This article was originally published on The Art of Manliness.

In the last decade, the emerging science of gut health has made fermented foods wildly popular. Kombucha, kimchi, sourdough breads, some cheeses and pickles, and, of course, yogurt. 

After years of buying big tubs of Greek yogurt, I discovered that it was actually pretty easy to make your own yogurt at home. It admittedly felt a little out there at first. Was I really going to be someone who made their own yogurt? Our household was not a 19th century homestead, after all. But after just a couple of batches, the taste and affordability, combined with how easy it is in terms of active time, convinced me (and my wife and kids) that we didn’t need to buy yogurt at the store at all anymore. 

Why Make Homemade Yogurt?

1) Yogurt is loaded with protein, beneficial bacteria, and key nutrients like calcium and B vitamins. Yogurt is a surprisingly high-protein food — about 15–20 grams per cup — that actually keeps you full. Just as important is its impact on gut health: yogurt contains live cultures (probiotics) that help support digestion and a healthy microbiome. While the nutrition is similar to store-bought yogurt, the homemade stuff skips the artificial additives and stabilizers found in most grocery store options and often retains more active cultures.

2) Homemade yogurt has better flavor and texture. Homemade goods almost always taste better. This one is no exception. The flavor is richer and tangier, just how Greek yogurt should be. Additionally, store-bought yogurt is pretty watery (it’s actually whey) and can have an uneven texture. Homemade stuff is very smooth and creamy, and much less liquidy if you drain it. 

3) Homemade yogurt is cheaper. You can make about 100 oz of homemade yogurt for the cost of a gallon of milk ($3-$5). Buying the same amount of yogurt would be between $15 (at a discount warehouse like Costco) and $30 (at a local grocery store). 

The Cookware You Need to Make Yogurt

I like to make yogurt in an instant pot. It will need to be fermented at a constant temperature for hours and the instant pot makes the process a breeze. 

But it’s not that much harder if you don’t have one — simply get yourself a kitchen heating pad and you’ll be set. You’ll follow the same steps outlined below for heating and cooling the milk, adding the starter, and keeping it at ~110° for 8-24 hours. Instead of using the instant pot, you’ll just use the heating pad instead. 

The most important thing is that you get a heating pad that can be set to relatively low temps for long periods of time. Most of the top Amazon results are for high-temp warming pads for parties and whatnot, which automatically shut off after a few hours. That’s not what you want. 

How to Make Homemade Yogurt With an Instant Pot 

Ingredients 

• 1 gallon whole milk 
  • You can make yogurt with milk of any fat percentage, but the lower you go, the thinner the final product will be. For this reason, I’ve always used whole milk. You can also make yogurt with lactose-free milk or non-dairy milks, but those often require extra steps and ingredients (like thickeners). 
• 1/3 to 1/2 cup yogurt “starter” 
  • You can buy yogurt starters online, but you can also just use plain Greek yogurt from the grocery store (that’s what I’ve done). Once you get a regular process going, you’ll just use yogurt from your previous batch to “feed” the next one. 

Directions

1. Heat milk to 180°. 

While the instant pot can heat the milk to 180° with the “Yogurt” or even “Saute” setting, I prefer to heat it in a large pot on the stove. Heating it in the instant pot takes longer, and I like having a separate vessel for cooling, rather than doing it all in one pot. It really comes down to individual preference though. I simply pour the gallon of milk into a large soup pot, heat it on “High” on the stovetop, and wait ~18 minutes for it to reach 180°. Your stove time may vary (our gas range is pretty hot), and it’s best to check every couple minutes after 15 minutes or so; if you ignore it too long and let it boil over, it makes a huge mess (yes, I know from experience).  

You want it frothy, but not boiling.

This desired temp of 180° may seem arbitrary, but the science behind it makes sense. At this temperature, the proteins get denatured, and it puts the milk into the proper state for the creamy, rich texture of yogurt. The number is somewhat flexible, but if it gets to a boil, the proteins get too damaged and you start cooking the milk, leading to funky textures and an off-putting taste. 

2. Cool milk to 110°. 

Once your milk is heated, it’ll take 1-2 hours to cool down on its own, or you can speed it up with an ice bath in the sink. 110° is the temperature at which yogurt culture bacteria thrives; if it gets lower, it’ll still work just fine, it just takes a little longer to ferment (more on that in Step 4). 

3. Transfer to instant pot and add yogurt starter. 

When the milk gets down to 110°, transfer it to your instant pot and add a couple hearty dollops of yogurt starter. A small package of plain Greek yogurt from the store will do, or a couple big spoonfuls of your previous batch of yogurt. I’ve never measured too closely, but it’s somewhere between 1/4 and 1/3 cup. 

4. Ferment for 8-24 hours. 

Fermenting yogurt simply entails keeping the milk and yogurt starter mixture at a constant low temp (~110) for anywhere from 8-24 hours. It’s extremely flexible. 

After you’ve added the starter, hit the “Yogurt” button on the instant pot and adjust the ferment period to your desired time. 

At 8 hours, it’ll be barely tangy and more like a store-bought yogurt in its texture and flavor. At 16 hours, it’ll be noticeably tangy and a bit more firm. At 24 hours, it’s quite tangy and almost sharp (much like sharp cheddar vs. regular), as well as rather dense even without filtering. I do 12 hours — most often overnight — because that’s the default on the instant pot, and it turns out great. 

Once it starts, I simply cover the top with plastic wrap rather than the instant pot lid for the simple reason that our lid has a distinct savory smell embedded in it that I don’t want transferred to the yogurt.

5. Cool and drain.

Once the yogurt is fermented, put the pot in the fridge to cool it down for a few hours. After this, you can either serve it as is, or drain it to filter out the whey and make the texture less watery. 

To drain it, line a large strainer with a few coffee filters or cheesecloth and place it over a large bowl. After a few more refrigerated hours, you’ll have a thicker yogurt and a lot of whey byproduct. You can use the whey for a bunch of things from pancakes to smoothies, but I’ve always just dumped it.

6. Enjoy! 

Add any combo of fruit, granola, and sweetener (honey, syrup, etc.) to enjoy a protein-packed meal or snack.

While the active time for making yogurt is pretty minimal, the inactive time is indeed considerable: it takes 20-24 hours from heating the milk to packaging up the final product. Since I work from home with a flexible schedule, it’s definitely worth it. That ~100 oz of yogurt lasts 5-7 days in our household (all five of us love it!), so it’s just become a regular part of the routine to make more yogurt when there’s 2-3 servings left in the fridge.

If you’re wary, as I initially was, give it a shot once or twice and see what ya think. If you or your household goes through yogurt like ours does, it may indeed be worth it; if not, maybe you do it on weekends when you don’t have much else happening. Either way, I can promise you that homemade yogurt is far superior to the liquidy store-bought stuff. 

This article was originally published on The Art of Manliness.

Building substantial personal wealth can feel difficult and out of reach. But my guest says that even those with modest means can, with a few simple decisions and strategies, become millionaires, and even multi-millionaires.

David Bach is the author of the bestselling, newly updated personal finance classic, The Automatic Millionaire. Today on the show, we talk about the money management framework that will put you on the path to a free, secure, rich retirement. David explains his controversial “Latte Factor” principle, the astonishing power of compounding interest, how setting your finances on autopilot may be the most important financial move you can make, why he still believes in buying a home as an incomparable way to build wealth, the best way to pay down your debt, and more.

Resources Related to the Podcast

• investor.gov compound interest calculator
• AoM Article: What Every Young Man Should Know About the Power of Compound Interest
• AoM Article: Know-Nothing Investing — Index Funds For Beginners
• AoM Article: Build Your Wealth — Graduate from a Paycheck Mentality to a Net Worth Mentality
• AoM Article: A Young Man’s Guide to Understanding Retirement Accounts — IRAs

Connect With David Bach

• David’s website
• David on IG
• David on FB
• David on X
• David on YouTube
• David on LinkedIn

Listen to the Podcast! (And don’t forget to leave us a review!)

Listen to the episode on a separate page

Download this episode

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Transcript Coming Soon

This article was originally published on The Art of Manliness.

The other day, as I was driving my kids to school in our Toyota 4Runner, I noticed a dashboard light indicator turn on. It was a yellow exclamation point inside a horseshoe shape: check tire pressure. I flipped my dashboard display to check the tire pressure, and sure enough, my passenger side rear tire was at 27 PSI. So after I dropped the kids off, I pulled into a gas station to check things out and found a nail in that tire. I dropped the car off at a nearby Firestone, they patched it up in a few minutes, and I was back in business.

That experience reminded me of the usefulness of dashboard warning lights, and it nudged me to review what all of them mean, not only for myself, but for my son Gus, who has his learner’s permit and is starting to drive. Good opportunity to go over this stuff with him.

Dashboard lights are largely standardized across makes and models of vehicles. Because they’re uniform, they clearly convey what might be wrong with your rig, whether you’re driving a Honda Accord or a Ford F-150.

Treat dashboard lights like a traffic light. Green and blue lights are informational. They’re confirming that a feature on your vehicle is active. Nothing to worry about here. Yellow lights mean something needs attention, but you’re not in immediate danger. Red lights mean find somewhere safe to pull over and figure out what’s going on before you keep driving.

Let’s get more specific and look at the most common dashboard symbols and what they mean.

Red: The “Pull Over Now” Lights

These are the ones that, if you ignore them, will run up a repair bill that will make you want to cry.

Oil Pressure Warning 

People assume this means they need to top off their oil. It doesn’t. It means oil isn’t circulating through the engine. Without pressure, metal components start grinding against each other, and your engine can seize up into a solid block of useless metal in minutes. Get off the road and take it to a mechanic post haste!

Engine Temperature Warning 

Your engine is overheating. Pull over, turn it off, and let it cool down before you do anything. Don’t open the radiator cap while the engine is still hot unless you want pressurized coolant to spray out and burn you.

Brake System Warning 

Best case, your parking brake is still engaged. If the light stays on while you’re driving and the parking brake is definitely off, you may have a hydraulic leak or severely worn pads. Test your brakes carefully and get it looked at ASAP.

Battery/Charging Alert 

Your alternator has stopped recharging the battery. You’re running the car on battery reserves alone, and you’ll start losing power to your lights, steering, and eventually the engine. Take it to the shop to get it checked out.

Airbag/SRS Warning 

This one is easy to ignore because the car still drives fine. Don’t. If this light stays on, your airbags may not deploy in a crash. Get it diagnosed.

Yellow: The “Handle This Week” Lights

These indicate something has failed or is approaching failure. Not pull-over emergencies, but not something to sit on for two months either.

Check Engine Light 

The most notorious light on any dashboard, though the dread it produces may or may not be warranted. It could be something minor. It could be a failing catalytic converter. You won’t know without a diagnostic scanner — most auto parts stores will pull the code for free. One thing to know: if the check engine light is flashing, that’s an active engine misfire that can cause serious damage. Treat a flashing check engine light the same as a red light.

ABS Warning 

Your anti-lock braking system has been deactivated. You still have brakes, but you’ve lost the system that prevents your wheels from locking up during hard braking on slick pavement. Drive accordingly and get it diagnosed.

Tire Pressure Monitoring

This is the one that popped up for me recently. It means one or more tires have dropped below their recommended PSI. Pull over to check for any sources of leaks. You’ll often find a nail.

This warning light can appear even when you don’t have a leak. Usually occurs during the winter because colder temperatures reduce tire pressure. Once you start driving, things start warming up again, and tire pressure goes back to normal.

You’ll want to address this issue soon since low tire pressure affects handling, fuel economy, and tire life.

Power Steering Warning 

More common on newer cars with electric power steering. When this system goes, the steering wheel gets very heavy very fast. If you’ve never experienced it, it’ll catch you off guard. Get it looked at.

Traction Control 

If this flashes briefly while you’re driving through rain or snow, that’s normal — the system is managing wheel slip. If it stays on solid, the system has been disabled or has a fault.

Blue/Green: The “Just Keeping You Informed” Lights

These aren’t warnings that something is wrong with your car. They’re your car confirming a feature is currently active.

High Beam Indicator 

Your brights are on. Flip them off for oncoming traffic.

Coolant Temperature 

Appears when the engine is still cold and disappears once it reaches normal operating temperature. Go easy on the throttle until it’s gone.

4WD Indicator

Green means four-wheel drive is engaged, which is purely informational. One thing worth knowing: if you leave it in 4Hi on dry pavement, you’ll start binding the drivetrain. Use 4WD for the conditions that call for it, then shift back out when you’re on a dry road.

Get Yo’ Self an OBD-II Scanner

An OBD-II scanner is a device that plugs into your car to read diagnostic trouble codes and monitor engine performance. Pick one up and keep it in your glove box. They run $25–$50 on Amazon. Whenever you see a dashboard light (particularly that yellow check engine light), plug it into a port under your dashboard. It will give you an error code in about 60 seconds, so you know exactly what’s wrong with your car. Most auto parts stores will do this for free, too, but having your own scanner will allow you to check issues immediately instead of driving to a shop and waiting. It also lets you know what the problem is before going into a shop, monitor ongoing problems, clear codes, and avoid unnecessary trips for minor issues.

This article was originally published on The Art of Manliness.

In most modern high schools, P.E. is a complete blow-off class — something to take when you don’t play a sport, and have to fulfill a health/fitness-related elective. Participants often sit on the bleachers and talk, or half-heartedly play some basketball. 

There was a time in this country when P.E. was taken more seriously, however, and it reached its absolute apex at La Sierra High School in Carmichael, California.

During the 1950s and 60s, La Sierra boasted what was arguably the most rigorous P.E. program in the country, if not the world. The so-called “La Sierra System” was born in a time when World War II was over, the Cold War was still heating up, and prosperity and technological advancements were making life increasingly sedentary and comfortable. In this atmosphere, there existed a national concern over whether Americans were becoming too soft, overweight, and complacent to not only defend their country in war, but to vigorously meet the challenges of peace.

As President John F. Kennedy wrote in “The Soft American”:

physical fitness is not only one of the most important keys to a healthy body; it is the basis of dynamic and creative intellectual activity. . . . [We] know what the Greeks knew: that intelligence and skill can only function at the peak of their capacity when the body is healthy and strong; that hardy spirits and tough minds usually inhabit sound bodies.

In this sense, physical fitness is the basis of all the activities of our society. And if our bodies grow soft and inactive, if we fail to encourage physical development and prowess, we will undermine our capacity for thought, for work and for the use of those skills vital to an expanding and complex America.

Thus the physical fitness of our citizens is a vital prerequisite to America’s realization of its full potential as a nation, and to the opportunity of each individual citizen to make full and fruitful use of his capacities.

To stem the physical deterioration of his fellow Americans and promote the idea of developing a sound mind, in a sound body, JFK utilized the President’s Council on Physical Fitness to reinvigorate physical education programs around the country, and looked to La Sierra as an example of what was possible in this line.

The first few minutes of the above video will give you a look at what some aspects of the La Sierra program were like.

The La Sierra System had been developed by WWII-veteran Stan LeProtti, who was inspired by the classical, “whole man” approach to fitness that had been championed by the ancient Greeks. LeProtti’s program sought to improve the strength, agility, balance, flexibility, power, and endurance — as well as the leadership qualities — of all the males in the student body, not just those relatively few boys who participated in organized athletics. The program not only incorporated physical exercise — a regimen that included an intense 12-minute calisthenic warm-up, sports, games, dance, combatives, gymnastics, running, aquatics, and off-the-ground work on various apparatuses like peg boards — but also involved regular meetings to talk about the philosophy — the why — behind it. Students were taught that the fitness routines in which they engaged not only built their bodies, but prepared their minds for learning and their spirits for tackling life’s setbacks. 

The “Philosophy” section of the La Sierra P.E. handbook includes both “Physical Fitness” and “Psychological Fitness” as two of the program’s goals, and lists the following among the aims of the latter:

• Pupils are systematically and deliberately required to ‘go all out’ within their individual capacities in a number of physical development activities, thereby progressively raising endurance and tolerance of pain levels.
• Pupils develop a well-disciplined attitude toward the ‘hard work principle’ in terms of heavy, energy-output type activities.

When the producers of The Motivation Factor, a documentary about the La Sierra System, interviewed those who had gone through it in their youth, they reported that the program had delivered on just this desired effect — and that it stayed with them into adulthood; when these La Sierra grads had experienced challenges in later years, they returned to their P.E. experiences as a touchstone — a reminder that they were capable of doing hard things.

Another unique trademark of the La Sierra System was its use of “ability grouping” — a hierarchy of ranks denoting different levels of physical proficiency. The boys were put in teams based on these levels, and each team/level was identified by different color satin trunks worn by its respective members (sans shirt) while they exercised. All freshmen started out on the White Team, wearing white shorts, and then could work their way up the ranks throughout their high school years. When you tested into the next level, you got to discard your old color shorts for new ones and proudly display your earned achievement. The color system was designed to harness boys’ natural propensity for competition and publicly-recognized status as a spur towards “physical excellence.”

One might be apt to wonder if this system didn’t shame and embarrass those boys who were at a lower level of fitness, and had to wear the lower-level shorts. Wouldn’t the color groups make them feel bad about having to broadcast their position at the bottom of the ladder?

A coach at the time, Richard Chester Tucker, who went on to write his PhD dissertation on La Sierra’s color system, looked into this very question. He compared the least physically capable third of students at both La Sierra and at a school that had a traditional P.E. program. What he found was that there was no difference between the self-esteem of the boys in each group. But, the boys at La Sierra were more physically fit than those at the other school; for example, on average, the lowest third of boys at La Sierra could do nine pull-ups, while the lowest third of boys in the traditional P.E. program could only do two. In other words, the color-coded shorts system didn’t make students feel bad about themselves, but it did inspire them to strive higher; maybe these kids weren’t ever going to be elite athletes, but the color-code system motivated them to become their best. As Tucker says in The Motivation Factor, “We came under a lot of criticism because [people said] ‘You’re making these kids walk around in white trunks. What does that do to their self-esteem?’ It makes them want to get red trunks!”

When interviewed as adults, those who went through the La Sierra program remembered it as being fun and highly supportive; the boys encouraged each other and helped each other reach the next tier.

Within the color system, there were four main levels: White (Beginner), Red (Intermediate), Blue (Advanced), and Navy Blue (Ultimate Athlete). Within the Blue level, there were two sub-levels: Purple and Gold. More than 90% of students were able to advance from the White Team to the Red Team by the end of their freshman year, and 60% were eventually able to make the Blue Team. For every 100 students, only one or two were still wearing white trunks by the time they graduated.

The following benchmarks had to be hit to move beyond the White Team and reach subsequent color levels within the La Sierra System.

Each color level had minimum, median, and “ceiling” sub-standards; the ceiling standard of one color level was the minimum standard of the next; hitting the ceiling standard within a color level advanced you the next color up. What is listed below is the minimum standard for each main color level:

Red (Intermediate)

• Pull-Ups: 10 
• Push-Ups: 32
• Bar-Dips: 12 
• Sit-Ups: 60 
• Standing Broad Jump: 6’9″ 
• 200-Yard Shuttle Run: 34 seconds 
• Rope Climb (18’, Stand Start): Use hands only (no feet)
• Agility Run: 20 seconds 
• 880-Yard Run: 3 minutes
• Mile Run: 7 minutes
• Man Lift and Carry: 880 yards
• Peg Board (Vertical): 6 holes
• 50-Yard Swim (Freestyle): 36 seconds

Blue (Advanced)

• Pull-Ups: 14 
• Push-Ups: 48
• Bar-Dips: 18 
• Standing Broad Jump: 7’3″
• Hanging Leg Lifts: 24 
• 300-Yard Shuttle Run: 52 seconds 
• Rope Climb (18’, Stand Start): 15 seconds, hands only 
• Agility Run: 19 seconds 
• 1320-Yard Run: 4:20 
• Man Lift and Carry: 1320 yards
• Peg Board (Vertical): 1 trip
• Extension Press-Up: 5
• 1.5-Mile Run: 10:30 
• 50-Yard Swim (Freestyle): 32 seconds

Navy Blue (Ultimate Athlete)

The median and ceiling sub-standards within the Blue level were categorized as their own colors: Purple and Gold. To test for the Navy Blue trunks, you first had to earn your Gold trunks.

• Pull-Ups: 34
• Bar-Dips: 52
• Handstand Push-Ups: 50
• Alt. 1 Arm Burpees (30 sec.): 26
• 300-Yard Shuttle Run: 47.5 seconds
• Rope Climb (20’, Hands Only, Sitting Start): 2 trips
• Agility Run: 17 seconds
• Extension Press-Up (8”): 100
• Pegboard (Vertical): 5 trips
• Handstand: 45 seconds
• Man Lift and Carry: 5 miles
• Mile Run: 5:15
• 5-Mile Jog: Finish
• Obstacle Course: Complete
• Swim (Front Prone Position): 1 mile
• Swim (Underwater): 50 yards
• Swim (Any Combination of Strokes): 2 miles
• Execute Front Hanging Float With Arms and Ankles Tied (Deep Water): 6 minutes
• Stay Afloat in Deep Water in Vertical Position (Use of Arms and Legs Permitted Within 8’ Circle): 2 hours

Representing the pinnacle of physical fitness, the Navy Blue shorts were obviously extremely difficult to earn, and as a result highly coveted. When a student earned his Navy trunks, his accomplishment was announced over the school’s PA system, and the entire student body would erupt into thunderous cheers. 

Between 1958 when the Navy Blue level was introduced and 1983 when La Sierra High School closed, only 21 students were able to achieve these trunks. Today, the standard remains as a testament to a time that had high expectations for its youth — that believed in their potential and pushed them to reach for as much of it as they could.  

Listen to this episode of the AoM podcast for more on the La Sierra P.E. program:

With our archives 4,000 articles deep, we’ve decided to republish a classic piece each Sunday to help our newer readers discover some of the best, evergreen gems from the past. This article was originally published in March 2022.

This article was originally published on The Art of Manliness.

Pandora. This was my music player of choice when it launched in the late 2000s. Like a lot of people, I slowly migrated to Spotify and forgot about it. I’ve been souring on Spotify lately, for a variety of reasons. One is that the algorithm just keeps recycling what I listened to last year (no DJ X, I don’t want to hear my 2024 favorites again) or pushing new releases that are popular on the platform but I have zero interest in. The AI slop proliferating on the app and its slow decline as a podcast player haven’t helped. For some reason, this week I had a hunch that I should log back into Pandora after a decade of non-use. My account was so old it was still tied to my Hotmail address from high school. Pandora is a breath of fresh air. The Music Genome Project is amazing. I’ve already found new artists I like. You actually get a mix that feels random and novel. It never feels stale. My channels: Maná, the Killers (natch), and a jazz and classical channel for work. If it’s been a while since you’ve used Pandora, give it another look. Surf the web like it’s 2008 again.

Keychain Screwdriver Set. You’d be surprised how often you need a screwdriver. This cheap little two-piece set — a flathead and a Phillips, each about the size of a key — clips right onto your keychain. I’ve had the set on my keychain for years now, and it’s come in clutch more times than I expected. It came in especially handy when my kids were little and had toys that had a screwed-in battery compartment. Didn’t have to schlep to the garage to get a screwdriver. Just pulled out my keys. You can’t use these for jobs that need serious torque, but most screwdriving situations in daily life don’t. 

A Cinema Humanities Program. Last year, I became a cinephile. Watching good movies on the regular has become one of my favorite adult pastimes. Substacker Ted Gioia (The Honest Broker) started a 52-week self-directed humanities curriculum a couple years back that consists of great reading and music listening. But Gioia acknowledged that a cinema component was lacking. Kyle Worley took that as a challenge and built out a 52-film supplement — one great movie per week — to pair with it. The list is solid. I’ve highlighted several of its entries here on Odds & Ends over the years, including Citizen Kane, Seven Samurai (check out my article about the lessons from that film), and The Searchers. If you’ve been meaning to develop a more well-rounded film education, this is a good place to start. Worth checking out alongside Gioia’s original curriculum.

The Drunkard’s Walk by Leonard Mlodinow. I’ve been doing a series over on Dying Breed on the role of luck and chance in our lives, so I’ve been doing a lot of reading about the philosophy of luck and probability theory for the past year. Mlodinow’s book is an approachable introduction to both the history of probability and how it actually works. The central argument is that randomness plays a much bigger role in outcomes than we typically acknowledge, and that our brains aren’t wired to recognize it very well. You’ve really got to squeeze those mind grapes when you think about chance. This book can help you start that squeezing. 

On our Dying Breed newsletter, we published Making a Living Online: The Rise and Fall of Banner Ads and Sunday Firesides: It Will Stay With You (Until You Stay With It).

Quote of the Week

Better to be a strong man with a weak point, than to be a weak man without a strong point. A diamond with a flaw is more valuable than a brick without a flaw.

—William J.H. Boetcker

This article was originally published on The Art of Manliness.

Out in the wild, food is usually closer than you think. The challenge isn’t necessarily finding edible plants, but knowing which of those around you can be safely consumed, whether it’s as a survival ration or simply a quick snack while out on the trail. The field guide above highlights a handful of common, easy-to-recognize options that can give you a quick boost of calories, nutrients, or hydration when you’re out in the wild.

Foraging does come with real risks, however. Your foundational rule should be: Never eat a plant you can’t confidently identify. If you’re unsure, leave it alone. As a general guideline, avoid plants with milky sap, thorns, or umbrella-shaped flowers unless you know exactly what you’re dealing with. And skip mushrooms entirely unless you’re an expert — they’re notoriously easy to misidentify.

Even with safe plants, start small. Your body may not react well to unfamiliar foods, and it’s better to find that out with a bite than a meal. If you’re ever in doubt, you can use the universal edibility test, but know that it takes time and isn’t foolproof.

Learn these few plants well, and you’ll start to see the landscape differently — not just as scenery, but as a potential pantry. 

Illustrated by Ted Slampyak

This article was originally published on The Art of Manliness.

When people visit a therapist’s office for help with their depression, they often don’t find the relief they’re seeking. That’s because much of the counsel that is traditionally given doesn’t offer the context people need to make sense of and preserve their mental well-being.

Here to share these missing pieces of perspective and strategy is Dr. Scott Eilers, a clinical psychologist and the author of The Light Between the Leaves: 6 Truths Your Therapist Won’t Tell You About Healing Depression and Trauma. Today on the show, Scott shares why the world of psychology doesn’t always offer the most useful explanations for why people can sometimes feel alienated from their own lives. We then talk about insights Scott has gleaned from science, nature, and lived experience as to the mindset shifts and habits that can help you stay sharp, steady, and engaged in life — whether you’re struggling with chronic depression, or just adrift in a low-grade funk.

Resources Related to the Podcast

• AoM series on depression
• AoM Podcast #741: The Exercise Prescription for Depression and Anxiety
• AoM article and podcast on Rick Hanson’s method of “hardwiring happiness”

Connect With Scott Eilers

• Scott’s website
• Scott’s YouTube channel
• Scott on IG
• Scott on FB

Listen to the Podcast! (And don’t forget to leave us a review!)

Listen to the episode on a separate page

Download this episode

Subscribe to the podcast in the media player of your choice

Transcript Coming Soon

This article was originally published on The Art of Manliness.

A few years ago, red light therapy started showing up everywhere I looked, and it’s still getting a lot of attention. Fitness influencers evangelize it for muscle recovery, fat loss, and metabolic health. Beauty influencers say it will give you glowing skin and thicker hair. Biohacking bros claim it can help your mood and sleep, and that if you expose your balls to red light, it’ll boost your testosterone.

Thanks to the social media hype, gyms have started installing red-light booths next to their tanning beds. Just a few months ago, a dedicated red-light studio opened near my neighborhood here in Tulsa. $50 gets you 25 minutes in a red-light booth plus 10 minutes on something called a “power plate.” You can now buy red light therapy panels and blankets for your home, but they’re not cheap; serious at-home red light therapy can set you back $1,000 to $2,000.

As a creaky, stiff 43-year-old veteran garage powerlifter with nagging tendons, I was intrigued by the promises of pain relief and faster recovery. The potential mood lift was also a plus. Rather than schlep to a tanning studio and fork over $30 a pop for red-light sessions, I decided to buy a red-light blanket — essentially a sleeping bag lined with therapeutic LEDs — run an experiment on myself, and then share the results.

Five times a week for three months starting in January, I stripped down to my birthday suit, crawled into my high-priced red-light burrito wrap, and lay there on our gameroom floor for 15 minutes. About halfway into my session, I’d scrunch my body down so the bag covered my head too, burrowing in like I was in my mummy sleeping bag on a cold night of camping. One morning, my son wandered in to find just my gray head protruding from my glowing red cocoon. Gus finding his dad doing weird things for his man blog isn’t anything new. “You look like a weirdo,” he flatly said and walked out. He wasn’t wrong.

I’ll let you know below whether my experiment paid off. But first, let’s take a look at how red light therapy works and whether its popularly touted benefits are supported by research-backed evidence.

What Is Red Light Therapy?

Red light therapy, or photobiomodulation (PBM), involves exposing tissue to specific wavelengths of red and near-infrared light to stimulate cellular function, specifically your mitochondria. When cells are stressed, a molecule called nitric oxide plugs a key enzyme in the mitochondrial chain, suppressing ATP production. ATP is the energy currency our cells use for repair and regeneration. Red and near-infrared light can dislodge that nitric oxide and get cellular energy production running again, allowing your body to repair and regenerate. That’s the theory, at least.

When you’re doing red light therapy, there are two kinds of wavelengths that provide different benefits.

Visible red light in the 630-660 nm range is primarily absorbed by your skin’s dermis and epidermis.

Near-infrared light in the 810-850 nm range, on the other hand, passes through skin and can penetrate several centimeters into muscle and joint tissue.

If you’re treating a skin concern, you want visible red light. If you’re treating a joint or trying to reach deeper tissue, you want near-infrared. Most quality panels deliver both, largely because it makes them more versatile — you can use the same device for skin, joints, and deeper tissue work — which is why they’ve become the standard for broader therapeutic use.

Red Light Therapy’s Purported Benefits

When I dug into the research about red light therapy, I discovered that, like a lot of health fads, the marketing and social media hype around red light therapy has significantly outrun what the science actually supports.

There are some benefits to red light therapy, but they’re a lot narrower than the guys on Reels wearing blue-light-blocking glasses claim.

Red Light Therapy May Improve Your Skin

Wavelengths in the 630-660 nm range penetrate the upper layers of skin and stimulate fibroblasts, the cells responsible for producing collagen and elastin. Meta-analyses have found solid evidence for PBM reducing radiation dermatitis — skin irritation and damage caused by exposure to radiation therapy — in cancer patients. There’s also evidence that it accelerates the closure of chronic wounds like diabetic ulcers.

For general anti-aging applications, red light exposure can reduce wrinkles and improve skin texture over time.

But to get the benefits, you have to do red light therapy consistently for a long time. We’re talking three to five sessions a week for three to six months before you see any changes. It’s not a quick fix.

Red Light Therapy May Help With Hair Loss

If you’re dealing with androgenic alopecia (aka standard male pattern hair loss), the evidence for red light therapy is reasonably solid. Low-level light stimulates the mitochondria in hair follicles and increases blood flow to them. Studies have shown improvements in hair density and thickness in both men and women after three to six months of consistent treatment.

The catch: you have to keep doing red light therapy indefinitely to maintain the hair growth. Stop the sessions, and the follicles drift back to their previous state. So you have to decide whether a modest improvement in your hairline is worth putting on an $800 red-light helmet that looks like something from the Minority Report every day, indefinitely.

Red Light Therapy May Ease Localized Pain and Inflammation

For specific, targeted musculoskeletal problems — knee osteoarthritis, plantar fasciitis, localized joint inflammation — there’s decent evidence supporting red light as an adjunct therapy. Near-infrared wavelengths around 810-850 nm can penetrate several centimeters into muscle and joint tissue and have been shown to suppress pro-inflammatory cytokines and reduce pain. Again, you have to use red light therapy consistently for months before you see any benefit. It’s not a one-and-done thing. Also, it’s an “adjunct” therapy, meaning you need to do it alongside physical therapy to get the benefits.

There are devices you can buy that you can strap to areas that you’re trying to treat. They’re more cost-effective than whole body panels or blankets. Still not cheap though! Look to spend $400-$800 for these.

Red Light Therapy May Speed Up Muscle Recovery (But Probably Doesn’t Do Much for Muscle Growth)

Multiple meta-analyses — including reviews published in 2024 and 2025 — show that red light therapy consistently lowers creatine kinase levels in the blood after intense exercise. Creatine kinase is one of the primary markers for muscle damage, so bringing those levels down faster means your muscles are repairing more quickly. The same research shows consistent reductions in delayed-onset muscle soreness, or DOMS.

The muscle growth question is murkier. Recent meta-analyses suggest PBM doesn’t consistently increase peak strength beyond what training alone produces, and nothing shows that it will do much for hypertrophy.

Red Light Therapy Probably Won’t Help You Lose Fat

This is fitness influencers’ favorite claim, and the evidence behind it is the weakest. The theory is that PBM causes temporary pores to form in fat cells, releasing triglycerides to be metabolized. Small studies have documented modest circumference reductions, but these haven’t translated into meaningful changes in total body weight, and without a caloric deficit, the released fat is likely just reabsorbed. No large-scale, long-term human trials support the idea that red light meaningfully accelerates fat loss beyond diet and exercise.

Red Light Therapy Probably Won’t Fix Your Mood or Sleep

Research into transcranial PBM for conditions like depression and Alzheimer’s looks promising, but it’s still in the early stages. It’s worth watching over the next decade.

But systematic reviews have concluded that sleep quality and cognitive enhancement in healthy individuals using red light aren’t yet statistically significant.

If you notice any mood lift from red light therapy, it’s probably the placebo effect, which does have a real impact. If you feel better, you feel better, but red light therapy is a pretty expensive and time-consuming way to get the placebo effect. You can get a mood boost just by walking outside and catching some sun.

On That Testosterone Claim

The evidence that testicular irradiation boosts testosterone in men comes almost entirely from rat studies. Human data is essentially anecdotal. I’d file this under things that work in rats and for TikTok bros wanting you to smash that like button.

Did Red Light Therapy Do Anything for Me?

After three months of spending 15 minutes 5X a week under my red-light blanket, here’s what I found:

My mood didn’t noticeably improve.

My nagging tendons still nagged me.

My skin looked exactly as it did before, that is, like the face of a 43-year-old man. A scar I picked up at Thanksgiving remained stubbornly present.

I didn’t lose body fat.

My recovery from workouts didn’t improve.

My hair, which was already thick, remained thick.

I can’t say for sure that the red light therapy didn’t do anything for me, but the effect was not significant or noticeable enough for me to continue to spend over an hour each week lying on the gameroom floor in a glowing body bag.

So Should You Do Red Light Therapy?

Red light therapy didn’t seem to do anything for me, but this was of course an n=1 experiment. Your results may vary.

If you have a specific problem that the research supports — hair loss, age-related skin changes, a nagging joint issue — a high-irradiance red-light device used consistently over several months may be worth investigating alongside whatever else you’re doing for it. There’s research that backs it up. But keep in mind, even when it works, the benefit is typically modest, and if you have to do the light therapy consistently for months — and in the case of hair loss, forever.

For general wellness, whole-body recovery, fat loss, and mood, the evidence isn’t there. Yet, at least.

My takeaway: if your gym has complimentary red light therapy, it won’t hurt to sit in it for a few minutes after a workout; just don’t expect much from it.

I wouldn’t plunk down the money to go to a specialized red light salon or for an at-home red light therapy device unless you’ve got money burning a hole in your pocket, and you don’t mind losing aura in the eyes of your teenage son.

This article was originally published on The Art of Manliness.

Ever since I was a kid, I’ve wanted to know how to give a commanding whistle with my fingers in my mouth. You know. The kind you see people give in old movies when they’re hailing a taxi or trying to get the peanut guy’s attention at the ballpark. It just seemed like a cool skill to have. But alas, I’ve spent my entire young and adult life frustrated that I couldn’t uncover the secret to this age old trick.

Many of you out there reading undoubtedly feel the same way. Believe it or not, covering how to whistle with your fingers has been one of our most requested articles. Most of the emailers shared how they had a grandpa or dad who knew how to give a loud, forceful whistle with their fingers. Like me, they thought it was a cool skill, but one which unfortunately hadn’t been passed onto them.

So I finally made it a goal to once and for all figure out how to whistle with my fingers, so that I could create an AoM tutorial on the subject. After just forty minutes of annoying Kate with intense practice, I finally mastered the skill that had eluded me since I was eight years old. Achievement unlocked!

Below, I show how you too can whistle with your fingers.

Watch the Video

1. Choose Your Finger Combination

Your fingers do two things that allow you to create an ear-piercingly loud whistle. First, they keep your tongue pushed back, and second, they keep your lips tucked back over your teeth. The pushed back tongue and tucked lips will create a bevel which will produce a tone when you blow.

There are a myriad of finger combinations you can use to get the desired effect. I’m going to show you my two favorites.

Two-Handed, Middle/Index Finger Combo

Extend your middle and index fingers on both hands, keeping them close together, while your thumbs hold down your ring and pinky fingers.

Place your two middle fingers together, forming an “A” shape. 

I feel like I get a louder and more forceful whistle using this finger combo.

One-Handed, “OK” Sign 

This combo allows you to whistle with just one hand. All you need to do is form an “OK” sign with either your thumb and index finger or thumb and middle finger.

2. Wet and Tuck Your Lips Back Over Your Teeth

Lip placement is key. Give your lips a quick lick to wet your whistle. Tuck your lips back over your teeth. It’s what you do when you pretend you’re an old man without any teeth. Your lips need to cover your teeth in order to whistle successfully. Feel free to adjust how much or little you tuck your lips back. It’s going to vary from person to person.

Your fingers will help keep your bottom lip tucked over your teeth.

3. Push Tongue Back Into Mouth With Fingers

This step is the master key of successfully whistling with your fingers and also the trickiest to get right. It was for me at least.

Some people say you just need to push your tongue back in your mouth with your fingers. That advice was a bit too vague for me.

What worked for me was folding the tip of my tongue back on itself and holding it in place with my fingers, as you see in the illustration above. Here’s how to do it with the two-handed, middle/index finger combo:

• Place the tip of your fingers underneath your tongue right at the tip.
• Push the tip of your tongue back with your fingers. You’re basically folding the first 1/4 of your tongue back on itself.
• Push your tongue back into your mouth until your first knuckle reaches your bottom lip.

4. Blow

With your fingers in your mouth, keeping the tip of your tongue folded and lips tucked back over your teeth, close your mouth around your fingers. You want to make sure you have a complete seal around your fingers.

Here’s how it should look:

Give a soft blow out your mouth. You should feel the air only go out over your bottom lip. If you feel air coming out the sides of your mouth, close your mouth tighter around your fingers. Remember, perfect seal.

Make sure you don’t see your tongue make an appearance in the hole between your fingers! It’s blocking the air from coming out.

You probably won’t get a sound right off the bat. That’s okay. Adjust your finger placement under your tongue and experiment with different finger angles and varying degrees of lip tuckage until you find the sweet spot. Experimentation is key — keep making little adjustments. You’ll know when you’re getting close to your whistle sweet spot because you’ll start producing a noise that sounds sort of like you’re blowing over a beer bottle. Start blowing more forcefully, until you get that high-pitched and loud whistle.

A word of warning: make sure to take a break between blows when you’re first starting out. I’m not kidding. If you keep blowing and blowing, you’ll just hyperventilate, make yourself feel lightheaded and dizzy, and give yourself a headache.

5. Practice

Keep practicing until you get it. I was able to get it down after 40 minutes of dedicated practice broken up over two days. If you’re married or live with other people, go outside or in a room to avoid driving your loved ones insane. A good time to practice is when you’re stopped at traffic lights while driving alone. Once you figure it out, you’ll wonder why it took you so long to master this awesome skill!

Illustrations by Ted Slampyak

With our archives 4,000 articles deep, we’ve decided to republish a classic piece each Sunday to help our newer readers discover some of the best, evergreen gems from the past. This article was originally published in March 2014.

This article was originally published on The Art of Manliness.