🌊 Son, Why Don't You Be a Doctor, Lawyer, or Podcaster?

“We’re gonna need a bigger burger.”

After months of anticipation, McDonald’s is introducing its biggest burger to date: The Arch. The Arch consists of two patties, three layers of melted white cheddar, a new “tangy” sauce, crispy onions, slivered onions, lettuce, and pickles on a brioche bun with multi-colored seeds. It is now available in Canada and Portugal.

We can’t wait to travel to Portugal this month and pretend we’re there for the Eras Tour.

–Max, Max, and Owen

KEY STORY

Google to Fund News Outlets

Google agreed to fund California news outlets

• Earlier this month, California’s Democrat-controlled legislature advanced a bill – modeled after ones in Canada and Australia – that requires tech platforms to pay publishers a share of their advertising revenue. Google and other tech companies threatened to sue, setting up a legal battle

• Last week, Google agreed to pay $110M to fund California journalism. In exchange, the legislature will drop the bill

• UC Berkeley’s journalism school will distribute the funds to approved newsrooms

Dig Deeper

• The deal – which comes with newsrooms devastated by the collapse of the media advertising industry – has sparked mixed responses

• Some have said it’s a step toward reviving independent journalism and giving back some of the money that Google’s dominance has diverted from news outlets

• Others have said it will give Google, California’s government, and Berkeley – a famously progressive school – disproportionate control over California’s media landscape

• And still, others – including a union representing California journalists – said the deal didn’t go far enough to regulate Big Tech

KEY STORY

Podcast Boom Time

The Kelce brothers signed a $100M podcast deal with Amazon

• The brothers – NFL stars – launched New Heights as a conversational podcast in 2022. It’s since become one of the US’ most popular, particularly as Travis Kelce reached superstardom via his relationship with Taylor Swift

• Amazon will now have exclusive rights to the show, although it will remain available on all platforms

Dig Deeper

• The deal comes a month after Amazon signed an $80M podcast deal with Dax Shepard and days after Alex Cooper signed a $100M one with Spotify

• The deals indicate a consolidation of the podcast market, where funds are being dominated by a few large shows

ROCA’S PARTNERS

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• The future was once powered by oil. It minted millionaires and reshaped the world. But tomorrow will largely be powered by lithium. As the key component in EV batteries, demand projects to increase 20x

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• Invest in EnergyX by Oct. 3

Disclosure: This is a paid advertisement for EnergyX’s Regulation A+ Offering. Please read the offering circular at https://invest.energyx.com/

KEY STORY

TikTok to the White House

Half of TikTok users under 30 use the platform for politics and news, according to a new Pew Research survey

• Roughly 6 out of 10 US adults under 30 say they use TikTok. For adults ages 30 to 49, that number falls to 4 out of 10

• In April, President Biden signed a bill that would ban TikTok if the company doesn’t sell the platform off within a year; TikTok responded by suing the federal government

• Despite the bill, both Kamala and Trump created TikTok accounts this summer. Kamala’s has 4.8M followers, while Trump’s has 10.6M

Dig Deeper

• In addition to launching their own TikTok accounts, both candidates have prioritized partnerships with influencers who have major TikTok presences

• Over 200 influencers attended the DNC last week. Meanwhile, Trump has done high-profile interviews with influencers like Adin Ross and Logan Paul

KEY STORY

Video Game Tourism

A new video game’s popularity is fueling a surge in tourism to historical sites in China

• Black Myth: Wukong is a video game based on the 16th-century Chinese legend Journey to the West. It has brought in more than $750M since its release last week and is already widely regarded as the most successful Chinese video game of all time

• The game’s popularity has driven a surge in tourism – dubbed “Wukong Travel” – to the dozens of real-world locations featured in the game. Following the game’s release, searches for the locations more than tripled on Chinese tourism site Ctrip

Dig Deeper

• The game’s release was met with controversy after one of the game’s producers sent marketing partners a list of topics to avoid when discussing the game, which included “feminist propaganda,” “fetishisation,” politics, and Covid-19

• The controversy does not appear to have affected game sales or popularity

RUNDOWN
Some Quick Stories for the Office

🎯 Israeli troops rescued a hostage from an underground tunnel in Gaza, the first time it has done so

🗳️ Michigan officials said that RFK Jr.’s name must stay on the ballot despite his attempts to get off it

⚖️ A federal judge put President Biden’s immigration policy on hold after 16 states sued

🦠 Mark Zuckerberg said the Biden administration should not have pressured Facebook to censor Covid-related content

🎸 Legendary Britpop band Oasis is officially reuniting for a UK and Ireland tour next summer, ending a 15-year hiatus and, presumably, the long-running feud between brothers Liam and Noel Gallagher

COMMUNITY

🧐 Yesterday’s question: What’s something you learned this summer?

🧠 Today’s question: What’s something that annoys you about the media?

Reply to this email to let us know what you think!

POPCORN
Some Quick Stories for Happy Hour

💸 Lifestyles of the rich and jobless: Australian police seized a Lamborghini, Harley-Davidson motorcycle, and two Rolex watches from an unemployed Sydney man with “unexplained wealth”

🎢 Left high and (not) dry: A group of riders on the Supergirl Sky Flight swing ride at Six Flags Mexico got stuck nearly 250 feet above the ground during a storm (video below)

🧠 The Children Yearn for the Minds: An Austrian surgeon allegedly let his daughter drill a hole in a patient’s skull during a surgery involving a man who got in a forestry accident in January

🎂 Wee bit of luck, mate! John Tinniswood, the world’s oldest man, celebrated his 112th birthday at a UK care home on Monday, attributing his long life to “luck”

🚒 Jaws of Larceny: Oakland, California police are working with fire department officials to recover a stolen Jaws of Life tool after thieves stole it from the fire crew

ROCA WRAP

DUIs – A Moral Failure?

During our Roca road trip around Wisconsin – America’s drunkest state – we had a debate: Is drunk driving a major moral flaw? Or a minor moral flaw with potentially grave consequences?

It wasn’t just Wisconsin’s alcohol-centric culture that sparked this debate. Drunk driving was in the news cycle amid scrutiny of Democratic VP candidate Tim Walz’s 1995 DUI. Walz was caught driving 96 mph in a 55 mph zone in Nebraska. He failed his sobriety test, blew a .128, and ended up paying a $200 fine and losing his license for 90 days.

Since 1988, drunk driving has been illegal in all 50 states.

Yet, each state treats DUIs differently. On one end of the spectrum is Wisconsin, which considers a first offense OWI (Operating While Intoxicated) a civil, not a criminal, offense. On the other end is Arizona, which considers a first-offense DUI a criminal offense with a minimum fee of $1,250 and a 10-day jail sentence.

On a national scale, the consequences of drunk driving are enormous. In 2022, 13,524 Americans died from drunk-driving crashes, equivalent to 37 people per day. Roughly 30% of all US car fatalities are due to alcohol-impaired driving.

By comparison, over 3,000 people died from crashes involving “distracted drivers” — often drivers using their phones — in 2021. Other leading causes of avoidable deaths in the US are gun homicides (roughly 20,000 per year) and drug overdoses (100,000+ each year).

Despite its grave consequences, drunk driving is relatively common. More than 1M drunk driving arrests occur each year, and the CDC conservatively estimates at least 100M instances of drunk driving in the US annually.

So, on the one hand, drunk driving is quite common; you likely know someone who has done it, and you definitely know someone who texts and drives, which is also potentially deadly. On the other hand, getting drunk is entirely optional and significantly increases the odds of making a mistake that could take someone’s life. In fact, is there anything a typical person may do in their life that’s more likely to claim someone else’s?

So our questions to you are: Is drunk driving a major moral flaw or a minor flaw with major consequences? Reply to this email to let us know what you think!

EDITOR’S NOTE
Final Thoughts

Today is the 61st anniversary of the “I Have a Dream” speech. If you’re someone who slept through history class in high school, we highly recommend a rewatch. And even if you didn’t.

To all of you, we wish a very happy Hump Day! Carpe Wednesdiem!

–Max and Max