2026-04-21 23:20:00
2026年4月16日，美国海军“亚伯拉罕·林肯”号航母（CVN 72）在阿拉伯海执行与霍尔木兹海峡相关的封锁行动。目前，美国与伊朗是否即将达成全面和平协议，还是重回全面战争，仍存在不确定性。一方面，特朗普总统表示伊朗已同意美国的所有条件，且副总统万斯本周将前往巴基斯坦继续谈判；另一方面，伊朗上周短暂宣布霍尔木兹海峡重新开放后，又再次关闭该海峡，并在周末对通过该航道的船只进行攻击，美国则继续对伊朗港口实施部分封锁，甚至于周日扣押了一艘伊朗船只。目前尚不清楚伊朗谈判代表是否会出现在伊斯兰堡与万斯会面。此外，还存在第三种可能性：当前的僵局——既非和平，也非全面战争——可能暂时持续下去。目前这种状态可能是双方都更愿意接受的，因为比起做出令各自感到屈辱的妥协，他们更倾向于维持现状。然而，随着霍尔木兹海峡持续关闭，该地区面临战争回归的威胁，这种状态带来的代价正日益增加。
从某种程度上说，当前局势与美国-以色列对伊朗的轰炸行动期间类似，双方都在较量谁能承受更多的痛苦。不同之处在于，现在战争何时结束主要取决于伊朗的决定。目前，美国希望结束战争，但尚不清楚如何实现；而伊朗虽有能力结束战争，却不确定是否愿意。此前，美国试图迫使伊朗放弃其核计划，同时要求伊朗放弃对外国代理人组织（如黎巴嫩真主党、也门胡塞武装）的支持，并限制其弹道导弹计划。然而，特朗普尽管态度强硬，但这些目标已基本被搁置。如今，谈判重点转向伊朗的核计划及未来对霍尔木兹海峡的控制权，这在战争爆发前并非主要议题。
如果伊朗拥有真正的核武器，可能不会陷入当前困境，但其铀浓缩计划反而使其成为目标。即便战争爆发前，伊朗已被报道考虑对核计划做出重大让步，包括稀释其400公斤高浓缩铀库存。美国-以色列的轰炸行动或许增加了达成核协议的可能性，但并未如预期那样实现。国际危机组织伊朗项目主任阿里·瓦兹指出，霍尔木兹海峡的控制权为伊朗提供了“大规模破坏性武器”，具有威慑作用，但伊朗新崛起的强硬派可能希望将其与核武器结合使用。
在战争期间，美国和伊朗都希望避免局势升级，但双方立场仍存在较大分歧。尽管美国能源部长克里斯·赖特表示，美国汽油价格可能在2027年中期选举后才会降至每加仑3美元以下，但欧洲地区因霍尔木兹海峡关闭而面临燃油短缺，这将对全球经济产生深远影响。此外，美国目前因地理位置优势，受海峡关闭影响较小，但若局势持续恶化，其经济将难以长期承受。与此同时，伊朗领导人需要时间与资金来重建被美国和以色列摧毁的基础设施，并补充防御力量。尽管双方都希望将当前冲突维持在低强度水平，但局势仍存在误判风险。1980年代的“油轮战争”虽然规模较小，但曾发生美国军舰误射伊朗民航客机的悲剧，而此次冲突中，美国的误判已导致重大灾难。因此，未来局势可能再次升级，但双方都希望避免全面战争。
Are the US and Iran on the verge of a full peace agreement — or a return to all-out war?
On the one hand, President Donald Trump has told multiple reporters in recent days that Iran has effectively agreed to all US conditions and that talks are going well, with Vice President JD Vance set to land in Pakistan for more this week. On the other hand, after briefly declaring it reopened last week, Iran once again declared the Strait of Hormuz closed, firing on ships transiting the waterway over the weekend, and the US continues to maintain a partial blockade on Iranian ports, seizing an Iranian vessel on Sunday. It’s unclear if Iranian negotiators will even be there to meet Vance in Islamabad.
There may also be a third option: The current status quo — definitely not peace, but not quite a return to war either — could simply continue for the time being. At the moment, that’s an outcome that both the US and Iran would probably prefer over making what each would view as a humiliating compromise. But the costs of that state of affairs continue to grow every day that the Strait of Hormuz remains closed and the region remains under the threat of a return to war.
In some ways, the dynamic is not all that different from what it was throughout the weeks of the US-Israeli bombing campaign: a competition to see which side can endure pain the longest. The difference in this new phase of the war is that when it stops is now primarily Iran’s decision.
The main dynamic at the moment is that the US has incentive to end the war but isn’t sure how. Iran has the means to end the war but isn’t sure if it wants to.
Prior to the war, the US was seeking to pressure Iran to fully give up its nuclear program, with hawks hoping for a broader deal that also included Iran giving up its support for foreign proxy groups like Hezbollah in Lebanon and the Houthis in Yemen and accepting limits on its ballistic missile program. Trump’s most confident statements to reporters notwithstanding, the latter two goals have mostly fallen by the wayside. This is now a negotiation about Iran’s nuclear program and future control of the Strait of Hormuz — something that wasn’t an issue at all before this war started.
If Iran had an actual nuclear weapon right now, it would probably not be in this situation, but it’s clear that its enrichment program did more to paint a target on the country than protect it. Even before the war started, Iran was reportedly considering agreeing to major concessions on its nuclear program, including diluting its 400 kilogram stockpile of highly-enriched uranium. The US-Israeli bombing campaign may have made a nuclear deal more likely, but not quite in the way that was promised.
“The fact that [the Iranians] now have the Strait of Hormuz, thanks to the US-Israeli attack on Iran — that’s nice leverage, which means that they have a freer hand now on making concessions on the nuclear issue,” said Alex Vatanka, director of the Iran program at the Middle East Institute.
Last week, Axios reported that the United States was considering a deal to release $20 billion in frozen Iranian assets in exchange for Iran turning over or diluting its 400 kilogram stockpile of highly-enriched uranium. This would be a tough deal for Trump to sell politically, though, considering that even this week he has continued to attack the Obama administration for “1.7 Billion dollars in ‘GREEN’ cash” released to Iran as part of the 2015 nuclear deal. But, if coupled with inspections and verification, it would constitute more progress on the Iranian nuclear issue than seemed possible just a few weeks ago, and Iran’s more confident position as a result of taking Hormuz is at least partially to thank for it.
The issue of the strait may be harder to resolve than the nuclear issue. Iran’s proposal to impose tolls on ships exiting the strait will be unacceptable not only for the United States but for its trading partners as well. The strait is an international waterway, and Iran’s attempt to take control of it challenges the principles of free navigation that underlie the global trading system. But that doesn’t mean Iran will let go of its new economic weapon without getting anything in return.
The Iranian regime’s main goals in this conflict have been, first, to survive and second, to impose costs on the US and its allies so severe that they wouldn’t be tempted to attack the country again in a few months. By seizing the strait, Iran has succeeded on the second goal, perhaps even more than it expected. But a debate has now opened up over whether it’s time for Iran to compromise and move on from the conflict or to continue to inflict punishment on its enemies.
In an interview on Iranian state television over the weekend, parliament speaker Mohammad-Bagher Ghalibaf, Iran’s main negotiator with the United States, defended the talks, saying that while Iran would drive a hard bargain, US military capabilities should not be underestimated, and Iran’s position should not be exaggerated. Ghalibaf was likely responding to criticism from newly ascendant hardliners within Iran’s Republican Guards and to the large nightly rallies in Tehran by regime supporters calling on the government to not to compromise and continue the fight.
Would $20 billion — in “GREEN” cash or some other form — be enough to get Iran to part with both its uranium and its control of the strait? Perhaps. But as Ali Vaez, Iran director at the International Crisis Group puts it, “the strait has provided Iran with a weapon of mass disruption that certainly has deterrence value. But the new hardline leaders of Iran might want to combine that with a weapon of mass destruction nonetheless.”
In other words, rather than substituting an economic deterrent for a nuclear one, Iran may simply decide it should have both.
Trump said this week that he is “highly unlikely” to extend the Iran ceasefire, which ends on Tuesday. But privately, according to the Wall Street Journal, Trump is concerned about the prospect of using military force to reopen the strait, telling aides that US troops sent to occupy the strategic Kharg Island would be “sitting ducks” for Iranian reprisals and comparing the situation to Jimmy Carter’s failed rescue of US hostages in Iran in 1979. Despite Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s warning that the US is “locked and loaded” to follow through on Trump’s pre-ceasefire threat to destroy Iran’s electricity grid, a return to full-scale combat like we saw in March seems unlikely.
Even if the ceasefire formally ends this week — which is likely given that Vance may not even arrive in Pakistan until after it expires — that doesn’t necessarily mean the US will resume airstrikes against Iran or that Iran will resume its missile and drone strikes against the Gulf. The strait may simply remain mostly closed, with periodic skirmishes, a situation some have compared to the 1980s “Tanker War” in the strait that went on for years on the sidelines of that decade’s Iran-Iraq war.
The difference today is that the Tanker War never disrupted more than 2 percent of the ships passing through the strait. The current crisis is disrupting more than 90 percent.
“As much as it likes to portray itself as not caring whether the Strait is open or not, the United States can’t afford to have the strait closed for much longer,” said Gregory Brew, Iran and energy analyst at Eurasia Group.
Trump has so far benefited from the fact that the US is less exposed to the shortages and disruptions caused by the strait’s closure than other regions, particularly in East Asia. And the stock market and oil futures markets have been volatile but less affected than one might expect. But a world where Europe is running out of jet fuel in a matter of weeks is not one that’s going to leave the US economy unaffected indefinitely. Energy Secretary Chris Wright is already saying US gas prices are likely to remain above $3 a gallon until after 2027 — after this year’s midterm elections. The relatively bullish markets are responding to expectations of an imminent deal, but they are likely to change if the administration appears to have settled for a permanently closed strait or even an Iranian toll booth.
Iran’s rulers, for all their newfound bravado, also badly need time and money to reconstitute their regime, replenish their defensive arsenal, and begin the process of rebuilding what the US and Israel have destroyed.
Both sides have incentive to prevent the strait crisis from escalating further. But the two sides’ positions are still far apart, and as long as the crisis continues, risk of miscalculation remains.
Though the 1980s Tanker War may have been on a far smaller scale than the current crisis, it notably included an infamous incident of a US warship accidentally shooting down an Iranian civilian airliner, killing nearly 300 people. This war has already included a notable example of faulty US targeting leading to a mass tragedy.
Both the US and Iran may want to keep this next phase of the war as a low-intensity conflict, but that doesn’t mean it will stay that way.
2026-04-21 19:45:00
对于大多数美国人来说，鸡肉凯撒卷（Chicken Caesar Wrap, CCW）不过是一份用玉米饼包裹的生菜、烤鸡和奶油酱料的简单食物。但对一些爱好者而言，它远不止如此，是工作日中带来幸福的象征，也是千禧一代疲惫生活中的慰藉。它还能促进办公室的轻松交谈，有时甚至被认为非常美味。这或许解释了为何人们频繁在社交媒体上分享它。当人们不分享时，他们可能在吃；当不吃的时，他们则在寻找下一份。
CCW的吸引力在于其可预测性和一致性，它既不像沙拉那样需要复杂的准备，也不像三明治那样繁琐。丹·苏扎（Dan Souza）认为，这种食物的完美口感是其魅力所在，而美国人对“用手拿着吃”的食物情有独钟，如汉堡、热狗、三明治等，这也让CCW成为一种理想的午餐选择。然而，对于一些人来说，CCW更多是一种社交工具，甚至被用作“骗局”——比如Sam通过假装团队午餐来获取免费的凯撒卷，以此与同事建立联系。
尽管如此，CCW对部分人而言已超越了食物本身，成为一种怀旧的象征。彼得·图罗（Peter Turo）认为，它治愈了千禧一代的“心理创伤”，让人回忆起2008年金融危机前的简单时光。而像Beatrice Forman这样的Z世代则对此持不同看法，她认为CCW过于普通，甚至觉得它“俗气”，并认为它与自己成长过程中体验的真正美食无关。
总的来说，CCW不仅是千禧一代的“下午茶奢侈品”，更承载了他们对可能性的渴望和对过去的怀念。它像一种隐喻，象征着一代人对简单、自由和社交连接的追求，即使这种追求可能显得有些讽刺或荒诞。
For most Americans who have ever eaten lunch, a chicken Caesar wrap is simply a tortilla-wrapped tangle of lettuce, grilled chicken, and creamy dressing. But aficionados see this midday meal item as exponentially more than the sum of its simple parts.
They’re the singular glimmer of happiness in a work day that’s designed to humble us. They’re comfort food for a swath of burnt-out millennials. They can foster tremendously useful office small talk. They’re also very good, sometimes, I’m told.
That’s perhaps why people post prolifically about them. When those humans aren’t posting, they’re ostensibly eating them. When they’re not eating them, they’re telling us that they’re in hot pursuit of the next one.
People have strong feelings about the beloved CCW. Its meteoric ascent and vocal fandom are evidence of that. Like any obsession, though, these feelings often say more about us than they do the thing we’re infatuated with.
The first thing you need to know about the chicken Caesar wrap is that it is, scientifically, delicious. Dan Souza, chief content officer at America’s Test Kitchen and expert in the unfathomably expansive subjects of food and taste, says the wrap (and the salad it is adapted from) can be a truly fantastic bite of food.
Romaine and croutons are crispy and crunchy, two extremely desirable textures. Its dressing is liquid umami; there’s a distinct savory flavor hiding in the filets of anchovies and within the tiny crystals of Parmesan. Lemon juice adds acidity, and olive oil and egg yolk impart fat. Rich and delicate, buttery and tangy, salty and bright — these are all combinations that spark attention in human tastebuds.
Many recipes are works in progress. Some can always be a little bit better. But a Caesar salad offers little room for improvement. “It’s sort of the conclusion of a recipe,” Souza told Vox. “I don’t think it needs to be tweaked or changed in any way.”
While Souza’s case for Caesar salad is convincing, I told him that I didn’t fully understand the necessity for a wrap. Why add another variable to what is a theoretically perfect food? Why not just have a Caesar salad?
“Oh, so you’re in that camp,” Souza said, before making his next argument.
Souza says there is something deeply American in turning food on a plate into something we can eat with our hands. “We’re a sandwich nation,” he said. Burgers, fried chicken sandwiches, burritos, hot dogs and corn dogs, and various meats and cheeses on a stick — Americans love them. Given our track record, it is only natural that the citizens of this great country would prefer to eat Caesar salad with our hands.
“For me, just picking it up and being able to get that sort of perfect bite is more satisfying than stabbing your fork into a salad over and over again and possibly getting big leaves in your mouth,” Souza said. “You are sort of able to eat it in a nicer way.”
That nicer way is what’s made the Caesar wrap, to its many admirers, such a perfect lunch food. Souza and his CCW-loving cohort say the wrap feels more sophisticated than a sandwich or a burger, but isn’t as fussy to consume as a large bowl of salad.
“Knowing what you’re getting with a chicken Caesar wrap is part of the appeal and also part of the reason people are so hell-bent on finding the best.”
Katie Krzaczek, editor
Caesar wraps are also, I’m told, aspirational enough for a midday meal without being too ostentatious or luxurious. They are indulgent (glistening with rich dressing), but still feel light and vaguely healthy (there’s lettuce, after all). Ordering a Caesar wrap multiple times a week for lunch wouldn’t be weird, but getting a glamorous omakase twice in five days would definitely, totally be weird. (Speaking of weird: CCW purists told me the wraps are only to be enjoyed while the sun is up, and that eating one for dinner would be sort of sad.)
Because the qualities that make good chicken Caesars are so distinct, it’s easy to pinpoint what makes for mediocre ones. Instead of being made fresh, they’ll likely be premade and refrigerated, an act that kills the wrap’s varying textures. The tortilla becomes a cottony crime, while the chicken lies limp and slippy. The dressing won’t have any memorable flavor, as if it were only a suggestion of Caesar rather than the actuality. They exist, seemingly, to inflict torment.
“The worst ones will be slimy and mushy and gross and won’t have any type of definition in its parts,” Katie Krzaczek, an editor and CCW enthusiast, told Vox. Krzaczek recently moved back home to Philadelphia and found that the City of Brotherly Love doesn’t have a chicken Caesar culture as robust as the one she enjoyed in New York City.
“The consistency of chicken Caesar wrap is also part of the appeal,” Krzaczek said. There shouldn’t be any wild variations or our guesswork involved, even if some are better than others. A chicken Caesar in Philly should be the same as a chicken Caesar in New York City which should be the same as a chicken Caesar in Los Angeles.
The worst thing that could happen is ordering a chicken Caesar wrap and being met with some kind of surprise.
“Knowing what you’re getting with a chicken Caesar wrap is part of the appeal and also part of the reason people are so hell-bent on finding the best, because everyone’s competing in that same category,” Krzaczek said.
For one woman, the chicken Caesar wrap has become a scam within a scam.
Sam, 33, works at a billion-dollar tech company and told Vox that she and her wrap-loving coworkers have enacted a ruse where they simultaneously suggest having team lunches to their most gullible members. Since the meals are technically on-the-clock meetings, the company pays for catering. This ploy has allowed Sam and her team to taste test New York City’s best chicken caesies.
Vox agreed to let Sam use a pseudonym because we’re not snitches.
“People like Lenwich the most because the lettuce is chopped within the wrap, which is not common,” Sam said. “Milano Market is good, but it’s such a hassle from either the Upper West or the Upper East Side…or we get delivery from Bobwhite Counter, which is good, but it’s fried chicken and it’s like a whole thing.”
Perhaps the most riveting thing about Sam is that despite this elaborate scheme and encyclopedic database of chicken Manhattan’s Caesars, she doesn’t seem particularly fond of CCWs. Chicken Caesars have become more of a self-fulfilling gimmick and social bonding vehicle than they are particularly delicious.
“It was kind of put on me that I was obsessed. So then I was like, Okay, I’ll inhabit the obsession,” Sam said, adding that wraps are an ideal team lunch item because they can easily be split and shared, and that they’re perfect fodder for small talk. Because everyone has some baseline knowledge of CCWs, it’s an easy subject to weigh in on. How does it taste? Is it good? Is it better than the other one? What do you love about this one? What don’t you like about the others?
“I don’t care about them that much, but it is something that I guess I’m known for probably by my B-tier friends — the people that I’m mainly internet friends with or I don’t see that often, I think they’re like, Oh my God, she’s so into this. I have to send her this TikTok,” Sam said, explaining that she politely accepts these memes and TikToks even though she is living a lie.
“That’s been fun because otherwise I wouldn’t be talking to those people,” she added.
The memes and posts Sam receives are mostly idealizations. Some of the stuff she’s sent are riffs on “girl dinner.” Other times it’s an implicit ask to behold a beautiful chicken Caesar wrap. Sometimes, the memes suggest pairing it with crisp Diet Coke or even take it a step further: They declare that a chicken Caesar wrap has the unique power to heal.
Peter Turo, 41, is a true believer. “It heals the wounds of elder millennials,” Turo told Vox. Turo is speaking figuratively, because putting a creamy salad on an open wound is not sound medical advice. He then clarified, pointing to the psychic damage that this generation has endured.
“The culture is crushing us. We had all this promise back in the day and the world was supposed to be nice,” Turo said, explaining that a bite of a wrap won’t change history, but it does allow him to think of a simpler time and that, in itself, is a kind of healing.
“So I will have it at 1:45,” he said.
Turo and the other wrap lovers I spoke to all pointed to the nostalgia factor being a major part of the appeal of a CCW. For them, a chicken Caesar salad was one of the first “adult” foods they had as tweens and teens, usually ordered at the mall, at a chain restaurant, while also enjoying one of the first moments of adolescent freedom. Even if the salad was mediocre, it still tasted like adulthood. It’s no surprise, especially when coupled with the popularity of wraps in the late ’90s and early 2000s, that a swath of millennials mythologizes the Caesar wrap.
In an attempt to capture a favorite memory or a feeling, we opt for something that reminds us of possibility rather than something concrete we experienced.
Nostalgia could very well explain why CCW content regularly goes viral and why a certain type of person may line up for hours waiting to taste some restaurants’ CCWs — a person, let’s say, who may still say FOMO earnestly, who may or may not have early onset lower back pain, and who may send Sam (the scammer) Instagram reels about Caesar wraps. But that isn’t the case for everyone.
“It was something we never ordered, and I had never tried earnestly until I went to college, so I don’t feel any of that nostalgia,” Beatrice Forman, a 25-year-old Philadelphia-based food writer, told Vox. “I think my mom thought it was kind of tacky because it’s like, as she would call it, a philistine’s idea of what a fancy salad is.”
Forman is friends with Krzaczek, the editor who yearns for more robust chicken Caesar culture in Philly, and she explained that a shop near her apartment had long waits for a “an incredibly mid, but incredibly viral” chicken Caesar salad hoagie (hoagie is the way Philadelphians refer to long sandwiches).
For a brief time, those waits ruined Forman’s neighborhood.
“Every weekend there would be lines wrapping around the street,” Forman said. “You couldn’t walk down the sidewalk of people just standing to either wait for this hoagie or sitting on people’s stoops.”
I asked her to describe the stoop-sitters and their lack of spatial awareness.
“DINKS or young couples who had babies — they have a kid in the stroller or [are] baby wearing and the kid’s crying while they’re eating the chicken Caesar. And a lot of couples,” Forman added. “I assume it was a date activity which, like, imagine telling your partner, Hey, let’s go wait in line for an hour for a fucking hoagie.”
While not everyone may feel that strongly about the combination of salty Parm, tangy dressing, and crisp lettuce, many do feel that way about the taste of adulthood before the 2008 financial crisis.
Is there perhaps something a little sad in the fact that a salad one can eat with their hands is our generation’s version of mac and cheese, chicken noodle soup, or fried chicken? Instead of eating something actually indulgent, we reach for a salad that’s fatty in secret. In an attempt to capture a favorite memory or a feeling, we opt for something that reminds us of possibility rather than something concrete we experienced.
It’s hard for Forman to comprehend the level of devotion a chicken Caesar wrap commands. Perhaps, some of it is generational disdain, as she is Gen Z. It’s not that she doesn’t understand food obsession that becomes irony, but, rather, she doesn’t understand the obsession with something she believes to be so dull.
“The perfect salad is obviously a Cobb salad,” she said. “I think you can understand why that needs no elaboration.”
I can certainly understand why a Cobb is superior. But I also have come to know that perfection is not necessarily what people want from a CCW. They want umami, nostalgia, a touchstone, a scam, sometimes mid, and always an afternoon luxury — all in the palm of their hands.
2026-04-21 19:00:00
2012年夏天，一名潜水员在佛罗里达州劳德代尔堡海岸用鱼叉捕获了一只入侵物种狮子鱼。一家名为Inversa的新公司利用入侵物种（如狮子鱼、缅甸蟒蛇和鬣蜥）制作皮革。如今，一家名为Grundéns的服装和装备公司推出了由狮子鱼皮革制成的凉鞋，消费者可以购买。这一商业理念旨在通过将入侵物种转化为奢侈品，既创造经济收益，又能修复生态系统。支持这一项目的风投公司Superorganism自称是首家专注于生物多样性的风投机构，今年已筹集近2600万美元，并投资了21家初创企业。其中，Inversa是其重点支持的项目之一。此外，Superorganism还投资了其他几家创新企业，例如：Spoor公司开发技术监测风力涡轮机周围的鸟类和蝙蝠，以减少碰撞风险；Ulysses公司制造自主水下机器人，用于高效种植海草床；Funga公司则将本土真菌重新引入木材生产森林，以促进树木生长并吸收更多二氧化碳。Superorganism还关注其他创新领域，如海藻基塑料和高效昆虫养殖替代蛋白质。公司还计划在未来两年内再投资14家企业。尽管风投通常希望在10年内实现退出，但目前这些项目仍处于发展初期。例如，Superorganism希望推动绿色屋顶成为盈利模式，以提升城市生物多样性并降低建筑能耗。目前，由狮子鱼皮革制成的凉鞋已上市销售。
If you’ve ever wanted to buy sandals made with leather from invasive lionfish, I’ve got some good news — you can!
A clothing and gear company called Grundéns is now selling flip-flops with a “panel” of scaly lionfish leather. The leather itself is made by a Miami-based startup called Inversa that produces the material from a number of invasive species, including Burmese pythons, lionfish, and iguanas in Florida, where these non-native and very prolific animals are known to damage the state’s native ecosystems.
The idea behind the venture is that, by turning invasive species into luxury products, you can make money while restoring ecosystems. It’s an obvious win for the environment and a win for the company’s bottom line.
It’s this tandem goal — to achieve both financial and ecological returns — that is the driving force behind a new venture capital firm that backs Inversa. The firm, known as Superorganism, calls itself the first VC firm dedicated to biodiversity.
Earlier this year, Superorganism announced that it raised nearly $26 million from funders, including the Cisco Foundation and Builders Vision, an investment firm founded by a Walmart heir. Superorganism has so far invested those funds in 21 startups, according to Kevin Webb, who cofounded the firm with Tom Quigley, an expert in technology for conservation.
“Fundamentally, we only really have to do two things,” said Webb, who comes from a family of venture capitalists. “We have to find businesses where we believe that there’s going to be outsized economic returns. And then we have to believe that there’s the opportunity for outsized ecological returns.”
The notion that profit-driven companies can play a role in protecting or restoring the environment seems, based on historical precedent, counterintuitive to say the least. The zeal for profit is why there’s a biodiversity crisis in the first place — agriculture and energy companies, for example, have razed enormous amounts of wildlife habitat, eroding many of the largely hidden services that ecosystems provide.
But Webb, who has a graduate degree in sustainability science, says there are clear opportunities to make money on innovations that reduce environmental harm. And some of those innovations are ripe for an infusion of venture capital. New technologies in the agriculture industry, for example, can help companies harvest crops more efficiently, Webb said. Those sorts of technologies can fulfill existing market needs in a new, more sustainable way, Webb said, making them strong targets for VC funds.
In addition to Inversa, the invasive leather-maker, Webb shared three of the other 21 companies in Superorganism’s portfolio that he’s especially excited about.
Superorganism has bet on a wide range of other innovations, from seaweed-based plastics to efficient bug farming for alternative protein. One of the companies in its portfolio, called Thrive Lot, is paid by landowners to turn empty yards or lots into an oasis for native plants, including those that produce food. You can see the full list of the VC firm’s current investments here.
And Webb is still looking for new bets. He’d like to see someone figure out how, for example, to turn green roofs into a profitable enterprise; they’re good for urban biodiversity and offer benefits to the buildings themselves like reducing flood risk and cooling costs. Maybe putting green roofs on top of data centers is a way to make those buildings more sustainable, he says. “Green roofs are a really interesting way to maybe turn some of these centers into parklands,” Webb said.
Over the next two years, Superorganism expects to back another 14 or so companies, Webb says. Yet it will likely be a while for any of Webb’s wagers to win out — typically, VC firms want the companies they back to be bought by a bigger firm or go public within 10 years, he said.
In the meantime, for better or worse, it looks like those lionfish sandals are on sale.
2026-04-21 18:00:00
2026年4月18日，美国卫生部长罗伯特·F·肯尼迪 Jr. 与播客主持人乔·罗根在白宫就迷幻剂问题发表联合声明。近期，肯尼迪的领导角色似乎发生了变化：他推出了名为《肯尼迪部长播客》的节目，首期内容聚焦于改革美国食品供应体系；同时，特朗普提名了常规型公共卫生官员埃里卡·施瓦茨担任疾病控制与预防中心（CDC）负责人。这些举措看似矛盾，实则表明白宫正在削弱肯尼迪的政策影响力，而将其定位为健康领域的意见领袖。
肯尼迪曾承诺要改革医疗体系，但如今在政策执行上遭遇阻力。例如，他试图限制农药使用，但特朗普却扩大了除草剂草甘膦的使用范围；他推动疫苗政策改革，但CDC的疫苗指导方针已逐渐被各州自行制定。此外，他提出的婴儿配方奶粉改革计划也因行业反对而搁浅。尽管如此，肯尼迪的个人声望仍高于特朗普，尤其在社交媒体上，他通过健身视频和播客保持影响力，吸引支持者关注。
白宫此举旨在维持肯尼迪在“让美国再次健康”（MAHA）选民中的存在感，同时限制其政策主导权。他的首期播客聚焦于食品议题，强调改变饮食习惯以挽救国家，并借助前英国皇家海军成员兼厨师罗伯特·艾文的形象，塑造男性健康倡导者的形象。尽管播客排名尚不理想，但肯尼迪与特朗普的联盟仍被视为一种策略，试图在中期选举前最大化双方利益。这种合作关系虽充满矛盾，但双方似乎仍希望从中获取更多支持。
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is entering his influencer era as US health secretary.
Last week brought two telling developments that appear to mark a new phase of Kennedy’s leadership at the US Department of Health and Human Services. First, Kennedy launched The Secretary Kennedy Podcast with an inaugural episode focused on his efforts to overhaul the country’s food supply. And second, President Donald Trump nominated Dr. Erica Schwartz, a conspicuously conventional public health official, to lead the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention under Kennedy.
Those moves might seem contradictory, but they actually signal a new role for Kennedy within the Trump administration. The latter move is especially telling. When Kennedy was promising to dismantle the medical establishment that he blamed for so many of America’s health problems, overhauling the CDC was at the top of the list. And during his first year as health secretary, hundreds of CDC employees have been laid off. Four leaders have come and gone in a matter of months — one after a high-profile clash with Kennedy. It has been an agency in crisis.
But with the nomination of Schwartz, who has notably been an advocate for routine vaccinations in the past, to lead the CDC, Kennedy looks increasingly sidelined on policy by the White House.
Still, they don’t want him totally out of the public’s eye — not when Republicans are counting on Make America Healthy Again voters in the upcoming midterm elections. Instead, Kennedy’s job description now looks more like health influencer-in-chief, a podcast host with an undeniably enormous platform but not the policymaking sway that he once sought.
After promising during the presidential campaign to let Kennedy “go wild” on health, Trump and his team have instead started to hem Kennedy in.
It starts with an issue that has been a priority for Kennedy for decades: pesticides. Trump recently decided to expand the use of the pesticide glyphosate, a chemical that Kennedy had called out for its potential negative health effects in his initial Make America Healthy Again report. For the past year, Kenendy has been fighting a losing battle against Environmental Protection Agency administrator Lee Zeldin, who is friendly to the corporate interests that the health secretary decries. Zeldin has rolled back a broad range of environmental regulations that were implemented by the Biden administration to protect people’s health.
And even on the issues where he’s had more freedom to act, Kennedy has been constrained. He has scaled back his plan for a baby formula overhaul after opposition from the industry, according to a Wall Street Journal report. Despite making big promises to crack down on the use of antidepressants and statins, action has failed to materialize, at least so far. After Kennedy’s FDA initially refused to review a new universal flu vaccine from the mRNA developer Moderna, it quickly backtracked in the face of public and industry backlash.
Even the vaccine guidance changes he’s overseen, a clear example of Kenendy’s personal agenda at work, have run into practical limits. The health policy think tank KFF recently reported that more than half of US states are now abiding by their own vaccine recommendations, not the CDC’s. The American Academy of Pediatrics and other medical groups have aggressively pushed their alternatives. Kennedy’s actions have been criticized even by Senate health committee chair Bill Cassidy (R-LA).
Amid all the turmoil, several of Kennedy’s close allies left their administration posts earlier this year. And now, Schwartz, who served as deputy surgeon general during Trump’s first term, is set to take over the CDC.
The whisper circuit in Washington, DC portrayed the move as a rebuke of Kennedy’s agenda. As Kennedy has taken contentious high-profile action on vaccines, he has grown less popular, as poll after poll has shown. A January YouGov survey found 34 percent of Americans approved of his nutrition policies as health secretary, while 44 percent disapproved. For vaccines, the data is similar: 33 percent approve of Kennedy’s policies and 46 percent disapprove.
“We just need someone who’s not crazy,” an anonymous White House official told CNN of the Schwartz nomination, echoing commentary in the New York Times.
Some of Kennedy’s most vocal supporters were disappointed by the CDC pick — but it’s moving ahead anyway. The signal seems clear; MAHA isn’t in charge anymore.
Even as his decision-making power diminishes, it appears Kennedy still has a role to play for the White House: podcast host and wellness influencer.
It is, in a way, a more natural role for Kennedy than policy heavyweight, despite his last name. He hosted a podcast during his own presidential run in 2024. He has gone viral for weightlifting videos and other social media stunts. He’s always had a knack for getting attention; this is the same man who once served 30 days in prison for protesting US military bombing exercises in Puerto Rico.
Heading into the midterm elections, Trump may not want Kennedy attracting headlines for his wackier policy prescriptions, but he does want voters who are attracted to those ideas. Letting Kennedy launch a podcast seems like a way to keep the US health secretary engaged with the MAGA base, even as Schwartz takes over the CDC. Kennedy has seen his popularity take a hit while in office, but his personal approval rating remains higher than Trump’s.
And it seems telling that the first episode of his podcast focused on the issue where Kennedy has perhaps enjoyed the most bipartisan support: food. “We need to change our diet, or we’re going to lose our country,” he said in his opening preamble.
In a matter of moments, Kennedy was weaving his telltale conspiratorial rhetoric — ”the government has been lying to us for 50 years” — with the benefits of eating whole foods and touting the administration’s efforts to address the issue. His guest, former British Royal Navy member and chef Robert Irvine, personifies the image of masculine wellness that Kennedy himself has tried to cultivate in recent years. After the pair discussed how they might steer people toward more healthy foods at a lower cost based on Irvine’s own attempts to improve military food offerings, the guest leaned into the idea of Kennedy as a transformational figure for the nation’s health as the episode wound down.
“Imagine the history books, when somebody picks up a history book and says, this is what RFK Jr. did,” Irvine said. As he signed off, he implored Kennedy to “keep shaking the tree.”
Now, whether this bet on Kennedy’s podcast pays off remains to be seen. As of Monday morning, The Secretary Kennedy Podcast ranked 58 among the health and fitness shows on Apple Podcasts.
The alliance between Kennedy — scion of a Democratic dynasty — and Trump has been a strange one, despite their shared skepticism of medical experts. It’s been a rocky road so far, but both sides seem intent on squeezing a little more out of it — a big platform for Kennedy and a critical bloc of voters for Trump — before it ends.
2026-04-21 05:49:12
美国总统唐纳德·特朗普关于关税的新闻发布会画面出现在纽约证券交易所交易大厅的电视上，时间为2026年2月20日。| Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images 本文出自《The Logoff》每日简报，帮助您了解特朗普政府的动态，同时避免政治新闻占据过多生活时间。订阅此处。欢迎来到《The Logoff》：特朗普政府允许企业申请关税退款，但消费者因商品价格上涨而承担的关税成本无法获得退款。发生了什么？由于最高法院在2月驳回了特朗普多项关税政策，政府有法律义务退还这些关税带来的超过1660亿美元的收入。周一，政府启动了关税退款门户。该退款流程被赋予了“CAPE”这一便捷缩写，即“Consolidated Administration and Processing of Entries”（综合行政与申报处理）。虽然并非所有英雄都披着斗篷，但关税退款的执行者们确实如此。谁可以获得退款？只有那些直接向美国政府支付关税的企业才能申请退款，这可能意味着普通消费者无法获得退款。如果您购买了进口商品或含有进口组件的产品，可能已经通过更高的价格或费用承担了特朗普关税的成本。但如果您并未直接向政府付款，则无法获得退款。抱歉！整体情况如何？尽管最高法院未明确说明退款流程应如何进行，但下级法院已下令推进该流程，目前政府正按照这一要求执行。这一局面会持续多久？特朗普似乎有意避免退还关税收入，他仍可能拖延退款或提出新的法律上诉。但退款流程的第一步已按计划顺利进行，且未引发争议。更广泛地说，特朗普并未放弃对关税的使用。法院仅推翻了部分关税，其余仍有效，他希望在其他法律授权下实施更多关税。根据耶鲁大学预算实验室的数据，目前的关税税率仍约为他上任前的五倍。## 本周将迎来英仙座流星雨的高峰，届时每小时可观察到多达20颗流星，当然前提是天气良好。更多太空资讯请查看space.com。
This story appeared in The Logoff, a daily newsletter that helps you stay informed about the Trump administration without letting political news take over your life. Subscribe here.
Welcome to The Logoff: The Trump administration is letting businesses apply for tariff refunds — but consumers who ate those costs via higher prices are out of luck.
What happened? Because the Supreme Court struck down many of Trump’s tariffs back in February, the administration is legally obligated to give back more than $166 billion of revenue those tariffs brought in.
On Monday, they kicked that off by launching their tariff refund portal. They’ve given the refund process the handy acronym of CAPE. That’s short for “Consolidated Administration and Processing of Entries.” Not all heroes wear capes, but the tariff refunders do.
Who gets refunds — and who doesn’t? Basically, only those who paid tariffs directly to the US government can apply for refunds.
That probably means not you personally. If you bought an imported product, or a product with imported components, you may have eaten the cost of Trump’s tariffs through higher prices or fees. But if you weren’t paying the government directly, no refund for you. Sorry!
What’s the big picture? Though the Supreme Court didn’t address how the refund process should work, a lower court ordered the process to move forward — and, for now, the administration is playing ball.
Will it last? Trump seemed inclined to try and avoid giving back his precious tariff money by any means necessary. He could still slow-walk actually returning the money, or file another legal appeal. But the first step in the refund process went ahead as planned, and without drama.
More broadly, Trump hasn’t given up on tariffs. The Court only struck down some of them; others remain in place, and he’s hoping to institute more under different legal authorities. The current tariff rate remains about 5 times higher than it was before he took office, per the Budget Lab at Yale.
This week will bring the peak of the Lyrid Meteor Shower, in which as many as 20 shooting stars per hour can be seen at night — if the weather cooperates, of course. Check out space.com for more.
2026-04-20 20:00:00
2024年底，我因被裁员而失去了杂志编辑的工作。尽管理智上知道不应将自我价值与工作挂钩，但面对失业带来的经济压力和身份认同危机，我常常感到绝望。许多美国人同样面临这种困境，据2023年皮尤研究中心的调查，约四成非自雇者将职业视为自身身份的核心部分。失业不仅影响收入，还可能让人感到羞耻和自我怀疑，尤其是当需要接受政府援助时。然而，Aja Evans（一位纽约市的财务治疗师）建议人们应允许自己一段时间来哀悼失去的工作和过去的生活方式，避免立即陷入求职压力。她强调，失业期间应关注当下能带来的积极体验，例如重新审视消费习惯，减少不必要的开支，转而投入更有意义的活动。同时，重建社交联系也很重要，比如与旧友重聚、参与志愿活动或加入兴趣小组，这些都能帮助缓解孤独感。此外，失业可能成为重新规划人生的机会，例如发展新技能或培养长期兴趣。正如Michael Young的经历所示，他通过削减开支、重新安排时间，不仅改善了财务状况，还找回了生活的乐趣。尽管失业可能带来痛苦，但许多人都在这一过程中找到了新的方向和意义。
When I was laid off from my role as an editor for a magazine in late 2024, logically, I knew what I was supposed to think: Don’t tie your self-worth to a job. After all, it’s just a job.
While I did my best to believe that optimistic mantra, most days — and especially on the ones I scooped up dirty, sweaty towels from rich people at a local gym to make ends meet — I felt hopeless. I had little money coming in for several months, and on more mornings than I’d care to admit, fewer and fewer reasons to wake up. I barely felt human.
As Aja Evans, a New York City-based financial therapist and author of Feel Good Finance, tells Vox, feeling terrible about yourself during a period of unemployment or underemployment is super common. “We really do base a lot of our identity on what we do,” she says, to the point that a career can seem like “the most important aspect of who we are and how we present ourselves.” According to a 2023 Pew Research poll, about 4 in 10 Americans who aren’t self-employed see their careers as a crucial part of their overall identity.
So when you’re out of work, your perception of yourself — and how you’re supposed to present yourself to other people — becomes skewed. There’s obviously a lot more to any human than their job status, but with social structures that value financial success over other attributes (say, how kind or adventurous you are), unemployment can feel painful and confusing.
There’s also a good chance that, as you’re navigating a new budget, you probably don’t have as much extra money to spend on pleasure — perhaps you have to decline dinner and drink invites, or put off long-anticipated trips or concerts. Making the (smart!) decision to pull back on certain expenses can feel extra isolating.
If any of this is resonating with you, know that you’re not alone: Layoffs are incredibly common across all industries, and a lot of people are struggling right now. Here are some tips from people who have gone through it (or who are there right now).
Though Domenica Davis, 47, had an inkling that layoffs were going to affect her role as a national broadcast TV meteorologist almost two years ago, that didn’t make the news any less difficult to digest. “It was shocking,” she tells Vox. “I thought, Oh my god. What am I going to do?”
Felicia Penza was 30 years old, pregnant with twins, and preparing to relocate from Scottsdale, Arizona, to Los Angeles in 2010 when she was unexpectedly let go from her job as a graphic designer. “Getting laid off is devastating,” the now-46-year-old tells Vox. “It’s like an unexpected breakup in a relationship meant to endure, to last.”
“Take a beat, feel your feelings, and potentially grieve a job that is no longer in your life.”
Aja Evans, NYC-based financial therapist
As Evans notes, it’s really important to sit with those uncomfortable emotions for a bit. Sure, it might initially feel productive to scour LinkedIn 24/7 with hopes of finding your dream role immediately, but you’re likely to get burned out fast if you do this.
“A job search, especially in this economy, often feels like screaming into the void,” Amy Wilson, a 39-year-old digital marketer who’s experienced a handful of layoffs since 2020, tells Vox. “A lot of effort for no results. And to anyone who would say, Every no gets you one closer to your yes, I’d like to say, Shut the fuck up. … It’s actually demoralizing.’”
That’s exactly why it’s important not to jump in immediately. “Take a beat, feel your feelings, and potentially grieve a job that is no longer in your life,” Evans says. What does that look like? Call a friend or your therapist, or just sit on your ass and do nothing for a couple of days — whatever feels right. There will be a time for applications and networking, but give yourself a minute.
“Let’s get out of crisis mode; let’s get out of the stress cycle so that we can move into a place of making longer-term decisions,” Evans says.
If you were lucky to receive some sort of severance package, you might be able to grieve a job loss a little longer than someone who didn’t. But at some point, even with unemployment checks (which only last, at best, about 26 weeks), you’ll probably need a steady form of income to cover basic living expenses. And earning that might look different than what you’re used to.
When one 36-year-old living in New York City (whom Vox granted anonymity to avoid professional repercussions), was let go from her director-level marketing role for a fashion brand, her ego took a major hit as she searched tirelessly for work. Though she was able to eventually secure a new job, she considered it a step down in her career. The woman told Vox via email: “I TOOK A $50K PAY CUT (screams from the mountain tops). So I feel poor AF. Going from director to a specialist — yikes!”
Penza, on the other hand, didn’t take a job that she didn’t want to, but she still felt the stigma of being out of work and needing help to make ends meet. “I applied for state assistance, including health care and food benefits,” she says. “I had never done that before, and I didn’t even fully understand what SNAP benefits were.” As a Black woman, Penza says, she was “deeply aware of the stereotypes” associated with government assistance: “I was unmarried, pregnant with twins, unemployed, and now standing in line at the grocery store using food stamps to buy milk, cereal, and fruit. That moment stayed with me. It still stays with me. It forced me to confront a lot of internalized shame and pride simultaneously.”
Whether you’re receiving unemployment or working odd jobs to stay afloat, you may feel guilt, shame, or like you’re regressing in your career. In those moments, Evans says it’s important to always stay focused on next steps and remember that you’re not going to be in this predicament forever. “Why are we doing this?” she says to ask yourself. “I want to live in this place. I am able to afford my rent. I am able to make groceries. I am supercharging my debt payoff. … Let’s ground ourselves in that.”
Penza tried to do exactly that when things felt unbearable. “I had to reframe it,” she says. “I had to remind myself that I wasn’t a failure. It was a bridge for me. I was doing what I needed to do to take care of my children.”
Plus, it never hurts to focus on the present positives, even the small ones. The woman who lost her fashion job describes the boss who laid her off as “the devil who wore Zara.” Now, she says, she works for “actual angels” who do “mission-driven work.”
When Michael Young, a worker in his 40s in the AI and industrial technology space, was laid off at the start of the year, he took a close look at his spending and realized he was paying for streaming services and apps he was barely using. “I also cut back on food delivery,” Young says. “With more time to breathe, I started cooking again and remembered how much I enjoy it.”
And as someone whose weeks had been packed with meetings, Young welcomed his new daily itinerary. “For many of us in transition, the gift is schedule control,” he says. “I was finally able to get back to the gym three times a week.”
Young also sought free or low-cost ways to have fun, and says watching your budget more carefully can help you notice things you may have previously overlooked. “I also started paying attention to what local libraries, art centers, and community organizations were offering, and was delighted by how much is out there that’s free or nearly free,” he says. “It made me realize how much I’d been spending on convenience rather than actual enjoyment.”
That last bit — being more purposeful with your spending — can be an unexpected bonus in unemployment, Evans says. “A lot of times people don’t realize that sometimes that spending was a little mindless,” she says, adding that unemployment can be a “beautiful reset” to be more intentional about what brings you joy.
Jeff R., 56, reignited some forgotten interests, like guitar, woodworking, and volunteering, after he was laid off from his automotive logistics job in 2023. “While resuming neglected hobbies, learning new skills, and volunteering have certainly helped, I took more joy from simply not having to deal with the high expectations I set for myself (and that were set for me) at work,” he tells Vox.
Yes, your job gave you something to do throughout the day, but it also provided structure and an opportunity to socialize, even if you were remote. So once that goes away, it’s important to bring some semblance of community back into your life. “Reconnect with old friends,” Katie Dow, a financial planner from Bozeman, Montana, tells Vox. “Get more involved at a nonprofit. Meet new people.”
“It could be community centers, libraries, trivia nights if that’s something you’re into, book clubs,” Evans adds. “Finding community is going to be really important.” Wilson, for example, joined a choir after one of her layoffs. “I realized I needed to do something that I enjoy that would get me out of the house to make some new friends,” she says. “The side bonus I didn’t think about is that reigniting a hobby like this would give me a tangible sense of accomplishment and progress in the midst of near constant rejection from a job search.”
Plus, you never know who knows someone who is hiring. Davis recalls that many folks in her life jumped at the chance to help her and ask around their circles for job leads once they knew about her job loss. “People actually do think of you and care,” she says.
Losing a job doesn’t have to illuminate some serendipitous silver lining — the combo of losing your income and your identity for who knows how long can be particularly cruel. In the moments when I felt like a shell of my former self, I called my mom or made lunch with my best friend, a stay-at-home mom with a similar open schedule. Unemployment is extremely isolating, but knowing that I wasn’t in it alone helped me get to the next day.