CATCHING FIRE: Reta, economic nihilism and the quarter zip and matcha life
Do keep up!
Happy Black Friday to all who celebrate. I’ve been in London all week so no Thanksgiving turkey, cousin walks or family fallouts for me. Instead I’ve been wanging on to BBC 5 Live about why the 6-7 trend is truly dead after the U.K. prime minister, Keir Starmer, joked about it with school kids.
In this edition we’re taking the temperature of… the Substack soap opera, the better-than-Ozy-P weight loss drug, a sex cardigan, the Nano Banana Pro-shaped threat to our reality, the death of Nike tech, going no contact, social media winners and losers and much more. Let’s get into it…
So hot right now
Retatrutide… It may be unlicensed and still in clinical trails but that hasn’t stopped some from getting their hands on what’s being hailed as the next generation of weight loss drugs.
Reta, as it’s known online and in fitness circles, is being described as the holy grail of slimming interventions because it blocks three hormone receptors — GLP-1, GIP and glucagon. The combo is said to work better than Ozempic, as it reduces appetite and burns fat, all while preserving muscle.
The new game-changing drug is expected to hit the market next year but in the meantime some are taking counterfeit versions of retatrutide from dodgy pharmacies or from Chinese manufacturers who offer it online.
Wicked: For Good sets box office record… and alongside a handful of other releases has helped Hollywood defy gravity after a dismal year for the film industry.
The second instalment of Wicked became the biggest global opening for a Broadway musical ever, and with $223/£168 million in total ticket receipts it was 2025’s fourth best first weekend behind Lilo & Stitch, Jurassic World Rebirth and the juggernaut which was A Minecraft Movie.
Big releases, even with historically bankable stars attached to them, are increasingly flopping, while hits are rare and concentrated in the family or franchise categories.
Is streaming to blame? Probably.
RELATED: Are you aware that there’s a sex cardigan in Wicked: For Good? I wish I wasn’t.
Ryan Lizza’s cliffhanger-heavy Substack soap opera… Goodness me, a lot can happen in a week. I told you last time about the scorched earth scandal unfolding between former political journalism power couple Olivia Nuzzi and Ryan Lizza. Well, in less than seven days it’s gone from titillating sex scandal to political conspiracy packed with claims of manipulation, betrayal and career-ending breaches of journalistic ethics.
We haven’t heard a peep from Nuzzi since she released an unwieldy extract from her memoir American Canto, which has left the stage clear for Lizza to carpet bomb us with his version of events via his paid-for Substack, Telos News. He’s published three parts so far and claimed that:
Nuzzi had affairs with two presidential candidates — Robert F Kennedy Jr and Mark Sanford — while covering them for New York magazine
Sexts between Kennedy and Nuzzi discussed felching (if you don’t know what that is I urge you to think twice before finding out here)
Nuzzi told Lizza that she feared RFK Jr would kill her if anyone found out about their affair
Nuzzi helped Kennedy with political strategy, buried unflattering stories about him and helped get him Secret Service protection
After commissioning an artist to draw Donald Trump, Nuzzi sent her to the session with a hidden recording device
Each of Lizza’s posts have left the reader in suspense and on Wednesday he revealed that the artist who made the clandestine recording believes that Trump might have said “something explosive” about the location where he was nearly assassinated, “that, if she were correct, would shatter our understanding of recent history”.
It’s all so messy and grubby that I stumped up for a paid subscription. If you’re a sicko like me and want one of my gift subs then reply to this email. The first four will be blessed with access to The Lizza Show and get his next dispatch as soon as it drops.
Trends, trends and even more trends
Quarter zip and matcha lyfe… Young men are trading sportswear for business casual sweaters after an internet joke exploded in popularity.
It was sparked by this viral TikTok video posted by Jason Gyamfi who says: “We don’t do Nike Tech, we don’t do coffee, it’s straight quarter zips and matchas around here. We upgraded in life; we wear glasses now.”
The switch-up he described caught on and inspired many, particularly other black men, to adopt the quarter zip lifestyle. Sketches which poked fun at the idea of “hood vibes to good vibes” also took off. At some point posters added the Vanessa Carlton song A Thousand Miles as the soundtrack to their transformations.
Well-known faces were quick to get involved too, with the rapper T-Pain posting this on Instagram…
And then Central Cee, a rapper and TikTok star, became the final boss of the trend when he posted his quarter zip and matcha makeover earlier this week. The video’s been watched more than 51 million times…
Economic nihilism… is on the rise amongst Gen Z in places where they’ve been shut out of home ownership.
New research from the University of Chicago, Northwestern University and the Financial Times found that risky bets on crypto, higher than average spend on entertainment and reduced work effort were more common among those who stand little chance of owning their own home.
Taking financial gambles when future goals feel out of reach is an understandable response, and it’s why I’ll always defend Gen Z against claims they’re lazy and entitled. The under 30s have grown up in a world shaped by the financial crash of 2008 where they’re unable to hit the same milestones as their parents. Many are crippled with student debt, they face stagnant wages and a job market that’s slashing entry-level roles. At the same time they’ve lost faith in institutions and know that no one is coming to their rescue. Given all that wouldn’t you be tempted to quiet quit and take your chances on Polymarket too?
Going no contact… TikTok has been full of testimonials about cutting off family members for years but the phenomenon blew up this week after Oprah Winfrey dedicated her podcast to the subject.
Winfrey describes going no-contact as “one of the fastest-growing cultural shifts of our time” and says an “estimated one third of Americans have cut off ties or is estranged from their family”. One of the reasons behind the rise is “the expanded definition of abuse,” according to the host.
The hour long show hears from children who no longer interact with their parents as well as a mother who has disowned her son. It’s a fascinating watch…
Need to know
Nano Banana Pro… is the bizarrely-named AI image generator from Google that’s so advanced that it’s helping to usher in the don’t-believe-your-eyes era.
The updated tool can make or edit images with, “studio-quality levels of precision and control”. Take a look at some examples in Mashable and what it created in response to the prompt: “show a group of young men wearing quarter zip sweaters holding take away matcha tea drinks hanging out on a side walk in New York City”…
The tech has got AI educator, Jeremy Carrasco, spooked. He says Nano Banana Pro is deeply concerning because it’s proving to be “undetectable” to the naked eye and even some image analysers. Be warned. Question everything.
Apps like TikTok rot your brain (officially)… An analysis of 71 studies into short form video platforms found that increased viewership was associated with poorer cognition, attention and inhibitory control and increased the incidence of stress and anxiety.
The study by the American Psychological Association added that: “repeated exposure to highly stimulating, fast-paced content may contribute to habituation, in which users become desensitized to slower, more effortful cognitive tasks such as reading, problem solving, or deep learning.” I’m cooked.
Reddit and TikTok… are gaining audience share according to new data from Pew Research.
Despite going dark for several hours last year because of it’s Chinese ownership, TikTok has grown 16 percentage points in the last four years when it comes to share of U.S. adults using the platform. And Reddit has overtaken Snapchat, which saw declines, in the last year.
Right wing “sock puppet accounts” exposed by new Twitter/X feature… Prominent pro-MAGA accounts, which claimed they were run by American patriots have been shown to be based in places like Russia, India, Thailand and Nigeria.
The disconnect was exposed when Twitter/X bosses rolled out the ‘About This Account’ feature in an effort to boost transparency. It was quickly pulled back when the results appeared to undercut the sincerity of some of the platform’s loudest voices. The Atlantic’s Charlie Warzel said it best when he wrote that it revealed Twitter/X to be a, “worthless, poisoned hall of mirrors”.
This week I’m…
OBSESSED WITH
This sold-out-in-seconds Charlotte Simone coat…
Harry and Zoe in Rome. So stylish.
Quiet, piggy being reclaimed by women online who are using it to respond to mansplainers, trolls and misogynists…
