• I'm a plus-sized woman who moved from the Midwest to Southern California.
• I was lovingly accepted until a stranger made a derogatory remark in the grocery store.
• I was shocked, and it caused me to reconsider my thinking about my body.

The man who fat-shamed me at a grocery store in Irvine, California, bounced into the store, wearing his too-short shorts and a tank top that revealed his contoured abs. At a glance, he appeared as the epitome of a California stereotype: a health nut and yoga enthusiast, perfectly poised, with his nose a little too high in the air.

I don't fit in that stereotype. I am a plus-sized woman who spent the majority of my life in the Midwest. When I moved to California to start my life over as an adult, I was shocked by the options for Botox and contouring surgeries, the focus on organic foods, and the attentiveness toward fitness.

And yet, no person I met in California has ever treated me as less than or looked down upon me — at least not until this man showed his face in the grocery store.

I was shocked when the stranger called out my weight

I remember lighting up when I saw this man and greeting him with a huge smile. Honestly, he looked like some of the men I've dated — men who were delighted with my plus-sized body, many of whom declared a preference for someone shaped like me.

I'm not sure what I was expecting when I greeted him. But I wasn't expecting him to say, "You don't need those," as I walked by holding my only grocery item — a package of bakery cookies.

It took me a minute to register what he said because I was so shocked. When the message registered, I looked back in horror — only to find him cocking his neck, intently staring back at me with a huge smirk. His piercing glance declared pride in having disseminated such a judgment.

I held it together long enough to walk across the parking lot to my car — a distance I purposely kept to get extra steps in. I asked a stranger to take a photo of me because I wanted to remember the moment when I became fearful, when I no longer felt safe to walk around as myself, and when California's humanity showed its face as the mean and vile place many people expect.

It was October 9th, 2020, at 3:28 p.m. — precisely three years, three months, and three days after I moved to California.

I struggled to move past the interaction

I frequently wondered how I'd gotten so lucky to arrive in a new state where most people look, live, and move differently than I do, yet I've been so lovingly accepted. I've met many strangers from varying backgrounds and walks of life who've become best friends. One such person told me that LA is "the heart chakra of the US," and I banked on acceptance being an energetic thing. Many people here are accustomed to noticing energy. Most of the time, I'm loving, open, free, and fun. People can feel that and want to connect with me to soak it in.

So, my immediate response was to blame this man for only seeing my size and making judgments about my purchase. Random questions rushed through my mind. Did he not see that I'm a person just like him? Does he not even have feelings? What story did he make up about the cookies? Did he expect me to binge eat and wash them down with dairy milk or a Diet Coke? For the record, I do not drink either.

How did he know the cookies were not a gift or a treat I was taking to an event? The real story is that I went in to buy one cookie, but they only had giant, oversized cookies. Having just come from an important medical appointment and suffering from massive stress, I agonized over my purchase. So, instead of buying one cookie with a tempting, too-large portion, I bought a package with smaller cookies to eat one and freeze the rest.

It was an eye-opening encounter

For nearly four years since that interaction, I've pondered what was different about that day and why my interaction with him was so unlike every other interaction I've had in California. As hard as it is to admit, the answer is simple.

He read my energy, and he didn't tell me anything I hadn't already told myself.

For weeks, I'd been stuck in a cycle of beating myself up for not being perfect. And you better believe I said those exact dreaded words, "You don't need those," to myself while shopping for cookies. On that particular day, after feeling extremely stressed from the effects of living alone during a pandemic and arguably one of the most intensive times in history, I wasn't the same woman who arrived in California full of vim, vigor, and abundant life.

Instead, my energy was laced with fears and worries about not fitting into the mold of what I was "supposed to" look like. Rather than owning my power and settling into the good energy and sharing the heartfelt beauty I carry, I was projecting an energy of feeling and looking "less than," and he clearly could tell.

Thank you, Sir Fat Shamer, for showing me how vile and ugly the mirror can be when it's not grounded in love, compassion, and, at the very least, curiosity.

• Alison Weinsweig told BI she lost over $170,000 in rent and spent almost 3 years trying to evict a tenant.
• When she eventually got access to the apartment, she found it in disarray.
• She said she cried after seeing blood-stained floors, cigarette burns, and a life-sized dummy.

When Alison Weinsweig, 67, rented her luxury Westwood apartment to a tenant in 2020, she never anticipated it would turn into an almost three-year ordeal, let alone one that would set her back more than $200,000.

It was a "strain on many levels," she told Business Insider.

"I felt terribly violated," she added. "I never thought I'd get him out. I thought I'd be stuck with him for the rest of my life."

When Weinsweig finally gained access to her property in April, she found it in an eerie state of disarray, which caused her to run out in tears.

Images provided to BI appear to show blood-stained floors, cracked countertops, and, disturbingly, a life-sized human dummy.

Now she's left picking up the pieces, needing to fork out thousands in repairs, according to contractor estimates seen by BI, on top of the more than $170,000 she said she had already lost in unpaid rent.

Weinsweig, a semi-retired real estate broker, purchased the two-bedroom penthouse on Wilshire Boulevard in 2004, and lived there for a decade before moving to Pennsylvania to be with her unwell mother.

She had previously rented it out to two tenants without issue and expected Ramin Kohanim's tenancy to be no different.

"He appeared to be a reasonable tenant," she said, noting that a rental agency had vetted him, showing a Social Security Number, an acceptable credit score, and an account with significant funds.

But Weinsweig said that even if there were "red flags," she would have likely overlooked them — she was too focused on her mom getting better.

She explained that the first year of Kohanim's tenancy was unremarkable, despite some late payments. But after he signed on for a second year in July 2021, things got messy.

"He paid the first month and never paid anything again," Weinsweig claims.

Kohanim and his attorney didn't respond to BI's requests for comment.

Despite repeated excuses, Weinsweig says she received no rent for months, prompting her to take legal action in January 2022.

According to legal documents reviewed by BI, the tenant was subject to the COVID-19 Tenant Relief Act, which prevented evictions for nonpayment of rent for those experiencing hardship due to the pandemic.

After Kohanim's application for rental assistance was approved, Weinsweig received a fraction of the lost rent, and the case was automatically dismissed that summer.

Later that year, Weinsweig filed another lawsuit seeking possession of the premises and monetary damages, but it did not go as planned.

After dismissing her attorney and the case, she eventually rehired her first attorney and waited for LA County's eviction Moratorium to expire in March 2023.

It would take months of deliberation before the parties reached a settlement, but under the terms of a stipulated judgment in November 2023, Kohanim was ordered to leave by April this year.

According to legal documents reviewed by BI, Weinsweig agreed to pay the tenant $20,000, half of which was to be held in trust only to be paid out once he had vacated the property and followed the terms and conditions.

Although this felt unfair, Weinsweig thought it would give her a sense of finality, she said.

Kohanim left the property in April, but Weinsweig alleges that her former tenant has yet to return the keys or fob. However, this was the least of her worries.

According to a transcript reviewed by BI, in a hearing on May 23 at the Superior Court of the State of California for the County of Los Angeles, Weinsweig told the court that the apartment was left in an "absolutely deplorable" condition.

She told BI and the court that when she arrived at the property, she saw cigarette burns and trash everywhere, and what appeared to be blood on the floors of the bedroom and bathroom.

Images provided to BI and the court appear to show the damage.

Other images provided to BI also appear to show a life-sized dummy on the bathroom floor, next to zip-tie packets. It's unclear why they were there.

Quotes from contractors, shared with BI by Weinsweig, suggest repairs could cost upwards of $24,000.

During the hearing, Kohanim conceded that there was "discharge" on a mattress, though he and his attorney dismissed the rest of the damage as normal "wear and tear."

The defense made no suggestion in the hearing that the images were staged or unreliable.

Kohanim's attorney told the court that his client wasn't the "best tenant in the world" or the cleanest, but he refuted that the apartment had been intentionally destroyed.

The judge disagreed, stating that "80 square feet of blood is not ordinary wear and tear."

He ordered that the $10,000 being held be returned to Weinsweig and the case be unsealed.

Weinsweig said she wanted the case unsealed to share knowledge of her ordeal. For her, that is a small victory worth holding onto.

"I felt vindicated when they lifted the seal because not only was I subject to all these injustices… I was compelled to keep it quiet," she said, adding: "This can't go unnoticed."

• I stayed in a Deluxe Veranda suite on Silversea's new ultra-luxury Silver Ray cruise ship.
• The cabin had a walk-in closet, balcony, butler, and caviar room service.
• In 2024, the Deluxe Veranda suite starts at $5,400 per person for an eight-day cruise.

I regret to report that my new favorite cruise cabin starts at $675 per person per day.

But before you click away, hear me out: It could be worth the cost.

In mid-June, ultra-luxury cruise line Silversea's latest ship, Silver Ray, set sail on its maiden voyage, marking the second Nova Class vessel to join the company's now 12-ship fleet.

Silversea invited travel agents and journalists on a complimentary five-night test sailing a week before its debut. Luckily, my cabin was one of the most luxurious I've ever stayed in, both on land and at sea.

Silversea assigned me one of the ship's Deluxe Veranda suites.

The cabin has accrued a waitlist on several of Silver Ray's itineraries this year, the company says. The cheapest available one in 2024 is on an eight-day cruise from Fort Lauderdale, Florida, to Cartagena, Colombia, this June, starting at $5,400 per person.

Broken down, that's about $675 per person and day.

The price is steep compared to the average mass-market cruise.

Silversea is Royal Caribbean Group's most luxurious brand, known for small, high-end vessels with fares far exceeding those of its parent company's eponymous cruise line.

Silver Ray and its one-year-old predecessor, Silver Nova, are the largest in Silversea's fleet. But both only accommodate 728 guests — a stark contrast from Royal Caribbean's largest 7,600-guest ship.

At 357 square feet, the Deluxe Veranda is the same size as the ship's two cheaper cabin categories.

The cost difference comes down to where they're located on the ship. Deluxe Verandas are mid-ship, perfect for guests prone to seasickness (like me).

Like many luxury cruise ships, every cabin on Silver Ray has a furnished balcony.

Sheer and blackout curtains and a heavy glass sliding door separated the open-air 54-square-foot lounge from the interior.

I’ve had my fair share of cramped cruise cabin living 'rooms.' No complaints here.

This one felt roomy, even with an additional ottoman that turned the cozy couch into a small sectional.

The coffee table also doubled as the room-service dining table — perfect for eating complimentary caviar and foie gras while watching the passing waves.

The suites also come with a welcome bottle of Champagne, a common touch on most premium cruise ships.

If you don't finish the complimentary bottle, store it in the desk's mini-fridge.

The desk also houses a tablet that functions as a three-in-one ship directory, planner, and cabin control center. It was my go-to device for perusing Silver Ray's daily schedule, checking the onboard restaurants' menus, and controlling the suite's temperature and lights — all without needing to stand up.

If that wasn't convenient enough, the TV and your mobile Silversea profile also have the same features.

The TV could pull out and swivel toward the queen-sized bed.

Just make sure you adjust it before lying down. It'll be hard to get back up.

The bed was plush and sumptuous, stocked with pillows so soft I felt like I was being swallowed alive.

But if you don't like down pillows — look, I'm not proud of it either — you can always peruse the pillow menu for a different option.

The sleek bathroom was located down a short hall, closer to the front door.

Some of the suites have both a bathtub and a shower. Mine only came with the latter (woe is me), but it did cosplay as a dual-vanity bathroom with two sink heads that shared one basin.

This setup left me ample counter space. But if you'd rather tuck your toiletries away, the bathroom also had generous shelves and drawers, one of which had a built-in organizer perfect for my obscene skincare collection.

The products were all labeled Otium, after Silversea’s spa.

Guests can select different toiletries from the bath product menu. Options included soaps from Bulgari, a signature of rival-owned Oceania Cruises.

A walk-in closet and vanity separated the bathroom from the bedroom.

The closet had less storage than my suite on competitor Regent Seven Seas' latest vessel. But it was still sizable, with enough space and hangars for two guests.

If you, like me, hate doing post-vacation laundry, Silversea has a solution. Guests can wash, dry, and iron their clothes in the communal laundry rooms.

Or just have your butler do it for you.

Yes, you read that right: Butler.

Several mass-market and luxury cruise lines offer these personal assistants to travelers who've booked the highest-tier suites.

On Silversea's cruises, every guest has a white-glove-donning butler to help with tasks like packing luggage and setting up luxurious showers with scented steamers and fake candles.

My suite also had several small, well-thought-out details that made it stand out from other five-star cruise lines.

For example, the "sleep" setting — which could be activated from the thermostat, TV, tablet, or phone — slowly dimmed all the lights, giving me ample time to navigate back to bed before the room went dark.

And my cabin steward (different from the butler) placed a small microfiber cloth over my sunglasses and glasses whenever he tidied up my suite. I've yet to receive this kind of high-touch housekeeping service on a cruise ship.

While it's not something I would've ever requested, I certainly didn't mind.

So, do microfiber cloth-covered sunglasses and free caviar make this suite worth $675 per person and day?

I hate to say it, but yes.

It's undoubtedly a steep cost. But let's not forget that the fare also includes drinks, excursions, access to the saunas, and meals at six of the ship's eight restaurants — all aboard one of the most luxurious vessels I've ever been on.

If you aren't worried about seasickness, you could always reserve the two cheaper cabin categories, which are virtually identical but located closer to the aft and bow. You might feel the waves more, but you'd save almost $90 per person and day.

However, I, a girlie hypersensitive to seasickness, was relieved by the mid-ship position. And that alone makes the premium price worth it.

• Despite booming travel, airlines are struggling to turn a profit.
• Southwest expects seat-mile revenue will decline up to 4.5%, while American predicts up to 6%.
• Experts blame fewer last-minute business travelers, overcapacity, Boeing delays, and inflated costs.

Making money in the airline industry has never been easy.

It's a capital-heavy business with the constant need to expand and innovate while simultaneously managing ever-changing demand and costs.

Expensive fuel, maintenance, and labor don't help, nor do unpredictable setbacks outside the airline's control, like pandemic travel bans and production slowdowns at planemaker Boeing.

Despite the challenging environment, 2024 is still set to see record-breaking passenger numbers, according to the International Air Transport Association, or IATA,

With so many people traveling, US airlines were poised for success. Some, like Delta, have found it. But across the industry, many airlines are struggling to turn profits thanks to issues like overcapacity, unrelenting competition, and unexpectedly high costs, according to experts.

Take Southwest, for example, which in June cut its forecasts and now expects revenue per seat mile — a key financial metric for airlines — to fall by up to 4.5% where it had previously expected 1.5% to 3.5%.

Before that, American in May warned it expected the same metric to fall by 5% to 6% compared to last year. Its earlier prediction was 1% to 3%.

Across the board, airlines have trailed the benchmark S&P 500 index with more debt than the average publicly traded company and thinner margins.

Airlines got overambitious with their expansion plans

Travel analyst Henry Harteveldt told Business Insider that thining margins are, in part, because airlines added too much to the market too fast amid confidence in the soaring demand and now can't sell all of those seats.

Reuters reported American hurt its pricing power after aggressive growth in its domestic market. The airline also missed out on revenue from corporate customers due to a flawed ticket sale strategy it has since admitted was a mistake to adopt.

"We're seeing softness in customer bookings relative to our expectations that we believe is in part due to the changes that we have made to our sales and distribution strategy," American CEO Robert Isom said during a May conference.

Southwest also cited its struggle to predict demand as part of its revenue problem. And, unlike ultra-low-cost carriers, Southwest doesn't charge extra for ancillaries like bags or seats — another missed revenue opportunity.

In fact, activist firm Elliott Investment Management recently pumped nearly $2 billion into Southwest, questioning strategies like its lack of add-on fees and calling for a board shake-up and the firing of Southwest CEO Bob Jordan.

Business travelers are booking fewer last-minute premium-priced tickets

Part of the industry's overcapacity problem is because lucrative business travel still hasn't completely rebounded since the pandemic, Harry Kraemer, former CFO and CEO of healthcare firm Baxter International, told BI.

Corporations aren't spending as much on last-minute business travel since the pandemic made Zoom and Google Meet more convenient.

"Half of the market is gone, and it's their highest margin," Kraemer said. "You've got all this excess capacity, and you've bought these planes, so what are you going to do with them."

Further, Harteveldt said companies have become more price-sensitive and are looking for cheaper options, noting ULCCs Frontier and Spirit are even getting business customers.

Over the past 12 months, shares of Spirit and Frontier have declined roughly 79% and 50%, respectively, far underperforming competitors and the market.

In an effort to boost revenue, they've changed their strategies to capitalize on the demand for more premium perks, such as dropping change and cancel fees and creating "business" class-like seats.

Boeing delivery delays have eaten into profits

Harteveldt said Boeing's ongoing delivery delays have cost airlines like American, Southwest, and United millions of dollars. This has forced them to adjust their planned flying, impacting revenue opportunities and flight availability.

He also said the lack of new planes means airlines are flying older ones for a longer time. The costs of maintenance and lesser efficiency can add up, and customers can't get access to the nicer amenities and reliability of newer jets.

Airlines need to expand with new routes and planes, he said — it's the nature of the highly competitive industry.

However, Harteveldt noted these forced network shake-ups, like Southwest's exit from four airports, could be beneficial for better leveraging airline pricing power, as capacity can be brought back in line with demand.

"The airlines should find and serve routes that are the most profitable, and that means they may need to increase capacity in some markets and completely exit others," he said.

Low-cost competitor JetBlue Airways overhauled its network to stay above water after its failed merger with Spirit.

Harteveldt noted that Airbus is also facing production setbacks that are impacting deliveries and worrying investors, though not as dire as Boeing.

Airlines are plagued by high costs in an extremely competitive industry

Nearly everything is more expensive than it was before the pandemic, and airlines are no exception.

"It's the worst possible combination of high fixed costs and inflation on the variable costs," Kraemer said, pointing to costs like planes, labor, and fuel. "There are so many permanent changes like virtual meetings that airlines will need several years to adjust for."

Fuel costs in April were 33% higher than they were during the same time in 2019, according to the most recent report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Meanwhile, US airline pilots have gotten huge pay raises in recent years to help fend off a labor shortage.

For low-cost carriers like Frontier and Spirit, these high costs make it challenging to make money, Kraemer said. Still, they force competitor fares down — creating another profit obstacle for mainline carriers. IATA reported in June that industry ticket prices, including ancillary, are 15% below 2019 levels despite high growth.

Harteveldt said beefing up revenue in any way possible is the best way to counteract the ever-growing costs.

"These days, it's less about having the lowest costs and more about generating the most revenue," he said, suggesting strategies such as charging for more ancillaries, reducing the number of discount tickets sold, or creating more enticing bundle packages.

• Unpasteurized milk may be spreading the H5N1 bird flu between cows and to humans.
• A new study showed the virus can survive in raw milk on milking equipment for over an hour.
• Better cleaning of milking equipment and protective gear for workers could limit the virus's spread.

Contaminated milk may be spreading H5N1 bird flu between dairy cattle, contributing to a major outbreak across 12 US states. It may also be how humans are getting infected.

A new study shows the virus can survive for over an hour in raw (unpasteurized) milk left on the surfaces of materials used in equipment for milking dairy cattle.

That's a clue in the mystery of how the virus has spread so rapidly between US dairy cattle, infecting over 130 herds in Idaho, Michigan, Colorado, Texas, and more.

The cattle outbreak has scientists increasingly worried that the H5N1 virus could mutate enough to cause an outbreak in humans. The more the virus spreads through cattle, the more opportunity it has to mutate.

Since April, three farmworkers have tested positive for the virus, but experts have found no evidence of human-to-human spread.

Understanding how the virus spreads between cattle is key to reigning in the outbreak and preventing further human infection.

"We need to know which dairy herds are infected, with what strains of virus, how infection is spread between farms, and how frequently dairy farm workers and other people are exposed," Christopher Dye, an infectious disease expert and professor at the University of Oxford, told Business Insider in an email.

According to the FDA, pasteurized milk purchased at the grocery store remains safe to drink. However, raw milk could be an agent of infection.

How to help stop the spread of H5N1 bird flu

Officials already knew that H5N1 was jumping farm-to-farm through the movement of cows, equipment, and people and that the virus concentrates in sick cows' udders and milk.

"That means even just a small splash of milk can spread the disease," Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack wrote in an op-ed on June 21.

Indeed, the new study found that H5N1 virus remained infectious in raw milk for over an hour on stainless steel and rubber inflation lining — material used in milking equipment.

The research was published in the journal Emerging Infectious Diseases on Monday.

Milk may not be the only transmission route. It's possible that cows infect each other by licking each other or shoving their heads into feed together, for example, according to Meghan Davis, an epidemiologist at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and former dairy veterinarian.

However, the study suggests that cleaning milking equipment between cows and outfitting workers with protective gear could help prevent the spread.

"The workers are down in a, usually, recessed area and the udder is at face height," Davis told BI.

That's for their comfort and ability to work at milking for long periods of time, but it puts them at risk of milk splashing into their faces.

Goggles and face shields could help. For now, they are not common practice on the dairy floor.

Other forms of protective gear, such as N95 masks, can be difficult to implement on dairy farm floors because of hot and humid conditions, Davis said. That can make heavy protective gear incredibly uncomfortable or even put workers at increased risk of heat-related illness.

As for cleaning the milking equipment, she added, "there are processes for cleaning, but the level of disinfection that you need in order to inactivate virus is generally going to be beyond what might be normal practice."

The ideal cleaning process may look different farm-to-farm depending on the transmission dynamics, the vulnerability of the different cows there, and how finicky the animals are.

Long pauses for cleaning in between milkings can affect how much milk a cow produces and even be harmful to the animal, Davis said. It could also result in longer exposure periods for workers because it takes longer to milk a lineup of cows.

On the consumer side of the dairy industry, the study is also further evidence that nobody should drink raw (unpasteurized) milk.

• Captain Theresa Claiborne signed up to the Air Force in 1980, and later worked as a captain for United Airlines.
• She was below the height requirement and the first Black woman recruited to the Force. 
• Claiborne spoke to Business Insider about the hurdles she faced and why piloting is a great career.

This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Captain Theresa Claiborne, the first Black female pilot in the US Air Force and a captain at United. The following was edited for length and clarity.

I had spent my younger days bouncing all over the world because my father was in the military. But life felt so stationary when we returned to the States.

During college, I applied to the Reserve Office Training Corps (ROTC) in Berkeley. During the six-week training camp, they took us up on a T-37 [a small training plane made by Cessna].

Flying a plane is freeing. It's this amazing feeling of control but no control.

I decided right then: I wanted to be a pilot.

The hardest period of my life

In 1980, the Air Force only had 10 slots for women per graduating class, and they had already been filled for the year.

But halfway through my junior year, they came back and said the women seemed to be graduating at the same rate as the men, so the allotment was increased to 30.

I flew out to Laughlin Air Force base in Texas to start pilot training.

It was daunting in a lot of ways.

Unlike a lot of people in my class, I didn't have prior flying experience. And when you're in training, flying is a lot like a loop-the-loop on a roller coaster… but I'm not one for roller coasters.

So I was just trying to get the task done and not be fearful all the time.

In high school, my teacher said it was fine for me to be bad at Math because I could do English. But in training, everybody knew the instructors' formulas, and I didn't.

So when my classmates were out having a good time on the weekends, I was back at the dorm studying. It was probably the hardest period of my life that year. I was lonely.

I almost didn't make it to that point because I was short. You are supposed to be five feet four inches, and I was five feet two inches. For my entire career, I've had to stand on the balls of my feet when I was measured.

I only found out I was the first Black woman in the Air Force a couple of weeks before I graduated when a friend from ROTC mentioned it.

Looking back, that was lucky. I was only 22. It would have been too much pressure for someone my age to carry my gender and race together.

Just do the work

Being the only person who looked like me created challenges. A lot of it was very subtle. But you could just feel it — people looking at you and thinking, "OK, she's here."

Entering active duty in the Air Force, I did feel the pressure.

If I didn't do well, then when people see another person that looks like me, what will they think?

My attitude was always to do the work and get an A. Don't allow someone to have a subjective opinion that either puts you there or denies you something.

But who's to say that through those years, there were people who did not give me a break because of what I looked like?

There was one evaluation I remember well. It was deemed that I didn't put anti-ice on quickly enough. That's not what I saw. But how do you say that decision was because I'm this or that? You don't know.

After that, there was only one time I didn't 100% pass the check.

Commercial pilots are qualified

After seven years I left active duty and joined the reserves. In 1990, I started working as a commercial pilot for United.

My routes were on a Boeing 757 out of Newark, mostly heading to Cape Town, Johannesburg, Tel Aviv, and Delhi.

In order to be a pilot, you have to be perseverant and a go-getter. You also need a thick skin because, believe it or not, there are still people who believe that we have no business flying airplanes.

There's a lot of noise out there about DEI and pilot qualifications.

People have said, "If I walk up to an airplane and there's a Black pilot, I will get off the airplane."

I've been stopped by passengers after I use the restroom and reenter the flight deck. Once, when I asked a passenger to let me by, he looked at me and said, "What for?"

"Because I'm your pilot," I replied.

The look on his face was like "No, you're not." It's happened multiple times.

Sometimes, even the agents working at my own company have automatically tried to put me in the flight attendant jump seat.

I wish there were magic words to be said, but I think it's almost one pilot at a time, one person at a time. Companies have started enforcing some rules, and HR is stepping in to make the unions handle some of these situations.

Flying internationally is hard on your body

Any time you're in the air for 15+ hours, then on the ground for 24 hours, and then back up again for 15 more, it takes a toll on your body. It was time for me to hang it up.

I flew my last large commercial airplane back from Lisbon this May.

It was a proud moment. I've flown incident-free and accident-free across all these years, and I have strong shoulders that many, many, many women are standing on.

I'm going to miss walking through the airport in my uniform and being able to hand out wings to little kids. Their eyes just get big.

It's funny how they know the difference between a pilot and someone else. They don't look through colored glasses. They just see someone in the hat and know that's a pilot.

Increasing diversity

The reports say that women are about 5% to 6% of the airline pilot population. And the number of Black women is even smaller.

Women can be pilots and have a family, the same way the guys do.

I've become involved in organizations like Women in Aviation and Sisters of the Skies to ensure more little girls know this is a real career.

We introduce young women between the ages of 10 and 18 to aviation and take them up in an airplane flown by a woman who looks like them.

By the time they land, they're smiling wide from ear to ear.

Not everybody is meant to be a pilot, but we want them to know that if they assert themselves, they can be whatever they want.

I tell the young ladies I mentor the same thing I told myself: be so good that they can't say you're not good.

If that's what you really want to do, be the best.

• My wife and I met on a dating app and have always supported each other unconditionally.
• We got married in 2020, and decided we wanted to have a poly vee marriage.
• We have rules for our relationship and make sure to communicate about everything.

We met on a dating app in 2011. Our first date involved piling into my station wagon that had a Phillies magnet covering the broken gas port cover. We had a lovely and intimate sushi date where we chatted and laughed over some nigiri. From then on, our love grew.

My future wife was finishing up her undergraduate degree. I would drive to campus and hang out between classes, often bringing pizza or Dairy Queen for our chats.

That first summer, I became really sick and required surgery. We had only known each other for a few months, but she was there daily to change my gauze and take me to the doctor when my fever peaked. Her genuine care for me never wavered.

We have always supported each other unconditionally. I fully backed her idea of going back to school for a professional degree. She supported me, too, in a long-distance relationship when I went back to Los Angeles to pursue a dream job and conquer a city that had bested me the first time. It was clear that the love between us could surmount any obstacles that life would place in our paths.

I proposed on June 22, 2018. The initial plan was to have this wonderful event in the fall of 2020, but a pandemic threw a massive wrench. We married legally in November 2020 via a video chat with the courthouse and held a public wedding at a local art museum in September 2022.

We decided to have a poly 'vee' marriage

A poly vee-structured relationship involves multiple partners and is shaped like the letter "V." The pivot point represents a person in the relationship seeing two or more partners who aren't romantically or sexually involved with each other. Those partners are known as "metamours" and may or may not know each other.

We decided this was the best fit for us because we have very different levels of sexual needs. Her drive is not as high as mine, and, despite her being my dream woman, I needed more.

Like all serious discussions in our relationship, we approached it with transparency. I vocalized my needs, and she vocalized hers. This is not a marriage failure or a sign that we are incompatible. This is a forever partnership with the flexibility to address everyone's needs.

We decided that a poly vee would be the best fit for our relationship and we took steps to establish baselines of expectations.

We have rules for our relationship

The first step in any ethically non-monogamous relationship is to establish ground rules.

Though we're in a poly vee relationship, my wife chooses not to pursue other partners. She has the freedom to do so, but has not found the need to look elsewhere. If we met someone we were both attracted to, we would be open to a "unicorn" situation as well, where we brought in a third partner for both of us at the same time.

On my end, I am allowed to freely date and pursue sexual and romantic relationships externally. I use dating apps, and the first line of every dating profile is, "I am married and ethically non-monogamous (poly vee)."

My external partners have the freedom to check in with her to make sure everything is above board, and I'm not just cheating and calling it polyamory.

One of the rules we have is that I cannot have any partners in our shared bedroom or bed, as that is our sacred space.

Hierarchically, my wife will always have top billing. We live together. She is the love of my life. If she has a need to veto a situation, she has the right to if she feels it is damaging our relationship. She has never exercised that right, but the "abort" button remains.

Consent-wise, I do not divulge the identity of my external partners for their sake unless they want me to. I tell my wife when I'm going out and where I'm going for safety. I only bring people to our home when she is not there, and we schedule accordingly.

Obviously, safe sex is always practiced with all partners, and I am regularly tested when I do my normal blood work.

It works well for us

We are people who love to love. The deep emotional connections and ability to meet, learn about, and experience different types of people in my life is a gift. Just like traveling or trying new foods, it's all a learning experience.

We are both autonomous people. She is the first woman I've been with who I never had to ask for permission to hang out with my friends, and she doesn't need to ask, either. We have our own identities and private spaces. This allows us to connect incredibly well because we're fully formed people who aren't codependent.

We're both not religiously bound, and we don't have children, so in our eyes, there is only one life to live. Nothing should stand in the way of either of our happiness, and the support and trust that go along with an arrangement like this makes our bond even stronger.

• Samantha Brown shared three underrated travel destinations to avoid crowds.
• Brown has visited over 90 countries in her 20-year career as a seasoned travel host.
• She said Australia and Canada offer unique experiences.

From Europe and Asia to South America and Australia, Samantha Brown has been to more than 90 countries around the world.

The Emmy-award-winning travel host of the PBS show "Samantha Brown's Places to Love" takes viewers across the globe to share what it's like to experience different cultures.

She's been hosting travel shows on various networks for 25 years, including Travel Channel's "Great Vacation Homes."

In a recent conversation with Business Insider, Brown highlighted three underrated destinations that will wow you without the crowds.

Darwin is an underrated destination in Australia.

Darwin is at the top of Australia in the Northern Territory.

"It's closer to Asia than it is to Melbourne or Sydney," Brown said. Singapore is about 300 miles closer than Melbourne, according to Google Maps.

Despite the roughly four-hour flight between Darwin and these more popular Australian destinations, Brown says it's a hidden gem worth visiting because of its unique landscapes in the two bordering national parks, Mary River and Litchfield.

The surrounding national parks may make you feel as if you're on another planet.

Brown travels to Darwin to see waterfalls, pools, and unique landscapes at Mary River and Litchfield National Parks.

"You're in this phenomenally different landscape from the Outback. Darwin feels as if you are not only hitting a new country but a new planet," she said. "It's unlike anything you've ever seen. And I think if you've traveled that far, you need to see that."

If you enjoy train travel, board the Ghan from Darwin to Adelaide. It is known as one of the most scenic railways in the world, with dramatic landscapes inaccessible by other transportation modes.

If you can't get to Europe, take a trip to Montreal.

"If Europe is too expensive, go to Montreal," Brown said.

The city in Canada's eastern province of Quebec is just a 90-minute flight from NYC.

The French-Canadian city feels like Paris, according to Brown.

The French-Canadian city reminds Brown of Paris with historic architecture, cobblestone streets, and French culture.

Most Montreal locals speak French, and with a European aesthetic, it's easy to see why Brown considers it a comparable destination.

"Montreal is one of the best cities in the world," she said. "The 400-year-old city feels like Europe for half the cost."

She's particularly a fan of the public art scene. According to the city's website, more than 1,000 pieces are displayed around Montreal and are free to view.

Brown recommends taking yourself on a free tour. From the streets to the underground metro stations, Montreal is full of art.

"I love public art, and I love places that we are all allowed to inhabit with no money," Brown said.

A great place to start is Place Jacques Cartier, a public square filled with street artists and vendors, as BI previously reported.

Costa Rica may not seem like a hidden gem, but it is during the rainy season.

In Central America, Costa Rica is a hot spot for tourists. From beaches and jungles to volcanoes and cloud forests, travelers can have a range of experiences in one trip.

But fewer tourists visit in the summer, as Costa Rica's wet season begins in late May and spans six months.

Many tourists don't know that the rain clears up midseason for July.

In the midst of the wet season, rain stops in Costa Rica in July, Brown told BI.

"It happens every year, just for the month of July," she added.

Since many travelers assume Costa Rica is rainy all summer, prices for flights and hotels decrease.

"You can go to the Caribbean side, where all the resorts are, or you can go to the interior, where there are volcanoes and rainforests," Brown said. "You're going to a place that everyone loves to go to. The biodiversity is off the charts. But you're going at a time when no one thinks to go."

For more ideas on where to travel this summer, Brown released the ultimate itinerary in a Summer Travel Trends Report in collaboration with Klarna.

• Russia has started firing missiles at Ukraine from the Sea of Azov, a Ukrainian spokesperson said.
• Dmitry Pletenchuk said Russia is using the location because it thinks it's safer than the Black Sea.
• Experts told BI that ships there may be at less risk from sea drones but not long-range missiles.

On Sunday, Dmitry Pletenchuk, a spokesman for Ukraine's southern military command, said Russian warships had started firing missiles from the Sea of Azov, per the Kyiv Independent.

The sea, which borders occupied southern Ukraine, is connected to the Black Sea via the Kerch Strait, and, crucially, Russia controls its coastline.

The attack, which involved four missiles, was an "important turning point," Pletenchuk said, with Russia using the Sea of Azov because it considers it "safer" than the Black Sea.

Russia's Black Sea Fleet has suffered heavily, with the UK's armed forces chief saying in February that 25% of Russian vessels in the waters had been sunk, damaged, or destroyed since the start of the war.

Ukraine's attacks have forced Russian warships to withdraw from Crimea and relocate to safer waters, where they have also come under attack.

According to the Naval Forces of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, on Tuesday, seven Russian warships were spotted in the Azov, two of which were equipped with Kalibr cruise missiles.

Matthew Boyse, a senior fellow with the Hudson Institute's Center on Europe and Eurasia, told BI that Russia's control over the entire coastline of the Azov makes it "difficult for Ukraine to deploy sea drones against Russian vessels."

But this doesn't mean ships there will be safe from Ukraine's aerial drones and missiles, experts told BI.

"The Azov Sea is relatively safer since the surface fleet can, theoretically, benefit from superior land-based protection and is seemingly unreachable by Ukraine's maritime drones," said Basil Germond, a maritime security expert at the UK's Lancaster University.

But he added that "Russia's warships in the Azov Sea are still at the mercy of Ukrainian missiles and aerial drones."

A secluded area

According to Mark Temnycky, a nonresident fellow with the Atlantic Council's Eurasia Center, the apparent move away from the Black Sea is a sign that Russian forces are "slowly learning from the mistakes they have made over the past two and a half years."

"Seeing their fleet was being destroyed by Ukraine, the Russians are now exploring new options to fortify and protect the areas they illegally occupy," he told BI.

The Sea of Azov is near Russian-occupied regions of Ukraine, meaning Russian vessels will be better protected there, he said.

Russia has also been building defenses around the Kerch Strait.

Earlier this month, satellite images showed that Russia has set up barges and floating boom defenses around the Strait.

Ukrainian sea drones would need to travel through that transit route to reach the Azov Sea, Scott Savitz, a senior engineer at RAND, a nonpartisan think tank, told BI.

"This facilitates Russian detection and targeting of those USVs," he said, using an acronym for unmanned surface vehicles.

"Moreover, in the confined Sea of Azov, Russia's ships can also shelter beneath land-based missile defenses," he said.

That could hamper Ukraine's drone and aircraft attacks.

Ukrainian planes would have to fly around Crimea and risk being attacked by air defenses on their way to launch points over the Black Sea, according to Bryan Clark, a former US Navy officer and defense expert at the Hudson Institute.

Meanwhile, Russian "missiles can reach most of Ukraine from the Sea of Azov and ports along the Russian Black Sea coast," Clark said.

But the safety provided by the Sea of Azov is not "absolute," Steven Horrell, a non-resident senior fellow with the Transatlantic Defense and Security Program at the Center for European Policy Analysis, told BI.

"Moored ships are still very vulnerable to longer-range precision strikes, like Western-provided systems," he said.

It may end up being another fiasco

Igor Delanoë, the deputy head of the French-Russian Analytical Center Observo, said Russia's navy may face the same issues in the Azov as it did in the Black Sea.

"The Ukrainians, generously supplied by their sponsors, can still use missile attacks or drones to inflict damage to surface vessels in the Azov Sea," he said.

Ukraine may also find a way to more effectively target Russian ships there, according to Savitz, "taking advantage of their confinement within a small body of water, which makes them easier to track."

• Diet plays a huge part in our health and longevity, L-Nutra CEO Dr. Joseph Antoun told Business Insider.
• A healthy diet could protect us from some of the leading causes of death, including heart disease. 
• Antoun follows a plant-based Longevity Diet, emphasizing nuts, complex carbs, and healthy fats.

What we eat probably impacts our health more than any other single factor, according to a medical doctor and CEO of a longevity company who shared his diet with Business Insider.

Alongside exercise, food is a pillar of longevity because we consume it multiple times a day and it impacts everything from the gut microbiome to cholesterol and the constitution of cells, said Dr. Joseph Antoun, the CEO of L-Nutra, a longevity-focused nutrition company.

Antoun said diet can play a large role in reducing the risk of developing diseases that are among the leading causes of death in the US. These include: heart disease, cancer, stroke, diabetes, and Alzheimer's, according to CDC data.

He follows the Longevity Diet, created by his colleague and L-Nutra cofounder Valter Longo, a professor of gerontology and director of the USC Longevity Institute. It's mainly a plant-based diet but includes fish a few times a week, plus lots of complex carbohydrates, and healthy fats from nuts, Antoun said.

It's similar to the Mediterranean Diet, which one study suggested could add up to 10 years to a person's life.

Antoun shared three dietary principles he follows in the hope of living a long, healthy life.

Eat nuts every day

Nuts are a good source of plant-based protein, complex carbs, and healthy fats, Antoun said. He eats them pretty much every day.

For breakfast, Antoun has nuts and a cup of coffee with a splash of oat or almond milk. He either has L-Nutra's Prolon Fasting bar, which is made of walnuts, almonds, macadamia nuts, and a little bit of honey, or just whole nuts.

Occasionally he has his company's Longevity Spread, which is made of mainly almonds and cocoa powder, on wholewheat bread.

Research suggests that eating nuts regularly could lower the risk of cardiovascular disease. A large 2017 study, published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology, looked at data on more than 200,000 people across 32 years and found that those who ate nuts five or more times a week had a 14% lower risk of cardiovascular disease and a 20% lower risk of coronary heart disease than people who never or almost never did.

Nuts have been found to lower the risk of high blood pressure, reduce "bad" cholesterol, and decrease the risk of blood clots that can lead to heart attack or stroke, according to The Mayo Clinic.

Eat plant-based protein

Antoun mainly eats plant-based protein including nuts, beans, and chickpeas.

There's compelling evidence to suggest that a diet high in plants could boost longevity. In a 2023 study published in JAMA Network Open, 22 pairs of twins were randomly assigned either a healthy vegan diet or a healthy omnivorous diet for eight weeks.

At the end of the study, the vegan twins had significantly lower "bad" cholesterol levels, as well as insulin and body weight — all of which are associated with improved cardiovascular health — than their omnivorous counterparts.

Another large study published in JAMA Internal Medicine found that shifting 3% of calorie intake from animal protein to plant protein appeared to lower the risk of death from any cause by 10%.

Have dinner early and breakfast late

Another part of Longo's Longevity Diet, and the central tenant of L-Nutra's business model, is intermittent fasting. According to Longo's website, dieters must confine all eating to a twelve-hour period and shouldn't eat three to four hours before bedtime.

Antoun does this to make sure he's fasting for 12 hours every day. "I don't eat overnight. It's very important for me to have my dinner around seven and then stay all the way the next day until seven, eight o'clock up until I have my breakfast," he said.

Fasting diets are popular with CEOs, celebrities, and biohacking bros, who hope it will help with weight loss, longevity, and improved focus. But as BI previously reported, actual evidence is lagging behind the huge interest in fasting.

Studies on animals suggest that calorie restriction through fasting could boost longevity. This is understood to be because of a process known as autophagy, in which cells start to shed old, unusable parts when deprived of nutrients. But there's limited evidence that the result is the same in humans.