This week’s Monday Briefing will be less news-y and more chatty, partly because I have a banger of a week ahead, with a colleague in town and a 4-day trip for a 2-day conference in Okinawa bookended by on-site presentations and social obligations. I’m getting tired just thinking of it, and it isn’t even Monday yet at time of writing. I also don’t have any particularly interesting news from last week’s “Two Meetings” in China, but I will continue to monitor what comes across my desk and will share whatever I find interesting, as always.
What’s Good for this Goose is Terrible for that Gander
Meta is positively salivating at the thought of its competitor being banned, sold or otherwise hamstrung. The bill the US House of Representatives passed with bipartisan rallying is heading to the Senate and then… who knows. The US would be left with Meta’s Facebook and Instagram and Threads, and Elon’s X, and… what? Truth Social? RIP influencers and content creators.
The More You Know
I lived in blissful ignorance of one Shaun King until UnHerd and Air Mail dropped news of his conversion to Islam (grift?) and him being a Hamas whisperer. One of this is not like the other, clearly, and this Black Lives Matter activist now claims to be a hostage negotiator. Sometimes I hate being on the Internet; it does very little to soothe over a rough week.
The New Antibiotics
Are doctors lazy or just weary dealing with the obesity epidemic, especially in developed countries, and are therefore prescribing Ozempic with the same ease that they used to prescribe antibiotics for even the mildest flu? Novo Nordisk, share price riding high on the wave of Wegovy, deserves at least a mention in this incoming wave of semaglutide. Has humanity regressed instead of evolved when it comes to our dietary consumption? Is reversal of diabetes, kidney diseases and a host of other obesity-related malaises part and parcel of modern development? Can we ever, or even, hold Big Ag accountable for the way their practices have forever changed us, epigenetically, or is this the price of providing every single mouth on this planet with sustenance?
Long Read
A Buddhist monk and a neuroscientist walk into a bar… and emerge friends and write a book. Ok, not really, not the bar part at least, but Matthiew Ricard and Wolf Singer are close friends and they did write a book together, Beyond the Self: Conversations between Buddhism and Neuroscience. My long read on the plane awaits.