This song is so good and so sneaky. It’s got Skales, a Nigerian rapper who you might know from this very newsletter or just from the world, alongside Nandy, a singer from Tanzania, singing a cheeky bit about falling in love with each other despite their regional differences. And they got together (musically– I don’t think they are actually dating) thanks to the good old Coke Studio, which has casually thrown its name into the beginning of the song as a sample. Now, the Coke Studio is kind of like the Redbull Studio, only abroad, so it supports a bunch of artists on the come-up. But the in-song branding, however subtle, feels like a bit much? In any case, don’t let that stop you from bumping this over the weekend– it’s the perfect track for winding up your party mood.

If you want to believe in karma, look no further than the under-vaccinated areas that are now experiencing Measles outbreaks. But fear not, the youth will save us. Recently the teenaged kids of anti-vaxxers have started to rebel and get themselves vaccinated. Which raises the question of what’s the better saying: “Respect your elders,” or “respect science as it bears out on public health”? (I believe we have our answer.)

This is where ‘the future’ starts to tip into ‘the dystopian future’: pharma companies are now sponsoring influencers to plug specific drugs on their lifestyle accounts. As examples, this article from The Goods cites ads for Botox, breast implants (which have since been shown to increase the risk of breast cancer), and an at-home birth contraction-measuring device that isn’t FDA-approved. Adopting any of these would be a significant, consequential choice that you’d probably want to make from an informed place. But since social media is loosely regulated, many of the ads don’t contain medical warnings about complications or side effects the way TV ads do, which is a little illegal and also leaves consumers in the dark, further blinded by the shiny lifestyles of the people promoting the drugs and devices. Influencers are more rigorous about marking posts as ‘sponsored,’ but even there, they often toe the line of making even that disclosure ‘clear and conspicuous’ as the FTC requires. Solution? Quit the internet. Or take a leaf out of the teenagers’ book and stage a consumer rebellion. That always works.