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👋 Good morning. Looking for a fresh start? Consider Fond du Lac, Wisconsin, perhaps. The city of 44k residents is offering newcomers up to $9.5k to relocate through the MakeMyMove program. To woo young professionals, the program gives eligible applicants a cash relocation stipend along with comped local experiences and memberships to help them acclimate. Interested? Applicants must be at least 18 years old, live outside of Wisconsin, have an annual income of at least $55k, and commit to living in the city for at least one year. Go Packers?!

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NEWS FLASH

🛺 Not your grandpa’s golf cart: Former Apple designer Julian Hoenig launched electric buggy company Amble with a minimalist, street-legal electric buggy that can reach 40 mph and run for ~60 miles on one charge. The startup says its “lightweight EVs” are meant for short trips, and its 2027 delivery slots are already all reserved for hospitality customers, with an average order size of ~40 vehicles worth ~$1m.

🛰️ DIY megaconstellation: Former Starlink engineers have launched Eclipse Space, a startup that wants to help governments and companies build and own their own satellite constellations instead of renting access from giants like SpaceX. The company’s “fabless” production model would allow it to design the satellites while outsourcing the manufacturing, making space infrastructure cheaper and easier to deploy.

🍕 The pizza robot is back?: Three years after the buzzy pizza startup collapsed, Zume Pizza has been acquired. Zume’s claim to fame was designing a fully automated pizza operation that, at one point, included baking ‘za in a van while on its way to a customer. It is being revived by Miso Robotics, maker of burger-making robot Flippy. If all the automation stuff doesn’t work out, a love story between a burger robot and a pizza robot would make a great Pixar film.

MORE NEWS TO KNOW

Beep beep… the “most affordable truck in America” is here. Slate shared a starting price of $24,950 for its base two-seat pickup truck with manual crank windows, no stereo system or touch screen, and tactile controls.
Speaking of cars… Startup Aseon Labs raised $10m to build automated roadside pods that clean, inspect, and charge robotaxis, cutting down on the wasted miles autonomous vehicles drive without a paying passenger.
Keel over: It may be curtains for seaweed yarn maker Keel Labs, which has filed for bankruptcy. At its peak, its sustainable seaweed-derived fibers were put on the runway by partners like H&M and Stella McCartney.
Oof: Apple will hike prices by up to 25% on some MacBooks and iPads, but it isn’t alone: Microsoft added $150 to one Xbox price (Sony and Nintendo upped console prices, too). The primary culprit: memory chip costs, thanks to AI demand.

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THE BIG IDEA

Rent too high? Get thee to a nunnery

If you're habitually checking the rising cost of real estate, we've got a new habit for you.

As rents soar to the heavens, New Yorkers are seeking out affordable accommodations in an unexpected place: convent boarding houses with nuns, per The Wall Street Journal.

The unusual arrangement is part of a growing interest among affordable housing advocates in boarding houses, which once housed many lower-income Americans but were nearly zoned out of existence.

Houses of the Holy

Living with nuns may come with a curfew and other restrictions, but in a city where the median rent is $3,616, paying a third of that price makes the sister act worth it for many people.

Rents range from ~$580 to ~$1.6k/month.
Utilities, WiFi, and meals are often included, and residents often help with household duties.
Convents range from ~10 to ~90 rooms.
Some boarding houses are women-only, others have separate floors.
Women-only houses typically prohibit male visitors and most ban alcohol.

Beyond affordability, many residents appreciate the safety and community that the nuns provide — not to mention karaoke nights.

All aboard

While a convent may seem like a novel solution to the affordable housing crisis, they're actually a vestige of a housing option once prevalent throughout the US.

Boarding houses — or single room occupancies (SROs) — rose to prominence in the late 19th century, with rooms ranging from $100 to $300/month (adjusted for inflation).
Many were designed to accommodate working women, and created by faith-based organizations (heard of the YMCA?).
By the 1950s, New York had over 200k SRO units — over 10% of the city's rental housing stock.
But in the 1970s, zoning and building codes made SROs illegal or economically unviable — which many say increased homelessness.

Now, legislation and pilot programs in multiple states are testing the waters for a boardinghouse revival to provide affordable housing to more Americans.

Meanwhile, startups like HomeRoom are scaling the model of co-living spaces for investors.

Budget-friendly travelers are also finding convents and monasteries to be an inexpensive option, with listings on Monasteries.com and Monastery Stays.

One Scottish soccer fan even discovered the generous hospitality (and affordability) of a NYC convent while visiting for the World Cup.

Amen to that.

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HIGHLY RECOMMENDED

Three wheels, one big bet: Aptera is racing to prove a solar-powered EV can succeed where others have stalled.

NEWSWORTHY NUMBER

How many grams of protein are in a single serving of Chobani’s 20G Protein yogurt — or so the company claims. Competitor Danone US is suing the rival yogurt maker, alleging it uses a larger-than-standard serving size (6.7 ounces) to inflate the protein content of its multi-serve tubs and make it seem like a closer competitor to Danone’s Oikos Pro than it actually is.

Danone claims that based on serving-size rules for yogurt tubs, which the complaint states is 5.3 ounces, Chobani’s product contains just 18 grams. Who’s right? Perhaps neither of them — food law expert Laurie Beyranevand told Inc. the industry standard is 6 ounces… What in the cultured hell.

AROUND THE WEB

📅 On this day: In 1956, Marilyn Monroe married playwright Arthur Miller in a ceremony that lasted just four minutes. They divorced in 1961.

👟 That’s interesting: A comprehensive guide to shoelaces and how to tie them.

🎨 Game: Try to recreate the color.

🧑‍🎨 Art: Search across 5.8m+ artworks.

🐦 Aww: Baby hummingbirds.

SHOWER THOUGHT

In the 80s/90s, an entire family sitting in the living room watching TV (instead of chatting) was seen as a sign of social decay. Today, an entire family sitting in the living room watching TV together (instead of each lost in their own screen) is seen as a sign of social bonding. SOURCE

Today's email was brought to you by Juliet Bennett Rylah, Danny Jensen, and Singdhi Sokpo.

Editing by: Sara "Nun of your business" Friedman.

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