Content Consumed: Amazon’s Healthcare Push, the French GP, Keke Palmer and more

Welcome to today’s edition of Content Consumed! And guess what, baby? It’s Friday. Let’s roll.

This morning we’re chitchatting about Amazon’s push into healthcare, the heatwave stirring up the French Grand Prix, star actress/meme queen Keke Palmer, Germans going vegan, and how I fell in love with reading again.

American hellscape: Amazon’s acquisition of One Medical
Where can’t you find Amazon these days, eh? They’re online, they’re at your grocery store, they’re at your mall. And now you might be able to use that Christmas gift card from Aunt Susie at your primary care physician’s office! For a wee $3.9 billion, Amazon has acquired a national chain of primary care clinics called One Medical. “We think health care is high on the list of experiences that need reinvention,” one Amazon exec said. Amazon wants to be the “front door” through which customers access health care. “They want to nail the consumer experience.” My opinion: let’s not insert capitalism into the American healthcare system more than we already have! Read more here.

Formula 1’s French GP heats up
Whew, it is hot right now. We’re due to pass 90 degrees on Circuit Paul Ricard this weekend, where Charles Leclerc may really struggle with Ferrari’s reliability issues in the championship fight against Max Verstappen. Pirelli tires are another issue to deal with on the scorching hot track as well. One more storyline to follow: this might be the last race on this track, as F1 wants to race in more “destination cities” and expand beyond Europe—which explains why we’re headed to Vegas next year and may see a race in South Africa on the calendar soon.
Catch up on F1 things with the BBC Chequered Flag pod (for the more serious, historical fans) and Formula Bone pod (for the Drive to Survive, meme-forward fans).

Keke Palmer, meme queen and genuinely underrated star
Nope’s out and the reviews are in: it’s good. Not my cup of tea, as I am not not not a horror/thriller movie gal. But I respect the art! Even more so, I respect the Keke Palmer of it all. The memes she inspires make the Internet feel wholesome again (for a brief period of time, at least) and she’s proving that child stars can be happy, charismatic, and well-respected actors beyond their teenage years at Nickelodeon and Disney.

I saw something I did for another interview where I was like, “Ooh, they thought I was dead.” And somebody wrote, ‘That’s what the roach said after they stepped on me a hundred times.’ The internet? I live for the way that they are real-life comedians, girl. — Keke Palmer via Vanity Fair

The Schnitzel capital, going meatless?
Germans aren’t eating as much meat. There’s been a 12.3% decline in their consumption of animal products in just the past 10 years. Crazy enough, the trend runs counter to virtually everywhere else on the planet, where meat consumption is quickly rising, especially in lower-income countries. There’s no obvious reason for this sudden decline, but a few possibilities have been offered: recent scandals in the German meat industry, greater availability of meat alternatives like tofu, and more awareness of animal cruelty issues. One standout fact: younger Germans are deeply worried about climate change and see reforming the food system as one way to pump the brakes on their country’s greenhouse gas emissions.

How I got back into reading—and you can too, dear reader!
After I discovered the hellhole that is the Internet, and was forced to read some bad literature (really! Some of it is bad. We can admit not all “great American classics” are good) in high school English class, I got burnt out on reading for fun.
Now, years later, I’m reading more because of…
(1) My Kindle, which is super transportable and accessible and tricks my brain into thinking I’m on my phone
(2) Goodreads, where I can tap into my competitive spirit by setting goals for myself and get more reading recs from people online
(3) Figuring out my favorite niche genre. Once I knew I liked modern historical journalistic accounts of ethnonationalist issues, it was game on.

My recs for that genre, should it be of interest to you: Say Nothing (nonfiction), The Impossible Country (nonfiction), Logavina Street (nonfiction), Burnt Shadows (fiction), Girl at War (fiction), and City of a Thousand Gates (fiction).

Check out this Vox article for more tips.

That’s it for today! Thanks for reading. Enjoy your weekend!

Love,
Casey