The 19-year-old “Big Balls” DOGE hire has a shady past, Apple’s working on a foldable watch, and Katy Perry’s heading to space with Lauren Sánchez.

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This week, I’m stuck between two extremes. On one end, a 19-year-old with an online alias like “Big Balls” somehow landed a role at DOGE. On the other, people are ditching their smartphones for dumbphones in search of real-life peace. After that: autonomous gun turrets, a flood of AI agents, and a Blue Origin spaceflight featuring Katy Perry and Lauren Sánchez. Tech, business, and chaos, as always.

Teens, turrets, and trillion-dollar trends. Let’s get into it.

Brain Food: Big Balls at DOGE

It’s worth staying informed; the people shaping our digital future aren’t always who you’d expect. Those who gets access to power, and how, still matters.

Edward Coristine is the youngest appointee in a group of 19–24-year-olds with no prior government experience now working at DOGE. His résumé includes aliases like “Big Balls,” ties to a cybercrime-adjacent network, and domains registered in Russia under his LLC, TESLA.SEXY. He grew up in an affluent Connecticut town, attended private school, and is the son of a successful popcorn business owner. Naturally, I got pulled into this timeline of events.

TESLA.SEXY LLC owns a number of domains, including at least two registered in Russia. One of them promotes Helfie, an AI bot for Discord built for the Russian market. That same LLC is linked to a residential address in New Canaan, Connecticut.

After Coristine was appointed to DOGE, his high school’s town of Rye published a piece on him. They used a photo sourced from Reddit and noted his time at Rye Country Day School, where tuition currently runs $57,350.

His father’s company is called LesserEvil Healthy Brands, best known for its popcorn. LesserEvil was originally founded by a group that included Gene Hackman and Jim Cramer, and Coristine’s father acquired it in 2011 after a career as a bond trader. When a Reddit thread calling for a federal employee boycott of the brand picked up traction following Coristine’s DOGE hiring, LesserEvil sent out a note stating the company does not affiliate with any political groups. They did not mention Coristine by name.

Coristine started working with DOGE after a short stint at Neuralink. He now works under Amanda Scales, formerly of xAI and Uber, at the Office of Personnel Management, where his title is “expert.” His federal background check has raised concerns. He has also been linked to The Com, a cybercrime-adjacent online network, according to cybersecurity journalist Brian Krebs.

As of February 2025, Coristine held roles at the State Department’s Bureau of Diplomatic Technology, the Department of Homeland Security, FEMA, USAID, and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency.

In March 2025, Reuters reported that DiamondCDN, Coristine’s content delivery network company, had supported EGodly, a cybercriminal group associated with email hacks, crypto theft, and the harassment of a former FBI agent.

Before DOGE, in 2022, Coristine briefly interned at Path Network, a cybersecurity firm known for hiring reformed blackhat hackers. He was reportedly fired for leaking documents to a competitor. Internal Path Network files were leaked after his departure.

There’s a lot to unpack. The line between internet absurdity and real-world power isn’t just shrinking, it’s practically gone. Whether it’s popcorn money or a Discord bot built for Russia, we’re seeing more and more that influence no longer requires credentials or a clean résumé. Sometimes it shows up with a deleted LinkedIn and a domain like TESLA.SEXY. Keep watching.

Brain Food: Is Apple leaning into dumbphones?

I have been saying phones have all looked the same for way too long. I’m over it. Whether you’re a billionaire or my sister’s college roommate, chances are your phone looks just like everyone else’s. And after spending the early 2020s clinging to the internet like a life raft, people have been saying they want a change. There’s a growing appetite for real-life connection (more on this in an upcoming interview), and getting off your phone is a big part of that. If you’re trying to look digitally different and disconnect, you’ve probably already heard about dumbphones.

It looks like the dumbphone trend (might) be sticking around and Apple (might) be entering the game.

They just filed a patent for a foldable smartwatch that opens into a larger display with built-in cameras for calls and messaging. This seems to be really on the cusp of a phone and a watch. It’s not that far-fetched. The line between smartwatch and smartphone is already pretty blurry. On TikTok, I’ve seen people turning their Apple Watches into “dumb phones” using an accessory called the TinyPod. It’s having a bit of a moment.

And speaking of dumbphones, the Light Phone III is coming out in July and is available for preorder now at $599, which is $200 off the eventual retail price. It only supports calls, texts, a calendar, directions, a camera, and a music or podcast player. More tools will be added through optional software updates. The big new feature is the front and rear cameras with a film-like vibe. It also comes with some hardware upgrades like brightness buttons, a fingerprint sensor, and an NFC chip for potential digital wallet support. Recent updates have added photo texting and a directory for local businesses.

It’s cool, but getting off your phone still costs nearly $800. A lot of reviews point out that it’s the same price as a base iPhone, just with fewer features. It’s getting a lot of online attention, but if you want a digital detox, I’d honestly just recommend digging out your old flip phone and popping in a SIM card. Or do what I did and walk across Spain alone for a few weeks without paying for international data. Whatever floats your offline boat.

Technology

• Allen Control Systems raised $30 million to build autonomous gun turrets. I am keeping an eye on the world of defense tech. (Fortune)

  • Last year, I read this article about AI machine guns that mentioned Allen Control Systems. “…. the U.S. Defense Department tested an artificial intelligence-enabled autonomous robotic gun system developed by fledgling defense contractor Allen Control Systems dubbed the ‘Bullfrog’…. designed to deliver small arms fire on drone targets with far more precision than the average US service member can achieve with a standard-issue weapon…“ (Wired)

    

    The Bullfrog via Fortune.

• Trigger warnings: This is the intersection of art and technology. Digital Delacroix is using AI to study the life and work of painter Eugène Delacroix, digitizing his letters, murals, and notes to get a deeper understanding and better preserving of culture. (New York Times)

• Chinese startup Manus AI is reportedly raising $500 million to grow its platform of advanced AI agents. The bots are designed to handle multi-step tasks with minimal human input. (The Information)

  • Are AI agents the answer? AI agents have been top of mind for me, with both Salesforce and Adobe leaning heavily into the tech. Back in February, Salesforce stock dropped nearly 5% after the company said its new AI tool, Agentforce, will only bring in modest revenue in 2025. Meanwhile, Adobe’s newly announced AI agent tech has a lot to prove… the stock is down over 24% this year as investors question whether it can keep up in the AI race.

• OpenAI’s image generator is breaking the internet… literally. Sam Altman posted on X, saying demand has been so intense that it’s melting the company’s servers. (X)

• CoreWeave, a seller of AI technology in the cloud, went public and raised $1.5 billion in its IPO… the biggest tech IPO in the U.S. since 2021. Nvidia is a backer, supplier, and customer, making this very interesting to me. The company was founded in 2017, making it less than 10 years old. Last year it reported revenue + 737% y/y with a net loss of $863 million; renting out and operating data centers is expensive. (CNBC)

• Contoro Robotics raised $12 million for robots that can unload cargo at scale. With labor shortages and rising demand, warehouse automation is going from nice-to-have to must-have. I have always been a fan of warehouse automation. (Freightwaves)

Business

• The U.S. now has more billionaires than China for the first time in a decade, with 870 Americans making the list, reflecting a surge in American wealth from areas like tech and finance. (Barrons)

• The Supreme Court upheld a ban on ghost gun kits, which let people build untraceable firearms at home. The decision is a major move in closing a dangerous loophole in gun regulations. (New York Times)

• Blue Origin’s next flight is going to be all-female, including Katy Perry, Gayle King, and Lauren Sánchez. (Dream or nightmare blunt rotation?) Rumors are flying around the 11-minute trip costing over $1 million, offering more buzz than moving the needle for science, raising questions about who gets access to space. (Blue Origin)

  • Speaking of space, SpaceX is sending four rookie astronauts over the poles in a first-of-its-kind mission to study rare auroras and grow mushrooms in orbit. (Space.com)

• Private equity is flooding D.C. with ads to keep its favorite tax perks alive, like carried interest and deductions for debt-heavy deals. With Congress rewriting the tax code, the industry is fighting to protect its bottom line. (Axios)

• Vera Bradley is selling Pura Vida for just $1 million after paying $85 million. Ouch. Co-founder Barbara Bradley Baekgaard will also step down from its board. (Wall Street Journal)

  • Just last year people were chatting about how Very Bradley is back in full force for the fashion girlies after hoping on the Y2K nostalgia bandwagon, alongside low rise jeans. (Elle)