It is interesting that as the average lifespan has grown longer, we seem to become more obsessed with medicine. The average life is obviously being extended because of medicine and because of science, but even so we seem to have become more afraid of all the possible ways our bodies can fail us.

We Google every “symptom” we have. We check medical websites. We ask our doctors for prescriptions to cure this and that. We ingest herbal remedies that have been proven to have no medicinal powers. We go on liquid detox diets that have also been proven bunk. We eat every single new food that may cure cancer. We try ancient remedies from other countries and continents.

Do we do it because we not only want to live longer, but live better? After all, what’s the point of extending our lives by a few years, if those years are going to be miserable?

Or have we been tricked? Have we been fooled by the endless commercials and billboards and magazine ads offering medicine for ailments we never even knew existed? We got along just fine without all of this medication until we convinced ourselves that maybe we really aren’t fine after all. So we search for deeper meanings to every slight pain we feel.

Maybe living longer is a curse. It only means we have more time to worry about the end.

Please note: We are shifting our editorial content away from dedicating entire issues to a single theme. We still have a theme, but we will now also publish stories that fall under four departments: Art, Power, Places and Flavor.

Walmsley Apricot finds salvation in America’s Voodoo industrial complex by traveling to Haiti.

Rose Dakin connects with the animal world by giving birth to her daughter. With John Gravois.

Bryan Joiner’s brother comes back from Spain espousing the medicinal powers of garlic. His stepfather likes garlic too. They don’t, however, like each other.

Last Exit co-editor Keach Hagey travels to Ethiopia for the music, but soon turns her attention to other sounds.

Nicole Whelan has diagnosed herself with any number of diseases, but finds that her true ailment is cyberchondria.

With the inauguration of Barack Obama next week, Last Exit co-editor Paul Menchaca recalls meeting another president shortly after moving to New York.

—The Editors