Your BRIGHT Week in Review

Plus: Dinner and a Book 🚀

Trump to Putin: Time is Running Out

Fox News reported President Trump said he had an inconclusive phone call with Russian President Putin following Ukraine’s drone strike that destroyed dozens of Russian warplanes. “It was a good conversation, but not a conversation that will lead to immediate Peace,” Trump posted on Truth Social following the call, said to have lasted over an hour.

Fox News noted:

"We discussed the attack on Russia’s docked airplanes, by Ukraine, and also various other attacks that have been taking place by both sides," Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform. "It was a good conversation, but not a conversation that will lead to immediate Peace. President Putin did say, and very strongly, that he will have to respond to the recent attack on the airfields."

Trump added Putin offered to help push Iran toward a decision, warning, “time is running out” on nuclear negotiations. Trump wrote, “I stated to President Putin that Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon and, on this, I believe that we were in agreement. President Putin suggested that he will participate in the discussions with Iran and that he could, perhaps, be helpful in getting this brought to a rapid conclusion. It is my opinion that Iran has been slowwalking their decision on this very important matter, and we will need a definitive answer in a very short period of time!”

Study Says Exercise Cuts Colon Cancer Deaths by Over a Third

AP reported that a groundbreaking international study found that a three-year exercise program significantly improved survival rates and reduced cancer recurrence by 28% in patients with colon cancer. The randomized controlled trial—spanning Canada, Australia, the U.K., Israel, and the U.S.—compared 889 patients who received exercise coaching with those who got educational materials. Coached patients, supported over three years, exercised regularly and saw 37% fewer deaths. Experts hailed the study as the strongest evidence yet linking exercise directly to improved cancer outcomes.

According to AP, “That kind of behavior change can be achieved when people believe in the benefits, when they find ways to make it fun and when there’s a social component, said paper co-author Kerry Courneya, who studies exercise and cancer at the University of Alberta. The new evidence will give cancer patients a reason to stay motivated.”

Courneya said, “Now we can say definitively exercise causes improvements in survival.”

Is AI Your Coworker’s Secret to Productivity?

Axios reported many employees are secretly using generative AI tools like ChatGPT at work, often due to unclear company policies, fear of judgment, or the desire to gain an edge. Ivanti’s 2025 report shows 42% of office workers use genAI, with one-third hiding it. Studies show users fear being seen as lazy or replaceable, though frequent users are more accepting. Experts urge companies to shift from bans to education and safe experimentation. Open, collaborative AI use—guided by transparent leadership—could reduce secrecy and improve workplace outcomes. Elliot Katz, co-founder of mixus.ai, said, “One person's dirty little secret can be a tool that teams are excited to use together daily.”

Dinner and a Book 🚀

I’m alone this weekend with Cora and will be spending it reading Taylor Jenkins Reid’s new book, Atmosphere. She is author of two of my favorite books — The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo and Daisy Jones & The Six. From the description of Atmosphere:

Joan Goodwin has been obsessed with the stars for as long as she can remember. Thoughtful and reserved, Joan is content with her life as a professor of physics and astronomy at Rice University and as aunt to her precocious niece, Frances. That is, until she comes across an advertisement seeking the first women scientists to join NASA’s space shuttle program. Suddenly, Joan burns to be one of the few people to go to space.

Selected from a pool of thousands of applicants in the summer of 1980, Joan begins training at Houston’s Johnson Space Center, alongside an exceptional group of fellow candidates: Top Gun pilot Hank Redmond and scientist John Griffin, who are kind and easygoing even when the stakes are highest; mission specialist Lydia Danes, who has worked too hard to play nice; warmhearted Donna Fitzgerald, who is navigating her own secrets; and Vanessa Ford, the magnetic and mysterious aeronautical engineer, who can fix any engine and fly any plane.

As the new astronauts become unlikely friends and prepare for their first flights, Joan finds a passion and a love she never imagined. In this new light, Joan begins to question everything she thinks she knows about her place in the observable universe.

Then, in December of 1984, on mission STS-LR9, it all changes in an instant.

For dinner, stuff I don’t normally make when there’s a meat and potatoes man in the house — various salads, maybe the famous Watergate Salad (if that counts as salad).

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