00:00 — Introduction

00:38 — What a Big Mac and a Diploma Tell You About Twenty Years

00:38 — The Internet Used to Have Edges

04:01 — Why the Nostalgia Cycle Is Speeding Up

04:01 — The Year Before the Smartphone

04:01 — Wrap Up

Sources:

- 2026 is the new 2016 (Wikipedia): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2026_is_the_new_2016

- Generation M2: Media in the Lives of 8- to 18-Year-Olds (Kaiser Family Foundation): https://www.kff.org/other/event/generation-m2-media-in-the-lives-of/

- The Common Sense Census: Media Use by Tweens and Teens, 2021 (Common Sense Media): https://www.commonsensemedia.org/research/the-common-sense-census-media-use-by-tweens-and-teens-2021

- Big Mac Index (The Economist): https://www.economist.com/big-mac-index

- Average egg prices in the U.S. 1995-2025 (FRED / Bureau of Labor Statistics): https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/APU0000708111

- Trends in College Pricing and Student Aid 2024 (College Board): https://research.collegeboard.org/trends/college-pricing

- Children's Outdoor Play and the Decline of Unstructured Activity (University of Michigan Institute for Social Research): https://news.umich.edu/

- How Instagram's Algorithm Changed in 2016 (Vice): https://www.vice.com/en/article/instagram-algorithm-change/

- Why Gen Z Is Nostalgic for 2016 (Forbes): https://www.forbes.com/sites/

- The Great Meme Reset and the 2016 Nostalgia Trend (Fast Company): https://www.fastcompany.com/

- Teen Screen Time Averages Over 8 Hours Daily (CDC / NHIS-Teen Survey): https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/

Full interactive experience at thehigheriq.com — skip between stories, test your recall, and get personalized briefings.

00:00 — Introduction

00:36 — The Drug That Changed Everything

00:47 — Wrap Up

Sources:

- What's next for GLP-1s? (Harvard Gazette): https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2026/02/whats-next-for-glp-1s/

- What to watch for in weight loss drugs in 2026 (NBC News): https://www.nbcnews.com/health/health-news/weight-loss-drug-prices-2026-glp-1-pills-trumprx-what-expect-rcna249520

- First GLP-1 pill for obesity from Novo Nordisk launches in the U.S. (CNBC): https://www.cnbc.com/2026/01/05/first-glp-1-pill-for-obesity-from-novo-nordisk-launches-in-the-us.html

- FDA Intends to Take Action Against Non-FDA-Approved GLP-1 Drugs (FDA): https://www.fda.gov/news-events/press-announcements/fda-intends-take-action-against-non-fda-approved-glp-1-drugs

- FDA Tightens the Belt on GLP-1 Compounding (National Law Review): https://natlawreview.com/article/fda-tightens-belt-glp-1-compounding-escalating-threat-enforcement

- The Ozempic Era (MUSC): https://www.musc.edu/content-hub/news/2024/08/29/the-ozempic-era

- The discovery and development of GLP-1 based drugs (PNAS): https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC11441540/

- Rx History: The Rise of GLP-1s (Innovative Rx Strategies): https://innovativerxstrategies.com/rx-history-glp1s/

- GLP-1 Receptor Agonists – From Evolution to Revolution (Gen Re): https://www.genre.com/us/knowledge/publications/2025/september/glp-1-receptor-agonists-from-evolution-to-revolution-en

- 5 Projected GLP-1 Trends in 2026 (GoodRx): https://www.goodrx.com/classes/glp-1-agonists/glp-1-trends

- What's ahead for GLP-1 weight loss drugs in 2026 (NPR): https://www.npr.org/2026/01/01/nx-s1-5661682/whats-ahead-for-the-weight-loss-drugs-known-as-glp-1s-in-2026

- On the Increase in Use of GLP-1s (Indiana University School of Medicine): https://medicine.iu.edu/blogs/bioethics/on-the-increase-in-use-of-glp-1s

- 2026 will bring more GLP-1 weight loss pills (CNBC): https://www.cnbc.com/2026/01/01/2026-will-bring-glp-1-weight-loss-pills-these-stocks-will-benefit-from-new-habits.html

- Why the FDA wants to curb compounded GLP-1 production (Marketplace): https://www.marketplace.org/story/2026/02/20/why-the-fda-wants-to-end-compounded-glp1-production

Full interactive experience at thehigheriq.com — skip between stories, test your recall, and get personalized briefings.

00:00 — Introduction

00:06 — The Dating Recession

00:06 — Wrap Up

Sources:

- State of Our Unions 2026: The Dating Recession (Institute for Family Studies): https://ifstudies.org/report-brief/state-of-our-unions-2026-the-dating-recession

- Families and Living Arrangements 2025 (U.S. Census Bureau): https://www.census.gov/newsroom/press-releases/2025/families-and-living-arrangements.html

- Trends in Mean Age of Mothers: United States, 2016–2023 (CDC National Vital Statistics Reports): https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/nvsr/nvsr74/nvsr74-09.pdf

- Two is already too many (Works in Progress): https://worksinprogress.co/issue/two-is-already-too-many/

- The Debate over Falling Fertility (IMF Finance & Development): https://www.imf.org/en/publications/fandd/issues/2025/06/the-debate-over-falling-fertility-david-bloom

- State of World Population 2025: The Real Fertility Crisis (United Nations Population Fund): https://www.unfpa.org/swp2025

- South Korea's birthrate rises amid signs of easing demographic crisis (Reuters): https://japantoday.com/category/world/south-korea's-birthrate-the-world's-lowest-rises-again-amid-signs-of-easing-demographic-crisis1

- South Korea's baby bust threatens its demographic future (The Japan Times): https://www.japantimes.co.jp/commentary/2025/09/22/world/south-koreas-baby-bust/

- Miracle under threat: South Korea's birth rate collapse (CNBC): https://www.cnbc.com/2025/09/27/south-koreas-birth-rate-collapse-threatens-growth.html

Full interactive experience at thehigheriq.com — skip between stories, test your recall, and get personalized briefings.

00:00 — Introduction

00:00 — Story_1

00:01 — Story_2

00:09 — Story_3

00:13 — Story_4

00:29 — Wrap Up

Sources:

- Benchmarking large language models for predictive modeling in biomedical research (Cell Reports Medicine): https://doi.org/10.1016/j.xcrm.2026.102594

- Generative AI analyzes medical data faster than human research teams (ScienceDaily): https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2026/02/260221060942.htm

- Harvard Research: Fewer than 1 in 700 get hired without a college degree (Harvard Business School): https://www.hbs.edu/bigs/joseph-fuller-college-degree-gap

- Is College Still Worth It? (Federal Reserve Bank of New York): https://libertystreeteconomics.newyorkfed.org/2025/04/is-college-still-worth-it/

- Where Do College Degrees Still Matter in a Skills-First Job Market? (Indeed Hiring Lab): https://www.hiringlab.org/2026/01/28/where-do-college-degrees-still-matter-in-a-skills-first-job-market/

- AI Shifts Expectations for Entry Level Jobs (IEEE Spectrum): https://spectrum.ieee.org/ai-effect-entry-level-jobs

- Are Young College Graduates Losing Their Edge in the Job Market? (Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland): https://www.clevelandfed.org/publications/economic-commentary/2025/ec-202514-are-young-college-graduates-losing-their-edge-in-the-job-market

- Income Gap Between Householders With College Degrees and Those With High School Degrees (U.S. Census Bureau): https://www.census.gov/library/stories/2025/09/education-and-income.html

- The State of Skills-Based Hiring in 2025 (TestGorilla): https://www.testgorilla.com/skills-based-hiring/state-of-skills-based-hiring-2025/

- 2026 Job Market Trends Every Student Should Know (University of Oregon Mohr Career Services): https://mohr.uoregon.edu/blog/2025/12/08/2026-job-market-trends-every-student-should-know/

Full interactive experience at thehigheriq.com — skip between stories, test your recall, and get personalized briefings.

00:00 — Introduction

00:41 — The Light Your Eyes Are Missing

00:41 — A Thousand Dollars and a Calculator

00:59 — The Vaccine That Forgot to Be Specific

04:26 — Wrap Up

Sources:

- Human accommodative visuomotor function is driven by contrast through ON and OFF pathways and is enhanced in myopia (Cell Reports): https://doi.org/10.1016/j.celrep.2026.116938

- The nearsightedness explosion may be fueled by dim indoor light, not just screens (ScienceDaily): https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2026/02/260218031556.htm

- New Research Suggests Myopia Could Be Caused By How We Use Our Eyes Indoors (SUNY College of Optometry): https://www.sunyopt.edu/new-research-suggests-myopia-could-be-caused-by-how-we-use-our-eyes-indoors/

- IRS Issues Guidance on 530A (Trump) Accounts (Providence Wealth Advisors): https://www.providencewealth.com/2026/02/04/irs-issues-guidance-on-530a-trump-accounts/

- Section 530A Trump Accounts: What Families Need to Know (PKF O'Connor Davies): https://www.pkfod.com/insights/section-530a-trump-accounts-what-families-need-to-know/

- Trump account (Wikipedia) (Wikipedia): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trump_account

- Child Trust Fund average balance at maturity (MoneySavingExpert): https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/savings/maturing-child-trust-fund/

- UK Child Trust Funds research briefing (UK Parliament): https://researchbriefings.files.parliament.uk/documents/CBP-9988/CBP-9988.pdf

- Spotlight: Child trust funds maturing into adulthood (Money Marketing): https://www.moneymarketing.co.uk/features/spotlight-nobody-talks-about-child-trust-funds-maturing-into-adulthood/

- One vaccine may provide broad protection against many respiratory infections and allergens (Stanford Medicine): https://med.stanford.edu/news/all-news/2026/02/universal-vaccine.html

- Scientists create universal nasal spray vaccine (ScienceDaily): https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2026/02/260222092258.htm

- Mucosal vaccination in mice provides protection from diverse respiratory threats (Science): https://doi.org/10.1126/science.aea1260

Full interactive experience at thehigheriq.com — skip between stories, test your recall, and get personalized briefings.

00:00 — Introduction

00:14 — The Last Macronutrient Standing

00:20 — The Math Problem

00:20 — The Vegetarian Question

00:20 — The Outcome Questions

00:20 — The Ultra-Processed Trap

00:20 — Wrap Up

Sources:

- How Much Protein Do You Need? Experts Explain (Scientific American): https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/how-much-protein-do-you-need-experts-explain/

- Protein Bars: Healthy Snack or Ultra-Processed? (Tufts Now): https://now.tufts.edu/2026/01/29/protein-bars-healthy-snack-or-ultra-processed

- Schrödinger's Snack (The Atlantic): https://www.theatlantic.com/health/2026/02/are-protein-bars-candy/686099/

- Dietary Guidelines for Americans 2025-2030: Progress on added sugar, protein hype, saturated fat contradictions (Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health): https://nutritionsource.hsph.harvard.edu/2026/01/09/dietary-guidelines-for-americans-2025-2030/

- IFIC 2025 Food & Health Survey: Protein Perceptions (International Food Information Council): https://ific.org/media/protein-dazed-and-still-confused-new-ific-research-reveals-americas-high-protein-hype-doesnt-match-knowledge/

- Mortality in vegetarians and nonvegetarians: a collaborative analysis (American Journal of Clinical Nutrition): https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/10479225/

- Dietary Protein and Amino Acids in Vegetarian Diets—A Review (Nutrients): https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC6893534/

- Dietary protein intake in midlife in relation to healthy aging (American Journal of Clinical Nutrition): https://ajcn.nutrition.org/article/S0002-9165(23)66282-3/fulltext

- Low Protein Intake Is Associated with a Major Reduction in IGF-1, Cancer, and Overall Mortality (Cell Metabolism): https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/24606898/

- Carcinogenicity of red meat and processed meat (World Health Organization): https://www.who.int/news-room/questions-and-answers/item/cancer-carcinogenicity-of-the-consumption-of-red-meat-and-processed-meat

- Identification of a leucine-mediated threshold effect governing macrophage mTOR signaling (Nature Metabolism): https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/38409323/

- Eat more plant-based proteins to boost longevity (Harvard Health): https://www.health.harvard.edu/staying-healthy/eat-more-plant-based-proteins-to-boost-longevity

- Protein Bar Market Size and Growth Report 2025-2032 (Fortune Business Insights): https://www.fortunebusinessinsights.com/industry-reports/protein-bar-market-100805

Full interactive experience at thehigheriq.com — skip between stories, test your recall, and get personalized briefings.

00:00 — Introduction

00:32 — The Berkeley Study

02:05 — The Washing Machine Pattern

02:05 — The Hidden Tax

02:05 — Takeaway

02:05 — Wrap Up

Sources:

- AI Doesn't Reduce Work—It Intensifies It (Harvard Business Review): https://hbr.org/2026/02/ai-doesnt-reduce-work-it-intensifies-it

- AI promised to free up workers' time. UC Berkeley Haas researchers found the opposite (UC Berkeley Haas): https://newsroom.haas.berkeley.edu/ai-promised-to-free-up-workers-time-uc-berkeley-haas-researchers-found-the-opposite/

- In the workforce, AI is having the opposite effect it was supposed to (Fortune): https://fortune.com/2026/02/10/ai-future-of-work-white-collar-employees-technology-productivity-burnout-research-uc-berkeley/

- Workslop: The Hidden Cost of AI-Generated Busywork (BetterUp Labs & Stanford Social Media Lab): https://www.betterup.com/workslop

- AI-generated 'workslop' is killing teamwork and causing a multimillion dollar productivity problem (CNBC): https://www.cnbc.com/2025/09/23/ai-generated-workslop-is-destroying-productivity-and-teams-researchers-say.html

- Time spent in housework (Scientific American (Joann Vanek, 1974)): https://www.jstor.org/stable/24949823

- It's Been 100 Years, and Technology Didn't Eliminate Housework (Medium): https://kshanson.medium.com/its-been-100-years-and-technology-didn-t-eliminate-housework-58ab9f437571

- More Work for Mother: The Ironies of Household Technology (Ruth Schwartz Cowan (1985)): https://www.amazon.com/More-Work-Mother-Household-Technology/dp/0465047327

Full interactive experience at thehigheriq.com — skip between stories, test your recall, and get personalized briefings.

00:00 — Introduction

00:34 — The Memo System

01:50 — The Tickle Robot

02:52 — The Exception

04:27 — The Giggling Rats

06:49 — Takeaway

06:57 — Wrap Up

Sources:

- Why can't you tickle yourself? (NeuroReport (Blakemore et al., 2000)): https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/10943682/

- Individuals with pronounced schizotypal traits are particularly successful in tickling themselves (Consciousness and Cognition (2016)): https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S1053810016300174

- The science of tickling: why the brain won't let us tickle ourselves (Horizon Magazine): https://projects.research-and-innovation.ec.europa.eu/en/horizon-magazine/science-tickling-why-brain-wont-let-us-tickle-ourselves

- Neural correlates of ticklishness in the rat somatosensory cortex (Science (Ishiyama & Brecht, 2016)): https://www.science.org/content/article/watch-these-ticklish-rats-laugh-and-jump-joy

- Tickle contagion in the rat somatosensory cortex (iScience (2022)): https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2589004222019915

- Why Can't a Person Tickle Himself? (Scientific American): https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/why-cant-a-person-tickle/

- Rats, Too, Giggle When Tickled (NPR): https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2016/11/10/501447965/brain-scientists-trace-rat-ticklishness-to-play-behavior

- Tickled rats reveal brain structure that controls laughter (Science): https://www.science.org/content/article/tickled-rats-reveal-brain-structure-controls-laughter

Full interactive experience at thehigheriq.com — skip between stories, test your recall, and get personalized briefings.

00:27 — The Pigeon-AI Connection

00:43 — Skinner's Pigeons Built Modern AI

02:20 — Cancer Detection and Art Critics

02:20 — Wrap Up

Sources:

- Can pigeons match wits with artificial intelligence? (University of Iowa): https://now.uiowa.edu/news/2023/02/ui-study-pigeons-use-same-basic-learning-process-ai

- 'Dim-witted' pigeons use the same principles as AI to solve tasks (Ohio State University): https://news.osu.edu/dim-witted-pigeons-use-the-same-principles-as-ai-to-solve-tasks/

- Why we should thank pigeons for our AI breakthroughs (MIT Technology Review): https://www.technologyreview.com/2025/08/18/1121370/ai-pigeons-reinforcement-learning/

- Pigeons (Columba livia) as Trainable Observers of Pathology and Radiology Breast Cancer Images (PLOS One): https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0141357

- Pigeons' discrimination of paintings by Monet and Picasso (Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior): https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC1334394/

- Using Pigeons to Diagnose Cancer (Scientific American): https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/using-pigeons-to-diagnose-cancer/

Full interactive experience at thehigheriq.com — skip between stories, test your recall, and get personalized briefings.

00:00 — Introduction

00:51 — The Sound Pruning

04:08 — The Language That Doesn't Have Left

04:56 — Wrap Up

Sources:

- Patricia Kuhl: The Linguistic Genius of Babies (TED): https://www.ted.com/talks/patricia_kuhl_the_linguistic_genius_of_babies

- Early Language Learning and Literacy: Neuroscience Implications for Education (NIH/PMC): https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC3164118/

- How Babies' Brilliant 'Onboard Computers' Sort Language From Sound Soup (Early Learning Nation): https://earlylearningnation.com/2019/10/how-babies-brilliant-onboard-computers-sort-language-from-sound-soup/

- Lera Boroditsky: How Language Shapes the Way We Think (TED): https://www.ted.com/talks/lera_boroditsky_how_language_shapes_the_way_we_think

- How Language Shapes Thought (Scientific American): https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/how-language-shapes-thought/

- The Thaayorre think of Time Like They Talk of Space (NIH/PMC): https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC3428806/

- 5 Languages That Could Change the Way You See the World (Nautilus): https://nautil.us/5-languages-that-could-change-the-way-you-see-the-world-235325/

- Does the language we speak shape the way we think? (ALTA Language Services): https://altalang.com/beyond-words/language-shape-thought/

Full interactive experience at thehigheriq.com — skip between stories, test your recall, and get personalized briefings.