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Think You Should Wait Before Drinking Your First Cup of Coffee? Science Says There's No Need (or Benefit)
Research shows when you drink your first cup of coffee has no impact on afternoon energy levels. Or hydration. Or anything, aside from how you like to start your day.
The Anti-Data-Center Movement Is Reshaping Michigan Politics
Climate activist Will Lawrence cofounded the Sunrise Movement. Now, he has shifted his focus in his attempt to compete for a swing-district seat by calling for a data center moratorium.
Quality coffee, Ojibwe bonds build a business on the Fond du Lac Reservation in NE Minnesota
At a roadside kiosk on the reservation, Jackson Ripley and his family blend great coffee and Ojibwe culture together with a bit of magic. In the process, they’ve built new community ties, and they’re hoping to do more.
New Ballard coffee shop burglarized two months into business
Highland Espresso is recovering after thieves broke in and stole thousands of dollars worth of equipment early Thursday morning.
What to Do in Houston If You're Here for Business (2026)
Make the most of your work trip with these restaurants, bars, coffee shops, and downtime destinations.
A Giant Scorpion the Size of a Coffee Table Is Forcing Scientists To Rethink Evolution
Praearcturus gigas was a meter-long Devonian scorpion whose size may reflect a world with few large competitors rather than high oxygen alone.
What scientists discovered about coffee grounds will transform construction industry - Futura-Sciences
At the start of 2024, a study published several months ago is once again drawing attention. Scientists at RMIT University in Australia have identified an unexpected use for spent coffee grounds, opening the door to a promising solution for both the construction sector and organic waste management. From coffee waste...
A day in the life of Nicky Hilton between London and New York
Nicky Hilton, socialite and cofounder of custom jewelry brand theo grace, splits her time between London and NYC. Here's a day in her life.
ACES hosts event looking at health impacts of climate change
Dr. Mark Gladwin, the dean of University of Maryland School of Medicine and the vice president of Medical Affairs, is slated to speak with Aspen Center for Environmental Studies from 6 to 7 p.m. July 2 on the worsening health impacts in the face of human-driven climate change.
140 Kauai Coffee jobs saved through new land lease agreement
The lease agreement between Kauai Coffee’s parent company, Massimo Zanetti Beverage Group, and landowner Brue Baukol Capital Partners was finalized after nearly two years of negotiations
Scientists Turn Wet Coffee Grounds Into Coal-Like Fuel in Just 90 Seconds
A new process skips energy-intensive drying for recycling coffee waste.
Seattle ups its payout for vandalized small businesses. Is it enough?
For many businesses, the reimbursement "could be the difference between someone making their rent or not, just because this is such a tough time,” said Analog Coffee's owner.
This Simple Trick Can Make Your Coffee Taste Way Better, Says Physics
If you love pour-over coffee it could serve you well to change how you pour.
This beverage stock is likely to rise ahead of coffee business spinoff, Barclays says
The investment bank upgraded shares to overweight from equal weight.
Ford Road growth continues in Canton. Here's 9 projects to know about
New restaurants and retail projects are reshaping the busy Ford Road corridor in Canton. See what's coming next.
Editorial | Brooklyn coffee shop’s snub of Congress member shows politics boiling over in NYC
He was out on Sunday campaigning in Brooklyn for re-election to his Congressional seat when he paid a visit to Poetica Coffee. Goldman said the staff politely
Brooklyn coffee shop that targeted Jewish congressman faces DOJ probe after reported tax, health code issues
Poetica Coffee owner Parviz Mukhamadkulov donated to scandal-plagued candidate Graham Platner and reportedly faces tax debts and health code violations.
Why Heineken Just Hired a Coffee Executive to Save Its Beer Business
The new CEO will face a number of challenges in his role, including a mandate to oversee 6,000 job cuts.
Rep. Dan Goldman addresses Brooklyn coffee shop banning him over his views on Israel
Rep. Dan Goldman called it “sad” that a Brooklyn coffee shop apparently banned him with a viral social media post amid a heated Democratic primary election that has focused heavily on the politics of the Israel-Gaza war.
NYC coffee shop bans pro-Israel politician in hostile social post: 'we don’t serve... genocide enablers'
A Brooklyn coffee shop criticized Rep. Dan Goldman after he bought coffee there, saying it would have turned him away as a "genocide enabler."
Prosper AI lands $30M backed by Andreessen Horowitz to build AI workforce for healthcare operations
Nine months after announcing its seed funding round, Prosper AI banked $30 million to scale its agentic AI platform to power administrative tasks from patient scheduling to insurance verification a | Prosper AI banked $30 million to scale its agentic AI platform to power administrative tasks from patient scheduling to insurance verification and patient billing.
Leiter to the injured list, Corniell up
Jack Leiter lands on the injured list with an ankle injury
April Coffee is a business coach and an advocate for unification around scholarships
By Andy Furman NKyTribune staff writer April Coffee says she was quiet, real quiet – almost shy – when she attended Scott High School. Really? If so, she fooled the Covington Rotary Club, as she had them mesmerized on every word during her noontime presentation recently at the Radisson Hotel. “I’m a Business Coach,” she...
Ubisoft cofounder Claude Guillemot dies in plane crash
Claude Guillemot died after a Cessna plane carrying the Ubisoft founder crashed on Friday in western France. He was 69.
Steven Bartlett Claims 3 Glasses of Wine Cost Him 3 Days of Productivity. Here's What the Science Says
When "The Diary of a CEO" host claimed a few drinks ruined his productivity for days, critics scoffed. We turned to medical professionals and researchers for their take.
A day in the life of GORUCK cofounder Emily McCarthy
Emily McCarthy, who founded GORUCK with her husband Jason McCarthy, spends her days biking with her kids to their school and taking rucking meetings.
Check out these 6 new stores, eateries coming to east Louisville
From jewelry stores to coffee shops, several new businesses are setting up shop in the East End of Louisville.
Comedian Carlos Mencia arrested on 12 tax-related felony charges in Los Angeles
'Mind of Mencia' star Carlos Mencia is accused of being 'one of California's biggest tax scofflaws,' after allegedly failing to report over $8 million in income.
Fulton building collapse halts new coffee shop's upcoming opening
Many people were affected after a two-story building on Nichols Street collapsed in downtown Fulton on Wednesday.
Coffee shop confession: California must regulate paid political influencers
“It was more than a little ironic to overhear a shoptalk about transparency in politics discussed so openly in public,” writes columnist Robin Epley.
Granville’s longest-serving mayor serves with passion – not for politics or pay - The Reporting Project
Everyone in town knows the lanky woman with dark hair and dark-rimmed glasses, and that means her path of about 75 feet between Granville Village Hall and Village Coffee shop […]
An emerging generation of women challenge the old guard of Sacramento politics
Cofer’s exchange with an unresponsive board exemplifies a generational shift in local politics.
Zero sugar, more problems? Study reveals surprising gut health effects
A study presented at ENDO 2026 suggests that completely eliminating sugar from a low-fat diet may harm gut health and increase inflammation.
How a millennial built a thriving coffee business with $500
Brandon Sardi found success sharing the "non-glamorous side" of entrepreneurship — the 80-hour workweeks, slow sales days, and mistakes.
On Demand — Health on the Plains Coffee Hour, Featuring Sarah Jane Tribble
KHI hosted Sarah Jane Tribble of KFF Health News to discuss rural health care challenges and opportunities, including hospital closures, technology and rural transformation efforts.
World Cup results, schedule, scores, live updates: France vs. Senegal kicks off star-studded day; Norway-Iraq up next
Tito Double P to headline BelicoFest
Tito Double P will headline BelicoFest in Los Angeles at BMO Stadium on July 12.
“Gilmore Girls ”is leaving Netflix after 12 years
Raise your cozy coffee mugs in tribute.
The $4 Billion Coffee Pod Business Faces Its Biggest Threat Yet
Billions of coffee pods are sold every year. Coffee giant Lavazza is betting that consumers are finally ready for a different approach.
Looking ahead at 5 big Steelers training camp position battles
The Steelers will get together for training camp in a month and these five position battles will be the ones to watch.
The best recent science fiction, fantasy and horror
Not With a Bang by Temi Oh; Tillinghast by Clare Cavenagh; Atomic Coffin by Benedict Anning; The Unicorn Hunters by Katherine Arden; Bad Things Happen Here by Mark Morris
Grounds for celebration: Dean’s Beans named Massachusetts Rural Business of the Year
When founder Dean Cycon stepped down from his Dean’s Beans Organic Coffee Co. in 2023, he didn’t look for a wealthy outside buyer or a massive conglomerate to take over. Instead, he handed the keys directly to the roasters, packers and office staff who helped him build the brand. Three years into its journey as […]
Trump’s ‘Anti-Weaponization’ Payouts May Not Be Dead After All
Despite insisting that a $1.776 billion fund has been scrapped, the administration is quietly assuring allies that plans remain on track.
New Business Spotlight: Riverside Coffee
New small businesses are emerging with innovative ideas and a passion for excellence. This column highlights their unique offerings and inspiring stories, showcasing the creativity and resilience of entrepreneurs shaping our communities. Jonathan Palk, managing associate for Peachtree Planning, is highlighting local businesses through in-person podcasts. “The purpose of the podcast is to share stories […]
Local businesses lean into the fanbase economy
Your local coffee shop isn't just selling breakfast anymore — it's building a fanbase.
Why this teen founder walked away from his multimillion-dollar company
MyFitnessPal acquired Cal AI, an AI-powered calorie-tracking app that 19-year-old Zach Yadegari cofounded while he was in high school, last year.
Why I’m Finally Considering The Amex Business Gold For The First Time
For years, I mostly ignored the . As someone who has held the consumer version of the Amex Gold for years, I never felt like the Business Gold brought enough value to the table to warrant carrying both. But after recently starting a coffee cart side hustle, both the newer and older credits on the
The $4 billion coffee pod business faces its biggest threat yet
Billions of coffee pods are sold every year. Coffee giant Lavazza is betting that consumers are finally ready for a different approach.
The Cincinnati Reds are broken with no quick fix
Here we are again, starting the summer with an epic flopjob from the Reds.
Valheim launches September 9
Viking survival game Valheim will leave Early Access and launch for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series, Switch 2, Xbox One, and PC via Steam and Microsoft Store on September 9, Coffee Stain Publishing and …
Piecework’s jigsaw puzzles are making ‘grandma hobbies’ cool
From maximalist pizzas to retro beaches, Piecework brings canvases with a coffee-table book flair to gen Z’s homes
How 617 Day became Cambridge’s small business holiday
It was a bright summer day when business owners, local leaders and community members filed into Harvard Square’s dimly lit and aesthetically retro Comedy Studio. As people mingled, sipping coffee and feasting on a full service breakfast, they eagerly awaited a day of learning and networking. What they didn’t anticipate was a day defined by […]
Things to do in the Loveland area on Saturday: Nearly every NoCo community has a festival happening
Nearly every town in Northern Colorado has a festival happening on Saturday, including Bluegrass & Brews Festival and the Colorado Medieval Festival in Loveland, Berthoud Day, Johnstown BBQ Day, Fort Collins Pride 2026 and FoCo EcoFest…
House passes Ukraine security aid bill over objections of GOP leaders
The legislation only reached the floor after six Republicans broke ranks to force a vote.
I started losing my hearing at 21. I built a business from it.
After developing tinnitus and hearing loss, Bob Verlaat cofounded Hears, a company designing stylish earplugs for music fans.
The cult of objectivity has broken consciousness science
With 22 competing theories and no consensus in sight, the science of consciousness is lost. In this exclusive IAI interview, Berkeley psychedelics researcher and bestselling author of a new book on consciousness Michael Pollan insists that even though consciousness lies beyond traditional forms of scientific investigation, we should resist becoming dualists who see it as something radically different from ordinary stuff in the world. Instead, he makes the case for reimagining science itself: it must stop reaching for objective descriptions of physical reality, and instead embrace subjectivity as the indispensable core of all inquiry. Alasdair Craig: How did your experiences with psychedelics get you interested in consciousness?Michael Pollan: One of the things that happens on psychedelics is that they foreground consciousness. What formerly seemed perfectly transparent and ever present—and yet, non-existent, as water is to fish—suddenly you see it. The metaphor I use in the book is that psychedelics sponge the windscreen. Suddenly you realize: wow, there’s a windscreen, there is this phenomenon that’s mediating my relationship to reality. This is not an unusual realization on psychedelics. I think a lot of people are called to think about consciousness after psychedelic experiences. So that was the proximate inspiration for A World Appears: A Journey Into Consciousness (2026).And then there was a more specific way in which psychedelics influence the book. That was a particular experience I had on psilocybin. I had the sensation that the plants in my garden were conscious and returning my gaze, with their own point of view and agency, and I got curious as to how to evaluate an insight like that. I mean, what’s the truth quotient of insights you have on psychedelics? And I was reading William James—who, of course, wrote beautifully about mystical experience—and he said, we can’t judge the metaphysics here, but we should pay attention to two criteria: (1) How useful is it to think this is true? He was a pragmatist, of course. And (2) can we subject it to other ways of knowing to validate it? Because maybe we should treat these insights as hypotheses. And that’s kind of how I approach psychedelics, as a great generator of hypotheses, but they need to be tested against other ways of knowing. And so that led me down this long path exploring the science of plant intelligence and plant sentience.AC: I love your phrase, “smudging the windowpane of conscious experience.” So do you now start to think, actually, even when I’m not on psychedelics, I’m just seeing a screen all the time, which is not reality, but rather is my conscious experience, behind which reality is hidden?MP: Well, you know, not when I’m brushing my teeth and making breakfast! But yes, in meditation, certainly. I mean, one of the things you realize is that my experience happens to be this way now, but it could be another way. And many things can affect it. My morning coffee changes the screen in various ways, sharpens certain things.___The only tool we have to understand consciousness is consciousness.___There’s this wonderful metaphor in Aldous Huxley’s book, The Doors of Perception, where he thinks we channel consciousness, and that what the brain does is edit it, and there’s a reducing valve. And psychedelics open the reducing valve wider. I don’t know that I’m ready to buy into the idea that consciousness exists outside brains, but I do love that metaphor because there are times when you are more conscious than others. I know I’ve switched from window pane to valve, but you know, a camera aperture can open wider or narrower. And I do have a sense of that. I have a sense of when I’m being less conscious, and when I’m being more conscious, by which I mean, you know, more present, taking in more sensory information. So when you start thinking about consciousness as a matter of degree, that changes things also.I think when we scroll on social media, obviously, we’re conscious. But minimally so, because we don’t have to generate our own thoughts. We’re basically taking these little hits from other people and thinking their thoughts.The process of writing this book made me kind of relativize everyday consciousness as just one type, which is exactly what William James said. Normal consciousness is one type, separated by the flimsiest of screens from the other types.AC: If we stick with the metaphor of the smudge on the window that you get when you take psychedelics, it seems like we’re saying that consciousness has become like an object that you’re looking at, right? You’re looking at the smudge and that just is consciousness. But sometimes we’ll talk about consciousness as a state that you’re in, rather than an object you can perceive. You’re either conscious or you’re not conscious. So it’s difficult to really know what sort of thing we’re talking about when we talk about consciousness, right?MP: Yeah. When you say that consciousness is an object, what’s the subject? Consciousness also? The only tool we have to understand consciousness is consciousness. So we’re in a closed loop and when we get a perspective on consciousness, we’re not achieving any distance from it. That’s one of the problems with studying consciousness. Science is predicated on an objective, God’s eye view of things, and you never get that. There’s no such thing. SUGGESTED VIEWING The brain filters consciousness With Àlex Gómez-Marín But, yeah, there is this sense, I think, that consciousness is something you can approach. Certainly, when you’re writing and trying to recreate a conscious experience, it’s a fiction, but you’re standing back from it, and looking at it. But there’s no real subject-object distinction.AC: That’s so interesting, because when philosophers start talking about consciousness, they often talk about what they call “qualia”, which is their word for the felt experience of, say, the color red. And I think that way of speaking often makes us think of the qualia as an object, which you can see out there: the redness of red. But, as you say, we also want to collapse the subject-object distinction when we talk about consciousness. So there’s something strange going on here…MP: Oh, yeah, there are many strange things going on! *AC: Let’s talk about the varieties of consciousness. Apart from perceptions, there are, pains, emotions, thoughts, and so on. What is it that holds all this diversity together so that they all count as instances of consciousness? What is it that they all have in common?MP: Yeah, that’s a really good question. I mean, there is sensory information, right? Which we perceive coming from the world outside ourselves. And then there’s internal information, which is what’s called interoception. And this is very important too. This is where feelings come from—what are sometimes called homeostatic feelings—that are intended to get the brain to keep us in these narrow ranges of temperature and glucose and so on. That’s a very important part of consciousness. And according to some researchers, who I think are probably right, this is where consciousness begins, with these very primal feelings, like hunger and thirst and warmth and itch, and things like that. And then there’s this third thing, which is our thinking about thinking.And what holds all this together is, I think, the sense of self. Consciousness generates a self: it is probably an organizing principle. All this stuff is happening to the self. It’s a construct, I think, but it is very useful. It can connect all these different streams of consciousness to a single being or a place, metaphorically speaking.* AC: The first half of your book is about the science of consciousness. Is consciousness just another thing, like black holes or the origin of life, which we don’t yet understand, but which we should have every hope that science will one day get to the bottom of, or is there something special about consciousness that makes this unlikely?MP: It depends how you define science. As we define science now, it’s going be very difficult. Science since Galileo has had a set of rules or assumptions, which is that the proper remit of science is to deal with the objective, quantifiable, third-person world. And the physical sciences have done amazing work under that set of limitations. Galileo—for tactical reasons, not for philosophical reasons—said science should not deal with the soul, which at the time was what consciousness was considered to be. So what is subjective, what is qualitative, what is first person, we’re going to leave to the church, he said. And this was a good agreement, and it probably kept many scientists from getting burned at the stake. But it leaves science in an awkward spot, now that it wants to venture into that territory of qualities, of first-person experience. And I don’t think it has the proper tools. I think it will have to add to its toolkit in some way, and find a way to bring in phenomenology, or lived experience and introspection, which science is usually dismissive of.The challenge—we alluded to it earlier—is that the only tool you have to study consciousness with is consciousness. And what I mean by that is, the whole scientific enterprise is a manifestation of consciousness. As much as scientists like to flatter themselves with this idea that they attain a godlike perspective on what they study, when it comes to consciousness, there’s no such thing. And it’s fine for all the things you can step outside of and study from that perspective. But two areas it won’t work are consciousness and cosmology.___It could be that we live in this anomaly of not believing nature is conscious. And maybe psychedelics are teaching us something we’ve forgotten.___With cosmology, too, you have to study the universe from inside the universe. It’s not that cosmologists haven’t made progress. We know a lot about the age of the universe and expansion and things like that. But we can’t penetrate what happened before the Big Bang. We just don’t have the tools because we can’t stand outside.The fact that there are 22 full-scale theories of consciousness tells you all you need to know: we’re kind of lost. And I was surprised to find that we are more lost than I thought we were when I started this. I thought that there’d be leading theories, or that we had experiments that we could conduct that would nail some of this down. And the fact is, we don’t.So, I don’t know if science can solve it. But, of course, we can change the rules of science. A really influential book for me was a book called The Blind Spot, by two physicists, Marcello Gleiser and Adam Frank, and a philosopher, Evan Thompson. It’s a reminder that science is a social practice. It’s organized in a certain way and it can be organized in a different way. But it has this huge blind spot at the center of it, which is its failure to recognize that it is a form of consciousness itself, and it doesn’t have a good way of taking account of lived experience.AC: On the one hand, I think you want to resist traditional dualism, which would say that consciousness is something magical, something supernatural, right? But on the other hand, you’re accepting that there is this division in reality between the stuff that you can investigate objectively and measure, and so on—the stuff that science has been good at finding out about—and consciousness, which, for some reason, you can’t objectively measure. Some would take this to suggest that the dualism is actually right. Is there a way of reconciling these two strands of your thinking?MP: To call it magical is full of value judgement. I mean, you could just say immaterial. The interesting thing is, I think, that intuitively we’re all dualists. And I don’t know whether that’s because we’re children of Descartes and other cultures are less dualist than we are. Or it may be because that’s how consciousness feels. It feels different than the body. It feels separate from the body. But I don’t think we should trust that intuition.AC: So let’s think about ways that science might be changed to get at consciousness. I suppose the starting point would be the way that you begin the second half of your book. You have this nice line from William James, where he says, “We now begin our study of the mind from within.” Could you give us some sense of the ways of studying the mind from within? What does this involve?MP: I don’t know what that science looks like. But one of the points I’m making is that it depends on the humanities. I found that I learned as much, if not more, about consciousness, from reading novels and poetry. There is a sense of the fullness and complexity of consciousness that you don’t get in any scientific account. I interviewed this stream-of-consciousness writer and I approached her as an expert on consciousness, and she is. So I think that dialogue is really important.I’m reading Ben Lerner’s new novel, Transcription. Just read the first page of this novel: it’s a man falling asleep on a train, going to conduct an interview, and there is the experience of being in the train, facing backwards, there’s the view outside, but there’s a reflection of himself through which he’s seeing outside. There’s the memory of dropping his kids off at school. All this is going on in one moment of consciousness. Scientists aren’t going anywhere near that. But I think it’s useful for them to think about. That’s where we’re trying to go: like, how does such a layered experience happen? You know, it also makes you wonder, could a computer ever do this? And it gives you some doubt.*AC: Before we get to computers, perhaps we could talk briefly about plants. How did you come to feel that they are sentient?MP: Well, it was a psychedelic experience, and it’s not unusual on psychedelics. In fact, there’ve been studies about how people become animists during psychedelic experience. Their belief in animism arises after a single psychedelic experience.You know, most scientists would say this is all a myth. But we have only 400 years of the age of enlightenment and science. Before that, we were animists, and if you go around the world, most indigenous cultures are still animists, and children are animists, by and large, until they go to school. So it could be that we live in this anomaly of not believing nature is conscious. And maybe psychedelics are teaching us something we’ve forgotten.As I said, I wanted to test this idea, and see whether there was conventional scientific evidence for it. And there’s fascinating work going on in a field that calls itself—in a rather cheeky way—plant neurobiology. These are people who fully realize there are no neurons in plants, but they’re trolling conventional botanists! And they’re doing experiments that are demonstrating that plants can learn and remember, which is kind of amazing: how do you store a memory without neurons? They’re finding plants that can solve problems, that can hear and see. In fact, they have 20 senses to our five or six. For example, a bean plant looking for something to twine, and given a pole within eight inches or so of it, knows where that pole is and will aim its spiraling reach at that pole. What is that about? Is it bouncing signals off of it?One of the spookiest things is the fact that the same anesthetics that put us out put plants out. You might think that plants are already out, but they’re not. They’re just slow. If you take a plant with a fast behavior, like a Venus flytrap, and give it an anesthetic, it will stop reacting. So you have to ask yourself, what is lost when the plant is anaesthetized? Some state of alertness, of awareness, of its environment, of reactivity. I’m not prepared to call that consciousness, but maybe it’s sentience—which is a simpler form of consciousness, and involves the ability to sense what’s going on in your environment and assess what’s good and bad for you and act appropriately. That may be a universal quality of life.AC: Let’s turn from plants to AI. You point out that LLMs are trained on the internet rather than direct interactions with reality. You put this really nicely when you say the internet is not the world so much as a shadow cast by the world. So LLMs are living in this kind of shadow world, or in Plato’s cave, as you put it. What’s the significance of this for AI consciousness and moral consideration? And, to recall the beginning of our conversation, if we’re stuck behind a veil or screen of consciousness, are we also stuck in a kind of shadow world?MP: I don’t think they’re the same shadow worlds because our world includes nature and other people. And even if it’s mediated in some ways... There is a reality out there, and we are in relation to it, through consciousness. There’s friction with it. What’s missing from the LLMs is that friction with the real world. There’s more to the world than human representation, which is what they’re dealing with. And that means that so far, AI is a cultural technology for combining thoughts we’ve already had. SUGGESTED VIEWING Cracking the code for thought With Roger Penrose, Sabrina Gonzalez Pasterski, Max Tegmark, Güneş Taylor Genuine creativity is more than collage. A lot of what AI does now is tantamount to collage, putting this with that and you know, that’s part of art, certainly. But there are also genuinely new ideas that come into the world that don’t come in through manipulating the representations we already have. So it remains to be seen whether AIs can be truly creative in that more radical sense.But my arguments against AI becoming conscious have to do with the fact that the idea of AI consciousness is based on this faulty metaphor that the brain is a computer. There are dimensions in which the brain is like a computer—it certainly does its share of computation. But computers have this sharp distinction between hardware and software, and brains don’t. In a brain, hardware and software are identical. Every memory is a physical change to the brain. Brains are not interchangeable in the way computers are. So this idea that you could take the consciousness out and somehow run it on another substrate, a silicon substrate, seems foolhardy.Anyway, it’s a more extended argument, and I may be wrong. And when we move to computers that aren’t based on silicon—neuromorphic computers and things like that—all bets may be off.AC: Regarding your point about LLMs being stuck in the world of our representations—the internet or whatever—and not being able to interact with reality, are these representations, the world of the internet, themselves part of reality? We’ve created the internet, but it’s still a real thing that exists. And so while the LLMs may be trapped within that part of reality, they’re nevertheless within reality and interacting with it and so on. So it’s not obvious that there’s a barrier there to them becoming conscious and being creative.MP: Yeah, I mean, if our consciousness is built out of human culture, which is what we’re talking about with all those representations. But I tend to think consciousness comes a bit more out of nature and friction with the natural world, but...AC: So there’s a fundamental divide between the natural world and human artefacts?MP: And we lose track of that, and especially people in this computer world. You know, the people who are creating these AI systems, my guess is they’ve been into video games since the age of three, and they didn’t go outside a lot. And their own contact with nature is somewhat limited. I could be wrong, it’d be a very interesting thing to ask, all the wizards of AI, whether they like to go fishing and hiking and do things like that. Or were they on computers from a very early age? I interviewed Blake Lemoine, the Google engineer who came to believe that LaMDA, the Google LLM out at the time, was conscious and deserved personhood. It was very clear that he didn’t see a distinction between this bubble in which he lived and the real world. And I think we’ve all been distanced from the natural world, and this is taking us even further away. But it’s still there, you know, and we still have bodies, and we’re still mortal, and we don’t live in a simulation.AC: I think that’s a great place to finish. Michael Pollan, thank you very much!
Longtime Tandem staffer leaves to tend to coffee cart business
Kenny Peterson will devote himself full time to Side by Side Coffee.
Coffee Conversation: Science Riot making science fun with comedy program
While science may not be the easiest or most entertaining subject to many, the non-profit Science Riot has made it their mission to put the fun back into STEM. The
Coffee Conversation: Science Riot making science fun with comedy program
While science may not be the easiest, or most entertaining, subject to many, the non-profit Science Riot has made it their mission to put the fun back into STEM.The organization's
How Nespresso Builds Sustainability Into Its Business Model | MIT Sloan Management Review
Nespresso North America’s CEO explains how responsible agricultural practices help ensure coffee quality.
OpenAI distances itself from cofounder Brockman's political donations
Greg Brockman and his wife donated $25 million to a pro-AI political network — and OpenAI says the company has nothing to do with it.
OpenAI distances itself from cofounder Brockman's political donations
Greg Brockman and his wife donated $25 million to a pro-AI political network — and OpenAI says the company has nothing to do with it.
Local coffee chain donates over $20,000 to support mental health programs
Hyper Energy Bar partnered with NAMI Iowa to raise over $20,000 through a special drink campaign during Mental Health Awareness Month, helping fund mental health initiatives and reduce stigma.
Is coffee bad for the heart? New research links it to a major risk—and multiple benefits
Drinking a lot of coffee may increase a person's heart attack risk, according to a new meta-analysis. On the other hand, coffee intake was linked to key benefits in the same study.
Monday Rockpile: Making an All-Star case for Antonio Senzatela
Colorado Rockies news and links for Monday, June 1st, 2026
Science reveals the one simple habit that keeps couples together for life
You probably did something small for your partner today. Maybe you made coffee before they woke up, or handled an errand they forgot about. And chances are, it went completely unnoticed. We tend to assume that love is sustained by grand gestures – the vacations, the surprise gifts, the big declarations. But what if the...
Konate expresses sadness over Liverpool goodbye
France defender Ibrahima Konate says he will leave Liverpool with "lifelong memories" after experiencing "highs and lows" during his time at Anfield.
Colorado Springs-area business events starting May 31
FRIDAY Southern Colorado Women’s Chamber of Commerce First Friday — 7:30-9 a.m., Space Foundation, Area 51, 4425 Arrowswest Drive, $20-$30 in advance, $35 at door, if available. Registration: scwcc.com. COMING UP June 8 Southern Colorado Women’s Chamber of Commerce Young Professionals Coffee Meetup — 10-11:30 a.m., COS City Hub, 4304 Austin Bluffs Parkway. Registration: scwcc.com. […]
Caffeine reversed memory problems caused by sleep deprivation
Scientists discovered that sleep deprivation damages a key brain circuit responsible for social memory, making it harder to recognize familiar individuals. In laboratory studies, caffeine restored communication between neurons in this pathway and reversed the memory deficits caused by lost sleep. The effect was remarkably targeted, helping the impaired circuit recover without overstimulating normal brain function.
State Democrats’ bill would help small-business owners pay for employees’ healthcare
'At this moment, we’re in the thick of a massive affordability crisis,' said Rep. Jen Mazzocco.
I vibe coded a tool that hit $50,000 in monthly revenue in 6 weeks
Vitalii Dodonov and his cofounder, John, spent 14 days locked in a flat, vibe coding an AI tool called Stanley for their business, Stan.
Drive-thru coffee, cryotherapy, pilates: Experts share retail trends after Las Vegas event
Dozens of Louisiana real estate expert joined more than 20,000 investors and brokers at the ICSC convention in Las Vegas last week. The lack of new shopping center space and demand from coffee drive-thru chains were the main takeaways.
Couple who sold to Pepsi for $2 billion says going into business with your romantic partner is ‘not for the weak’
Poppi’s husband-and-wife cofounders Stephen and Allison Ellsworth will be the first to tell you “there’s no such thing as balance.”
Mr K winner sipped deeply with community; now it’s savoring Small Business of the Year accolades
Built at the crossroads of coffee and cultural placemaking, the KC Chamber’s just-announced Small Business of the Year has brewed more than a thriving family business — it’s a story steeped in creating space for the region’s Latin and Indigenous communities alongside incoming FIFA World Cup visitors.
Young Denver business owner is cofounder of new nostalgic country bar and dance hall
Business mixer planned for Friday
Re*Rock Streetwear & Curated Vintage Store will hold a business mixer Friday in downtown Toledo. The New Currency: Where Culture, Business, and Innovation ...
Bari Weiss: Think For Yourself, Not By Yourself
When we launched The Free Press, the plan was simple: Tell the truth plainly, and let readers come to their own conclusions. I thought there would be a sizable enough group of people who would pay the cost of one coffee a month to read high-quality news and opinion journalism. But what happened next surprised even me. Yes, you came for the stories—for the investigations, essays, debates, interviews, podcasts, and arguments. But over the past few years, you also found one another. I’ve watched strangers become friends in the lobby before our debates. I’ve seen people trade numbers after live recordings of Honestly, launch businesses after Free Press dinners, fall in love after our meetups—even get married (!?), and say some version of the same sentence over and over again: I thought I was the only one. We live in the most connected age in history, and yet, millions of people feel isolated, alienated, politically homeless, and starved for real conversation. We have followers and no neighbors. Algorithms instead of interlocutors. Our social media feeds are like troughs, but what we really need is a table to gather around. The Free Press is a publication, yes, but it is also a gathering place for independent minds. So today, I’m thrilled to share our new investment in you. We are launching a new world of community experiences for our paid subscribers, designed to bring _Free Press_ers together online and in real life. Introducing Our Community Launch The Free Press Forum Our new digital home for paid subscribers, the Forum, is now live. This is where _Free Press_ers can meet, debate, recommend, organize, joke, argue, and converse like civilized people. Imagine that. This is not social media as you know it. No bots. No algorithmic rage bait. No performative nonsense. Just smart people talking to one another. Inside the Forum, you’ll find conversations on the things our readers already care about most: the issues of the day, recommendations (books, music, travel), work and networking, parenting, dating, and where to find your people—online and in real life. Jump in! Introduce yourself and join the first conversations in the Free Press Forum here. You’ll also find announcements from us (paid subscribers are first to hear!) and our writers, hosting regular Ask Me Anythings (AMAs)—live conversations where subscribers can ask questions, push back, and continue the discussion beyond the page. This Thursday, subscribers can chat with our brilliant reporter, culture vulture, and co-founder Suzy Weiss. Friday, I’ll be lending you Nellie Bowles, queen of TGIF, to answer subscriber questions live. Read more about The Forum directly from Nellie here. The Free Press Supper Club The best part of being a _Free Press_er is meeting other _Free Press_ers. So we’re inviting you all to dinner to do just that. It’s part salon, part blind date, part old-fashioned dinner party. Here’s how it works: You answer a short questionnaire. We match you with a small group of _Free Press_ers in your city. We send you to a great restaurant. You show up for supper. The rest is up to you. Your next best friend, co-founder, or future spouse may already be waiting at the table. Learn more and sign up here for our first Supper Club in 12 cities in three countries taking place on June 18. Don’t see your city? Raise your hand if you’d like a Free Press Supper Club near you. Yes, St. Louis—we hear you. The Free Press Retreats and Excursions We’re also building something new for 2027: immersive experiences for Free Press readers who want to continue the conversation trailside, poolside, or around a fire long after dessert. The Free Press Retreat will be an intimate long weekend built around big ideas, outdoor adventure, great meals, and the kinds of discussions that happen when curious people spend meaningful time together. Bring your spouse, your parents, your children—or come on your own. Free Press Excursions will take us farther afield: curated trips with Free Press writers and contributors exploring places that help explain the world we live in, from the battlefields of Gettysburg and Normandy to the Vatican in Rome. We’ll share more details this summer. If you’d like an early look when these experiences open for registration, show your interest here.**A Note to Our Subscribers** These new offerings exist because of our paying subscribers. If you’re already one: Thank you. You built this. And you keep us going. If you’ve been reading us for free and wondering whether to join, this is a very good time. For a short while only, we’re offering a rare 20 percent discount for you to join our community as a paid subscriber. You’ll unlock everything we publish, plus exclusive access to our members-only Forum, Supper Clubs, and more insider perks. Thinking for yourself shouldn’t mean thinking by yourself. See you there. —Bari
19-year-old Denver business owner is cofounder of new nostalgic country bar and dance hall
Sun Pharma, Coforge: Indian businesses go shopping abroad as growth slows at home
India Inc spent $18bn on global buyouts in 2025 and the deal value could cross $15bn in the first half of 2026.
Norwich program explores books and local history
Heritage Night on May 28 in Norwich will feature books, coffee, local history discussions and a live podcast appearance.
Famitsu review scores - May 24, 2026 - Yoshi and the Mysterious Book and more
The latest Famitsu review scores for the week of May 24, 2026 are as follows: Yoshi and the Mysterious Book – 9/9/8/9 Coffee Talk Tokyo – 8/8/9/7 Demon Kill Demon: Yomi 1984 – 8/8/8/8 Utawarerumono: Past and Present Rediscovered – 8/8/8/8 MotoGP 26 – 8/8/7/8 Trash Goblin – 7/8/8/7 JDM: Japanese Drift Master – 8/7/8/7 Note that for each review,...
I teach wealth management. Avoid these spending traps to save money.
Eton Solutions CEO Rob Mallernee, who teaches private wealth management, has advice for saving money. It starts with reconsidering that $4 coffee.
Feds subpoena Hasan Piker, Medea Benjamin over Cuba trips
Hasan Piker and CodePink cofounder Medea Benjamin face Treasury subpoenas in a federal probe into whether activists violated U.S. Cuba sanctions.
Poppi's cofounders on building $2 billion business, navigating wealth
Allison and Stephen Ellsworth took big risks and made sacrifices to build Poppi. They're determined not to let their wealth spoil their children.
A Stoughton restaurant closes, Burger Week recs and early summer reads
This week in the food and culture newsletter, a new east side coffee shop, herb garden inspiration, Kacey Musgraves' new album and "Yesteryear."
Health Hazardous Materials Division Graduates
The County of Los Angeles Fire Department’s (LACoFD) Health Hazardous Materials Division (HHMD) graduated a class of four hazardous materials specialists from the HHMD training academy. The Department’s newest hazardous materials specialists completed ten weeks of training prior to participating in a recognition and swearing in ceremony on Thursday, May 21, 2026. HHMD Chief Mario
Steve Wozniak says he didn’t cofound Apple to ‘make money’—he only did it because he was rejected by HP 5 times, and for years his pay was just $50
While he could’ve been a trillionaire today, Apple cofounder Steve Wozniak sold his stake early: “I didn’t want to be near money, because it could corrupt your values.”
Coffee shop, dance studio: Check out 5 businesses coming soon to Allen
Several businesses are opening soon in Allen. Keep reading for the latest business updates from Community Impact. This list is not comprehensive.
Apple's Steve Wozniak cheered for AI joke during graduation speech
Apple cofounder Steve Wozniak's speech about AI at Grand Valley University earlier this month got a laugh and applause from graduates.
‘Seattle can’t survive this’: Critics hammer socialist mayor after Starbucks reversal
Seattle Mayor Katie Wilson reverses her Starbucks boycott stance as the coffee giant announces a massive corporate expansion in Nashville, Tennessee.
Convos and coffee: Southern Colorado business uses solar power in a unique way
News5 is continuing our "Convos and Coffee" segment by simply visiting local coffee shops and speaking with people about what they would like to see covered in the news.
Local business news: 7 Brew, CGI construction, Temple Bar ownership change
ROCHESTER, N.Y. (WROC) – In Webster, construction on a new 7 Brew is underway on Empire Boulevard. The drive-thru coffee chain is being bult next to Baytowne Plaza and is expected to open this summer....
Meet the Graduates: School of Business Majors Are Going Places
Meet the spring 2026 graduates of the College of Charleston School of Business and find out what they're doing next.
Into The Unwell delayed to 2027, no longer Early Access
Coffee Stain Publishing and developer She Was Such A Good Horse have delayed “whack ‘n’ slash” cooperative roguelite action game Into The Unwell from its previously planned …
Business owner shares culture over a cup of coffee
Like most people, to get their day started, it takes a cup of coffee. But for one resident in Rochester, she is mixing a Vietnamese drip and sweetened condensed milk for a recipe for representation.
Business owner shares culture over a cup of coffee
Like most people, to get their day started, it takes a cup of coffee. But for one resident in Rochester, she is mixing a Vietnamese drip and sweetened condensed milk for a recipe for representation.