Good morning. In today’s edition:

• 🧠 Reviving frozen brains
• 📝 Goodbye quarterly reports?
• 🗣️ How to change people's minds

…and much more.

Ready, Set, Go: Today’s news should be a ~3.71-minute read (986 words).

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"Life is a succession of lessons, which must be lived to be understood."

–Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882)

In the age of streaming and lower box office performance, movie theaters may have found an unlikely ally: the generation that grew up watching everything on their phones.

Setting the stage: Just over half of Americans went to a theater at least once in the past year per a new Pew Research survey. And recent box office numbers tell a similar story:

• While revenue at North American theaters has rebounded significantly since Covid, last year’s $8.9 billion box office total was ~$2.5 billion shy of 2019.
• Attendance also remains ~20% below pre-pandemic levels.

Enter Gen Z

According to Pew’s data, two-thirds of adults aged 18-29 went to the movies in the past year, compared with the overall US figure of 53% (and just 39% of Americans 65+).

Gen Z now makes up 39% of all North American moviegoers, up from 34% in 2019, with attendance rising by 25% in the past year alone.

Driving the trend: Analysts say Gen Z’s outsized movie theater attendance is likely driven by a desire to connect and feel immersed in a shared experience, after partially growing up in lockdown. They also cite FOMO (fear of missing out) when it comes to participating in online discussions, fandoms, and the latest memes.

Studios are taking notice. Last year’s biggest films—Zootopia 2, Lilo & Stitch, A Minecraft Movie, How to Train Your Dragon—all leaned on nostalgia and familiar franchises that resonate with Gen Z.

Looking ahead…The domestic box office in 2026 is projected to have its strongest post-COVID performance yet. Analysts expect up to $10 billion in ticket sales (~10% more than last year), driven by major titles like Star Wars: The Mandalorian and Grogu (May 22), The Odyssey (July 17), and the dueling release of Avengers: Doomsday and Dune: Part Three (both Dec. 18).

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Freezing a brain usually ends the same way as a banana: structurally…not great. But a new study suggests scientists have taken a step towards cracking the code when it comes to cryogenic preservation.

For the first time, scientists have developed a method that freezes the brain tissue of mice in a way that preserves some of its function after being thawed.

Brain freeze breakthrough

The technique, developed by researchers in Germany, relies on a rapid cooling process called vitrification that turns tissue into a glass-like state, instead of forming ice crystals.

• The crystallization process typically shreds the brain’s delicate structures during freezing.
• But vitrification sidesteps that problem by preventing the crystals from forming in the first place.

In the scientists’ experiment, they froze slices of mouse brains containing the hippocampus—the region responsible for memory and learning—at temperatures as low as –196°C (–320.8°F).

After thawing, the sample still showed signs of life: cell membranes stayed intact, mitochondria kept working, and neurons responded to electrical signals close to normal levels.

• The tissue even displayed long-term potentiation, a neural process tied to learning and memory.
• The team later froze entire mouse brains for up to eight days, and still recovered functioning neural pathways in samples taken after thawing.

But…Scientists say we shouldn’t expect a real-life Captain America anytime soon. Success rates were limited in the study, and researchers couldn’t test whether memories survived the process.

For now, more realistic applications of their findings include organ preservation and/or protecting brain tissue after severe injury.

BUSINESS & MARKETS

• 🏢 SEC is reportedly preparing a new proposal to eliminate quarterly reporting requirements for public companies, and instead give the option to share results twice a year.
• 🥩 Workers at key meatpacking plant owned by JBS go on strike, shutting down Colorado plant responsible for ~5% of all US beef processing capacity; the 3,800-worker action is the largest meat plant strike in decades.
• 🤖 Meta to lay off 20% or more of its workforce amid mounting AI costs, per Reuters report; company spokesperson says article represents “speculative reporting about theoretical approaches." | Meta signs long-term agreement for up to $27 billion worth of AI infrastructure from Dutch cloud provider Nebius, whose shares closed up 15%.

SPORTS, MEDIA & ENTERTAINMENT

• 🏈 New York Jets trade QB Justin Fields to the KC Chiefs for a 6th-round pick; Fields will back up superstar Patrick Mahomes, who’s aiming for a Week 1 return after tearing his ACL and LCL in December.
• 🎭 Kennedy Center board votes to close the arts complex for two years to undergo a President Trump-backed major renovation.
• 🏀 Alabama men’s CBB star Aden Holloway is arrested on felony drug charge four days before #4-seeded ‘Bama plays in the NCAA tournament.

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SCIENCE, SPACE & EMERGING TECH

• 🏥 Appendixes evolved separately at least 32 times across 361 different mammalian species, new study finds; results suggest the organ isn’t a useless evolutionary accident as some have theorized.
• 🎧 Apple introduces AirPods Max 2 over-ear headphones that feature upgraded noise-canceling technology.
• 🫀 American Heart Association updates guidelines for managing cholesterol to call for more aggressive prevention and earlier treatment.

US, WORLD & POLITICS

• 🌨️🌬️☀️ ~200 millon Americans experienced some form of extreme weather yesterday, including strong winds, thunderstorms, high heat, and blizzards; airlines canceled 3,000+ flights nationwide amid weather disruptions.
• 🏛️ President Trump signs executive order creating benefits fraud task force chaired by VP Vance that’ll focus on state and federal programs.
• 🇨🇺 Cuba’s national electric grid suffers total collapse yesterday, leaving ~10 million presidents without power amid a US-imposed oil blockade.

👆 You’re looking at a list of the best places to work in America in 2026, according to recent Forbes surveys of hundreds of thousands of workers across the country.

🤔 Did you know? Mars is home to six separate mountains that are taller than Mount Everest. This list includes Olympus Mons, the largest volcano in our Solar System, which is three times as high as Everest (~84,400 feet) and roughly as wide as France.

📰 Worth a read: OpenAI’s bid to allow X-rated talk is freaking out its own advisers

🖱️ What we’re clicking:

• The simple trick to change other people's minds
• Alien planet may be the stinkiest place in the galaxy
• A map of every US state's favorite other state

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Yesterday we covered how Israeli and US forces continued bombarding targets across Iran over the weekend, while Tehran kept up its strikes against Israeli and American targets across the Middle East, as the war in the region entered its third week

❓ Our question to you: After 2+ weeks of conflict: do you support or oppose US involvement in the ongoing war in the Middle East?

• Support: 23%
• Oppose: 74%
• Unsure/other: 3%

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

+Note on sample size: We received 633 votes and 152 longform responses.

🏆🍿 You’ve heard about 2026's best movies…Now it’s time to check out the 2026 Golden Raspberry Awards (aka Razzies), honoring the worst movies and acting performances of the past year.

🐟👀 Watch: A goldfish can drive his own car thanks to a Dutch engineer’s invention.

📖 Read: Julius Caesar’s betrayer wasn't Brutus—it was Decimus, a conspirator history forgot.

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*A message from our partners

❓ Trivia: What planet has a day that’s longer than its year?

🎓 True or false?… Venus spins backwards compared to Earth.

🤔 Riddle me this…Every day I’m face shaving, but my beard stays the same. What am I?

🏆 Guinness World Records recently declared the official title for the "highest price ever paid for a video game likeness corn snack" (a truly a-maize-ing category). The award went to Cheetozard, a Flamin' Hot Cheeto shaped liked the Pokémon Charizard, which sold for a whopping $87,840 last year.

❓ Trivia: Venus, where one day is 243 Earth days long while a year takes 225.

🎓 T/f: True

🤔 Riddle: A barber

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