LIVING THE HIGH LIFE?

RFK Jr. still takes psychedelic drugs, a new book claims. How big of a deal is this?

• HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy is known for his, shall we say, unconventional life story, certainly by the standards of the nation’s top health official. The former heroin addict has earned headlines for chainsawing, blending, and freezing dead animals. His own cousin urged the Senate to reject his nomination, calling him a “predator” who led other family members “down the path of drug addiction.” He has stirred controversy by claiming vaccines and tylenol may be linked to autism. The list goes on and on. Somehow, this wrinkled, fake-tanned crackpot has been entrusted with safeguarding the country’s health — while, apparently, still acting like a juvenile delinquent.

• That’s according to “American Canto,” the buzzy, widely panned memoir by former star journalist Olivia Nuzzi. The book details her romantic relationship with RFK Jr., which began when she profiled him for New York magazine last year. We know waaaayyyy too much about that whole situation. Even so, I think it’s worth pausing on one particular detail that Nuzzi reveals about Kennedy, whom she refers to euphemistically as “the Politician.”

• Consider this excerpt: “The Politician still did some psychedelics for fun, he said. He described how he waited until his wife [actress Cheryl Hines] was not home to go outside and smoke DMT, just as he waited until she was not home to call, or else he would call while locked in the bathroom,” Nuzzi wrote. “The DMT was laced in cigarettes a friend had given him. ‘What’s it like?’ I asked. He thought for a moment and flashed a mischievous smile. With a shrug, he said, ‘It’s your classic psychedelic experience.’”

• I have… so many questions. Is this 71-year-old tripping balls while ransacking America’s public health system? How have his personal experiences influenced his support for research on psychedelics as a possible treatment for mental illness? Perhaps most crucially: Does RFK Jr. know which dimension he’s in?

• The answers to these questions remain unclear, partially because the Department of Health and Human Services didn’t respond to What A Day’s request for comment. You would think they’d wanna clear this up….

I asked two DMT experts (yes, that’s a real job) for their thoughts.

• A little background on this drug. “The history of human experience with DMT likely goes back several hundred years, because DMT usage is associated with several religious practices and rituals. As a naturally occurring substance in many species of plants, DMT is present in a number of South American snuffs and brewed concoctions, like ayahuasca,” according to a DEA report.

• One prominent expert in this field asked to remain anonymous to avoid angering “the powers that be.” I agreed to that request. The expert explained to me that the drug needs to be smoked or injected, and that the effect lasts only about 10 to 20 minutes. But woooo boy, what a trip it is.

• The user “loses awareness of the body and enters into a world of light oftentimes ‘inhabited’ with a certain sentience,” the expert told What A Day. In rare cases, users may experience unusual side effects, the expert told me.

• “One of the unique aspects of DMT, at least from the emails I receive, is a certain messianism that develops after repeated use,” the expert explained. “People are convinced that they have the answer to the secrets of the universe, and get rather upset when no one else believes them. In that setting, at least from the emails I receive from them or their friends/relatives, they are in jail or in a mental hospital. They’re quite difficult to treat, as they don’t think anything is wrong.”

• That type of delusion hardly affects every user. The drug may have therapeutic uses for people struggling with conditions like depression or addiction, when administered in controlled settings under proper supervision, according to Christopher Timmermann, a researcher at University College London.

• “There is no convincing evidence of DMT directly impacting decision-making in the longer term,” Timmermann told What A Day. “However, for some individuals, the experience can be challenging or destabilizing, and in rare cases psychological difficulties may arise, though these typically resolve over time.”

Should a powerful elected official be taking this drug? The first expert demurred, but offered this view: “In the case of someone developing a messianic delusion… being a public official could be problematic.”

WHAT ELSE?

“At the 2026 World Cup draw, the winner is... Donald Trump,” reads one Reuters headline today. Trump presided over the World Cup drawing at a glitzy Kennedy Center gathering, featuring performances from the Village People (singing “YMCA”) and Andrea Bocelli (one of the president’s favorite singers). He also received the inaugural FIFA Peace Prize, a made-up award created by Trump’s best buddy who runs the organization. “This is basically just a Dundee,” Crooked’s Dan Pfeiffer tweeted, referring to the award in “The Office” that Michael Scott invented.

RFK Jr.’s handpicked CDC vaccine panel voted to stop recommending newborn babies receive the hepatitis B vaccine, reversing guidance that had been in place for more than three decades. One panel member who voted against the decision issued a stark warning: “This is unconscionable,” he said. “No rational science or discussion has been presented.”

The suspect arrested in connection with the DC pipe bomb plot ahead of the Capitol insurrection told investigators that he believed the 2020 election was stolen, CNN reports. It’s the first possible hint of a motive behind the plot, which targeted both the Democratic and Republican committee headquarters.

Americans’ confidence in the economy dropped to its lowest point since July 2024, according to new Gallup polling. But I thought Trump is a business guy who knows how to handle the economy thing, or something?

The Supreme Court agreed to hear the Trump administration’s challenge to birthright citizenship, in a case that could have major consequences for millions of Americans born in the U.S. with immigrant parents.

The European Commission slapped a $140 million fine on Elon Musk’s X app, formerly known as Twitter, accusing the platform of breaching the bloc’s rules requiring internet companies to fight hate speech and misinformation. As rumors of the fine swirled, Vice President JD Vance took great umbrage. “The EU should be supporting free speech not attacking American companies over garbage,” he tweeted.

Trump has been fuming about media coverage of his mental decline. “He is sensitive to being compared, even if not explicitly, to Sleepy Joe,” a Trump adviser told Zeteo. This means we are doing our jobs incredibly well! Keep it up, guys.

A good friend will make sure their drunk friend gets home safely. A really good friend will have their FBI director boyfriend order a security detail to get that friend home after multiple wild nights of partying in Nashville. Alexis Wilkins, Kash Patel’s 27-year-old girlfriend, “asked FBI agents on her security team at least two times, including once this spring, to drive her friend home, and agents objected to diverting from their assignment,” MS NOW reports. “But Patel insisted they do as Wilkins requested and in one case called the leader of Wilkins’ security detail and yelled at him to do so.” Awwww, what a freak!

The Trump administration seems to regret at least one of its January 6 pardons. Prosecutors urged a federal judge to jail one former defendant, who returned to Washington, D.C. in recent weeks… and has been walking around Rep. Jamie Raskin’s (D-MD) neighborhood.

LIGHT AT THE END OF THE EMAIL…

Luxury homes in Manhattan are selling like hotcakes, even after a cadre of billionaires warned that electing democratic socialist Zohran Mamdani as mayor would cause the richest dweebs to flee the city. “There is no Mamdani effect,” a prominent real estate executive told Bloomberg. “The idea that people would flee New York was overblown. The numbers just aren’t bearing that out.”

Researchers in Arizona are thrilled after they spotted an endangered jaguar crossing the U.S.-Mexico border, the fifth occurrence over the past 15 years. “We’re very excited. It signifies this edge population of jaguars continues to come here because they’re finding what they need,” one researcher said. I need someone to read me this entire article in David Attenborough’s voice.

Authorities in New Zealand recovered a James Bond-inspired faberge egg pendant that an alleged jewel thief swallowed. “They said the pendant was recovered Thursday night after it exited the suspect’s gastrointestinal tract naturally without medical intervention,” the AP writes. The golden egg was one of only 50 in existence, adorned with 183 diamonds and two sapphires. Ouch?

Avid football fans who happen to be statistics nerds are super into “Scorigami,” a concept described as “the act, and art, of producing a final score in a football game that has never happened before,” the Atlantic writes, quoting the sportscaster who invented the term. Scorigami fanatics estimate that there have been more than 1,000 unique final scores in football, but one elusive score is driving the community crazy: 36–23. Why has no NFL game ever ended with that final tally? Bizarre!

It’s a tale as old as time: A man in his 20s made a bet with his friends at a bar, and he set out to prove them wrong. Twenty-seven years ago, British native Karl Bushby bet his pals that he could walk from the southern tip of South America to his hometown. He’s expected to complete the challenge in September. “I can’t use transport to advance, and I can’t go home until I arrive on foot,” Bushby told the Washington Post. “If I get stuck somewhere, I have to figure it out.” That, my friends, is commitment to the bit.

Say hello to Neva, an adorable pup who loves feeling the wind rushing by.

“She loves running and watching races! This year she watched the NYC marathon and barked at a lot of runners to keep going!”

— Alison