Welcome to Libby, Montana, population 2,691 — a town forever changed by asbestos.

The heartbreaking history of Libby, Montana.

Jun 1, 2015

Welcome to Libby, Montana, population 2,691.

In many ways, Libby is like any other small town. It sits nestled between bits of national forest, it has a train station and a few schools (go Loggers!), and for many years its economy was supported by the nearby logging and mining operations.

But in other ways, Libby is very different.

Downtown Libby, Montana. Image: U.S. EPA.

Libby has a heartbreaking story to tell.

For decades, the company W.R. Grace operated a vermiculite mine in Libby. Vermiculite is a mineral used for insulation and fireproofing in many building materials. (By the way, it’s also the material used for those little white balls in potting soil.)

The vermiculite mine in Libby provided … over 70% of all vermiculite sold in the U.S. between 1919 and 1990.

The vermiculite mine in Libby provided hundreds of jobs, as well as over 70% of all vermiculite sold in the U.S. between 1919 and 1990. And while vermiculite itself isn’t known to be harmful, the Libby mine also included a large deposit of something much more dangerous: asbestos.

The asbestos in Libby’s mine has caused 400 deaths — and counting.

Mining the vermiculite that lay alongside asbestos released harmful asbestos fibers into the air. The asbestos appeared as a fine dust that coated the entire mine — it got everywhere — and caused harm not only to the mine workers, but to their friends, family, and other town residents as well.

But it’s never easy to criticize a company that plays such a huge role in a town’s life. In the 2004 documentary “Libby, Montana” by High Plains Films, one resident explained:

“[W.R.] Grace was on the school board, Grace was on the hospital board, Grace owned the bank. And when you talked about dust control here and … what [the dust] was doing harmful to these people here, the first thing to come out of their mouth was ‘You gonna close that mine down, and you gonna put all these people out of work?’ Well you didn’t have very many friends here when you started talking like that.”

Mine manager Earl Lovick held town positions outside the mine. Images: “Libby, Montana.”

Fast-forward to today: An estimated 400 people in Libby have died from asbestos-related diseases, and more than 2,000 have been sickened by the asbestos. Hundreds more deaths are expected from these diseases, as they can take decades to manifest.

Records show that W.R. Grace knew about the adverse health effects from asbestos in the mine many years before the mine’s closure in 1990. Mine manager Earl Lovick, who died of asbestosis in 1999, testified to having knowledge of the presence and dangers of asbestos. (Check out 9:46 and 12:24 in the video below for clips of Lovick’s statements.)

The company has since paid out millions of dollars in settlement money for civil cases concerning the effects of the asbestos. In 2008, W.R. Grace faced thousands of personal injury claims and agreed to settle all present and future claims via a trust. The amount of money they’re doling out is nearly incomprehensible. But does it really make up for the deaths and the sickness?

Libby continues to heal … slowly but surely.

In 1999, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency responded to widespread concerns surrounding the asbestos in Libby. The agency collected hundreds of samples from around Libby. In 2002, the site was declared a Superfund site, and cleanup began.

A 2014 draft of the EPA’s human health risk assessment states, “It is now possible to live and work in Libby without excessive exposure to asbestos. … Remaining asbestos needs to be safely managed.”

The asbestos risk may be under control (or close to it), but that doesn’t mean the people of Libby have forgotten how W.R. Grace changed the course of their town’s history.

Here’s an excerpt from High Plains Films’ documentary “Libby, Montana,” which tells the story of asbestos exposure in Libby:

https://youtube.com/watch?v=hZj9Kd3zIK8%3Fstart%3D32

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In Partnership With Habitat For Humanity →

Homeowners celebrate the completion of their new home in Cambodia's Siem Reap Province alongside Habitat for Humanity volunteers and staff.

Culture, Family

A safe, stable home can change lives for the better. Here’s how Habitat for Humanity wants to make that possible for everyone.

Better health, better jobs, and a brighter future all start with access to a safe, affordable home.

Sarah Watts

3/25/2026
A single door can open up a world of endless possibilities. For homeowners, the front door of their house is a gateway to financial stability, job security, and better health. Yet for many, that door remains closed. Due to the rising costs of housing, 1 in 3 people around the world wake up without the security of safe, affordable housing.

Since 1976, Habitat for Humanity has made it their mission to unlock and open the door to opportunity for families everywhere, and their efforts have paid off in a big way. Through their work over the past 50 years, more than 65 million people have gained access to new or improved housing, and the movement continues to gain momentum. Since 2011 alone, Habitat for Humanity has expanded access to affordable housing by a hundredfold.

A world where everyone has access to a decent home is becoming a reality, but there’s still much to do. As they celebrate 50 years of building, Habitat for Humanity is inviting people of all backgrounds and talents to be part of what comes next through Let’s Open the Door, a global campaign that builds on this momentum and encourages people everywhere to help expand access to safe, affordable housing for those who need it most. Here’s how the foundation to a better world starts with housing, and how everyone can pitch in to make it happen.

Volunteers raise a wall for the framework of a new home during the first day of building at Habitat for Humanity’s 2025 Carter Work Project.

Globally, almost 3 billion people, including 1 in 6 U.S. families, struggle with high costs and other challenges related to housing. A crisis in itself, this also creates larger problems that affect families and communities in unexpected ways. People who lack affordable, stable housing are also more likely to experience financial hardship in other areas of their lives, since a larger share of their income often goes toward rent, utilities, and frequent moves. They are also more likely to experience health problems due to chronic stress or environmental factors, such as mold. Housing insecurity also goes hand-in-hand with unstable employment, since people may need to move further from their jobs or switch jobs altogether to offset the cost of housing.

Affordable homeownership creates a stable foundation for families to thrive, reducing stress and increasing the likelihood for good health and stable employment. Habitat for Humanity builds and repairs homes with individual families, but it also strengthens entire communities as well. The MicroBuild® Initiative, for example, strengthens communities by increasing access to loans for low-income families seeking to build or repair their homes. Habitat ReStore locations provide affordable appliances and building materials to local communities, in addition to creating job and volunteer opportunities that support neighborhood growth.

Marsha and her son pose for a photo while building their future home with Southern Crescent Habitat for Humanity in Georgia.

Everyone can play a part in the fight for housing equity and the pursuit of a better world. Over the past 50 years, Habitat for Humanity has become a leader in global housing thanks to an engaged network of volunteers—but you don’t need to be skilled with a hammer to make a meaningful impact. Building an equitable future means calling on a wide range of people and talents.

Here’s how you can get involved in the global housing movement:
- Speaking up on social media about the growing housing crisis
- Volunteering on a Habitat for Humanity build in your local community
- Travel and build with Habitat in the U.S. or in one of 60+ countries where we work around the globe
- Join the Let’s Open the Door movement and, when you donate, you can create your own personalized door
- Shop or donate at your local Habitat ReStore
Every action, big and small, drives a global movement toward a better future. A safe home unlocks opportunity for families and communities alike, but it’s volunteers and other supporters, working together with a shared vision, who can open the door for everyone.

Visit habitat.org/open-door to learn more and get involved today.
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Photo credit: Photo by Stephen Andrews on Unsplash – Golden Retriever energy plus toddler energy equals the greatest combo ever.

Nature, Pets

Golden Retriever has the absolute sweetest reaction to toddler taking her first steps

Taco was SO excited that he and his best bud were going to get to play together.

Jacalyn Wetzel

Upworthy Staff

4/26/2026

Here at Upworthy, we often look for stories that will make you smile and warm your heart, and few things do that more quickly than a good doggo and an adorable kiddo. So when we ran across a ridiculously sweet story on The Dodo about a Golden Retriever and his little human sister, we simply had to share it. Taco (full name Taco Bell—seriously) is a good boy who had been lovingly waiting for his new baby sister, Vanora, to be able to play with him. And when the day finally came? Oh. My. Goodness.

Claudia Hughes is the proud mom of the furry pup and his squishy human sibling. She told The Dodo that Taco had been smitten with Vanora ever since she came home from the hospital. “When we would lay her down on the floor or our bed, Taco would just lay down next to her,” Hughes said. That’s one attentive pup. Pet parents know there’s nothing more comforting than your fur baby looking out for your human baby, and Taco has been the ideal gentle watchdog.

View this post on Instagram

A dog who waited patiently for his playmate

Hughes told The Dodo that the pooch would even get up for late-night feedings. Now that’s just beyond sweet. It’s no wonder the pup was itching for his playmate to get big enough to actually play with, and his reaction to his doggy dreams coming true is pure joy. The video of 3-year-old Taco seeing his toddler sibling taking some of her first steps has amassed more than 2 million likes on TikTok. Finally his sister can run around with him! Finally he can teach her the fun of having a dog for a big brother! Finally he gets to play! At least, that’s what I think he was thinking from his excited reaction.

And how do we know dogs are excited? Well, they get the zoomies, and if you’ve never been able to witness the absolute unadulterated joy of the zoomies, just check out his reaction in the video. It’s like he’s silently screaming, “I’m so excited!!!”

According to Hughes, Taco first started getting excited when he saw Vanora take steps in her walker, and more so when he saw her pushing the walker. But his excitement went off the charts when she could actually take steps unassisted. Don’t worry though, he was sure to keep his distance so as not to knock her down. He’s such a good doggy brother.

Teaching kindness goes both ways

Hughes told The Dodo, “We have shown Vanora that we hug Taco, we pet him gently and we give him kisses on his head.” She went on to say, “But if we get mad at him, we don’t hit him.”

Such a good doggo. Photo credit: Canva

It looks like both Taco and Vanora have learned important lessons in kindness. Since the video of Taco’s “Yay, she’s walking!” zoomies went viral, the two have continued to be best pals. Vanora has since perfected the art of throwing the ball for Taco to fetch, having practiced since she was barely able to walk.

View this post on Instagram

A family dog can be a source of joyful companionship for all, but sometimes a special bond is formed between a child and a pup. It’s clear that Taco and Vanora have that bond, which hopefully both will enjoy for many more years. Golden Retrievers come by their friendly, fun-loving, gentle reputation honestly, and it’s just delightful to see that energy in action.

You can follow @_mostlyadorable_ and @tacothepolarpup on Instagram for more sweet photos and videos of Taco the good doggo and his family.

This article originally appeared four years ago. It has been updated.

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Photo credit: via Evey Winters/Facebook – A selfie camera can distort how you look in real life.

Culture, Pop Culture

Simple photography lesson shows why selfies distort how you really look

Don’t be fooled!

Annie Reneau

Upworthy Staff

4/26/2026

We’ve all done it: You snap a selfie, look at it, say, “OMG is my nose swollen?” then try again from a different angle. “Wait, now my forehead looks weird. And what’s up with my chin?” You keep trying various angles and distances, trying to get a picture that looks like how you remember yourself looking. Whether you finally land on one or not, you walk away from the experience wondering which photo actually looks like the “real” you.

I do this, even as a 40-something-year-old who is quite comfortable with the face I see in the mirror. So, it makes me cringe imagining a tween or teen, who likely take a lot more selfies than I do, questioning their facial features based on those snapshots. When I’m wondering why my facial features look weird in selfies it’s because I know my face well enough to know that’s not what it looks like. However, when a young person whose face is changing rapidly sees their facial features distorted in a photo, they may come to all kinds of wrong conclusions about what they actually look like.

Not that it should matter, of course. But we’re talking about people living in a society obsessed with personal appearance. It’s going to matter to a lot of people, and if they get the wrong impression of their face, some people will go to all sorts of lengths to change it. That’s why understanding a bit about how focal lengths on cameras can impact what we see in photographs is vital.

Why do I look different in selfies?

Writer Evey Winters shared some of that education in a post on Facebook. She writes about this topic through a trans and dysmorphia lens, but it applies to everyone.

Winters points out that if someone is thinking of doing surgery to change their bodies, they should seek sources outside of themselves and a cellphone camera.

“I have dysmorphia and recognize that in myself,” she wrote, “but even if I didn’t, there’s not a selfie I’ve ever taken that would accurately help me make choices about my face. Mirrors are slightly better only for their minimal distortions.”

Why do people look different in selfies?

“Almost any photo taken of you with a commonly available cell phone without additional equipment will not display anything approaching an accurate summation of you but an artistic rendering of what the camera is able to capture,” she continued. “Cameras are not people. People don’t freeze frames of time for all eternity down to the pixel and automatically enhance certain features like the darkness of pores and fine lines in your skin.”

“If you want the best chance at getting good feedback pre-op about what you might want to change,” she added, “I’d recommend a skilled photographer take a series of photos of you at different focal lengths and even then none of these will be entirely accurate as none of these employ humans’ binocular vision and filtering.”

A group of friends taking a selfie. Photo credit: Canva

One collage that proves your selfie camera is lying to you

Winters shared a collage of photos of the same girl’s face at different focal lengths to show the significant difference it makes. “Notice how in different photos this child’s eyes may appear to be slightly hooded,” she wrote. “The nose appears enlarged disproportionately. Hairline seems to shift with every snap. So does jaw shape, face shape, and even the width and size of the ears.”

The same person can look drastically different in photographs. Photo credit: Facebook

The difference between each of these photos is significant, but the difference between the first and the last is stunning. Cellphone selfie cameras usually have an even smaller focal length than the 40 mm shown here (Winters points out that many smartphone selfie cameras have a focal length equivalent of around 23 mm), so they distort facial features even more. It also depends on how far away from the camera you are. The closer you are, the more distortion you’ll see. Lighting matters, too, but even the best lighting can’t cancel out what the focal length is doing.

Vox shared a video specifically about the “big nose” phenomenon with selfies, showing how drastic the distortion can be.

At a time when so many people are making decisions about their appearance based on what they see on tiny screens, this kind of education matters more than ever. A phone camera is a remarkable piece of technology, but it was built to capture moments, not to render an accurate portrait of your face. Before you book a consultation or spiral into self-criticism over a photo, take a breath and remember: the camera is distorting you, not defining you.

This article originally appeared four years ago. It has been updated.

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Photo credit: Canva – A paper check, left, and a confused teenager.

Culture, Generations

Teen confused by paper with ‘$200’ written on it. The answer was hilariously simple.

“Teens will keep you humble.”

Evan Porter

4/26/2026

There’s a viral trick where, if you ask people to “pretend” to answer a phone, the way they hold their hand will tell you which generation they belong to.

Maybe the same can be said for how they react to seeing a paycheck.

Mom posts hilarious generational moment on LinkedIn

Michelle Boggs, a senior advisor at GoFundMe, recently posted a screenshot of a text from her teenager on the professional networking platform.

The teenager, awaiting a payment of $200, opened an envelope and was surprised to find that it did not contain the cash they were expecting—only a note on a piece of paper indicating that $200 was owed.

The teenager elaborated: “There was no money just on papers that said my amount.”

And that’s when Boggs realized what was really going on: “That is called a check, honey.”

Old things are hard. Photo credit: Canva

Millennials and Gen X forget just how outdated their upbringing is

The post spread far and wide on LinkedIn, with hundreds of likes and dozens of comments. Many people had stories about their own encounters with Gen Zers who were completely baffled by items and activities that were commonplace just a few decades ago, such as:

Addressing an envelope: “I facilitated a training with consultants, most of whom were 23 to 25. There was an exercise at the end where you write yourself a letter that gets mailed to you in like five years time. They instructed us to tell people how to address the envelope. I thought it was a joke until the guy next to me did in fact turn to me and say, ‘What do I do here again?’”

Saving a file on the computer: “I’ll never forget the day a young one asked me why the save icon looked like that. They’d never seen a floppy disk. I felt my bones creak in the wind.”

Calling a landline: “How about when your 15 year old calls her grandmother and gets a busy signal?”

Listening to music on a stereo: “We did [a run to the dump] with a 00s stereo system in the car and my eldest said ‘what is this Mom, some kind of music machine?’. To them, music is Alexa or Spotify!”

Watching actual TV: “I also recently got rid of cable and I gave them the heads up like ‘hey guys I got rid of cable’ and my son responded ‘what’s cable?’”

How the tables have turned

While the older generations love getting a good laugh out of younger people not recognizing “fundamental” pieces of technology, the comedy definitely goes both ways.

“My favorite moment was when my youngest was in my home office and told me to follow the link to a particular website. I clicked on what I thought I was supposed to click on and he scowled in disgust and said this is why old people get so much malware,” one commenter shared.

Millennials and Gen Xers are often totally baffled by Gen Alpha slang, TikTok trends, Kik streamers, looksmaxxing, ChatGPT, and more. It’s only a matter of time until today’s teenagers are impatiently holding their parents’ hands through crypto, VR, or vibe-coding—in fact, it’s already happening.

An ancient artifact: The paper check. Photo credit: Todd Lappin/Flickr

In true LinkedIn fashion, Boggs pulled a lesson from the humorous story, one that really does resonate.

“Honestly, teens will keep you humble and if you’re paying attention, they’ll also keep you sharp,” she wrote. “[If something] feels slow, clunky, or outdated we’re not just behind, we’re invisible to the next generation. They’re not learning our systems. We need to learn theirs.”

She’s right. Walden University estimates paper checks will be completely extinct any day now, replaced by direct deposit, Venmo, and other “frictionless” options.

For the business professionals of LinkedIn, the takeaway is obvious. But all Millennials and Gen Xers need to remember that rotary phones and VCRs aren’t coming back anytime soon. Teaching younger generations about a rapidly aging way of life is probably less urgent than learning ourselves where things are heading.

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Photo credit: Canva – Two women having a disagreement.

Family, Modern Families

Nearly 40% of Americans went no-contact with a loved one last year. Here’s why we’re letting relationships go.

Gen Zers are, by far, the most likely group to go no-contact.

Tod Perry

4/26/2026

Over the past few years, “estrangement culture” has become a big topic of discussion in therapeutic circles. It explains the increasing normalization of completely cutting off family members and close friends to protect one’s mental health. It’s believed that the growing comfort people have with setting hard boundaries around loved ones has led more people to go no-contact.

A recent study by Talkspace for Mental Health Awareness Month found that 38% of Americans went no-contact with a friend or family member last year, completely cutting off communication with them. The poll showed that there is a huge difference between the generations when it comes to going no-contact. Sixty percent of Gen Zers said they cut off contact with a loved one in the last year, compared to just 50% of Millennials, 38% of Gen Xers, and 20% of Baby Boomers.

The reasons why people are becoming estranged from their loved ones

The biggest reason people gave for cutting off a loved one is lack of respect (36%), followed by mental health (29%), and being “too negative to be around” (27%).

Why is it that so many people are cutting off loved ones? Whitney Goodman, a licensed marriage and family therapist, told NPR that a lot of it has to do with modern technology. “So I have one theory to explain this, and I think that we are so much more connected than we’ve ever been, especially with our family members, using things like social media, texting, email, et cetera, that it’s really difficult to just create distance from your family without setting these hard rules or boundaries with people. You can’t really just, like, move across the country and say, oh, I can’t get home for the holidays,” Goodman said.

Going no-contact is a double-edged sword

Going no-contact with a loved one is a sure-fire way to protect your mental and physical health if the relationship is abusive. However, it can also be a sign of extreme conflict avoidance in a relationship that can be repaired.

When is it right to go no-contact?

“Sometimes, going no contact is the healthiest option when a family member’s behavior is abusive, toxic, or consistently hurtful,” says Mindwell NYC. “If you’ve tried setting boundaries in other ways and the relationship remains harmful, cutting off contact may be necessary for your emotional safety.”

@patrickteahanofficial
Estranged parents will create petty reasons that their child has gone no contact. I’ve never had a client give shallow or entitled reasons about making the hardest decision they will ever make. A toxic parent needs to appear victimized and will character assassinate their child at all cost to avoid accountability. They can’t not make it to be about petty selfish reasons that just don’t exist. #nocontact
♬ original sound – Patrick Teahan

When can relationships be repaired?

Carla Shuman, Ph.D., says we should give our loved ones a chance to redeem themselves and focus on the positive aspects of the relationship before cutting things off permanently. “Sometimes, family members regret their previous actions. They apologize, ask forgiveness, and attempt to make amends by changing their behavior toward those whom they have hurt. Or they may not realize the extent to which they have hurt you or others. That may seem hard to understand, but I’ve sat with clients whose family members have cut them off. Sometimes they do become much more aware, and they experience incredible remorse and sadness over their actions. If this is the case, or if they are willing to attempt to change, cutting off the relationship may not be the best next step,” Shuman writes at Psychology Today.

The rise in people going no-contact reveals a tricky dichotomy at the heart of our most important relationships when they fracture. If we go no-contact, are we taking the easy way out or protecting ourselves from people who have no desire to change? Conflict is normal in relationships. Is the short-term pain of addressing it worth a lifetime of potential regret?

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Photo credit: Charleston International Music Competition/YouTube – Michael Girgis, 4, plays the piano.

Culture, Wholesome

This 4-year-old piano prodigy started playing just 8 months ago. He’s set to perform at Carnegie Hall.

Michael Girgis plays on a piano outfitted with an adjustable pedal extender to match his small frame.

Emily Shiffer

4/26/2026

At just four years old, Michael Girgis is solidifying his spot as an up-and-coming piano prodigy. While he always had a musical inkling, it wasn’t until September 2025 that he began playing the piano under the guidance of his teacher, Ms. Elena.

By December 2025, the Montgomery County, Maryland native was playing in his first piano recital. Since then, the young boy has been stacking up piano awards. (So far, he’s earned four prizes.)

“He reads the notes better than he reads the alphabet,” his mother, Yulia Tsaturova, told WJLA-TV.

Girgis currently practices piano three times a week for 30 to 45 minutes each session. He also uses a piano pedal extender for a customized fit.

“I like playing music. I like playing piano, nothing else. You have to work hard so you’ll get more money,” he told WJLA-TV.

Who is Michael Girgis?

Girgis was inspired to play the piano after watching his older siblings play.

“When I was 18 months old, I watched my older brother and my two sisters playing the piano… and I couldn’t wait for my turn. Everyone said, ‘when you grow up’,” he shared in an Instagram post.

In his bio, Girgis also offered his new fans some fun facts about himself. Besides playing the piano, he has a full life as a four-year-old.

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“I enjoy swimming, roller skating, biking, ice skating, and running,” he shared. “I have many friends and love going to birthday parties! I enjoy to visit and explore new places and try new activities.”

He added, “two sisters and a brother. And all of them playing piano, too. I love candies and chocolates. My favorite color is blue. I love watching cartoons and my favorite cartoon is Peppa Pig.”

Playing at Carnegie Hall

Girgis won the 2026 American Protégé International Piano and Strings Competition in March 2026. As a result, he will be playing twice at Carnegie Hall in New York City later this year.

He is set to make history as the youngest-ever pianist to perform at the esteemed hall. In July 2025, his fellow piano prodigy, five-year-old Alec Van Khajadourian, made his debut at Carnegie Hall. At the time, he was the youngest pianist to perform there.

Girgis is scheduled to play during the American Protégé Winners Recital on May 31, 2026, as well as on July 14, 2026.

“It’s something we couldn’t have dreamed of, was hoping, but it’s actually real, so we’re very, very excited about that,” Magdy Girgis, Michael’s father, told WJLA-TV.

And his piano teacher, Ms. Elena, saw his potential from the start.

“Michael is truly a rising star. His dedication, passion, and artistry shine through every time he sits at the keys,” she shared in a February 2026 Instagram post about her talented student. “It has been a joy to watch him grow, and seeing his hard work recognized on an international stage makes me beyond proud.”

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Photo credit: Image via YouTube – Former teacher of the year Lee Allen

Education, Skills

Teacher of the year explains why he’s leaving his district in landmark 3-minute speech

“I’m leaving in hopes that I can regain the ability to do the job that I love.”

Eric Pfeiffer

Upworthy Staff

4/26/2026
For all of our disagreements in modern American life, there are at least a few things most of us can agree on. One of those is the need for reform in public education. We don’t all agree on the solutions but many of the challenges are undeniable: retaining great teachers, reducing classroom size and updating the focus of student curriculums to reflect the ever-changing needs of a globalized workforce.

And while parents, politicians and activists debate those remedies, one voice is all-too-often ignored: that of teachers themselves. This is why a short video testimony from a teacher in the Atlanta suburb of Gwinnett County went viral. After all, it’s hard to deny the points made by someone who was just named teacher of the year and used the occasion to announce why he will be leaving the very school district that just honored him with that distinction.

In a video carried by Fox5 Atlanta, 2022 Gwinnett County Public Schools Teacher of the Year Lee Allen breaks down what he sees as the overriding problems in the county’s school system. While his comments are specific to that of Gwinnett County, it’s virtually impossible to not see the overlap across all of America and how the problems have only grown more challenging in the years since.

What Lee Allen said about leaving

“At the end of this year, I will be leaving Gwinnett County Schools, leaving behind the opportunity to submit for state teacher of the year, roughly $10,000 in salary, and most importantly, the students and colleagues I’ve built strong relationships with,” Allen, a math teacher at Lawrenceville’s Archer High School, says at the beginning of his remarks. “I’m leaving in hopes that I can regain the ability to do the job that I love.”

Normally, one might assume teacher pay is the overriding issue for educators like Allen. But he makes it clear that he is, in fact, leaving money on the table to avoid what he deems as unacceptable changes to the student body and how the district manages its teachers and the learning environment.

Four big problems that pushed a Teacher of the Year out the door
- “First issue at hand is student apathy and disrespect for school rules and norms. … We have an alarming number of students that simply do not care about learning and refuse to even try.”
- “We are also experiencing incredible disrespect and refusal to follow basic school rules. There is little to no accountability or expectation for grades or behavior placed on students or parents. Rather than being asked what the student can do to improve their understanding, teachers are expected to somehow do more with less student effort.”
- “Cell phone use. Teachers simply cannot compete with the billions of dollars tech companies pour into addicting people to their devices. Phones allow constant communication, often being the spark that fuels fights, drug use and other inappropriate meetups throughout the day. We need a comprehensive district plan with support behind it in order to combat this epidemic and protect the learning environment.”
- “Lastly, there is a huge disconnect between administrators and teachers. The classroom in 2022 is drastically different from just three years ago. Most administrators have not been in a classroom full-time in years or even decades. Many teachers do not feel understood, valued or trusted as professionals from administrators and the decisions that they make.”
While Allen points fingers at administrators and student behavior, he also says that the pressures put on both students and teachers alike by COVID-19 had a catastrophic impact on learning. “The pandemic has acted as a catalyst and turned a slow negative trend into an exponential crisis,” he says.

His suggestions for fixing the problem

But he also offers some solutions, stating, “I won’t list complaints without offering ideas for improvement.”
- All administrators should spend at least one week in a high needs classroom, “without a suit, without people knowing your title and in the same room, all day, for an entire week.”
- Prioritizing smaller class sizes.
- Greater transparency from the district in terms of needs and expectations and goals.
“We all want the same thing and we cannot accomplish this without supporting one another,” he says near the end of his remarks.

With hundreds of thousands of views, it’s clear his remarks resonated with people well beyond his school district.

There’s almost nothing more important than how we educate our children. And while the national political debate centers on areas of far less importance generated to gin up controversy and campaign fundraising, it’s families and local leaders who will need to do the heavy lifting of reprioritizing the fundamental principles of learning and leadership if we want an American educational system that can compete on the global stage. After all, when literal award-winning educators like Allen are walking away, it’s clear something more needs to be done.

This article originally appeared five years ago. It has been updated.
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Photo credit: Pall Sigurdsson/YouTube – Plastic is a problem for ocean wildlife.

Animals, Nature

Diver convinces a tiny octopus to trade a plastic cup for a shell in Pixar-worthy video

The cup wasn’t a safe choice, but the little cephalopod was stubborn.

Annie Reneau

Upworthy Staff

4/26/2026

Sometimes taking care of our beautiful home planet looks like big, broad policies tackling issues like plastic pollution and habitat destruction. And sometimes it looks like taking the time to help one tiny creature stuck in an environmental bind.

In a YouTube video that’s been viewed a whopping 20 million times, we see an example of the latter in action as some kind and compassionate divers attempt to convince an octopus to abandon the plastic cup it’s using for protection and trade it for a sturdy shell. Pall Sigurdsson has shared dozens of underwater videos on YouTube, but watching this particular video from his dive off the coast of Lembeh, Indonesia, in 2018 almost feels like watching a Pixar short film.

“We spent a whole dive and most of our air saving this octopus from what was bound to be a cruel fate,” Sigurdsson wrote in the description of the video.

“The coconut octopus, also known as veined octopus, is born with the instinct to protect itself by creating a mobile home out of coconut or clam shells. This particular individual however has been trapped by their instincts and have made a home out of a plastic cup they found underwater.”

Why a plastic cup is so dangerous for an octopus

It’s not just that the flimsy plastic cup didn’t provide the octopus adequate protection. Sigurdsson explained that a predator like an eel or a flounder would probably end up swallowing the cup with the octopus in it, likely killing both of them. Plus, even if the octopus abandoned the cup on its own, plastic simply doesn’t belong in the ocean.

Plastic doesn’t belong in the ocean. Photo credit: Canva

“We tried for a long time to give it shells hoping that it would trade the shell,” he wrote. “Coconut octopus are famous for being very picky about which shells they keep so we had to try with many different shells before it found one to be acceptable.”

The tentacles reaching out to test the weight of each shell, the divers searching for more options to offer it, the suspense of wondering whether the octopus really would abandon its pathetic plastic pollution protection… it’s just too much.

Sigurdsson’s other underwater videos are also fun to watch. He shared one of another veined octopus who seemed to have no interest in him but became intrigued with his diver friend, Gary. The way it reaches out to touch just the tip of his finger and then shyly retreats feels like such a clear communication with no words being said.

Just how smart are octopuses?

Perhaps it is the fact that an octopus has nine brains that make them far more intelligent than anyone would have guessed before we started studying their behavior in earnest. They are known to solve puzzles, escape complicated mazes and traps, and take apart just about anything. It does make you wonder what these little guys were thinking when these divers were interacting with them. Was it curiosity? Judgment? An attempt at connection between species?

It’s funny how one small interaction in one tiny portion of the vast ocean can say so much about us, for better and for worse. Human pollution is an enormous problem and saving one little octopus won’t save the world, but it sure gives us hope and motivation to keep trying for the sake of the vast number of creatures that live in the ocean as well as our own.

You can find more underwater videos of ocean wildlife from Pall Sigurdsson on YouTube.

This article originally appeared five years ago. It has been updated.

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Photo credit: via Levi Strauss and Ricardo Gomez Angel/Unsplash – Levi's CEO Charles Bergh settles the jean washing debate

Culture, Pop Culture

Former Levi’s CEO Chip Bergh settled the debate on how often you should wash your jeans

“We don’t need to wash jeans as often as most people think we do.”

Tod Perry

Upworthy Staff

4/26/2026

Social media has become a fertile breeding ground for conversations about hygiene. Whether it’s celebrities bragging about how little their family bathes, or battles over how often people should wash their sheets or bras, there’s no shortage of strong opinions.

One of the debates that gets the most diverse responses is how often people wash their denim jeans.

Denim atelier Benjamin Talley Smith tells TODAY that jeans should be washed “as little as possible, if at all.” Laundry expert Patric Richardson adds they should be cleaned “after nine or 10 wearings, like to me, that is the ideal.” At that point, they probably have stains and are “a little sweaty by that point, so you need to wash ’em,” Richardson says.

Still, some people wash and dry them after every wear while others will hand wash and never hang dry. With all these significant differences of opinion, there must be a correct answer somewhere, right?

What the former Levi’s CEO says about washing jeans

The former CEO of Levi Strauss, Chip Bergh, has stepped up to set the record straight on when and how to wash your jeans. He caused a stir in 2014 when he said he only washes his jeans once a year, but it was for environmental reasons more than hygiene.

Reading: The Dirty Jeans Manifesto http://t.co/nAQbdbdpn2 pic.twitter.com/aiwqzbHGF5
— Gavin Heaton (@servantofchaos) July 15, 2014

He later clarified his thoughts in a blog post, “The Dirty Jean Manifesto” he posted to LinkedIn.

“I made this provocative statement because I believe strongly in what our brands stand for: quality, durability and lasting products made sustainably. I also said it because I believe we don’t need to wash jeans as often as most people think we do,” Bergh wrote.

“We learned that an average pair of jeans consumes roughly 3,500 liters of water — and that is after only two years of use, washing the jeans once a week,” Bergh wrote. “Nearly half of the total water consumption, or 1,600 liters, is the consumer throwing the jeans in the washing machine. That’s equivalent to 6,700 glasses of drinking water!”

To add to the problem, denim jeans are often manufactured in places where water is scarce, such as India, Pakistan, Mexico, China and parts of California.

CEO offers clarification on his comments

Bergh spoke with CNBC’s Christine Tan and clarified his thoughts on jean cleanliness.

“True denim heads, people that really love their denim, will tell you to never put your denim into a washing machine. So that’s what I do,” Bergh explained. “If I drop some curry on my jeans, I’m gonna clean it. But I’ll spot-clean it. And if they get really gross you know, if I’ve been out sweating or something and they get really gross, I’ll wash them in the shower.”

However, when Bergh washes his jeans in the shower, he does it while wearing them and washing them with soap. The image that the scene conjures is of a cowboy bathing in a cartoon, clothes on and all.

There are a lot of different opinions on how often one should wash and dry their jeans and many of them boil down to personal preference. But the debate on the topic has brought up one very big point we should all consider: when choosing how often we wash our jeans, a big part of the decision should be considering the amount of water we use.

This article originally appeared three years ago. It has been updated.

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