• I hadn't heard about gentle parenting until my son was over a year old. 
• I always thought I'd be a better parent to older kids than younger ones. 
• My wife is less gentle than I am, and I sometimes feel like maybe I'm just a pushover. 

I hadn't heard the term gentle parenting until our son was more than a year old. As an older millennial, I wasn't tuned into parenting TikTok and my Instagram algorithm was more likely to show me videos of trendy restaurants than offer parenting advice.

About the time our child started watching Cocomelon and Blippi, I turned to doom-scrolling through Reels hoping to drown out the cringy "Wheels On The Bus" playing in a loop. Eventually the algorithm caught on, and finally saw my first gentle parenting meme.

There are plenty of would-be comedians producing not-that-funny videos featuring the phrase, "gentle parenting." The most common variation was dragging our parents' generation for some kind of abusive parenting tactic, followed up by a new parent hugging their child. I found these Reels as informative as they were humorous, so I had to Google the phrase.

This gentle parenting thing turned out to be a pretty big deal, so much bigger than my sleep deprived brain could grapple with.

I eventually distilled down the concept to mean allowing our little dictator to rule with an iron fist. There are, of course, nuances beyond simply complying with your toddler's demands with the broad aim of allowing them to learn the consequences of their own actions while validating their feelings.

But, isn't that simply parenting?

I was raised with a different parenting style

My parents are the classic Boomer archetype: hippies-turned-yuppies, granola loving neoliberal Clinton Democrats. My mother shopped at the health food store, a place that sold fruit leather instead of fruit roll-ups. They never grounded me, though I was once or twice sent to my room. Nobody ever beat me, but I did have a few open palm spankings.

Before becoming a parent, I spent time with my friends' children on long weekends, at barbecues, brunches, birthdays, and even a few times at local bars. Some of those kids are already teenagers now. I had always assumed I would be a better parent to older children than to younger ones. I prefer routines to chaos, reason and logic to whims of hunger-induced tantrums, and conversation to high-energy rough housing.

I had always heard having your own children is different. As it turns out, my tolerance for a whiney, cranky, misbehaving toddler is much higher when he's my own. My first response is to ask him why he's upset rather than to yell. It seemed to me, as a first-time parent who had watched other parents struggle to control their children, the easiest way to soothe him was to ask what was wrong. I wasn't trying to gentle parent, I'm just a people pleaser.

And if logic and reason doesn't work, bribery surely does, right?

Sometimes I yell, but not often

My wife is less gentle. Recently our son scraped his arm. He didn't want us to bandage it, even after I showed him the assorted options decorated with puppies, planets, and Elmo. I called them stickers, which he loves, and I even let him stick a BandAid on my knee. Nothing worked. I suggested to my wife that we might bribe him with the promise of a fruit juice ice pop since we've convinced him these are just as good as ice cream. I was willing to negotiate with him.

"We just need to make him do things sometimes," my wife said, adopting the popular tactic otherwise known as "not negotiating with terrorists."

After dinner, when I went to wipe his hands, I swooped in to wipe his scraped arm. "No, no, no," he cried. "It stings, it stings." I held fast and wiped it clean before applying antibacterial cream. As I stuck the bandage on, I tried to explain it was part of growing up. I wanted to comfort him. I didn't like to hear him cry. He cried anyway.

I have raised my voice. I have even yelled. But only rarely. I wear eyeglasses, and with an astigmatism and high prescription, I'm nearly blind without them. These facts haven't prevented my toddler from knocking the glasses off my face, sometimes intentionally. He broke two pairs, even after having conversations about why he shouldn't touch my glasses.

Several months ago, when my second pair had already been glued back together more than once, he heard quite a few choice words when he knocked them off my face. It was the first real expression of anger I showed him, and I confined him to his crib while I waited for the glue to dry. He sobbed the whole time, and even tried negotiating his early release.

The time out in the crib was his first real punishment. He stopped hitting my glasses. Or at least, he stopped for a while. Then, a few weeks ago, while we were at my parents house, he slapped my face directly on the bridge of the frames. The already broken glasses snapped again, the pieces spilling across the floor. I yelled at him. I yelled loud enough my father heard me from the basement. My mother heard me yell from her bedroom. My wife heard me from the shower. My son was startled, frightened even.

I had to crawl around on my hands and knees, moving my hand over the floor until I found the pieces. We had transitioned from a crib to a toddler bed, so I had no place for his time out while waiting for the glue to dry. Instead, I blindly collected his toys scattered around the living room, placed them in their Rubbermaid containers, and stowed them in the closet.

For the rest of the day, he was angry with me. Later, when we got home, he didn't want me to sit on the couch, and when we went to read to him before bed, he insisted my wife read to him instead. It didn't feel good. The next morning, when he still held a grudge, I worried, at 3 years old, he was going to resent me for the rest of his life.

I'm not intentionally trying to gentle parent. And I want to set limits for my child because I know he needs them. His level of fruit snack consumption alone is proof of that. But I also know I don't want a relationship with him that is distant. I want him to trust me, I want him to understand the reason why I set limits for him.

Maybe at 3, that's too complicated for him to understand. But I'm still going to try.

• A cardiologist said to avoid snacking on fried foods and processed sweets to reduce heart health risks. 
• Instead, opt for more nutrient-dense alternatives like almonds, pistachios, and berries as healthy snacks.
• Enjoy your favorite snacks in moderation to create sustainable habits for long-term heart health. 

You don't have to give up snacking to improve your heart health, one cardiologist said.

It's no surprise that ultra-processed foods like fried snacks and sugary treats are linked to a higher risk of heart disease.

A few smart swaps can help you cut back on some of the biggest culprits, according to Dr. Mustali Dohadwala of Heartsafe, a private practice in Boston.

Dohadwala told Business Insider that nutritious options like berries can be a satisfying alternative. More awareness paired with moderation can also help you enjoy snacks without compromising your health.

"It's good to be able to discuss what the right thing to do is, but it's more important to understand it takes a conscious effort for most people to do the right thing for their body," the medical director said.

Snack on almonds or pistachios instead of fried foods

Popular snack foods like french fries and potato chips are compellingly snackable because they offer a one-two punch of fat and salt that can trigger a hit of dopamine.

However, excess salt and saturated fat can contribute to health risks such as high blood pressure and high cholesterol.

"To me, any form of fried food as a snack is probably not a good choice," Dohadwala said.

Instead, opt for nuts like almonds and pistachios, which offer a crunchy texture and savory flavors as well as benefits from heart-healthy fats and fiber.

"Nuts rather than fried snacks are a great source of protein and good for satiating your appetite," he added.

Reach for fruit to satisfy your sweet tooth

The other big category of snack food that can raise your risk of heart health issues is sweets. Cookies, candy, snack cakes, and more are loaded with added sugars, too much of which can prompt cravings and long-term health risks.

Fruit can offer some sweetness alongside vitamins, micronutrients, and fiber for a healthier choice, Dohadwala said.

Some of his favorite fruits for snacking include bananas, watermelon, cherries, blueberries, and strawberries.

"Berries are famous for natural compounds polyphenols that have tremendous antioxidant power to keep the cells healthy," he said.

Plenty of lower-sugar processed snacks are also available at the grocery store, but Dohadwala advised caution about relying too much on artificial sweeteners. Moderation is key when it comes to sweets, and sometimes, a little bit of real sugar may be a healthier, more satisfying choice.

Evidence suggests artificial sweeteners may also be linked to a higher risk of heart attack.

"Ideally, you don't want to consume sweets as a snack, but if you do, you should be consuming food items that have real sugar," he said.

He emphasized that you don't have to cut out all foods you enjoy, even if they're not nutritionally ideal since doctors sometimes eat Doritos too.

According to Dohadwala, allowing yourself the freedom to enjoy treats in moderation is a more realistic strategy that can help you stick to healthy habits long-term.

"What I like to do is give my body and mind a vacation every now and then," he said. "Taking those liberties from time to time is perfectly normal and reasonable. I say this to my patients all the time: We have to take things one day at a time. Life is a marathon, not a sprint."

• The Supreme Court is kicking two major cases back down to lower courts.
• The cases involve Texas and Florida laws challenging social media companies' content moderation.
• In outlining why the lower courts need to retake the cases, SCOTUS effectively granted a victory to the companies.

The Supreme Court isn't willing to blow up the internet just yet.

In a decision released Monday on a pair of cases concerning whether or not social media companies can moderate content on their platforms, the Supreme Court kicked the cases back down to the lower courts in Texas and Florida.

But, in outlining why the lower courts need to reconsider the cases, the high court essentially granted a victory to social media giants, a legal expert told Business Insider.

The Supreme Court had been weighing two cases — Texas's NetChoice v. Paxton and Florida's Moody v. NetChoice — both of which concerned laws in each state that limited social media companies' ability to censor posts based on users' viewpoints.

The laws were introduced after Donald Trump was booted off of Facebook and (then-called) Twitter in 2021 following the January 6 attack on the Capitol.

Republicans in both states had argued that, in moderating the kinds of content that appear on their platforms, social media companies were discriminating against right-wing viewpoints and violating users' constitutional right to free speech.

There are a few key differences in the scope of both laws.

The Texas law applied to social media companies with at least 50 million users, while Florida included companies with over 100 million users.

Also, the Florida law specifically prohibited the companies from removing political candidates for office from the platforms, while the Texas law more generally prohibited the companies from removing any users' content based on their viewpoints.

As Judge Andrew Oldham wrote in his appeals court decision upholding the Texas law, the Florida law "prohibits all censorship of some speakers," while the Texas law "prohibits some censorship of all speakers."

NetChoice, a trade group representing companies including Meta, Google, Snap, and TikTok, sued over the laws, arguing that as private entities the companies have a right to make editorial decisions about what kinds of content they allow. While supporters of the state laws had argued that users have a constitutional right to free expression on the platforms, NetChoice, ironically, argued that the companies have a constitutional right to free speech in deciding how to run their platforms.

"Texas is trying to flip the script and saying that somehow the First Amendment protects Texas citizens from the actions of private entities," Clay Calvert, a media law and First Amendment law expert, told Business Insider.

The thing about the First Amendment though is that it protects from government censorship of free speech, not from private entities.

"So both sides are claiming somehow that the other is trying to harm free speech interests," Calvert said. "But the fundamental principle is the First Amendment only protects us from government censorship."

And that's partly what the Supreme Court took issue with in its decision, with Justice Elena Kagan writing that the lower appeals courts in both states had not adequately analyzed NetChoice's First Amendment challenges to the laws or the scope of what platforms the laws apply to.

"Today's decision is a victory for NetChoice, because the court articulates very important principles that will come into play on remand ultimately in these cases," Calvert said.

The first of those principles that Kagan outlines is that social media companies are protected by the First Amendment when they curate content, Calvert said.

"Another big principle is that the government, whether it's Texas or Florida, cannot justify curtailing that editorial control and discretion and freedom under the interest of 'We need to rebalance and level the playing field to make it more even for conservative and liberal viewpoints,'" Calvert added. "That doesn't fly."

Before the cases made their way to the Supreme Court, they were battled out in the lower courts, and neither law went into effect under state attorneys general Ken Paxton and Ashley Moody.

Part of the reason the Supreme Court might have agreed to hear the cases to begin with is because there was a circuit split between the states. Texas's Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals had ruled that the law was constitutional, while Florida's Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the law was unconstitutional.

Now, those lower courts will have to reconsider the cases. The implications of their decisions could be huge.

Calvert told BI before SCOTUS's Monday decision that if the laws are allowed to go into effect, "The implications would be disastrous for social media platforms as we know them today."

"They would have to host all viewpoints on any topic and could not establish for themselves the types of communities, the speech-based communities that they want to host. So it would change things radically," Calvert added.

But Calvert said on Monday that because the high court's decision is so favorable to the social media companies, that's not likely to happen.

• You probably learned basic facts about your home state like its flower or bird.
• But there are many more fun facts you might not know.
• In Iowa, pigs outnumber people by 7-to-1; in Delaware, chickens outnumber people 200-to-1.
  

Thanks to elementary school projects and random trivia games, you probably remember a few fun facts about your home state like the official bird, flower, or dessert.

But there are plenty of more obscure fun facts about each of the 50 states that may surprise you.

From New York being the first state to require license plates to Hawaii having the highest life expectancy rate, here's a fact about each state that'll impress your colleagues and give you a boost next time you play "Jeopardy!"

ALABAMA: There's a store in Alabama that sells unclaimed baggage.

Located in Scottsboro, Alabama, the Unclaimed Baggage Center is organized into 10 departments, including books, womenswear, menswear, electronics, and fine jewelry.

ALASKA: The northernmost city in the US, Utqiaġvik, Alaska, experiences periods of uninterrupted daylight and darkness.

Per Travel Alaska, the city experiences 85 days of the state's famous "midnight sun," as the sun stays above the horizon during this period from May to early August.

Conversely, the city also experiences a "polar night," where there's essentially no sunlight for two months during the winter.

ARIZONA: The bola tie is the official state neckwear of Arizona.

Also known as a bolo tie, the accessory was designated as Arizona's official neckwear in 1973.

ARKANSAS: The most expensive diamond ever discovered in the US was found in Arkansas.

The 8.52-carat diamond was found at the Crater of Diamonds State Park in Murfreesboro, Arkansas, in 2015 by Bobbie Oskarson, and she named it after her niece. The Esperanza Diamond was fashioned into a necklace and is worth an estimated $1 million, The Inspired Collection reported.

CALIFORNIA: The state is home to over 100 ghost towns.

One of the most famous ghost towns in California is Bodie. The gold-mining town was once home to 10,000 people, but was fully abandoned by 1942, with some people seemingly having packed their belongings mid-meal.

Photographer Dennis Ariza told BI in 2021 the town looked like "people were abducted by aliens" with homework still on desks in the school and "food on the table and pots on the stove" inside homes.

It's now a State Historic Park.

COLORADO: There has never been a US president or vice president born in Colorado.

Unsurprisingly, the vast majority of US presidents were born on the East Coast. Only two presidents have been born west of Texas: Richard Nixon, who was born in California, and Barack Obama, who was born in Hawaii.

CONNECTICUT: The first phone book in the US was printed in New Haven in 1878.

The first phone book didn't actually list any phone numbers. Instead, it was a piece of cardboard with a list of 50 people and businesses who had phones, Smithsonian Magazine reported.

DELAWARE: Chickens outnumber people 200-to-1 in Delaware.

Per the USDA, Delaware is home to over 200 million chickens. Meanwhile, the US Census Bureau reported that as of 2023, the state has a population of about 1 million people.

 

FLORIDA: Disney World in Orlando is a no-fly zone.

The popular theme park is one of several no-fly zones in the US. Per the FAA, it received permanent no-fly zone status in 2014.

And yes, Disneyland in Anaheim, California is covered, too.

GEORGIA: There were four other state capitals before Atlanta.

Savannah, Augusta, Louisville, and Milledgeville are the state's previous capitals.

 

HAWAII: Hawaii has the highest life expectancy out of any state.

In 2020, the CDC reported that life expectancy in Hawaii was 80.7 years.

IDAHO: At 7,993 feet deep, the Snake River in Hells Canyon is the deepest river gorge in North America.

This gorge is 2,000 feet deeper than the Grand Canyon.

ILLINOIS: The Prairie State should be re-nicknamed the Pumpkin State — it produces more pumpkins annually than any other state in the US.

The USDA reported that Illinois produced 634 million pounds of pumpkins in 2022 — that's more than the production of California, Indiana, Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Virginia (the other top pumpkin-producing states) combined.

INDIANA: It's illegal to catch a fish with your bare hands.

You also can't catch a fish with firearms, a crossbow, or dynamite, per Visit Indiana. Good to know.

IOWA: Pigs outnumber the human population in Iowa by about 7-to-1.

In 2022, the USDA reported that Iowa had 23.4 million hogs and pigs, which was actually three percent less than 2021.

KANSAS: Natural gas deposits in the state are some of the most helium-rich in the world.

Helium isn't just for balloons; it's a key component of medical technologies, manufacturing, space exploration, and national defense, reported the US Department of the Interior's Bureau of Land Management.

KENTUCKY: There are more barrels of bourbon than people in Kentucky.

The Kentucky Distillers' Association reported that, as of 2022, there are 11.4 million barrels of bourbon in the state. That's about 2.5 barrels of bourbon per person.

LOUISIANA: Milk is the official state drink.

It's been the official drink of choice for Louisiana since 1983.

MAINE: The state has its own desert in Freeport.

Per the location's website, the Desert of Maine is home to 20 acres of sand dunes with history that dates back to the 1800s.

MARYLAND: The first Ouija board was invented in Maryland.

The Library of Congress reported that the spooky board was first manufactured in Baltimore in 1890 for "supernatural communication."

MASSACHUSETTS: Basketball was invented in Springfield.

National Geographic reported that James Naismith created the 13 original rules of basketball in Springfield, Massachusetts. The first public game was played in 1892.

MICHIGAN: No matter where you are in the state, you'll never be more than 85 miles from one of the Great Lakes.

The state is shaped by four of the five Great Lakes, including Lake Michigan, Huron, Superior, and Erie.

MINNESOTA: Minnesota has the highest proportion of public golf courses.

Per the National Golf Foundation, 90% of the state's 477 golf courses are open to the public. That's 17% higher than the national average.

MISSISSIPPI: Barq's Root Beer was invented in Biloxi.

Barq's Root Beer was invented in 1898.

MISSOURI: The first successful parachute jump from a moving plane (what we now call skydiving) was completed in Missouri.

St. Louis Magazine reported that the daring jump was made by Army Captain Albert Berry in 1912.

 

MONTANA: In 1972, Loma, Montana, set the world record for the largest temperature increase in 24 hours.

From January 14 to January 15, 1972, the temperature in Loma, Montana, rose 103 degrees Fahrenheit from -54 degrees Fahrenheit to 49 degrees Fahrenheit, the National Centers for Environmental Information reported.

NEBRASKA: Kool-Aid is the official state soft drink of Nebraska.

History Nebraska reported that the popular beverage powder was invented in Hastings, Nebraska, by Edwin Perkins in 1927. It has been the state's official soft drink since 1998.

NEVADA: Nearly half of all the wild horses in the US are in Nevada.

Smithsonian Magazine reported that many of the state's horses are part of the Virginia Range herd, also known as "Annie's Horses" after the work of activist Velma Johnston, also called "Wild Horse Annie."

NEW HAMPSHIRE: Alan B. Shepard Jr., the first American to travel into space, was from New Hampshire.

Shepard was born in Derry, New Hampshire, and on May 5, 1961, he became the first American to complete a suborbital mission, NASA reported. For his service, he was given NASA's highest award, the Distinguished Service Medal, by President John F. Kennedy.

NEW JERSEY: During the Revolutionary War, more battles were fought in New Jersey than in any other colony.

Per the State of New Jersey, the Battle of Trenton was one notable battle that took place in the state.

NEW MEXICO: Santa Fe, New Mexico, is 7,000 feet above sea level, making it the state capital with the highest elevation in the country.

As a result of the higher elevation, Santa Fe Tourism warns visitors to be conscious of their alcohol intake, as one drink in Santa Fe is equivalent to three drinks at sea level.

 

NEW YORK: New York was the first state to require license plates on cars.

Time reported that New York Governor Benjamin Odell Jr. signed the bill into law on April 25, 1901.

NORTH CAROLINA: North Carolina produces the most sweet potatoes out of all the 50 states.

The state has held the No. 1 spot since 1971 and produces about 60% of the country's supply, the North Carolina History Project reported.

NORTH DAKOTA: Rugby, North Dakota, is home to the geographical center of North America.

The monument was created in 1932.

OHIO: Ohio has the only state flag in the US that isn't rectangular.

This type of flag is called a burgee.

 

OKLAHOMA: There are more man-made lakes in Oklahoma than in any other state.

Many of the man-made lakes were made to help with issues like flood control, water supply, and hydroelectric power, the Oklahoma Historical Society reported.

OREGON: Portland, Oregon, has more breweries than almost any other city in the world.

Travel Portland reports that the city is home to about 70 breweries, and has a fitting nickname: "Beervana."

PENNSYLVANIA: The first public zoo in the US opened in 1874 in Philadelphia.

The Philadelphia Zoo opened on July 1, 1874, and continues to operate today, housing more than 1,700 rare and endangered animals, per its website.

RHODE ISLAND: The first polo club in the US was founded in Rhode Island in 1876.

The US Polo Association reported that James Gordon Bennett Jr. established the Westchester Polo Club, based in Newport, Rhode Island, in 1876.

SOUTH CAROLINA: Georgia may be well known for its peaches, but South Carolina actually produces more of the fruit annually.

Per the state's Department of Agriculture, South Carolina produces "more than three times the amount" of peaches than Georgia.

It calls itself "the tastier peach state."

SOUTH DAKOTA: Until its closure in 2002, the Homestake Mine in Lead, South Dakota, was the largest and deepest gold mine in North America.

CBS reported that the gold mine produced over 40 million ounces of gold during its 125 plus years of operation.

TENNESSEE: The Great Smoky Mountains National Park is the most visited National Park in the US.

In 2023, more than 13 million people visited Great Smoky Mountains National Park, National Geographic reported. Grand Canyon National Park, which is No. 2, only attracted 4.7 million visitors.

TEXAS: Dr Pepper was invented in Texas in 1885.

Per the Dr Pepper Museum, pharmacist Charles Alderton invented the drink in Waco, Texas.

UTAH: Utah is the only state where every county includes a part of a national forest.

The state is home to six national forests: Dixie, Fishlake, Manti-LaSal, Uinta, Ashley, and Wasatch.

VERMONT: Vermont produced 2.05 million gallons of maple syrup in 2023, more than any other state.

The state has only been outproduced twice: in 1918 and 1926, per the USDA.

VIRGINIA: The first college fraternity was founded in the College of William & Mary in 1776.

The secret society was named Phi Beta Kappa.

WASHINGTON: Washington produces six out of every 10 apples consumed in the US.

Per the Washington Apple Commission, the state harvests 10-12 billion apples annually. The apple is also the official state fruit.

WEST VIRGINIA: West Virginia's name was almost "Kanawha."

Per the state, the name was discussed at a delegate convention in 1861 before "West Virginia" was officially selected. West Virginia became the country's 35th state in 1863.

WISCONSIN: The QWERTY keyboard was invented in Wisconsin.

The keyboard layout was invented by Christopher Latham Sholes and Carlos Glidden, and their typewriter debuted in 1874, Smithsonian Magazine reported.

WYOMING: Wyoming was the first state in the country to have a female governor.

Nellie Tayloe Ross was elected in 1925 after her husband died before finishing his term as governor, the National Governors Association reported. She went on to become vice chair of the Democratic National Committee and served two terms as director of the US Mint under President Franklin D. Roosevelt.

• Apple's iPhone 16 is three months away from its official launch.
• The company introduced Apple Intelligence in June. It's expected to be a big part of the new iPhone.
• Here's what we know so far about the iPhone 16.

Apple is primed to announce its newest iPhone in September, and industry insiders are dropping clues about the upgrade.

The iPhone 16 isn't here yet, but Apple Intelligence — the company's official entrance into the artificial intelligence arms race — will likely be the centerpiece of the launch versus any major hardware changes.

According to Bloomberg, Apple Intelligence will be free at first, but subscription options might become available for those who want more AI capabilities on their device. Smartphone owners will have to upgrade to the iPhone 15 Pro or later if they want to use Apple Intelligence.

One of the other adjustments will be to virtual assistant Siri, which should become even smarter with iOS 18 thanks to Apple Intelligence and an OpenAI partnership, the company announced at its Worldwide Developer Conference in June.

Ming-Chi Kuo, a Taiwan-based analyst known for his Apple predictions, also said in May that the iPhone 16 Pro Max's battery will differ from previous models.

In a blog post, Kuo said that the energy density of the battery cells will increase in the device, which suggests that it will either have a longer battery life or the battery itself could be smaller.

Such changes would likely raise the battery temperature, Kuo said, but Apple might combat this with a stainless steel battery case — a first for the company.

The tweaks to the iPhone 16's battery will also help Apple comply with European Union regulations that require all smartphones to have replaceable batteries by 2027 since it would become easier to remove.

The stainless steel case "allows Apple to increase the battery cell density by 5-10% while meeting safety requirements, achieving two goals at once," Kuo said in an X post.

• Technomic data analyzed by Nation's Restaurant News ranks the top 15 US fast-food restaurants.
• McDonald's topped the list as the biggest fast-food chain in the country.
• Starbucks, Chick-fil-A, and Taco Bell also ranked highly.

In the US, fast food is king. However, some chains are simply bigger than others.

From McDonald's to Taco Bell, quick-service and fast-casual chains fared far better last year compared to casual-dining chains like Chili's and Applebee's, Restaurant Business reported in June. However, those chains are attempting to level the playing field this year with value-focused initiatives and comparable menu items — and it might be winning customers over.

The research firm Technomic recently identified the top 500 biggest chain restaurants in the US. The report, which Technomic said is based on "decades of historical data," analyzes trends in the food service industry and includes each chain's annual sales and unit counts for 2023, which were also reported by Nation's Restaurant News.

We looked at the top 15 chains listed as quick-service or fast-casual. We didn't include casual-dining or family-style chains like Cracker Barrel or Applebee's in this ranking. We also listed the year the company was founded, its 2023 sales, and restaurant count, per Technomic's report.

Here are the biggest chain restaurants in the US.

15. Popeyes

Year founded: 1972

Sales (2023): $5.5 billion

Restaurant count (2023): 3,051

14. Sonic Drive-In

Year founded: 1953

Sales (2023): $5.5 billion

Restaurant count (2023): 3,521

13. Pizza Hut

Year founded: 1958

Sales (2023): $5.6 billion

Restaurant count (2023): 6,593

12. Panda Express

Year founded: 1983

Sales (2023): $5.9 billion

Restaurant count (2023): 2,420

11. Panera Bread

Year founded: 1987

Sales (2023): $6.5 billion

Restaurant count (2023): 2,178

10. Domino's

Year founded: 1960

Sales (2023): $9 billion

Restaurant count (2023): 6,854

9. Chipotle

Year founded: 1993

Sales (2023): $9.9 billion

Restaurant count (2023): 3,371

8. Subway

Year founded: 1965

Sales (2023): $10 billion

Restaurant count (2023): 20,133

7. Burger King

Year founded: 1954

Sales (2023): $11 billion

Restaurant count (2023): 6,778

6. Dunkin'

Year founded: 1950

Sales (2023): $12 billion

Restaurant count (2023): 9,580

5. Wendy's

Year founded: 1969

Sales (2023): $12.3 billion

Restaurant count (2023): 6,030

4. Taco Bell

Year founded: 1962

Sales (2023): $15 billion

Restaurant count (2023): 7,405

3. Chick-fil-A

Year founded: 1967

Sales (2023): $21.6 billion

Restaurant count (2023): 2,964

2. Starbucks

Year founded: 1971

Sales (2023): $31.6 billion

Restaurant count (2023): 16,466

1. McDonald's

Year founded: 1955

Sales (2023): $53.1 billion

Restaurant count (2023): 13,457

• Elon Musk said Grok 3 will be "something special" after training on 100,000 Nvidia H100 GPUs.
• Nvidia's H100 GPUs, a key component for AI, are estimated to cost between $30,000 and $40,000 each.
• While companies may receive bulk discounts from Nvidia, that's still billions in GPU costs.

Elon Musk just hinted at how much it cost to make his AI chatbot Grok.

The billionaire replied to a post on X on Monday and said that the latest version of xAI's chatbot Grok 3 should be "something special' after it trains on 100,000 H100s.

Musk is referring to Nvidia's H100 graphics processing unit, also known as Hopper, which is an AI hip that helps handle data processing for large language models (LLMs). The chips are a key component of AI development and a hot commodity in Silicon Valley as tech companies race to build ever-smarter AI products.

Knowing how many H100 GPUs Musk is getting allows us to do some napkin math to figure out a rough estimate of the cost. Each Nvidia H100 GPU chip is estimated to cost around $30,000, although some estimates place the cost as high as $40,000.

Based on those estimates, the upcoming version of xAI's Grok would cost between $3 and $4 billion to train and develop. Musk could also get a volume discount from Nvidia, which would make the cost a bit cheaper. But even assuming a volume discount brought the price down to something more like $20,000 per GPU, that still would bring the total cost to $2 billion. And that's only counting the price of the chips.

100,000 GPUs would be a big step up from Grok 2. Musk said in an interview in April with the head of Norway's sovereign fund Nicolai Tangen that Grok 2 would take around 20,000 H100s to train.

xAI has so far released Grok-1 and Grok-1.5, with the latest only available to early testers and existing users on X, formerly known as Twitter. Musk said in a post on X Monday that Grok 2 is set to launch in August and indicated in the other post about GPUs that Grok 3 will come out at the end of the year.

xAI did not respond to a request for comment.

100,000 GPUs sounds like a lot — and it is. But other tech giants like Meta are stacking up on even more GPUs, which will cost over triple what xAI is spending. Mark Zuckerberg said in January that Meta will have purchased about 350,000 Nvidia H100 GPUs by the end of 2024. He also said Meta will own about 600,000 chips including other GPUs.

If that's the case, Meta will have spent about $18 billion building its AI capabilities.

The stockpiling of H100 chips has also contributed to how ruthless hiring top AI talent has become in the last year.

Aravind Srinivas, founder and CEO of AI startup Perplexity, talked about getting turned down by a Meta AI researcher he was trying to poach in part because of Zuckerberg's huge collection of AI chips.

"I tried to hire a very senior researcher from Meta, and you know what they said? 'Come back to me when you have 10,000 H100 GPUs,'" Srinivas said.

• A Michelin-starred chef shared red flags to look out for when dining at a nice Italian restaurant.
• Pasta shouldn't be drowning in sauce, and bread shouldn't be served with margarine.
• A bad coffee service and out-of-season ingredients also deter the chef. 

Stefano Secchi, chef and owner of Rezdôra in New York, has many opinions when it comes to what differentiates a high-end Italian restaurant from a gimmick.

"I think this is probably a really easy topic for me," said the chef, whose restaurant has held a Michelin star since 2021.

He travels back and forth to Italy often, so he recognizes what it means to cook the way Italians do and aims to bring that ethos into his own kitchen.

To that end, he said, there are loads of places that are "not even real Italian restaurants" but come across such and charge a high price tag.

So, to help you avoid paying a lot for food that sounds authentically Italian but may not be the best you'll find, Secchi told Business Insider his top red flags for dining out.

Here's how he differentiates the fabulous from the fugazi.

It's never a good sign when a restaurant is serving out-of-season ingredients

For starters, Secchi said, an automatic red flag is if something on the menu is not in season.

Caprese salad is a good example. Although it varies by region, tomatoes typically hit their peak seasonality in the summer months.

"If they're serving tomatoes in the middle of, like, December or January, then you've probably got an issue, right? That's probably not the right place to be," he told BI.

Additionally, if the chef is serving a reduced balsamic condiment with that caprese, the restaurant is "probably even more the wrong place to be."

A real aged balsamic has some viscosity to it, but it will drip and leave a trail. You don't want a thick, goopy glaze with your caprese.

Over-saucing pasta is a big no-no

As Secchi put it: There are 20 regions in Italy, but regardless of which cuisine you're cooking, pasta shouldn't be drowning in sauce.

"That's a huge red flag," he said. "Because if you're cooking high-end Italian, you know how to sauce the pasta correctly."

It's not a good sign if a restaurant focuses more on the sauce than the pasta itself.

The chef explained, "Think about a nonna rolling out pasta for two hours, three hours, for their family, right? And she's taking forever to do this on a Sunday. She's taking her time to make the pasta, she's taking her time to roll it out, she's taking her time to cut it — so the pasta is always the most important thing."

"In Italia, we call the sauce a condiment — a condimento — that's what goes with the pasta," he added.

He said good Italian restaurants will try to show off their pasta and balance the sauce appropriately.

If the classics aren't prepared and labeled properly, the restaurant is a hard sell for Secchi

Secchi said he'd also ask a server about menu items because a lot of restaurants "don't know what they're doing" and incorrectly name pasta dishes.

For example, he said, it's not uncommon for restaurants to say they have a tortellini but serve something that's the size of his thumb or bigger. That's actually a tortelloni.

The kitchen is also "cheating" if it has fettuccine Alfredo or carbonara on the menu that's being made with cream instead of the traditional Parmigiano and butter.

Pay attention to the bread course

In Secchi's eyes, the presence of bread service isn't what separates the good from the great. Instead, it's the quality of the bread and what it's served with if it does come to the table.

"If there is bread service, just taste the bread," he told BI. "And taste what they serve it with because people will take shortcuts left and right with that."

If the restaurant serves crappy bread with blended olive oil instead of the real deal or with margarine instead of butter, he'd probably pass on it.

Secchi said you can tell if a restaurant is serving blended olive oil (50% olive, 50% canola) based on the flavor profile.

"It's something you can taste right away," he said. If it's dark in color but dull in flavor, it's probably blended. But it's a good sign if the oil is bursting with really rich and complex flavors and fragrances.

A quality Italian restaurant should have a proper coffee service

Secchi always orders coffee at the end of a meal. He said if a restaurant is not paying attention to its coffee, it may not be paying attention to the ritual of Italian dining.

Staff should be able to pull an espresso, coffee shouldn't be watery, and it should not be served with packet sugars.

Coffee service is a final chance to leave a good impression on guests. If there's no care taken there, Secchi said, it's a sign a restaurant won't care about the details anywhere else.

Editor's note: Chicken Soup for the Soul Entertainment filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy on Friday. This story was first published on March 31.

Even after everything I'd learned about Chicken Soup for the Soul, I still ended up ugly-crying in a hotel ballroom alongside 206 other sniffling adults, my mind a mess of guilt and shame, contemplating how I and I alone was to blame for every problem I've ever had.

"Everything in your life you created, promoted, or allowed," the man on stage was saying. "Everything that happens to you is for a reason. It's a gift."

Gooey bands of mucus stained my T-shirt. Everything was all my fault, I saw now. Even the drunken driver who'd left me with a brain injury I'd spent the past five years recovering from. It must have been a Lesson From The Universe, an experience I deserved.

I'd come to the John Wayne Airport Hyatt Regency in Newport Beach, California, for a "Breakthrough to Success" weekend last fall with Jack Canfield, the spiritual teacher and mastermind behind the best-selling nonfiction book series of all time: "Chicken Soup for the Soul." Back in the early 1990s, Canfield told us, he meditated for several days to conjure a title for an anthology of short, feel-good tales he hoped would improve readers' lives by demonstrating how our thoughts create our circumstances. The original collection of 101 stories, interspersed with motivational quotes, poems, proverbs, and cartoons, would go on to sell 11 million copies and become a cultural touchstone, read by everyone from Oprah Winfrey to Tony Soprano's mistress.

What followed was hundreds of sequels and spinoffs, everything from "Chicken Soup for the Cat Lover's Soul" to "Chicken Soup for the Canadian Soul" to the bestseller I read cover to cover, several times, in sixth grade: "Chicken Soup for the Teenage Soul." By 2003, research found that more young readers seeking solace turned to the Chicken Soup series than to the Bible.

Like most self-help books, "Chicken Soup" offers the reassuring message that anyone is capable of anything — that with the right attitude, you can heal yourself, find love, and, as the translated Indonesian title promises, "Become Rich and Happy." Each book brims with advice that Russ Kamalski, Chicken Soup's former chief operating officer, told me appealed to "moms that were working and picking up their kids in the carpool line and wanted to read an inspiring story to make their life feel a little bit better."

But this emphasis on individual agency comes with a dark side. If you are the author of your own fate, you are also to blame for your own suffering — no matter how far beyond your control it may seem. Canfield calls it taking 100% responsibility. "A lot of people get cancer," he says. "But I always ask them: Did you eat an organic diet? Did you drink filtered water? You're responsible for maintaining your ignorance. You're responsible for not making enough money to be able to afford the stuff you need to be able to buy."

For millions of readers, myself included, these aspects of Canfield's ethos amounted to a subliminal message, filtered through anecdotes about overcoming obstacles and telling your children you love them. "Chicken Soup" remained remarkably popular for years, coasting along on an upbeat, family-friendly image. But then the company began to pivot, stretching and twisting a lucrative brand to the point of absurdity. What began as Chicken Soup for the Soul board games and calendars turned into Chicken Soup for the Soul chocolates and Chicken Soup for the Soul pet food. After Canfield and his cofounder sold the company in 2008, the new owners experimented with Chicken Soup for the Soul barbecue sauce and even, briefly, Chicken Soup for the Soul soups. Then they ventured even further afield, spinning off Chicken Soup for the Soul Entertainment, going public on the Nasdaq, and buying up film distributors and streaming services like Redbox and Crackle. Today, Chicken Soup for the Soul somehow owns the North American rights to classic Laurel and Hardy films and the original "Little Rascals" shorts.

Even to experts in corporate branding, Chicken Soup for the Soul's trajectory has been baffling. "The whole point of having a brand is that it's kind of a consistent signal of something," says Americus Reed, a marketing professor at Wharton. "This is so wildly different from what it started as. It just creates this very cognitively dissonant idea in your mind, that your mind naturally wants to solve. Like, why are they doing this? What's going on here?"

I first searched the internet for Chicken Soup for the Soul late one night, while a bit stoned. It was like checking up on a middle-school classmate I hadn't thought of in years. Imagine my surprise upon discovering that Chicken Soup is not only a publicly traded company, but one that's buying up the DVD kiosks outside convenience stores, charging $2.25 for rentals of "Shazam! Fury of the Gods." What happened to the guilty-pleasure read I'd devoured in sixth grade? I had to learn more, to understand what was going on with the company and how it might have influenced younger me. I didn't consider how Chicken Soup for the Soul might influence the current me, but maybe I should have.

At 79, Jack Canfield is a paunchy boomer with an unnervingly calm, approachable energy. At his Breakthrough to Success event, I thought I might see glimpses of the man his son describes in his memoir as "the lying, cheating, conniving, manipulative, inhuman son of a bitch who had left my mom when I was one and she was six months pregnant." Instead I was quickly ensconced in the warmth emanating from Canfield, his eight employees, and his 20 volunteer assistants — what some in attendance called "the Canfield family."

It was a family that cost $997 to join for a long weekend, or $1,497 if you wanted VIP status. At one point I heard a woman say, "She was getting the technology through her prayer work," and that about sums up the crowd: New Age and entrepreneurial. One couple came on their honeymoon; folks flew in from Nigeria, Japan, and France; some guy brought his 12-year-old, a boy I overheard telling an adult he'd just met, "Yeah, that's a great market."

Every day from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m., we gathered in the John Wayne Airport Hyatt Regency ballroom to listen to Canfield. We reflected on our careers, our health, our relationships, our finances. We set goals. We turned to strangers and said: Who are you? Who do you pretend to be? What is missing in your life? We held hands and made sustained eye contact. We went back to our rooms each night, looked into the mirror, gave ourselves a high five, and said, "I love you." We held a vision-board party. We watched a video about a guy who said he was told by doctors he'd never walk again and then, of course, walked again.

Canfield learned persistence early. He grew up poor in Ohio and West Virginia, with a violent father and a religious stepfather, and went on to attend Harvard. After teaching for a year at a predominantly Black high school, he went to work for the insurance magnate W. Clement Stone, who began each day by saying: "I feel happy! I feel healthy! I feel terrific!" Stone taught Canfield about the Law of Attraction, a 19th-century jumble of mysticism, individualism, and pseudoscience. The Law of Attraction basically asserts that anything you concentrate on or wish for will become reality. Today we might call it "manifesting." As Canfield told us, "Everything you think about and feel strongly about, you're going to bring about." Every decade or so, someone repackages this idea and makes a ton of money, from Napoleon Hill's "Think and Grow Rich" (1937) to Norman Vincent Peale's "The Power of Positive Thinking" (1952) to "Chicken Soup for the Soul."

It's a seductive mindset. I've spent years ranting about how cars and roads should be safer. But once I was in Canfield's presence, his logic seemed infallible: I was the person who had capsized my life in the wake of my head injury, not the drunken driver who hit me. Over three days in the John Wayne Airport Hyatt Regency ballroom, I cried 11 times. The Law of Attraction stirs up all your insecurities, and just when you take a nosedive into feeling worthless, it scoops you up and tells you that you are in total control of what happens next.

Canfield began running seminars like the one I attended long before Chicken Soup for the Soul existed. He always longed to reach more people. The path that led him there began in 1980, when he attended a session at a holistic health conference called "How to Triple Your Income and Double Your Time Off in Two Years or Less." It was run by someone just as obsessed with the Law of Attraction as Canfield was, a guy named Mark Victor Hansen.

Hansen is like a terrifyingly peppy windup toy, the kind of indefatigable salesman you might end up buying something from just to make him go away. "He would come in like a cyclone," recalls Kamalski, Chicken Soup's former chief operating officer, while Canfield would remain even-keeled: "They're yin and yang." Canfield is more "analytical," Hansen more "creative." Canfield is suspicious of organized religion, preferring occult traditions like Kabbalah, while Hansen practices a nondenominational, prosperity-gospel-adjacent Christianity. Despite their temperamental differences, the two men became good friends and began having lunch every Tuesday at the Beverly Hills Hotel.

When we speak on the phone, Hansen bombards me with factoids and anecdotes, most of which — like the woman who helped 12 million children "get out of abuse" — seem exaggerated at best. Now 76, Hansen describes himself as a "visionary" who has "studied everything" and is working with "all the top AI guys in the world." At one point he mentions a recent interaction with "the king of Mali" and says, "Remember, there are no bookstores in Mali." (There is not currently a monarchy in Mali, and the country has plenty of bookstores.)

Canfield tells me he considers Hansen's hyperbole the product of a bad memory and too much enthusiasm: "Detail was not his strength, let's put it that way." When I mention Canfield's assessment to Hansen, he compares himself to Mark Twain. "I'm a provocateur," he says. "Some people go, 'He's full of crap.'"

After years on the motivational-speaking circuit, Canfield decided he wanted to compile the most-affecting stories he'd heard into a book, without saying directly what you were supposed to learn from them. "For me, when a story has a lesson and you don't beat people over the head with it, they remember it," he says. Hansen loved the idea. They asked many of the motivational speakers they knew to contribute their best story, and in 1991 they set off for New York to make their fortune.

The tale that Hansen and Canfield tell about their success follows the same structure as a "Chicken Soup for the Soul" story. Two outsiders have a brilliant idea (heart-warming stories that illustrate the Law of Attraction). All the so-called experts (the publishing companies in New York) look down on them. They're rejected over and over (33 times, if you asked in 1998; "nearly 100" times, if you asked in 2014; 144 times, if you ask today). And yet, through tremendous will and perseverance, they somehow manage to bring their little book to the public, not only reaping acclaim and huge financial rewards but validating their unshakable belief in themselves.

Another way of telling the story is that Canfield and Hansen went booth to booth at a publishing convention in Anaheim until they found a Florida-based press they paid to print the first 20,000 copies of "Chicken Soup for the Soul" at $6 a copy. Then they turned around and sold the shit out of those copies, using all the sales techniques they'd learned as motivational speakers: requiring each audience member to buy multiple copies, say, or selling copies at bakeries and mortuaries. In 1994, a little over a year after the book came out, it became a bestseller.

Subsequent installments practically wrote themselves. Thousands of readers mailed in their own inspirational stories, hoping to be included in "A 2nd Helping of Chicken Soup for the Soul," then "A 3rd Serving," "A 4th Course," "A 5th Portion," and "A 6th Bowl." "We had a user-generated machine before user-generated content was really in existence," Kamalski says. Reader panels evaluated the stories, selecting 101 per book, and then Hansen and Canfield would read and arrange them. Soon they were putting out four books a month, with each "Chicken Soup for the ___ Soul" title zeroing in on an aspect of their target demographic: Girl's, Preteen's, Teenage, Sister's, Woman's, Christian Woman's, Working Woman's, African American Woman's, Girlfriend's, Bride's, Expectant Mother's, Mother's, Mother & Daughter, Mother and Son, New Mom's, Every Mom's, Nurse's, Teacher's, Military Wife's, Caregiver's, Breast Cancer Survivor's, Grandma's.

"Even the books that were for men — Golfer's Soul, Fisherman's Soul," Kamalski told me, were being bought by women, as "gifts for men."

The literary establishment responded with disdain. Wayne Booth, a literature professor at the University of Chicago, wrote that he felt "arrogantly envious of the fame and mildly contemptuous of the work." Booth was disturbed to see "Chicken Soup for the Soul" implying that a single person's feelings could bring about world peace; the series also emphasized, per the Law of Attraction, that systemic forces do not disadvantage certain lives more than others. The first story in the original book recounts how a teacher in "the Baltimore slums" loved her students so much that 176 of 180 went on to achieve "more than ordinary success as lawyers, doctors, and businessmen." Was this even true? Hard to say. After settling a plagiarism lawsuit over an essay in a 1997 book for what Canfield describes as "some minor amount of money," he and Hansen began asking contributors to sign a pledge affirming that the stories they had submitted were true. They did no further checking.

After some 315 million copies circulated in China, "chicken soup" became Chinese slang for uplifting stories with no substance.

In her book "Smile or Die," Barbara Ehrenreich argues that the "mandatory optimism" pushed by "Chicken Soup for the Soul" actually makes people feel more lonely, miserable, and apathetic. Research suggests that daydreaming about success is less likely to lead to action and that increased self-esteem typically leads only to "enhanced initiative and pleasant feelings," not to better grades or happier relationships. David Gray, a historian at Oklahoma State, told me he sees "Chicken Soup for the Soul" as part of a rise in motivational rhetoric and "neoliberal mysticism" that dovetailed with a decline in job security, medical benefits, and wages for American workers. It's not hard to see how the Chicken Soup mindset benefits employers. According to Canfield's philosophy, anything you don't get in your career is your own failure to manifest what you want — not the product of larger economic forces outside your control.

Still, the money kept coming in, and Canfield and Hansen kept hustling new products, the most successful of which was Chicken Soup for the Soul pet food, capitalizing on the deluge of "Chicken Soup" stories about various furry friends. The company also secured a record-setting book-licensing deal to export "Chicken Soup" to China. But the books were not as well received in the new market. After what Canfield said was some 315 million copies circulated in China, including many in schools, "chicken soup" became Chinese slang for uplifting stories with no substance, or advice that makes you feel better but doesn't solve your problems.

Then, in 2005, Canfield allowed an Australian film crew to attend a conference he'd organized for motivational speakers. The footage was featured in "The Secret," a documentary that jump-started a global phenomenon, once again selling audiences on the Law of Attraction and the promise of wealth. A book version of "The Secret" went on to sell more copies than the original "Chicken Soup" — and sparked far more controversy. On "Saturday Night Live," Amy Poehler portrayed the book's author as callously telling Kenan Thompson's character, a refugee fleeing the Darfur genocide, "I know this is hard for you to hear, but your outlook is what's hurting you."

"Chicken Soup" evaded this kind of criticism — a crucial advantage once Canfield and Hansen decided to sell the business, in 2007. "It's hard to let go of something that's producing a lot of money," Canfield says, but "I woke up one morning and it wasn't doing it for me anymore." Hansen, who was going through an expensive divorce, says God told him to sell. Canfield says they wound up getting $63 million for Chicken Soup for the Soul. "He sold his baby," says Patty Aubery, Canfield's business partner. "And he got a good ransom."

The best part of being in the John Wayne Airport Hyatt Regency ballroom was the hugs. Every day we did dozens and dozens of full-body hugs, based on detailed instructions from Canfield: press inward from shoulders to hips, left ear to left ear, heart against heart, no back-patting, no picking up and twirling. Some hugs were long and fragrant, some were short and distant, but the cumulative effect of embrace after embrace felt amazing, like a sober Burning Man. We were safe in Canfield's glow, safe to reveal our deepest hopes and vulnerabilities and expect to be met with love and understanding.

This compassion was intoxicating. Anything felt possible. We learned about his past students who doubled their income in two years, who quadrupled their income, who became billionaires, who went from being homeless to being worth $3 million and owning three Rolexes. "It's not about money. It's about finding your life's purpose," he told us. "I'm not saying you have to 10x your income," he said — though that's what he did, in his own life. The more I heard him and his volunteer assistants use the phrase "double your income," the more I began to think I'd be so much happier if I could just … double my income.

I felt so supported and electrified by my new community that I was vehemently taken aback when I encountered someone hostile, someone who listened with obvious boredom as I talked about my brain injury, then changed the subject to ask, "What do you think about feminism?" I decided I hated this person for puncturing the beautiful bubble we had created, and I'd hate him for the rest of my life.

Except! Then Canfield explained that resentment causes cancer. Something about the alkaline state of the body and raising your vibration and — well, things were getting a little weird now, but I really didn't want cancer! So I tried to forgive this man, even as he stood up two days in a row to thank Canfield for blurbing his book and to say, by the way, had we heard about his book? But then we were chanting at our fingers "Grow longer!" and marveling when they seemingly did, and then we were visualizing ourselves on a magic carpet going up a mountain to a temple where we met a guardian angel, and then we were all hugging again, and then we were listening to two hours of testimonials from the volunteer assistants about why we should sign up for the next level of training, which cost $14,997, or for two smaller retreats and monthly Zoom workshops, which cost $24,997.

"Don't let any of that negative internal self-talk stop you," Canfield told us. "Most of us are living in a cell we created, and the key is right there." These prices were a special deal, we learned, and would rise as soon as the weekend ended.

At lunch on the last day, I ran into a stylish woman in the hotel lobby. She asked if I was signing up for more training.

"No," I told her. "I can't afford it."

"Oh yeah, me neither," she said, though I could tell she was thinking about it. Signing up for more training would put her into debt. "I've got two cents," she said, "and I'm spending five." But the weekend had filled her with a sense of belonging and friendship, and she wanted to keep that feeling going.

We went in after lunch and saw that everyone who had signed up for the advanced programs was on stage taking a photo: 20 people committing to $14,997 and another 21 committing to $24,997. The stylish woman was not among them, but I noticed a kind middle-aged man I'd spoken to at length during an earlier activity. I knew this man was already in significant credit-card debt and didn't have an income. I looked up at him standing on stage, smiling, arms around his new family, and I felt very, very sad.

Canfield and Hansen sold Chicken Soup for the Soul to Bill Rouhana and Amy Newmark, a married couple. The new owners shifted the company both physically and ideologically, from Southern California to Greenwich, Connecticut — from kooky self-realization to shiny financial maneuvering.

Rouhana and Newmark met in the 1990s. At the time, Newmark was managing a hedge fund that invested in a telecommunications company Rouhana had started called Winstar. Winstar raised billions of dollars on the stock market before going bankrupt in 2001. The man who bought it out of bankruptcy later called the purchase one of the worst business mistakes he'd ever made, and told the Washington Post that Winstar had continued to charge customers after they canceled their service, apparently to convince Wall Street investors the company was growing faster than it really was. Rouhana and Winstar's leadership later settled a class-action lawsuit and a related case for $25 million that alleged they had "engaged in covert practices designed to benefit themselves at the expense of the Company and its investors" and "routinely encouraged or tacitly allowed sales personnel to engage in overt sales falsification, in a deliberate effort to overstate sales."

The new owners shifted Chicken Soup both physically and ideologically, from Southern California to Connecticut — from kooky self-realization to shiny financial maneuvering.

With Chicken Soup, Rouhana saw an opportunity. "Chicken Soup for the Soul is just thought of as a positive brand," he later explained. "Of all the things I've seen, it probably had the most positive reaction from people, and no negative reaction." Over the years the company had partnered with major brands, like "American Idol" and NASCAR, and branched out into a wide range of licensed products. Rouhana was particularly struck by the popularity of Chicken Soup for the Soul pet food. "Pet food, books — there is a lot of room between those two things that you could fill in with branding that might be successful," he said. (Rouhana declined to be interviewed for this story.)

The company continued to compile new books, churning out another 200 titles. But with the publishing industry in decline, Rouhana turned his attention to producing uplifting content for Hollywood. Working out of the company's headquarters, which he moved to a suburban office above a CVS, he finagled a partnership with Ashton Kutcher. But over several years, through 2016, he wound up releasing only two shows; one, called "Hidden Heroes," secretly taped people performing acts of kindness, like a wholesome version of Kutcher's notorious prank show "Punk'd."

Then Rouhana hit on a way to bring Chicken Soup to the next level. He took advantage of a new securities provision called Regulation A+ that allowed small companies to bypass the stringent reviews associated with an initial public offering and sell shares to pretty much anyone. The goal was to enable average folks to share in the early-stage profits typically reserved for large banks and the wealthy. But the Consumer Federation of America later called Regulation A+ "an experimental online marketplace" that brought together "inexperienced issuers with unsophisticated investors" who harnessed "the power of the Internet to hype stocks." Other companies that went public under Regulation A+ involved UFOs and flying cars.

To a certain extent, selling stock felt like the same old Chicken Soup for the Soul promise: Buy these shares that might help you become rich because this reminds you of this brand that made you feel like you could become rich. With Kutcher's name attached, Chicken Soup for the Soul Entertainment raised $30 million in 2017, in what was described as the biggest crowdsourced IPO of all time. Shares of CSSE opened at $9.25.

With the cash infusion, Rouhana took the company in a new direction. As Hindenburg Research, a forensic financial analysis firm, explained: "Rouhana has voting control over the public company and similarly has control over the ultimate parent, thereby giving him virtually unmitigated control of the entire corporate structure." He began buying up free, ad-supported streaming services, envisioning a future when customers would grow tired of paying for so many subscriptions and go back to watching TV with commercials. His biggest move came in 2019, when he initiated a two-part deal to buy Crackle from Sony Pictures Television. When the deal was complete, shares of CSSE spiked to $42.39.

Rouhana took advantage of the moment. The company sold $75 million worth of stock, causing the share price to tumble. That same month, according to Zillow and Connecticut public filings, Rouhana spent $3.4 million on a lakefront home, which had 10 bathrooms, a wine cellar, a fountain, a free form pool, and a spa with a footbridge to a "private island."

All these years later, Chicken Soup for the Soul still had the power to make its owners lots of money. Then someone crashed the party.

In May 2022, a Canadian day trader named Kevin saw a post on social media about how Chicken Soup was about to acquire Redbox, the DVD-rental-kiosk company. Reddit reacted with incredulity. "Huh," one person wrote. "Apparently both of these companies still exist." Kevin, however, saw a perfect opportunity for people to get together and screw over some Wall Street bigwigs.

Kevin, who had worked in Wells Fargo's lending department, saw himself as smarter than the masses on Reddit. A year earlier he'd watched with derision as a loose confederation of online traders became fixated on boosting the video-game retailer GameStop, crusading to bring down a multibillion-dollar hedge fund. "All they knew how to do was hold one stock 'to da moon,'" he messaged me. (He spoke on the condition I not use his last name, to protect his privacy.) But when he looked into the details behind Chicken Soup's pending deal with Redbox, Kevin got so excited that he started his own YouTube channel. "You've never seen anything like this, in the history of the market," he wrote below his first video.

When Chicken Soup announced the merger, Redbox shares were trading at about $6. But the fine print specified that once the deal went through, Redbox shares would convert to Chicken Soup shares, making them worth about $1. Institutional investors had decided to short Redbox stock, betting that the merger would happen and the share value would go down. But Kevin and his online compatriots wanted to push Redbox stock as high as possible, creating a "short squeeze" that would undercut the plutocrats who predicted the price would fall, causing them to lose money. "Take the box to the moon and make the soup Pay!" one Reddit user wrote.

Kevin began posting three videos a day about Chicken Soup and Redbox. He put together a spreadsheet tracking who said they owned Redbox shares, to calculate their leverage against the ruling class. "They want you to have two and three jobs," he told his followers. "They want you to struggle in life."

Since last summer, shares of Chicken Soup have stayed below $1, dipping to as low as 15 cents.

As more people jumped in, Redbox's share price rose from $10 to over $18. In response to the volatility, all the major brokerages took away the ability to buy options in Redbox. "We're getting duped!" Kevin fumed on YouTube. But it was too late. Within a month, shares were down to $4.37. Chicken Soup's acquisition of Redbox closed on August 11, 2022. The populist uprising had failed.

"So basically we lose our money 😞" wrote MangoSea2615.

"It's possible we're in a completely fraudulent system," posted Reddit user ItsAllJustASickGame.

Rouhana was thrilled that the deal closed, saying in a statement, "I've been looking forward to the day Redbox would become part of the Chicken Soup for the Soul Entertainment family — and today is that day." A few months after the merger, shares of CSSE surpassed $12, and the company sold off another $10.3 million worth of stock. Then the share price began to fall. This past January, with the streaming services it had hoped to dethrone still going strong, the company temporarily suspended dividend payments to its shareholders. Chicken Soup for the Soul Entertainment is no longer a company trying to help moms in the carpool line feel better about themselves. It's a zombie brand, staggering ever forward.

"When a company goes public, part of the value is the brand," says Reed, the Wharton professor. "You're hoping that the brand value is going to synergistically correspond to increasing trajectories of upward stock prices." Since last summer, shares of CSSE have stayed below $1, dipping to as low as $0.15. On March 25, 2024, according to SEC filings, Nasdaq notified the company that it was delisting Chicken Soup from the stock market.

After I got my head injury, I stumbled through those first blurry years in survival mode. I messed up relationships, missed opportunities, and was generally miserable for other people to be around, demanding we turn off the music or weeping unexpectedly about Meghan Markle. I learned, above all, not to push myself. If I needed to sleep late and stare into space all afternoon in order to get an hour of writing done, then that was that. Forcing myself to concentrate or be in noisy places when I wasn't feeling well would just cause my symptoms to escalate.

But when I got home from the John Wayne Airport Hyatt Regency ballroom and looked through my notes and my workbook and my vision board, I realized that Canfield's entire point is to push yourself. I had written detailed timelines for everything from going camping more to deciding whether I want to have children to, yes, doubling my income. I really wanted to be this confident and more productive version of myself. I really did feel invigorated by the experience. But I still have headache days. And now, instead of accepting that I wasn't feeling well and giving myself time to rest, I was freaking out. I couldn't stop equating being sick with being lazy.

When I got Canfield on the phone, I asked him about the idea that there's always a reason or a lesson for illness, for acts of violence, or even for the deaths of young children. Does he ever struggle with this part of the Law of Attraction?

"I used to," he tells me. "I don't anymore." When someone has cancer at six and dies, he explains, it might be because their "mother's going to need to learn how to let go and not be attached." It's something he's come to accept. "Sometimes people come in and they have a short life and they're teaching us unconditional love."

He said it in such a serene tone, and it sounded so reasonable. But after I hung up, the trance broke. Sometimes kids need to die to teach their parents a lesson? What? I felt scrambled. I needed a reality check from my real family, not the one I had forged in the John Wayne Airport Hyatt Regency ballroom. So I called my dad.

As soon as I mentioned Chicken Soup for the Soul, he had a lot to say. Iconic brands of the 1990s happen to be his specialty. For many years he was worldwide managing director for Absolut Vodka at a leading ad agency, and he went on to teach branding at New York University. He pointed out that the cover of the original Chicken Soup book "ripped off" Campbell's Soup, to trigger "nourishing and comforting and warming" feelings. "That 'C'! That script!" When I told him Chicken Soup for the Soul now means pet food and streaming services and Redbox, he laughed. "This is like the dying-out company saying: How can we squeeze another twenty million dollars out of this brand?" he said. "Most companies are very careful. Pepsi doesn't get into this kind of stuff because they have a lot more to risk. These guys, they just want to keep using it as a springboard to some other business."

He started suggesting outrageous directions Chicken Soup could go in next: "The Chicken Soup pistol! It shoots noodles!" Then he confessed that he had only skimmed the original book, "just to see what the deal was." So I explained the Law of Attraction, and his tone changed.

"I suspect most people don't get that message," my dad said. "You're responsible for your own cancer? It's your fault?" He sounded stunned. A year earlier, he had radiation for prostate cancer. There was a pause.

"Some things are just bad luck!" he said finally, his voice rising. "You accidentally pick up a copy of 'Chicken Soup for the Soul,' and you get messed up for the rest of your life."

In his memoir, Canfield's son recalls telling his father something similar: "You know that this stuff doesn't actually help anyone, right?" He was 16 and had just attended one of his dad's seminars for the first time. "For twenty-five hundred dollars, you provide these people with a temporary escape from the pain of being human," he went on. "But once they leave this hotel, it's not like that. It's back to their bosses yelling at them, their wives nagging them, until they can't take it anymore and it's time for another seminar. I don't see how that's any different from being a drug dealer."

I'd already been feeling that pull, a deranged desire for more hugs and pep talks and grandiose plans. But I resisted the urge. This Chicken Soup for the Soul self-esteem comes with too much self-loathing. It proved to be a lucrative business model, preying on that need, that confidence mixed with fear. Today, though, Canfield's original idea seems like a distant memory, with so many spinoffs and products and unrelated enterprises piled on. Perhaps the only thing that has remained constant is the friction between brand and reality. Perhaps, as a meme stock, the company achieved its final form. Perhaps, for all this talk about success, Chicken Soup has manifested its own demise.

Amanda Chicago Lewis has written for The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, WIRED, and Rolling Stone.

• Biden's aides downplayed his poor debate performance, framing it as a blip.
• Meanwhile, the president highlighted his age, saying he doesn't speak or debate like he used to.
• Experts say trying to convince voters it won't happen again with come back to haunt the campaign.

President Joe Biden's aides have defended his debate performance, treating it as an unimportant one-off in a long campaign.

According to The New York Times, the president's aides are trying to cast Biden's performance — branded by many as a disaster — as insignificant in the long run.

Jen O'Malley Dillon, Biden's top campaign strategist, said a potential drop in the polls would be due to an "overblown media narrative," according to the outlet.

Quentin Fulks, the president's deputy campaign manager, told staff that "nothing fundamentally changed about this election" after the debate, per The Times.

Many disagree. Though Biden and Trump both performed poorly, the consensus was that the former lost.

This was largely due to his confusing ramblings and apparent struggle to keep track of his answers, which led commentators to question whether the 81-year-old was too old for the job.

Ironically, Biden's aides also appeared to blame the president's age when discussing his debate performance with Axios. The unnamed staff members said he struggles to function outside a six-hour window between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m.

Biden's defense could be used against him

Thomas Gift, an associate professor of political science at University College London, told Business Insider that Biden's defense could be used against him later in the campaign.

"Trying to convince Americans that the president is fine from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. is hardly reassuring. This isn't a part-time job at McDonald's. It's the presidency of the United States," Gift said, adding that domestic and foreign crises don't unfold "only during standard business hours."

Biden echoed his aides' comments during a speech in Raleigh on Friday, telling the crowd that he doesn't speak or debate "as well as I used to."

"But I know what I do know — I know how to tell the truth … I know right from wrong. And I know how to do this job. I know how to get things done. And I know, like millions of Americans know, when you get knocked down, you get back up," he said.

Biden's decision to highlight the criticism of his age could "backfire," according to Gift, who said it could become even more prominent in voters' minds.

"Lots of Americans might reasonably ask: what else doesn't Biden do as well as he used to? Interact with foreign leaders as well as he used to? Negotiate with Congress as well as he used to? Make decisions about war and peace as well as he used to?" Gift said.

As BI's Katherine Tangalakis-Lippert and Erin Snodgrass previously noted, Biden is using a Trumpian strategy: asking voters not to count him out despite clear flaws in his campaign.

Andrew Payne, an author and foreign policy expert, told BI that the Biden campaign may also regret framing the debate as a one-off because the president may struggle at future campaign events.

"By framing Biden's performance as a 'blip,' campaign surrogates are trying to reset expectations. This carries some risk if the president again fails to meet them when he next goes toe-to-toe with Donald Trump," said Payne, author of "War on the Ballot: How the Election Cycle Shapes Presidential Decision-Making in War."

Payne pointed out that the "blip" narrative could have some truth to it, especially as he was "noticeably more assured in his public comments the day after the debate."

Gift isn't convinced, saying there's little evidence to suggest that Biden will overcome his issues with public speaking.

"It's hard for Biden's team to characterize the debate as 'just a blip' when the White House has spent much of the last four years shielding him from public view, with the exception of pre-written speeches read from a teleprompter," Gift said.

"He's done virtually no adversarial interviews, and his number of press conferences with Q&A have been far fewer than his predecessors," he added.