having access to parks and services? Maybe it’s all about having your family close, or lots of opportunities for career advancement. A great place to live can be all of those things—and if you love your community, no doubt it has many of those attributes. But community also lives “in the small, repeated contacts of daily life—the neighbor who waves every morning, the co-worker who checks in when you seem off, the person at the coffee shop who remembers your order,” says Lucy Rose, the founder of The Cost of Loneliness Project, who is on a mission to combat loneliness and build human connection. The way she sees it, community “is the web of relationships where people feel seen and know they matter.” Since 2017, we’ve conducted an annual search for the Nicest Places in America , highlighting amazing hometowns (and even a few individual businesses) that celebra...

“Mom? My throat feels like I swallowed razor blades, doused them in gasoline and lit them on fire.” Then my dramatic child did what children do and coughed right in my face. It was one week before we were set to fly for a much-anticipated vacation in another state to visit family members we hadn’t seen in forever. As soon as I felt the droplets hit my face, I knew we were all doomed—her, me, the rest of the family, the folks we were visiting and maybe some of the general public.  I probably should have seen it coming. It was the first week of school, and back-to-school might as well be called back-to-flu. And sure enough, two days later, my throat also felt like I swallowed razor blades, doused them in gasoline and set them on fire. (She may have been dramatic, but she wasn’t wrong.) I did, however, manage to refrain from coughing in anyone’s face.  What should we do?  Cold and flu season creates an etiquette dilemma because getting si...

Were you a Barbie fan growing up? What am I even saying—if you’re reading this, the answer’s probably yes. Barbie’s been around since 1959 , and kids have played with thousands of versions of her ever since. We’ve had doctor Barbies and astronaut Barbies and even president Barbies, and all of them speak to the moment in a way that other toys just can’t match. Well, there’s a new Barbie in town, and it’s unlike anything you’ve ever seen. Scratch that—it is like someone you’ve seen before, and the likeness is uncanny. People are going absolutely nuts for it too, and when I say “people,” I mostly mean women of a certain age , like me. Ahead, I’ll tell you everything you need to know about this buzzy new Barbie doll that will have you singing Mattel’s praises and jumping for joy if you manage to snag one. Read on to discover why this Barbie is so cool and where you can get your hands on one. Get ...