THIS WEEK: HRT • BOOK CLUB DRAMA • PROVING YOURSELF

THURSDAY • JULY 2 • 2026

Good morning,

My house in Oyster Bay is named Smuggler’s Cove, and it earned the name. During the Revolutionary War, small boats slipped into our inlet at night, sneaking munitions past the British occupation. The fighting we recall is of generals and signed treaties. The fighting that actually won it was ordinary people doing heroic work who never got their names in the story. A few miles from me, a young woman named Sally Townsend was feeding intelligence to Washington’s spies from a house full of British officers. She helped expose a pivotal plot. She got a footnote.

I’ve been reading the Federalist Papers this summer, partly to remember what this country was meant to be and partly to remind myself it was always an argument. We’ve been divided from the beginning, but our story can move forward when ordinary people refuse to stay quiet. Ken Burns’ new PBS documentary, The American Revolution, puts it simply: There is only us, no them.

On July 9, 23 years ago, a single study scared a generation of women off hormone treatment many of us needed. One set of headlines turned standard care into something suspect, and we’ve lived with the incalculable fallout ever since. I wrote this week’s feature, The Hormone Heist: The Headlines That Cost a Generation of Women, angry but clear-eyed. I took a hard look at what really happened that day—and why, even now, there are still barriers between women and the care we deserve. The story is infuriating, but it’s not hopeless.

So this Fourth, I’m holding both in mind: the country that wrote us out, and the people who did the work in the dark, in small boats. They didn’t wait to be seen. Neither do we.

Glad you’re here.

WELLNESS

​The Hormone Heist: The Headlines That Cost a Generation of Women​

BY SUSAN DABBAR

We were told the bone loss, the exhaustion, and the night sweats were just part of getting older. They weren't. A single misread study in 2002 scared a generation of women off hormone therapy, and the doctors who might have helped were either never taught the truth or too afraid to prescribe. Right when the stakes were highest—peak career, peak earning, peak everything—we were robbed of options. Twenty-three years later, we can finally name it. Here's the investigation into the medical failure that cost a generation of women their health, their careers, and their quality of life.

HUMOR | Book Club Drama Episode 4

Book Club Drama is PROVOKED's monthly comedy series by Emmy-winning writer Judy Rothman Rofé. Six episodes in season one. Eight women, one book a month, and a group chat that goes off the rails. Quick reads. Fiction, technically, but it reads like our own book clubs, chaos and all. New here? Start with Episode One.

​​Book Club Drama: Whalefall ​

BY JUDY ROTHMAN ROFÉ

Book club is back for week four. The host is stranded on an icebreaker somewhere above Svalbard. The book takes place entirely inside a sperm whale. The group rallied, ordered bolognese, and somehow pulled off one of its better discussions—which says something, though nobody's quite sure what. READ MORE​

Sharon's Strawberry Pie

A Bonus from My Table to Yours

Sharon's Strawberry Pie, a recipe passed down from an old friend, has been on my Fourth of July table for over a decade, and it earns its spot. It takes about 15 minutes to throw together, is almost impossible to mess up, and adds a gorgeous blast of color. Over my many moves, we've lost touch, but I never forgot Sharon's signature baking skills. Any recipe of hers is a keeper.

The photo is my own table from 10 years ago, sunflowers and all. Make it the morning of, let it set in the fridge, and then watch it disappear.

Sharon's Strawberry Pie

¾ cup sugar
2 tablespoons cornstarch
1 cup water
¼ cup dry strawberry Jell-O mix
2 pints sliced fresh strawberries
1 pre-baked pie shell, cooled (homemade if you insist)

Combine the sugar, cornstarch, and water in a saucepan and cook over medium heat, stirring, until thick and clear. Remove from heat and stir in the dry Jell-O until dissolved. Let cool.

Add the sliced strawberries to the cooled mixture and fold gently to coat. Pour into the cooled pie shell. Refrigerate for several hours, until set, before serving.

DEAR READER

​​I'm a Nine-Lane Super Highway​

BY KIRA HARTLEY KLINGER

We walk into spaces where nobody expects us to win. For 20 years, the job has been walking into estate sales, car part auctions, and storage lockers full of men who smirk until they see the pile. Think American Pickers, but 58, in ripped jeans and Chucks. Bettie Page came out from under a stranger's stairs for $6 and sold for $600. This is what it looks like to walk into a world built for someone else and keep winning anyway. READ MORE​

TAKE NOTE

Timely and worth your attention.

🩺 A study recently released of nearly 1.9 million women found that those prescribed vaginal estrogen after recurrent UTIs had far lower odds of sepsis, hospitalization, and death—across every age group, from 20 to 99. Among women 70 and older, death rates were 3.9% on estrogen versus 9.6% without it; hospitalizations and sepsis dropped by half or more. The treatment is cheap, safe, and decades old. If you want to skip to the good part, Dr. Corinne Menn, DO, FACOG, MSCP, does a solid job explaining the results on her Instagram.​

🏋️‍♀️ Lifting weights two or more hours a week was linked to a 44% lower risk of heart attack in a new 14-year study of 117,000 women—and those who hit all three marks (strength, aerobic, less TV) had the lowest risk of all. Heart disease is still the No. 1 killer of women. Note to self: the prescription has been the dumbbell rack the whole time.

💉 Starting July 1, Medicare begins covering obesity drugs like Wegovy and Zepbound for the first time with a $50-per-month copay through a new program called Bridge, for those who qualify and apply. The catch: 82% of older Americans have no idea it's happening. Novo Nordisk spent nearly half a billion advertising these drugs in nine months. On the rollout that finally makes them affordable, the silence is deafening.

READER SPOTLIGHT

Want to be featured next? Comment on your favorite piece—we read them all.

LIFE

​The Bicentennial Road: A 50-Year Ride to Who I Am​

BY GIANNELLA M. GARRETT

Summer of 1976, while the country threw itself a 200th birthday party, the only woman in this bike group of 10 pedaled coast to coast—81 days, 4,250 miles, through Civil War battlefields, over mountain passes, ambushed by sprinklers in a Colorado park at midnight. Back then the road only went one direction: forward. Fifty years and one 250th birthday later, how far have we come? READ MORE​

OUR SHORT LIST

Heading into the holiday weekend: what to play, what to eat, what to wear, and how to survive nature.

🎶 250 years, 250 essential American songs. Spin through what musicians and writers have named the country's defining tracks, then argue about what got left off.

🇺🇸 25 dishes that capture America right now—25 chefs on what we actually eat. More than hot dogs and burgers. And we have opinions.

🍗 Tyler Florence's fried chicken—buttermilk, a fistful of fresh herbs, and the only fried chicken recipe you'll need for the Fourth. (Editor-tested. It's the one.)

🦟 Why scratching that mosquito bite actually makes it worse. Ignore it and the itch is gone in 10 minutes; scratch it and it's your friend for a week.

👗 This navy contrast-piping dress is the perfect comfortable fit. Crisp without trying.

MORE

Bodies, Bias, and the Doctor's Office

​Invisible After 60: The Moment My Doctor Made Me Feel Irrelevant ​

BY MELISSA T SHULTZ

​Don't Die of Modesty: Get Undressed. Get Checked. ​

BY ABBY ALTEN SCHWARTZ

​As a Dietitian, I Call BS on BMI​

BY LAUREN MANAKER