Spin Cycle: Surprise Vacations, Sci-Fi Horses, and Shifts in Journalism
welcome back to the chaos.
Hello my friends! I missed writing this last week because I was in Brazil (which may be one of my favorite countries that I’ve ever visited… the food, the people, all amazing. Highly recommend. Unless you’re vegan and hate hugs.) I visited Caiman Lodge in the wildlife-rich Pantanal region. Of coursee the jaguars were a highlight—absolutely incredible to see a big cat in real life—but equally impressive were the more subtle creatures like the hyacinth macaw, lazy capybaras, and massive storks. Anyway, hopefully I’ll write more about Brazil soon for a publication—but for now, here’s what’s been on my mind (and clogging my browser tabs) this week.
Quietly swept under the rug of the hectic news cycle is Trump’s absolute decimation of public lands. The administration’s recent policy rolls back environmental protections to open up over half of our country’s national forests to more logging. (Some logging is already allowed in national forests—they’re multipurpose public lands compared to, say, national parks—but it’s heavily regulated.) Trump claims this will help reduce wildfire risk, but it’s really just a thinly veiled attempt to funnel money into the pockets of corporations while destroying “resources” that nearly every American—across party lines—wants access to and protection of.
Trump administration order opens up 59% of US national forest land to logging, The Trek
Experts dubious trump logging push will diminish wildfire risk, San Francisco Examiner
I’ve been seeing NAD+ everywhere lately. (Like, everywhere.) My sister—who’s not exactly up on the latest wellness trends—swears it cut her desire to drink. Another friend got an NAD+ IV. And now there’s a flood of TikToks and brand launches touting NAD+ for everything from energy to aging. TBD whether it’s the next magnesium or just another buzzword—however, there does seem to be some science behind it for health aging and metabolism.
Health benefits of nicotinamide dinucleotide, Health.com
A growing trend in the travel sector? Surprise trips, where you don’t know where you’re going until you get to the airport—or even get on the plane. Companies like Journee have designed a concept where you fill out a questionnaire, get matched with a destination, then open the envelope to find out where you’re going at the airport (I’m sure they tell you how to pack….) And Scandinavian Airlines created “Destination Unknown”, with trips taking off from Copenhagen airport. It sold out in four minutes. I’m sure more companies will follow suite with the success of SAS’s second year program.
Things I’ve Liked This Week:
📝 I wrote my first article for Mashable—about why read receipts are so triggering.
🥾I wore women-owned Hikerkind’s 8 Pocket Pants nearly every day in Brazil during safari rides. (They’d also be awesome for hiking.) It was hot there, but I needed mosquito coverage, and these were comfy, breathable, and dried super quickly when I got splashed with rain falling from the safari car cover on the first night. Their Trail Trousers were my number two.
🐎 Kawasaki’s sci-fi robot horse vehicle concept (Corleo) looks craaaaazy. And I would like to ride it. (It’s not real, yet.)
🎧 Ezra Klein’s podcast intro this week broke down Trump’s tariff moves in the clearest way I’ve heard yet. Highly recommend giving it a listen if you’re trying to make sense of it all. (It’s only 7-minutes, but also the whole episode is interesting if you’ve got more time.)
🍬I wrote about it last newsletter but I’m still taking nicotine gum (2 mg/day… unless I pop another piece in the afternoon) and while I still have mild brain fog on some days, it has made a massive difference. Honestly about to order more.
Other Things I’ve Been Thinking About Lately:
🎈As an avid reality tv show girlie, I had to watch Netflix’ Pop the Balloon and let me tell you, the Cut is right when they wrote that it was a total mess. There’s a reason reality tv isn’t live.
🏡 I’m really really trying to keep an open mind and listen to this, but a NYT reporter calling for more sprawl to solve the housing crisis is….hard to hear?
📰If you’re in the media world, you can’t help but talk about the drastic shifts in journalism right now. The line between content creators and journalists is getting muddy (which I think makes it fun and interesting!), but—in worse news—Google is wrecking havoc on publication’s strategies. (My work has been affected, as have most other people I know.)
✍️ The Guardian wrote about the Gen Z-led death of capital letters, which is incredibly apparent all over Substack. Obviously I’m having a hard time with it.
📣 This thought on fitness:
Did you enjoy reading this? 💌 You can support my work by subscribing (please) or buying me a coffee. ☕️