Weekly Top Five Articles

Here’s what stood out this week. . .

(1) “Where the Evangelicals Are (And Where They Aren’t): Where is the Competition? Mapping Religious Dominance,” by Dr. Ryan Burge, Washington University in St. Louis.

This article from Ryan Burge explains why Aaron Renn’s hopes that evangelicalism will produce cultural elites will never happen.

Ryan Burge uses new AI-assisted methods and Religion Census data to answer a deceptively simple question: where are evangelicals most and least present in the United States. By classifying roughly 350 Protestant denominations into Evangelical, Mainline, and Black Protestant categories, Burge produces one of the most detailed county-level maps of American religious life to date.

The headline finding is geographic concentration, not dominance. Evangelicals are the largest Christian tradition in 59 percent of U.S. counties, largely across the Bible Belt, but these counties are often small and sparsely populated. Evangelicalism is strongest in rural areas and steadily weakens as county population increases. In the nation’s largest counties, only about 11 percent of residents are evangelical, with meaningful evangelical presence outside Texas being rare.

Catholicism, by contrast, is more urban and concentrated in major population centers, explaining why Catholics outnumber evangelicals nationally despite being the largest tradition in fewer counties. Burge also finds modest “crowding out” between Catholics and evangelicals, geographic overlap between evangelicals and the Black Church, and little relationship between evangelicals and mainline Protestants.

Finally, evangelicalism itself is increasingly split between Southern Baptists and non-denominational churches, with non-denominational dominance outside the South. The data suggests American evangelicalism is not expanding territorially, but consolidating regionally and demographically, with important implications for its future.

(2) The New Pope of Prep A preppy revival is sweeping fashion and culture. Thank Jack Carlson for that, by Alec Dent, Town and Country (Dec 25/Jan 26).

Prep is back, and it was never really about clothes

Two Town & Country pieces, nearly a decade apart, reveal why preppy culture keeps resurfacing and why it feels newly confident again. Alec Dent’s profile of Jack Carlson frames the current revival as institutional rather than ironic. By taking the helm at J. Press, Carlson positions prep not as nostalgia or costume, but as a living tradition with room for wit, color, and evolution. His vision preserves the canonical staples of Ivy style while rejecting the anxious conservatism that once froze prep in amber. The result is continuity without stiffness and playfulness without parody.

Lisa Birnbach’s earlier essay supplies the cultural grammar underneath that revival. Prep, she argues, is not a matter of choice but inheritance. Even sleepwear follows unwritten rules, governed by habit, modesty, and received wisdom rather than self expression or seduction. What looks eccentric from the outside is internally coherent, shaped by memory, family, and an instinct for preparedness.

Read together, the articles suggest that prep endures because it resists reinvention for its own sake. It adapts slowly, honors lineage, and treats taste as something learned over time. Carlson’s success makes sense precisely because he understands that prep is less a trend than a temperament, one that values restraint, humor, and continuity in an age obsessed with novelty.

(3) Remaining single in your twenties is linked to lower life satisfaction by Karina Petrova, PsyPost (January 16, 2026)

A new longitudinal study following more than 17,000 young adults in Germany and the United Kingdom complicates the celebratory narrative surrounding extended singlehood. Tracking participants from age 16 to 29, researchers found that those who remained single throughout their twenties experienced sharper declines in life satisfaction, rising loneliness, and eventually higher depressive symptoms compared to peers who entered romantic relationships. Crucially, these differences were not present in adolescence. The well being gap widened gradually as individuals approached their late twenties.

The study helps resolve a long standing question in social psychology. It shows that both selection and causation are at work. Lower life satisfaction and higher loneliness increase the likelihood of remaining single, but prolonged singlehood itself further erodes well being over time. Entering a first romantic relationship reliably boosts life satisfaction and reduces loneliness, with effects that persist. Depressive symptoms, however, are less responsive, suggesting that relationships enhance social meaning and connection more than they cure mood disorders.

The findings cut against the idea that delayed partnership is emotionally neutral or easily offset by education, income, or independence. Men and women showed similar patterns, as did individuals across socioeconomic lines. The authors describe a compounding cycle in which declining well being makes relationship formation harder, which in turn accelerates psychological strain. The implication is not moralistic, but developmental. Romantic partnership remains a major milestone of emerging adulthood, and missing it may carry real, if moderate, psychological costs as young adults move toward thirty.

(4) Religious attendance linked to better mental health in older adults by Karina Petrova, PsyPost (January 15, 2026)

A new seven year longitudinal study of older Americans offers a clearer explanation for why religious attendance is consistently linked to better mental health. Analyzing data from nearly 2,800 adults aged 75 and older, the research shows that participation in religious services predicts lower levels of anxiety and depression over time, partly because it strengthens internal psychological well-being rather than merely providing social contact.

Moving beyond the common assumption that church benefits mental health mainly through friendship and community, the study focuses on deeper internal resources. Drawing on Carol Ryff’s framework of psychological well-being, the researcher finds that religious attendance increases a sense of purpose, self-acceptance, and environmental mastery. These qualities, in turn, reduce symptoms of depression and anxiety. Roughly one quarter of the mental health benefit associated with religious attendance is explained by these gains in psychological well-being.

The findings remain robust even after controlling for physical health, cognitive function, and demographic factors, and they persist despite the sharp drop in attendance during the COVID-19 pandemic. The study highlights that religion as more than a social outlet. For many seniors, religious practice appears to function as a meaning-making structure that reinforces dignity, coherence, and purpose in the later stages of life.

The implication is practical as well as theoretical. Supporting access to religious participation for older adults may be a legitimate component of mental health care, not because belief eliminates suffering, but because it cultivates the psychological resources that help people endure it.

(5) “High-dose birth control pills linked to elevated fear in safe contexts,” by Eric W. Dolan, PsyPost (January 15, 2026)

A new experimental study in Neuropsychopharmacology suggests that oral contraceptives, particularly higher-dose formulations containing synthetic estrogen, may subtly alter how the brain regulates fear in safe environments. In a controlled laboratory setting, women who currently used birth control pills showed heightened fear responses in contexts that signaled safety, compared to women who had never used hormonal contraception. Notably, similar patterns were observed among women who had discontinued pill use more than a year earlier, raising the possibility of lingering effects.

Wow!

The study focused on contextual fear regulation, the brain’s ability to distinguish between threat and safety based on environment. While men and women with natural menstrual cycles showed similar fear responses, contraceptive users had more difficulty suppressing fear when danger cues appeared in a safe context. This effect was strongest among women using higher doses of synthetic estrogen, suggesting a dose-related relationship rather than a general sex difference.

Brain imaging linked these responses to reduced activity in the hippocampus and ventromedial prefrontal cortex, regions critical for contextual memory and fear inhibition. Importantly, fear responses in genuinely threatening contexts were unchanged, indicating a specific impairment in recognizing safety rather than heightened fear overall.

The study highlight a potential neurobiological pathway connecting hormonal contraception and anxiety vulnerability. The study underscores the need for more nuanced research to help women make informed contraceptive choices, especially regarding hormone dosage and mental health.

Bonus Material

Below are a few additional excellent articles showing why most men are not “toxic,” how boys and girls approach math differently, and why books are better than screen-based programs for developing language skills in preschoolers.