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Elite athletes are often praised for their resilience, grit and mental toughness. But Steve Mesler, 2010 Olympic gold medalist in the bobsled, explains how those same qualities can quietly become barriers to mental health support.

In a recent episode of LifeStance Health’s Convos from the Couch podcast, Mesler shared candid insights into why vulnerability is so difficult for elite athletes, how depression nearly cost him his life and how he is now working to support future generations through the non-profit organization Classroom Champions.

Why vulnerability feels unsafe at the Olympic level

At the highest level of sport, competition is relentless and vulnerability can feel risky. Mesler described elite athletics as a true meritocracy, where athletes are constantly evaluated and replaced if they appear weak.

“When you’re at that level, the concept of vulnerability as an athlete is dangerous,” Mesler explained. “If you’re going to ask for help, it means you need help. It means you need something.”

In bobsledding, where team selection includes subjectivity, Mesler knew there were dozens of athletes waiting for his seat.

“There were 20 guys that would’ve done anything to be in my seat, and I knew that. So, the concept of vulnerability was something that was just foreign.”

Subsequently, this fiercely competitive environment conditions athletes to suppress pain, especially mental and emotional pain.

“If you were sick or if you were hurt, the sharks would circle,” he said. “From a mental aspect, you didn’t let it go there.”

While this perseverance and masking of emotions can drive performance, they may also create long-term harm. Mesler emphasized that athletes are rarely taught which mental skills serve them in sport and which ones need to be re-examined once competition ends. The result is a culture where asking for help feels incompatible with success, even when mental health challenges are mounting beneath the surface.

Living with depression after Olympic success

Despite achieving an Olympic gold medal, leadership roles, professional success and a growing family, Mesler found himself facing severe depression after his athletic career.

He shared that he reached a point where simply getting through the day felt impossible. The inner drive that once fueled his athletic success had gone quiet. His sense of purpose flattened. Even activities that once brought energy and joy no longer did. At the worst point of his depression, he even contemplated suicide.

“I’ve competed in the Olympic Games with six guys. I’ve had to bury two of them from takin

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The internet has changed how people look for information. Rather than scrolling through links, millions now type full questions into AI chat tools and expect direct answers. With more than 800 million weekly active users, ChatGPT sits at the center of this shift, and it has become a default destination for everyday decision-making. That level of attention has not gone unnoticed by advertisers or by OpenAI itself. Here, Floodlight, a programmatic ad solutions provider, breaks down how ChatGPT ads work and what users and brands should expect.

TL;DR: On Monday, Feb. 9, 2026, U.S. users on the free and Go ($8/month) tiers of ChatGPT began receiving ads inside the conversations. OpenAI has committed that ads do not influence answers, user data will not be sold, and personalization is optional. However, there is no public ad platform yet.

When Will ChatGPT Introduce Ads?

On Feb. 9, 2026, OpenAI launched ads inside ChatGPT. The ads appear for logged-in U.S. adults using the free tier or the $8-per-month ChatGPT Go tier. Higher-paid plans (Plus, Pro, Business, and Enterprise) will remain ad-free.

Ads will appear separately from the chatbot’s responses and will be clearly labeled as sponsored content. These ads will sit at the bottom of answers when there is a relevant product or service.

Why This Shift Happened So Quickly

ChatGPT launched publicly in late 2022 and quickly became one of the fastest-growing consumer applications in history. Today, it processes hundreds of millions of daily prompts. This growth reflects a behavioral change: People now rely on AI chat tools for tasks they once handled through search engines like Google and Bing.

OpenAI has raised roughly $64 billion from investors but generated only a fraction of that in revenue last year. Running AI systems at this scale is expensive, and most users never pay. The majority remain on the free tier, creating a need for sustainable monetization. From a financial perspective, rolling out ads within ChatGPT makes sense.

Why Helpful Tools Rarely Stay Free

The U.S. advertising market is enormous. In 2024, advertisers spent more than $258.6 billion on digital ads. Platforms like Google and Meta built their businesses by monetizing user attention through targeted advertising. When a platform attracts hundreds of millions of active users, advertisers are sure to follow.

This pattern repeats: Advertising follows attention, and platforms need revenue to scale. Unlike social media feeds or search results, AI chat tools feel more personal. Users share specific questions, preferences, and goals, making advertising potentially more relevant than simply giving ad space to whichever brand pays the most to be shown.

How ChatGPT Ads Will Work

Ads will be tied to conversation context. If a user asks about di

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The medical community oversimplified cardiac care for too long: A heart was a heart, regardless of whether it beat in a man or a woman.

Embedded in decades of research and clinical practice, this male-centric perspective has had profound, often tragic, consequences for women’s heart health, Northwell Health reports. It’s time to fully acknowledge and act upon the critical differences that define the female cardiovascular system.

Historically, heart disease research has predominantly focused on men

From the 1940s through the 1970s, the vast majority of studies identifying heart disease risk factors and developing treatment strategies included only male participants. The assumption was that findings from men could simply be applied to women. This oversight meant that women’s unique physiological responses, symptoms, and disease presentations were largely ignored. While the Framingham Heart Study did include women, its early, limited data wrongly suggested that women didn’t really get heart disease, further hindering progress.

The true cost of this historical blindness became terrifyingly clear in the mid-1980s. As advanced treatments like stents and statins began to significantly lower heart disease mortality rates for men, women’s rates remained stagnant. Then, shockingly, they started to climb. More women than men were dying of heart disease for the first time, and the gap continued to widen. This undeniable disparity was the ultimate wake-up call, forcing us to ask: “Does biological sex matter?”

Women’s heart attack symptoms can differ and may be less obvious

The classic “Hollywood heart attack”—crushing chest pain radiating down the arm—is often a male presentation. Women, however, frequently experience chest pain, along with more subtle symptoms, such as shortness of breath, nausea, fatigue, or discomfort in the jaw, back, or arm. In the past, these were termed “atypical” symptoms and were too often dismissed, leading to delayed diagnosis, misdiagnosis, or even being told “it’s all in your head.” We also learned of “silent MIs,” where heart damage is seen on an ECG even without the woman experiencing overt symptoms.

Many women experience heart attacks without traditional coronary artery blockages

Historically, heart attacks were equated with completely blocked coronary arteries. Yet large, international studies like TIMI IIIB revealed that a significant percentage—up to a quarter—of women diagnosed with myocardial infarction had no obstructive lesions in their major arteries. This groundbreaking discovery challenged the very definition of a heart attack and showed that diagnostic gold standards were insufficient for women. It pointed to different underlying mechanisms of disease, such as microvascular dysfunction, a form of non-obstructive heart disease in which tiny coronary arteries fail to properly widen, reducing oxygen-rich blood flow to the heart muscle.

Risk factors and

Hyundai

Each year, the Edmunds Top Rated Awards are bestowed on the best new cars, trucks and SUVs on sale. To win, a vehicle must rank at the top of its class according to Edmunds’ vehicle testing program. That means each winner has been tested at the Edmunds test track and thoroughly evaluated over many miles of real-world use.

Edmunds divides the awards into six main categories: best car, best SUV and best truck, and electric versions of the same categories. This year’s Edmunds Top Rated Awards feature some repeat winners and newcomers, and each is a great choice if you’re planning to purchase a new vehicle. Note that all prices below include destination charges.

Edmunds Best of the Best: Hyundai Palisade Hybrid

Starting price: $45,760

Edmunds

The new Hyundai Palisade doesn’t just level up over its predecessor; it raises the bar for SUVs of all shapes and sizes. The Palisade offers luxury SUV vibes despite starting at $45,760, and comes packed with every technology feature and creature comfort anyone could want. The Palisade Hybrid goes one step further thanks to its punchy yet efficient turbocharged engine. With its high Edmunds Rating of 8.3 out of 10, there’s no better new vehicle on sale today than the Hyundai Palisade Hybrid.

Edmunds Top Rated Car: Honda Civic Hybrid

Starting price for a Civic sedan with the hybrid engine: $30,590

Edmunds

The Honda Civic maintains its spot from last year as the Edmunds Top Rated Car for 2026. With its available hybrid powertrain, the Civic achieves up to an EPA-estimated 49 mpg in combined city/highway driving, which is excellent for a small car. On top of that, the Civi