Slip slidin' away

Good morning Staker! Here’s what’s cookin’ today. Fed chair questions job numbers, San Fran comes for junk food, Uber has started selling food order data to advertisers, and why it’s a little harder to go hard now  🥴

But first our weekly poll!

The San Francisco city attorney filed a lawsuit this week in San Francisco Superior Court against Kraft Heinz and nine other food manufacturers, alleging they “engineered a public health crisis” by forcing the city to pay for the healthcare required for those with diabetes, heart disease, and other conditions the suit blames on ultraprocessed food consumption.

“Recent surveys show Americans want to avoid ultra-processed foods, but we are inundated by them,” San Francisco City Attorney David Chiu said in a statement. “These companies engineered a public health crisis, they profited handsomely, and now they need to take responsibility for the harm they have caused.”

The claim is framed similarly to those made by plaintiffs against Big Tobacco and opioid manufacturers, which resulted in settlements of hundreds of billions of dollars.

Still, this suit may have bigger hurdles to overcome. California became the first state to officially define the term “ultraprocessed food” in October, but generally speaking, there is no consensus definition.

A suit filed by a 19-year-old blaming his Type 2 diabetes on ultraprocessed food was dismissed in August when the plaintiff wasn’t able to list the exact products that caused his condition.

Uber is launching a data platform called Uber Intelligence, which collects user location, ride, and takeout order data. The information is sold to advertisers for use in targeted marketing.

The platform is launching in partnership with LiveRamp, which allows advertisers to plug in their own data insights and cross-reference them with Uber’s data.

Uber says it expects its ad business to generate $1.5 billion in revenue this year.

LiveRamp strips away personally identifiable information, making it available to augment targeting on a macro level, even though it’s being leveraged for micro-targeting. Data like what consumers like to eat and where they typically travel will be fair game for advertisers to use.

"Early-stage ad businesses tend to focus exclusively on selling inventory while more mature ones focus more on delivering differentiated value through targeting and measurement solutions that help brands understand and optimize the impact of their spend," Andrew Frank, analyst at the research firm Gartner, told Business Insider.

If it seems like your tolerance for alcohol has dwindled as you’ve become older, it’s not just because you aren’t going as hard as you did on in your 20s and you’re out of practice.

"You are not alone," says Dr. Monica Christmas of the University of Chicago Medical Center. "I am in that age range too and absolutely, [drinks] need to be spread out or it's all going to go straight to my head and I will need to sleep half the day away the next day."

The body’s alcohol tolerance naturally dwindles as we age, most notably in the form of liver enzymes which become less efficient; one drink actually does hit harder than it used to, both at night and in the next morning.

"That means that our bodies metabolize alcohol a little bit differently," says Christmas. "We also lose more muscle as we get older, and that muscle is replaced by fatty tissue,” which means alcohol stays in the bloodstream longer, leads to a higher blood alcohol content level, and literally feels like the drink is packing a wallop it didn’t used to.

There are several other physiological realities that make alcohol consumption a bigger challenge for the body as we age—perhaps something to remember as the holidays fast approach.

Steve Vai and Joe Satriani will bring the SatchVai Band to North America for the first time this Spring on a 40-date tour.

"The SatchVai Band summer Euro tour of 2025 far exceeded anything I could have imagined,” Vai said in a statement announcing the new dates.

“Joe and I struck pure jammin’ gold night after night. Being in the same band with Joe, playing songs we actually wrote together on stage, in real time felt like watching a childhood fantasy step out of my teenage brain and stroll onto the stage. And somehow, it was even more rewarding, satisfying, and downright fulfilling than I ever thought possible."

The band is well-rounded with musicians beyond the two virtuoso gunslingers on guitar. Kenny Aronoff will be at the kit, Marco Mendoza will be slappin’ the bass, and Pete Thorn will be on rhythm guitar.

“We can’t wait to play you the new material from our forthcoming SatchVai album along with your favorite songs from our shared catalog,” Satriani said.

Quizmaster’s choice

Happy Friday, Staker! It’s time for another round of trivia à la carte 🥳 

We’ve got a set of 10 random questions—the only thing connecting them is that they’ll make sense if you were born in the ’60s. So walk on down memory lane with today’s trivia!

Complete the game and earn a shot at a $25 eGift Card ;)

Winner will be notified on Monday afternoon. Keep an eye on your inbox and don’t forget to check your spam folder!*