Good morning. In today’s edition:

• 📈📉 “K-shaped economy”
• 🏥 Scientists develop injectable liver
• 😂 The joy of laughing at yourself

…and much more.

Ready, Set, Go: Today’s news should be a ~3.91-minute read (1,036 words).

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"Happiness is not a goal... it's a by-product of a life well lived."

–Eleanor Roosevelt (1884-1962)

Americans’ biceps are getting bigger. Their wallets? That depends which side of the income ladder they’re on.

Two of America’s largest gym chains, Life Time and Planet Fitness, recently reported earnings that highlight a widening divide in consumer spending habits among Americans.

Both chains reported strong growth in 2025, but their customer bases are heading in opposite financial directions:

• Life Time’s revenue jumped 12% as affluent members splurged on in-house training, spa treatments, and dining.
• Planet Fitness also saw strong growth, but a weaker 2026 outlook raised concerns about slowing demand among lower- and middle-income Americans.

The split doesn’t stop at the squat rack. McDonald’s and other fast food joints have seen lower-income traffic slip in recent months, pushing more value meals back on the menu, while airlines are investing in more premium features like first-class seats due to increased demand among affluent travelers.

A new trend takes shape

Experts are calling the current situation a “K-shaped” economy, where high earners continue to spend and earn strong investment returns, while lower earners face increased economic hardship.

And it shows up across a wide range of recent economic data:

• US GDP growth has been solid in recent years, yet hiring has slowed while the unemployment rate ticked up.
• Overall consumer spending is still rising, thanks largely to higher earners, but confidence in the economy remains low among Americans, and auto loan and credit card delinquencies recently hit a ~15-year high.
• The stock market still hovers near record highs, while wage growth among Americans is slowing.

Bottom line: Analysts warn that if these trends persist, the K-shaped recovery could deepen social divides and make it harder for middle- and lower-income Americans to bounce back from economic shocks.

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Pregnancy involves creating a new human brain entirely from scratch.

But it also has a significant impact on the brains of mothers, too, initiating a small “software update” to prepare them for motherhood.

That’s according to the largest study of its kind, where researchers found that pregnancy reduces the brain’s grey matter—the nerve-rich part of the brain that processes information, emotions, and empathy—by roughly 5% on average.

But before you panic: scientists say that’s likely the point.

Let’s break it down

Researchers scanned the brains of 127 women from before conception through six months postpartum, and compared them to scans from other women who’d never been pregnant.

• They discovered a ~5% average loss in grey matter for pregnant women, which partially returned six months after giving birth (but not fully).
  
• By contrast, the amount of gray matter in women who weren’t pregnant stayed consistently steady.
  

But…Rather than being a cause for concern, these changes appear beneficial when it comes to caring for newborns, researchers say.

• The greater the losses in brain matter, the more likely women were to say they were relating to, and bonding well with, their babies after birth.
• In short: pregnancy appears to “re-wire” the human brain to prime for motherhood.

Why it’s a big deal: Scientists are still mapping the intricacies of pregnancy, especially when it comes to changes in the brain. Better understanding that transformation will help doctors spot when something’s off, such as postpartum depression, instead of dismissing the symptoms as typical for pregnancy.

BUSINESS & MARKETS

• 🧑‍⚖️ Federal trade-court judge orders Trump admin to start refunding the $130+ billion it collected in global tariffs that were invalidated by the Supreme Court last month.
• 🏦 Morgan Stanley is laying off ~3% of its workforce (2,500 people) due to shifting business priorities and job performance.
• 🍚 Trader Joe’s expands recall of frozen food products due to potential glass contamination; it’s part of a wider recall of 36+ million pounds of food distributed by Ajinomoto Foods.

SPORTS, MEDIA & ENTERTAINMENT

• ⚾ World Baseball Classic, the once-every-three-year tournament featuring the top stars from across the globe, began late last night; star-studded Team USA squad faces Brazil in Game 1 on Friday.
• 💸 Pixar’s Hoppers is projected to earn $88 million to the global box office this weekend, which would represent the studio’s best debut since 2017’s Coco. | Yellowstone spinoff Marshals draws 9.5 million viewers for first episode, marking the largest audience for a scripted broadcast series premiere in 7+ years
• 🙏 Lou Holtz, the legendary CFB coach who spent 33 seasons on the sideline and won the 1988 national title at Notre Dame before a broadcasting career, passed away at 89.

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You get unlimited talk, text, and 5G on T-Mobile’s network, plus the chance to earn up to $20 per month when you use less than 20GB. Users reduce screen time by 17% on average.

SCIENCE, SPACE & EMERGING TECH

• 🏥 MIT engineers develop injectable “satellite liver” that can temporarily take over the functions of a failing liver, according to new study
• 💇 Scientists create fully-functional hair follicles in the lab for the first time in mice testing.
• 🌎 Climate change may threaten tens of millions more people than scientists originally thought due to faulty sea level assumptions, per new study published in Nature.

US, WORLD & POLITICS

• 💥 Iran conflict: US submarine sinks Iranian warship in international waters; Israel hits Iranian-backed Hezbollah militant group in Lebanon; Iran continues to launch ballistic missiles at several Middle Eastern countries, including Israel; US Senate rejects bill to halt the war against Iran in mostly party-line vote.
• ✍️⚡ Tech giants including Google, Microsoft, Meta, and Amazon sign pledge at the White House to bear the cost of new electricity generation to power their data centers; it’s unclear whether the pledge will contain concrete commitments.
• ⛪ 75+ Catholic priests sexually abused 300+ child victims in Rhode Island dating back to at least 1950, with the priests protected by bishops who transferred them rather than investigate complaints; that’s per a new report from Rhode Island’s AG, which follows a multiyear investigation.

👆 Holi celebrations flooded the streets of Mathura, India, with color last weekend, as residents welcomed the start of spring and celebrated the Hindu god Lord Krishna.

🤔 Did you know? Cockroaches are considered one of the world’s oldest surviving insects, with fossils of primitive ancestors ("roachoids") dating back as far as 350 million years—before the age of dinosaurs.

📰 Worth a read: Why laughing at yourself makes you more likable

🖱️ What we’re clicking:

• McDonald’s and Burger King are beefing
• Families are planning entire vacations around Pokémon GO
• The obscure fee costing you more to buy a car

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Yesterday we covered the latest updates on the ongoing conflict in the Middle East, as the US and Israel continue to launch attacks targeting Iran, and Tehran retaliates with widespread missile fire across the region.

❓ Our question to you (long-form): What are your thoughts on the ongoing conflict in the Middle East?

• “If America's long history of stirring up conflict in the Middle East has taught me anything, it's that we tend to leave countries in even worse conditions than they were in before we attacked or invaded them. While the Islamic regime is without a doubt oppressive, the US and Israel have no business attacking Iran or any other country in the region.”
• “The attack by the US in Israel is absolutely necessary for the future of the free world. The Iranian regime was a clear and present danger. Then a clear threat has to be destroyed, and the missile launchers have to be eliminated. The replacement of Iran’s theocracy is a necessary component.”
• “After living in the Middle East and having travelled all around it, I think the world is really a better place without Khamanei in it. At the same time, I'm not exactly hopeful that the "day after" will be better than the days before.”

Click here to read more of the most thoughtful longform responses.

+Note: Some responses may have been edited for clarity/length; Sample size: We received 59 longform responses.

🎶 Can't stop humming that tune? How successful 'earworms' utilize math to become annoyingly catchy.

👀 Watch: YouTuber catches “lightning in a bottle” using particle accelerator. (8 mins)

👂 Listen: “Tudum!” How an immense amount of creative work produced Netflix’s iconic sound logo.

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