The Brief

Pain is universal. It's also extremely personal.

Almost everyone has experienced some kind of pain in their life, be it emotional or physical. Many of us, millions in fact, also suffer from chronic pain. I know I have. And while we might think we know exactly where the pain stems from, many times, the source of the pain is not what we think.

Every year, the medical community is learning more and more about pain — its origins, its function, and its relationship to the mind and body. While research has long shown that pain comes from the brain, many scientists and doctors haven't necessarily engaged with this critical information. Remember the last time you went to the doctor for pain? You were probably prescribed medication, maybe you got an X-ray and perhaps that did the trick.

Unfortunately, for the millions of Americans suffering from chronic pain, simple interventions often don't work. Why? Because we're often misdiagnosing the source of the pain and thus, mistreating it as well.

This illustration image shows tablets of opioid painkiller Oxycodone delivered on medical prescription taken on Sept. 18, 2019 in Washington, DC.

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Thankfully, a new study published in the Journal of Pain provides new data to help us understand pain — where it comes from, why we experience it, and how we can not only better manage it, but in some cases eradicate it completely.

So, where does pain come from?

Scientists now believe that all pain is generated in the brain, but that doesn't make the pain any less real. And it's understandable if this is triggering for some. Many people, women especially, aren't heard when they say they feel pain. There's even a term for it — "medical gaslighting." Have you ever had a doctor say to you "it's all in your head" in a dismissive way?

"It's not all in your head, but it is coming from your head," said Nathaniel Frank, an author and historian who is writing a book about the mind-body connection to pain. Frank recently wrote an op-ed in the LA Times called "The pain in your back? It's really a pain in your brain." His article cites the new research on pain, which further proves this premise.

"Pain experience is generated from a whole variety of experiences," said Frank, who also directs Cornell University's "What We Know" project, which collects scholarship on cultural and policy issues for the general public. "If you've broken a bone, slipped a disc, torn a muscle, you likely experienced structural pain. What's fascinating is that over time, even as the injury heals, our pain can get worse."

So, why does our pain get worse even when your bodies are getting better?

The mind-body connection to pain

Michigan State University Clinical Professor Dr. Howard Schubiner recently led a study that revealed something about pain that's counterintuitive — back pain can occur in the absence of tissue damage due to learned neural circuits in the brain.

"We see this all the time," said Schubiner. "Normally when you have an injury it will heal. It may take weeks. In chronic pain sufferers, it increases over time and spreads to different areas of the body."

In Schubiner's study, doctors examined 222 patients suffering chronic neck and back pain. After running MRI tests and physical exams, the researchers found that nearly all the patients had spinal anomalies. However, only 12% of the participants showed a structural problem as the root of their pain. The other 88% of participants had what the researchers call primary pain, meaning the pain was generated by neural circuits in the brain, not by structural damage.

Jess Breach of Harlequins walks off with crutches after the Allianz Premier 15's Semi-Final match between Harlequins Women and Wasps FC Ladies at the Twickenham Stoop on May 22, 2021 in London, England.

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"The existing medical paradigm assumes a physical cause for most chronic pain," Frank wrote in his LA Times op-ed. But the results of Schubiner's study show that's often not the case.

"The results are really remarkable. If you have chronic neck or back pain and you get an MRI, the MRI will be abnormal. But it turns out, that most people have an abnormal MRI even if they have no pain. So mild findings on an MRI may not be the cause of the pain," said Schubiner.

To further conclude that most participants were experiencing non-structural pain, the researchers looked at patient histories and the characteristics of their pain.

"If the pain comes and goes, shifts and moves, turns on and off, is triggered by an innocuous stimuli, that's what was the determining factor," Schubiner said.

These findings confirm a suspicion I had about about my own experience with chronic pain — that while it likely began with my head injury, over time it morphed into an emotional pain.

"All injuries heal, but sometimes the brain will continue to send these pain signals," said Schubiner. "It creates a spiraling process. Especially when people think they're in danger."

Why do we experience pain?

Your pain is not trying to hurt you. It's actually trying to help you.

"The brain has a danger alarm mechanism. It turns on and it turns off. And so the brain is actually in charge of whether or not we experience pain in any given situation," says Schubiner.

Even after our pain alerts us that we've been harmed, it doesn't always turn off. The danger has passed, but our bodies don't know it.

"Anxiety can make the pain worse," said Schubiner. "This has actually been proven. So when we go to the doctor for an MRI and it reveals an abnormality, it's critical that we remember that the brain can cause pain. In fact, functional MRIs have shown that physical pain lights up a similar part of the brain as emotional pain."

How can we manage our pain?

New treatments are helping people reverse or eliminate chronic pain without invasive treatment or medications.

"This is an epidemic of fear as much of anything else," said Nathaniel Frank. "Of course, you need to go to an M.D. and rule out anything life-threatening. But once that's been ruled out, there are all these resources online now who can help you understand that others have gone through similar experiences."

Pain education is important, said Frank, who has dealt with his own chronic pain.

"For some people this happens quickly when they learn about pain education. But for others, particularly those who may have had real adversity of trauma when there young, it can take a long time to rewire your brain," says Frank.

Going to different doctors and getting different diagnoses are important steps — the more perspective you have on your pain, the more likely it is you'll be able to address it.

But pain can also be an incredibly lonely experience, which may seem odd given how universal and ubiquitous it is. But it can carry with it a degree of shame, stigma and certainly misery. Frank suggests finding community, reaching out to folks who are also struggling and researching the mind-body connection.

My personal pain story

My own story with chronic pain begins and ends with the mind-body connection. A couple years ago I sustained a concussion after I was violently mugged. When the headaches lasted past two weeks, and then past a couple months, I started to worry. Is my brain bleeding? Am I permanently damaged? Will I ever be OK? The more I worried, the worse it got. If you’ve dealt with chronic pain you know the cycle can be vicious. I decided to get a CT scan for peace of mind, and yet even with normal results, it didn't bring me any. The headaches persisted.

Three months into the head pain, and after changing my whole lifestyle appease it, I decided to do something a little more drastic and entirely experimental — I booked a 10-day trip to Hawai'i. Maybe I knew something intuitively that I would soon find out, or maybe I was just that desperate, but from the moment we took off the throbbing, pounding, pulsating stopped. Just like that, I felt like myself again.

But this is the part that astounds me and lends itself to the paradigm shift around pain — while I likely sustained a concussion that caused my headaches for the days and weeks that followed, at some point, it is also likely that my pain was no longer being caused by the physical injury but by the emotional one. My body still thought I was in danger.

In the end, my pain lasted for only months. I'm one of the lucky ones — many people suffer for years with no end in sight. This is why Frank and Dr. Schubiner believe a paradigm shift around pain is necessary. And why everyone, as Frank wrote in his op-ed, deserves access to that paradigm shift.

Listen

President Donald Trump spent most of 2025 hacking away at large parts of the federal government. His administration fired, bought out, or otherwise ousted hundreds of thousands of federal employees. Entire agencies were gutted. By so many metrics, this year in politics has been defined more by what has been cut away than by what’s been added on.

One tiny corner of regulation, however, has actually grown under Trump: the critical minerals list. Most people likely hadn’t heard of “critical minerals” until early this year when the president repeatedly inserted the phrase into his statements, turning the once obscure policy realm into a household phrase. In November, the U.S. Geological Survey quietly expanded the list from 50 to 60 items, adding copper, silver, uranium, and even metallurgical coal to the list. On Monday, South Korean metal processor Korea Zinc announced that the federal government is investing in a new $7.4 billion zinc refinery in Tennessee, in which the Department of Defense will hold a stake.

But what even is a critical mineral?

The concept dates back to the first half of the 20th century, especially World War II, when Congress passed legislation aimed at stockpiling materials vital to the United States’ well being. President Trump established the critical minerals list in 2018, with the defining criteria being that any mineral included be “essential to the economic and national security of the United States” and have a supply chain that is “vulnerable to disruption.” A mineral’s presence on the list can convey a slew of benefits to anyone trying to extract or produce that mineral in the U.S., including faster permitting for extraction, tax incentives, or federal funding.

As Grist explored in its recent mining issue, critical minerals are shaping everything from geopolitics to water supplies, oceans, and recycling systems. If there is to be a true clean energy transition, these elements are key to it. Metals such as lithium, cobalt, and nickel form the backbone of the batteries that power electric vehicles. Silicon is the primary component of solar cells, and rare earth magnets help wind turbines function. Not to mention computers, microchips, and the multitude of other things that depend on critical minerals.

Currently, the vast majority of critical minerals used in the United States come from China — some 80 percent. In his first term, Trump tried to increase domestic production of these minerals. “The United States must not remain reliant on foreign competitors like Russia and China for the critical minerals needed to keep our economy strong and our country safe,” he said in 2017. Securing a domestic supply was also a cornerstone of former president Joe Biden’s landmark climate bills, the bipartisan infrastructure law and the Inflation Reduction Act.

Now, as Trump has taken office again, he’s made critical minerals an ever more central part of his policy platform. We’re here to demystify why this has been a blockbuster year for critical minerals in the United States — and where the industry may go in the future.

A highly unusual strategy

In March, Trump issued an executive order meant to jumpstart critical mineral production. “It is imperative for our national security that the United States take immediate action to facilitate domestic mineral production to the maximum possible extent,” he said. The executive order was just the first step in a coordinated effort by the Trump administration to strengthen U.S. control over existing supply chains for copper, lithium, cobalt, manganese, nickel, and dozens of other critical minerals and to galvanize new mines, regardless of concerns raised by Indigenous peoples. The Trump administration has sought to accomplish these goals by both reducing the regulatory barriers to production and by investing in the companies poised to do it.

Since then, Trump has signed agreements with multiple countries to increase investments in critical minerals and strengthen supply chains. Most recently, the U.S. made a deal with the Democratic Republic of Congo, which holds more than 70 percent of the world’s cobalt. He has pushed federal agencies to make it easier for mining companies to apply for federal funding, and is inviting companies to apply to pursue seabed mining in the deep waters around American Samoa, near Guam and the Northern Marianas, around the Cook Islands, and in international waters south of Hawaiʻi — prompting global outrage and opposition from Native Hawaiian, Samoan, and Chamorro/CHamoru peoples. At the same time, Trump’s volatile tariff policies have made it harder for American companies to source minerals, and cuts to federal funding have harmed mining workforce training programs and research into critical minerals.

While the Biden administration provided grants and loans to various mining companies, Trump is deploying a highly unusual strategy of buying stakes in private companies, tying the financial interests of the U.S. government with the interests and success of these commercial mining operations. Over the past few months, the Trump administration has spent more than a billion dollars in public money to buy minority stakes in private companies like MP Materials, ReElement Technologies, and Vulcan Elements. In Alaska, that strategy has involved investing more than $35 million in Trilogy Metals to buy a 10 percent stake in the company, which is a major backer of a copper and cobalt mining project in Alaska.

In September, the Trump administration finalized another deal with the Canadian company Lithium Americas behind Thacker Pass in Nevada, which is expected to be the largest lithium mine in the U.S. The Biden administration approved a $2.23 billion loan to Lithium Americas in October 2024; the Trump administration then restructured the loan and obtained a 5 percent stake in the project and another 5 percent stake in Lithium Americas itself. (A top Interior Department official has since been reported to have benefited financially from the project.) That’s despite allegations that the mine violates the rights of neighboring tribal nations and is proceeding without their consent, which Lithium Americas has denied.

The outlook for critical minerals

Historically, the federal government has only taken equity stakes in struggling companies, such as through the Troubled Asset Relief Program that sought to stabilize the auto industry and U.S. banks during the 2008 financial crisis. “What we’re talking about here is something very different, which is an industry that has not yet launched,” said Beia Spiller, who leads critical minerals work at the nonprofit research group Resources for the Future.

“Whether that’s going to work, I think is unlikely,” Spiller continued. “The best way to get an industry up and running is to have policies that raise the tide for everyone, not just choosing winners.”

In reference to Lithium Americas, Spiller said, “If you actually look at the cost fundamentals, it’s not a very competitive company.” Lithium Americas mines metal from clay, an old process that requires a lot of land, open pit mines, and heavy machinery — whereas some newer operations use direct lithium extraction, which is more cost effective in the long term. “So we just took an equity stake in a company that is going to face headwinds in terms of costs — now the American public faces that downside.”

It must also be stressed that the Trump administration’s rapid push to shore up the U.S.’s control over critical minerals isn’t about transitioning the country away from fossil fuels. Instead, the whole effort seems to mostly be geared toward military uses. Trump’s “One Big Beautiful Bill Act” allocated $7.5 billion for critical minerals, $2 billion of which will go directly to the national defense stockpile. Another $5 billion was allocated for the department of defense to invest in critical mineral supply chains.

In October, a former official at the defense department told the Financial Times that the agency is “incredibly focused on the stockpile.”

“They’re definitely looking for more, and they’re doing it in a deliberate and expansive way, and looking for new sources of different ores needed for defense products,” the unnamed official said.

Last week the administration announced that it plans to take equity stakes in more mining companies next year. It’s possible, Spiller said, these investments could extend to outfits that are piloting deep-sea mining. That carries a new set of risks, as many banks refuse to insure deep-sea mining operations, it’s unclear whether seabed mining operations will be able to even get off the ground before the end of Trump’s term, and the legal repercussions associated with undermining the Law of the Sea could fracture the stability among global powers — and make global climate action that much harder.

Correction: A previous version of this story misstated the name of MP Materials.

This article originally appeared in Grist at https://grist.org/energy/the-year-the-us-doubled-down-on-critical-minerals/.

Grist is a nonprofit, independent media organization dedicated to telling stories of climate solutions and a just future. Learn more at Grist.org

Happy New Year! We here at LAist are wishing you all the best for a fun and safe New Year’s Eve. As you’re making those last-minute end-of-year donations, don’t forget to click that donate button so we can keep you in the loop on all the best things going on in L.A. in 2026 and for years to come.

Our friends at Licorice Pizza will surely be hitting the town this holiday week; they suggest checking out Faster Pussycat at the Whisky on Tuesday, or singer-songwriter Rocco Deluca at Zebulon that night. There’s also legendary percussionist Pete Escovedo at the Catalina Bar & Grill the same evening. On New Year’s Eve, you have a wide range of options, including The Roots at Disney Hall, funk band Lettuce at the Bellwether, Mike Posner at Academy LA or El DeBarge at the Blue Note. And, of course, there will be big dance parties all over L.A., from downtown’s free annual extravaganza at Grand Park to Hollywood’s Club Decades.

Elsewhere on LAist.com, Chef Roy Choi tells us the secrets to his Korean taco empire, and you can pick some shows to binge-watch before heading back to work after the holidays.

Events

Kwanzaa Celebration

Monday, December 30, 5:30 p.m. to 8 p.m.
Expo Arts Center
4321 Atlantic Ave., Long Beach
COST: FREE; MORE INFO

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Join the African American Cultural Center of Long Beach (AACCLB) for a vibrant and meaningful Kwanzaa celebration honoring African American heritage. The event will feature a candle-lighting ceremony, dance performances and a traditional Karamu feast.

Rose Parade float decorating

Through Tuesday, December 30 
Rose Bowl 
1001 Rose Bowl Drive, Pasadena
COST: FREE; MORE INFO

Thursday, January 1, 8 a.m. to 10 a.m.
Rose Parade 
Pasadena 
COST: FROM $117; MORE INFO 

Ohio State Buckeyes cheerleaders participate in the 136th Rose Parade.

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Every year, I say I’m going to do it: I’m going to forgo New Year’s and decorate floats very, very early in the morning. I never do, but don’t be like me. Surround yourself with roses and get those floats all pretty for TV! This year, there’s a special float with the theme “Rising Together” to honor the one-year anniversary of the devastating Eaton and Palisades fires. Or grab a ticket — free for fire survivors — and head up to watch the Rose Parade in person on New Year’s Day. Later in the week, on Jan. 2 and 3, there’s Float Fest, where you can check out the elaborate floats after their big hurrah.

NYELA Celebration + Community Collage

Wednesday, December 31, 8 p.m. to 1 a.m. 
Gloria Molina Grand Park 
200 N. Grand Ave., Downtown L.A.
COST: FREE; MORE INFO 

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The annual fireworks and music celebration, with headliners Bardo and Ceci Bastida, in downtown’s Gloria Molina Grand Park will usher in 2026 in a big way. In addition to music and art, the event features a Community Collage activity with photographer Josh Madson, where attendees can take part in professional portraits — part of Community Collage’s initiative ahead of LA28, where the team “aims to photograph 40,000 Angelenos for future public art murals across the city ahead of The Olympics and Paralympics.”

Santa Monica Beach House New Year’s Eve

Wednesday, December 31, 8 p.m.
1212 3rd St. Promenade, Santa Monica
COST: $23; MORE INFO 

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Missing Burning Man? Celebrate New Year’s Eve with an “After Burn” party on the Third St. Promenade, featuring dance, drink and a party spilling out onto the street.

Jason Bentley’s Metropolis NYE

Wednesday, December 31, 9 p.m. Del Monte at the Townhouse
52 Windward Ave., Venice
COST: $40; MORE INFO

KCRW’s own Jason Bentley will be spinning all night at L.A.’s oldest bar, Venice Beach’s historic Townhouse.

New Year’s Eve with The Roots

Wednesday, December 31, 7 p.m. 
Disney Hall
111 S. Grand Ave., Downtown L.A. 
COST: FROM $69; MORE INFO

Questlove performs with The Roots during the Back Cove Festival at Payson Park on August 02, 2025 in Portland, Maine.

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The biggest ticket on New Year’s Eve is for The Roots, fast becoming a Disney Hall tradition. Questlove and friends will get you revved up for 2026 with energy, a big dance party and the best acoustics in town.

Middle Aged Dad Band New Year’s Eve Blowout

Wednesday, December 31, 9 p.m. 
Lodge Room
104 N. Ave. 56, 2nd floor, Highland Park 
COST: FROM $65; MORE INFO 

The Middle Aged Dad Band show is sure to have some celeb appearances, karaoke go-tos, hilarious comedy moments and an all-around feel-good vibe. Embrace your inner (or outer) uncool dad mentality while still staying up till midnight at a show.

Fiorelli Pizza x Imperia Caviar kit

Preorder through Tuesday, December 30
8236 W. 3rd Street, Beverly Grove
COST: $140; MORE INFO

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Pizza and caviar? On the couch? For New Year’s? Don’t mind if I do. Beverly Grove's Fiorelli Pizza is partnering with Imperia Caviar for a fun DIY caviar pizza kit: a vodka sauce pizza with a side of crème fraîche, truffle potato chips and a full ounce of Imperia's caviar. Pre-order via email (lizg@fiorellipizza.com) or phone (424-466-7161); it will be available via delivery apps on Tuesday, December 30 (while supplies last).

Grand Kiev Ballet

Tuesday, December 30, 7 p.m. 
Wilshire Ebell Theatre
4401 W. 8th Street, Mid-City 
COST: FROM $44; MORE INFO  

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One more Nutcracker to wrap up the year, and this one is special. Acclaimed Ukrainian dance company the Grand Kyiv Ballet has danced through the war and is still able to blow audiences away with its dazzling production of The Nutcracker. Stay in the holiday spirit for a few more hours and enjoy this top-notch performance of Tchaikovsky’s beloved classic.

NYE Hike to the Wisdom Tree

Wednesday, December 31, 7 a.m. 
Griffith Park Merry Go-Round, Lot #2
Griffith Park
COST: FREE; MORE INFO 

An intermediate hike hosted by 213 Hikers, this early morning walk is not for the faint of heart. Get up early and plan your pre-midnight nap accordingly while making your way to greet the last day of 2025 at the Wisdom Tree in Griffith Park — and maybe make some new friends to kick off 2026 right.

Flow Into the New Year yoga class

Thursday, January 1, 10:30 a.m. 
One Down Dog Yoga 
2150 Colorado Blvd., Eagle Rock
COST: VARIES; MORE INFO

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New year, same me telling you to go to yoga and set those 2026 intentions with a solid flow class. This one is at One Down Dog in Eagle Rock, but many local studios are hosting classes that are geared toward getting you out of your head and onto your mat for the new year. Ohm.

Brigitte Bardot, the international sex goddess of cinema in the 1950s and '60s, has died aged 91. Bardot's animal rights foundation announced her death in a statement to news agency Agence France-Presse on Sunday, without specifying the time or place of death.

Stylish and seductive, Bardot exuded a kind of free sexuality, rare in the buttoned-up 1950s. She modeled, made movies, influenced fashion around the world and recorded albums. She married four times. Her list of lovers famously included Warren Beatty, Nino Ferrer and singer-songwriter-producer Serge Gainsbourg, with whom she recorded the French hit Bonnie and Clyde.

Bardot's look was copied by women around the world, says Claire Schub who teaches French literature and film at Tufts University.

"Her fashion choices, her hair, her makeup, her pout ... She became this icon, this legend, all over the globe," says Schub.

But her image changed in her later years. Bardot was found guilty multiple times in her native France of "inciting racial hatred," mainly for comments attacking Muslims.

Bardot runs along the beach in Cannes, France, on April 28, 1956.

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As an actor, Bardot worked with some of France's leading directors including Henri-Georges Clouzot in La Vérité (The Truth), Jean-Luc Godard in Le Mépris (Contempt) and Louis Malle in Viva Maria!

Born Catholic to an upper-middle-class couple in Paris in 1934, Bardot studied ballet and modeled before becoming an actor. As a teenager, she appeared several times on the cover of Elle magazine, attracting the attention of Roger Vadim who was six years her senior. The two married in 1952. Bardot's parents made them wait until she turned 18.

Vadim, an aspiring director, has been credited with turning Bardot into the iconic sex symbol she became. In his 1957 film And God Created Woman, Bardot plays a provocative young woman on a quest for sexual liberation.

Bardot arrives at a Royal Air Force base in London in April 1959.

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Vadim wanted Bardot's appearances in his films to shake off sexual taboos. He once said that he wanted to "kill the myth, this odd rule in Christian morality, that sex must be coupled with guilt."

The New York Times panned the film but wrote that Bardot "moves herself in a fashion that fully accentuates her charms. She is undeniably a creation of superlative craftsmanship."

The media savvy Vadim made sure Bardot appeared often in the French press. Not that it took much convincing — Bardot's alluring images helped sell both magazines and movie tickets. "To be fair, if Vadim discovered and manufactured me," Bardot once said, "I created Vadim."

Bardot's liberating sexuality

While she was one of France's best known exports, she wasn't always beloved at home. She was often ridiculed by critics who derided her acting even as they gushed over her body.

Reviewing the 1959 film Babette Goes to War, in which Bardot does not bare all, one critic wrote, "In deciding not to reveal her body, Brigitte Bardot wanted to unveil only her talent. Alas, we saw nothing."

Bardot during a rehearsal of the TV program "Bonne année Brigitte" in which Bardot performed songs to ring in the new year in 1962.

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Despite the misogynistic comments and constant scrutiny of her private life, Bardot's popularity coincided with changing attitudes about sex. French philosopher Simone de Beauvoir took note of France's love-hate relationship with Bardot's sexual appetite.

"In the game of love, she is as much hunter as she is prey," de Beauvoir wrote in her 1959 essay for Esquire, "Brigitte Bardot and the Lolita Syndrome."

Bardot was hounded by the paparazzi, suffered from depression and attempted suicide. "What I rejected the most during my life as an actress was the limelight," she wrote in her autobiography, "That intense focus...ate at me from the inside."

Bardot discusses a scene with director Louis Malle during the filming of <em>Viva Maria!</em> in February 1965.

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After starring in dozens of movies, Bardot retired from acting in 1973. She started an animal rights foundation.

Convicted for 'inciting racial hatred'

In her later years, Bardot became notorious for her racist and homophobic comments and her association with France's far right. Her fourth husband, Bernard d'Ormale, was an aide to Jean-Marie Le Pen, founder of the National Front party.

In her 2003 book, Un Cris dans le Silence, she disparages immigrants, gays, French schools and contemporary art. She called Muslims "invaders" and railed against the killing of animals in the name of religion. She apologized in court in 2004 but also doubled down on what she called the "infiltration" of France by Islamic extremists.

In her biography of Bardot, author and French film scholar Ginette Vincendeau writes "the high priestess of freedom resents almost everyone else's rights to exercise it."

Bardot, the stunning, desirable beauty who once stood for sexual freedom for women, spent the latter part of her life at her home near Saint Tropez with her husband and a menagerie of pets.
Copyright 2025 NPR

A woman stands in front of Andy Warhol's "Brigitte Bardot" at Sotheby's auction house in London on May 12, 2012.

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