If you want to hear a fact that will truly blow your socks off, get a load of this: President John Tyler – who was born on this day in 1790 – has a living grandson. Yep, there is a man living today who calls President Tyler his grandpa. Meanwhile, Nicolas Cage has been a grandpa since 2014. Just some perspective.

In today's edition:

• Dawn of the mammoth meatballs

• "Chiefsaholic" skips bail!

• America's newest sport

🔑 Key Stories

I Cooka Da Mammoth Meatballs

An Australian company created a woolly mammoth meatball

• Australia-based Vow is a lab-grown meat company that has raised $56M to cultivate ~50 types of meat. Its CEO said the “best way” to “transition a few billion” people to lab-grown meat is to “invent meat”

• On Tuesday, Vow announced it had developed a woolly mammoth meatball. It did so by combining mammoth DNA with elephant DNA, inserting that into sheep stem cells, and then growing ~20B cells

• “It was ridiculously easy and fast [to make],” a Vow exec said, adding that no one had yet eaten it

Dig Deeper

• Later this year, Vow hopes to sell its first cultivated meat product – Japanese quail – in Singapore, which is the only country where lab-grown meat is for sale. 2 US companies have received partial approval to sell their “meat,” but they are awaiting USDA approval.

Population "Bomb" Defused?

A study found the human population will peak lower and sooner than expected

• It took Homo sapiens ~330,000 years to reach a global population of 1B, in 1804. It then took 123 years to double to 2B; 47 to double to 4B; and 48 to double to 8B, which it hit last year

• In 1968 and 1972, 2 books – “The Population Bomb” and “Limits to Growth” – claimed out-of-control population growth would cause societal collapse

• On Monday, a report commissioned by the same organization that funded “Limits to Growth” claimed the global population will peak and lower than predicted. Its worst-case scenario had population peaking at 9B in 2046 and then declining, averting a crisis

Dig Deeper

• Another estimate by the United Nations projected the world population will hit 9.7B by 2050 and continue to rise for decades after. A European Union-funded report claims it’ll peak around 9.5B in the 2060s and remain above 9B by 2100

SBF Bribed Chinese Officials?

US prosecutors accused Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF) of paying bribes to Chinese officials

• SBF founded FTX and Alameda Research, both of which ranked among the world’s most valuable crypto-related companies before collapsing amid fraud charges this November. SBF faces 12 related charges; his colleagues already pleaded guilty

• On Tuesday, US authorities brought another charge against SBF, this one for allegedly paying $40M+ in bribes to Chinese officials to free up accounts frozen by the Chinese government

• SBF now lives at his parents’ house on $250M bail

Dig Deeper

• SBF has pleaded not guilty to the initial 8 charges and hasn’t entered a formal plea for the other 5 charges, including the newest bribery one

Moon Water Stored in Beads?

A study found that trillions of pounds of water may be trapped in glass beads near the moon’s surface

• Water was first identified on the moon in the 1990s; since then, scientists have debated how it’s stored

• In 2020, a Chinese probe brought lunar soil samples back to Earth. On Monday, a Chinese study found they contained tiny glass beads, formed by asteroid collisions with the moon, that held traces of water

• The study says solar winds – charged particles from the Sun – created the water through chemical reactions in the beads. It claims trillions of pounds of water are trapped in similar beads on the moon

Dig Deeper

• “This work adds to the growing consensus that the moon is more water-rich than previously thought,” a researcher unrelated to the study said. One of the study’s authors called the beads a “water reservoir” that could be tapped by future permanent moon colonies

Job openings, Interview Advice, and More – For Free!

Together with The Commons

If you're interested in product, business operations, or Chief of Staff roles in tech, you should check out The Commons Weekly Digest Newsletter. The digest includes:

• Curated job postings for strategic business roles in tech

• Candid, practical, and on-the-job career advice from professionals who work at startups and tech companies like Uber, Google, TikTok, Shopify, Netflix and more

• Brainteasers, salaries, negotiation tips, and other useful content to help you crush the job search and interview process

• Priority access to exclusive events and learning experiences

🍿 Popcorn

ICYMI

• Ain't sayin' he a gold digger: An Australian man with a metal detector found a 10-lb rock with ~$160k worth of gold inside. "I was just gobsmacked," he said afterwards

• Sho-me the money: Shohei Ohtani is expected to make $65M in 2023, including endorsements. That would make him the highest-paid MLB player in history

• Blessed be thy drip: An AI-generated image of the Pope wearing a white Balenciaga jacket with a gold chain fooled the internet. It was first posted on Reddit

Wildcard

• Super Bowl Bail: The Kansas City Chiefs' "Chiefsaholic" super fan has ditched his ankle monitor and skipped bail. He faces several charges, including armed robbery

• Why not "Jerry?": Scientists named a rare species of beetle "bembidium brownorum" in honor of ex-California governor Jerry Brown after finding one on his ranch

• Sticky legal case: A foundation is suing a serial sperm donor in the Netherlands for fathering over 500 children and increasing the likelihood of accidental incest

👇 What do you think?

Today's Question:

What is something on your bucket list you have yet to check off?

Reply to this email with your answers!

See yesterday's results below the Wrap! 

🌯 Roca Wrap

The world’s second-most-watched sport is coming to the United States.

This month, Major League Cricket (MLC) held its inaugural draft. In Houston, where the draft took place, a Congresswoman tried to fire up the crowd: “Are we ready for cricket? Are we ready?”

The first known cricket reference dates to 1597, when a British man testified in court that he and his friends played “creckett.” By the end of the 1600s, British newspapers were covering cricket and a betting industry had emerged around it.

The British Empire then exported the game to its colonies. It became popular in India, Australia, the Caribbean, South Africa, and elsewhere.

Today, many metrics suggest cricket is the world’s second-most popular sport, after soccer. In India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh – 3 of the world’s 8 most populous countries – it’s king.

Cricket is played by 2 11-person teams on an oval field. The teams take turns hitting a ball (batting) and defending.

To score a run, the batter hits the ball and runs to the other end of the “pitch,” while a “batting partner” runs in the opposite direction. Each time those “batsmen” cross the opposite ends of the pitch, they score.

Cricket matches have traditionally been day- or days-long affairs, limiting their commercial appeal. But in the early 2000s, a new type of cricket – ”T20” – compressed the game to 2.5 hours.

Compared to other forms of cricket, T20 lent itself to mass marketing, live events, and broadcasting. Its matches have helped commercial cricket’s popularity grow.

In 2008, India launched the T20 Indian Premier League (IPL). The new league introduced city-based franchises, like the NFL or MLB, for the first time.

The season, which lasts ~7 weeks each year, exploded in popularity. This year, an estimated 426M people watched.mThe IPL is now worth many billions of dollars, and investors are looking to replicate its success.

Enter, the US.

Over the years, numerous cricket leagues have tried and failed to gain traction in the US

In 2019, though, the group that governs American cricket struck a deal with a group of Indian entrepreneurs who agreed to invest $1B to develop an American cricket league – Major League Cricket (MLC).

The money alone immediately differentiated the MLC from other efforts to grow cricket in the US

In 2021, MLC launched its 27-team development league. The following year, it received $120M more in funding. This year, it’s launching its main league.

MLC’s first season will take place in Dallas from July 13 to 30. It has 6 teams: The Seattle Orcas, San Francisco Unicorns, Washington Freedom, Los Angeles Knight Riders, MI New York, and Texas Super Kings (near Dallas).

To fill out the teams, MLC held its inaugural draft last week. The players include former cricket stars from India, South Africa, New Zealand, Australia, and other cricket-loving countries.

So can cricket catch on in the US, or will the game always have limited appeal? The MLC’s billion-dollar gamble may finally answer that question.

If you have thoughts, let us know at [email protected]!

🌊 Roca Clubhouse

Yesterday's Poll:

Do you exercise every day?

Yes: 42%

No: 58%

Yesterday's Question:

If you could know the truth behind any historical event, which would it be?

Kaki from Virginia: “Right now I want to know what happened to MH370 the Malaysian plane that disappeared in 2014… we were riveted recently watching the doc on Netflix.”

Harrison from Nebraska: “I want to know what happened to the Roanoke colony in North Carolina in 1590. A colony of settlers lived there, their companions left for several months and when they came back the colony was disappeared with only the word "Croatoan" written on a tree. Did disease of or starvation kill them? Did a native American tribe kill them or did they join a tribe? No one knows…”

Susan from Tennessee: “I definitely would want to know who was behind John F. Kennedy’s assassination. It will be 60 years in November since it happened. I truly believe there is so much that the general public does not know! The information needs to be disclosed!”

🧠 Final Thoughts

Happy Wednesday, all. For the first time since the fall, we’ve only got one day in the 10-day forecast where the low is below 50. We feel great and hope you all are enjoying some early spring weather, too.

—Max and Max