A biotech entrepreneur dropped $57 million on 2 adjacent homes in a Colorado ski resort town, shattering real estate records — take a look inside

<ul class="summary-list"><li>Kevin O'Leary has blamed Silicon Valley Bank's management for the bank's implosion.</li><li>O'Leary excoriated the bank's "negligent board of directors" and "idiot management."</li></ul>"Shark Tank" star Kevin O'Leary has thoughts on why Silicon Valley Bank imploded. "The combination of a negligent board of directors @SVB with idiot management is the potent cocktail that led to a disastrous outcome. Why should taxpayers bail them out?" O'Leary tweeted on Sunday."The lesson is simple, never put more than 20% of your liquid assets in any one financial institution," he added. The <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/personal-finance/fdic" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation</a> took control of Silicon Valley Bank on Friday after a <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/silicon-valley-bank-svb-first-social-media-bank-run-2023-3" target="_blank" rel="noopener">catastrophic bank run</a>. Depositors ran for the exits after Silicon Valley Bank tried and <a href="https://markets.businessinsider.com/news/stocks/silicon-valley-bank-sale-stock-price-bank-run-peter-thiel-2023-3" target="_blank" rel="noopener">failed to raise capital.</a>Silicon Valley Bank's collapse is the largest bank failure in the US since the <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/personal-finance/what-caused-the-great-recession" target="_blank" rel="noopener">2008 financial crisis</a>. The bank is <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/svb-auction-bidders-fdic-potential-buyers-2023-3" target="_blank" rel="noopener">now looking for a new buyer</a> but has not found one yet.O'Leary, also known as "Mr. Wonderful," is the chairman of O'Leary Ventures. He <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ns9d9b5V8Q" target="_blank" rel="noopener nofollow">told CNN</a> separately on Monday that he thinks President Joe Biden has, by helping make depositors at Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank whole, <a href="https://markets.businessinsider.com/news/stocks/shark-tank-kevin-oleary-bank-stock-regulated-svb-collapse-biden-2023-3">effectively "nationalized" the banking industry.</a>"You have zero risk and that has consequences," O'Leary said. "There's no such thing as a free lunch. And this is going to be very expensive for shareholders of banks long term. I would never put my money into a bank stock ever again."O'Leary isn't the only person who's blamed Silicon Valley Bank's leaders for the crisis. <a href="https://edition.cnn.com/2023/03/13/business/svb-employees-angry-at-ceo/index.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">CNN</a> spoke to a Silicon Valley Bank employee, who said the bank's CEO Greg Becker and other members of the bank's leadership were naive and handled the crisis badly. "That was absolutely idiotic," the employee, who works in management at the bank, told CNN. "They were being very transparent. It's the exact opposite of what you'd normally see in a scandal. But their transparency and forthright-ness did them in."Jeff Sonnenfeld, the CEO of the Chief Executive Leadership Institute at Yale, also told CNN that Silicon Valley Bank's leadership should be criticized for their "tone-deaf, botched execution."There has been mud-slinging in all directions over the factors that may have contributed to Silicon Valley Bank's failure. <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/silicon-valley-bank-bernie-sanders-donald-trump-blame-2023-3">Sen. Bernie Sanders</a> says the bank failed because of a Trump-era banking regulation policy. Former President Donald Trump signed a bill into law on May 2018 that significantly rolled back the <a href="https://www.cftc.gov/LawRegulation/DoddFrankAct/index.htm" target="_blank" rel="noopener">2010 Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act.</a> This 2018 law raised the asset threshold for systematically important financial institutions from $50 billion to $250 billion, and loosened restrictions on banks like Silicon Valley Bank. Meanwhile, <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/republicans-blame-woke-politics-for-silicon-valley-banks-collapse-2023-3">Gov. Ron DeSantis</a> and <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/james-comer-woke-silicon-valley-bank-2023-3">Kentucky Rep. James Comer</a> have — without evidence or substantiation — blamed "woke" politics for the bank's collapse.Representatives for Silicon Valley Bank did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment outside regular business hours.

'Shark Tank' star Kevin O'Leary is blaming Silicon Valley Bank's implosion on a 'negligent board of directors' with 'idiot management'

<img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/5908c9817dea720c3d8b58e0-1500/kevin garnett 1.jpg" alt="kevin garnett 1" />Turner SportsKevin Garnett on TNT's "Area 21."After 22 years carving out a legendary career, Kevin Garnett retired from the NBA in 2016.However, he wasn't away from basketball for long. At the start of the 2016-17 NBA season, TNT announced that Garnett would have his own show to go with "Inside the NBA" titled "Area 21" in which he'd discuss games and current events in the league with guests.Garnett the analyst hasn't been entirely different from Garnett the player - he's energetic, talkative, and fiery, seldom holding back his feelings about other players and teams. He's also proven to be funny and engaging while talking with former players like Rasheed Wallace, Gary Payton, and Kevin McHale, and NFL players like Randy Moss, Ray Lewis, and Larry Fitzgerald. In turn, "Area 21" has become a fan-favorite, as viewers have gotten to see a more light-hearted, entertaining version of Garnett than the versatile, defensive menace that helped change the league.Garnett spoke to Business Insider about his work on "Area 21," adjusting to life without basketball, his desire (or lack thereof) to teach other NBA players, and his thoughts on the NBA playoffs and finals.Scott Davis: What's been the biggest adjustment for you as an analyst?Kevin Garnett: "The language. Right away [laughs]. The way I communicate. Obviously, there's been some adjustments … When I'm telling games, I have to be very, very neutral, as much as I can be. I try to be a very true and real perspective. But at the same time, try to teach and pull up the points in which I feel are most valuable to our game and teach them in hopes that people can continue to love our game."Davis: You always have a lot of energy on the show and seem fired up. Do you have a pre-TV routine in the way you had a pregame routine?Garnett: "I just like to bring a certain amount of [energy] to whatever it is I'm doing. I like to be a source of - there's people coming in from their day, people coming in checking out the games … I know when I'm in my man cave at my home, I'm relaxing out with my friends, so I'm considering if you're at home, you want some energy, you don't want me to be laid back. So, if I'm teaching you something and trying to hold your attention for as many hours as I'm doing it, you need me to be energetic."Davis: In a recent interview, you said it's been a tough adjustment retiring and going from playing and having a routine to suddenly not having any of that. Is there a way you look to burn off energy now, or have you picked up any hobbies to keep you occupied?Garnett: "Yeah, it's called, running your business is my hobby now [laughs]. I still get in the gym, I still find ways to work out, work out Monday through Friday, get different runs in, I do jogs, I swim a lot now. Things that are easy on the joints. I'm not conditioning for 82 games-plus season, I'm not stopping and going, I'm not exploding through. But it's maintained. You don't do something for 20-plus years and just stop."It's crazy. Shouts to my dawg, Paul [Pierce], who had an unbelievable career, happy to be able to call him a brother. We were just talking about, one of the things he asked me was, 'What you do everyday?' When you first come out, it's transition. You gotta find your routine, days you don't feel like doing it, you don't have to do it. But you know, it's in you. I like to think anyone wants to look good, I'm no different from that. More importantly, I wanna be healthy enough to run with my kids. To be out here training these guys, you gotta be in shape. I'm up here doing some of this consultant work. And a lot of these guys are going, it's not believable if you're not in shape or if you're not able to go out here and articulate and show them. "But if anybody knows me, knows that I'm a workhorse, not just on the floor, but psychologically. I meditate a lot, I like to get massages, do yoga. I like to keep a balance."<img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/5908ca457dea7226008b5f56-1418/kevin garnett 2.jpg" alt="kevin garnett 2" />Turner SportsRasheed Wallace and Garnett on "Area 21."Davis: What does your business entail?Garnett: "My Garnett Group stuff. Stuff with tech, stuff where it's medical, stuff where it's wellness, production. 'Area 21' was something along with Turner, we partnered up and came up with a great idea. Got me thinking about production now. Starting a production company and putting out some small projects that have been impactful, things that have a message. I want to at some point get a couple series on Netflix. So, I'm working on some things, but that's my everyday stuff I work on on top of making my show better weekly. And just bringing new flavors and ideas to the whole team."Davis: You mentioned your consultant work with the Clippers. They obviously just lost Game 7 to the Jazz and got eliminated from the playoffs. Why do you think this team can't get over the hump in the postseason?Garnett: "I don't know. It's psychologically. I've been in Minnesota, where we played I think eight straight years and never got out of the first round, so I totally understand. And I can understand from that perspective. In my walks of life, I've also understood that it takes more than one person to think of achieving a goal, and it takes more than one or two players, to get you out of the position you're in. I don't know, I'm not a president or anything like that, but if I was Doc Rivers, I would look to improve the team and go away from what's been the norm. And as long as you can look at it and say you thought you going in the right direction and it's for the betterment, good character and players who care about the game, who are gonna give everything, then you feel good about that. But I feel like in basketball, anyone who can make the proper adjustments to anything, it can be Doc Rivers. I feel confident in his decision-making in making that a better team. Davis: Would you run it back and re-sign free agents like Chris Paul, Blake Griffin, and J.J. Redick?<img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/5908cbf17dea72dc038b5f68-1332/chris paul blake griffin.jpg" alt="chris paul blake griffin" />David Zalubowski/APGarnett: "I don't know their preference in what they're talking about as far as going forward, but Chris Paul is great. They have really good pieces there. If they can add on, make some key adjustments to whatever they see as key, I think they can be possibly a better team. The Clippers are not far-fetched, they've been together six years, they got a nucleus. If they can add onto that, put a [Carmelo Anthony], put, I think Paul Millsap is up, Paul George… There's a lot of different things in which you can look to and put pieces to make your team better that are out there this summer that I anticipate them looking at."Davis: What teams have impressed you this postseason?Garnett: "Washington. The Wizards stand out right away as a team to be reckoned with. They play with a lot of poise. John Wall looks to be ready to take control. He's giving his MVP candidacy to the world, if you will, and he's just playing beautiful basketball … They have a little swag and a little lit-ness. I love that, I love it."The one I'm looking forward to, though, like everybody, is the Wizards and Celtics. It's just the one that everybody's kinda been, you know, they've got history. Golden State and Portland, I was excited about the guard play in that. This is the same thing. I'm looking forward to the back-court going at it and looking at them. The guard play in that whole thing with everybody saying that Golden State's got the best 1-2, then Portland's got the best 1-2. This is the East Coast version of that. So, I'm looking forward to this series."Davis: J.J. Redick shared a funny anecdote about you on Bill Simmons' podcast, saying you told him he should charge thousands of dollars to teach other players his tricks for getting open and shooting. So, here's a two-parter: what skill would you charge other players to learn from you, and what other players around the league could charge to teach people their skills?Garnett: "Well, it'd be something I'd like to sit down and see what I would be able to bring to somebody. I don't have the appetite to go out and teach on a huge scale. I do have an appetite to be able to help players that are looking to be better in our league and I could actually show something that I think could be valid for their own personal gain. Younger players I tend to focus on because they are not peaked-out yet, and they still have room to improve and add things to their games. Some guys are comfortable in their own skin to do certain things and that's just what they're gonna be. At the end of the day with me, it's appetite. "The second part of your question, guys like J.J. Redick, guys like Paul Pierce, guys who have - guys like Klay Thompson - an ability to, I think, players wanna learn from, if not understand. J.J. Redick is a very, very rare player who moves a lot, a lot of movement, he's predicated off coming off screens, doesn't have to do a lot off the dribble. He has a black-and-white game to where he can give some insight to some of these young players coming in. I know some of the new guys coming in are similar, if not similar players… Imagine if he was able to get players that are up-and-coming like that some tools where they could define, if not have good starting tools to kinda start their [careers] with. "Yeah, he could make some easy money in the summer. Plus, he's gonna work out anyway. What the hell? Make some guys pay to come in and learn under you and you start your own camp and you start your own thing. So, I put the idea in his head to kinda think about himself and incorporating himself in his craft and what he does, and obviously, he took to heart some of it." Davis: If you were coming into the NBA today, do you think you'd be a small-ball 5, shooting threes and spacing the floor?<img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/5908cbbc7dea7220328b5a60-1500/kevin garnett karl towns.jpg" alt="kevin garnett karl towns" />Ann Heisenfelt/APGarnett: "That's where it's all going. When I came in, I played the three because I just wasn't strong enough to play the four at the time. So, coming in here now, it's not about brute strength and all that, it's about ability and potential. When you look at lot of the young players that we love, Thon Maker, Karl-Anthony Towns, [Joel] Embiid, [Kristaps] Porzingis, they have good bones. What I mean by that, they have good boundaries of where you can start off with. Lengthy players, have outside touch, high IQ and understanding, good lateral quickness and movement, good footwork. Between all four of those guys, you can have kind of a good bear to teach. And when it comes to ability, whether they're picking up the moves and the counters and whatever you're showing them is another thing. So, those are the things you gotta take into account when assessing these young groups. "So, if I'm coming in and these guys are similar if not parallel body types. My whole game was being agile, putting the ball on the floor, making counters, making plays for others, being point forward, being able to play the other side of the ball, play multiple positions, be able to guard multiple positions. Yeah, I probably would." Davis: This was a debate making news the other day: Is Draymond Green the modern day Charles Barkley? He said he's not.Garnett: "I think Draymond is a person who is very predicated to what he says. He's articulate. He does his homework. I like to think he's knowledgeable about whatever he's speaking on, he backs it up with facts. And he has a platform. Not only that, but he's a very good player. He's an unselfish player. It takes a lot of him to make that thing, to me, go in Golden State. When they need to run, when they need energy, when they need certain type of guidance, he's the person to forget about himself and put the team first. To me, he's a true leader. "I think he's different from Charles. Charles was a player who spoke his mind, but was a little more individual. A lot more to himself. Charles was a little more combative than Draymond. But both are worthiness in the same breath. Charles is obviously a great, and Draymond, he's still making his greatness and writing his whole thing, but I definitely see the parallels. Davis: Lastly, your Finals prediction?Garnett: "I think what everybody wants, man - Cleveland-Golden State.Davis: Who do you have winning?Garnett: "I'm never gonna go against [Cavs coach Tyronn] Lue. I'm Lue all day and I'm being biased because that's one of my best friends. But if I'm speaking as an analyst, I just wanna see a great series. I'm also friends with [Warriors guard] Shaun Livingston, so I got kind of a, I'm in the middle. All in all, as an ex-player just watching basketball, I just wanna see a really good, hard-fought Finals. May the best team come out." <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/wwe-john-cena-fitness-diet-nutrition-exercise-strategy-2017-4">John Cena reveals how he stays in incredible fighting shape</a></h3> Please enable Javascript to watch this video

NBA legend Kevin Garnett opens up on his new TNT show, what's tough about life after basketball, and his hopes for the NBA Finals

<ul class="summary-list"><li>House Republican leaders have stocked the oversight panel with partisan bomb-throwers.</li><li>Many of the new panelists voted to overturn the 2020 election and defied Jan. 6 investigators.</li></ul>House Republicans have tapped some of their unruliest colleagues to spearhead the chamber's political investigations arm, a roster that includes more than a dozen members who <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2021/01/07/us/elections/electoral-college-biden-objectors.html">voted to overturn the 2020 presidential election</a>, 10 who've already endorsed <a href="https://www.congress.gov/bill/118th-congress/house-resolution/8/cosponsors">impeaching a Biden administration official</a>, and a trio of folks who <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/mccarthy-jordan-house-republicans-january-6-committee-testimony-decline-2022-6">disregarded subpoenas issued by the Jan. 6 select committee</a> in the last Congress. House Oversight Committee chair James Comer welcomed the "all-star lineup" of newcomers — including Kevin McCarthy-aligned Republican Reps. Lisa McClain of Michigan and Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia, as well as <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/19-hardline-republicans-vote-against-kevin-mccarthy-for-house-speaker-2023-1">speaker-vote rebels</a> Reps. Scott Perry of Pennsylvania, Lauren Boebert of Colorado, and freshman Anna Paulina Luna of Florida — on Wednesday, <a href="https://oversight.house.gov/release/comer-welcomes-new-and-returning-members-to-the-oversight-committee/">touting</a> their mission as "to root out waste, fraud, abuse" and collectively "hold the Biden Administration accountable."Authorizing this menagerie of scandal-plagued politicians to probe others, and possibly insert themselves into Department of Justice and FBI investigations reviewing their own activities, seems ridiculous to American Enterprise Institute scholar Norm Ornstein. "It'd be like if we gave Al Capone the power to investigate Eliot Ness," Ornstein <a href="https://youtu.be/qwJYhpvTbH0">said</a> during a press conference hosted by left-leaning nonprofit Facts First USA on Wednesday, referring to the infamous gangster and the prohibition agent who brought him down. White House counsel office spokesman Ian Sams, who is likely to have his hands full with Comer's <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/james-comer-house-gop-oversight-hunter-biden-compromised-joe-biden-2022-11">planned investigation</a> into President Joe Biden and his son, Hunter's, <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/hunter-biden-possible-charges-how-white-house-president-bracing-2022-10">business dealings</a>, said the oversight appointments explain a lot. "It appears that House Republicans may be setting the stage for divorced-from-reality political stunts, instead of engaging in bipartisan work on behalf of the American people," Sams <a href="https://twitter.com/WardDPatrick/status/1615711365238329345">wrote</a> in an official statement. <h2><div type="image" title="US House Republican leader Kevin McCarthy embraces Rep.-elect Majorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) in the House Chamber during the fourth day of elections for Speaker of the House at the US Capitol Building on January 06, 2023 in Washington, DC." height="1333" width="2000" msid="97149586" hostid="261" sizebytes="72244"></div></h2><h2>'They're just gonna do whatever they want' </h2>Other ultra-conservative members of the GOP oversight roster with 2020 election-related issues include Judiciary Committee chair Jim Jordan, House Freedom Caucus members Perry, Greene, Boebert, Andy Biggs of Arizona, Byron Donalds of Florida, Paul Gosar of Arizona, Clay Higgins of Louisiana, and Gary Palmer of Alabama. Perry and Biggs, both of whom withheld their support from McCarthy's <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/kevin-mccarthy-andy-biggs-matt-gaetz-historic-contested-speaker-race-2022-12">demoralizing speaker bid</a> until he caved to their myriad demands, voted to overturn Biden's lawful 2020 win, blew off Jan. 6 investigators, and have cheered on efforts to <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/house-republicans-appetite-for-impeachment-grows-amid-biden-documents-2023-1">impeach someone in the Biden administration</a> sooner rather than later. Jordan also voted to overturn the election results and shunned Jan. 6 investigators, while individuals like Higgins, Donalds, Gosar, Palmer, Greene, Boebert, McClain, and fellow panelists Reps. Pete Sessions of Texas, Virginia Foxx of North Carolina, Pat Fallon of Texas, and Jake LaTurner of Kansas voted to overturn the 2020 election, have co-sponsored a Biden-related impeachment proposal, or both. Retired Democratic Rep. Carolyn Maloney, who chaired the House Oversight Committee last session, asserted that this new cast of characters were getting into it for the wrong reasons. "The personal vendettas these committees pursue are not a legitimate use of the oversight power. The attempts to obstruct investigations into their own criminality are not an appropriate use of subpoena power," she said during the Facts First event.Maloney also accused the group of choosing revenge rather than focusing on "how you're going to help the American people" in the 118th Congress.Kurt Bardella, a former House GOP leadership aide turned Democratic strategist, said what's most alarming is that there doesn't seem to be anyone around who'll be able to rein them in when they inevitably overreach. "These are basically the people who own Kevin McCarthy at this point," Bardella told Insider at the Facts First event. "So when Lauren Boebert, or Marjorie Taylor Greene, or Scott Perry want to start impeaching Joe Biden, McCarthy's not going to be able to stand up and stop them." "They're just gonna do whatever they want," Bardella stressed.

House GOP's 'all-star' oversight panel features 13 election deniers, 10 impeach-Biden-world advocates, and 3 congressional subpoena dodgers

Is the urge to start a company caused by a brain parasite?In Yellowstone National Park, a lone wolf usually ends up dead. Gray wolves typically live and hunt in packs, but sometimes a pack member leaves its family group. Other wolves, protecting their own pack's territory, will kill the loner. One kick from an elk or a bison can be deadly. And then there are more prosaic threats, like getting hit by a car. So why would any wolf take the risk of striking out on its own?The traditional answer: ambition. "Not a lot of wolves survive the process," says Kira Cassidy, a field biologist with the Yellowstone Wolf Project, which reintroduced wolves to the park in 1995. "But if you do, you have a good chance of starting your own pack." These are the top dogs, the theory goes, who slough off the strictures of bourgeoisie wolf society to make a name for themselves.But what inspires a particular wolf to get up off its hindquarters and leave its pack behind? What is motivating them? Cassidy and her colleagues had a hypothesis: Maybe a parasitic infection was egging them along. Specifically, a microorganism called Toxoplasma gondii.Toxo, as it's colloquially known, has a <a href="https://doi.org/10.1186/s13071-020-04528-x">baroque life cycle</a>. It reproduces in cat species (like the cougars in Yellowstone) but then leaps to other hosts, from rats and <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-021-24092-x">hyenas</a> to people and wolves. And once it takes up residence in a new animal, Toxo is linked to all sorts of weird behavior — much of it spurred by a strangely elevated appetite for risk. Cassidy's team looked at blood samples taken from 229 captured gray wolves and compared them with the way the wolves fared in the wild. The <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/s42003-022-04122-0">results</a>, published last month in the journal Communications Biology, were striking. Wolves that left their packs were twice as likely to be positive for Toxoplasma. And Toxo-positive wolves were 46 times as likely as uninfected wolves to become pack leaders."As we're watching them, we definitely see differences in what seems to be like personality — how shy they are, how bold they are, how willing they are to cross a road," Cassidy says. "A lot of things I may have chalked up completely to personality in years past, now I have to rethink some of that stuff. Now I think maybe part of that was because of the parasite."<div type="image" title="Three wolves on a desolate winter backdrop in Yellowstone National Park. One stands off to the left; two others snuggle on the right." height="2217" width="3964" msid="96398534" hostid="261"></div>If Toxo turns wolves into risk-takers, could it be having the same effect on us? It's primarily contracted from coming into contact with cat feces, contaminated water, or undercooked meat, and as many as 80% of humans may be <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3963851/">Toxo-positive</a>, most of them without even knowing it. And there's sketchy but tantalizing evidence that Toxoplasma alters our behavior, too — especially <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/parasite-in-cat-poop-linked-to-entrepreneurial-behavior-2018-7">entrepreneurial behavior</a>.Which is to say, many members of our species who exhibit "alpha dog" tendencies in the business realm may be Toxo-positive. Feel like starting your own company? The Yellowstone wolf data hints that it's just the side effect of a protozoan inhabiting our brains in a failed attempt to make more protozoa. Maybe that business you admire wasn't founded by the Great and Powerful Oz, a heroic leader of epic proportions, but by the parasite behind the curtain.<h2>The Toxo-entrepreneur link</h2>Before wannabe Elon Musks in Silicon Valley start throwing Toxo parties, let me just say: Don't. Not only would it almost certainly not work, but it could almost make you really sick. "In academia, if we pursue interesting questions like this, maybe we're a little different, with screws slightly looser," says Dan Lerner, a business professor at IE University in Spain who studies Toxoplasma's link to entrepreneurship. "But to read the papers and think, 'Oh, yeah, let me go eat some cat droppings' would be a really shitty idea. No pun intended."Toxoplasma reproduces by infecting cats, getting into their GI tracts, and then getting into their poop. There it assumes a whole other form that can infect pretty much any warm-blooded animal that comes into contact with it. That's when things get spooky. In non-cats, Toxo hangs out in the eyes and the brain. It seems to make infected rats more likely to venture into unfamiliar places and less afraid of the smell of cat pee — a "<a href="https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2000.1182">fatal attraction</a>," as the classic study of the phenomenon called it, that would turn infected rats into easier prey. When a cat eats the infected rodent, the Toxo bits jump into their new host like ships fleeing a sinking rat, and the cycle starts all over again.So why would any of this make an infected wolf want to start its own pack? No one's really sure of the <a href="https://doi.org/10.1186/s13071-020-04528-x">mechanism</a> by which Toxo affects behavior. Maybe it increases production of testosterone. Maybe the brain cysts it causes in a host mess with neurotransmitters like dopamine, altering the brain's reward system. Or maybe it's just a generalized inflammatory response to infection. But whatever the mechanism, don't think of it as, like, alien parasite zombification. Microbes don't "want" anything. They just reproduce. If they create any sort of push in a host, it's the barest of nudges, the gentle redirect of a mother guiding a toddler away from bonking into a table leg.Except in this case, it could be guiding them toward a Series A round. Lerner and his colleagues have <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2018.0822">found</a> that students positive for Toxo are significantly more likely to major in business, with a particular interest in entrepreneurship. Sampling the saliva of attendees at entrepreneurship events, they found that Toxo-positive people were more likely to have started their own businesses. And looking at national entrepreneurship data, countries with more business-starting action also have higher levels of Toxoplasma overall."Any one person, you would never say, 'Oh, this person has Toxoplasma and therefore they're going to be an entrepreneur," says Stefanie Johnson, the director of the Doerr Institute for New Leaders at Rice University and a frequent collaborator of Lerner's. "It's within populations. Our data were huge samples." The effects weren't as pronounced as with the wolf leaders. But they were there.It might be tempting to think of this as an inherently male thing — that the urge to play a dominant role in the world is the result of an infection. Maybe toxic masculinity is literally toxic. But wolf biologists, it turns out, have been trying for decades to get people to <a href="https://doi.org/10.1139/z99-099">stop using the phrase "alpha male."</a> <a href="https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/usgsnpwrc/384/">Wolf packs</a> are usually led by both a male and a female, and the pack leaders don't act anything like Harvey Weinstein. They want to lead, but they're not jerks.There's more: Toxoplasma affects females, too. One good database for human Toxo infection is pregnant women — they get tested for the parasite, because it can infect the fetus and cause severe harm. So for a <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/1042258719890992">paper published last year</a>, Lerner and Johnson's team paired data on all the new businesses in Denmark started by women from 2005 to 2014 with data on Danish women's Toxoplasma status. They found that women who were positive for the parasite were almost 30% more likely to start a business.<div type="image" title="A circular cluster of purplish bubbles floating amid a blue background dotted with other objects" height="430" width="640" msid="96398535" hostid="261"></div>Now, let's not get too far <a href="https://doi.org/10%20.1128/mBio.02164-19">out on a limb</a> here. Other than starting a company, Toxo in humans has been correlated only to a handful of behaviors: elevated rates of schizophrenia and suicide, most notably, and an increase in the likelihood of <a href="http://www.biomedcentral.com/1471-2334/9/72">getting into a car crash</a>. I haven't been able to find studies linking it to any other alpha-sounding behaviors, like political leadership, military service, skydiving, or slapping Chris Rock. And all these human studies show correlation, not causation. Without a clear mechanism — without knowing how Toxo might be altering our behavior — the most you can say is that all of this is worth looking into further. Humans are, you know, complicated. "The way our mind is constructed, its range is like animals, but that range is off the chart," says Ajai Vyas, a neurobiologist at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore who studies Toxoplasma-host behavioral interactions. "I personally tend to be nondeterministic." Meaning, other factors could explain all those Toxo-infected entrepreneurs. Maybe the businesspeople infected with Toxo were already daredevils. In fact, that could be how they got infected in the first place, if they were more likely to travel the world and get exposed to contaminated water, or more likely to lick a cat's butt. Maybe their capacity for risk-taking is the cause, not the effect.However Toxoplasma works, it can't make someone do anything they didn't have the capacity for. It's possible that Toxo just intensifies a person's baseline appetite for risk, sort of like turning up the volume on a song that's already playing. That's how Ajai Vyas views the studies that have been done in animals. "Probably there's a continuum of the behavior," he says, "and the parasite shifts it toward impulsivity and risk-taking."Johnson and Lerner don't disagree. In the subjects they studied, Lerner says, the parasite seemed to be "reducing fear of failure." "Normally," he continues, "people are going to think about the risks, and here — I won't say it nudges them to do it, but it stops them from thinking about it."<h2>How the high-T have fallen</h2>It's common for germy things to affect behavior. There's a <a href="https://antwiki.org/wiki/images/d/db/Marikovsky%2C_P.I._1962._On_some_features_of_behavior_of_the_ants_Formica_rufa_L._infected_with_fungous_disease_%2810.1007%40BF02224263%29.pdf">fungus</a> that makes ants climb up to a high vantage point and then explodes out of them, to spread more widely. A species of <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2005/09/06/science/parasitic-hairworm-charms-grasshopper-into-taking-it-for-a-swim.html">worm</a> makes grasshoppers jump into swimming pools in search of water. The microbes in the human gut can apparently <a href="https://www.science.org/content/article/evidence-mounts-gut-bacteria-can-influence-mood-prevent-depression">affect our mood</a>. And if Toxo alters behavior in humans, maybe we're full of other microorganisms that are doing the same thing. Which is a wild thought. Sum up all those effects and pretty soon you start to wonder: How much of what you do is you, and how much of what you do is them? If behaviors as complex as entrepreneurship can be spurred by a tiny parasite with, presumably, no interest in PNL, maybe all sorts of human activities are really just accidental, or incidental to microbial reproductive tides. That was the suggestion of an <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1635495/">influential 2006 paper</a> titled "Can the Common Brain Parasite, Toxoplasma gondii, Influence Human Culture?"The magnitude of Toxo's effect in Yellowstone wolves surprised even that paper's author, a parasite ecologist with the US Geological Survey named Kevin Lafferty. "I'm just fascinated by the idea that this parasite, with no benefit to itself, can determine outcomes of social interactions," Lafferty tells me. "It's not just about, Toxo determines who's the alpha male."Since 2006, Lafferty has gotten more and more interested in the way Toxo might affect people through testosterone levels. That idea won't come as any surprise to the "high T" bros who view their masculinizing hormone as the ghost in their high-performance machines. But Lafferty thinks it's more complicated than that. High testosterone levels, after all, don't provide an incontrovertible advantage. High T levels make you do dumb stuff and die sooner."Being an alpha male in a pack or any social system probably requires having testosterone well beyond the optimal," Lafferty says. "You might actually predict men could be less likely to be successful in those fields, if the testosterone boost is pushing them past the peak of performance for those traits." Just because Toxo might drive an alpha male to start a company, that doesn't mean it'll be a successful company. So yes, maybe launching a startup is "synonymous essentially with leading the pack," as Lerner puts it. But even he wonders whether that same trait might make the companies more likely to fail. "In terms of entrepreneurial success, the ability to get on with others is often a good thing and typically necessary," he notes. His collaborator, Johnson, is eager to compare the failure rate of businesses started by Toxo-positive people versus Toxo-negative people. "I don't think we were able to capture that," she says.Cassidy, the Yellowstone biologist, hopes to ask the same things about her wolves. Her team looked at whether they were leaders, but not whether they were good leaders. How long is their tenure? What's the survival rate of the pack when they're in charge? "That will be one of the next steps for this study, to look at that," Cassidy says. "My inclination right now is that they might have shorter tenures."Maybe Silicon Valley alpha-ness gets goosed, somehow, by this one weird microorganism. But if you want a high-quality, sustainable endeavor that builds value and changes the world? Well, let's just say neither alpha leaders nor the companies they start should be parasitic, inside or out.<a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/author/adam-rogers">Adam Rogers</a> is a senior correspondent at Insider.

Want to start your own company? You might have a brain parasite.

<div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/58fa79460ba0b826758b45fe-960/undefined" border="0" alt="psl" data-mce-source="Starbucks" />StarbucksStarbucks' Pumpkin Spice Latte is back.</div></div></div><ul><li><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/category/starbucks">Starbucks'</a> Pumpkin Spice Latte <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/starbucks-pumpkin-spice-latte-release-date-reveals-issues-2018-8">returned on Tuesday.</a></li><li>The PSL has become a symbol of what it means to be "basic," or mainstream and unimaginative, over the last 15 years. </li><li>Starbucks got its start as an aspirational and upscale coffee chain - meaning that the "basic" reputation can cause major problems. </li><li>In Business Insider's <a href="https://read.bi/2O0k97t">new podcast "Household Name,"</a> we talk to experts on Starbucks and what it means to be basic to figure out how the PSL became a basic icon. To hear the full story, <a href="https://read.bi/2O0k97t">subscribe</a> to the podcast for free <a href="https://read.bi/2O0k97t">here.</a></li></ul><hr /> The Pumpkin Spice Latte - the most "basic" beverage in the world - is back. On Tuesday,<a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/starbucks-pumpkin-spice-latte-release-date-reveals-issues-2018-8"> Starbucks debuted the Pumpkin Spice Latte, </a>a seasonal drink that has taken on a larger-than-life reputation. One major part of that reputation is the PSL's identity as a sort of mascot of cultural "basicness," as in "basic b----."<div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/5b870f9404f1621d008b57d4-2076/screen shot 2018-08-29 at 44709 pm.png" border="0" alt="Screen Shot 2018 08 29 at 4.47.09 PM" data-mce-source="Instagram" />InstagramThe top Instagram posts with the hashtag #basic the Wednesday after the launch of the Pumpkin Spice Latte.</div></div></div>To be basic in the era of Pumpkin Spice Latte means to be lacking in creativity or aggressively mainstream and feminine. Noreen Malone, a features editor at New York Magazine who wrote an analysis of the term basic in 2014, defined the word to Business Insider's podcast "Household Name" as a term "some women were using it to describe other women who they didn't think had interesting taste." "A lot of what people are criticizing is that these women, mostly women, have the 'wrong' taste and ... they like these mass market things," Malone said in an episode of Household Name<a href="https://read.bi/2O0k97t"> all about the Pumpkin Spice Latte. </a>For Starbucks, to be mass market and mainstream goes against the chain's roots. Starbucks made its name as the chain that convinced people that coffee was something <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/how-starbucks-got-stuck-in-the-middle-in-4-jokes-2017-4">they should spend more than $1 to purchase. </a>According to Bryant Simon, a professor at Temple University and the author of "Everything But the Coffee: Learning about America from Starbucks," these aspirational roots were once crucial to Starbucks' success. "One of the people I talked to for my book said, 'people can't see me everyday in my BMW but they can see me carrying a cup of Starbucks,'" Simon said. "The very overspending of coffee, one said ... that you had money.<div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/58fa76cf0ba0b81c008b54ed-1200/starbucks-stores.png" border="0" alt="Starbucks stores" data-mce-source="Mike Nudelman / Business Insider" />Mike Nudelman / Business Insider</div></div></div>All that changed as Starbucks went more mainstream and became more basic. Starbucks broaden its menu and expanded aggressively, <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/how-starbucks-got-stuck-in-the-middle-in-4-jokes-2017-4">growing from 1,886 stores to 16,680 between 1998 and 2008. </a>The chain finally reached a breaking point in 2008, with all stores closing for an afternoon so employees could relearn how to make the perfect espresso. While the company's stock and sales recovered after 2008, it couldn't completely shake its basic reputation, especially as the popularity of the Pumpkin Spice Latte (which first launched in 2003) exploded.Over the last decade, Starbucks has been grappling with how to balance between sweet drinks like the PSL and Frappuccinos and coffee snob-approved beverages like cold brew and espresso-based drinks.Starbucks has opened more Reserve Bar locations, serving more premium offerings, as well as super-sized Roasteries that show how the coffee is actually made. This year, Starbucks is following up the return of the PSL with the <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/starbucks-pumpkin-spice-latte-debuts-august-28-2018-2018-8">upscale espresso-mocha Cordusio,</a> named after the new Starbucks Reserve Roastery in Milan.Plus, there are other factors that are impacting Starbucks' reputation. In April, CEO Kevin Johnson was forced to apologize after a video of two black men being arrested at a Philadelphia location of the coffee chain went viral. All Starbucks locations closed for employee anti-bias training, but the company's reputation took a major hit. In May, the company's workplace reputation hit a 10-year low, according to YouGov BrandIndex data.Starbucks is trying to balance a number of identities in 2018. Is the chain aspirational? Upscale? Progressive? Or, simply basic?With a growing number of store types,<a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/starbucks-open-to-non-customers-reveals-brand-in-crisis-2018-5"> from drive-thrus to Roasteries,</a> and a wide range of beverages, Starbucks seems to be attempting to please everyone and fill every possible role. The Pumpkin Spice Latte may be a major sales drive for Starbucks, but it also represents an identity crisis that the company needs to resolve. For more on the PSL, the history of basic-ness, and when the two collided, download the latest episode of Business Insider's <a href="https://read.bi/2O0k97t">new podcast "Household Name."</a> <div class="margin-top"> <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/panera-double-bread-bowl-trying-2018-8">Panera decided to double its famous bread bowls - here's our verdict</a></h3> <div> <iframe class="bijwplayerclass" data-player="jwplayer" src="https://content.jwplatform.com/players/ltTUf4PW-CEZHWCBG.html" width="100%" height="100%" frameborder="0" scrolling="auto" style="margin:0px;" allowfullscreen=""></iframe><script>function receiveMessage(event){ console.log(event.data.fullscreen); Android.fullscreen(event.data.fullscreen); }window.addEventListener("message", receiveMessage, false);</script> </div> </div>

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