Summer is officially over. Put away your linen and your bathing suits and unpack your sweaters. To salute the last glimmers of the season, I’m bringing you a special bonus episode featuring an essay by my friend, Abraham Storer. It’s called “Getting It Up” about a summertime tradition on the Outer Cape of a crew of young guys finding a big log on the beach and trying to plant it upright in the sand.

…At least tonight, the boys seemed alright. Maybe their task was pointless, but there was strength, ingenuity, determination, brotherhood, and even a bit of heroism on display. Some foolishness, too. As the sky turned a dark, inky blue and people started arranging the shipping palettes and logs for a celebratory bonfire, Nobili shimmied up the pole. Nearly 50 feet from the ground, he was silhouetted against the night sky.

“Get me a coconut,” someone yelled.

“Throw him up a beer,” said another.”

“Getting it Up” was originally published in issue 2 of Cape Cod Compass, with photographs by Cole Barash. It’s a new magazine dedicated to exploring art, science, design, ecology, and culture within coastal communities, founded and edited by another pal, Aaron A. Binaco.

Cheers to the end of summer!

 In May, I met the biohacker and wellness entrepreneur Bryan Johnson while I was in Las Vegas reporting a story about the Enhanced Games for Now Voyager. The article, called “Gear and Doping in Las Vegas,” is in issue four of the magazine, which comes out today.

A former tech bro who sold his company, Braintree, to PayPal, Johnson has dedicated the last five years of his life to trying every therapy and intervention possible in an effort to reduce his biological age, sharing his findings on social media and rolling out a line of supplements through his new company, Blueprint. In this pursuit, Johnson has stimulated his vagus nerve through a device that shoots electrical impulses through his ear, live-streamed his psilocybin trips, measured the strength of his nightly erections, and even transfused the plasma of his teenage son into his own body.

Though he has recently been diagnosed with an autoimmune disorder, Johnson continues to promote the idea that with the right health protocol, a person could theoretically live forever. This is what he means when he urges his followers, “Don't die.”

Johnson was not officially part of the Enhanced team, but he was there to act as co-host during the broadcast, offering takes on living under a regimen of finely tuned health protocols. The day before the event kicked off, I met up with Johnson (and his entourage) in the back of a conference room for a quick chat. We managed to cover a lot of ground, from why using steroids is not naughty, to the promise of AI to extend life indefinitely, to why he doesn’t worry about our political leaders becoming immortal dictators. Plus, his partner, Kate, announces the start of her own journey into living forever, which is kind of romantic, I guess.

 Non-Toxic takes a lot of work on my end, and any amount that you can contribute to keep this show going would be greatly appreciated. Subscribe today!

 Today I’m bringing you a conversation I had with Dr. Abdul El-Sayed, who is one of the two Democratic candidates facing off in a primary tomorrow to represent Michigan in the US Senate.

I talked to Dr. El-Sayed about a year ago for Carbon Bros., the miniseries I did with Amy Westervelt and Drilled. In this conversation, we get into why Democrats lost young men in 2024, and whether it’s possible to win them back. El-Sayed's argument is basically that corporations are engineering addiction—through things like sports betting, porn, social media—and that Democrats have failed to offer a compelling alternative vision of masculinity.

El-Sayed wants Democrats to be authentic, bold, and willing to actually throw out the interests that are sucking dry the party, and that means getting rid of the super PACs corrupting our politics. At the same time, I think he’s shown a way to be authentic and even vulnerable while running a campaign that has become one of the most contested this cycle. Long before Hasan Piker was stumping for El-Sayed or Fox News was freaking out about him, I was talking with him about getting everybody healthcare and getting dirty money out of politics.

I’d like to think, we’re early to these things here at Non-Toxic, but we tend to be right. Give it a listen.