Morning Brew - ☕️ Train your brain

Good afternoon, Essentials-ers, I hope your Monday is going well. Feel like these days, the idea of “cases” is too sensitive for that “case of the Mondays” joke to land. Which is probably for the best. 

—Eliza Carter 

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Judging by the number of cheesy toasts I’ve consumed, we’re now on Day No. 1,798,forever of social distancing. We’re all developing different coping mechanisms—The Sopranos and the aforementioned cheesy toasts are my primary methods—but some people are turning to more...unsavory interests.

Like conspiracy theories. The pandemic’s potent cocktail of isolation + economic hardship + internet is pushing people to fringe conspiracy movements like QAnon, the group that believes a global coterie of Satan-worshipping pedophiles rules the world.  

• As Julie Wittes Schlack wrote in an opinion piece for WBUR, “One antidote to feeling personally impotent is to attribute absolute power to sinister forces. One cure for loneliness and alienation is to feel that you are a part of [a] today-victimized, tomorrow-triumphant group that possesses secret knowledge.”

QAnon groups on Facebook (which number in the thousands and have over 3 million members and followers) also overlap with “alternative health communities,” where people make baseless claims about mask-wearing and other health misinformation. 

So what can we do? One helpful option is to talk to friends or family who are spouting conspiracy theories. A tip from an expert: Leave the high horse in the barn. Approach the conversations with humility and compassion, says Rob Brotherton, a psychologist who’s written two books on conspiracy theories. MIT Tech Review has more great tips here.

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Drive a bargain: Whether you’re starting a new lease or in the middle of one, you can and should negotiate your rent. It can be scary, but Zumper has helpful guidance, and I’m happy to give you a Rocky IV-esque pep talk. 

Refresh your space: Reimagining your home’s flow is easier than ever with the interior design tools to be found on this lovely internet. 

• Houzz offers tools for ~ideation~, and helps you shop if you’re ready to spend on new furniture. 
• Apartment Therapy also has brainstorming fodder, as well as ways to buy. 
• West Elm and Crate and Barrel both offer free design services. 

Focus at work: This site mimics the sound of your distant colleagues. And juuuust in case we haven’t shared it with you yet, Brew favorite A Soft Murmur is...a Brew favorite. 

Get lost in a hole: Explore why tennis crowds have to be quiet—and whether they should have to be. 

The anti-scale scale...

With us, you can always expect the unexpected. Like how we’re achieving our fitness and health goals using something we used to avoid at all costs—a scale. That is, until we discovered the Body+ Body Composition Wi-Fi Scale (aka: the #1 bestselling smart scale in the US).

But before you start to judge our new pro-scale lifestyle, hear us out. This is the anti-scale scale.

Withings's clinically tested Body+ smart scale tracks your progress and doesn't just spit a scary number in your face. It provides a full body composition analysis (total body fat, water percentage, plus muscle and bone mass), and syncs data instantly to the Health Mate app, which gives you personalized health advice to help you reach your fitness goals.

This scale is less of a "scale," and more of a smart tool to live healthy at home. 

Get 20% off Body+ until September 7th.

Read: I haven’t read it yet, but the reviews of Raven Leilani’s debut novel, Luster, are sparkling. 

Giggle: A great American at Digg compiled the best memes of last week. 

Chortle: Some other great Americans recreated the Fast and Furious trailer on a slightly more modest budget. 

Play: Fall Guys is free for PlayStation Plus users right now. 

Watch: 

• Lowbrow: Selling Sunset is more SoCal than a skateboarding taco who’s trying to break into showbiz. 
• Highbrow: Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind has young Jim Carrey and Kate Winslet and some of my favorite movie lines ever. 

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After using a smartphone for ~10 years, my memory is pretty much kaput. So I’ve been working on different techniques to shore up my ability to recall where I put my sunglasses or what exactly Morning Brew’s HR boss Kate asked us to do during this morning’s meeting. 

• The best tip I’ve encountered? Visualize the things you’re trying to remember. Try to snap a mental image of your sunglasses when you’re putting them down. 
• It also helps to try activities that challenge your brain, like a new card game or Morning Brew’s crossword puzzle. 
• I’m as tired of hearing it as you are, but...improving memory is yet another area where getting more sleep will make things easier. 

Trust me, these tips make a difference over time. This morning, Kate asked us to confirm our addresses in our online system—see?

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This is Acadia National Park, one of my favorite spots to explore. Doesn’t that shot make you wish you were a bear? 

That’s all I have for today. Our amazing Editorial Intern Amanda Yao will see you here on Wednesday.