The Expedition: April '26

25 new ideas to make you smarter, healthier, and wealthier this month.

For the first time ever, the price of a Two Percent Membership is going up by $1 on 5/1. Existing Members are NOT affected. Lock in our legacy pricing, forever, here.

The Expedition is our monthly journey into thoughts, opinions, ideas, observations, studies, facts, figures, etc.

Good ones, insightful ones, interesting ones, weird ones, and ones you can use to live better and longer.

It’s a roundup of all the worthwhile stuff I’ve discovered in the last month. The Expedition is a bit of an island of misfit toys. But, hey, the greatest journeys are winding.

Check out our partners:

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In this month’s Expedition, you’ll learn:

• Numbers on:

  • The junk food calorie penalty.

  • Steps pro golfers take.

  • Brady Holmer’s insane habits.

  • The only acceptable use for a cigarette in professional sports history.

  • The scale of research testing on dogs.

  • Do we work too much? An ancestral perspective.

  • Counterintuitive data on social media, kids, and mental health from a massive expert report.

  • Your brain on reading vs. screens.

  • A new issue with trust in scientific research (hint: thanks a lot, AI).

  • A way women are mentally tougher than men.

  • The truth about low-carb diets.

  • A 93-year-old badass.

  • Why dogs matter.

• Doctors respond to a Tweet saying that MD’s just push pills when they should be telling people to exercise and eat better.

• Why we’re admitted to the hospital: men vs. women.

• The scary downside of two popular longevity drugs: rapamycin and metformin.

• The thrill of sports.

• Sauna vs. steam room: Which is better.

• A very Las Vegas parting shot.

• An important parting quote.

Let’s roll …

By the numbers

500

Extra calories people ate per day when their food was ultraprocessed versus minimally processed. In this NIH study:

• 20 people ate a diet of ultraprocessed or unprocessed food for 14 days each.

• At each meal, they were given plenty of food and told to eat until full.

• The diets were matched for calories, sugar, fat, fiber, and macronutrients—identical in every way except processing level.

• The result: They ate 500 calories a day more on the ultraprocessed diet and gained weight.

The takeaway: Ultraprocessed foods make you overeat without even trying. Unprocessed food does the opposite.

Source.

91,247

Steps Rory McIlroy took during his win at the PGA Masters Tournament last weekend.

1

Cigarette used by Tiger Woods’ caddie Mike “Fluff” Cowan to check the wind direction during Woods’ 1997 Masters win.

20

Miles the insane Brady Holmer ran before speaking to me on the podcast that dropped yesterday. Yes, he talked about running. Specifically, the Boston Marathon, training for it, why the race is important, changes in running culture, and more.

Listen to the episode here.

2,000

Dogs that actor and comedian Ricky Gervais funded to be rescued from cruel lab tests.

48,510

Dogs are currently used in lab experiments in the US.

These dogs are kept in small cages and euthanized after experimentation. Beagles are the most commonly used breed, chosen specifically because they’re docile.

Some dogs endure what are called Category E experiments, procedures that cause pain or distress without any relief.

According research¹, the vast majority of these experiments produce no worthwhile findings. Wayne Hsiung is leading efforts to stop dog experimentation.

Source.

30

Percent of a person’s life was spent working in 1870. Today, that figure is closer to 10%.

In that period, “Hours fell but, unemployment did not increase. Moreover, not only did work hours fall, but childhood, retirement, and life expectancy all increased.”

Source.