👃 Smells bad, tastes great

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👋 Good morni— and you’re already tuned out. The results of the American Time Use Survey show a sharp decline in the number of Americans who read for fun, dropping 3% per year over the last two decades. Now only 16% of teens and adults say they pleasurably read on a daily basis, though it’s reasonable to hold out hope that the other 84% of the population are devouring steamy fantasy-romance fanfic and are just too embarrassed to admit it.

🎧 On the pod: Move over, flowers. People are flocking to experience plants that smell gross.

NEWS FLASH

👓 Why merely look like a dweeb when you can talk like one too? China’s Rokid introduced a new contender for Meta Ray-Ban’s AR eyewear crown. Its latest smart glasses, called Rokid Glasses, have a powerful display in each eye that can be used for navigation, real-time translation, recording, and one particularly hyped feature is the teleprompter function that scrolls text and can save you from ever having to relay another unscripted thought in your life. The lightweight specs are expected to retail at $599, but when they’re expected, nobody knows.

🩺 Serving hypochondriacs is, apparently, good business: Medtech startup Neko Health, co-founded by Spotify boss Daniel Ek, is multiplying its body-scanning clinics; it opened its first two UK locations in the past year and just announced two more on the way. In the average hourlong ~$400 Neko appointment, patients sit for full-body geothermal, 2D- and 3D-imaging, and a blood test, then wind up in a physician consultation learning their previously unknown ailments. The company says its Spotify Wrapped for the body flagged unknown life-threatening conditions in 54 of the ~4.4k scans at its Stockholm clinic last year.

🎧 Thanks? Mark Zuckerberg gave his Palo Alto neighbors noise-cancelling headphones because the construction on his 11 homes apparently never stops. We’re going to assume they’re very nice, but that his neighbors would actually prefer he’d stop building his Winchester Mystery compound, which now includes a pickleball court and 7k square feet of basement space. Neighbors have complained of intense security, including surveillance cameras and patrols, and constant noise.

MORE NEWS TO KNOW

Twin Health is on the cusp of unicorning, raising $53m at a $950m valuation. The health startup monitors customers’ daily activity, maps it onto a digital twin, and uses the data to AI up real-time advice for managing metabolism.
Anthropic reached a preliminary settlement on a class-action lawsuit from several authors who alleged it trained its models on their work. While a judge ruled that Anthropic’s use of the books fell under “fair use,” it may have acquired them via piracy, potentially amounting to $1T+ in penalties.
Hyundai is partnering with startup Uncaged Innovations on a plant-based leather for use in its vehicles. Per TechCrunch, the materials are made from grains and can look, feel, and even smell like the real thing. Uncaged has also partnered with Jaguar Land Rover, and its faux-leathers are already in use in handbags and watch bands.

FROM OUR FRIENDS AT MINDSTREAM

Another week, another AI privacy mess

After OpenAI and Meta have had noted issues with oversharing chatbots, xAI wasn’t about to be left out.

Hundreds of thousands of conversations with its AI bot, Grok, have been turning up in search engine results, and many users likely didn’t know they were public.

Some of the indexed transcripts show users asking Grok to create secure passwords, draft weight-loss meal plans, provide medical advice, and even give detailed instructions on making a Class A drug.

The moral here: maybe be a little less trusting with AI?

👉 Read on for more about Grok’s loose lips

THE BIG IDEA

A durian, cut in half to expose the yellow fruit inside.

People love smelly plants

Stop and smell the roses? Sure. But crowds line up for The Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens’ corpse flower, which reeks like decay.

Such plants bloom once every few years and just for about a day, but the San Marino, California, garden has a collection of 40+, meaning there’s at least one bloom per year. Fans track it on social media, waiting for the big, weird plant to do its worst. Its most recent bloom in July saw ~11.5k visitors.

Another smelly plant is having a moment in Asia: the durian, a large tropical fruit native to Southeast Asia. It’s encased in a spiky rind and while many say it smells like gym socks or vomit, it tastes like caramel or cheesecake and works well on its own or in other dishes and desserts.

The Disneyland of durian

DurianBB, a farm in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, offers numerous ways to experience the fruit, per CNN Business.

DurianBB Park offers samples of the durian varieties grown on its farm.
DurianBB World has a dessert shop, games, and classes.
DurianBB Academy is a 30-acre farm with games and classes.

For Adrian Choy, DurianBB’s “Chief Dreamer,” such offerings allow the farm to diversify revenue beyond exporting the fruit, which can be challenging amid competition and fluctuating weather.

Choy estimated the company sees 400k-500k annual visitors, and cited ~$10m in 2024 revenue, buoyed by its souvenirs.

It’s not unlike pumpkin patches, where farmers can sell their gourds while earning additional revenue from family activities (corn mazes, hayrides, photo ops, petting zoos, etc.), food, and coffee.

Elsewhere…

… durian lovers can find experiences including an omakase restaurant in Bangkok and a high tea in Hong Kong. Even chains, including Pizza Hut in China and Ikea in Hong Kong, have added durian dishes to their menus.

Tourism Malaysia released a 2024/2025 publication featuring 62 durian tourism packages across 12 states, from tastings to multi-day tours, which it estimates will bring in $420k.

Not bad for a fruit that Anthony Bourdain, a durian fan, once said would leave your breath smelling like you’d been “French-kissing your dead grandmother.”

🔗

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED

Zero to hero: While Americans drink less soda every year, one product has bucked the trend: Coke Zero. How is it growing so fast?

NEWSWORTHY NUMBER

Share of newly hired workers who both had a bad onboarding experience and plan to quit their job, 2x more than those who reported a positive experience, per a survey from Software Finder.

The survey is meant to highlight how an employee’s onboarding experience can color the way they feel about their job. Over half, 55%, who enjoyed their onboarding experience said they planned to stay with the company long-term, compared to 10% who did not.

What do new hires want out of onboarding? A realistic picture of their role (67% felt their onboarding was not a completely accurate representation of their responsibilities or the company’s culture), hands-on training, and clear performance expectations topped the list.

AROUND THE WEB

📅 On this day: In 1963, Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his famous “I Have a Dream” speech at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, DC.

👎 Haha: Things author Jane Austen did not like.

🗞️ Newsletter: Opening Bell Daily covers Wall Street with charts, economic data, and analysis. Subscribe here.

⌨️ That’s cool: What every key on your keyboard does.

🐱 Aww: Cats watching cats.

QUOTE OF NOTE

John Williams knows the score: Though he popularized the medium by composing the iconic soundtracks of "Jaws," "Jurassic Park," "Star Wars," and more, Williams still doesn't have a lot of love for the sounds of the cinema.

In his forthcoming biography, per The Guardian, the 93-year-old GOAT film composer writes that movie music doesn't live up to classical concert hall standards, calling it ephemeral, lifted by the power of nostalgia, and really not that good "other than maybe an eight-minute stretch here and there."

Whether you agree with him or not, we can all agree that talking trash about our own chosen professions feel fantastic.

SHOWER THOUGHT

My fortune cookie fortune will be stronger if I read it after eating the cookie. SOURCE

Today's email was brought to you by Juliet Bennett Rylah, Sara Friedman, and Singdhi Sokpo.
Editing by: Ben “Smells only slightly better than durian” Berkley.

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