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In today’s edition:

• ⛪📉 A look at America’s transition away from religion
• 🍫 Some good news about the candy supply
• 🚢 Arrrrrgh you ready to stay in the Jolly Lodger?

… and more.

Ready, Set, Go: Today’s news takes 3.93 minutes to read.

“The positive thinker sees the invisible, feels the intangible, and achieves the impossible.”

–Winston Churchill (1874-1965)

The proportion of Christians in the US population is projected to fall to between 35% and 52% by 2070, per a recent report from the Pew Research Center. Where it actually falls within that range depends on whether current trends in Americans' religious affiliation continue, accelerate, or stop entirely.

📅 Let’s start at the beginning… From 1972 (the earliest year data is available) until 1992, about 90% of Americans identified as Christian, a term covering Protestants, Evangelicals, Catholics, Jehovah’s Witnesses, and more. Religiously unaffiliated people and adherents of all other religions – including Jews, Muslims, Hindus, and Buddhists – both hovered around 5% during that time.

But ever since the early ‘90s, the number of Americans identifying as Christian has fallen steadily, with the amount of religiously unaffiliated people increasing accordingly. The number of adherents of all other religions has remained steady.

• By 2021, 64% of Americans were Christian. People who were religiously unaffiliated accounted for 30% of the US population, while adherents of all other religions totaled 6%.

✌️ Two clear trends stick out: Younger generations are increasingly less religious than their parents. A March 2022 report from the Survey Center on American Life found 34% of Gen Z considers themselves religiously unaffiliated, versus 29% of Millennials, 25% of Gen X, 18% of Baby Boomers, and 9% of the Silent Generation.

• Additionally, a growing number of Americans identify as “spiritual but not religious.” That population was at 27% in 2017, up from 19% in 2012, per the most recent Pew data.

📊 Flash poll (long-form): Why do you think the American public has drifted away from organized religion since the 1990s?

Click here to submit a response.

🇪🇺 EU officials are seeking emergency power to impose a cap on natural gas prices this winter. The gas cap, only to be enacted as a last-ditch measure, is part of a package of proposals aimed at cushioning EU consumers from high energy prices after Russia completely cut off gas flows through the Nord Stream pipeline this summer. Natural gas prices in Europe have fallen in recent days to their lowest levels since June, per the WSJ.

🇫🇷 French cement company Lafarge agreed to pay a $778 million fine over payoffs to ISIS. The fine came after Lafarge pleaded guilty to a US federal criminal charge accusing the company of paying ISIS and another terrorist group ~$10 million from 2013-14 in order to keep a cement plant operating in Syria. “Never before has a corporation been charged with providing material support and resources to foreign terrorist organizations,” US Attorney Breon Peace said in a statement yesterday. The company, which joined Switzerland-based Holcim Group in 2015, is also facing criminal charges in France for being complicit in crimes against humanity.

🇺🇦 Russian missiles and kamikaze drones continue to damage areas across Ukraine. Russia has destroyed 30% of Ukraine’s energy infrastructure over the past eight days, per President Volodymyr Zelensky, who said daily attacks have led to frequent blackouts across the country – even in areas far removed from the front lines of battle. Hundreds of thousands of citizens are also without running water, per AP News.

+Whodunnit, cont’d: Yesterday, Swedish newspaper Expressen published the first video footage of the Nord Stream 1 pipeline after last month’s sabotage. In it, you can see an estimated 165-foot segment of the pipeline was destroyed. (Background)

A smattering of different articles over the past month have been proclaiming an upcoming Halloween candy shortage. And while there’s some truth to what they’re saying, the devil is in the details – and we’re here to clear up the technicalities. As the great Mark Twain once said, “The rumors of a 2022 candy shortage have been greatly exaggerated.”

🤔 How did this all start?... If you’ve ever played a game of Telephone, it’s a little like that. Back in July, Hershey’s, the world’s largest chocolate maker, had its Q2 earnings call.

On the call, CEO Michele Buck said the company “will not be able to fully meet consumer demand [for Halloween and Holiday candy] due to capacity constraints.” Which many folks took and ran with. But the real context comes in her next sentence:

• “Given many of our everyday and seasonal products are made on the same line, we have needed to balance production over the past several months to improve everyday on-shelf availability and build seasonal inventory at the same time.”
• Translation: There will still be enough Hershey’s candy on the shelves… it just may not be in Halloween or Holiday-themed packaging. Something a company spokesperson confirmed this week.

🍫 Bottom line: This doesn’t mean there aren’t issues causing supply constraints elsewhere (with regional shops like the Cleveland-based Sweetie’s, for example). But anything Hershey’s makes – Almond Joys, Twizzlers, Jolly Ranchers, Kit Kats, Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups, etc. – should be available. Minus maybe a jack-o'-lantern pic or two.

+In the know: Halloween accounts for ~10% of Hershey’s annual sales.

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Gas, a new teen-focused social app, is taking America by storm. It's currently the most popular free app in the App Store despite only being available in 12 states, per the WSJ, which reports the company has amassed 500,000+ downloads since launching in late August.

🏫📱 How does it work?... Teens are asked to disclose their high school when signing up. Once logged on, Gas asks multiple-choice questions restricted to classmates, featuring yearbook-style queries like "the most beautiful person you have ever met," or the classmate who's "never afraid of getting in trouble."

• Students selected in the polls receive "flames" (notifications) signaling they were chosen. All answers are anonymous by default, with the only identifiers being gender and grade.
• Users can make in-app purchases to find out the names of people who voted for them, or to keep their own name hidden in poll results.

🌐 Zoom out: Gas isn't the first youth-focused anonymous social app to burst onto the scene. YikYak, a social media app founded in 2013 that allowed users to create anonymous, localized posts, was downloaded millions of times, propelling it to a ~$400 million valuation… before the app was forced to shut down in April 2017 after a series of campus controversies involving bullying and racist threats. (Though as of March 2022, the Yak is bak.)

💬 Quoted…​​ “You know how a WiFi password usually looks something like my last name?”

As explained to Eric Engels of Sportsnet, Montreal Canadiens rookie Arber Xhekaj has one of the best nicknames in all of sports: WiFi. Xhekaj (pronounced JAK -igh) is the only player in NHL history to have a last name beginning with ‘X.’

• In other news, the puck dropped on the league’s regular season late last week.

📦 Stat of the Day: 1 in 3 = the amount of new Amazon hires in 2021 that stayed with the company for 90 days or more, per internal company documents reported on Monday by Engadget.

🤯 Did You Know?... All Ben & Jerry’s employees are able to take home three pints of ice cream every single day.

📖 Worth a Read: Learn to Like the Most Annoying Person in Your Life → (WSJ)

• ☝️ You’re looking at the Jolly Lodger, a pirate-ship houseboat recently purchased by a Richmond, VA, couple who are now renting it on Airbnb.

BUSINESS & MARKETS

• 📈 US stocks closed up across the board for the second straight day. (Dow: +1.1% | S&P: +1.1% | Nasdaq: +0.9) | Netflix gained 2.4 million new subscribers last quarter, per its earnings report yesterday, higher than the 1 million it had previously forecast.
• 📱 Meta was ordered to sell Giphy yesterday by the UK’s top competition authority; Meta said it was disappointed with the ruling but won’t appeal further.
• 🗳️ Amazon workers at a warehouse near Albany, NY, voted 406-206 against joining the new Amazon Labor Union, per results published yesterday.

SPORTS, MEDIA & ENTERTAINMENT

• ⚾ MLB playoffs: The Yankees beat the Guardians 5-1 to advance to the ALCS against the Astros; the Phillies beat the Padres 2-0 in Game 1 of the NLCS.
• 🎭🪙 Actress Anna May Wong will be the first Asian American to be featured on US currency.
• 🏀 College basketball: South Carolina was ranked No. 1 in the Women’s AP Top 25 poll released yesterday. | North Carolina was No. 1 in the first Men’s AP Top 25 poll out Monday.

SCIENCE, SPACE & EMERGING TECH

• 💥🔭 Three different NASA telescopes detected the brightest explosion ever recorded earlier this month.
• 🦟 Some people are “mosquito magnets” due to the way they smell, which is based on certain chemicals produced by their skin, per a new study published in the peer-reviewed journal Cell.

EVERYTHING ELSE

• 💰 The IRS has made inflation adjustments for 2023, including new tax brackets.
• ⚖️ A California jury found the man accused of killing 19-year-old Kristin Smart in 1996 guilty of first-degree murder yesterday; public interest in the college student's case was revived after it was the subject of true crime podcast Your Own Backyard in 2019.
• 🏕️ The Girl Scouts of America announced the largest donation in its 110-year history yesterday, an $84.5 million pledge from MacKenzie Scott.
• 🏛️ Igor Danchenko, the man accused of lying to the FBI about creating a discredited dossier that alleged ties between former President Trump and Russia, was acquitted on all counts by a federal jury yesterday; it’s the third and possibly final case in Special Counsel John Durham’s yearslong probe into how the FBI investigated Trump. (From the Left | From the Center | From the Right)

CLICKBAIT

• 😌 10 low-stress jobs that pay more than $100,000 per year, and how to get them.

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Quick recap: In this section, we’re aiming to crowdsource details about epic trips – then provide the whole playbook for the experience to y’all.

• Have you ever gone on an epic, once-in-a-lifetime trip? Tell us about it here.

🚶‍♂️ Who: Gillian G. from Columbus, OH

☀️ Length of trip: 85 days

💬 Quick recap: I rode my bicycle coast-coast across 10 states on the TransAmerica Bicycle Trail solo and unsupported last summer. Prior to this, I did not consider myself to be an avid cyclist and had bought my first pair of bike shorts for the trip. My logging varied from camping in city parks, to national parks like Yellowstone, to many generous people who opened the doors to their homes, churches, cabins, and community centers for me. Having never been past Chicago, I was most excited to see the western United States and the Rockies (gorgeous!). Of course, I had the large advantages of being young, white, able-bodied, having family support, and the ability to save money to take time off work, but I hope that more people will get to experience the country in this way, and I am so grateful that I could take this journey.

🚲 Want to learn more? Dive deeper into Gillian's must-dos, must-don'ts, and trip expenses here.

P.S. Have your own epic trip you’d like to share? Tell us about it here for a chance to be featured in next Wednesday’s newsletter.

A couple in North Yorkshire, England, were renovating their house when they stumbled upon a few gold coins in the dirt. As they continued digging under the home, they were shocked to find hundreds more of these coins – some dating back to 1610.

🗺🔎 X marks the spot... The collection of coins ended up having a unique history, and was projected to sell for ~$230,00 when it went up for auction. To everyone's surprise, the treasure sold for $852,380.😳

• "The anonymous finders were absolutely staggered by the result," shared the auctioneer. "It dwarfed any pre-conceived expectations and set dozens of world records along the way."

☝️ This photo was taken in the smallest US state (in terms of area). Can you name it?

(keep scrolling for the answers)

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Rhode Island, which covers an area measuring 1,214 square miles