Good Morning!

It's Thursday, April 23, 2026, and in today’s edition of Rise & Recap, we look at:

• Marijuana reclassification likely to happen as soon as Wednesday.

• Forget maxxing, half-assing through life might be better.

• Gen Z is now applying for scholarships, thanks to TikTok.

Love this newsletter? Don’t keep it all to yourself — share it with your friends!

Reading for the first time? Join over 50,000 intellectually curious women. 

Paywalled articles ruin a seamless experience. We hear you, going forward, here’s a link that you can use to access all the locked articles to bypass the paywall. It is safe and we hope to deliver nothing but the best experience for our readers.

Help us be better, write at: [email protected]

Top headlines

SPILL THE NEWS

US News

Trump Administration To Reclassify Marijuana

The Trump administration is expected to reclassify marijuana as soon as Wednesday, according to an administration official. The change would ease Drug Enforcement Administration restrictions on studying its medical uses but would not legalize marijuana or affect sentences for possession. Marijuana is currently a Schedule I drug, alongside heroin, LSD and ecstasy. 

The new classification would align it with drugs such as ketamine and steroids. Trump signed an executive order last December directing the attorney general to advance the change, continuing efforts initiated under President Joe Biden. Drug scheduling is determined based on medical use, abuse potential, and safety or dependence risk, according to the DEA.

Money

Women Get Worse Financial Advice?

Research analyzing 27,000 client-adviser meetings at a German bank found women receive less favorable financial advice than men. The study showed women were more often steered toward in-house funds that generate higher fees for banks and were less likely to receive sales fee rebates. 

Findings, published in the American Economic Review, suggest advisers use gender as a proxy for financial sophistication, assuming women are less knowledgeable. The pattern was consistent across both male and female advisers. The research comes as regulators push reforms to expand access to financial advice, including new UK rules allowing firms to offer broader, lower-cost guidance to address gaps in investment participation.

Health

Suicide Hotline Linked To Drop In Youth Deaths

Nearly 4,400 fewer US teens and young adults died by suicide than projected after the 988 crisis hotline launched in July 2022, according to a study published in JAMA. Suicide deaths among people aged 15 to 23 were 11% lower than expected through December 2024. Researchers compared modeled projections using historical death records with actual figures. 

States with higher increases in 988 call volumes saw larger reductions in deaths. No similar pattern appeared in England, where no comparable hotline exists. The program has received about $1.5 billion in federal funding. The administration’s 2027 budget proposal allocates $534.6 million for 988, with 11 million contacts anticipated.

In the know

DON’T MISS

⚠️ American Lung Association report finds 152 million Americans, including 33 million children, live in areas with unhealthy air pollution levels.

⚔️ As US military seizes another tanker tied to Iranian oil, President Trump says US-Iran peace talks could resume within 36–72 hours. 

🍰 Costco just fixed a bakery frustration you’ve definitely complained about. Yes, it’s that one.

✈️ Trump administration nears $500 million loan deal for struggling Spirit Airlines, seeking stake during bankruptcy recovery.

😮 Texas judge dismissed FBI Director Kash Patel’s defamation lawsuit against a journalist and his response was, well, striking.

⛽ The material everything runs on is getting pricier, and it won’t stop at gas pumps.

🍨 Häagen-Dazs just launched this trendy flavor as an ice-cream and we can’t keep calm.

Health & Wellness

FOR YOUR WELLBEING

😴 Proteinmaxxing, fibermaxxing, looksmaxxing, sleepmaxxing — what if we just …. didn’t? Someone's making a case for “half-assing” through life.

👵 Loneliness does affect memory in older adults, but not quite in the way researchers have expected for so long. 

🍔 Can your childhood diet impact what you crave, even decades later? One study says early exposure to junk food rewires how your brain handles hunger. 

🪥 Longevity’s underrated hack is …. flossing your teeth every day. There is a significant connection between the two, perhaps more than anyone gives it credit for.

Fashion & Beauty

BEYOND THE MIRROR

💄 The “clean girl” makeup trend has run its course — even the minimalists are getting glittery. Only this time, the rules have changed slightly. 

🩴 We’re not fooling you when we say flip-flops are the “shoe” of the summer (with some exceptions). Here's how to actually style them so they don't look lazy.

🧴 In the world of plastic excess, beauty refills sound like the sustainable swap we've all been waiting for. Unfortunately …. most of them aren't. Are we doing anything to change that? 

🛍️ Secret group chats, proxy services, resale alerts at 6 am sharp — a new breed of shoppers is going to extreme lengths to get the clothes they want. Well, they wouldn't have it any other way.

Hollywood

THE FAME FRAME

🕵️‍♂️ Autopsy reports reveal Celeste Rivas Hernandez’s cause of death, nearly 7 months after the 14-year-old was found in singer D4vd’s car. 

🎤 Nikkia Glaser reveals the gift Leonardo DiCaprio sent her after that fire Golden Globes roast.

🎬 The new Michael Jackson biopic opens to scathing reviews from critics. On the other hand, his family has this to say about taking control of the media narrative. 

🎥 The first trailer for DC's ‘Clayface’ is here. Something’s genuinely unsettling!

⚖️ Russell Brand admits to sleeping with a 16-year-old when he was 30, ahead of his sexual assault trial.

Interactive

WEIGH IN

TikTok’s Making Gen Z Apply For Scholarships

Scholarship hunting has officially entered the scroll era. Platforms like TikTok are no longer just for trends, but a go-to discovery tool for Gen Z. Around 1 in 5 students search weekly, and many say they’ve found opportunities they wouldn’t have otherwise. But the flip side is messy: about a third report misleading content, and only 27% consistently verify what they see. For some, it’s empowering and accessible; for others, it’s overwhelming, competitive, and sometimes unreliable. The real shift isn’t just where students search, but how much they trust what shows up on their feed.

“Instead of wondering when your next vacation is, maybe you should set up a life you don’t need to escape from.”

— Seth Godin