In Lidia Bastianich’s PBS special “Lidia Celebrates America: A Nation of Neighbors,” one of the people featured is Kiki Rough, who has gained a following on TikTok and other social media platforms for her “Recession Recipes” series of videos. A self-taught cook, she is helping people learn — or more accurately re-learn — how to make a dollar stretch in the kitchen, resurfacing ideas from earlier eras.

“I think a lot of people facing food insecurity right now feel very alone and isolated,” she tells Bastianich in the special, which airs Tuesday on Chicago’s WTTW, “and what I’m trying to do is make sure that they have the skills to feel normal and feel empowered, even though everything else feels like it’s on fire.”

It’s an especially timely subject with the recent uncertainty around SNAP benefits.

Rough, 29, wears heart-shaped glasses. She was born in Hoffman Estates and moved around often as a child. Now she’s based in Porter County, Indiana. She started the “Recession Recipes” series less than a year ago, in February.

She was already on TikTok, with about 60,000 followers that she had picked up after posting videos of her and her husband “doing weird stuff, like he rigged a stove to heat our pool and we could bake cookies while our pool was being heated. Just funny stuff like that. I was just posting stuff randomly and didn’t have a strategy.”

In January, she lost her job working at a software technology company, “so I took a step back and said, what am I good at? I bought a nice camera and I was going to start doing software product demonstrations, because the industry I was working in was so niche that I figured I could find some of these companies in this ecosystem to buy software demonstrations from me.”

But instead of pursuing that, “Recession Recipes” came about — and by accident. “The biggest luxury to me was getting to a place where I could go to the grocery store and put whatever I wanted in my cart, and all of a sudden that wasn’t true again. So for fun, I decided to make a video making a common meal I used to make when I had no money. And I woke up after I posted that and I had 150,000 followers. And I was like, oh! So from there, I realized this is impacting people hard.”

Now she posts a new video three to four times a week, while juggling  a new job that she landed in March. “I don’t make enough from this series to do it full-time, so I work about 30-40 hours a week at this software technology firm and then I get off and work about 20 hours a week on these videos.”

Reached at her home, she talked about the origins of the series and whether this is something she can eventually turn her attention to full-time.

Q: What’s your backstory as a cook?

A: I don’t have any formal culinary experience. The knowledge that I have is from life experience, and being totally kicked on my butt and having to make do with whatever I could get access to. I had to drop out of college for a while and all of a sudden I was working three minimum-wage jobs. I was on food stamps, but I only got about $40 a month. And then I got a 10 cent raise at one of my jobs and I lost my food stamps. So I was playing Tetris with my budget.

Kiki Rough films a video for her TikTok series “Recession Recipes.” (E. Jason Wambsgans/Chicago Tribune)

Q: Fast-forward to February and your thought process after posting that first video.

A: I was really excited at the response and I thought maybe this is when I start showing people the basic skills that I had to teach myself. We weren’t really a cooking household growing up; I love my mother, but she is not the best cook. Something that really excited my audience is what can actually be made in the kitchen, because we have a knowledge gap.

Q: When influencers start making money — sometimes big money — one criticism they have to contend with is that they’re not relatable anymore. Looking ahead longer term, how do you think about navigating that?

A: I’m very mindful about that. I have a tip jar, but I don’t want my followers to ever have to purchase my content. I want it to be free.

Right now, the way that I live would be considered lower middle class. I’m strictly shopping at Dollar General and Aldi right now. I would love to get to middle class. I’ve taken on about $5,000 in debt to create the series, so the money that I make not only goes to pay down that debt, but yesterday I just got a better camera that will allow me to show more intricate shots of what I’m doing. So I’m constantly making sure that I’m pouring money back into the series.

And I don’t advertise this, but sometimes I’ll send some of my followers grocery money. Or this one woman was like, “I’d love to make this but I don’t have spoons or bowls right now,” so I sent her a gift card to get spoons and bowls. I live very modestly and I hardly shop for myself, so I do not intend on turning this into something where I all of a sudden detach from the reality that my followers are living in. I don’t want this to be a get-rich cash funnel.

Q: In the PBS special, you talk about finding ideas in old recipe books from the early 1900s, the Depression and wartime eras. 

A: We’ve already gone through this history and lived it as a society, so I can just pull from the pros. One thing that doesn’t necessarily translate is that back then, nearly everyone had access to eggs, and that’s just not the case anymore (with egg prices increasing). Or everybody used dairy, which isn’t the case now. My family has very severe food allergies — and a lot of them — so how can I take these recipes and do the math and make it not only modern, but adaptable for people who have food allergies?

What I’m mindful of is that people have limited ingredients and I don’t want to give them a recipe that requires a certain level of skill that they might not be at. But also, even if they make a couple of mistakes, it’ll still end up being good, because very few people can afford to waste their food. There is no room for experimentation in lower-income kitchens right now, so I have to make sure everything I’m putting out is an entry-level skill set, but also that whatever substitutions you use are going to work. You have to be able to eat that meal after you make it.

Q: Where are you finding these books?

A: Oh, it’s so fun, it’s like a treasure hunt! There is an antique book reseller near me that has my number on file and he’ll be like, “Hey, I just got one from the 1920s, do you want to come in?” But also I go to estate sales, there are a lot of hidden gems in there. And also, I was really touched by this, someone was clearing out their deceased parents’ house and found their cookbooks and sent them to me. I can’t tell you how much that moved me. The books are everywhere; you just need to know where to look.

Something I notice in the books is, all of a sudden there will be pigeon as an ingredient. They tried to use everything. Sometimes it will call for leftover grease from another recipe. You can tell everyone was trying to use every last drop. Also, they got a little too excited with Jell-O, I’ll say that.

Q: Are there recipes that you come across and think: No one is going to eat this, I really can’t consider it for an upcoming video.

A: Oh, 100%! Some of the ingredients are like: Are you willing to shoot rodents? There was this one cookbook I didn’t buy that was focused on recipes made with squirrel and rabbit.

Q: What recipe got a big response that surprised you?

A: Bagels and cream cheese. That blew some people’s minds, because they were like, “I’m not a bakery but I can make bagels?” That’s my favorite one. The bagels and the cream cheese are from scratch.

Q:  Coming up with new ideas and then shooting and editing your videos is a full-time job in terms of time and effort. Do you want it to become your full-time job for real?

A: Well, right now I don’t have kids. So that’s a big time-freer. I have an acting degree and this series has allowed me to reconnect to that love of performance, but also that love of being myself. Because when you’re acting, you’re being someone else and tapping into someone else’s vision, and this has given me such a good creative outlet as myself.

It’s also the way that I can help right now. And I am so invested in the people that I’m helping, that I will continue to juggle this if I have to and don’t end up monetizing it enough to make it my full-time job.

It’s tough because my inbox is full of people who are so scared and they really express those fears to me. I’m just one woman, but with the SNAP uncertainty, I feel even more motivated. But the concern for everyone swallows me sometimes.

Q: What is it like becoming the face of a business venture? 

A: It’s really humbling. I was bullied growing up, because I was a weird girl, because I make noise when I want, and I say funny things that may not land. So, becoming a personality that people gravitate to and trust, I’ve never felt more appreciated and supported in my life. It’s not like they’re loving this curated personality; they’re appreciating me.

I kind of had to have an ego death in order to put this together because I didn’t have an hour to do hair and makeup between my day job and the filming. I had to let that go and just show up how I am for the day and then slap that on the internet. And it’s made me let go of that vanity because the impact is there whether or not I have lipstick on. I know that the people at home care way less about how I look and care more about how I’m talking to them and the knowledge that I’m giving them.

Kiki Rough adds ingredients to her dish, on camera, in a video for her TikTok series “Recession Recipes.” (E. Jason Wambsgans/Chicago Tribune)

Q: Have you been contacted by book agents or TV producers?

A: I have been contacted by a few book agents and what I will say right now is that I need to make sure that if I take a book deal that it heavily aligns with my values. And right now I’m not there yet.

I haven’t been reached out to by a producer yet, but having a show would be a dream. And I don’t think people understand how far I could take this. How bright I could make this.

I’m an adult, I don’t have kids, but I watch “Bluey” because it gives me this feel-good feeling. It’s wholesome and it calms me down after watching the news. And I think now is the time to step back and create that kind of positive content that people can lean into. That’s part of the appeal of Mr. Rogers or Bob Ross. They are neurologically calming!

So I would love to have a show where I meet new people, cook new things and get new perspectives on life from different walks of life. My brain is a constant creative machine and I know if I had the resources, there is so much cheer I could bring to households.

By Jordan Rau, KFF Health News, KFF Health News

Nancy Hunt arrived at an emergency room from a Genesis HealthCare nursing home in Pennsylvania in such dreadful shape, including maggots infesting her gangrened foot, that the hospital called an elder abuse hotline and then the police, her son alleged in a lawsuit.

Hunt died five days later. Her death certificate said the foot injury was a “significant” factor. Genesis denied wrongdoing but agreed to pay $3.5 million in a settlement Hunt’s son signed in August 2024.

Yet Genesis hasn’t paid most of that debt, court records show. It may never have to.

Once the nation’s largest nursing home chain, Genesis says it was spending $8 million a month defending and settling lawsuits over resident injuries and deaths in recent years. But the company is now poised to wipe the liability slate clean by seeking refuge in the most protective corner of the legal system for the nursing home industry: bankruptcy court.

The Genesis case, one of 11 large senior care bankruptcies this year, illustrates how health care companies can dodge public and financial accountability for alleged negligence through delays, confidentiality clauses, and bankruptcy maneuvers, a KFF Health News investigation found.

When it filed for bankruptcy in Dallas in July, Genesis estimated its total liability for nearly a thousand settled and pending lawsuits at $259 million. A KFF Health News review of the terms of 155 settlement agreements and corporate financial statements shows Genesis officials knew insolvency was possible yet included provisions in its settlement agreements allowing it to defer payment, often for a year or more.

As a result, Genesis paid nothing in 85 cases and only a portion in the other 70, according to civil court records and bankruptcy claims made available through people with access to them. It still owes $41 million of the $58 million it had agreed to pay in those cases, the records show.

“It just feels like they killed my mom and got away with it,” said Vanessa Betancourt, whose mother, Nellie Betancourt, a retired nurse, fractured her hip at a Genesis home in Albuquerque, New Mexico — an injury the medical examiner’s report said led to her death. Genesis agreed to a $650,000 settlement with Betancourt’s family in April under the condition it would not need to pay the first of seven installments for another year, according to the settlement document.

Genesis denied wrongdoing in all lawsuits and settlements. In a written statement, the company did not answer questions about individual personal injury cases. The statement said Genesis remained “focused on delivering high-quality, compassionate care to our patients and residents without disruption” during bankruptcy.

One lawsuit Genesis settled for nearly $1 million alleged nursing home managers ignored repeated warnings about a male resident’s behavior before he sexually assaulted a female Alzheimer’s patient, according to court records. In a case the company resolved for $500,000, a Genesis nursing home was accused of delaying the hospitalization of a resident who had vomited brown mucus. He died of a bowel obstruction. Genesis has paid nothing for either settlement, according to bankruptcy claims.

Creditors, including families of the deceased, are expected to salvage a fraction of what they were promised, if anything. On Dec. 10, the company’s owners were scheduled to seek approval by the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Northern District of Texas to sell its nursing homes and other assets to its largest investor, a private equity firm. In court papers, lawyers for residents and other creditors say the complex plan will prevent them from pursuing Genesis’ new ownership and other companies they blame for the company’s collapse.

John Anthony, a bankruptcy attorney representing 340 personal injury claims against Genesis, said, “They never had any intention to honor these deals.”

Low Ratings and Fines

During years of financial turmoil, Genesis has frequently struggled to provide top-notch care, federal records show. Using its five-star system, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services rated 58% of homes affiliated with Genesis as below average or much below average. CMS has fined Genesis homes $10 million for violating federal health standards over the past three years.

In 2022, Connecticut health regulators shuttered a Genesis home after two deaths and multiple violations. The company closed another Connecticut nursing home this year after residents twice were evacuated over safety concerns.

In its Chapter 11 filing, Genesis said it cared for about 15,000 residents in 165 nursing homes and 10 assisted living facilities in 18 states. They are centered in Pennsylvania, West Virginia, New Mexico, New Hampshire, New Jersey, Maine, Alabama, Maryland, and North Carolina, according to the bankruptcy filing.

The company said it owed $709 million in secured debt to lenders and the IRS. Under bankruptcy rules, those debts, backed by Genesis collateral, take precedence over the $1.6 billion in unsecured debt Genesis said it owes. Unsecured creditors include a pension fund; contractors that provided health services and equipment; Pennsylvania, New Mexico, and West Virginia for unpaid provider taxes; and former residents and their families who sued.

Dangers in Memory Care

Sandia Ridge Center, a Genesis home in Albuquerque, was repeatedly faulted by health regulators for not preventing sexual misbehavior in its memory care unit. In November 2021, CMS cited the home for lacking enough nurses to prevent sexual abuse among residents. An inspection report the following August identified more inappropriate sexual contact. Police were called to investigate sexual assault allegations in February and March of 2023, police reports show; neither resulted in criminal charges.

Then in April 2023, a 61-year-old male resident with alcohol-related dementia sexually assaulted a female resident with Alzheimer’s in the dining room, according to a police report and an inspection report. When the resident screamed for him to stop and that he was hurting her, he responded “shut up bitch I know you like this,” according to a lawsuit brought on behalf of the woman, identified in court papers as R.S.

Sandia Ridge management had been aware of the male resident’s behavioral issues for months, according to employee depositions in the case. Police had investigated a prior sexual assault allegation against him the previous year without bringing charges. In one deposition, a former activities assistant testified he hit her and twice pushed her into a bathroom while announcing, “I want to have sex with you.” When she reported him to a senior Genesis manager, she said in the deposition, the manager put his finger over his lips and said, “Shhh.”

The activities worker testified that R.S. used to happily sing along with Elvis Presley songs. After the assault, the worker said, R.S. “don’t sing anymore.”

Inspectors cited the home for failing to protect R.S. The same report said the home didn’t provide a therapist for another female resident who was being sexually harassed. Medicare fined Sandia Ridge Center $91,247. Genesis denied liability but settled R.S.’ lawsuit for $925,000 in May, according to the bankruptcy claim.

“We just felt we have to hold them accountable,” R.S.’ daughter said in an interview, speaking on the condition that she and her mother not be identified, because of the nature of the assault. “Maybe I’m wrong, maybe I’m naive, but the only way to do that is to sue someone, right?”

Genesis has not paid any of the settlement, according to the family’s claim filing.

Growth and Debt

Genesis’ downfall can be traced to 2007, when affiliates of two private equity firms acquired the company in a $1.5 billion leveraged buyout, taking on substantial debt, according to its bankruptcy filing. Private equity also has been involved in other health care bankruptcies, including those of the HCR ManorCare nursing home chain, the prison health care contractor Corizon Health, and two for-profit hospital systems, Steward Health Care and Prospect Medical Holdings.

In 2011, Genesis raised $2.4 billion by transferring substantially all its nursing home buildings and other real estate to Welltower, a publicly traded real estate investment trust, according to Genesis’ bankruptcy filing. Genesis then rented the buildings back from Welltower, which made leasing costs a significant expense.

Genesis went on a nationwide buying spree. At its peak in 2016, it had grown to more than 500 nursing homes. In a court declaration, Louis Robichaux IV, a consultant overseeing Genesis’ bankruptcy restructuring, wrote that as the company expanded, it became harder to manage and “mired in corporate inefficiencies.” Robichaux wrote that Genesis’ financial woes were exacerbated by rapidly increasing labor costs and lawsuits, including some predating the covid pandemic.

Starting in 2021, Genesis avoided bankruptcy after receiving $100 million in loans from a private equity firm founded by Joel Landau, the owner of a Brooklyn-based nursing home chain, according to Robichaux’s filing.

But Genesis continued to teeter on the edge of insolvency. In audited financial statements for 2022 and 2023 submitted to a California oversight agency, management and auditors said rent and debt obligations raised “substantial doubt about the company’s ability to continue as a going concern.”

In a court filing, a committee appointed by the U.S. Trustee’s Office to represent the unsecured creditors in the bankruptcy accused Landau and Welltower of orchestrating a covert plan that allowed Welltower to keep getting its rents while Landau could run the company and “siphon value to himself.” The committee alleged their efforts forced the company into insolvency while “staffing levels and patient care declined precipitously.” Landau and Welltower did not respond to requests for comment.

Staff at a Genesis HealthCare nursing home delayed hospitalizing James Sanderson, seen here with daughter Erin Pearson, for a week after he showed symptoms of a bowel obstruction, according to a lawsuit. (Courtesy Erin S. Pearson/KFF Health News/TNS)

Drawn-Out Lawsuits

Erin Pearson sued Genesis over the death of her father, James Sanderson, a retired mining company executive who died in 2018 after spending less than a month at Bear Canyon Rehabilitation Center in Albuquerque. In the memory care unit, Sanderson fell repeatedly, suffered medication errors made by nursing home staff, and developed a bowel obstruction and sepsis, according to the lawsuit, filed in 2019. Pearson’s lawyers said he was not hospitalized until eight days after nurses noticed he was vomiting brown mucus.

After the judge rejected Genesis’ request to force Pearson into arbitration, Genesis appealed. It took 2½ years before an appeals court affirmed the original decision to let the case go forward in court, records show.

This past May, more than five years after suing, Pearson reached a $500,000 settlement, with the first payment required by November, according to a copy of the agreement. Nothing was paid, according to the bankruptcy claim.

“It was so drawn out and for so long,” Pearson said in an interview, calling Genesis’ bankruptcy “despicable.”

Genesis HealthCare settlements included periodic payment plans, like this one from a $600,000 settlement in February 2025, included in a court record, that allowed the company to delay paying for a year or more. (Jordan Rau/KFF Health News/TNS)

Payouts Postponed

Jennifer Foote, an Albuquerque attorney who represents clients in multiple lawsuits against Genesis, including Pearson’s, said the company frequently filed appeals. “They did not usually win them on these issues,” she said, “and our sense was that they were doing it as a delay tactic.”

Genesis started using installment payments around 2018, said Dusti Harvey, Foote’s law partner. “The payments wouldn’t start for several months out,” Harvey said. Foote said Genesis’ lawyers often wanted to time the payments to start the month the trial in the case was scheduled to occur.

Families had to wait even when comparatively small amounts of money were involved, settlement agreements show. Genesis’ settlement agreements also included a confidentiality clause prohibiting discussion of the incidents.

Genesis agreed to pay $42,000 in a November 2024 settlement, but the first payment was not due until nine months later. It was not paid, according to the bankruptcy claim.

A $250,000 settlement signed in October 2023 did not start paying out until the following September. When Genesis declared bankruptcy — 21 months after the case was resolved — it still owed $100,000, according to the family’s claim.

Genesis HealthCare still owes $112,500 from a $950,000 settlement over the death of Margarett Johnson after an accident in a Maryland nursing home, according to a bankruptcy claim. (Angela Swann/KFF Health News/TNS)

‘We Never Found Out the Truth’

Settling cases allowed Genesis to avoid the expense and publicity of a trial, at which details of how its nursing homes functioned might have been revealed. In October 2020, Margarett Johnson, a retired school bus driver, fell out of her wheelchair at a Genesis nursing home in Waldorf, Maryland, fracturing her jawbone, nose, and neck, according to a lawsuit brought by her family. Johnson was sent to a trauma center and placed on a ventilator. She died three months later, at age 76, from ventilator-associated pneumonia, the lawsuit said.

“It looked like she was hit by a truck,” Angelina Harley, one of her daughters, said in an interview. “I knew my mom was not going to come home. I knew the Lord was not going to punish her more.”

The company denied negligence and blamed the accident on Johnson’s jacket getting tangled in the wheel of her wheelchair, according to the lawsuit. Harley and her sister Angela Swann were dubious.

“We never found out the truth,” Harley said. “They wanted to settle out of court.”

The company denied liability but agreed to a $950,000 settlement in October 2024. It never paid the final $112,500 installment, according to a letter Johnson’s five children sent to the bankruptcy judge.

“If you settle out of court, you know doggone well you did something wrong,” Harley said.

Maddening Judges

By summer 2025, judges in some civil cases had run out of patience.

Alma Brown, a retired day care manager and accordion teacher living in a Genesis nursing home in Clovis, New Mexico, suffered falls, infections, bedsores, and other neglect that hastened her death in 2023, according to her estate’s lawsuit. In Santa Fe District Court, Judge Kathleen McGarry Ellenwood castigated Genesis after it failed to pay $2 million of the $3 million settlement to Brown’s estate or explain the delay.

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Genesis “obviously benefited by not having to go to trial,” McGarry Ellenwood said in one hearing, according to a court transcript. “They assure me that they’re not trying to renege on their contract, but it certainly seems like they haven’t lived up to what the bargain was.”

Genesis declared bankruptcy the day McGarry Ellenwood announced she would impose more than $100,000 in fines, plus $10,000 more each day until the settlement was paid.

In Pennsylvania, Greg Hunt petitioned a judge to punish Genesis after it stopped payments of the $3.5 million settlement after the death of his mother, Nancy, the resident with the gangrenous foot. She had spent eight months in 2019 at Brandywine Hall, a Genesis facility in West Chester that was later sold and renamed.

In a filing with the Common Pleas Court of Montgomery County, Genesis admitted it was in arrears but asked the judge for more time, citing “unforeseen and exigent financial challenges.” Genesis said care for patients at its nursing homes would suffer if it had to pay immediately.

Unswayed, Judge Richard Haaz in June ordered Genesis to pay up, along with punitive interest. But the bankruptcy court stayed that order. Genesis still owes $1.4 million of the $2 million it was supposed to pay, according to Hunt’s claim. (The rest of the $3.5 million settlement is supposed to be paid by an insurer in January 2026.) Ian Norris, Hunt’s lawyer, declined to comment, citing confidentiality provisions in the settlement.

Court records indicate Genesis lawyers never disclosed in either case that it was preparing to declare bankruptcy.

Uptown Rehabilitation Center in Albuquerque, New Mexico, is one of 165 nursing homes Genesis HealthCare owns in the U.S.. (Adria Malcolm/KFF Health News/TNS)

‘Bankruptcy as a Tool’

In the first nine months of 2025, 10 other senior living companies with liabilities over $10 million entered Chapter 11 bankruptcy, according to Gibbins Advisors, a consulting firm.

Hamid Rafatjoo, a bankruptcy lawyer representing nursing homes who is not involved in the Genesis bankruptcy case, said filings may increase as the industry has become costlier to run and class action lawsuits have become a fixture.

“Nursing homes get sued all the time for everything,” Rafatjoo said. “A lot of operators wait too long to use bankruptcy as a tool.”

On Dec. 1, Genesis announced the results of its auction, saying it had elected to sell its assets to a private equity firm controlled by Landau. In a court filing, Anthony, the attorney for the personal injury claimants, alleged the auction was stacked in Landau’s favor despite an “objectively better and higher competing bid” from another private equity investor that would have provided more money to creditors. Genesis said in its statement that Landau’s group had increased its bid during the auction.

Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., and two other senators last month asked the U.S. Trustee’s Office to intervene in the case, out of concern that “individuals who already own or control Genesis are trying to sell it to themselves, wiping away legal and other creditor debts in the process.” Lawyers representing those in charge of the auction did not respond to a request for comment.

Families of former Genesis residents said they fear the capacity to purge lawsuits through bankruptcy emboldens nursing home owners who provide deficient care.

“They can file bankruptcy again,” said Gabe Betancourt, whose wife, Nellie, died after her stay at Uptown Rehabilitation Center in Albuquerque. “And we’re the ones that will pay for it, with our memories, our lives.”

©2025 KFF Health News. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

Amy Lindgren

The holidays already? Or, as the Grinch might say, “Again??”

Luckily, the Grinch isn’t writing my column today, so I can share the joy of books that might give you a lift over the dark days of winter. These aren’t specifically about jobs or careers; rather, they’re a short, curated group of books I’ve found interesting or helpful this year.

Maybe you’ll find one here to keep your spirits bright as we start our journey back to sunny days:

“There’s Nothing Like This: The strategic genius of Taylor Swift,” by Kevin Evers, Harvard Business Review Press, 2025. Here’s a book I didn’t expect to enjoy. I’m not a very musical person and I’m hard-pressed to whip up excitement about pop stars and cultural icons. So reading about Taylor Swift’s path to success? Um.

What sold me on cracking the cover was the credibility of the author, Kevin Evers, a senior editor at Harvard Business Review. That, and a quick scan of the 32 pages of end-notes, which convinced me this wasn’t an elaborate fandoration tome.

As a business writer and editor, Evers approaches Swift’s story from a perspective that is rarely presented with any depth. Where others dismiss Swift as lucky or gifted, Evers delves into the strategic mindset she has displayed in her 20 years of “overnight” success.

The results of his research are integrated into a storytelling style of writing that makes the pages fly by. A good choice for business-minded readers who appreciate a different model of success and for the fans who crave a different look at their idol.

“Master Your Mindset: Live a meaningful life,” by Michael Pilarczyk, Wiley, 2025. Some days it’s barely feasible for me to master my morning routine, much less my mindset – and the problem feels like it’s worsening. Our lives are so complex on every level, it feels inevitable that our minds would be pinging around like a pinball.

Author Pilarczyk knows this from both personal experience and from his profession as a “teacher in self-development, awareness and personal success.” We all know it, too, but somehow the solutions can be elusive.

I think that’s why I like this book so much – Pilarczyk acknowledges the problem but doesn’t stop there. He’s less interested in naming outside causes for our distraction and more committed to helping others find individual solutions.

Although this is not a huge book, neither is it a quick read. To get the bigger benefit of your own self-reflection and insight, you’ll want to approach the chapters with perhaps your phone turned off or the office door closed. With that head start, you’ll be able to focus on the questions he poses about the beliefs and values that shape your daily choices. There’s a lot here, but even the small takeaways are worth the effort.

“The Portable MFA in Creative Writing,” by the New York Writers Workshop, Writer’s Digest Books, 2006. Raise your hand if you’ve ever considered writing short stories or penning your memoir. One way to scratch that itch is through classes, or even a Master of Fine Arts degree (MFA).

For those not inclined to invest so much time or money, this book offers a different option: Learn about different aspects of creative writing from masters of the craft. Each of the book’s five disciplines – fiction, personal essay and memoir, magazine writing, poetry and playwriting – is given 60 or more pages of attention that includes exercises, examples and resources for further information.

It’s a terrific way to immerse yourself in key areas of creative writing while also refining your own skills. Although this is an older volume, the content is solid. If you’re craving more up-to-date websites and resources, pair this book with something newer in your favorite writing discipline.

“A Quaker Book of Wisdom: Life lessons in simplicity, service, and common sense,” by Robert Lawrence Smith, William Morrow & Co., 1998. You don’t need to attend Quaker meetings or be descended from nine generations of Quakers, as this author does and is, in order to absorb the deep wisdom of this classic book.

Using chapter titles such as “Silence,” “Conscience,” “Family” and “Business,” Smith presents relatable stories of his own journey smoothly blended with snippets of Quaker history and thought-provoking challenges for the reader.

Smith’s writing serves up dozens of memorable lines, ready for quotation. I’ll give him the last word in this review of books for winter reading:

“Every time we punch a time clock, write a paycheck, or use a credit card, we have an opportunity to let our life speak. What do we want to say?”

Amy Lindgren owns a career consulting firm in St. Paul. She can be reached at alindgren@prototypecareerservice.com.

By STEPHEN WADE

TOKYO (AP) — I speak decent Spanish, picked up working several decades ago as a news and sports reporter in Spain, Mexico and Argentina.

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Now I report from Tokyo. After seven years, I still can’t grasp Japanese. My weekly language classes have taught me humility more than anything else.

Ayaka Ono, my current Japanese teacher, estimates she’s tutored about 600 students over 15 years. They’ve been mostly between 20 and 50. I’m more than a decade beyond her eldest.

“I find older students take tiny, tiny steps and then they fall back,” Ono-san — “san” is an honorific in Japanese to show respect — tells me. “They can’t focus as long. I teach something one minute and they forget the next.”

It’s well established that children have an easier time learning second languages. In recent years, scientists have studied whether being bilingual may help ward off the memory lapses and reduced mental sharpness that come with an aging brain. Much of the research on the potential benefit involved people who spoke two or more languages for most of their lives, not older adult learners.

“The science shows that managing two languages in your brain — over a lifetime — makes your brain more efficient, more resilient and more protected against cognitive decline,” said Ellen Bialystok, a distinguished research professor emeritus at York University in Toronto who is credited with advancing the idea of a possible “bilingual advantage” in the late 1980s.

There’s good news for older adults like me: Attempting to acquire a new language is worthwhile, and not just because it makes reading a menu easier while traveling abroad. Bialystok, a cognitive neuroscientist, recommends studying a new language at any age, comparing the challenge to word puzzles and brain-training games that are promoted to slow the onset of dementia.

“Trying to learn a language late in life is a great idea, but understand it won’t make you bilingual and is probably too late to provide the protective effects of cognitive aging that come from early bilingualism,” she told The Associated Press. “However, learning a new language is a stimulating and engaging activity that uses all of your brain, so it is like a whole-body exercise.”

The latest research

A large study published by the science journal Nature Aging in November suggests that speaking multiple languages protects against more rapid brain aging, and that the effect increases with the number of languages.

The findings, based on research involving 87,149 healthy people ages 51 to 90, “underscore the key role of multilingualism in fostering healthier aging trajectories,” the authors wrote.

Researchers acknowledged the study’s limitations, including a sample population drawn only from 27 European countries with “diverse linguistic and sociopolitical contexts.”

Bialystok was not involved in the project but has researched second-language acquisition in children and adults, including whether being bilingual delays the progression of Alzheimer’s disease or aids in multi-tasking and problem-solving. She said the new study “ties all the pieces together.”

“Over the lifespan, people who have managed and used two languages end up with brains that are in better shape and more resilient,” she said.

Judith Kroll, a cognitive psychologist who heads the Bilingualism, Mind and Brain Lab at the University of California, Irvine, used the expressions “mental athletics” and “mental somersaults” to describe how the brain juggles more than one language.

She said there have been several efforts to examine language learning in older adults and the ramifications.

“I would say there are probably not enough studies to date to be absolutely definitive about this,” she told The AP. “But the evidence we have is very promising, suggesting both that older adults are certainly able to learn new languages and benefit from that learning.”

More studies are needed on whether language lessons help people in midlife and beyond maintain some cognitive abilities. Kroll compared the state of the field to the late 20th century, when the dominant thinking was that exposing infants and young children to two or more languages put them at a educational disadvantage.

“What we know now is the opposite,” she said.

Learning a language later in life

I visited Spain’s Mediterranean coast in the 1990s when I worked in Madrid. I was shocked by how many non-Spaniards there had lived in the country for years and could say only a few words in Spanish.

Now I get it. When I attempt Japanese, the reaction is often an incredulous, “And you’ve been here how long?”

I have workarounds to navigate my hostile linguistic environment. One is saying “itsumono.” It means “the same as always,” or “the usual.” It’s enough to order morning coffee at a neighborhood cafe or lunch at several regular stops.

As an aside, Japanese is one of the most difficult languages for English speakers to master, along with Arabic, Cantonese, Korean and Mandarin. Romance languages such as French, Italian or Spanish are easier.

My once-a-week class is grueling, and one hour is my limit. I use this analogy: my brain is a closet without enough empty hangers, and Japanese doesn’t go with anything in my wardrobe. The writing system is intimidating for an English speaker, the word order is flipped, and politeness is valued more than clarity.

During the 4 1/2 years I spent reporting from Rio de Janeiro, I got by with Portuñol — an improvised blend of Spanish and Portuguese — and the patience of Brazilians. There is no such halfway house for Japanese. You either speak it or you don’t.

I’ll never progress beyond preschool level in Japanese, but overloading my brain with lessons might work in the same way that my regular weight-training sessions help maintain physical strength.

Ono-san, my Japanese teacher, called language-learning apps “better than nothing.” Bialystok said technology can be a useful learning tool, “but progress of course requires using the language in real situations with other people.”

“If old folks try to learn a new language, you are not going to be very successful. You are not going to become bilingual,” Bialystok said. “But the experience of trying to learn the language is good for your brain. So what I say is this. What’s hard for your brain is good for your brain. And learning a language, especially in later life, is hard but good for your brain.”