Good Morning. A Kentucky rancher raised $170 million on an 80,000-head cattle empire. When the bank finally counted, 8,916 animals existed. We break down the ghost-herd Ponzi.
Plus, Doritos-hauling robot trucks, a $30B SpaceX-Google deal,and rucking your way to longevity (forwarded this email? Join 523k readers).
TOP STORY TODAY
Cattle Con
Kentucky rancher Brian McClain ran a $170 million cattle Ponzi scheme, court filings now reveal. He claimed an 80,000-head operation, but when his lender finally inspected in 2023, only 8,916 animals actually existed.
McClain borrowed $50 million from an agricultural bank and pulled $120 million from investors, some of them longtime friends, promising roughly 30% annual returns. He paid early backers with money from new ones, the classic Ponzi mechanism, for over four years.
The scheme collapsed in April 2023 after an investor demanded his $650,000 back and called the sheriff. McClain died by suicide before deputies arrived. Investigators still cannot trace where the missing $170 million went (More).
Pratt Slips to Third
Reality TV figure Spencer Pratt has slipped to third in Los Angeles's mayoral primary, the latest count released Sunday shows. City Councilmember Nithya Raman overtook him for the second runoff spot by about 3,100 votes.
Incumbent Karen Bass leads comfortably with about 35% of the vote. Raman and Pratt sit near 27% each. The top two finishers advance to a November 3 runoff, leaving Pratt on the outside as counting continues.
Pratt's campaign is expected to seek a recount if he misses the top two. Separately, a federal prosecutor has opened an inquiry into California's vote-counting process, though officials earlier debunked one viral claim of a zero-vote tally.
The 13-Year Car
The average car on US roads is now about 13 years old, a record high and a 10% jump from a decade ago, as Americans hold onto their vehicles far longer than before.
Sticker shock is a big driver. The average new vehicle now costs around $50,000, roughly $10,000 more than in 2020 (WSJ). Add high interest rates and sturdier engineering, and drivers see little reason to upgrade (Cheap cars have disappeared).
The shift is remaking the industry. Dealers are adding repair bays, free cappuccino and mobile mechanics, since fixing cars now drives roughly half their gross profit. Even Ford is running ads urging owners to service, not replace.
TOGETHER WITH MASTERWORKS
Someone just spent $236,000,000 on a painting.
Late last year, a Klimt sold for the highest price ever paid for modern art at auction. An outlier sure, but it wasn't a fluke. U.S. auction sales grew 23.1% in 2025. The $1-5mm segment even grew 40.8% YoY.
When the S&P 500 finished its worst quarter since 2022 last month, diversifiers like bonds and bitcoin fell too. Even with the turnaround in mid-April, analysts at Goldman Sachs and Vanguard have projected low-single-digit annualized returns from 2024-2034.
So, what kind of investment is largely indifferent to the forces driving everything else? Masterworks lets you invest in shares of artworks featuring legends like Banksy, Basquiat, and Picasso.
Access to an asset class with historically low correlation and attractive appreciation (‘95-’25).*
Net annualized returns on 28 sold works held 12 months+ like 14.6%, 17.6%, and 17.8%.
$1.3 billion invested across over 500 artworks.
Shares can sell quickly, but our subscribers can skip the waitlist here.
*According to Masterworks data. Investing involves risk. Past performance is not indicative of future returns. See important Reg A disclosures at masterworks.com/cd.
GET 1% BETTER
Decision tool we're testing this week
Tim Ferriss runs an exercise called "fear-setting" at least once a quarter, and credits it with both his biggest wins and the catastrophic mistakes he dodged. It takes about 20 minutes and three sheets of paper.
Most people set goals. Almost nobody writes down the actual worst case. You list every fear tied to a hard decision, rate each one 1 to 10 on real impact, then write how you'd prevent it and how you'd repair it if it happened anyway. The fear usually shrinks the second it is on paper next to a fix.
The decisions you keep avoiding (the raise ask, the pivot, the hard conversation) are almost always the ones this unlocks. The hard choices we dodge tend to be exactly the ones that buy an easier life.
Watch the 13-minute version: Ferriss on the TED stage walking through all three pages
Run it tonight: his full step-by-step writeup with the template and real examples
Fitness protocol we're stealing
The longevity crowd's favorite cardio in 2026 is just walking with weight on your back. The New York Times credits Michael Easter with kicking off the trend (video), and the whole protocol is: load a pack, walk, done.
Rucking burns roughly 2 to 3 times the calories of a normal walk and about as many as a slow jog, with almost none of the knee pounding. The load forces your core, glutes, and posture to fire every step, so you build strength and cardio at the same time.
Start stupid light: 20 pounds, 30 minutes, three times a week. It is the rare workout you can do while pushing a stroller or walking the dog, which is exactly why it sticks when the gym doesn't.
Start-here guide: how to pick a weight and load the pack without wrecking your back
The definitive playbook [Gear*]: Easter's full book on weighted walking, weight charts and progressions included
TRENDING
5 Stories
▲ Driverless trucks now deliver Doritos for PepsiCo, with 41 robotic rigs hitting 99% on-time
▲ Parenthood after 40 strains retirement savings as women 40-plus hit 4.3% of US births, quadruple 1990
▲ Lilly's retatrutide cuts body weight 28% in Phase 3, with two-thirds escaping obesity | How these drugs work
▲ Nvidia tops WSJ's inaugural "Best Companies for the Future" list, beating Alphabet, Microsoft, Meta and Cisco
▲ SpaceX becomes Google's cloud supplier in $30 billion deal funneling Nvidia chips for AI demand
TOGETHER WITH SLACK
You Went Looking for That Decision. It Was Gone.
You remember the thread. The client sign-off, the budget approval, the "we already agreed on this" message. You go to pull it up and Slack shows you nothing. On the free plan, anything past 90 days is hidden, and you can't search it back.
If you run anything with more than two people, you've felt this. The scramble before a call. The 9pm hunt after the kids are down. The decision nobody can prove was made.
Slack Pro ends the scramble. Here's what changes the day you upgrade:
Unlimited message history. Every decision searchable, going back years.
Unlimited integrations. Google Drive, Zoom, Salesforce, no 10-app cap.
Group audio and video calls with screen sharing (no more "let's hop on Zoom”)
Advanced search that pulls any file or thread in seconds.
Enhanced security and compliance so client data stays locked down.
The result: fewer late-night searches, faster decisions, and a record you can actually trust.
If your team has outgrown the free plan, you already know it. Fix it before the next thing disappears.
Please support our sponsors!
Fun Links
How to buy shares in a Banksy [Partner*]
Full list of Tony award winners [List]
Ellen DeGeneres' $30M disaster [Blog]
100 days of war with Iran (so far) [Blog]
World’s largest game of human foosball [Photos]
Spending $80,000 on high school prom [Blog]
Alison Brie's strength-building workout [Video]
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