There is a pub in your town that is no longer a pub. What replaced it didn't fix the problem; it just made the problem feel manageable enough to keep paying for. This is the story of third places, why they disappeared, and what moved in when they did.

The global wellness economy surpassed $5.6 trillion in 2023. Most of what it sells addresses problems no one technically has. So why do we keep buying? Because we are rarely purchasing the object. We are purchasing the evidence that the person we recognise in the mirror still exists.

After an evening of doom-scrolling through layoffs, war, and climate projections, you buy a French peptide serum whose name you rehearse before saying aloud. This is not irrational. It is one of the most predictable responses to uncertainty there is.