Welcome to Tuesday Thursday Saturday! I share a snapshot of trending stories across business, tech, and culture three times a week. Subscribe and tell me what you want to hear about next! - KP

The Big Story: Calibrating to Chaos

A few newsletters ago, I asked: Will it ever feel normal again? I wanted to understand this phenomenon we seem to be living in, where every day feels crazier and more unprecedented than the last. As the popular millennial refrain goes, “It would be nice to stop living through historical events.”

But for all the joking and complaining we make about our daily disruption, we seem to be freakishly good at navigating it. Think about it: Something major happens, we have an immediate reaction, and then we just kind of roll with it. “It is what it is!”

The most obvious example is the pandemic. The world flipped, fast. Schools shut down, routines broke, and everything felt off. But within months, we adjusted. It wasn’t perfect — many lives were deeply and sometimes irreversibly impacted — but as a society and as individuals, somehow, we kept going. 

Same with the markets. April brought chaos: volatility, uncertainty, Fed whiplash. And now? Investors have already adapted. It doesn’t mean the stress is gone, just that we’ve recalibrated. Again.

So I wanted to know: Why are we so good at this? Turns out, we’re wired for it.

Let’s start with biology. One of the main reasons humans are so adaptable is that we evolved that way. The human brain is plastic, meaning it can reshape itself to learn, unlearn, and relearn. This concept, called neuroplasticity, is what lets you pick up a new skill, recover after an injury, or adjust to new conditions.

Psychologically, we’re built to absorb change. One reason is cognitive flexibility, or our ability to switch mental gears. It’s how we shift priorities, problem-solve in real time, or change our opinions when new facts come in. This shows up in everything from how we manage career changes to how we respond in emergencies.

We also get used to things faster than we expect. This is called habituation. The more we’re exposed to something, the less intense our emotional reaction becomes.

Even in extreme situations, we adjust. There’s a theory in psychology called Terror Management Theory that suggests when humans are reminded of their own mortality, they become more likely to reinforce group values, find meaning, and keep moving forward. It’s one reason communities often become more resilient during crises.

We’re also wired to learn socially. According to anthropologist Joseph Henrich, the reason humans dominate the planet isn’t just intelligence; it’s our ability to observe, imitate, and teach each other. Instead of waiting generations for genetic adaptation, we copy the people around us. This “cultural evolution” is basically how we’ve survived everything from climate shifts to industrial revolutions.

Here’s the most interesting part to me: we don’t just adapt, we normalize.

Sociologists talk about norm formation. This is the idea that groups quickly settle into new patterns of behavior when the environment changes. You see it with remote work, with how we talk about mental health now, even how we are navigating the impacts of AI on labor. There’s a collective sense-making process that kicks in. We mirror each other. We tell stories. We name the moment (“the great resignation,” “doomscrolling”) and give it shape.

There’s also a biochemical layer to this. When we face short-term stress, our bodies pump out cortisol to keep us alert. But over time, if the stress is predictable or shared, our systems settle into a new equilibrium. The science of homeostasis explains why we don’t stay freaked out forever.

At the end of the day, most of us don’t love change, but we’re incredible at managing it. Maybe that’s the real magic. We don’t need to be fearless or even confident, we just need to keep moving. And we do.

Daily Rip Live: Assessing the (Over)reaction to Google, US-UK Trade Deal News, and Instacart’s CEO to Join OpenAI

Every weekday, Shay Boloor and I run down the biggest market news and events LIVE on Stocktwits’ morning show, The Daily Rip Live. Here’s a summary of what we covered during Thursday’s show:

• 3:10 | Google had a rough week with the stock taking a 6% hit amid antitrust pressure and news that Apple could be exploring a different search partner for its Safari browser. Chrome dominates browser market share, but on mobile, Safari has more of a grip as it is Apple’s default setting. $GOOG ( ▼ 0.88% )  

• 12:15 | Apple is continuing to diversify its supply chain by moving more of its manufacturing operations from China to India. We talked about why this is such a big deal. $AAPL ( ▲ 0.53% )  

• 15:45 | Uber reported earnings that painted a mixed picture — growth in some areas but lingering concerns about profitability. I also had a very strange Uber ride. $UBER ( ▲ 0.62% )  

• 17:05 | We finally got some details around the US-UK trade deal, which includes provisions around digital trade and supply chains, marking a step forward in transatlantic cooperation.

• 19:21 | The markets responded positively to the announcement, but Shay reminds investors not to get too distracted — at the end of the day, this is about China, and we still haven’t made much progress on that front.

• 21:20 | OpenAI poached Instacart’s CEO for a new role via a weird cadence of corp communications. Sam Altman essentially broke the news on X, and then came the official communications from Instacart. $CART ( ▲ 1.93% )  

• 25:02 | New Yorkers simply can't coexist with robots. Also, I just saw like seven of them in LA (photo below). $SERV ( ▲ 13.72% )  

• 27:10 | Flutter Entertainment and DraftKings are two giants in the sports betting space, but their long-term competitive advantages remain unclear. We dig into what it takes to build a moat in this increasingly crowded and regulated market. $FLUT ( ▼ 2.79% )  $DKNG ( ▲ 2.49% )  

• 39:30 | Mercado Libre deep dive, including parallels to Amazon. $MELI ( ▲ 1.66% )  

• 47:50 | Hims & Hers stock surprise. It’s up 60% this year. What’s driving the trend? $HIMS ( ▲ 1.09% )  

🔌 Quick plug: On Friday, I joined Cheddar News for a segment with J.D. Durkin, one of my favorite business journalists around. We covered a ton of ground, and you can watch the full interview here.

Now Here’s a Chart

When it comes to sports betting, we haven’t hit market saturation yet. DraftKings shared out an updated view of their unique customer counts, which continue to grow quarter over quarter.

Moreover, CEO Jason Robins said that live betting represented more than 50% of DraftKings’ handle (or total amount of money wagered by users) in Q1 2025. This is the first time in DraftKings’ history that in-play wagering made up the majority. $DKNG ( ▲ 2.49% )  

Reading List

• 🌸 Happy Almost Mother’s Day 🌸 Studies estimate that the unpaid work of a stay-at-home mom would equate to an annual salary of over $145,000. (Houston Chronicle)

• OpenAI, Microsoft tell Senate ‘no one country can win AI’ (VentureBeat) $MSFT ( ▲ 0.13% )  

• Volcanic white gold: A lithium deposit valued at $1.5 trillion has been discovered in the U.S. (Earth.com)

• Stablecoin bill fails to clear key hurdle in U.S. Senate (Reuters)

• Era of U.S. dollar may be winding down (Harvard Gazette)

• First Chinese freight ship goods hit with Trump's 145%-plus tariffs arriving at U.S. ports (CNBC)

• The Trade Desk Returns To Form With A Strong Q1 Earnings Report (AdExchanger) $TTD ( ▲ 18.6% )  

• Warren Buffett’s Unparalleled Investing Record—in Charts (WSJ) $BRK.A ( ▲ 0.26% )  

• Krispy Kreme pauses nationwide doughnut rollout with McDonald's (Fox Business) $DNUT ( ▼ 16.26% )  $MCD ( ▲ 0.06% )  

• Americans still dream about factory jobs. Can they be brought back? (NPR)

  • I also wrote about this a couple of newsletters ago: Bringing Back Jobs No One Wants

🎧 Now playing: “Harmony” - Elton John

Tuesday Thursday Saturday is written by Katie Perry, owner of Ursa Major Media, which provides fractional marketing services and strategy in software, tech, consumer products, professional services, and other industries. She is also the co-host of Stocktwits’ Daily Rip Live show.

✔ Need senior marketing support? Work with Katie.

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Disclaimer: The contents here reflect recaps and summaries of pre-reported or published data, news, and trends. I have cited sources and context for the information provided to the best of my ability. The purpose of the newsletter is to inform and educate on larger trends shaping business and culture — this is NOT investment advice. As an investor, you should always do your own research before making any decisions about your money or your portfolio.