| Welcome to the weekend!Do you even lift, bros? Over the past five years, retailer GNC has seen a 75% surge in sales for a gym-staple supplem |
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| Welcome to the weekend! Do you even lift, bros? Over the past five years, retailer GNC has seen a 75% surge in sales for a gym-staple supplement that’s increasingly mainstream, especially among women. Which one? Find out with this week’s Pointed quiz. What leads to intellectual gains? Our audio playlist, available in the Bloomberg app. We’ve got five great stories this week, and one will explain why household product smells just keep getting stronger. Don’t miss Sunday’s Forecast, in which we explore a century-defining geopolitical shift (no biggie!) For full access to Bloomberg.com, subscribe. | |
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| French historian Fernand Braudel identified three cycles of history: the day-to-day “fireflies” of events, paradigm shifts like the end of the Cold War, and the longue durée — the slow grind of climate and geography. Six months into Donald Trump’s second term, the US’s pivot from free trade and global security to national interest is looking like a paradigm shift. But has there been a shift in the longue durée? Bloomberg Economics’ Tom Orlik and Jennifer Welch think maybe, as Trump’s new world order crashes into the challenges of climate change and AI. | |
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| If Trump is the champion of a paradigm shift in the United States, Tidjane Thiam hopes to be the same for Ivory Coast. He was barred from running for president there after the country’s leader decided to seek a controversial fourth term, but Thiam knows how to handle a setback: His tenure as Credit Suisse CEO was cut short by an espionage scandal. “We need democracy,” Thiam tells Mishal Husain in a wide-ranging conversation about ambition, prejudice and politics. “And that right is being denied all over Africa.” | |
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| Paradigm shifts can surface in odd places — like the ears, noses and even armpits of affluent Americans. A century ago, steep US tariffs gave the wealthy ample incentive to splurge abroad and sneak goods home. Now, the highest tariff levels since 1935 are reviving the same temptations. Will today’s elite show the same ingenuity for subterfuge as the traveler who rolled watches in a sticky substance and tucked them in his armpits? Maybe! But as Ben Steverman notes, this particular type of smuggler carries perfectly ordinary items and is notoriously hard to spot. | |
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| Sometimes the key to securing a treasured product — or avoiding a paradigm shift — isn’t smuggling, but hoarding. That’s what Madison Darbyshire did with original-scent Dawn dish soap after the company changed its fragrance formula. This isn’t mere fussiness: Some of our strongest scent associations come from household brands like detergents and soaps, which can unlock vivid memories with a whiff. And because we link clean clothes, bodies and homes with those smells, researchers say expectations for fragrance are rising — especially in the US. | |
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| Melbourne
Just steps from the operating theaters at Footscray Hospital, a storeroom holds a quiet rebellion: bundles of gowns and drapes, some in disposable plastic, others in washable fabric built to last. For anesthesiologist Forbes McGain, that pile signals resistance to healthcare’s addiction to single-use items. If the sector were a country, it would be the world’s fifth-largest emitter. McGain, now associate dean of healthcare sustainability at the University of Melbourne, is leading a push for washable alternatives — proving they cut both carbon and costs.  Illustration: Isabella Cotier for Bloomberg | |
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A Searing Memoir | | “She was like an airport with no runways. You just keep your airplane in the air at all times.” | | Arundhati Roy Author of ‘Mother Mary Comes to Me’ | | Arundhati Roy has spent decades as one of India’s fiercest literary and political voices, celebrated for her Booker Prize–winning fiction and reviled for essays that challenged Hindu nationalism. Now she turns inward with a new memoir about the turbulent bond with her mother that shaped her art and activism. | | |
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| What we’re reading: Anointed by Toby Stuart, a business professor’s survey of how societies rely on status to self-organize. Stuart argues that doing so is natural, and (unconvincingly) that AI will change things. What we’re thinking about: regret. The research paper that ignited the AI boom also created a race in which corporate labs set the agenda. Ashish Vaswani, the paper’s first author, now worries that commercialization is narrowing science. What we’re watching: The Naked Gun. The 2025 reboot of the 1980s police parody franchise was a silly romp — and the first mainstream Hollywood movie to reflect a world in which self-driving cars are part of our lived reality. What we’re eating: a whole chicken. Dressed-up whole birds have become the highest-profile entrée in Manhattan. Nationwide, too, whole chicken’s appearance on menus has increased 34% over the past 12 months. What we’re prepping for: Sunday scaries. France’s minority government is likely to fall in a confidence vote on Monday, and be replaced by another weak regime that will struggle to pass a budget. | |
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The Nintendo Switch 2: Yes yes yes. Nintendo’s old-fashioned focus on fun and resistance to tech trends mean it’s still the weird genius of gaming. -
The iPhone 17 series: We shall see. When Apple unveils the new series on Tuesday, it will kick off a long-awaited three-year period of new iPhone designs. -
$30 pizza vodka: Surprisingly, yes. The clear liquid has a big, tomato-y scent, oregano-forward flavor and a delicious, garlicky exhale. (Bring breath mints.) | |
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