6 min read

S UNLIGHT HAS BEEN around a lot longer than we have. So why is it such a polarizing topic now, between the “never let a stray ray hit your unprotected skin. Wear sunscreen indoors” messages and the ones that tell us that sunscreen causes cancer and that there’s been an “aggressive suppression” of sunlight by the government.

Rowan Jacobsen took it all on for his new book, In Defense of Sunlight , and uncovered the nuance, the misunderstandings, and the weirdly simple—but heretical sounding—truths. Like how a moderate amount of chronic daily sun exposure (without sunscreen —gasp!) is actually good for us.

“We have a ton of epidemiological evidence that’s accumulated over decades showing that people who get at least moderate amounts of sunlight have lower mortality and higher longevity than people who don’t,” he says.…