☕ No-place third space

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👋 Does your workplace have an alligator policy? You may want to start writing one; Walmart had to. For years, a Pennsylvania man says he would regularly turn up to his local store with Jinseioshi, his 5-foot-long, 32-pound, dress-wearing emotional support alligator without issue. But the retail behemoth has called off Jinseioshi’s future fashion shows, clarifying that while it’s cool with service animals that don’t pose any danger to other shoppers, gators are simply not welcome in its stores.

🎧 On the pod: PepsiCo's stock has plummeted 20% over the last two years while Coca-Cola’s has jumped 15%. How did Pepsi fall so far behind?

NEWS FLASH

🤖 We’ve entered the chatbot-as-high-ranking-government-official stage of AI tomfoolery: The Albanian government has a new minister in charge of rooting out corruption, Diella, who, yeah, is a chatbot. It’s been a meteoric rise for the AI, which was initially citizens’ virtual assistant inside the government services portal before its history-making appointment as “the first cabinet member who is not physically present,” per Prime Minister Edi Rama. In addition to playing corruption monitor, Diella will also be the last word on awarding government contracts. Hope that works out for them?

🚧 Ever see kids playing with Magna-Tiles? Imagine that, kinda, but for space: Colorado startup Rendezvous Robotics closed a $3m round to further develop its TESSERAE tiles, which can reconfigure themselves in orbit to create large, sturdy structures. The latest prototypes of the dinner plate-sized, self-assembling tiles will go up to the ISS next year for further testing, and Rendezvous Robotics’ founders imagine an eventual in-space construction empire, eventually launching up tiles on the regular and having them build themselves into big space habitats.

✈️ Remember when a door plug blew off a Boeing 737 Max 9 during an Alaska Airlines flight in 2024? The FAA does, and wants Boeing to pay a $3.1m fine related to safety violations including that one. The FAA revealed that it found hundreds of quality system violations at Boeing’s Washington factory and a subcontractor’s Kansas factory. It also found that a Boeing employee pressured a member of Boeing’s Organization Designation Authorization (ODA) unit, a team delegated by the FAA, to sign off on inspections and certifications so that Boeing could meet its delivery schedule, despite the ODA member determining that “the aircraft did not comply with application standards.” Boeing has until mid October to respond.

MORE NEWS TO KNOW

Opendoor, the real estate platform, has a new board chair, Keith Rabois, and he’s coming in hot: He told CNBC he hates remote work, can’t fathom what most employees do, and suggested a workforce reduction of up to 85%. Brutal.
Alphabet became the fourth company to hit a valuation of $3T on Monday, joining Apple, Nvidia, and Microsoft. The Google parent’s stock is up 30%+ in 2025, buoyed by its AI developments and an antitrust ruling that found it did not have to divest Google Chrome.
TikTok update: US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent announced that a framework agreement between the US and China to keep the app operational in the US is expected to be finalized on Friday. A US buyer hasn’t been announced, but analysts think it’s a group led by Oracle CEO Larry Ellison.

THE BIG IDEA

A smiling woman in a sweater holding a cup of tea sits chats with two men.

The third space that isn’t a place

Third spaces — places that aren’t your home or job, but offer a welcoming environment for you to socialize — have been a hot topic post-pandemic, with many lamenting their supposed disappearance.

Starbucks CEO Brian Niccol has been working to reclaim the coffee chain’s role as one, with ceramic mugs and personal touches, plus remodels of 1k+ locations at ~$150k per store to make them more inviting.

But what if…

… your third space wasn’t a particular place you went, but something more mobile?

Patrick Kho, who writes Hong Kong-based biz/culture newsletter The Chow, noted that even having an abundance of public spaces “does not guarantee community.” After all, think about how often you go out, but don’t meet anyone new.

Kho interviewed Athena Au, co-founder and COO of Tova, a Hong Kong members-only club with no physical location. It instead has:

Community events in various parts of the city
Sub-communities tailored toward different interests and hobbies
“Tova Spaces,” a network of venues where members can receive discounts and freebies and socialize

“You don’t say you’re part of Soho House, you say you go to Soho House. For us, people say they’re part of Tova,” Au said.

Kho also highlighted One House Social Club, which hosts meetups at London hot spots, and Hong Kong’s Critical Mass, a twice-monthly meetup group.

It’s not an entirely new concept…

… if you think about the myriad groups on Meetup or other platforms that arrange gatherings at locations around their city, but it does solve for one problem: rent.

NeueHouse, a members-only club with locations in New York and LA, shut down abruptly this month and filed for bankruptcy, despite memberships starting at $3.6k per year.
Last month, Soho House announced it would go private in a $2.7B deal after struggling to turn a profit even amid growing membership and revenue.
Third Place Bar NYC is a pop-up for alcohol-free events. Founder Sam Bail told Eater — in a piece that contemplates if anyone really knows what a third place is — that rent is why there’s no brick-and-mortar space.

Clubs like Tova have much lower overhead. They also differ from many friendship apps in that the burden of finding someone to meet — and then awkwardly arranging when and where — isn’t on the user.

Another plus: They could be a boon for the small businesses they frequent by increasing traffic and turning on new customers.

🔗

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED

Not a lot of farmers become billionaires… but this one sure did. Learn how John Bragg turned blueberries into big bucks.

NEWSWORTHY NUMBER

Price of late filmmaker David Lynch’s Hollywood Hills home, per The Wall Street Journal. The main three-bedroom home was designed by Lloyd Wright, Frank Lloyd Wright’s son, and sits on a 2.5-acre compound that Lynch spent years expanding, buying adjacent buildings and properties. At one point, he hired Lloyd Wright’s son, Eric Lloyd Wright, to design a pool and poolhouse.

In a 1997 interview, Lynch said living inside the home affected his whole life. “And then sometimes I see things, shapes or something that would go inside of it and that leads to furniture or film,” he said.

AROUND THE WEB

📆 On this day: In 1620, the Mayflower left Plymouth, England, with 102 passengers.

🔎 That’s cool: This video shares highlights from the 2025 GeoGuessr World Championship, a real competition in which contestants compete for $100k+.

👾 Game: All you do is scroll in this surprisingly tricky shooting game.

🤖 That’s interesting: The Atlantic explores the issues with everyone using AI in both job seeking and job recruitment.

🐱 Aww: Air biscuits.

QUOTE OF NOTE

"I'm telling everybody in Canada, please come. We love you, we need you, and we miss you."

Desperate times: Las Vegas Mayor Shelley Berkley’s plea for Canadians to return to the city’s casinos and hotels during a press conference last week.

The desert metropolis has experienced a significant downturn in international tourism this year, largely due to economic concerns and trade tensions, per Fortune. And the decline is especially dire among Canadian tourists, who represent Sin City’s largest market and contributed ~$3.6B to the local economy last year.

In June, the number of Air Canada passengers flying into Vegas’ Harry Reid International Airport were down by 33% year over year, while Canadian carrier Flair Airlines’ numbers plummeted by 62%.

SHOWER THOUGHT

Every new credit card expiration date feels like a lifetime away. But before you know it, some kind-faced barista is telling you your charge has failed. SOURCE

Today's email was brought to you by Juliet Bennett Rylah, Sara Friedman, and Singdhi Sokpo.
Editing by: Ben "Later, alligators" Berkley.

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