HEALTH
🧪 MTF DEEP DIVE: OBESITY DRUG PRESCRIPTIONS SURGE FOR TEENS — BUT ONLY FOR SOME. In just one year, the number of U.S. adolescents prescribed FDA-approved obesity medications jumped 300% — the sharpest rise on record. But here’s the twist: that still adds up to less than 1% of teens with obesity.
—> THE WHY NOW: In 2022 and 2023, the FDA expanded approval of popular weight-loss drugs like Wegovy (semaglutide) and phentermine-topiramate for teens aged 12–17. Around the same time, the American Academy of Pediatrics updated its clinical guidelines, encouraging obesity medication as part of treatment for youth — especially those with severe obesity.
—> THE WHO: Of the teens prescribed obesity meds in 2023:
• 83% had severe obesity
• Girls were 2x more likely than boys to be prescribed meds
• Teens 15–17 years old were more than twice as likely to receive them as younger teens
—> THE WHAT:
The most commonly prescribed drugs in 2023 were:
Wegovy (semaglutide) – 57.1%
Phentermine / Phentermine-Topiramate – 37.7%
Saxenda (liraglutide) – 11.9%
These are FDA-approved only for teens with obesity — not for cosmetic weight loss or off-label use in type 2 diabetes.
—> THE CATCH: Insurance hurdles, high costs, supply shortages, and safety concerns have limited access — even for those eligible. And without behavioral therapy or lifestyle changes, medication alone may not be a long-term fix.
—> THE FUTURE: Obesity is now considered a chronic disease — not a personal failure. As more teens turn to pharmaceutical tools, equity, access, and public understanding will define the next phase of adolescent care.
Source: CDC
hello, future. it’s me, kev.
…and this is a dispatch from the digital frontier. It’s time to meet the future NOW — with the latest on markets, tech, and freedom. The day is 159 out of 365. The year is 2025. The planet is Earth.
The planet has complete 43.56 percent its annual orbit around the sun star.
My name is Kevin Cirilli —> LinkedIn. Spotify. Sign-up to receive the future in your inbox here.
Did I ever tell you how much I <3 radio? It’s the OG social media. I had so much fun guest-hosting this weekend a two-hour special of MEET THE FUTURE.
I’ll post some more about it throughout the week… [Some of you might remember that I used to be chief Washington correspondent of Bloomberg News and anchored a daily show.] Thank you to my incredible friends at iHeartRadio for making it happen.
More soon… but do you me a fast one…
—> Subscribe to my YouTube channel. And get your friends to do it, too.
Back to the future...
CRYPTO
🧱 BITCOIN FAMILY GOES DARK AS CRYPTO KIDNAPPINGS SURGE
From Manhattan to Morocco, crypto holders are being kidnapped, tortured, tracked, and extorted. One victim lost a finger. Another was electrocuted for 17 days. Now the “Bitcoin Family” — who sold everything to go all-in on BTC — is disappearing from view and splitting their fortune like Harry Potter split his soul into horcruxes.
—> 🧠 THE PLAN: Their master 24-word seed phrase — the cryptographic key to their fortune — is broken into 4 encrypted sets of 6 words. Some are etched by hand into fireproof steel plates. Others are stored digitally on decentralized platforms. Each fragment is hidden on a different continent.
—> 🔀 EXTRA TWIST: They intentionally alter select words before storage — a personal encryption layer. Unless you know which words are wrong, even 18 out of 24 won’t unlock anything. “Even if someone holds me at gunpoint, they get nothing,” Didi Taihuttu said.
—> 🌍 WHY IT MATTERS: Hardware wallets? Gone. Real-time posts? Deleted. The family now lives completely off-grid — algorithmic traders with physical wallets so secure they require international travel to reassemble.
—> 📉 THE THREAT: Physical attacks on crypto holders are rising. Victims are tracked with AirTags. Daughters of CEOs are stalked in broad daylight. Crypto wealth is portable, instant, and irreversible — the perfect target for ransom.
📦 65% of their holdings are in deep cold storage.
🎯 Target: $100M net worth by 2033 — if Bitcoin hits $1M.
📡 They’ll access it when the world is ready. Or when they are.
📸 Source: CNBC
SPACE
🌋 MARS' MEGA-VOLCANO BREAKS THROUGH CLOUDS — A GLIMPSE INTO A TERRAFORMED FUTURE. For the first time ever, NASA captured a volcano on Mars that dwarfs anything like it on Earth. Arsia Mons — a 12-mile-high giant — piercing through the icy morning cloud belt of Mars. The volcano is so massive it creates its own weather. And now we have the photo to prove it.
This is a sig of what's possible.
—> 🧊 THE SHOT: Captured at dawn by NASA’s Odyssey orbiter on May 2. The spacecraft rotated mid-orbit to catch the Martian horizon — and there it was: a summit too tall to be hidden. A volcano rising above a planet that barely breathes.
—> 📍 WHY HERE? WHY NOW? Arsia Mons lives in Mars’ Tharsis region — a volcanic equator belt so tall it scrapes the sky. During aphelion (when Mars is farthest from the Sun), the atmosphere cools just enough for clouds to form. But not just any clouds: water-ice clouds. Not carbon dioxide. Not dust. Water — the essential ingredient for life, agriculture, oxygen production, and fuel.
This is different. CO₂ clouds evaporate. But water clouds mean something can cycle. They suggest Mars isn’t dead — it’s dormant. And where water moves, so can we.
—> 🌱 WHAT THIS MEANS FOR TERRAFORMING: Arsia Mons punches through the cloud layer because it’s reaching into an atmosphere that’s learning how to live. Scientists are tracking these shifts — humidity, layering, heat — to figure out how to one day control the weather on Mars. This is climate infrastructure before the infrastructure.
—> 🧠 BIGGER THAN EVEREST, WIDER THAN L.A.
Height: 12 miles
Width: 370 miles
—> 🌌 FAST FACTS:
Mars = 53% the size of Earth
Has 2 moons (Phobos and Deimos)
📸 NASA | CBS News | JPL | NDTV
SPACE
CHINA WANTS TO MINE EARTH’S ‘LOST MOON.’ China just launched a satellite that is going to mine Earth’s quasi-moon and then will go land on a comet. China’s Tianwen 2 spacecraft is on a deep-space intercept mission — chasing down a mysterious object that might be a missing fragment of the Moon. The probe just sent back its first image from over 3 million kilometers away… and it’s only getting started.
—> YUP. EARTH HAS QUASI-MOONS — AND NOBODY TOLD YOU. They’re not moons. Not asteroids. Quasi-moons are weird orbital ghosts — looping around Earth in bizarre paths. Kamoʻoalewa, the target, is one of seven known quasi-moons. And some scientists think it could be lunar shrapnel from a massive ancient impact. If true? It’s the closest we’ve come to finding a Moon twin.
—> WHY YOU CARE: It’s unknown if U.S. knew China was planning something like this…
Sources: Space.com, Daily Galaxy
MTF EVENTS // SPECIAL CONTENT
MEET THE FUTURE AT SPACE REG BOOTCAMP!!! The Association of Commercial Space Professionals and Q Station have joined forces to offer the Third Annual Space Regulatory Bootcamp in Albuquerque, NM June 10-11th. Spend two intense days learning to navigate the intricacies of the regulations that are slowing your business down.
Leave with practical skills, meaningful connections, and with a regulatory roadmap for your business. From fundraising to government contracting and export controls, our instructors will be hands-on with teaching skills and answering your questions. Tickets and agenda available here: https://acsp.space/abq25bootcamp/ Use our code: ACSPFRIEND to get 10% off your ticket.
ONE MORE THING
🧠 THIS DIET COULD SAVE YOUR BRAIN. New long-term data shows the MIND diet can cut your dementia risk — even if you start later in life. A massive new study tracking 93,000 adults found that people who followed the MIND diet — a blend of Mediterranean and DASH — had up to a 25% lower risk of developing Alzheimer’s and other dementias.
—> WHY IT WORKS: It’s not just “eating healthy.” The MIND diet targets brain health. That means leafy greens (6+ servings/week), berries (2+ servings/week), whole grains, olive oil, fish, and nuts — while cutting back on red meat, fried food, sweets, and cheese.
—> BUILT FOR BRAINS: Developed in 2015, MIND scores individual foods based on how protective they are. Spinach? Good. Blueberries? Even better. Stick with it long enough — and your score goes up. So does your brain protection.
—> THE BOTTOM LINE: Eat your fruits and veggies.
Sources: NBC, American Society for Nutrition, University of Hawaii, University of Southern California
With gratitude,
Kev
ABOUT mtf.tv’s meet the future: mtf.tv’s meet the future is a cutting-edge platform focused on addressing key challenges at the intersection of national security, technology, and business. With a mission to embrace freedom to meet the future’s challenges and opportunities, mtf.tv offers forward-thinking media offerings and forums.
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