• People who watch lots of TV are more likely to be unhealthy as they age, a study found. 
• But swapping just an hour of TV for a walk could help you age better, the scientists said.
• By 2050, 20% of the world's population is projected to be over 65, making healthy aging particularly important.

Watching less TV might help you live longer, new research suggests.

Researchers from the Harvard T. Chan School of Public Health investigated how sedentary behavior and light physical activity affected people's chances of aging healthily.

By 2050, 20% of the world's population is projected to be aged over 65, the researchers said. With this in mind, they wanted to identify lifestyle factors that could help people avoid problems associated with aging, such as chronic illnesses, cognitive decline, and physical limitations. The researchers defined healthy aging as being free of chronic diseases and problems with physical function, memory, or mental health at age 70.

The study was published in the journal JAMA Network Open on Tuesday. It used data collected across 20 years on 45,176 female participants of the Nurses' Health Study, an investigation into the risk factors of chronic diseases in women. Researchers compared the time participants spent watching TV and doing physical activity in an average week.

The team found that those who spent more time watching TV were less likely to age healthily. For every two hours participants spent watching TV, their odds of healthy aging decreased by 12%.

But the more time participants spent doing physical activity, the higher their odds of aging healthily. Every two hours of walking or standing they did each day was linked to a 12% higher chance of aging healthily. And the more intense the physical activity, the more their odds increased.

Even just replacing one hour of being sedentary while watching TV with one hour of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity — such as walking at a normal pace — each day was associated with 28% higher odds of healthy aging.

Watching less TV and walking more could help you live longer

From the study's findings, researchers identified four lifestyle factors that could help people become healthy: watching less than three hours of TV per day, walking or standing for at least three hours a day, doing at least 30 minutes a day of more intense activity like walking at a normal pace, and not being overweight.

They also found that participants who slept for fewer than seven hours each night could improve their odds of healthy aging by replacing TV time with sleep.

It's important to note that the findings of this study are not causal, meaning that researchers can't say for sure that watching TV causes unhealthy aging. But, the researchers pointed out that sitting for long periods has been linked to reduced insulin sensitivity, increased inflammation, and reduced blood flow to the brain, while sitting in front of the TV specifically has been associated with unhealthy eating patterns, including overeating, which increases risks of disease.

The study was also done on a cohort of US nurses, so the findings may not be relatable to other populations, they said.

Professor Dan Belsky, an epidemiologist at the Robert N. Butler Columbia Aging Center, told Business Insider that this study "contributes additional data" to findings that have been known for a long time, that "people who report being more active also report better health outcomes."

He said: "What is needed now are studies to identify community and society-level strategies that enable more people to be more active."

• Harriet Kelsall spent her 20s and early 30s focused on building a successful jewellery business. 
• She  started trying for kids at 34 after overcoming her fears about childcare options. 
• Kelsall has two healthy children, but experienced miscarriages and exhaustion as an older parent. 

I've never been someone who was always thinking about kids, but I assumed I might want them someday.

I got married at 28. By 30, I was ready for kids, but I was also running my own business, Harriet Kelsall Bespoke Jewellery, which I started at 27 in 1998.

My business grew quickly, and I had staff relying on me to pay their wages. When I thought about having kids in my late 20s, it didn't seem possible while running a business.

My mom was a stay-at-home mom until I was 12. My friends and family with young kids were all stay-at-home moms and had the kind of jobs you could put down for a year and come back to.

I would need childcare from day one and couldn't understand what that would look like, so I kept putting kids off. I wondered if eventually I'd have to choose between my career and children.

We started trying for kids in our mid-30s

When I was 34, my husband and I decided to try for a baby. I was getting older. Speaking to a work friend who had juggled having kids and her full-on job made me realize I could handle it, too. I also started researching nannies and realized that was a feasible option.

I got pregnant quickly, but I had a miscarriage at four months. I thought maybe I'd left it too late and that I wouldn't be a mom. But I got pregnant again a few months later and had my first child when I was nearly 35.

I started working a week after my son was born

I started working again about a week after my son was born. At that point, there were certain things that only I could do for the business. I remember people coming to my house so that I could price gemstones and work on commissions. I had a screaming baby in one ear, and I was trying to hold it together while I worked. It was difficult, but I managed.

18 months after our son was born, we tried for another baby. We needed start trying before I got too much older, especially already experiencing one miscarriage. I also didn't want a huge age gap between my kids.

When I had my son, two colleagues stepped up in a way I hadn't anticipated. That made me feel more confident that my business could would work when I had a second child.

I started trying for a second child within two years

I kept getting pregnant and then losing the baby. I had eight miscarriages over three years. It was really hard and physically draining. Each time, I lost a lot of blood. Once, I had to have a transfusion of four units of blood.

It was tough juggling my business while going through a lot of emotional and physical pain. I didn't feel I could tell my staff about my miscarriages or lean on them for help. I had this false notion that as a female leader, I couldn't show weakness. I felt very lonely.

During that time, I had to find a lot of strength inside myself carry on. Even though I wanted my son to have a sibling, I remember thinking: "I have this amazing baby, and some people don't even have one, so I'm very lucky."

I didn't have time to wallow in the reality of what I was going through. My sister was also very supportive.

Having so many miscarriages meant that trying for a baby was getting scarier and scarier. At one point I thought "This is the last time we should try."

Thankfully, I then got pregnant with my second child, and she was born when I was 39.

It's physically more draining to have kids in your 30s

Getting pregnant and having two healthy kids when you're over the age of 35 is hard. Many people manage it, so it doesn't sound difficult, but unfortunately, not everybody can have kids later. You don't know if that will be you until you try.

I've also found that having kids in your mid- and late 30s is a real physical challenge. Even if you keep fit, the reality can be quite different.

Childbirth is draining on your body, and it takes a while to recover. Once you have a baby, you're tired all the time. In those early days, I felt like I'd done four hours of exercise each day.

My business might be bigger if I didn't have kids, but it's made me a better leader

If I hadn't had kids or so many miscarriages, it's possible my business might be further on. But I think parenthood can bring a lot to your work. It makes you a better leader and better at juggling things.

It bugs me people think when a woman goes on maternity leave, they're going to fall behind. Every woman I know who is brilliant comes back to work even more brilliant.

Making the leap

The unknown is scary so make a plan for how you're going to juggle your work when you have kids. Talk to your partner and research childcare options – finding a nanny, looking into costs to see if I could afford it, and finding out what hours they could do helped to reassure me.

My advice to others who are thinking about having children would be to make sure that your work is in a sustainable position. Think through all the ideal scenarios and what you'd want to avoid as a working parent — things like your location and working hours, and if what you need is possible.

I don't regret my choices. I love my amazing children and running my business.

• The average American household spends at least $475 a month on groceries.
• 40 million Americans are food insecure and SNAP benefits often don't provide enough financial help.
• With only $23 a month from SNAP,  Mary Dacus is often reliant on food pantries. 

Mary Dacus, 69, fills her basket at Ruler Foods with the essentials.

Three cans of SpaghettiOs for $1 each, a dozen eggs for $2.99, a half gallon of milk for $2.59. She adds bread, soup, potatoes, chili mix, graham crackers, cereal bars, clementines, toilet paper, some frozen vegetables, and canned chicken — the fresh stuff is expensive.

It comes to $83.02.

Dacus goes shopping near her home in Robinson, Illinois — a city 200 miles south of Chicago — on the fourth Wednesday of every month after her husband Stephen cashes his Social Security check. She hopes the food will last them a full 30 days, but she inevitably has to stop at Walmart a few times to fill in the gaps.

Granola for $5.34, bell peppers for $2.88, two bottles of butter pecan coffee creamer for $7.94, and a new vacuum bag for $8.77. That's an additional $53.39.

Dacus and her husband have to stick to a tight budget: their household only receives $23 a month from SNAP. They must rely on their combined $2,140 Social Security income for the rest and any other expenses they have since they're both retired. The average American household spends $475 a month on groceries plus $303 on restaurants and takeout, according to the latest available US Bureau of Labor Statistics report on consumer expenditures in 2022.

There are over 40 million Americans experiencing food insecurity. SNAP provides relief for many households living paycheck to paycheck. But some struggling families, like Dacus', don't receive enough help, or their income is considered too high to receive any help at all. ALICEs — people who are asset-limited, income-constrained, employed — feel especially left behind by food assistance programs.

According to the Pew Research Center, about 13% of Americans, or 22 million households, are enrolled in government food benefits.

Anything helps, Dacus said, but her SNAP allocation "barely covers one meal."

"The man called me and told me, 'Oh, we're going to get you $23 a month.' And I laughed," she said. "That's pitiful. That's really pitiful."

With limited SNAP dollars, Dacus relies on food pantries

Dacus is a good cook — she used to love making pot roast when she could afford it — and can usually make a meal out of whatever miscellaneous ingredients she and Stephen have in their cupboard. She typically makes crockpot meals, casseroles, or other dishes that she can stretch for more than one meal. But $23 a month in food benefits isn't even close to affording what they need to eat.

Often, Dacus said a full month of food and household products can run them about $200, plus an additional $30 to $50 a week when they run out of things. They struggle with their other household bills, are in nearly $10,000 in credit card debt, and have drained their savings in order to pay for food and healthcare.

"We've used our credit cards within the last three and a half years to buy groceries and things that we needed," she said, adding that she and Stephen's low credit score has now made it difficult to qualify for housing and car payments.

To avoid going hungry, Dacus said she has to rely on local food pantries. They pick up canned goods and packaged food. But there aren't many food pantries near her house, and the ones in driving distance are open for limited hours. Even when they can go to the pantry, Dacus said the food is unhealthy and sometimes spoiled.

SNAP benefits don't always align with household needs

America's SNAP program provides low-income households with money to grocery shop, and the qualifying criteria is based on the federal poverty line. The allocation can also be affected by earned-income taxes, and the number of children or older adults in a household. What's more, the costs of groceries can vary widely based on a person's location.

An individual with a monthly gross income lower than $1,580 can receive a maximum of $291 monthly from SNAP, and a couple with a monthly income lower than $2,137 can receive a maximum of $535, according to the US Department of Agriculture. Yet, many households like Dacus' don't receive the maximum because their income isn't low enough.

There are also limitations on how SNAP dollars can be used. The money covers basic food products like milk and bread, but it cannot be used to purchase dish soap, toilet paper, laundry detergent, vitamins, feminine products, over-the-counter medicine, or pet food.

Groceries are just part of the $38,268 the average couple in Robinson, Illinois needs to survive every year, which includes the cost of housing, utilities, healthcare, transportation, and unexpected expenses, according to United Way. For a family with two school-age children, that number becomes $61,632. This budget doesn't leave any room to build savings or prepare for retirement.

It's also more difficult for childfree adults, or adults whose children are no longer minors, to qualify for food assistance. Dacus said she and her husband have to rely on SNAP and food pantries because she can't access other programs like WIC (Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children), the child tax credit, and parts of the earned-income tax credit.

"We don't get ahead at all," Dacus said. "We take two steps forward and three back."

Are you experiencing food insecurity? Are you open to sharing your experience with SNAP or grocery shopping? If so, reach out to this reporter at allisonkelly@businessinsider.com.

• The US dollar's share in global forex reserves dropped to 55% from over 70% in 2000, per IMF data.
• Non-traditional reserve currencies such as the Australian dollar and Canadian dollar are gaining ground.
• The world's central banks have been cutting the share of US dollars in their foreign reserves for the last two decades.

The US dollar is in a state of "stealth erosion," the International Monetary Fund, or IMF, wrote in a report on Tuesday.

While the dollar is still by far the most dominant currency in the forex reserves of the world's central banks, the greenback's share in these reserves — after exchange-rate and interest-rate adjustments — declined from over 70% in 2000 to about 55% in the last quarter of 2023, according to IMF's data.

The dollar has been strengthening against most currencies in recent years — indicating that private investors have moved into dollar-based assets. This effect masked the shift of central banks and governments out of dollar reserves.

The Dollar Index, which measures the value of the greenback against a basket of foreign currencies, has gained 4% this year to date and about 7% since March 2022, when the US Federal Reserve started its last interest-rate hike cycle.

Central banks have been 'shifting gradually' away from the USD

The dollar's share hasn't been overtaken by the world's other three major currencies — the euro, the Japanese yen, or the UK pound sterling.

Instead, the shares of "non-traditional reserve currencies" have risen, according to the IMF. These include the Australian dollar, Canadian dollar, Chinese renminbi, South Korean won, Singaporean dollar, and Nordic currencies.

The IMF's findings are consistent with its previous report in 2022 when it found that the dollar's dominance was waning and getting replaced with alternative currencies.

"These nontraditional reserve currencies are attractive to reserve managers because they provide diversification and relatively attractive yields, and because they have become increasingly easy to buy, sell and hold with the development of new digital financial technologies," wrote IMF's economists in their latest report, which is based on data from 149 reporting economies that collectively account for 93% of global forex reserves.

The dollar's decline in FX reserves doesn't appear to be about sanctions

The IMF's report comes amid ongoing discussions about de-dollarization.

With the use of sanctions, the West effectively shut Russia out of the global, greenback-based financial system after Moscow started the war in Ukraine.

Other countries are now concerned that they, too, could be locked out of the US dollar-based financial system.

However, the slow waning of the dollar's dominance in global forex reserves appears to be less about trade restrictions than diversification — because its decline has not accelerated in recent years despite the US' intensifying use of financial sanctions.

Even so, there are other concerns that may erode confidence in the greenback, analysts have said recently.

On Monday, two American think tank analysts wrote in the Financial Times that "American dysfunction" — political and fiscal — is the real threat to dollar dominance. This sentiment was also echoed by Jared Cohen, the president of global affairs at Goldman Sachs, in Foreign Policy.

• I'm a mom of two girls ages 4 and 1. 
• My oldest is an introvert, while my youngest is an extrovert. 
• I can related to both and give them space to be who they are. 

"I want to go home!" my 4-year-old screamed as I held her in my lap.

We were at a birthday party for her best friend. To be more specific, this little girl is also our next-door neighbor, and we were in their backyard — the one she plays in almost every day. In contrast, my 1-year-old laughed and clapped as she sat with a group of kids playing with bubbles.

This isn't a new situation for me — my older daughter wilts around big groups of people while my younger daughter lights up in the presence of others. I'm sure I'm not the only parent with one introverted child and another extroverted one, but in those panicky moments where I have to cater to both of their social needs, it feels like taking one wrong step will end in disaster — also known as an epic tantrum.

Fortunately, I relate to my daughters. I'm what they call an extroverted introvert — someone who enjoys socializing but still needs time to recharge afterward. And because I understand both sides of the extrovert/introvert personality, I've developed ways to embrace their specific needs.

We build in introvert and extrovert time during the week

Weekdays are easier for us to schedule activities catered to each of our kids. While my introvert is at preschool, my extrovert is signed up for a gym and music class. If we have a day without a class, I take her to the playground or another busy spot to fuel her up.

For my introvert, after her day at school, I know she has to reset. So we opt for 1:1 playdates, art projects at home, or activities that don't have too much stimulation, like going for a bike ride or gardening.

Weekends are family time

On the weekends, we make an effort to spend time together as a family. Instead of running them to extracurriculars or playdates, we try to prioritize the importance of our family unit.

This can definitely include parts of the day spent with their friends or ours, but ultimately, we all recharge on the weekend. Part of this is so that we instill in them that time with us is important, and another is so that my husband (total introvert) and I (extroverted introvert) don't get burned out either.

When we're going to be somewhere new, we have options

Of course I'd love to be able to control every situation so my kids feel nothing but bliss but, well, that's not realistic.

There are weekends where we all have to go to a big event — like the neighbor's birthday party — or where it's pouring rain (the LA equivalent of the end of days) and we're stuck indoors. We've learned that when possible, having options for each kid makes a huge difference.

So when my introvert needed to leave the birthday party, I took her back to the house while my husband stayed at the party with my extrovert. When my extrovert needs some stimulation, I'll take her out for an adventure at the zoo while my husband has a 1:1 movie date with our introvert.

My hope is that my daughters know they are loved and respected for their personalities and don't feel forced to try to be something they aren't. And sometimes the girls surprise us — my introvert will rally and want to do a big activity, or my extrovert will hang back and just want to cuddle up close with us. But knowing we can pull them out of a situation that doesn't serve them well eases the pressure on us as their parents.

Erin La Rosa is the author of "The Backtrack, Plot Twist," and "For Butter or Worse." She lives in Los Angeles with her husband and four daughters (two humans, two felines).

• Sam Dogen retired at 34 in San Francisco with over $3 million after 13 years of saving and investing.
• His wife retired at 35, and both haven't held a 9-to-5 job since the mid-2010s.
• He and his wife followed the FIRE movement, focusing on passive income and minimal expenses.

Sam Dogen went from starting his career 25 years ago making $40,000 a year in New York City to retiring in San Francisco 13 years later with a net worth of over $3 million. His wife retired three years after him at age 35.

For years, the two saved most of their income, poured money into passive investments, and worked long hours to achieve financial independence — the point at which they wouldn't need to work to cover their long-term expenses.

"It's really a journey of balancing your finances, figuring out passive incomes, covering your expenses, buying the things that you want that'll improve quality life like a house, and then also being willing to go back to work in either part-time or full-time capacity once you have that void to fill," Dogen said.

Dogen and his wife are FIREs — financial independence, retire early — who make it work with two kids in one of the US's most expensive cities. He said it's uncommon for both people in a couple to reach FIRE at around the same time. Raising their kids has been a full-time job for both of them, but both have found peace in pursuing — and monetizing — their passions while relying on passive income to fund their vacations and entertainment.

In a way, both have rejected the "RE" in the FIRE acronym, though neither plans to return to an office job.

Discovering FIRE

In 1999, Dogen got his first job in investment banking in New York City, making $40,000 and splitting a studio apartment with a roommate to save money. He said he would work late to get free cafeteria food, which he saved for the next day, meaning he rarely spent on groceries.

"I figured if I could save 100% of every other paycheck, that would be saving 50% of my salary, and every year I saved 50% of my salary was one year of living," Dogen said. "I took it a step further: I saved every other paycheck, and I saved and invested 90% of any discretionary year-end bonus. I did that essentially for 13 years in a row."

He moved to San Francisco for another position and rose through the ranks throughout the 2000s. In 2003, he bought a two-bedroom condominium, which allowed him to fix his living expenses for the next few years. He said this was one of the keys to achieving financial independence.

However, in 2009, he estimates he lost 35% to 40% of his net worth in six months. That year, he started his blog, Financial Samurai, chronicling his journey to financial independence while continuing at his company and rebuilding some of his net worth. But, after surviving seven rounds of layoffs, he realized he had enough in the bank to quit his $250,000-a-year job without rushing to another job.

"I realized that after 10 years, I wasn't having any fun anymore," Dogen said. "It's very stressful, and I wanted out, but I didn't know how to get out because I just didn't plan that far."

He negotiated a severance package in 2012, which allowed him to keep his deferred stock and cash compensation. At the time, his net worth was $3 million, and he had saved between 75% and 80% of his income over the previous few years.

"I never let lifestyle inflation get to me, and I was driving old cars, living in very humble homes," he said.

Transitioning into early retirement

Though he had a large nest egg and passive investments, he wondered for a few years if he had made the right choice. His wife made $120,000 a year, but he was unsure if his retirement would only be temporary. Still, his health improved shortly after quitting, and he realized how much pressure he had been under that was lifted off his shoulders.

"I was like, what am I doing? I'm only 35 years old, leaving a well-paid job behind, losing so much money," Dogen said. "But as the months went by, I felt more calm because I had way more freedom, and I was happier. The chronic back pain and sciatica and teeth grinding went away within six months."

Early in his career, he knew he wanted to achieve financial independence and retire early, but he didn't want to leave the city. He said it's rare for people who reach FIRE to live in expensive coastal cities, noting many move to suburbs or more rural areas where the cost of living is lower. He knows couples making well into the six figures who struggle to save between housing and raising children.

"If you plan to stay in a high-cost-of-living area and you want to FIRE, you have to focus on ways to build wealth that outstrip the cost of living," Dogen said.

In addition to the income he earned from his blog, he poured money into stocks and real estate. He also followed various budgeting guidelines like spending no more than 10% of gross income on cars. He follows a 30% rule for homebuying as well.

"I feel like there's this whole world out there who just kind of wing it when it comes to their personal finances, and then they wake up 10 years later and wonder where all their money went because there aren't disciplines or ratios or guidelines that they follow," Dogen said.

When he retired, he told his wife that if she could stay in her job for three more years until she turned 35, both could retire early and still make enough in passive income to live comfortably. They upped their savings rate and tried to maximize passive income during those years.

"One of the interesting phenomena you'll see in the FIRE space is how a man will proclaim he's retired early, but he'll have a working wife," Dogen said. "It's a head-scratcher because I don't know a single stay-at-home mom who says she's retired early. She just says she's a stay-at-home mom because it's a full-time job. It's crazy how much work it is."

In 2015, his wife also negotiated a generous severance package after her company tried to keep her working part-time. She returned to the company after a few months, making more in a part-time position than she did working full-time. She stopped in 2016, shortly before having their first child.

"It's really methodically saving and investing as much as possible for as long as possible," Dogen said. "Too many people get in credit card debt, buying things they don't need, expensive vacations."

Are you part of the FIRE movement or living by some of its principles? Reach out to this reporter at nsheidlower@businessinsider.com.

• A real-estate investor was fined $180,000 by the city of Las Vegas for running an illegal Airbnb. 
• Oregon engineer Xin Tao said he bought the house as an investment property to rent out longer term. 
• Tao said his tenant rented it out on Airbnb and the city didn't say daily fines were adding up.

In November, the city of Las Vegas issued a $180,000 fine against a homeowner who officials say ran an unauthorized Airbnb near the Las Vegas strip.

The homeowner, however, told Business Insider he believes he is the victim of a scam run by the tenant renting his house at the time.

In June 2021, Xin Tao purchased a five-bedroom, two-bathroom property in Las Vegas for $378,000.

Tao, an engineer who lives in Oregon full-time, told BI he bought the house as an investment property. While he did initially consider listing it on Airbnb, he added, he abandoned that plan when he signed a lease with a long-term tenant in September 2021. (Business Insider viewed a copy of the lease.)

Shortly after, multiple neighbors called the city with complaints about the property, complaining about an overflow of cars parked in the driveway and that activity at the house "regularly disturbs" neighbors, according to enforcement logs from the city of Las Vegas.

On two separate occasions in October 2021 and February 2022, Las Vegas city officials knocked on the door, according to government logs. The people who answered said they were renting the property through Airbnb, the logs said.

Tao was issued $2,132 in fines from the February 2022 incident — $500 per day for the four days the alleged Airbnb guest said they were staying in the home, plus additional fees, according to city records.

Tao said he believed that, after the February 2022 incident, his tenant had stopped renting out his property on Airbnb and the issue was resolved. He claimed he was unable to confront the tenant directly because he was managing the property remotely from Oregon.

The tenant vacated the property in September 2023, and a cleaner was sent to the premises to tidy up, Tao said. Stuck to the window was a notice of a $180,000 fine.

"I was shocked. I didn't know what was going on. I thought it might be fraud," Tao told Business Insider. "How do we go from $2,000 to $180,000?"

Las Vegas is cracking down on Airbnb hosts

In January, Tao asked the Las Vegas City Council to reconsider the fine, but lawmakers unanimously upheld the decision by a vote of 7-0, according to the Las Vegas Review-Journal.

In 2019, Las Vegas instituted sweeping regulations of short-term rentals, including banning out-of-state investors from owning Airbnbs, amid outcry from local residents who complained of an influx of "parties, prostitution, and drugs into residential communities," according to the Las Vegas Sun.

Some Sin City residents are still frustrated by short-term rentals in their neighborhoods.

"I am constantly getting texts, emails, calls, pulled aside in the grocery store about short-term rentals," Councilman Brian Knudsen told local outlet Fox 5 in January. "If we continue to erode laws by not enforcing the fees and fines associated with them, we continue to lose the dignity of our neighborhoods."

The city arrived at the $180,000 fine based on a $500-a-night penalty for each of hundreds of nights it tracked as booked at Tao's property, according to documents submitted to the City Council.

Tao told Business Insider he will continue to fight the fine in part because he argues the city did not notify him properly that charges continued to accrue after February 2022.

He added that the current fine would have devastating effects on his family.

"We have a mortgage and car payments," he said. "One hundred eighty thousand dollars is definitely something I cannot afford."

• A former Amazon employee criticized the company's handling of its Alexa voice assistant.
• Mihail Eric said on X that technical and bureaucratic issues hindered Alexa's development.
• He said Amazon had the resources to become the "unequivocal" leader in conversational AI, but failed. 

A former employee said Amazon "dropped the ball" with its voice assistant Alexa.

Mihail Eric, a former senior machine learning scientist at Alexa AI, wrote in a lengthy X post about how he felt Amazon missed its opportunity to turn Alexa into a leading product as competitors make headway with their own AI-infused voice assistants.

"We had all the resources, talent, and momentum to become the unequivocal market leader in conversational AI," Eric wrote on Tuesday.

He added: "But most of that tech never saw the light of day and never received any noteworthy press. Why? The reality is Alexa AI was riddled with technical and bureaucratic problems."

Eric, who left Amazon in 2021 according to his LinkedIn profile, said Amazon might have fumbled its chance to dominate the conversational AI space due to a "bad technical process," "fragmented org," and "product-science misalignment."

In his view, Amazon's infrastructure was "agonizingly painful" for its developers because of guardrails put in place to protect user data. He added that computing resources to carry out experiments were limited.

Eric also claimed that progress on Alexa was hindered by a organizational structure that resulted in overlaps between teams that sometimes worked on similar challenges.

"This introduced an almost Darwinian flavor to org dynamics where teams scrambled to get their work done to avoid getting reorged and subsumed into a competing team," he wrote.

According to Eric, the Alexa team had to "constantly justify" its existence to senior leaders, and there was a conflict between the product and science teams in weekly meetings. He said this led to a churn of managers every few months and the sunsetting of its efforts to make Alexa a multimodal agent in Amazon customers' homes.

Eric also said that after OpenAI unveiled its multimodal GPT-4o model, which has a voice assistant called Sky, he received a message from a former Alexa colleague, who he says told him: "You'd think voice assistants would have been our forte at Alexa."

Amazon and Eric didn't immediately respond to requests for comment from Business Insider, made outside normal working hours.

I had just turned 9 when I discovered Anthony Bourdain's show "No Reservations." It wasn't like the other Travel Channel shows. Sure, the premise was straightforward: Bourdain traveled around the world to meet up with locals and try their cuisine. But instead of focusing on tourist hot spots and flashy, curated experiences, "No Reservations" was about traveling by the seat of your pants and getting as close to the local culture as any outsider could be allowed. I was an immediate disciple.

Travel shouldn't be about checking off items on a bucket list by sticking to sanitized excursions marketed to foreigners; it should introduce you to someone else's slice of life. On family trips to New York City, I cringed when my mother pulled out a paper map. "Everyone is going to know we aren't from here," I thought.

Though I grew less self-conscious over the years, that mentality remained. Others in my generation — I'm on the cusp between Gen Z and millennial — were on the same page, determined to seek out "authentic experiences." For years, people explored the world with the help of travel agents. But those services — sending you to places curated just for tourists — seemed to fly in the face of the Bourdainian ethos. Travel agents felt like vestiges of the preinternet world, like video-store clerks or pay phones, and I couldn't imagine ever needing them. What could they tell me that Reddit couldn't? Isn't it simpler to just book my own flights? Doing everything myself felt easier.

As of late, though, my attitude has changed.

Ever since the pandemic-era travel restrictions subsided, travel has boomed. Everyone is jetting off to Italy, Japan, and Costa Rica. Money spent on travel and entertainment surged 30% in 2023, fueled largely by young people. We're all desperate to make up for lost time, but there's a catch: Many of us 20- and 30-somethings are tired. It turns out that aspiring to be a DIY traveler takes a lot of energy — energy that we've already exhausted on careers, relationships, and day-to-day responsibilities. When we do finally have the time to venture away from home, we're burning ourselves out trying to coordinate all the details of our trip. Meanwhile, the sense of precarity we all felt during the pandemic hasn't left. Flight delays and cancellations from weather, short staffing, technical issues, and random bad luck are more common than before. The odds that something could go wrong feel higher.

That's precisely why some are turning back to travel agents. In 2014, the number of travel agents was half of what it was at the industry's mid-'90s peak, with many expecting it to become obsolete. But by 2021, 76% of advisors were seeing more customers than before the pandemic. And in a 2023 survey of 2,000 American travelers, 38% of Gen Z and millennial respondents said they preferred a traditional travel agent over online booking. Only 12% of Gen Xers and 2% of boomers said the same. Whether we're bopping around the Mediterranean or just posting up at an all-inclusive resort in Mexico for a week, a lot of us are deciding we'd rather put the planning in someone else's hands.

Matt James, a 29-year-old software engineer in New York City, was initially excited to plan his summer trip to Vietnam himself. Like many his age, he's primarily interested in sightseeing in cities. "I found myself going down hourslong internet rabbit holes trying to hone in on a perfect itinerary," he said, "Googling 'best neighborhoods in Hanoi Reddit,' 'two-week Vietnam itinerary Reddit,' etc."

After a while, though, he said it was hard to find the time and energy to plan. Doing his own research was mentally exhausting. He decided to give up the hunt and hand the work over to a travel advisor who was also a family friend. "He was able to take care of booking visas, flights, hotels, and a few excursions," James said. "It was very tempting to have him take care of it all in one email thread for a couple-hundred-dollar fee." Now, he said, all that's left is deciding what to see and eat at each location — something that lets him satisfy his urge to rabbit-hole.

A flight to Mexico City and five nights at a boutique hotel in Coyoacán, however, feels a little more firmly within our grasp.

In a Business Insider survey, in collaboration with YouGov, millennials cited travel as one of their most important goals for the next five years, more important than having fulfilling romantic relationships, owning a home, advancing their career, or starting a family. In fact, the only two goals millennials considered more important than traveling were being financially stable and improving their health. Amid rising costs for housing, childcare, and everything else, key milestones get pushed further down the road. A flight to Mexico City and five nights at a boutique hotel in Coyoacán, however, feels a little more firmly within our grasp. In a 2023 Morning Consult survey, both millennials and Gen Zers were more likely than older generations to travel frequently, with half of each cohort saying they took three or more leisure trips a year. Gen Zers were also more likely to go overseas than their older peers.

For as little as $100 — or nothing at all, given that some agents work on commission from the hotels and other travel companies they work with — overwhelmed young travelers can have someone take all the pressure off the experience. There are travel agents specializing in just about every type of travel imaginable, from multicountry group tours to luxury all-inclusive trips. And different types of agents can offer different perks.

For complex overseas trips, where a million things could go wrong, it makes sense to hire an agent to not only ensure everything goes as smoothly as possible but also handle the rebookings in the event of a hiccup. When something goes awry, it's someone else's problem.

While James decided to have his agent handle just the basics of his Vietnam vacation, many agents can help curate the experiences in between, promising to find their clients the coolest markets to shop at or the most-recommended museums. On a different trip, to Oktoberfest in Germany, James' travel agent — a native German speaker — was able to secure all sorts of reservations that James would never have been able to land on his own.

Increasingly, travel agents are luring people in through social media, where they can speak straight to the millennial and Gen Z desire for a unique experience and a relaxing trip. "We can give you the special slice-of-life experience you want," they pitch, "just without the hassle." Companies like Fora, for example, use TikTok and Instagram to seed sleek ads for package trips to the Croatian coast or boutique hotels in the Florida Keys, with extra attention given to "sustainability" and travelers' specific "aesthetic" desires.

Agents elsewhere on TikTok tout all-inclusive trips where the point is to just lie on the beach and chill the hell out for a second. Searches for topics like "best all-inclusives Cancún" heavily feature travel agents promoting their services, ranking their favorite resorts and highlighting the perks they can offer clients who book with them. One of their main selling points: Their services are free. And many agents also claim that their customers can receive better deals thanks to the special pricing and perks available to agents.

"We can give you the special slice-of-life experience you want," they pitch, "just without the hassle."

"Many of my Gen Z clients are in entry-level careers, graduate programs, or saving for other big expenses, so they're often looking for destinations that allow them to relax while making the most of their limited vacation days and budget," said Kayla Smith, a travel advisor for Sojourney Travel, a company specializing in beach vacations, cruises, and theme-park trips.

Smith is a Gen Zer and said that over half her clients are Gen Z. "Going from school to the workforce is already a huge life transition, and when you add on a pandemic and varying career expectations, you're bound to see a generation who is experiencing burnout at a rapid rate," she said.

For that reason, resort groups like Sandals are seeing an influx of Gen Zers and millennials. Ashley Kooker, a senior business-development manager for Unique Vacations, a sales and marketing affiliate of Sandals and Beaches Resorts, said that these properties had been attracting younger customers in part by blending the all-inclusive format with the opportunity for more exploration. At Sandals Royal Curacao and Sandals Royal Bahamian, guests can opt to go off-resort and visit local restaurants as part of their all-inclusive plan — allowing experience-minded vacationers to have their cake and eat it, too.

Exhaustion aside, many of us 20-somethings still yearn for these hard-to-get-to, out-of-the-box journeys — the trips that make us feel like travelers rather than tourists. William Lee, a travel agent at Chima Travel, a family-owned agency in Ohio that's been operating for over 100 years, told me he often gets requests for obscure destinations young clients see on social media. "We had a client come in and ask us about Oeschinen Lake in Switzerland," he said. "They saw the lake on TikTok and wanted to go there. I had to let them know that to do so would require hiking into the Swiss Alps and going a bit off the beaten path."

I recently wrapped up a 10-day trip to Peru, where I hiked for three days through the Lares District, ate quinoa soup in the San Pedro Market in Cusco, and bar-hopped in Lima. It was a trip packed with experiences — the kind that my generation is always talking about prioritizing — but I don't think I relaxed for a moment. And that's despite leaving all the planning to my friends.

I'm already plotting my next big, multiweek international trip — I'm looking at Vietnam, myself — but before then, I need to book a few days somewhere where I can be by a pool with a margarita in hand. Where will I go? I'm not sure. That's for a travel agent to decide.

Magdalene Taylor is a writer covering sex and culture. She lives in New York City and publishes the newsletter Many Such Cases. 

• "Bridgerton" season three, part two has the longest sex scene of the franchise so far.
• Colin and Penelope have an intimate scene that lasts over 5 and a half minutes.
• The actors, Nicola Coughlan and Luke Newton, have been teasing this scene for months.

Warning: Spoilers ahead for "Bridgerton" season three, episode five.

"Bridgerton" season three gets a whole lot sexier in part two.

For years, "Bridgerton" has been praised for its female gaze-focused, explicit sex scenes. Season one and the "Queen Charlotte" spin-off were filled with raunchy romps that weren't common in the Regency series.

But Colin Bridgerton and Penelope Featherington take this to a whole new level in season three, episode five.

A day after his sudden proposal (and that steamy carriage hook-up), Colin (Luke Newton) takes his childhood friend Penelope (Nicola Coughlan) to see the Bridgerton property that will become their home after their marriage.

While alone, Colin tells Penelope he loves her and begins describing all the parts of her body he adores. As the pair look at each other in the mirror, Colin starts touching Penelope up and down her body and then strips her of her clothing.

Though there have been many shirtless scenes with male leads, this is the first scene in "Bridgerton" history where a female lead character is fully nude in front of the camera.

Colin and Penelope then have an extended lovemaking scene on a chaise lounge chair while a string cover of Ariana Grande's song "POV" plays in the background.

The scene is sensual, and Penelope, a virgin, is a lot more of an active participant in the sex scene compared to the previous lead couples' first times.

The physical foreplay to the end of the scene lasts over five and a half minutes, which is the longest sex scene of the show, according to Business Insider's extremely scientific calculations.

Nicola Coughlan and Luke Newton have been teasing this scene for a long time

For months, Coughlan and Newton have been steadily building anticipation for this sex scene in numerous interviews, sending fans into a frenzy.

Coughlan told Entertainment Weekly in April that she and Newton broke "a piece of furniture" while filming one of the intimate scenes.

She wouldn't say what the furniture was at the time, but the chaise lounge chair in the episode five scene fits Coughlan's description when she spoke about it again to CapitalFM in May.

"I would say it's like a piece of furniture that you would more see in the past than the present, but yeah, we did break it during a sexy scene because we were really going for it," Coughlan said.

In May, Coughlan also told the Stylist that she specifically asked to be "very naked on camera" during an explicit scene to clap back at people who have commented on her body in the past.

"It just felt like the biggest 'fuck you' to all the conversation surrounding my body; it was amazingly empowering," Coughlan said, referring to people who have body-shamed her on social media.

Netflix's marketing team also helped create buzz around season three's sex scene by releasing promotional material showing Colin and Penelope in front of a mirror. Fans of the books that "Bridgerton" is based on immediately saw this as a signal that the show was adapting the "mirror scene."

All these teases made "Bridgerton" fans believe they would see some very spicy scenes this season. Sure enough, season three, part two finally rewards their patience.

All episodes of season three of "Bridgerton" are now streaming on Netflix.