Elon Musk eating mushrooms, popping adderall and Ecstasy, and doing so much ketamine that it affected his bladder on the 2024 campaign trail, The New York Times revealed this week. Dabbling in psychedelics is not uncommon among Silicon Valley rise-and-grind types and has been found to have mental health benefits, like ketamine and Ecstasy. But clearly, this combination of otherwise feel-good drugs has been a bad trip for America.
To separate the substances for the snake, it’s crucial to consider Musk’s motives. His pursuit of power through a second Trump term parallels the rise of AI. Throughout the campaign, AI-generated bots helped perpetuate propaganda and fake news that helped get Trump elected. Throwing psychedelics on that fire only helps to burn down the line between reality and an artificially manipulated one. It’s harder to know what’s authentic when more people are tripping their balls off.
If there is one lesson from history that none of us needed to relearn, it’s that drugs don’t mix well with megalomania. Even if shrooming can make some people less depressed, perhaps these drugs are not the best fit for treating Machiavellian traits. Drugs can be a lot of different things, fun recreational treats, therapeutic medicine, but they are not something to be had by anyone with a score to settle. That will always be a recipe for villain behavior.
Watch Your Parents’ Recitals
There are a lot of emotional role reversals in adulthood as your parents age, most of which have to do with their health, finances, and mortality. But one of the more underrated versions of this exchange is when your evolving Boomer takes up a creative outlet.
On a practical level, studies suggest that creative activities like singing and embroidery can have protective effects against cognitive decline. But whether it’s playing an instrument, taking up painting, or landing a role in their local community theater production, seeing a new side of your parents’ imagination revealed is one of the brighter sides of this full circle.
Sometimes their work surprises you, and gives clues to where your artistic talents have been buried or context for when they were unearthed. Sometimes it feels like you’re paying them back for hours of terrible piano lessons and recitals they endured. Both extremes and everything in between are an opportunity to show up for them the same way they showed up for us, where the only concession to be made is whether or not to buy popcorn.
Gwenyth Paltrow is Back on Cheese. Let’s All Celebrate.
The paleolithic era has ended – for Gweynth Paltrow that is. In news that we never thought we’d report: the queen of clean eating is back on the sauce (that’s what rich people call fondue, right?) Our lady of Goop recently announced that she is ditching her paleo diet and returning to eating cheese and dairy. We’re not mad about it. Of all the dubious claims Ms. Paltrow has made over the years, the one we take the most issue is the idea that a gooey grilled cheese sandwich on real buttered bread is bad for you. You know a woman who named her child Apple couldn’t stay away from the stuff forever.
In honor of Gweynth’s return to the dairy side, we’d like to take a moment to honor one of the most beautiful, iconic figures of the 20th century: the GOAT of cheese – a goat cheese called Humboldt Fog. As you may guess, this stellar cheese originates from Humboldt, California. It’s named for the thick ocean fog that rolls into the coastal city each morning. Humboldt Fog feels like if a cozy thick sweater foggy morning was a cheese. It’s creamy, with just the right amount of citrus-y tang to it. Probably the most fun aspect of Humboldt Fog is the distinctive layer of ash in the middle. We must assume the woman between Margot Tennenbaum and our own cig-a-week indulgences would approve.
The Forecast: Gold is at 3377.80/Bitcoin is at 105,571.60/ Is the banana in your smoothie making it less healthy?