Welcome to today’s episode. In a recent New York Times Magazine feature, a writer recounts her lifelong habit of drinking unfiltered tap water—from pitchers in Cincinnati to “the Champagne of tap water” in New York, and even glacier streams in Montana. Then came Los Angeles, where fear reigned. Sediment-filled pipes reduced her faucet to a drip, a plumber shrugged, and she bought her first Brita. Smoke from wildfires and a mistaken boil-water alert amplified her paranoia. Bottled water and microplastic worries followed, until she realized fixating on rare lead scares and disaster alerts only isolated her.

After the fires, she rebelled by returning to her faucet, discovering tap water is “subject to more regulation than bottled water” and still compliant with EPA standards. Drinking from the tap became “a kind of civic duty,” connecting her to a shared resource beyond for-profit marketing. Now settled in New Mexico, she poured a fresh glass straight from the sink—and rediscovered the simple joy of home in every sip.
Link to Article