• Scooter Braun announced he's retiring from music management after 23 years.
• Braun is best known for guiding the careers of young stars like Justin Bieber and Ariana Grande.
• He also made headlines for buying Taylor Swift's back catalog, which led to an explosive feud.

After discovering one of this century's biggest pop acts, Justin Bieber, as a tween in the 2000s, Scooter Braun also became one of the music industry's power players — building a reputation as "a trailblazer who harnessed the power of social media to turn his artists into global brand names," according to Business Insider's Anna Silman.

On Monday, the music mogul officially retired from management after 23 years.

His announcement paid tribute to high-profile clients like Bieber, Demi Lovato, and Ariana Grande, all of whom severed ties with Braun last year. He will remain active as the CEO of Hybe America.

From his days working as a party promoter in Atlanta to his $300 million acquisition that got him on the wrong side of Taylor Swift, here's everything you need to know about Scooter Braun.

Scooter Braun, 42, was born in New York City and grew up in Greenwich, Connecticut.

Braun's parents, Ervin and Susan, raised Scooter (real name Scott), and his siblings Adam, Sam, Cornelio, and Liza in the suburbs. In their household, sports like basketball, football, and swimming, were given priority, according to The New Yorker.

He was his high school class president at Greenwich High School, according to Atlanta Creative Loafing.

 

Scooter is a childhood nickname that just stuck around — and he hates it.

Scooter's parents named him Scott but everyone else in his life knows him by his nickname Scooter, which he was given while attending a first-grade birthday party.

"I hated it, and my brother found out that I hated it and kept calling me Scooter," he told The Hollywood Reporter in 2012.

The nickname stuck, with the manager confirming that — with the exception of his parents — "pretty much everyone else calls me Scooter."

Braun said basketball played a huge role in his career.

Basketball was especially important in Braun's upbringing, he told The New Yorker.

His father Ervin founded an Amateur Athletic Union (AAU) team called the Connecticut Flame. In 1998, when Scooter was 17, the Brauns became the legal guardians for two AAU players who once played on the Mozambique national team — Sam Manhanga, then-15, and Cornelio Gouibunda, then-14.

"The game made me professional," he said of the real-world business values he believes he has because of it. "That I shouldn't be afraid of a full-court press. It's my fault when we lose; it's their victory when we win."

Braun attended Emory University, where he played Division III basketball and earned money by promoting parties.

According to Emory University, Braun hit the ground running when he got to Georgia.

The college student promoted parties at clubs around Atlanta. The events attracted high-profile guests like Usher and Ludacris.

Through his club promotion work, Braun got a job offer to run marketing at So So Def Recordings. He never finished his degree at Emory.

As Braun tells it, Jermaine Dupri approached the then-college student at an event and offered him the role of head of marketing at his label, So So Def.

Braun accepted, left Emory without a degree, and that was that, according to The New Yorker. 

After leaving So So Def, Braun took to alternative routes to finding work and new talent. That's when he stumbled upon little-known rapper Asher Roth on MySpace.

During an interview with Complex's "Blueprint" podcast, Braun said that when he was fired from So So Def, he had enough money to sustain himself and his two, then-unknown clients for 13 months.

Eleven months in, things were looking bleak; money was running low and his clients weren't quite having the luck he'd hoped for.

On a particularly hard day, he called his dad crying. And then, Asher Roth arrived.

"The next day Asher came in and played me 'I Love College,' and the publishing deal saved our company," Braun said. "It just shows you how close success and failure lie."

Around the same time, he found a young singer from Canada on YouTube. His name? Justin Bieber.

As a young teenager, Justin Bieber spent his time busking and sharing videos of himself singing on YouTube. Luckily, he caught the attention of Braun, who told The New Yorker that he pitched Bieber to both Usher and Justin Timberlake. 

Both men were interested in signing the young singer and reportedly engaged in a bidding war. But it was up to Bieber, who chose to be mentored by Usher and signed to Island Def Jam.

The rest was pop history.

Braun once said he considers himself a "camp counselor for pop stars."

While Bieber was his brand's flagship star for many years, Braun has been credited for guiding a long list of A-list artists.

Indeed, Braun seems to have a hand in every pot in the music industry, but especially pop music. He signed Carly Rae Jepsen after she broke out with the diamond-certified smash "Call Me Maybe" and began mentoring Ariana Grande when she was still a young actor on Nickelodeon.

Braun has also managed clients like Kanye West, Usher, Karlie Kloss, Tori Kelly, The Black Eyed Peas, and Martin Garrix, per his website.

In 2018, he branched out into film, forming Mythos Studios, which seeks to make movies based on comic book franchises.

In 2018, Braun teamed up with Marvel Studios' founding chairman David Maisel to create Mythos Studios, their own studio focused on creating comic book movies and franchises, Vulture reported.

At the time it was reported that the studio had three movies in development, "Fathom" and  "Soulfire" — based on the cult Aspen Comics properties — and "Cupid," which was slated to feature Justin Bieber as the titular character.

While the movies haven't made it to the big screen in the five years that have passed, The Hollywood Reporter said in May 2023 that "Cupid" is still in development (and Bieber is still attached). There have been no updates on the status of the other two movies.

Braun is also involved in philanthropy, including the March for Our Lives.

In 2017, Billboard called Braun "Music's First Responder."

He's organized events like the Hand in Hand ­telethon (co-sponsored with Bun B) to raise money for the victims of Hurricanes Harvey and Irma. Along with his client Ariana Grande, he led the One Love Manchester benefit show for the victims of the terrorist bombing at her May 2017 concert in the UK city.

He also lent an organizational hand to the student organizers of the anti-gun violence protest, March for Our Lives, held in Washington DC in 2018, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

Braun has a large stable of labels and companies. It briefly included Big Machine Records, which he purchased in 2019. He sold the label to the South Korean company Hybe in 2021.

In June 2019, Braun's company, Ithaca Holdings LLC, acquired Big Machine Label Group.

In the $330 million purchase, Braun gained control of Taylor Swift's first six albums, which she had released through the Nashville-based label before she signed a new contract with Republic Records.

Swift's master recordings made up $140 million of that valuation, according to Billboard. 

The following year, Ithaca Holdings sold Swift's masters to Shamrock Holdings for a reported $405 million, making Ithaca a $265 million profit, the outlet reported. 

In April 2021, it was announced that South Korean company Hybe had acquired Ithaca Holdings, including Big Machine, in a $1.05 billion deal. As part of the sale, Braun became Hybe America's CEO and joined the company's board of directors. 

Braun's purchase of Big Machine sparked an explosive feud with Swift, who said she was not given a fair chance to buy her own music.

Swift was a foundational client for Big Machine, which was founded in 2005.

A few hours after Braun's purchase of Big Machine was announced, the megastar wrote a blog post on Tumblr to express her disapproval. Swift said she'd tried to buy her master recordings for years but had not been given the chance.

Instead, Swift had said she was offered the chance to sign a new contract that would require her to create six more albums under the label in exchange for the masters of the first six, a term that she felt was "unacceptable."

Swift added that she was unaware that Braun — whom she described as an "incessant, manipulative bully" — would be the one to acquire her music until it was publicly announced.

"Scooter has stripped me of my life's work, that I wasn't given an opportunity to buy," she wrote. "Essentially, my musical legacy is about to lie in the hands of someone who tried to dismantle it."

In no uncertain terms, Swift also decried Big Machine CEO's Scott Borchetta's role in the scenario. 

"This is my worst case scenario," she wrote. "This is what happens when you sign a deal at fifteen to someone for whom the term 'loyalty' is clearly just a contractual concept. And when that man says 'Music has value,' he means its value is beholden to men who had no part in creating it."

Swift's post caused a ripple effect across the industry.

It seems like everyone had an opinion about the clash between Swift and Braun.

After Swift shared her post on Tumblr, Bieber fired back with a long Instagram caption defending Braun.

Hailey Bieber commented on the post, calling her husband a "gentleman." But Cara Delevingne commented that he missed the point and called Bieber out in the comments for "tearing women down."

Borchetta responded in a lengthy post of his own, denying Swift's account of the deal.

Demi Lovato, who was managed by Braun at the time, also called him a "good man" on her Instagram Story.

However, across the industry, many who were not managed by the mogul showed their support for Swift. Halsey, Iggy Azalea, and Todrick Hall (once formerly in Braun's stable), among others, spoke out in her defense. Meanwhile, Swift's public crusade for ownership inspired younger artists like Olivia Rodrigo to negotiate for more control in their record contracts. 

Swift went on to launch her "Taylor's Version" series — rerecordings of her first six albums — in an unprecedented move to reclaim her past works. She has continued to criticize Braun in interviews and has written several songs that allude to their sour relationship.

For his part, Braun said he "regrets" how he handled the situation with Swift's masters.

Last year, many of Braun's biggest clients parted ways with him. J Balvin, who signed with Braun in 2019, announced he was moving to new management in May.

The Columbian singer, best known for hits "Mi Gente" and "I Like It," has been managed by Roc Nation since his departure from Braun's SB Projects in May 2023, according to Billboard.

At the time, Justin Bieber was still under contract with Braun but was reportedly seeking new management.

The rumors of an exodus from SB Projects kicked off when Puck News reported that Bieber and Braun hadn't spoken in months. (This story was echoed by People.) Puck's Matthew Belloni reported that Bieber was "poking around for a new agency or manager."

Representatives for both Bieber and Braun initially denied the report, per Page Six, and sources confirmed Bieber was technically still managed by Braun. (According to Billboard, Bieber still had four years left in his management contract.)

Prior to their reported estrangement, Braun steadied Bieber's career through tough times, including his string of arrests for vandalism, dangerous driving, and assault, and periods of low mental health.

Demi Lovato dropped Braun as a manager, which sources described as an "amicable" and "mutual" decision.

Billboard broke the news that Lovato, who signed with Braun in 2019, was seeking new management after splitting with Braun sometime in July. A source close to the "Sorry Not Sorry" singer confirmed the news to Business Insider.

A source also told Variety the decision was mutual and amicable.

Mere days later, representatives for Carly Rae Jepsen, BabyJake, and Asher Roth confirmed to AP that none of them were still working with Braun "and haven't for quite some time."

It was then reported that Ariana Grande, another of Braun's biggest clients, had also dropped him.

Grande began working with Braun in 2013 ahead of the release of her debut album, "Yours Truly." She briefly fired the manager in 2016 before rejoining his team.

Amid the flurry of reports that Braun's empire was crumbling, Belloni revealed on X that Grande had left SB Projects.

Although sources close to Braun initially denied Belloni's report, Billboard, People, and Variety subsequently confirmed Grande's departure, calling the decision "her choice." Some attributed the change to Braun's lack of engagement, saying that he had stepped back from management duties in recent years.

After 23 years, Braun announced the end of his management career. He described himself as "a father first, a CEO second, and a manager no more."

Nearly one year after Bieber, Lovato, Grande, and more severed ties with Braun, the mogul said his time as a manager had come to an end.

Instead, Braun will focus on his role as the CEO of Hybe America — the entertainment group that reps K-pop acts like BTS, Seventeen, NewJeans, and more — and on raising his three children, whom he shares with his ex-wife Yael Cohen.

In a nearly 1,400-word statement posted on Instagram, Braun paid tribute to the many clients he shepherded over the years — even alluding to their widely reported mass exodus, which he'd previously only joked about online.

"It's a strange feeling because I think I have wanted this for a while, but I was truly afraid to answer the question 'who would I be without them?'" Braun wrote. "I was really just 19 years old when I started. So for my entire adult life I played the role of an artist manager on call 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. And for 20 years I loved it."

"But as my children got older, and my personal life took some hits, I came to the realization that my kids were 3 superstars I wasn't willing to lose," he continued. "The sacrifices I was once willing to make I could no longer justify."

Braun said his plan to transition out of management was solidified last summer, when one of his "biggest clients" decided to "spread their wings and go in a new direction."

"We had been through so much together over the last decade, but instead of being hurt I saw it as a sign," Braun said, declining to identify the client in question. He added, "I always tried to take the high road."

• Harry Jowsey admitted he doesn't remember much of filming "Perfect Match" season 2.
• He said on his podcast, "Boyfriend Material," that he was drunk 90% of the time.
• He said he wasn't in the right headspace to be on the show because he'd just broke a 13-month sobriety.

Harry Jowsey may have made some bad decisions on season two of "Perfect Match," but he says he doesn't remember making many of them.

The reality star, who's best known for building a career as a YouTuber, influencer, and podcaster after appearing on season one of the Netflix dating show "Too Hot to Handle" and recently appeared on season 32 of "Dancing With The Stars," caught the ire of "Perfect Match" fans after he abruptly dumped his first partner, Elys Hutchinson, for "Love Is Blind" star Jessica Vestal. Then, in episode nine, his relationship with Jessica begins to fall apart after he's accused of kissing another contestant off-camera.

Addressing his behavior on his podcast, "Boyfriend Material," Harry acknowledged he made many "dumb decisions" but was not in the right mindset to film the show.

"I just want to preface that it was a year ago. At that time, I just broke my 13-month sobriety. I was going through a bit of a breakup. I was going through a hard time," Harry said.

He added that alcohol was a factor in his behavior on the show, and said he didn't remember much of filming it because he was drunk.

"I was absolutely sideways 90% of the time," he said. "There's a lot of conversations and things that we all see that I'm seeing for the first time and I'm like, 'Why did I say that? What is going on?'"

"If you look at my eyes, I look very drunk. I look like I've got problems, and I did have a lot of problems," he continued.

Harry recalled that he would joke about drinking shots instead of water and said he brought alcohol into the vans that would take the cast to the couples challenge locations.

"There was no limits with the alcohol, so we just kept going, and I realized that maybe there's alcoholic tendencies inside of me that were coming out like every day," Harry said, adding that he "lived a hundred different lives" since the series was filmed and would have made different decisions now.

It's not uncommon for cast members on a reality TV show to have unlimited access to alcohol, though some series like "Love Island" and "Bachelor in Paradise" have instituted limits on how many drinks a cast member can have each day or each hour in recent seasons.

Harry said he turned to alcohol instead of talking to Elys after his date in episode three.

On the podcast, Harry addressed his argument with Elys after he decided to dump her for Jessica in episode three.

On the show, Harry avoids speaking to Elys for most of the night after his date with Jessica, then tells Elys their relationship is going nowhere.

Harry said on his podcast that he felt the relationship was "stagnant," but admitted he should have spoken to Elys immediately that night.

"Harry today would have just bit the bullet and had that confrontational conversation," he said. "Harry back then was so afraid of conflict and confrontation that I was like, what would be great is if I just go get drunk and then figure it out later."

Harry said that he was drunk during his conversation Elys, so he "didn't know what was going on" but felt he needed to "follow my heart" rather than string her along.

"I was also a little bit drunk, and I want to tell her how I felt, and quite honestly, I look like a bit of a tithead in that situation," he said.

Elys responded to the podcast episode by sharing a TikTok video with the caption, "Imagine thinking releasing a podcast would be a good idea."

• The US Treasury and IRS are closing a tax loophole used by the uber-wealthy.
• They're cracking down on 'opaque' business structures that 'inflate' deductions. 
• The proposed regulations could generate $50 billion in fresh tax revenues, the agencies said.

The Treasury and IRS proposed new tax regulations Monday targeting the uber-wealthy that they say could result in $50 billion in fresh tax revenues over the next decade.

The initiative seeks to crack down on "related party basis shifting transactions" — or the use of "opaque business structures to inflate tax deductions," according to a Treasury press release.

This occurs, for instance, when a single company operating as different legal entities shifts the tax basis from a property that doesn't generate deductions to one that does, the agency explained.

The practice is contributing to the $160 billion annual tax gap among the top 1% of filers, the Treasury said.

Filings from pass-through businesses with more than $10 million in assets increased 70% from 2010 to 2019, the Treasury said, as audits fell from 3.8% to 0.1% over the same period.

The multi-stage initiative follows a year of research, the Treasury said, and proposes several new rules, including increasing reporting for basis-shifting transactions.

The agencies also issued a revenue ruling stating that certain transactions will be challenged for lacking economic substance.

"Treasury and the IRS are focused on addressing high-end tax abuse from all angles," Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said in a statement, noting that "resources from President Biden's Inflation Reduction Act" have helped combat "long-standing abuses."

The agencies said they will consider public comments before issuing final rules.

• Elon Musk shared some of his favorite podcasts and audiobooks on a recent livestream.
• He said he's "a big history guy" and named several including "The Explorers" and "Hardcore History."
• Here's the full list of recommendations he shared.

Elon Musk recently shared some of his favorite podcasts, and —spoiler alert — they're mostly on the subject of history.

The Tesla and SpaceX CEO was asked for podcast recommendations on a stream on his platform X, formerly Twitter, last week.

"I like history podcasts in general," he said, according to one Tesla fan's recap of the 5-hour livestream. "I just generally love history. Any kind of narrative is just a story really, it's a story about reality or at least someone's perception of reality."

Musk named the "Explorers Podcast," which focuses on "the lives, explorations and discoveries of history's greatest explorers," according to its website. He's also a fan of "The Age of Napoleon Podcast," which is described as centering on "the life and career of Napoleon Bonaparte as well as the general context of Europe between the early eighteenth and early nineteenth century."

Dan Carlin's "Hardcore History" podcast — known for its "unique blend of high drama, masterful narration and Twilight Zone-style twists," according to its Apple Podcasts page — is "probably my top recommendation," Musk said.

Musk also shared some of his favorites in another medium: audiobooks. He likes "The Story of Civilization" by Will and Ariel Durant as well as the Penguin edition of "The Iliad."

Musk has recommended several other books over the years, including sci-fi novels and books on artificial intelligence.

• Many Americans are struggling, but make too much money to qualify for social assistance.
• That's because the US poverty line is outdated, leaving behind workers who could benefit from help.
• Experts suggest modernizing poverty measures to reflect real costs and provide better access to aid.

Jason Hopkins, 43, has never made over $35,000 a year.

"If I made $45,000 a year, I would feel wealthy," the Illinois-based custodian told Business Insider.

Hopkins said he's lived paycheck to paycheck for the last decade. He's unable to save money from his income and doesn't go out; he buys a new shirt once a year. Existing like that is "draining," he said.

But he makes too much money for most forms of social assistance. This is a common predicament among Americans who are ALICE — asset-limited, income-constrained, and employed. Many forms of help are tied to the federal poverty line, which is calculated using a formula that has largely not been updated since the 1960s.

"The way we measure poverty is incredibly outdated," said Beth Jarosz, senior program director at the Population Reference Bureau, a nonprofit organization that conducts demographic analyses.

BI has heard stories from parents forced to choose between putting food on the table and supporting their children's education, older adults worried they will never be able to retire, childfree couples unable to access social services, and individuals concerned they will never be able to pay down debt.

These households could use more access to social assistance — but the US' poverty threshold is leaving them behind. If America modernized its way of measuring economic needs, millions of low-income families could better make ends meet. The real question is whether the US ever will.

The poverty line is calculated in an outdated way

The current federal poverty line for the 48 contiguous states and Washington, DC, is $15,060 a year for one person, $20,440 for a family of two, and $31,200 for a family of four. This does not vary by location or cost of living, but it's adjusted for inflation each year.

"Straight up, it is too low. It is not a sufficient way to measure how current families are doing," Kyle Ross, a policy analyst for inclusive economy at the Center for American Progress, told BI.

Per the most recent Census data, the official poverty rate in 2022 was 11.5%, or about 37.9 million Americans. In 2022, 42% of Americans were below the ALICE threshold, the amount households need to cover their essential costs, according to research organization United For ALICE.

Mollie Orshansky, a government worker, originally estimated the federal poverty line formula in the 1960s using USDA data, which showed people often spent around a third of their income on food.

But that doesn't account for how Americans actually live. Americans now spend just around 13% of their income on groceries, as food prices have fallen relative to incomes and housing costs have risen disproportionately. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, people spent 33.3% of their income on housing last year.

"With the way that costs have changed, the poverty measure that's just based on how much you're spending on groceries really does not reflect what people are paying for their expenses today," Jarosz said.

Over 30 government programs use the Department of Health and Human Services poverty guidelines — or higher percentages based on the federal poverty line — to determine eligibility criteria.

For instance, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) is capped at 130% of the federal poverty line — which would be $2,694 in gross monthly income for a family of three — while the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) is 185% — $47,767 a year for a family of three. Head Start, the National School Lunch Program, and parts of Medicare and Medicaid are among other programs relying on federal poverty line eligibility.

Notably, some outlier programs like Supplemental Security Income, the Earned Income Tax Credit, and Section 8 low-income housing assistance do not rely on the federal poverty line.

"So much of federal policy, state policy is focused around the poverty level," Stephanie Hoopes, national director at United For ALICE, told BI.

That's all leading to an ever-widening gap of Americans who are technically in poverty but still aren't getting by.

"These thresholds have a cliff problem where they often become a trap where you have someone who is at a very low-income level and work because oftentimes programs have work requirements," Jarosz said. "Maybe over the holidays, they get an additional shift that they've picked up, and that bumps their income up just enough that they lose their Medicaid coverage that month."

That financial cliff has left people like Melinda Binkley, 56, "less than $100" away from receiving SNAP or rental assistance but struggling to keep a roof over her family's head in Stillwater, Minnesota. Ryan Arbuckle, 36, also doesn't qualify for government help on his IT job salary. He's a single father to five children near St. Louis and can barely afford groceries and utility bills.

Oleg Parubin, a 45-year-old security guard in Manhattan, makes $45,000 a year but struggles to afford insulin for his Type 1 diabetes and worries about eviction. Once he started making more at his job, he became ineligible for various benefits such as SNAP or reduced-fare transportation, which he estimates amounted to over $10,000 a year in lost benefits.

"I wasn't able to find an answer to how people can make it today, " Parubin said. "I just decided it is a faulty system, something is broken and doesn't work properly. But I still don't know what can I do."

To survive, these Americans who fall outside financial safety nets have resorted to selling plasma for extra income, skipping meals, and risking the loss of their electricity or water supply because of delayed bill payments.

"It really creates a lot of additional stress and burden on families in a case where having consistent benefits available to everybody would be much more efficient for society as a whole," Jarosz said.

There are better ways to calculate poverty

Though many experts agree the poverty line is outdated, it's still used to determine cutoffs for a slew of federal assistance programs, leaving people like Melissa Hedden behind.

Hedden, 41, has spent most of this year moving between Airbnbs and hotels in southeastern North Carolina with her partner and 11-year-old daughter. Her family's landlord raised the rent and evicted them last fall, and she can't afford the fees necessary to lease a new apartment. Still, her $3,300 monthly household income is too high to qualify for a rental voucher.

"I'm not homeless enough to get certain help because I have a roof over my head," she previously told BI. "But I'm too homeless to get a job because I don't know where I'm going to live in three weeks. What do you do?"

Much of the resistance to changing the federal poverty line could stem from the government's desire not to inflate the number of people in poverty overnight.

"No one really wants to be the politician that is behind an increase in poverty," Ross said, adding: "Even if it may be a more accurate representation of how Americans are really doing financially, it looks pretty concerning on paper."

Expanding eligibility would also mean that, intuitively, more people would receive assistance — and that could cost a lot more money.

"It can definitely be a costly measure to do that," Ross said. "I personally think that would be worth it; already, these programs are not meeting the needs of families as they are."

Other barriers to updating the poverty line are political. Congress would need to pass legislation in order to officially change the way the US measures economic need, or the Biden administration would have to step in, which would both be unlikely in such a polarized political environment.

Bills that expand social services and tax credits are also expensive and historically difficult to pass — most recently, with the expanded child tax credit being stalled in the Senate, and plans to expand Medicaid being blocked in multiple states this year.

Experts differ on how to fix poverty measures, but there is already progress on solutions

While researchers differ on how the poverty line should be tweaked, many agree it needs an overhaul.

"We know the poverty level is too low to reflect the true number of people who are in need," Jarosz said. "Is there really a need to have a threshold? Is there really a need to have a cap?"

And Ross said that even if thresholds don't change, programs could still work to eliminate many barriers to entry, like burdensome application processes — making them more accessible to people who do qualify.

Rep. Kevin Mullin, a Democrat from California, has introduced legislation — called the Poverty Line Act— that would modernize the federal poverty line, taking into account actual costs of goods and how prices differ across regions.

"The current poverty line is woefully out of touch with the realities that Americans face today," Mullin told BI in a statement, noting that the line doesn't account for how costs vary across the country — especially for key essentials like childcare and home rentals.

"Unfortunately, many working families make too little to afford their basic needs, yet because the federal poverty line is so low, they are not eligible for safety net benefits," Mullin added.

The federal poverty line probably won't be changed for some time, Jarosz said, given how many benefits programs rely on it. Still, there is precedent for programs providing more widespread boosts or sidestepping stringent eligibility and spending requirements.

The universal or guaranteed basic income model, which typically gives participants between $100 and $1,000 a month with no strings attached, has been tried over 100 times since 2019 and has helped thousands of households find housing and food security.

Unlike traditional social services like SNAP or Medicaid, participants can spend the money wherever they need it most. Basic income gives households an income floor, said Michael Tubbs, the founder and chair of Mayors for a Guaranteed Income and former mayor of Stockon, California, which launched the recent wave of GBI pilots.

"The top benefit is the choice and the ability to have agency and to figure out how to use your money because we know that no one's smart enough to think for everyone," Tubbs said.

Hopkins — the ALICE in Illinois — has benefited from government assistance before. When the pandemic hit, he received enhanced unemployment benefits and a stimulus check — two measures that, unlike many other forms of social assistance, were widely available and not constrained by the federal poverty line.

For him, that unprecedented support meant he could buy a house with his fiancé and live alongside two other roommates.

"The only way I could afford the down payment on this house is from the expanded unemployment during the pandemic and the stimulus," he said. "If we didn't have this house, I don't know how we would live."

Do you make above the poverty line but not enough to meet your daily needs? Reach out to these reporters at jkaplan@businessinsider.com, nsheidlower@businessinsider.com, and allisonkelly@businessinsider.com.

• Giraffes have the longest necks of any living animal but scientists can't agree on why. 
• Scientists largely agree that males drove the evolution of long necks to compete for mates.
• But a new study offers clues to the contrary, challenging the leading "necks for sex" theory.

Giraffes didn't always look like the elegant giants we recognize — ancient giraffes looked more like deer. But something happened over the past millennia that drove giraffes to evolve the longest necks of any living animal.

What that driver was, however, has been the subject of a 150-year-long debate among evolutionary biologists.

In the 19th century, Charles Darwin and Jean Baptiste Lamarck suggested that giraffes evolved long necks to help them snatch leaves on trees. A later theory usurped Darwin and Lamarck's, suggesting that male giraffes evolved long necks to fight and compete for female mates. This "necks for sex" idea has been the leading theory since the late '90s. But that may soon change.

A recent study published in the peer-reviewed journal Mammalian Biology offers new clues to the debate that could prove Darwin and Lamarck may have been at least partially right all along.

Size doesn't always matter

Male giraffes have longer necks than females. For that reason, biologists have speculated that males drove the evolution of this physical feature.

Lead author of the new study, Douglas Cavener, wasn't entirely convinced. Yes, males have longer necks, but everything else on them is larger too, Cavener, who is a professor of biology at Penn State, told BI.

"I realized that the important question was, 'Do males have proportionally longer necks compared to the rest of their body?'" Cavener said.

So he and his colleagues — including his wife and daughter, who are co-authors on the paper — started to investigate. They estimated neck length from photos of adult Masai giraffes, a species of giraffe native to Tanzania and southern Kenya in East Africa.

They counted pixels in each photo of both captive and wild giraffes to measure various body parts including the neck, legs, and body trunk. When they crunched the numbers, Cavener and his colleagues discovered that the males fell short.

"What we found was pretty surprising, which was that females have proportionately longer necks than males, just the opposite of the prediction," Cavener said, adding that "it turns out that females also have longer trunks proportionally."

"So that kind of turned things upside down," Cavener said.

Why giraffes have long necks

Female giraffes give birth about every two years. Gestation takes about 15 months. So, that means they're pregnant or lactating most of their reproductive lives, Cavener said.

That requires a lot of energy. But female giraffes are picky eaters, so "they'll telescope their neck into a bush to really get" the best leaves, Cavener said.

Cavener said she thinks that because females are consistently in need of more energy and nutrition, this is what drove ancient giraffes to develop such long necks over millennia.

"It sort of goes back to Darwin and Lamarck's theory that this was likely driven by competition for food rather than for mating success. But the important twist is it puts the emphasis on females rather than males," Cavener added.

Cavener said this may be the first study to suggest that females, not males, are the reason for giraffes' long necks. That's important not only for understanding giraffe evolution but how male and female giraffes behave differently, which could help with conservation efforts.

"This study, for me, highlights the importance of understanding the different behavioral strategies used by males and females in their skills for survival," and how those strategies can drive evolution in a species long-term, Zoe Raw — a behavioral biologist and giraffe expert who wasn't involved with the research — told Business Insider over e-mail.

Cavener's study is part of a larger effort to help preserve the species. In 2015, the International Union for Conservation of Nature listed Masai giraffes as endangered. Illegal poaching and other human interference have decimated the population. Hunting Masai giraffes is illegal in East Africa, but poachers still track them down for bushmeat and the purported health benefits in their bone marrow and brains.

While there's typically pushback anytime a new idea enters the conversation, Raw said the new study is convincing enough to challenge the leading "necks for sex" theory.

"Nothing can ever 'prove' what causes evolution, but as far as developing a robust and realistic, evidence-based theory, I think this paper has nailed it," Raw said.

• Angelina Jolie filed for divorce from Brad Pitt in September 2016.
• A judge officially ruled both stars legally single in 2019. 
• The former couple share six children: Maddox, Zahara, Shiloh, Pax, Knox, and Vivienne. 

Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt have been embroiled in a messy legal battle since ending their relationship. 

Jolie first filed for divorce from Pitt in 2016, two years after the pair got married at their Chateau Miraval in France. A judge declared both actors legally single in 2019.   

The biggest stake in the divorce continues to be the custody arrangements for the couple's youngest children.

In 2021, Pitt was awarded joint custody of his six children with Jolie, a source familiar with the situation confirmed to Business Insider. Page Six first reported the news.

"Pitt has always been seeking the opportunity to have more time with his children and prioritized their well being while the other side did everything to try and stop that," the source, whose identity is known to BI but is being withheld due to the nature of the information, said at the time.

Then, in a 2022 court filing, Jolie accused Pitt of choking one of their children and striking another on a September 2016 flight. 

Here's a primer on all of the Jolie-Pitt children.

Maddox Jolie-Pitt, 22

Maddox was adopted by Jolie in 2002 from Cambodia and originally changed his name from Rath Vibol to Maddox Chivan Thornton Jolie when she was still married to Billy Bob Thornton.

The following year, Jolie opened a foundation in Cambodia (now the Maddox Jolie-Pitt Foundation) which helps provide healthcare, education, and conservation projects. In 2006, a children's center was opened under his name in Cambodia's capital.

Maddox had a small part in Pitt's 2013 movie "World War Z," playing a zombie who was shot. Maddox also helped his mother with work on a Netflix original film based in his home country of Cambodia. Jolie directed and produced an adaptation of the Loung Ung memoir, "First They Killed My Father: A Daughter of Cambodia Remembers."

"The film will change Mad, but as much as he's discovering the horrors of the past, he'll also be discovering the culture before the war, the dignity of his country, how they held their heads up," Jolie told Vogue in 2015 of Maddox's role working on the film.

Pitt formally applied to adopt Maddox in 2005 at the same time he applied to adopt the couple's other adopted daughter, Zahara.

It has also been reported that an alleged fight between Pitt and Maddox on a plane trip may have played a role in Jolie's decision to file for divorce. In a statement released by Jolie's attorney at the time of the announcement, it was said the decision to divorce "was made for the health of the family."

The FBI cleared Pitt of child abuse allegations in November 2016.

Maddox studied at Yonsei University in Seoul, South Korea. In a 2020 interview with Extra, Jolie said Maddox returned to the US to take his classes online during the pandemic.

In February 2021, Maddox showed off the large dragon tattoo he had inked on his right ribcage in a photo British Vogue published of Jolie cutting her son's hair. The photo was among several intimate at-home snapshots Jolie shared for the magazine's March cover story.

In April 2023, Maddox and Jolie attended a state dinner at the White House hosted by President Joe Biden in honor of South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol and First Lady Kim Keon Hee.

Zahara Marley Jolie-Pitt, 19

Jolie adopted Zahara from Ethiopia in 2005, right after Independence Day.

Zahara also provided her voice in "Kung Fu Panda 3" and has a small uncredited role in "Maleficent."

In 2011, Jolie started work on an Ethiopian facility to be named after her daughter for children who have been diagnosed with HIV or tuberculosis.

Zahara appears to be pretty close with sister Shiloh. The two have been seen out on shopping excursions together and attended Nickelodeon's 28th annual Kids' Choice Awards in 2015 with Angelina Jolie.

In 2019, Zahara launched a jewelry line, Zahara Collection, in collaboration with jeweler Robert Procop.

Jolie revealed in a March 2020 Time essay for International Women's Day that she "spent the last two months in and out of surgeries with my eldest daughter," referring to Zahara, but did not disclose the "medical challenges" her daughter was facing. A source told ET that month that Pitt had skipped that year's BAFTAs to be with Zahara during her recovery.

In October 2021, Zahara wore her mother's 2014 Oscars dress to the world premiere of Marvel's "Eternals." At the time, Jolie told Entertainment Tonight that all five kids who attended the event upcycled some of the stars' old belongings.

In late 2021, Zahara joined Jolie in Washington, DC, as the actor headed to meetings to "modernize and strengthen" the Violence Against Women Act.

Zahara started classes at Spelman College in Atlanta in fall 2022. The following year, she joined Spelman's Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority. In a video posted by Essence, she referred to herself as Zahara Marley Jolie, but it's unclear if she legally changed her name.

Shiloh Jolie-Pitt, 18

Pitt and Jolie's first biological daughter was born in May 2006. People paid a reported $4 million for the exclusive US rights to run the first photos of Shiloh.

When young, Shiloh preferred dressing in masculine clothes — fedoras and sometimes ties. In 2008, Pitt explained to Oprah how then-2-year-old Shiloh would ask to be called John.

Two years later, Jolie opened up to Vanity Fair about their daughter.

"She likes tracksuits, she likes [regular] suits," Jolie said. "She likes to dress like a boy. She wants to be a boy. So we had to cut her hair. She likes to wear boys' everything. She thinks she's one of the brothers."

As she got older, Shiloh debuted a new look with longer hair, which she often wears up when attending events with her family.

Shiloh may have ditched suits for the time being, but often opts for fun and comfortable shoes over heels on red carpets.

Jolie wrote in the same March 2020 Time essay where she discussed Zahara's surgery that another of her daughters underwent hip surgery around the same time. The actor didn't specify whether she was talking about Shiloh or her youngest daughter, Vivienne, but People confirmed at the time that then-13-year-old Shiloh had been photographed walking on crutches. 

In 2022, Shiloh went viral after dancing to Doja Cat's song, "Vegas," which is featured in the movie "Elvis," in a video posted by choreographer Hamilton Evans. 

On her 18th birthday on May 27, Shiloh filed to legally change her name to Shiloh Jolie, TMZ and People reported. 

As for Pitt's response, a source told People: "He's aware and upset that Shiloh dropped his last name. He's never felt more joy than when she was born. He always wanted a daughter."

"The reminders that he's lost his children, is of course not easy for Brad. He loves his children and misses them. It's very sad," the source added.

Pax Jolie-Pitt, 20

Jolie's second oldest son, Pax Thien Jolie-Pitt, was adopted in 2007 from Vietnam when he was 3 years old. His name means peaceful sky in Latin and Vietnamese, respectively. Pitt adopted Pax a year later in 2008.

Pax, along with his brother Maddox, has shown off some cool hairstyles over the years ranging from mohawks to dyed looks. He celebrated his seventh birthday with the family in Paris, where they rode in a hot-air balloon and went on a party cruise. That same year, in 2011, Jolie took Pax back to Vietnam for a visit so he could learn more about his culture. 

A zip-up shark hoodie became a staple outfit of his to hide from the paparazzi. 

Like some of his siblings, he also had a small role in one of his parents' films. He had a small uncredited role in Jolie's "Maleficent." Pax also recorded some animal noises for pandas in "Kung Fu Panda 3" along with his siblings Zahara, Shiloh, and Knox. Pax was reportedly helping Jolie with her Netflix film by taking still photos on set.

Jolie revealed during a 2016 appearance on BBC Radio 4's Woman's Hour that Pax has an interest in music and deejaying. 

In 2021, Pax graduated from a Los Angeles high school. According to The Sun, he skipped his graduation, not wanting to draw attention at the event.

Vivienne and Knox Léon Jolie-Pitt, 15

Fraternal twins Knox Léon and Vivienne Marcheline were born on July 12, 2008. Knox is the middle name of Pitt's grandfather and Leon is the name of Jolie's great-great-grandfather. Marcheline is the name of Jolie's mother. 

In 2011, Jolie described Vivienne, whom she refers to as Vivi, as a "girly girl" who likes to get her nails done and loves the color pink. Jolie used the words "elegant and delicate" to describe her youngest daughter to Marie Claire in 2011. Meanwhile, Knox is just the opposite, according to Jolie, who described him then as a tough little "dude" who likes dinos and swords.

Vivienne played a pint-sized version of Princess Aurora in "Maleficent" alongside her mom, a role for which she reportedly earned $3,000 per week. Knox, meanwhile, recorded animal noises for "Kung Fu Panda 3," in which Jolie voiced Tigress.

The twins modeled in Vogue alongside their siblings and parents for the magazine's November 2015 issue. Jolie told Vanity Fair that Vivienne wanted to learn Arabic while Knox was learning sign language.

And Knox may have a future in design. For Mother's Day in 2014, Knox had one of his Maleficent drawings turned into a gold ring. Vivienne, meanwhile, practices karate.

Knox and Vivienne spend a lot of time with their mom, accompanying her to the grocery store, heading to a musical, and going on a theme park outing. Five of the Jolie-Pitt clan joined their mother at the premieres of her 2021 Marvel movie, "Eternals."

Recently, Vivienne and Jolie attended the red carpet premiere of the Broadway show" The Outsiders: A New Musical," which the actor produced. Vivienne is listed as "Vivienne Jolie" in the Playbill, but it's unclear if she legally changed her name.

On Sunday, the mother-daughter duo wore color-coordinated outfits to the 2024 Tony Awards, where Jolie won her first Tony for producing "The Outsiders: A New Musical."

"Viv reminds me of my mother in that she isn't focused on being the center of attention but in being a support to other creatives," Jolie said in a statement obtained and shared by People in August. "She's very thoughtful and serious about theatre and working hard to best understand how to contribute."

• Accusations of sexual violence and cannibalism against Armie Hammer began surfacing in January 2021.
• After investigating Hammer, TMZ reported the LAPD closed the case without pressing charges.
• Hammer addressed the allegations and his downfall in a new interview on the "Painful Lessons" podcast.

Armie Hammer has been the subject of intense scrutiny since claims of a cannibalism fetish began spreading in January 2021, when an anonymous Instagram account posted unverified purported DMs with the actor. 

In his first interview since the scandal, Hammer told Air Mail in February 2023 that he was sexually abused by a pastor as a teenager and that he became suicidal after his downfall. He also denied any criminal wrongdoing, saying instead that he never pushed BDSM relationships or encounters on anyone. He echoed the same statements in an interview on the "Painful Lessons" podcast in June 2024.

A woman also accused him of a "violent" rape that took place in 2017 and spoke at a press conference in March 2021.

The Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) confirmed to Insider the same month that it was investigating Hammer as the main suspect in a sexual assault allegation. An anonymous source told TMZ in December 2021 that the case had wrapped with the actor unlikely to face charges.

It all started when the Instagram account @houseofeffie posted dozens of screenshots of direct messages that it claimed Hammer had sent women between 2016 and 2020. The woman who shared the screenshots, who has since been identified as Efrosina Angelova, per The Hollywood Reporter, is the woman who accused Hammer of rape at the press conference in March 2021, according to Variety.

The messages in the screenshots, which are unverified, referred to fantasies involving domination and cannibalism, among other claims.

Hammer denied certain allegations against him, such as the allegation of rape, and simply avoided or refused to address others. He was dropped by two projects, including "The Offer," Paramount's series about the making of "The Godfather." He was also dropped by his agency and his publicist.

Hammer first began trending on social media in 2021 over alleged NSFW direct messages shared by the account @houseofeffie

In January 2021, an Instagram account called @houseofeffie began to share messages that the account claimed were from actor Armie Hammer. The messages, which remain unverified by media outlets including Insider, detailed fantasies including drinking blood, sexual domination, and even acts of cannibalism.

The messages began to go viral after being amplified by the Instagram gossip page @deuxmoi, which has 590,000 followers.

After @houseofeffie surfaced the claims, the account began to share other stories from women who it said had come forward with their own experiences and screenshots of their conversations with the 34-year-old "Call Me By Your Name" actor. While it is unconfirmed whether these messages are genuinely from Hammer, @houseofeffie insists they are and has tried to prove it by releasing what appear to be previously unseen photos of Hammer, which have since been deleted.

"Women approached me with their affair stories as we talked overwhelmed with grief for days and nights without sleeping or eating, with some ending up in the ER," the account admin wrote in an Instagram story, which was saved to the account's highlights reel.

"We collectively decided we have to speak out after how we were treated and seeing how the women in 2020 were being treated by him," the statement continued. "We cannot allow more women to endure what we are going through in the future."

Hammer stepped down from his next movie over what he called 'vicious and spurious online attacks' in mid-January

On January 13, 2021, days after the controversy had begun to unfold online, it was announced that Hammer had stepped down from a coming rom-com called "Shotgun Wedding," in which he was set to play the lead opposite the star and producer Jennifer Lopez.

"Given the imminent start date of 'Shotgun Wedding,' Armie has requested to step away from the film and we support him in his decision," a production representative confirmed to Insider. The role was recast with Josh Duhamel taking Hammer's place.

The actor and his team vigorously denied the allegations against him.

"I'm not responding to these bulls— claims, but in light of the vicious and spurious online attacks against me, I cannot in good conscience now leave my children for 4 months to shoot a film in the Dominican Republic. Lionsgate is supporting me in this and I'm grateful to them for that," Hammer said in a January 13 statement to People.

Hammer's ex-wife Elizabeth Chambers and other exes have since commented on the alleged messages 

During the timing of the alleged messages, Hammer was married to Elizabeth Chambers. Prior to the current scandal, Hammer and Chambers had decided to end their 10-year marriage. Chambers filed for divorce on July 10, 2020, citing irreconcilable differences, according to People, and asked for primary custody of their children.

According to an exposé written by  Vanity Fair's Julie Miller on March 11, 2021, "The Hammers had been in expensive family therapy, but, to Elizabeth, the indiscretions — and more notably his decision to flee the family during a global pandemic — were the final straw." The article went on to claim that Armie mistakenly sent raunchy text messages meant for someone else to Chambers, which helped initiate the divorce. 

At first, Chambers was tight-lipped as the controversy unfolded on social media. But on February 1, 2021, she posted a full statement on Instagram saying she was "shocked, heartbroken, and devastated." 

"Heartbreak aside, I am listening, and will continue to listen and educate myself on these delicate matters," she wrote. "I didn't realize how much I didn't know."

"I support any victim of assault or abuse and urge anyone who has experienced this pain to seek the help she or he needs to heal," she continued.

Chambers is not the only one of Hammer's exes to speak out publicly about the supposed messages or share their own experiences with the actor. Previously, another ex named Courtney Vucekovich, 30, told Page Six that Hammer once told her that he "wants to break my rib and barbecue and eat it" in addition to alleging emotional abuse.

And ex-girlfriend Paige Lorenze shared explicit messages she claimed are between herself and Hammer to Page Six as well as detailing instances she claims were abusive.

"These latest messages are just further evidence of the reality of his dangerous proclivities and his reaction shows his blatant disregard for the women he has traumatized," the 22-year-old student told the publication. "I want to offer my continued support to the other women who have been preyed on by men and have the courage to come forward."

"These assertions about Mr. Hammer are patently untrue," his lawyer Andrew Brettler said in a statement shared to outlets including Page Six and Fox News. "Any interactions with this person, or any partner of his, were completely consensual in that they were fully discussed, agreed upon, and mutually participatory. The stories being perpetuated in the media are a misguided attempt to present a one-sided narrative with the goal of tarnishing Mr. Hammer's reputation, and communications from the individuals involved prove that."

The Daily Mail also reported that one of Hammer's exes, the writer Jessica Ciencin Henriquez, whose Twitter account is private, had posted about her experience with Hammer.

"If you are still questioning whether or not those Armie Hammer DMs are real (and they are) maybe you should start questioning why we live in a culture willing to give abusers the benefit of the doubt instead of victims," Henriquez tweeted, according to the Daily Mail.

Hammer's past behavior and quotes are now being re-examined with new scrutiny

Given the nature of the supposed messages, fans are going back through old interviews to find any connection.

In a Netflix Brazil interview for "Rebecca" in November 2020, for example, Hammer said his dream dinner guest would be the Marquis de Sade, an 18th-century French philosopher and writer famous for his erotic work that heavily involved sexual violence. The words "sadism" and "sadist" derive from de Sade's name.

And in 2013, Hammer described himself in an interview with Playboy magazine as being a "dominant lover."

"Well, if you're married to a feminist as I am, then it's … I don't know how much we can put here without my parents being embarrassed, but I used to like to be a dominant lover," the actor said.

"I liked the grabbing of the neck and the hair and all that. But then you get married and your sexual appetites change," he continued. "And I mean that for the better — it's not like I'm suffering in any way. But you can't really pull your wife's hair. It gets to a point where you say, 'I respect you too much to do these things that I kind of want to do.'"

That same year, the actor told Elle magazine that a former girlfriend tried to stab him while they were having sex.

"She was like: 'True love leaves scars. You don't have any.' And then she tried to stab me with a butcher knife," he said. "Of course I promptly broke up with her. Seven months later."

Hammer was dropped by both his agency, WME, and his personal publicist, the Hollywood Reporter and Variety reported on February 5, 2021.

The LAPD investigated a rape allegation against Hammer

The LAPD confirmed to Insider in March 2021 that they were investigating an allegation of rape against Hammer. 

It was not immediately clear whether the investigation was related to the accusation made by Angelova, who spoke about her alleged assault during a press conference Thursday alongside Gloria Allred, a high-profile women's rights attorney.

"On April 24, 2017, Armie Hammer violently raped me for over four hours in Los Angeles," she said at the conference, "during which he repeatedly slapped my head against a wall, bruising my face." She added that Hammer "also committed other acts of violence against me to which I did not consent." 

Angelova said that she tried to get away from Hammer, "but he wouldn't let me."

Hammer's lawyer, Andrew Brettler, denied the allegations in a statement provided to Insider. "Effie's own correspondence with Mr. Hammer undermines and refutes her outrageous allegations," Brettler said in the statement. 

The statement continued, "It was never Mr. Hammer's intention to embarrass or expose [Effie's] fetishes or kinky sexual desires, but she has now escalated this matter to another level by hiring a civil lawyer to host a public press conference. With the truth on his side, Mr. Hammer welcomes the opportunity to set the record straight."

Allred, Angelova's lawyer, told Insider in a statement: "I challenge Armie Hammer to present all, not some, of his communications with Effie to the Los Angeles Police Department and answer all of their questions directly rather than through his lawyers."

An anonymous source with "direct knowledge" of the case told TMZ in December 2021 that the LAPD wrapped its investigation and passed on their findings to the district attorney. They added that the actor wasn't likely to face charges because the case "wasn't strong."

In June 2023, the LA district attorney's office announced it wouldn't file charges against him. 

Hammer addressed the scandal in an interview with Air Mail

The actor told Air Mail in February 2023 that he contemplated suicide while quarantining in the Cayman Islands in February 2021.

"I just walked out into the ocean and swam out as far as I could and hoped that either I drowned, or was hit by a boat, or eaten by a shark. Then I realized that my kids were still on shore, and that I couldn't do that to my kids," he said.

He also said his desire to engage in BDSM emerged after he was molested by a youth pastor at age 13, citing a need for "control."

"What that did for me was it introduced sexuality into my life in a way that it was completely out of my control," Hammer said. "I was powerless in the situation. I had no agency in the situation. My interests then went to: I want to have control in the situation, sexually."

Hammer denied Angelova's rape allegation. Instead, he told Air Mail that the two engaged in a "scene" that they planned together over Facebook Messenger. He called the encounter a "consensual non-consent scene."

While he admitted to being emotionally abusive to his partners, he denied any criminal wrongdoing.

"I'm here to own my mistakes, take accountability for the fact that I was an asshole, that I was selfish, that I used people to make me feel better, and when I was done, moved on. And treated people more poorly than they should have been treated," he said.

Hammer said he's sober during an interview on the "Painful Lessons" podcast

In June 2024, Hammer appeared on the "Painful Lessons" podcast hosted by his friend and self-described "longtime Armie pal" Tyler Ramsey to once again speak about addiction and how the previous allegations against him led to a "career death."

Hammer said he attempted a "half-assed suicide attempt" but didn't go through with it because he thought about his two children.

"I hit really dark low points," Hammer told Ramsey. "There was a time where I was standing on the shore, and I just looked out at the ocean, and I thought, 'Yep, this is it.' And I just swam out really fucking far, and I thought, 'You know what, like I'm — I'm done, like there's nothing back there for me,'" Hammer said.

Hammer denied rumors that he is a cannibal, calling them "bizarre," and said he's now sober after doing an extended stint in rehab.

"I'm now at a place in my life where I'm really grateful for every single bit of it," Hammer said, looking back on the past few years, "because where I was in my life before all of that stuff happened to me I didn't feel good."

Moises Mendez II and Gabi Stevenson contributed to previous versions of this post.

• Personalized skincare brands are booming in popularity.
• Musely specializes in antiaging skincare and customized formulas with prescription ingredients.
• This article is part of "Trends in Healthcare," a series about the innovations and industry leaders shaping patient care.

For 20 years after getting pregnant, Cherry Jia tried everything to fade the dark patches on her face. After giving birth to her son, she had melasma, a fairly common skin discoloration caused by hormonal fluctuations during pregnancy.

Since the late '90s, she'd tried over-the-counter products, topical prescriptions, and in-office procedures like laser treatments, with little to no improvement. Even her husband's products didn't work for her. Jack Jia founded Musely Marketplace, an online beauty company that recruited over 3,000 brands and used influencers (or "muses") to promote the products through the platform. The treatments they sold for dark spots had no effect on her skin.

The site launched to much fanfare, but based on feedback from Cherry, some customers, and the influencers who worked for Musely at the time, "that's where we also start to realize a lot of these products that actually don't work," Jack Jia told Business Insider.

It struck him that hundreds of the products sold on his marketplace used the same few corporate manufacturers with "nearly identical creams and formulas," he said, making them about as effective as "scented water."

Jia asked Dr. Marie Jhin, a dermatologist he'd hired to help curate the products, to give him the inside scoop: Is there anything you can buy over the counter that's broadly effective for most people? No, Jhin said. "If you want something that works, you have to go prescription." He heard the same thing from Musely's other advisors, Lori Bush, the former president and CEO of the skincare company Rodan and Fields, and Kimber Maderazzo, the former executive vice president and general manager of Proactiv.

But, they told him, dermatologists are able to create their own prescription-grade, personalized formulas through a pharmaceutical practice known as "compounding." As long as you're working with dermatologists, you can produce some really creative and effective products, they said. Jia was sold.

With Jhin's help, he decided to relaunch the company as Musely and sell only its own products — ones with stronger concentrations of active ingredients than those found in drugstores.

Though she was reluctant to try yet another treatment after so many failed attempts, Cherry became "patient zero" and was prescribed an early iteration of the company's Spot Cream, formulated by Jhin.

Cherry's drastic improvement within 30 days solidified Jack Jia's confidence in his new teledermatology brand.

"We realized 90 to 95% of our melasma patients were very similar to her," he said. "They tried everything in the past." The trickiest part would be convincing them that this time would be different.

Using an old-school pharmaceutical practice to disrupt the skincare market

If you're looking for drastic antiaging results, most dermatologists recommend getting a prescription retinoid like tretinoin, a vitamin A derivative that stimulates new cell growth in your skin. That requires a visit to the dermatologist and the pharmacist.

Musely is able to sell tretinoin-based products online through two methods. It employs 25 board-certified dermatologists who virtually assess clients by looking at photos of their skin. Then, the dermatologists create their own formulas, a process called "compounding."

Compounding is a common practice in pharmacies that exists in a legal gray area. It's a way to create prescription medications that fit an individual patient's needs by altering the dose of specific ingredients. By definition, each unique formula is entirely new and, therefore, does not fit into any regulatory framework.

This is the core of Musely's business model. It has a range of products, and its consulting dermatologists can tinker with the ingredients to fit a consumer's needs. For example, Musely's Anti-Aging Cream, which comes in three variations from "gentle" to "veteran," contains different levels of tretinoin depending on a customer's skin sensitivity.

Musely also looks at what its clients are buying and asking for to develop new lines of original products. Jia said Musely's top-selling products treat aging concerns like dark spots, rosacea, and hair thinning. It recently devised an Aging Repair Cream, which incorporates 0.3% estriol, a mild form of bioidentical estrogen that promotes hydration and firmness.

Jia said the cream has been "extremely popular" among women over 40 looking to restore elasticity to their skin. While estriol isn't FDA-approved, can cause side effects like nausea and weight gain, and has been linked to an increased risk of breast or uterine cancer, Jia said Musely's chief science officer combs through existing studies before incorporating new ingredients. Musely also conducts "consumer efficacy studies," recruiting 60 to 200 volunteers to test "major new products" for 60 days. Jia said they've completed this process six times so far.

Another result of consumer polling was the Private Cream, designed to lighten dark spots on the genitals, anus, and underarms after customers mentioned it as a concern. This, too, can be personalized to fit a consumer's unique needs, such as swapping hydroquinone, a depigmentation ingredient, with tranexamic acid, a milder alternative.

Cheaper and faster

Musely isn't the only teledermatology brand to employ compounding: Brands like Curology, Dermatica, Dear Brightly, and Apostrophe are among some of the competitors who have in-house dermatology teams and deliver customized subscription products.

Part of the boom comes from the desire for products that target specific skin concerns, like dark spots or wrinkles. Even nonprescription skincare brands like Proven, which only requires completing an AI-powered quiz, can curate products based on a customer's skin type, age, and existing habits. Startups are now competing to offer personalized products, from hair care to weight-loss drugs.

Another appealing factor is the price: A 2017 research paper found the average dermatologist visit costs $221, and a tube of tretinoin can cost anywhere from $59 to $300, depending on your insurance (or lack thereof).

Musely charges $20 for an online consultation, and anywhere from $27 to $99 a month, depending on the treatment. It also includes 60 days of access to a dermatologist for "an unlimited number of questions you may have," Jia said. If the dermatologist isn't available, the company uses AI-powered chatbots to help customers learn how to use their new prescriptions.

Beyond the cost, it's also much easier to snap a quick selfie than it is to schlep to a dermatologist's waiting room. "In about three minutes you can finish your visit — that makes the process so much simpler and so much quicker," Jia said.

The ease of access poses some risks. Last year, The New York Times reported that some teledermatology companies had created compounds that don't make sense, such as mixing tretinoin with benzoyl peroxide, which deactivates it, or using too much niacinamide, which can irritate the skin.

Adapting in real time

Jack Jia said Musely continues to create new formulas. Because its dermatologists see a higher volume of patients than they would in an office, Jia said one doctor might see more melasma patients on the Musely platform in one week than in 10 years of their office practice.

"We started out with just two treatments with maybe eight different formulas," he said. "Today, we have 16 different treatments and 100-plus formulas."

Its consumer base has expanded, too. Jia said Musely started out by targeting the same age ranges as competitors like Hers, Apostrophe, and Curology, with a huge focus on acne products.

"We didn't market to anyone over 60," he said. But after investing in products like an estrogen cream for menopause and a body cream for dark spots, it saw its clientele's median age rise to 45, with its oldest clients in their 90s.

"There's a lot of flexibility," Jia said of Musely's product-development process. "If you're seeing an issue, then you can address it very quickly."