Day: November 22, 2025

• This post originally appeared in the BI Today newsletter.
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Welcome back! One 93-year-old works out five days a week. She credits three essentials for feeling like she’s in her 50s.

On the agenda:

• If waking up has ever felt like a punishment, a BI reporter has good news.
• Gen Z’s favorite vacation: wherever their boss sends them.
• Novak Djokovic is winning titles at 38. He credits his longevity to 3 simple changes.
• One of the most divisive dining trends of the 2010s is making a comeback.

But first: What’s cooking?

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This week’s dispatch

We’re talkin’ turkey

For many American families, there are five staples you’re almost sure to see on their Thanksgiving dinner tables: turkey, macaroni and cheese, stuffing, sweet potatoes, and pumpkin pie.

And I know, I know, I’m leaving off a lot of yummy menu items. I can already hear you wondering, “Where’s the green beans?”

Business Insider has been testing, tasting, and serving up recipes to help readers finalize their Thanksgiving menus based on the most popular dishes.

In case you were head down in Q4 and missed them (relatable), here’s your cheat sheet to the ultimate Thanksgiving menu.

Turkey: There’s still time to order your bird online. Here are the best places to buy one — from organic to fried to smoked.

Macaroni and cheese: We tried Ina Garten’s overnight mac and cheese recipe, which features Gruyére and white cheddar. Yum!

Stuffing: One writer put four stuffing recipes to the test, and the favorite was the easiest to make. The recipe also called for fennel and apricot.

Sweet potatoes: Inside “Good Lookin’ Cookin’,” Dolly Parton’s new cookbook with her sister, Rachel Parton George, is a sweet potato recipe with a nutty twist. One BI reporter brought it to a friendsgiving, and it was gone within minutes.

Pumpkin pie: A writer put three different pie recipes to the test, and Bobby Flay’s came out on top thanks to a creamy, sweet topping.

Good luck in the kitchen! Or if all else fails, just order it up.

Becoming a morning person

BI’s Kim Schewitz has always struggled with waking up in the morning. She realized that starting her day in a constant fight or flight state left her feeling low energy, anxious, and a little disoriented.

Schewitz began her odyssey to become a morning person about a year ago. It wasn’t until after a recent trip, when she got the good kind of jet lag — going to bed early and waking up early — that she really started to notice a difference.

Yoga and long walks before work.

You better work (trip)

Some Gen Zers are turning bland work trips into vacations by tacking on extra days at nice hotels and taking advantage of corporate rates.

Done right, it’s a nice way to earn extra credit card points, see a bucket-list destination, and maybe even get some quality time with a plus one. Done wrong, however, it’s a sure way to upset your coworkers.

Business tripping with Gen Z.

Long live the Djoker

Tennis legend Novak Djokovic is still at the top of his game at 38. The 24-time Grand Slam champion continues to beat players who are more than 10 years younger than him.

Djokovic told Business Insider the lifestyle choices he thinks have kept him on the court, from his famously disciplined diet to prioritizing emotional health.

Lessons from the GOAT.

They ate with that

Shared tables and communal dining are so back, and young people are driving the trend.

The practice of seating different groups of people at the same long, banquet-style tables has some notable perks post-pandemic. For one, it makes it a lot easier to talk to strangers.

Let’s feast.

What we’re watching this weekend

• “Good Boy”: On Shudder, check out one of the most unique horror movies made in some time, as this haunted house story is told through the perspective of a dog.
• “The Bad Guys 2”: Now available on Peacock, Sam Rockwell, Awkwafina, Craig Robinson, and Zazie Beetz voice a group of crooks on one last heist.
• “Champagne Problems”: It’s that time of year when Netflix starts putting out its holiday movies. In this rom-com, Minka Kelly stars as a businesswoman who travels to France for some luxury Champagne and finds love in the process.

What to shop

• Black Friday streaming deals: From annual plans under $3 to live TV bundles, this season’s top streaming deals deliver serious savings without cutting any of the good stuff.
• Rare discount alert: SKIMS has put a ton of styles on sale ahead of Black Friday. Popular pieces, like the viral Soft Lounge Slip Dress and core cotton tees, are already up to 50% off, but sizes are selling quickly.
• Backpack today, tote tomorrow: We found the best convertible backpack-totes for commuting, traveling, and everything in between.

The status symbol hoodie for teen girls

Gen Z and Gen Alpha girls are obsessed with a $90 pastel sweatshirt from Pink Palm Puff. For Katie Notopoulos’s “Well Spent” podcast, she spoke to Lily Balaisis, the clothing brand’s 17-year-old founder.

More of this week’s top reads:

• “Wicked: For Good” tries too hard to make Ariana Grande the star.
• I’m the founder and CEO of Anastasia Beverly Hills. My day starts with TikTok and ends with red light therapy.
• A dietitian shares how the “80/20 rule” helps her eat enough protein, fiber — and pastries.
• I tried making a French omelette. This surprisingly easy breakfast dish is my new favorite way to eat eggs.
• We paid over $14,000 for the cheapest room on an ultra-luxury cruise. Take a look inside our ship and 350-square-foot suite.
• My husband and I were on “House Hunters International.” Here are five things that surprised me most about being on the show.

The BI Today team: Lisa Ryan, executive editor, in New York. Dan DeFrancesco, deputy editor and anchor, in New York. Akin Oyedele, deputy editor, in New York. Grace Lett, editor, in New York. Amanda Yen, associate editor, in New York.

• Grip strength is associated with greater longevity and lower risk of cardiovascular disease.
• Grip strength is also linked to strength training, such as pulling or carrying heavy weights.
• Exercises like farmer’s carries and dead hangs can boost grip strength.

Easily popping the lid off a jar can mean you’ll live longer — but not for the reasons you think.

Great grip strength is regarded as a key indicator of longevity, with one 2019 study linking stronger grip strength with lower rates of cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and cognitive impairment.

The iron-gripped among us also experience day-to-day health benefits. “Those same people tend to have just better metabolism as well,” Sarah Crawford, a physical therapist and owner of Anchor Wellness in Cincinnati, told Business Insider. “So better blood sugar regulation, better hormonal balance, reduced inflammation.”

What do these people all have in common (besides giving firm handshakes)? Staying very active, she said. Grip strength is formed by building small muscles in the hands and forearms, which is harder to do than building larger muscles like your hamstrings or quadriceps.

“So if you’re keeping smaller, deeper muscles strong, you have to be keeping bigger muscles strong, too,” she said.

This is why squeezing a stress ball throughout an otherwise sedentary day won’t do anything for grip strength.

“Grip strength is really a by-product of living an active lifestyle,” W. Zach Smith, a physical therapist and owner of HIDEF Physical Therapy in Seattle, told Business Insider. He compared it to a person’s walking speed, another sign of longevity: “It’s based on all of the things they do in their life to stay healthy.”

Try farmer’s carries and dead hangs

The relationship to grip strength and strength training is fairly simple: grip strength is vital to progressing in pull-ups or heavy deadlifts, Crawford said. As you challenge yourself in those exercises, your grip strength improves over time.

Smith said popular exercises like bent-over rows, kettlebell swings, or sled pulls (where you hold a handle instead of tying the sled around your waist) all naturally build your grip strength because they involve pulling or carrying motions.

“Even rowing on a machine is going to take quite a bit of grip strength, having to pull,” he said.

Crawford said farmer’s carries — holding a heavy kettlebell in each hand and walking — “build grip endurance, shoulder stability, and core control all at once.”

Similar exercises, such as a suitcase carry (holding only one weight) or using a trap bar (a hexagonal barbell that you can grip on its sides), also boost grip strength, Smith said.

“Even a simple dead hang from a bar is a great grip-builder,” he said, which involves simply holding on to a pull-up bar for as long as you can.

If weight-training isn’t your thing, Smith said other workouts, like bouldering or gymnastics, also build your strength — including your grip.

Desk accessories can work — on one condition

Because of the grip strength longevity buzz over the past few years, Smith has seen devices like hand grippers and squeeze balls become trendier.

With his own clients, he’s seen little success when using them without additional strength training in the mix. “Building grip strength for the sake of grip strength using grip trainers rarely works, and we have had many clients try,” he said.

However, if you’re already strength training, Crawford said it doesn’t hurt to do a few desk exercises in between Zoom meetings. The hand gripper “targets the primary muscles of the hand and forearm and can be used just about anywhere,” she said. She also recommended therapy putty, which comes in different resistance levels and “helps strengthen the smaller, intrinsic muscles of the hand that we often neglect.”

Sneak in grip exercises throughout your day

You can also get creative in challenging your grip strength throughout the day. “If you’re parking further away in the grocery store parking lot and carrying your groceries out of the store instead of pushing them in a cart, that in and of itself will have an impact,” Crawford said.

Even fine motor tasks, like coloring with a pencil, add up over time. “Daily practices that are pretty easy to implement will positively impact grip strength,” she said — as long as you’re still hitting the gym.

• I let my 14-year-old son skip school to attend the opening of a new Lego store together.
• It was a special bonding experience, and I don’t regret it.
• While in line, I realized he’s interested in Legos again for the same reason I wanted to take him.

Two weeks ago, I let my 14-year-old son take a day off from school so we could go to the grand opening of our new Lego store.

I know it sounds frivolous. And I’m not the kind of parent who encourages blowing off school for a trip to the mall. But for us, it was a once-in-a-lifetime moment — one of those small, strange, wonderful opportunities to make a memory I know we’ll both hold onto.

Going to the new Lego store was a good chance to spend time together

My son was big into Lego blocks when he was little, but like many kids, his interest tapered off as video games became more appealing. And then, out of nowhere, it roared back with teenage intensity. He started following new releases, quoting “price per piece” statistics, and making regular visits to our local secondhand Lego shop for a “quick look.”

Until two weeks ago, the closest official Lego store was over two hours away, so the idea that one was opening practically in our backyard felt big. When he told me the date for the grand opening, I half-jokingly asked if he wanted to go. His eyes lit up like it was Christmas morning.

So we went.

We stood in line for almost two hours just to get in the door — surrounded by a huge, good-natured crowd of mostly adults, some with young kids — but it honestly didn’t feel that long to me. My son and I spent the time chatting about everything from what he was hoping to buy to what we were looking forward to doing on the upcoming holiday break.

I realized in line why he was into Legos again — and why the day felt so special

It struck me as we waited in line: he’s clinging to Lego for the same reason I wanted to take him to the store opening that day. We’re both holding on to something that feels simple and uncomplicated in a world where everything seems to be accelerating for him.

At 14, he’s in this place between childhood and adulthood. He’s mature and focused, and more self-aware than I ever was at his age. He earns good grades, is on the student council and the Model UN team at his school, volunteers at the library every week, and has recently told me he feels like he has a lot on his plate. He’s busy in a new, adult way, and Lego is his way of decompressing, something that lets his brain (and emotions) take a break.

Seeing the little kids waiting with their parents, I was reminded of just how quickly time passes. My son and I often talk about the future and his college and career aspirations. He’s forming his own opinions and priorities, and I’m grateful that he still wants to talk about (almost) everything with me. But I’m also aware that the window for spontaneous weekday adventures is rapidly narrowing.

Taking him out of school for the day was about showing him that, as he grows up, there’s still room for joy and silliness. He got to experience the child-like excitement of being a kid with no responsibilities for a few hours — and I got to match his excitement just by watching him be completely in his element.

When we finally made it into the store, he took his time wandering around to see all of the displays and make his choices. He didn’t get the Gingerbread AT-AT Walker Lego set he really wanted — we would’ve had to have been closer to the front of the line for that coveted purchase — but he found a couple of other sets he liked, as well as one for his brother, and even one for me.

More than the stuff, we came home with a shared new memory. One that we’ll pull out at holiday meals and visits home from college — “Remember that time we waited in line for hours at the new Lego store? That was wild!”

I don’t regret taking him out of school for a day. In fact, I imagine I’ll do it again a few more times before he graduates. Grades matter. Attendance matters. Preparing for the future matters. But so does carving out space to connect with my kid before the time slips away.

• Donald Trump signed a bill that will release the DOJ’s files on Jeffrey Epstein.
• It’s the latest in a long line of Epstein documents that have been released.
• But this one stands to be different. Here’s how.

More than six years after his death in jail, Jeffrey Epstein is still alive and well in the public discourse.

On Wednesday, President Donald Trump signed the Epstein Files Transparency Act after months of pressure from members of Congress, including some in his own party.

The law requires one of the most radical acts of transparency in the Justice Department’s history, requiring it to make public its records related to Epstein, the notorious and well-connected pedophile financier who killed himself while awaiting trial on sex-trafficking charges.

The department has 30 days to comply, setting a deadline of Saturday, December 19.

Epstein counted Trump, Bill Clinton, Prince Andrew, and other titans of finance, law, politics, and science among his acquaintances. His alleged victims and other members of the public hope the files will shed light on those relationships and law enforcement’s handling of the case.

Here’s what sets this release apart:

Haven’t we already seen a whole lot of ‘Epstein files’?

In recent months, the House Oversight Committee has made public Epstein-related documents it obtained through subpoenas, including emails provided by his estate.

Other documents have been made public through the federal prosecution of Epstein’s co-conspirator Ghislaine Maxwell, who was found guilty of sex trafficking and sentenced to 20 years in prison. Civil lawsuits involving Epstein, Maxwell, banks affiliated with Epstein, and the US Virgin Islands government have shaken loose even more records about his life. Various drips and drabs have also entered the public domain through Freedom of Information Act requests, government reports, and an inquiry from the Senate Finance Committee.

All of that may pale in comparison to what the Justice Department has in its possession.

OK, so what’s new here?

The Epstein Files Transparency Act requires the Justice Department to publish “all unclassified records, documents, communications, and investigative materials” about Epstein and Maxwell.

Those could include more emails and text messages, as well as internal prosecutorial records. The Justice Department has overseen two different criminal investigations into Epstein’s sexual abuse of teenage girls. The first took place in Florida and led to a widely criticized deal where Epstein pleaded guilty to a single sex offense in 2008. The second was the Manhattan-based investigation, which led to Epstein’s 2019 arrest and Maxwell’s prosecution.

During Epstein’s 2019 arrest, the FBI searched his Manhattan townhouse and his home in the US Virgin Islands. In the process, they obtained more than 70 computers, iPads, and hard drives, along with financial documents and binders full of CDs.

Those seized materials form the heart of the “Epstein files,” which could shed even more light on the deepest, darkest secrets of the notorious pedophile. According to The New York Times, the FBI had already prepared 100,000 pages for public release before the Justice Department decided to keep them secret earlier this year.

That’s pretty wild. Is there anything else the Justice Department might release?

Yes! A whole bunch of stuff, including:

• Any deals between the government and Epstein associates, including non-prosecution agreements and sealed settlements.
• Records tied to Epstein’s death in the Metropolitan Correctional Center, such as transcripts of interviews with people in neighboring cells the night he died.
• Records into what has widely been criticized as a “sweetheart deal” for Epstein by Southern District of Florida prosecutors.
• Material surrounding calls victims say they made to the FBI as early as the 1990s about Epstein’s conduct, which did not lead to any known law enforcement investigation.
• Additional flight records from Epstein’s private jets.

That’s a lot? Is there anything the government isn’t releasing?

While the law requires the Justice Department to make its records publicly available, other federal agencies are off the hook.

The Treasury Department, for example, is in possession of more exhaustive records related to Epstein’s finances, including Suspicious Activity Reports some banks filed about his fund transfers. A separate bill proposed by Sen. Ron Wyden would force more transparency there.

The Federal Aviation Administration possesses flight records that it has so far kept from the public. And to the degree that intelligence agencies like the CIA or National Security Agency have anything, the bill doesn’t cover them.

Doesn’t the DOJ have loopholes to keep this stuff secret?

The Epstein Files Transparency Act permits the Justice Department to redact or withhold documents for victim privacy and for national security purposes.

‘National security’? That sounds fuzzy.

Well, sure, but there are limits.

Four people who have had access to the seized material previously told Business Insider that nothing in them indicated Epstein had any kind of domestic or foreign intelligence role. Nothing in the discovery process or court proceedings for Maxwell’s criminal case, which involved those records, indicated that there was anything of national security importance.

Furthermore, the Epstein Files Transparency Act requires all redactions to be accompanied by a written justification submitted to Congress.

The law specifically prohibits the Justice Department from withholding, delaying, or redacting any documents “on the basis of embarrassment, reputational harm, or political sensitivity, including to any government official, public figure, or foreign dignitary.” It also requires the department to produce material “concerning the destruction, deletion, alteration, misplacement, or concealment” of Epstein-related records — meaning Congress wants to know if there are signs of a cover-up.

What about that new investigation I heard about?

A provision in the law allows the Justice Department to withhold records that “would jeopardize an active federal investigation or ongoing prosecution.”

Days before the bill’s passage, Trump ordered Attorney General Pam Bondi to open an investigation into the links between Epstein and JPMorgan Chase, as well as a slew of perceived political enemies. Bondi handed the investigation over to the US Attorney’s Office in the Southern District of New York.

But even if the Justice Department withholds any of those records from the public, it’s still required to hand them over to the House Oversight Committee, which subpoenaed them.

Any perceived attempts by the Justice Department to use this investigation as a shield could lead to backlash from both Congress and members of the public. A number of Epstein’s victims have pushed for the release of the files, seeking to understand more about the circumstances of their own abuse and the Justice Department’s handling of the case.