The Sunday Digest 072
If we get up now, we can catch the afternoon.
Welcome to The Sunday Digest — a free Sunday newsletter featuring long (and some short) reads, original columns, things I’ve saved over the last week, relaxing playlists, episodes releases, exclusive product drops, and more. Yes, you can reply to this email. I’d love to hear from you. Or, if podcasts are more your speed on Sundays, we’ve got that too.
Sunday Read › Is Dr. Bronner’s the Last Corporation With a Soul?
by Carrie Battan for GQ
The first time I ever used Dr. Bronner’s, I had no idea what to expect. Where I grew up, it was considered lake soap — the soap you use when you shower in the lake during an unseasonably hot day, or when you’re just trying to get clean during a weekend at a bluegrass festival.
But as it started to make its way into my rotation at home, I began to love it. I’d switch scents as the season changed (eucalyptus in the summer, peppermint over the holidays). It even became bathroom reading material when I’d forget my phone in the other room — something I don’t think I’m alone in.
This week’s Sunday Read is about just that — Dr. Bronner’s. The brand, the company, and everything in between. Here’s an excerpt:
The other topics David covers include, but are not limited to: their grandfather’s failings as a father. Their Christian-Reaganite upbringing. The philosophical awakenings they experienced as a student at Harvard in the ’90s. The hypocrisy of the criminal justice system. The promise of regenerative organic agriculture. The prolonged legal battle that Dr. Bronner’s waged against the DEA after the company reformulated its liquid soap to include hemp seed oil in 1999. The production of olive oil in the context of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The trip they took to Amsterdam after college, and, perhaps most crucially, the spiritual rebirth experienced there by way of psychedelics.
The trip was so mind-blowing that David has since made it their life mission—and eventually the company’s—to drive efforts in the United States to legalize psychedelics, and more broadly, end the drug war. And they have succeeded, in spite of any skepticism and unease that some colleagues might have toward this trippy streak. In 2021 the company spent over $4.4 million on drug and psychedelics policy reform efforts, part of which helped pass a Colorado ballot measure last year to decriminalize certain psychedelics.
Was I expecting that to be part of this profile? Absolutely not. But there are more interesting tidbits than just spiritual reawakenings too.
Read in full here.
New Episode › Retail Therapy 064: New Luxury, Totes, and Olive Oil Coffee
The Saltburn-themed party hosted in Bushwick, the olive oil-infused coffee from Starbucks, influencers selling $120 tote bags, "new luxury" and how rising brands fit with the old guard, Valentine's Day angles, English Premier League fades, Dead and Co. tickets at The Sphere, wishlist additions, and more.
Listen to Retail Therapy on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, YouTube (see above), and anywhere else podcasts are found.
The Sunday Haiku: Emotional Support Bathrobe
Naked underneath,
Plush, white, and ready for wear,
Clothes are for Mondays.
Things I Saved This Week
Supplemental Reading
Earlier this week on
, I wrote about my new obsession for wearing old man pajamas.I’ve really been enjoying Sunday Confessions, perhaps because I’ve been slipping my own in. Is it a good enough series to stick around for a while? We’ll see.
Is the second-cheapest bottle of wine on the wine list not actually a good deal? I lightly investigated.
If you can’t tell, yes, I’ve been trying to write more this year. Hopefully that trend continues. See you next week.
— Will