While Kate Bush Walked Away From the Spotlight, ‘Running Up That Hill’ Only Got Bigger

“Love is a wonderful, powerful thing,” Kate Bush said in 1989. “In many ways nearly every song I’ve ever written is a love song. It’s very important to try and learn to love people as much as you can. But we all get so scared. It’s only when people are at points in their lives when they get such shocks that they take it as it really should be. The rest of us just seem to piss about.”

Turning 64 this summer, Bush doesn’t write as many love songs as she used to, mostly because she doesn’t put out much new material anymore. Her last studio album was in 2011. She doesn’t do many interviews. She barely tours. But as sometimes happens when a musician goes away, her legacy has only grown in her absence. In some ways, Bush is bigger now than she was in 1985, which is when she put out Hounds of Love, her most beloved record. That she’s back in the news for a 37-year-old song isn’t all that surprising. Her past still haunts our present. And, of course, it’s a love song.
 

“Running Up That Hill (A Deal With God)” was popular before Stranger Things boosted its visibility. After all, indie artist Meg Myers had made a splash on alternative-rock radio just a few years ago with a punchy, electronic-soaked cover. But the new season of the hit Netflix series prominently features the Bush song, and even if (like me) you don’t watch Stranger Things, clips like the one below are affecting enough to explain why “Running Up That Hill” has become such a big deal. As Variety explains, “In the new season, Max — played by Sadie Sink — is grieving her half-brother Billy’s death. She’s left feeling vulnerable and listens to the Bush classic on repeat. The song eventually saves her life.” The season’s emotional highpoint wouldn’t be quite the same without Bush underscoring it.

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How a Nasal Decongestant Became the Biggest Appetite Suppressant of All Time

It’s startling to think that the elimination of a single medically approved ingredient could bring two distinct pharmaceutical industries to a grinding halt. It’s also startling to think that the pharmaceutical product in the most popular appetite suppressants of all time — phenylpropanolamine, more commonly shortened to PPA — made its initial breakthrough as a nasal decongestant. 
 

And yet, that’s exactly what happened. 
 

PPA first hit the market in the mid-1930s with the kind of blood-vessel-tightening properties that staved off nasal congestion, only for users to report the side effect of not feeling hungry. The diet industry, of course, quickly seized on this, and for the next 60 years it played a game of chicken with the Food and Drug Administration and other prominent health experts, before it all came tumbling down — almost taking every cold and flu medication down with it. 

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