Everything Is Content - Supercharged Tanning, Supreme Wealth's Reality & Souped Up Athletes

Episode Date: May 29, 2026

Happy Friday EICompetitors! This week on the podcast, what lengths will humans not go to, to feel a little bit special?First up, a 2025 survey by the American Academy of Dermatology revealed that half of Gen Z participants got a sunburn in 2024, with 10% getting burns severe enough to cause blisters. They also found that 37% didn’t know the risks of tanning and 57% believed common tanning myths- e.g. that a base tan protects you from sunburn. More than a fifth of Gen Z respondents prioritise getting a tan over protecting their skin, and 25% said that it’s worth looking good now even if it means their skin looks worse down the line. Is this just the naivety of youth? Or does it signal something shifting in culture? We talk everything tanning!Secondly, what does extreme wealth do to the brain? This is the title of a piece for New York magazine by Lane Brown, and the question he tries to answer within it. So Lane Brown you may also remember authored The Feed Is Fake, about stealth marketing online which we discussed in last week’s episode. And for this piece about the ultra-rich, he spent two months interviewing the 0.1 and 0.001% and asking them how money has changed the way they think, how their worldview shifted when they were no longer under the same financial constraints and how becoming mega rich altered their perception of status, friendship, obligation and maybe even reality itself. And lastly, while we were enhancing the UK bank holiday heatwave with picky bits, day drinking and ice lollies, over in Las Vegas, another kind of enhancement was going on at The Enhanced Games. Is this just inevitable in a world of optimisation? We discuss.We hope you enjoy, as always please do rate, review and share the show, it helps others to find it and us to keep making it! LY! O,R,B xxBeth's been loving: I want to go home but I'm already there, Patrick Radden Keefe on Adam Buxton Ruchira's been loving: Two Weeks In August, Oenone's been loving: The Crash, It Ends With UsWhat Will It Take to Get Young People to Stop Tanning (Again)?AAD survey: half of Gen Z got sunburned in 2024 — and many still don’t know the risksRFK Jr. pushes “personal choice” over teen tanning bed banAs influencers spread ‘toxic’ claims, what is the truth about sunscreen?Sam Faiers slammed for pushing ‘dangerous’ suncream conspiracy theoryThe myth of good skin, with Jessica DeFinoBurn notice: Gen Z and the terrifying rise of extreme tanningWhat Does Extreme Wealth Do to the Brain?Enhanced Games devolves into daft, 'high school-level' sporting circusRecord 50m freestyle time at controversial Enhanced GamesThe Enhanced Games fit right in with the rest of 2026’s longevity vibes Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

I'm Beth. I'm Bricera and I'm Anoni. And this is Everything is Content, the podcast that covers TV, film, internet trends, literary drama, tech politics and so much more. With a garden hose of pop culture filling up the paddling pool of discourse during a content heatwave, and you're all invited for a dip. This week on the podcast, Gen Z's surprising relationship to tanning, a sporting event where performance-enhancing drugs are encouraged,

and what extreme wealth really does to the brain. Follow us on Instagram at Everything is Content Pod and make sure you hit follow on your podcast player app so you never miss an episode. But first, I'll pick on you, Beth. What have you been loving this week? I was going to say, the heat as a joke, but I think actually none of us have had a wink of sleep.

And I just don't think it'd be that funny. So I have been loving, what I've actually been loving this week is nothing because it has been genuinely too hot. But I've got a book that I read on holiday, so I've read about seven books, so I'm drip-feeding them into the podcast, as is my right and my want. This book, similar to last week's London Falling, is another EIC-Goldmuzzer for me.

I think it's absolutely fantastic. It is, I Want to Go Home, but I'm Already There by Rachine Lanigan, who's writing we have definitely talked about. I think she was the author of the piece, Harry Potter and the deadly rehash culture, which we talked about last year and how we can't stop, but must stop loving Harry Potter. have you either of you read or do you own this book? I don't but somebody else recommended it to me actually. I haven't read but have heard great things.

The great things are correct, I can confirm. So it is, it's about Anya and Elliott who are this, I think like an older Genzi or maybe young millennial doesn't matter, late 20s couple moving into their first rental together in this gentrified area of London. It's this kind of fresh start after her best friend and current housemate moves in with her partner, Anya and Elliot move in and immediately something in the house to Anya doesn't feel right. There's this like feeling, Specter is interacting with her body. It's kind of interacting with her mind. And he isn't really believing her. And it's described in the press as like this

gothic, wait, gothic horror for generation rent and a housing crisis ghost story, which is so brilliant. It's so many of like the usual horror conventions, which you will recognize. like something taking her over, partner not believing her, but it's also just such a relatable story about renting and living and trying to keep your footing in a city like London,

breeze through on holiday. I think it's such a good story. It's not too scary either. It's very unnerving, but it's not like it. Oh, I love that it's a horror. When you started, I thought it was going to be more

kind of like a naturalistic capture of life in London, which still would have been great, I'm sure, but I really wasn't expecting you to say that. No, I wasn't either, actually. Also, not to derail the comment. conversation too much, but one of my favorite podcasts I always listened to is Richard Herring's Lester Square Theatre podcast and he always asked these emergency questions to his guests

when he can't think what to say. And one of the emergency questions is, have you ever seen a ghost? Have you guys ever seen or met a ghost? I haven't, but I have spoken to two people who convinced me so much through their anecdotes that they could be real when I already was so cynical. I, a ghost once stole my car keys, genuinely. I went to this pub in, right. I think it's called The Mermaid Inn. And their big selling point is, famous. Yes, they're like, we've got so many ghosts.

And I was like, well, I don't believe in ghost, but we've got so many ghosts. Went into the loo. I wasn't drinking because I was meant to be driving. So I went into the loo, really tiny loo, used the loo, left the loo, couldn't find my car keys and was like, I'm going, I've dropped on the beach, I've dropped them here, I've dropped them here. Search that bathroom, top to bottom. My parents had to come and drive me my spare keys.

Like, I really think it was. It wasn't, it wasn't an nightmare, but it was kind of inconvenient. Anyway, my folks went back like the week after. And they were like, yeah, they were just in the middle of the floor in the car, in the bathroom. A ghost. Here's my car keys because I didn't believe in it. Yeah? So that's as close as I've come toilet ghost. That is really funny.

I actually, I'll try and make this short because this is, it could be a long story. But basically, I grew up in this house in the late district that was a really old house. and I used to have these awful night terrors where I'd wake up in the middle of the night and my parents would like try and wake me and I'd just be looking like straight through them and I think I used to see people and my mum said she'd be sitting watching TV

and she used to see little girls walk on the sofa wearing long white 90s. I know, anyway and she'd think it's my sisters and it wasn't, there was no one there. Anyway, but my mum was like, she really didn't believe in ghosts so she was just thought she was like going mad and then when we moved out,

the removal man went into my room and all the hairs and their arms went up and mum said that they were like we can't do this room because there's a no no no no that's a good way to get out of a bit of work in it i'd say that that and so no i really did that does freak me out because my mum still to this day talks about it like in a really creepy way but also on beth's khakis this is the funniest thing my parents went on holiday they haven't gone on holiday for ages and ages and ages they arrive on holiday and mum's like dad forgot

all of his t-shirts anyway they got back home and mum was like dad's t-shirts aren't at home and i was like so what we think has happened dad's case was locked but we think someone in the airport has unlocked his suitcase, opened his suitcase, taken out a pile of t-shirts, re-locked the suit, and I was like, do you think? So random.

They obviously haven't done that. No. They're probably just in a pile in the house. But the way that they're both, like, someone's stolen in their t-shirts. They're not even like, they're not posh t-shirt.

They're just 70-year-old man t-shirts. No one is stealing those. Anyway, it really makes me off because they're both convinced. When they turn up in two months, just in a pile, like, behind something, I'll be really vindicated,

but yeah. I love that they think somebody broke the lock, I know. Literally just fiddled with the lock and like expertly took them out and then expertly redid the lock. My dad's theory is that people that work in airports have like master keys for like every padlock.

Which is probably, I mean, maybe that's the thing but I think they're probably going to take like, I don't know, a laptop. Real mind items. I would think so. I believe them. I believe your parents. You can tell them that.

Have you got any more Beth? I've only got one mention which is, obviously last week I mentioned London falling and I just mentioned it two seconds ago. But Adam Buxton just had Patrick Raddenkiew on his podcast for the second time talking about the first time he was talking about Emperor of Pain. This time he's talking about the book. And it's just a very nice conversation. They talk about really sensitively about the interview process and the story and more on what I already really liked about the book,

but also about fatherhood about Adam Buxton being a centra's dad. It's a very nice, sweet conversation and we'll link at the show notes. But I would also recommend that. But no more to say on that, to be honest. I also did listen to that and then I thought, oh, should I have done this? Because do you think it's too spoilery? Because I haven't read the book yet. But I really enjoyed the episode.

Yeah, I was going to say, if it didn't feel too spoilery for you, there are some things in the book that I just really enjoyed learning for the first time in the way that Patrick Radankeef does lay them out. But I don't think that what they talk about. They just say, okay, this is this kind of guy. No, I think the conversation is actually pretty safe. Okay, Fab. Yeah, I really enjoyed it. But yeah, I was actually going to bring that up as well. Okay.

Ritera, on to you. Okay. So I think this is one of our special ones where all three of us have now recommended it. But I finished gem Calder's, I want you to be happy last week. And as everyone's already done over and over, I really enjoyed it. I thought it was really good and really, I don't know, it was so pacey in a way that I wasn't expecting. Because it's not a thriller. It is more kind of the style of what I mentioned before of kind of capturing an experience of being, you know, a certain age demographic in London and what that feels like and having a relationship.

that is power imbalanced and just kind of toxic and horrible. But I just, I raced through it. I couldn't stop reading it. I was just reading chunks and chunks and chunks. So that's my first one. Is that out now, can I say? I know it was out in May and now suddenly it's become almost the end of May. So surely Gem Calder's book is out.

That's a good question. Yeah, so it's out. Oh, very good. So you can buy it now and I think, I do think it is worth a read. I think it is really, really good. And also Sally Rooney and our favourite, Annie Lord, have blubed the front. So if you needed more convincing about it, And then the second thing that I started last week, which I'm only one episode in, but I can tell I'm going to really enjoy, is two weeks in August. Have you guys heard of this?

I don't think so. So it's a new TV show on BBC Eye Player. And the best way I can put it is it feels like quintessentially British White Lotus. And you would think that I would be done with that kind of stuff. I'd be done with like, I don't know, people going on holiday and having a very fraught tense time. But I'm not. I'm actually not. And I think because this has come out during people. heat holiday heat wave. It's such a good show to watch right now. And rather than it being so explicitly the 1% who are doing this like holiday away and having a difficult time, this is more like people who feel relative in my experience to like a middle class kind of friendship group where some people have risen to the top. They've maybe, you know, started, you know, doing quite well at their acting job. And then you have two people who've had a really shit year. One of their businesses has fallen through. Financially they're not doing well.

They haven't told the rest of the group, but they've all bought this, like, or rented this, like, gorgeous villa in Greece and they're not talking about money. So it's just bubbling away. And then I won't say something, but two of the couple, two people from a couple

end up getting a bit too flirty and that sets the tone for the rest of the show. That sounds so good. I can't believe if I haven't heard of this. I feel like BBC I play are not notoriously famous for advertising their shows very well. Agree. They're just go, here you go and have that.

Exactly. If you find it, you can watch it. My partner saw that The Guardian gave it five stars, so that is the reason why we got drawn in. So I think if you watch it, a lot of our listeners will really enjoy it. Well, I'm looking now. It's got Jessica Rain, who was in the first few series of Call the Midwife.

She was the lead, Jenny, who I love her so much, but I have not seen her in anything since. So I think I'm sold on that. And now you're saying that I think my brother and his partner were also saying, watch this show, it's got Jenny in it, e.g. Jessica Rain. So I am going to watch this. Have you finished it? It doesn't kind of descend into like murder and mayhem, does it? Or if it does, don't tell me. So I literally have only watched one episode. Oh, you did say. Yeah, but the tone of it is just really funny. And I think so far, I'm really excited for the rest of it. I will do my classic,

maybe tell between my legs next week and be like, okay, yeah, turned out shit. There was aliens in it. No, I'm really excited. Okay. And finally, Anoni. Okay, so I don't think it would be fair to say that I've been loving both of my recommendations. And in fact, one of them also isn't really a recommendation. So, but anyway, the first thing that I'm going to say is, and I'm desperate to know if either we've watched it, but I watched the documentary, The Crash on Netflix, which is about this young teenage girl who drives into a wall and ends up killing her boyfriend and her best friend who are both in the car.

And the documentary unravels like what really happens. in the lead up to the crash. Initially they're like, oh, obviously they must have been drunk and on drugs. It must have been an accident. Oh, she must have had a fault with the car. And as you're watching the show, it starts to transpire that perhaps actually she had intentionally murdered the people in the car. It is really stressful.

I don't know. I still don't know how I feel about true crime and I don't even really know why I watched it. And then I was really unsettled by it. And I wasn't really sure how I hadn't heard about the case because it's such a big case in the US. But one of the most fascinating things is her parents. in the documentary, there is very, very strange watching her parents in the show because they are just

so oblivious kind of the nature of their daughter and it really makes you question how much of the way that the daughter acts in her life, in school, around her friends is actually to do with that kind of absence of her parents, of her parents believing that she can really do no wrong. But I would recommend it if you're into true crime, but it did kind of leave me feeling a bit icky. Have either of you seen this or heard about it? I saw it on. my Netflix homepage, but I don't know why. I just felt like not today, Satan. I'm not going to watch that today. But the way you've described it makes it sound actually a lot more compelling than I originally gave it credit for, to be fair. Yeah, I heard them talking about it on my therapist goes to me,

and I did realize that actually had seen, I think it probably was years ago, remember when this case was maybe being tried and people had things to say on the timeline. And it was then I thought, okay this is just like fodder for true crime so it's probably been on a podcast I've listened to but yeah people are really talking about her parents and like that that manifestation of unconditional love is actually not being the best one the best one being like

I can see you for you might be and I can find a way to forgive you and support you but the evidence is staring me in the face versus you can do no wrong you can never do no wrong I think that sometimes is not to do armchair criminology but I think that's sometimes why kids become adults who think that's that they can do no wrong. Yeah, I think I'm going to be tempted by by watching this one

in the same way that I was tempted initially by the Lucy Letby ones because I am very, when something has a really, when something makes a splash online and there is of that discourse, I am just interested in getting that under that layer. I then regret it because I go, this is true crime and I feel gross. But yeah, I think this is probably going to get me as well. It did make me feel very icky, but I think that it is really fascinating. And actually subsequently after the,

they haven't said why, but the dad has actually lost his job as a teacher since the documentary's come out because of how he appears on the show. And there's various speculation as to what specifically it was that made them make that decision. I don't know if it's a suspension

or if he's been fired, but that was quite interesting. But I would recommend it, but yeah, it was one of those things where I kind of felt like, I don't know, in some way, complicit watching. But the family members of those

that are deceased are in the documentary as well. They are also, you don't feel it as much like it's as voyeuristic they are also participating. Then the second thing, and I don't know why I did this, but I saw it was on Disney Plus and I was like, do you know what? I really should watch it. And I watched, it ends with us.

I also wanted to watch it because I saw it's available. Can you tell me, is it any good? Oh, have you seen it? Yeah, I forgot that Beth, you'd seen it. Oh my God. So the opening is atrocious. It's so bad. It's pays so badly.

The dialogue is awful. Obviously knowing that Blake and Justin hate each other, you're just kind of icked out. I found him quite icky in general. There was moments where it was genuinely quite compelling. In fact, I think the bits that were the strongest were actually the scenes around like domestic abuse and domestic violence. I thought that was like the best acting and actually quite moving.

But as a whole thing, and I did read the book years ago and I did it for my book club. And I don't think the book is good, but I do think the book is maybe better than the film. But maybe I just can't remember. I wouldn't. I was really trying to find. reasons to enjoy it because I went on Rotten Tomatoes, sure it has a 55% score, but if you read the critics

there's so many people that are like beautiful movie, there's no way you can't be moved by it, like the cinematography's gorgeous and I was like maybe I'll be able to come here and say, do you know what, the lighting was lovely, it was like the lighting. I just, I thought it was all fun, I really didn't like Blake's costuming, nothing against her as a person. One of your favourite films of the year. But it was

interesting to what, I watched it last night, I was really hot and I was just kind of staring at the TV like it's because I needed something that I knew that I wouldn't really have to fully engage with but no, Beth, what did you think? So you did tell us at the time, but I've forgotten. I think very much the same. I found it's a sort of nonsense film,

but you have to lean into the nonsense. There was this guy on TikTok who was watching through and kind of pointing out all the nonsense. But I think he was also sort of enjoying it. Like the fact that Jenny Slate's character, this rich local woman walks into a business that's not open, it's like, wow, what the fuck's this? And she goes, it's not going to be a florist.

She goes, I fucking hate flowers. And within two minutes, she's like, okay, I'm going to give up my. free time is a rich woman and I'm going to work here. Baffling, like she puts her little burkin down. She goes, I work here now. Things like that. This does not take place in this universe.

This takes place somewhere a lot worse, but also a lot better where you can wear. I mean, the costuming, knowing that she, it was kind of real point of contention where she was like, I'm going to dress myself. And then she does. And you go, who boy, no one has ever told you know, have they? I think that's all part of the camp charm of the film. I think it's similar to what was the other, you watch this one, I think with a friend and only the Simple Favour 2.

I think you cannot enjoy the film unless you understand what it's made of, which is nonsense. Terrible film. I actually quite liked, but I can't remember. I feel Simple Favors films to me were much better than this. First one, Camp Icon will be in the canon. Second one, I could not finish. That was something else. Me and Poppy were in Valencia.

we were quite delirious, but we, but I do remember like getting something out of it. This one as well, I do think there was like, I do think it was a slight issue that Blake is slightly older than the character is in the book. I did feel like everyone was kind of aged up and it was a bit confusing. The pick, because I did remember the storyline from the book and that does happen in the book where this rich woman is like, I just want to work in your flower shop even though she's like, I hate flowers. Everything just sort of happens very quickly and it jumps around and the dialogue is, is fascinating. But there were pockets of good acting, from Blake and Justin.

I just think it's incredible to hear how they talk about this film, both of them kind of saying, you know, this is our gift to whatever, and it's meant to really help people. That being said, again, some reviews were like people will really find this useful. And I guess if you haven't seen domestic abuse, psychological, emotional manipulation played out on a very big screen on a stage where, you know, like lots of people are watching it and it's really part of the popular culture, I'm sure that it could be useful. But as a film, I didn't think it was like good cinema.

photography, good script, good direction, but I understand that the story could have been powerful for some people. So credit where credit is due, but there isn't a lot of credit for my end. A 2025 survey by the American Academy of Dermatology revealed that half of Gen Z participants got a sunburn in 2024, with 10% getting burned severe enough to cause blisters. They also found that 37% didn't know the risks of tanning and 57% believed common tanning myths, for example, that a base tan protects you from sunburn. More than a fifth of Gen Z respondents prioritised getting a tan over protecting their skin and a quarter said that it's worth looking good now,

even if that means skin looks worse down the line. The AAD also believe that the reason Gen Z are less informed about sun safety and more likely to believe risky myths and misconceptions is that unlike previous generations, who have seen firsthand the effects of sun damage, younger adults may not fully grasp these dangers, especially with the influence of social media trends that promote tanning. And in a piece for Allure, Karan Nesvig investigates these trends. She finds that searches for tanning are growing more than 30% year over year

on Google, TikTok and Instagram, and that there are several smartphone apps such as Son AQ and SunTracker dedicated to helping you track UV, create tanning routines, and remind you to apply oil and flip over. There are also digital creators doing Get Ready With Me videos with a focus on tanning and promoting tan accelerators. Considering the education around tanning and sun safety is better than ever, it seems baffling to a lot of people that tanning is as popular as it is with Gen Z. One theory that Nesvig explores is that it's all part of the 2000s trend revival. She writes, quote, low-rise jeans, body glitter and the very thin, very tan aesthetic have all made a comeback.

It's only natural to mimic what you see on your screen in your real life, much as I did with tabloid pictures of Brittany, Christina and Paris. For many, looking tan means looking thinner with more even-toned skin. Oh, okay, this is so interesting and it's really making me think of, you know, the quote that I shared from Kylie Jenner, I think it was like a couple of episodes ago where she said sometimes I think I'm depressed and then I get a spray tan and I'm like, I was just pale. It is really interesting.

So I think we have, we are in and of the generation that didn't have sun safety. as much growing up. People would get sunbeds and like my mum's generation certainly would like people would be like if you had a spot going at a sunbed or like there's ways that you can help yourself with a tan. But we, I'm fascinated by this because of the way that I can think our generation is so bombarded about anti-aging that we are all like slathering ourselves in fact to 50 and in fact I've accidentally got a tan at the minute. I mean it's so funny because I'm on the call of the girls that I look bright white but for me I've got a bit of tan just from being outside so much and I keep being stressed because I'm not I'm not supposed to do it so it is really interesting that gen Z are doing it because I do think of them as being more health conscious but that being said I also do remember when I was younger people telling me the like the long term impacts of smoking and you're like well that is so far away before I'm going to get COPD so I don't care and I do remember also hearing about sun damage and thinking I don't know it just felt like such an abstract concept the idea of being in your 30s.

40s, 40s or 50s, when you're in your 20s, that maybe it's nothing to do with Gen Z. Like maybe we shouldn't be categorizing each generation as one specific homogenous group. Maybe that is just young people being less risk of us. And then you get older and you start thinking, oh, actually, I am going to die one day. Maybe let's try and make that further away than nearer. Do you know what I mean? Yeah, I do know what you mean. And I kind of feel like recently, I think more about long-term health in a way

that I never used to. So I think I do agree with you where there is this natural humility, I guess, to life and life's possibilities both good and both bad. And I feel like I'm more thinking about my parents' health and seeing how their health outcomes have gone and just thinking a little bit about, okay, well, what can I do to, not future-proof. I'm not like a biohacker, but you know what I mean? Just like maybe do a bit of yoga here and there, make sure that I'm a bit stronger. So osteoporosis doesn't come for me, hopefully, stuff like that.

So I do agree with you. I actually found a piece in The Guardian that basically says it's not just the US, the UK is experiencing the same thing with this uptick in young people using sunbeds. It's called Burn Notice, Gen Z in the terrifying rise of extreme tanning. And it came out last year by Lucy Knight. And she says that 28% of UK adults use sunbeds, which I was really shocked by. And apparently this rose to 43% among those 18 to 25. So it really isn't just an American thing, which I think shocked me because it's not like I'm seeing visually lots of people who look really dark and different to what I imagined would be a few years ago and maybe there was a bit of a dip. So I'm confused.

I'm not seeing this, but I'm reading the stats and I'm quite shocked. It's so funny you mentioned osteoporosis. I know it's a side note, but I've literally been worrying about that lately. I was reading about it. Really? Really? Eat enough food now. Don't suffer later.

I went, okay, I think I might be okay. But I'm not, you know, I need to know what exercise to do. I'm really worried. They're like, you'll just get all in. Yes, I think I need to, I need to understand what that is. Weight train is the main thing. My mom's actually started going to the gym. But yeah, resistance.

You need to be putting resistance through your bones and your muscles. Muscle protects us and keeps us strong. Brilliant. That's what people are saying, eat well, eat enough consistently and weight train. Okay. on to tanning. There was also another piece in the New York Times actually that came out yesterday. So this comes out on Friday then earlier this week called they've heard the warnings. Gen Zia tanning anyway. So obviously there is something here, but it may be that they see someone else has covered it. But I do think the stats are quite worrying and they focus on this 19 year old. Not an influencer by TikTok user who made a video of her in a tanning bed, which got like 70,000 plus views. And it was captioned with the lioness does not concern herself with skin cancer, which is. like a kind of, it was a silly, a silly, lighthearted trend, but obviously in this case,

that's not very funny. Lots of people piled on, maybe it's the wrong word, but a lot of doctors responded to it, including a doctor called Dr. Brooke Jeffey, who was a dermatologist in Arizona, who replied to say, tanning beds are in the same cancer causing category as asbestos and plutonium, and added, you know, all of these stats, but the 19-year-olds, who is 19, I guess this is important, she is a very young woman,

said, maybe I'll come to regret this, but right now I love being tanned but it's really it's really interesting that there are these tan fluences and these tan maxes that probably a lot of us would have been tan fluences and tan maxes had we had access to the kind of social media that people do now it does feel like something that people grow out of certainly something i have grown out of i'm sun safe i will go in the sun i will lie in the sun but i will not burn in the sun and i will not stay out in the sun all day which i think to me that's a healthy balance i understand i really i really have got all the education and I will not use oils and I will not use the sunbed and I will not be out in the

hottest point of the day, etc, etc. But I'm not worried if I get a tan, even though I know it's sun damage and I will not worry if it's going to make me look older because again, I do think that's part of being alive in the world for me. And I've knocked vaping on the head. I only drink on the weekends now. I need something that it's not quite perfect for me and I've chosen tanning. But I do think it's interesting that young people are loving it. Yeah, see, I haven't not Vapy on the head, but the difference is I actually am worried that it's going to kill me. Whereas before when I was younger, I was just like, who cares? Live fast, die young. Also, with the tannic. So obviously my sister is a dermatologist. And so she, I am the same

as you. I wear loads of sun vision. And even then, like, you can just catch the sun. And because I was running a lot, I would get a bit fun. And Emily was like, because she's, because she's a dermatologist, she's really in it. She deals with skin cancer. She works in the NHS. She's cutting things out of people. She's seeing people but getting really sick from the sun. So she is like literally will not let her skin see the sunshine. She's big hat, long sea swimming costume. So when I was running loads and I was starting to sometimes I would get like, frankly, or sometimes I would get burnt.

So it was really hot. She was like, I think you should stop running. And I was like, Emily, if I stop running, I will be very depressed. She was like, oh, okay, fair. In that case you can run if you're going to be like, if it's going to make you really depressed. So that so, but you can, but if you speak to damage toologists, they will say. But obviously most people can't live by this. We have to go outside.

And also, like Beth, you're quite olively skinned. You are going to naturally get a tan. There is like gradients to how much people are going to be impacted by this. But if you speak to damage, they will say any change in skin pigment is damage. That's one thing. It is. It's true. But it's interesting how much algorithms clearly work because since I've been doing my no-fate tan thing,

I get served loads of women who don't fake tan. And I'm seeing more content around that. And I'm also seeing because it's usually more to do with the aging thing, seeing people getting very worried about getting a suntan because they age. that also isn't something I'm worried about. I am really worried about my skin health. But the one thing that has been really fascinating, which is another aspect of this, because this conversation seems to be centric on Gen Z who was saying, yeah, we know we might be harming ourselves, but we don't care. Another thing that's happened is this whole

cohort of people, including Sam Fares, and I remember my sister doing a video about this at the time, people starting to believe that Sun Notion is actually toxic, that there is some conspiracy theory that we are being poisoned by Sun Notion and the Sun is actually what heals us and that the government wants to keep us sick by making us our sunnotion to protect to stop us getting all of the sun's goodness and i think sam pha has said that she didn't put sun notion on her children because she believed that they could build up a tolerance to the sun this is so unsafe there's so many i mean my sister would be much better place to talk on this but if a child gets like severe burns when they're younger it increases so much risk like your childhood skin is

really what needs to be protected so that is another thing that's happening at the same time and i that actually does come up on my feed. A lot of parents who are maybe the ones that are drinking like raw milk and doing beef tallow and whatever else. Also kind of, I guess it's an anti-vax adjacent kind of mindset. I don't know if you guys got that coming up for you as well. I don't have it on my algorithm, but I am definitely aware of it and I feel like you're right. It's almost like I'm going to be quite careful with how I put this, but it's adjacent to

the anti-vaccine stuff. it kind of feels like the maha make America healthy again seeping into the UK and just like certain things take a foothold and I feel like something like SBF and the sun it's just it's always been quite topical and quite political for like the last few years I feel like people go back and forth with saying this about SPF and just it being useless there was this one TikTok trend a few years ago of people saying banana skin peel on your face is just as good as using SPF which sounds absurd and I really am struggling not to laugh but like really it just went super viral that people had to do debunks of it and take it really seriously. Yeah, so it's quite, it's quite scary. I think it's one thing for

people to be informed and to make a choice and that obviously is quite a provocative thing, but it's another thing for people to be peddling and pushing deeply misinformed content about this, and especially to, as you say, really vulnerable parents of children and where their skin is like especially sensitive. I also just, I feel like tanning's a weird one because I feel like I have such a strange relationship to this whole topic. For ages, I found it just something that when people would speak about, I would just like shut down and just like couldn't be asked to talk about it. And I think that's not a normal reaction. And I think the reaction I had was kind of based on the like picking and choosing of like skin tone, which I found kind of difficult to treat neutrally. I found it

quite frustrating. And I also found the focus and the hyper focus growing up on tanning and wanting to look tanned. Just it like, like. it pushed a button for me, I guess, of just like sensitivity around the subject. And I think it's because there's, it was almost like when you choose to go up to a higher melanin color, even like not too different from mine, I would see people come back from, you know, sunbears or like going on holiday and we'd do the thing where we'd compare our arm and their color was exactly the same as mine. But the like choosing of being able to change your skin tone and then also the kind of once you choose to do that and you're the right kind of European beauty standard,

that's a beautiful thing. But obviously, having the exact same melan, but it not being a European beauty standard, was a very fraught thing for me. So I think the subject just is quite difficult. I don't feel like that now. I don't feel like if somebody brought up tanning, I would just shut down and not want to talk about it.

But I do feel like this whole topic is kind of strange because there's definitely a political side to it as well. And I also feel like when I was growing up, Nobody said that brown women, black women, black men, whoever non-binary people had to use SPF. So I never used it growing up because it was never part of the education. So I just feel like not only is there a case of it's quite a difficult thing visually to see people choosing to tan, but then politically skin tone is such a divisive thing. Obviously, when I'm identified, I'm identified as a brown person, somebody the same colour as me, come back from Marseille is a white person. It's just a weird thing.

but then also growing up just knowing that my skin wasn't treated as importantly by medical professionals are encouraged to be protected in the same way as quite a weird difficult upsetting thing with this whole topic I guess yeah I remember it was in like 20 20 when I did at first I was doing like let's talk about and we did let's talk about tanning um I was talking about how it is so weird as a white person I think especially with fake tan like our obsession it's such a white centric conversation that we're having around tanning and it's really important that we'd that we like zoom out and talk about like the colorism of it all because growing up all of my white friends it was like tanning was such a big thing you were really shame for being pale that's

where my whole like identity around wanting to fake tan came from but at the same time if you're a brown person or a person of color like a lot of beauty standards in countries where white isn't the skin tone it's like the whiter you are the more attractive you are and it's so fascinating to think how we like the why we look at things like that and the history of tanning is always so fascinating It was actually like Coco Chanel made it fashionable to have a tan because prior to that, it was always seen as the richer people were, the white rich people were paler because they weren't outside working. It meant they could stay inside.

But it's such, it's so actually really political, really culture. And this is why the tanning thing is really interesting because I guess what does it say about culture when we become like obsessed with becoming tanned again? What place is it taking us back to? And it is tying into that like Y2K skinny thing. I wonder if part of it is it going back to do with like, it looks like you've been on holiday loads, which in this current climate could signal that you're wealthy or something like that.

But yeah, I do always think about the colorism of it all. And something I've seen recently, which I thought was really interesting on Twitter, was a black woman tweeted, it's so fascinating to see all the white girls starting to buy their hair curly now because I'd never really seen that before. And I was like, that's interesting. So obviously I've started wearing my hair wavy. And I definitely think that it was black women.

doing the natural hair movement that slowly filtered down into white women understanding the curly girl method which filtered down into people like me being like actually maybe my hair texture isn't completely straight and so often it comes from the liberation of black and brown people being able to accept kind of like their natural features which eventually leads on to then white people

because also we all weirdly even though those standards apply differently and the white people are oppressed the lease It does all like weirdly trickle down in the same way. Sorry, I don't know if that was, if that made sense. But yeah. I think, yeah, absolutely. I think it's and also anti-blackness being so pervasive that even curly hair on white children was coded as that's not, you still need to have sleek, straight hair. Yeah, I think it is all connected.

I do think, I do think that history is very important as thinking about beauty and tanning as class performance as, you know, things did get quite muddled around the industrial revolution and the emergence of that. that leisure class where oh suddenly no no to be outside to have leisure time to be outside to be out of the factory I can get tanned but then you know the the sun holiday became something the summary sun holiday

became something that actually a working class person should have and then you know you have pale skin but then you have fake tan which I think did signify something something tacky but now absolutely everyone wears it and it I think it's so interesting that even as muddled and as clear cut as it was

e.g. outside worker poor, inside leisure class, rich. It's so muddled now. There is that there isn't tanning. It doesn't represent the same thing. People are still very attached to it. It just shows how antiquated a lot of these are. And there's a lot of people online at the moment pointing out how just drop a pin anywhere on the world. You'll see colourism manifesting in something different. People bleaching their skins. It's, it really feels like, okay, to me, I like to think, well, this has nothing to do. with me, I go outside, my skin looks like this. But so many of us do feel better when we have the tan and actually in the piece, the allure piece, they talk to a doctor who kind of says, Dr. Salo, I think she's called. When the knock on effect of something is positive, when you're

getting compliments, when people are saying nice things, you do feel healthier. And so you associate that with health. And a lot of people go, now it's really good for my skin and they feel so much better in the summer. Ergo, this isn't bad for me. But that's just because people are saying nice things and we are feeling better. I mean, I always say I feel so much better in the summer. And I do. I am healthier. But it's not because I've got a tan. The tan is still sun damage, but it's so interesting that even in my own mind, as sun safe as I am and as aware as I am of all of these things, my brain still goes healthier. And probably when I see other people, I go, dark skin, healthier. You've got a tan as a white person. You're looking well. I probably

even say that and I think I should probably stop. What does extreme wealth do to the brain? This is the title of a piece for New York Magazine by Lane Brown, and the question he tries to answer within it. So Lane Brown, you also may remember authored the feed is fake about stealth marketing online, which we discussed in last week's main episode. And for this piece about the ultra rich, he spent two months interviewing the 0.1 and 0.01% and asking them how money has changed the way they think, how their worldview shifted when they were no longer under the same financial construction. and how becoming mega-rich altered their perception of status, friendship, obligation, and maybe even reality itself. The first thing he found was that a lot of very, very rich people do not want to talk about being very, very rich, especially not to a journalist. From the piece, We're going to pass this time, said a rep for a well-known hedge funder. Not my jam, replied a famous entrepreneur.

Lane also said that many people just ignored him, and when he did eventually find people to talk to, a lot of them deflected or knew that they had changed but couldn't really identify how. But a few things did reoccur across Lane's conversations, most notably a theme of isolation. And he tells a story of a university student who launched a business from his dorm and watched hundreds of thousands of pounds flood into his account, but then didn't have anyone to tell. His school friends, he said, would have called him a prick and his anti-capitalist parents wouldn't have wanted to know either. he said, I got what I wanted, but in that moment, I felt totally isolated. And another wealthy entrepreneur also described the increasing isolation of living a luxurious lifestyle, saying, as you move up in terms of luxury and comfort, experiences are always going

to be more private. When you get a bigger house, your neighbours are further away. In a nice hotel, the people that service you are going to be more polite and less personal, and you don't meet anyone in a private jet. Lane also writes about something called hedonic adaptation, which is the human tendency to adjust new circumstances no matter how drastic the change. He also gets a lot of insight from the people who work for or adjacent to the ultra wealthy, executive assistants who say that the ultra-rich can become like children

who can no longer cope with small problems, who treat people poorly, who become wasteful and careless and helpless over time. Dr Paul Hochmayer, author and psychotherapist who treats high net worth patients, gave Lane an eight-step psychological roadmap to help explain how this shift happens. Number one, wealth changes not just what a person can buy, but also what they feel entitled to want. Number two, isolation. Private clubs, private schools, private planes, private neighbourhoods, private versions of reality. Number three, an echo chamber forms and the person is surrounded by people whose status and income depend on keeping them happy.

Bad news stops arriving. Number four, tribal instincts take over and outsiders are viewed with suspicion and contempt. Number five, psychological defences. The wealthy person begins to deny the humanity and needs of others. They rationalise that if they made their money, anyone can, and those who didn't are lazy or immoral. Number six, they become isolated from consequences. They can hire other people, lawyers, publicists, to deal with the ramifications of what they do. Number seven, a feedback loop takes hold. Bad behaviour is rewarded with more power, more wealth, more status, which only reinforces the conviction that one is right and others are wrong. Number eight, moral distortion. The person of wealth rationalises their actions as

appropriate because the world in which they live rewards those who live like they do. I really enjoyed reading this piece. I feel like when I first saw the title, the headline, I think my first thought was, well, we kind of know what the uber wealthier like. We know the problems that exist. They are so overrepresented in pop culture. But I was really taken aback because actually there's so much in here that I didn't know. I think especially that kind of breakdown of what happens to get the ultra wealthy to the position of having no moral allyship with the people that they were once among and they have kind of elevated from is so helpful because it really just break it down and it makes total sense. Yeah, I found it similarly quite interesting. I thought at the beginning,

I was like, oh, this is going to be a little bit too sympathetic with rich people. I'm just not, I'm simply not in the mood for at the moment. But I was, I read the piece in that. And then I was like, actually, this is very interesting. And I went on and looked for other studies about wealth and empathy and compassion and things like that. And there have been a few. And there was some research published in the Journal of Psychological Science by Michael Krause, who basically argued that there's this like baseline orientation for people who are poorer to be more empathetic and a baseline orientation for rich people to be less empathetic, which he attributes to different environments and basically poorer people and people living in community

and around other people, having to respond chronically to a number of vulnerabilities and social threats, basically needing to depend on others and knowing that it's not that far too full for you to be unsafe, whereas very, very rich people, of course, don't have the same need. Whereas when you are in community with people, you have to scan their emotions to basically tell, one, if a threat is coming and two, if an opportunity is coming, whereas rich people that isn't that scanning, they aren't responding to ongoing, threats to their status because they are insulated by wealth. They're not vulnerable in the same way. And also, as it says, in the peace, they're really isolated. They're not meeting people on their

private jets. They are choosing who to be in community with at any given moment, which for a lot of rich people probably is just themselves, which I do think it's very interesting. I could absolutely see a correlation between extreme wealth and a lack of empathy, a thousand percent. I can buy it. Totally. And what I thought was so fascinating was obviously there's always been rich people. And like both of you said, yes, I kind of had an understanding. And we've had so many TV shows, especially about how the Uber Rich live and how they operate, like Succession and White Lotus and all of those shows, which really explain these kind of aspects really well. And I think it sounds awful, to be honest, when you're reading it, you're just thinking, I don't want to live like that, but I can see how

slowly it erodes your understanding of what it means to be a normal functioning member of society. And also, people talk about this all the time, but the rich you get, the more fearful you become, because you think, God, I've got so much wealth, I must hoard it, I must keep it like a dragon sitting on its treasure. And also, someone's probably out to get me become more paranoid. And so it's like a protective mechanism in order to be in sustain your wealth. You kind of do have to become this strange kind of outsider that's on the outskirts of society. And my sister always, I'm sure I've said this on the podcast before, but she was like, it was always really fascinating when she worked in quite posh hospitals, when you get very rich patients who,

could not understand when they were told that there was nothing that could be done because they were like, surely there's someone, we can fly in, there must be a specialist that we can get. And she was like, they just would not accept their diagnosis because every other scenario in life, they were able to throw money at the problem and have it fixed. And so I think it can be actually really damaging because you probably, it might feel nice, but it's that, it's that spectrum thing of like, once you get over a certain amount of wealth, it's just, it's not actually adding to your life. You just become beyond human in a bad way. Yeah, the bit of when you become that wealthy, your access to bad news diminishes was so interesting because I do

think, I've thought this with celebrities and how you just, especially when you are organizing an interview with talent, for example, they often, not all the time, but sometimes PR can be quite, quite difficult to talk to and they can be quite, they're asking for a lot, you know, they're always asking for more to make sure that they can get copy approval, which journalists never do. they always ask for things that they know they can't get because they're just like kind of fighting the battles for the celebrity. And then when you do actually have the interview, the celebs just like really chill or like it's just an easy process. And it's such a, it's such a funny but also bizarre dynamic to know that they probably have maybe they do. Maybe a lot of them are very involved. But I think a lot of people don't have any idea that they have these kind of like menacing teams around them just like fighting all these battles, doing all the hard things, being bad cop, having these difficult conversations and then just kind of paving the way with like, golden bricks for them to just like live their life. It's so strange. And I have heard this before about musicians, for example, they, especially when they're at a certain level, are just such babies and their PR teams are basically like holding their hand through like loads of

instances, scenarios. They always go with them to events, things like that. That is, was my understanding of it, but reading it, I am just like, my God, to be an adult that is so infantilized must be so wild to just feel like you have to hoard your way. wealth because you couldn't actually exist in the real world is kind of a scary thing. And it is so absurd to live like that. And to feel like you can throw bunny at it because that is how you've lived up until that point and everything just works out is not really life. Like this is something else. This is something separate, you know? And I do think the worst for it are people that have inherited their wealth or the children of wealthy people, whether that's like a dynastic family or whether

it is one generation above you, that's the self-made, and then you are the child off. Like, if you've ever come across NEPO children, oh my God, luckily have not been in that many spaces with them, but like just adjacent to them, loud, obnoxious, awful. And I think they function in the same way as these celebrities teams, like the parents of these children sort of pave the way for them to be assholes. There is separately to that as a really interesting part of the article where he talks to the writer David Roberts, who actually has, I think he is a wealthy guy, is a substack about wealth status and psychology.

And he was saying he wrote a piece about knowing people. who turned up in the Epstein files. And he talks about when you're rich like that, when you're kind of detached from right or wrong at certain echelon, you are doing things because you think, okay, this will give me adjacency to power. This is the right thing to do for a rich person. And you stop thinking about, well, of course I wouldn't go to this paedophiles

island. And it's also because you're impulsive. And he also attributes it to not caring so much about your legacy because your money has a legacy and you can have a building named after you. but people may say horrible things, but you're kind of thinking in, in terms of like status and power and the optics of it,

thinking in centuries rather than decades. Whereas for most of us, I think we go, well, my legacy is if people have nothing to say about me and a small body of work, their legacy is, well, I built a hospital. And I think it does allow you. It paves the way to do things,

which you're really suspect, because you do not think that it really will affect that credibility as a good person. I find the whole thing so, fascinating. I mean, there was also another UC Berkeley study that I found where in San Francisco at pedestrian stops, drivers of luxury cars were four times less likely to stop than people in less expensive vehicles. Basically, they were giving people the right of way. Rich people were just speeding on by cutting off drivers. I think there are so many small microwaves that this is eroded and degraded until most of your interactions, you don't even realize are you being a prick? Well, it's like whenever you see celebrities constantly getting parking tickets, it's always on the Daily Mail that like Romeo Beckham has 50 parking tickets and they don't care because they can pay the parking fine. But the whole point is the reason you get ticketed for those things is it causes a massive inconvenience to the public. Like if you're speeding, if you're parking in the wrong place, like there's reasons that you're not allowed to do those things and there is a fine because it's meant to deter like the main portion of society from doing these things. But they don't have to be deter by rules and regulations because they can pay their way out. And so it all becomes this kind of individual. realistic game of as long as I can bail myself out of this situation, then the situation doesn't really exist without any kind of outside thought for like the wider ramifications of that.

And right, at the end of the piece, and I can't remember if it's the guy you just mentioned, one of them is like, the way I stay down to earth is, you know, I still buy cheap stuff on Amazon. And I message you guys because I was like, this is one of my least favorite things. I see it online all the time. You'll see an incredibly wealthy person who talks about the wealth all the time. And they'll be like, but I buy my clothes on Sheehan or I, you know, I do, I bet all these little things of Amazon and it's like that makes you feel good because you think you're buying like a cheap option so you're like in with the down with the people but all you're doing is funding kind of

like slave labor like we know all of those fast fashion companies famously have incredibly awful ethics standards and that the people working those factories are working in the poorest worst conditions so you getting your little cheap thrill from buying 50 tops for five pounds on she and isn't a flex it's actually like the opposite of that like how and it's just that detachment you're right It's like the world is a playground for them. There are no rules. Everything is just, it's movable. It's like a Mario level where everything turns into something else.

You know, it looks threatening. Actually, it just changes into a flower. You can jump over the flower. It's all good. The stat that I wanted to bring up, which I feel like has been widely shared for the last few years, but every time I see it is just horrible. The number of billionaires has tripled since 2010. It is just unfathomable that not only are people living this way of life,

but the amount of people living this way have increased exponentially since 2010. I do really worry about it. It does feel like the kind of laws, restrictions, the way we operate our world, does not facilitate the same kind of behavior, social norms as it once used to. As you said with parking tickets, I always think about in central London, how come there's so many people just parked on the side? And it only clicked last year because my mind can't operate like that. I realize they're just taking the parking tickets.

They don't give a shit because they can afford it. and yeah, I just feel like it's annoying to operate in a world where people act with impunity all around you and that just is a given and we're meant to encourage billionaires to come to the UK because apparently that helps us and we just have to keep our mouth shut the underclass. Got to read London Falling by Patrick Raddenkief. It'll make you twice as angry. So while we were enhancing the UK Bank holiday heatwave with piggy bits, day drinking and ice lollies over in Las Vegas, another kind of enhancement was going on at The Enhanced Games.

Founded by entrepreneur Maximilian Martin and Australian businessman Aaron D'Souza, the Enhanced Games is a multi-sport event where athletes were allowed and even encouraged to take performance-enhancing drugs before competing. The rules stated that only substances approved by the FDA could be taken, so that included testosterone, growth hormone, peptides and anabolic steroids, but excluded drugs like heroin or cocaine. Of the 42 athletes who signed up, 38 elected to use drugs. One co-founder, Christian Angamaya, a German billionaire, said,

if you look at the data, the only logical conclusion is that it's unethical to not allow performance-enhancing drugs because it's the same as if we send people and say, oh, you're a coal miner, but we don't give you a helmet. Organizers also claim that athletes are not being properly rewarded by the not-for-profit Olympics system. Talking to the independent ahead of the games, Desusa said, quote, The Olympic Games brings in $8 billion in quadrennial revenue. The athletes don't see a penny of that. Usain Bolt, in his entire career, the finest specimen of our species, arguably, only earned $12 million. So someone is profiting from this and it's not the athletes, it's not the host city,

it's the bureaucratic apparatus of the IOC and the sports federations, and they produce no value for the wider community. The games have been backed by funding from billionaire Peter Thiel and an investment group, including Donald Trump, Junior and organisers were offering athletes a quarter of a million dollars for winning their event and a million dollars for breaking a world record. However, only one record was broken over the weekend with Greek former pro swimmer Christian Collameev taking home 1.25 million for breaking the world record for the men's 50 metre freestyle. He was using PEDs and also wearing a banned latex swimsuit. British swimmer Ben Proud won the 50 metre busfly and 250 grand. His winning time was 0.05 seconds slower than the world record, and Emily Barclay, another British

Olympic swimmer, won the 50 metre freestyle, about half a second slower than the world record. But it's the non-doping athletes that have dominated the headlines. American swimmer Hunter Armstrong, won gold in the men's 50 metre backstroke and silver in the 100 metre freestyle, despite performing clean. Tristan Evelyn, another drug-free athlete from Barbados, won the women's 100 metre and former world running champ and American athlete Fred Curley performed clean and won the men's 100 metres. The games have been heavily criticised unsurprisingly. UK anti-doping said of the idea in 24 that there is no place in sport for performance-enhancing drugs nor the enhanced games. The World Anti-Doping Agency has labelled them a dangerous and irresponsible concept and the

International Olympic Committee, the IOC, issued a formal statement calling the games utterly irresponsible and immoral, a betrayal of everything we stand for. I've actually actually found this story way more interesting and fascinating than I anticipated, considering I don't really keep up with a lot of sports. Don't watch most of the Olympic Games when it's actually on. I think it's because it stirs up all of these conversations about billionaire involvement, the future of sport, the integrity of sport, the ways, it's a kind of ideological battlefield of in this world of optimization and everything for profit, what does the future of sport look like? I think I'm finding the arguments for PEDs, not compelling.

I do not think that they are safe or should be used. But it's a lot more compelling than I thought they would. You know, I'm not convinced, but it does feel like in this era of optimizing, wanting to live forever, be superhuman. Maybe weirdly there is a space for the enhanced games, as sad as that is. I'm sad we've ended up here, but I do think, let's be real. This didn't come out of nowhere. What do you guys think? Is this no big deal or big deal?

So exactly what you said. I read a piece in MIT technology review by Jessica Hamzaloo, which was titled, The Enhance Games fit right in with the rest of 2026 longevity vibes were evidently in our enhancement era. And she writes, to me it feels very much like a reflection of where we are today, an era of peptide crazed looks maxing in which consumers are being encouraged to get thinner than ever, optimised for longevity and have their best baby. it's 2026 what are you even doing if you're not enhancing in this climate the enhanced games don't feel so radical they feel entirely fitting for our era of questionable optimization despite the risks an era when apparently being human is no longer enough and i think it ties into kind of everything we've spoken about the extreme wealth the extreme obsession with beauty standards i do think that we are scrambling to achieve and maybe at a time when AI is mirroring human output to the point where it feels like we might lose our jobs, we might lose the essence of what it means to be human.

Perhaps we are saying, right, well, we've got to now scale up. It does make sense. I was also kind of fascinated by it. And because I think I don't have skin in the game when it comes to sports, I'm always like, that's fine if they take a little steroid, isn't it? I know that sporting people do not feel this way. What about you, Ruggira? Yeah, I don't feel like I know enough about it.

I know obviously the health implications from, you know, doping and I know that there are some serious, there's some serious future consequences. So that's why I'm coming in, but I just don't feel like I understand the nature of it enough to know whether this is really dark. I feel like it feels very dark and I feel like the main takeaway for me reading this story is just complete and utter astonishment that a lot of the athletes who are not taking anything still performed and overperformed. And it's almost like just total pride in the ability of being human and those actual superhumans to do that. That was my main takeaway. I do completely agree with you. I think that is the take really, the fact that already people are buying black market peptides for all sorts of things. And they are just, you know, before GLP ones were available through pharmacies, we'd actually heard from somebody anecdotally that somebody they knew were buying them on the dark web or just on the internet or whatever, getting them shipped internationally.

the fact that everyone's already kind of enhancing day-to-day and that's become so normalized. I guess on a bigger scale, this doesn't really feel like transgressive, provocative, challenging in the way that it probably would a few years ago. My only other inn is that I remember watching Icarus. Did you guys watch that? It was like an award-nominated documentary about doping in the cycling world. And just the point of that is there are such systems in place. That story was particularly about Russian doping.

and how strong the system is to get through the rules in the Olympics and how easily it's done because it is so entrenched, so well thought out, crafted to be able to get athletes through to the Olympics with all of these kind of performance-enhancing drugs. And it was only a whistleblower from the system. He managed to kind of challenge it and then get international criticism for what was happening, but otherwise it had been running for possibly decades.

So I find the whole thing really fascinating also because it makes me feel like it's a spy thriller. The more I think about it, I think the less we know about what's actually happening with these games. And I have no idea what I think it said in a piece I read as well, somebody claimed from Enhance Games that this is already happening behind closed doors with these games. We're just putting it in the forefront. And I think that only complicates it more for me. I don't really know what to think about it. Yeah, I think last thing for me, basically that is their argument. saying this is already happening. The drug tests are not keeping up. Certain countries are allowed to

get away with this. We are actually just levelling the playing field. I did read a profile in Forbes with this guy, Angamaya, who said there's a slightly baffling comment about the coal miners and helmets, who imagines this AI future where we all, or at least a certain emerging leisure clash, will have so much time, free time that we'll want to watch more sports all the time. And we will not just want to see. He says, people don't want to see the fastest human man. They want to see, you know, the in man, really odd way to think about people. I would say they seem quite hopeful about this. These current games, it makes sense that the non-doped athletes won. I think what we have to remember is it's not elite elite athletes who are taking part in these games, especially not doping

because they have a future of, you know, they have their legacy to think about. It is, if you look at the contestants and the people, it's people coasting towards retirement. A lot of people who were in, freshly in retirement anyway, former pros who are no longer competing at highest of high levels, even the non-doped athletes, a lot of them were currently suspended from performance for missing drug tests. It's not the stars of Paris 2024, who I imagine if they were to dope and to do it under the supervision of the best doctors in the world, they probably could improve their performance 1%, 2%, but the point is they don't want to. And I actually don't think audiences are really clamouring for them to do that in the way that these organisers,

these transhumanists billionaires who think we're going to live together forever think they are. I have more faith in the average viewer of sport personally. I agree. Thank you so much for listening this week. Before we go, just checking that you've listened to our latest Everything in Conversation episode where we talked to best-selling author Alex Light about a Zempic diet culture, bikini bodies, and the true price of pretty. If you enjoy the podcast, please do leave us a racing and review wherever you're listening to

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