James Keys and Tunde Ogunlana react to some recent research from Emma Harrington and Natalia Emanuel that suggests that in some scenarios, there are some very real social and psychological costs with working from home.  The guys then discuss what at least feels like a drastic uptick in spam calls offering loans of various sorts, and consider how close we are to spam making phones essentially unusable for incoming calls.

We Liked Remote Work. Then We Looked at the Data. (NY Times)

Remote work is making Americans lonelier and sadder, new study suggests (Scientific American)

Ignore unexpected calls about loans you didn’t apply for (FTC.gov)

Class-Action Suit Targets Liberty Financial Over Unsolicited Robocall Loan Offers (RIS Media)

Americans are getting 2.5 billion robocalls a month — the highest level in years (CBS News)

Scam Messages Are Everywhere. CNET Survey Finds 96% of Americans Are Targeted by Scammers Each Week (CNET)

Scam Calls Have Gotten Out of Control. This One Strategy Actually Helps (CNET)

James Keys and Tunde Ogunlana discuss the Jay-Z’s deal with Target to exclusively release the 30th anniversary edition of his first album Reasonable Doubt despite (or taking advantage of) efforts from black activists to maintain boycott against Target for its rollback of DEI initiatives.  The guys then consider how this illustrates a consequence of the “Splintering of Black America” Eugene Robinson talked about in his 2011 book “Disintegration.”

Jay-Z's Target Deal: A Career Built On Contradiction (Forbes)

Jay-Z Target Deal Proves He Always Shows Up When We Boycott (Baller Alert)

Disintegration: The Splintering of Black America (Bookshop.org)

'Disintegration' Of America's Black Neighborhoods (NPR)

James Keys and Tunde Ogunlana try to make sense of the recent push to ban Sharia law in the US at the state and national level and discuss why the apparent coordinated use of Sharia law as a strawman by right leaning media seems to be so effective even though there does not seem to be any notable effort going on in the US to enact Sharia law and the US Constitution would operate to prevent it anyway.

Muslim American groups say Republicans are weaponizing congressional hearings (Reuters)

How Fox News viewership increases belief in the anti-immigrant great replacement theory (Yahoo! News)

DeSantis Signs Sharia Law Ban: What It Means for Florida Courts (Newsweek)

Fact Check: Trump claims 'Shariah courts' enforce UK laws. Don't believe it (Yahoo! News)

Iowa cancer rates surge — farm chemicals are a key risk, new report finds (The New Lede)

Texas Senate runoff sees surge of anti-Muslim rhetoric in campaign ads (The Guardian)

Using Bigotry to Hide an Authoritarian, Christian Nationalist Agenda (The Nation)

James Keys and Tunde Ogunlana discuss the recently completed Enhanced Games, which allow athletes using banned performance enhancing drugs and banned equipment to compete, and consider why the performances at the games came up well short of the kind of record breaking feats that the organizers were promising.  Later on, the guys take a look at published advice from Sanjay Bhojraj, an experienced cardiologist, about the 5 things he does not do before 9:00 am and the 7 things he does not do after 7:00 pm to protect his heart.

Enhanced Games claim ‘we changed the world’ but only one record broken and three clean athletes win (The Guardian)

At the Enhanced Games, drugs don’t get athletes banned. They could get them rich. (NBC News)

Cardiologist: 5 things I never do before 9 a.m.—after 20 years of treating heart attacks (CNBC)

Cardiologist: 7 things I never do after 7 p.m.—after 20 years of treating heart attacks (CNBC)

James Keys and Tunde Ogunlana continue their streaming between the lines series and discuss the 2024 documentary “American Godfathers: The Five Families,” which is currently airing on Netflix and is based on Selwyn Raab’s book “Five Families: The Rise, Decline, and Resurgence of America's Most Powerful Mafia Empires,” and consider the vast influence of the Mafia and organized crime had on the 20th century in the U.S.

American Godfathers: The Five Families (Netflix)

American Godfathers: The Five Families (YouTube)

Five Families The Rise, Decline, and Resurgence of America's Most Powerful Mafia Empires (Bookshop.org)

James Keys and Tunde Ogunlana discuss the recent wave of redistricting that has followed the US Supreme Court’s Louisiana v. Callais decision which allowed for partisan gerrymandering even to the extent it is discriminatory and consider how viewing and fighting this as a racial justice issue can both helpful and a hinderance to those who oppose it.  The guys then discuss the NAACP’s call for Black athletes to boycott sports programs in large southern universities in response to efforts in those states to minimize Black representation.

The U.S. Supreme Court strikes another severe blow to the Voting Rights Act (NPR)

Redistricting Watch 8.0: Tracking the Aftermath of Louisiana v. Callais (Legal Defense Fund)

Proportional Representation (American Bar Association)

Towards Proportional Representation for the U.S. House: Amending the Uniform Congressional District Act (Unite America Institute)

NAACP calls for boycott of Southern college sports programs over voting rights (PBS)

Frank Sinatra’s Fight to Protect a Legendary Rat Pack Singer in Hollywood’s Most Segregated Era (Collider)

James Keys and Tunde Ogunlana react to the report that the US national debt now exceeds the size of the US economy, measured as the gross domestic product, for the first time since right after World War II in 1946 and consider whether all the talk about how bad huge national debts were, which happened when the actual debt was tens of trillions of dollars lower than it is now, was just political posturing.  The guys then consider whether the US society is equipped to address slow moving problems like runaway debt, or even like climate change or forever chemical contamination.

US national debt is now bigger than the economy for first time since World War II (The Independent)

The real trouble with the US debt topping 100 percent of GDP (Atlantic Council)

James Keys and Tunde Ogunlana discuss the dietary supplement creatine and its growing use by not just athletes but all people, particularly in light of a recent claim by Darryn Peterson, a college basketball star and top NBA draft prospect who suggested that taking creatine caused him major physical issues this past college season.

Darryn Peterson says high doses of creatine led to cramping (ESPN)

Darryn Peterson says he's finally figured out the reason for his cramping issues at Kansas (Yahoo! Sports)

Why everyone’s talking about creatine (UCLA Health)

Everything You Should Know About Creatine and Muscle Growth (Men's Health)

The History of Supplements: Ancient Remedies to Modern Nutrition (Canyonside Labs)

James Keys and Tunde Ogunlana discuss Nir Eyal’s “Beyond Belief: The Science-Backed Way to Stop Limiting Yourself and Achieve Breakthrough Results,” the 2026 book that deep dives into the concept of beliefs, including how they affect how we see and move through the world and how one can use them to better their life.  The guys specifically consider how Eyal defined beliefs, extent to which so much of each of our individual realities and experiences are really derived from our beliefs, and how the placebo effect illustrates the extent beliefs can direct affect our well-being.

Beyond Belief: The Science-Backed Way to Stop Limiting Yourself and Achieve Breakthrough Results (bookshop.org)

Beyond Belief (nirandfar.com)

James Keys and Tunde Ogunlana discuss the story of the US soldier that is being charged for using confidential insider information to win bets about the capture of Maduro on the prediction market platform Polymarket and consider the risks that society faces as prediction markets like Polymarket and Kalshi seem to be turning the whole world into a casino.  The guys then react to recent research on extent to which our brains progress through stages like childhood, adolescence (which lasts surprising long!), adult, and old age, and consider how society should use this type of information.

Soldier Charged After Using Classified Intel On Maduro Raid To Win $400,000 On Polymarket (Forbes)

Kalshi CEO outlines the difference between prediction markets and sportsbooks (ProFootballTalk)

U.S. CFTC adds New York to string of states its suing to stop prediction market pushback (Coindesk)

Brazil blocks prediction platforms, tightens rules to curb 'bet-like' products (Reuters)

Billionaire Investor Warns Sports Prediction Markets Harm Men (Yahoo! Finance)

The key phases your brain changes – and how to protect it (The Telegraph)    (Apple News Link)