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OVERWORLD:
-Why RFK Jr.’s pull-ups creates votes-

TWO BETWEENS:
-Puig: A 110-year-old’s stock debut-
-Anxious? Get a hug-

THE DEPTHS:
-Shit-smearer, man-killer, master-painter; Caravaggio-

“Give the children love, more love and still more love – and the common sense will come by itself.”
— Astrid Lindgren

✦TREND PICKS✦

Politics

Why RFK Jr.’s pull-ups creates votes

Listen, if the leader of your country can't do 3 sets of 10 pull-ups, get in a cold plunge, wind down with a tea ceremony, and live off an autism-reducant diet...

How the fuck is he going to save the economy?

At least that’s the marketing philosophy of Robert F. Kennedy Jr's Democrat campaign.

It’s stupid and it’s working: 

✦Müsli-heads like him✦

Despite his shaboingy claims of Chinese and Jews being immune to COVID-19, he has some real support. Especially among health gurus, influencers, and wellness nerds.

Here’s why: Not only is he ripped af, but RFK Jr. is stereotypically anti-establishment. And for health nerds, critiquing pharmaceuticals and American food is good politics.

At the heart of wellness culture is a sort of "They feed us poison, so we believe their lies"-mindset.

Of course, there are different extremes, but whether it’s pro-organic food or anti-vaccination, wellness is inherently anti-establishment.

That’s why RFK Jr. has been able to steal the votes of the rich, West Coast, sea moss crowd away from Biden.

RFK Jr knows this and is using it to its fullest to create votes, one shirtless picture at a time.

✦Politics and pull-ups✦

Last month, RFK Jr. held the American Wellness Summit.

For a $3,300 ticket price, you get: tea ceremonies, sound healing meditations, organic food, and the holistic-est of vibes.

But you don't go just for that. You go to also get knee-deep in politics.

This blend of talking politics through a wellness brand pulls tons of important founders and influencers to RFK Jr's cause.

In his orbit you'll find wellness big-shots like:

US politics is showbusiness: In a time where the POTUS is fighting “Sleepy Joe”-memes - a bench-pressing Mr. President instantly looks like a hero, even if he isn’t

✦QUICK HITS✦

Amazon scams are booming, specifically fraud returns. Sellers are getting returns with counterfeit or unrelated. Plus, Amazon’s customer-first policy kinda enables this. Scams cost Amazon retailers $101 billion in 2023. Sad face.

Google searches for “eyes hurt” boomed after the solar eclipse, lol.

The Vatican called sex change a violation of human dignity, aligning it with abortion and euthanasia. Despite Pope Francis' embracing LGBTQ+, this has disappointed and satisfied both sides of the debate.

Phoebe Philo will be available in physical stores for the first time ever. Specifically in Bergdorf Goodman, NYC. They’ll have over 100 pieces from her collections.

Paramount wants the Sonic the Hedgehog movies to reach an "Avengers-level." That means a bigger cast and epic narratives, starting with introducing Shadow in Sonic 3. Honestly? Pretty cool.

Gold futures soared to record highs... again. June futures recently went up 1.1% at $2,376 per troy ounce.

Missy Elliott is getting on her first headlining tour. "Out of This World," will feature Busta Rhymes, Ciara, and Timbaland across 24 North American cities, inspired by their '90s hip-hop legacy. Long time coming.

Shutterstock is eating good off the AI boom. They’ve got tons of stock images, which are actually pretty good data. So, they made deals with Amazon, Apple, Google, Meta, and OpenAI to train AI on its images. Each deal started in the $25m-$50m range and could grow.

Baldur's Gate 3's publishing director called out the gaming industry's layoff culture, labeling it an "avoidable f*ck up." He said the massive layoffs at Nintendo, Sony, and Microsoft aren’t necessities but choices made at developers' expense. Our guy.

Read: Rebirth of a Legend: Reviving an 800-Year-Old Tea Farm

Watch: Joker 2 Teaser Trailer

Check this out: The Eclipse via Satellite

 👀 Puig Brands, owner of Jean Paul Gaultier will make the biggest global IPO this year
Puig Brands is the 110-year-old daddy to several legends: Jean Paul Gaultier, Carolina Herrera, Paco Rabanne, Nina Ricci, and more.

Despite their century-long world domination, they’re actually not publicly traded on the stock market… yet.

This year, Puig is about to jump into the market with a €3 billion IPO, marking the largest global initial public offering this year.

Business is solid: In 2023 they did €4.30 billion in revenue, marking a 19% increase, and a 16% net profit rise to €465 million.

If you didn’t know: The whole fashion industry is hurting from a post-pandemic slowdown - Puig is not one of them.

Puig plans to raise €1.25 billion directly, with additional shares worth €1.75 billion being sold by existing shareholders. This strategic step, celebrating over a century of business, is Puig’s way to refinance acquisitions and fuel some future investments.

Exciting stuff.

🐭 Anxious? Get a hug. New research says touch reduces pain, anxiety, and depression.
Yepp, tender love and care is a real medicine, according to recent a super-comprehensive study.

Apparently, humans universally need touch for mental and physical health gains across ages, from newborns to adults.

This synthesis of 212 studies involving both adults and infants, shows touch's profound impact on reducing pain, depression, and anxiety.

So yeah… get touched. Often.

Also, that’s unexpected: Surprisingly, the study found similar physical health benefits from human touch and objects like weighted blankets or social robots.

THE DEPTHS

Art History

Shit-smearer, man-killer, master-painter; Caravaggio.

Caravaggio lived a real dirtbag life. Legendary painter, but a genuinely psychotic individual.

• He was arrested twice for carrying a sword with no permit.

• And again for smashing a plate of artichokes in a waiter’s face.

• And again for throwing rocks at an officer, telling him to stick his sword up his own ass.

• And… again for smearing shit on his landlady’s house for confiscating his stuff after missing rent.

In 1606, it all caught up to him: He murdered a man, and his God-gifted painter status couldn’t save him.

✦”Kill Caravaggio”✦

Caravaggio had long-standing beef with a pimp - probably about a woman.

At night, on a tennis court, they dueled.

Caravaggio pierced the pimp's femoral artery. The stabbing was aimed at his penis. He bled to death. Nasty work.

A death warrant was issued, promising a reward in exchange for Caravaggio’s literal head.

✦Painting on the run✦

Caravaggio escaped Rome for Naples, where he painted Seven Acts of Mercy. 

It’s a banger: It showed the acts prescribed in the Bible – feeding the hungry, burying the dead, clothing the naked.

Then he traveled to Malta. Proving he’d learned nothing, he shot and wounded a knight in an altercation.

For that, he was imprisoned in a water-surrounded cell 200 feet in the air. Even Houdini couldn’t knock that one.

But this is Caravaggio, not Houdini. To this day nobody knows how he escaped.

✦Revenge✦

Next, Sicily. There, he spent 9 months in pure paranoia of assassination. Then, he went back to Naples where the powerful noble Colonna family protected him. Nice.

Jk, that protection did nothing. In 1609, Caravaggio was jumped.

A gang of men beat and cut up his face, turning him into an abomination. A sfregio, facial wound, was a sign of revenge - Caravaggio had many enemies, so it could’ve been from anybody.

Caravaggio lived his last days scarred and scared. In this state, he began his last painting - The Martyrdom of Saint Ursula.

In it, Saint Ursula, a British princess who traveled on a pilgrimage to Rome with 10,010 virgins, is threatened with death by a Hun prince.

His request was simple: marry me, or I’ll kill you. An arrow to the heart killed her.

✦The death of a shithead✦

Sorry, there’s no epic finale where Caravaggio gets beaten to death, or executed. We don’t know what happened.

But it’s certain that Caravaggio’s fucked up life killed him - whichever way it happened.

Some say revenge-seeking assassins got him, some say his lead paints slowly killed him, and some say the infected face wounds got him.

For 4 full years since running off, death was around every corner. Caravaggio always knew this.

He died 1610 in Porto Ercole, a tiny Tuscan coast town. There, he wanted pardon for his crimes so he could return to Rome, his home.

Inching closer to the God he painted his whole life, maybe he finally felt regret. Maybe.