The Download: blended meat, restored sight, and the agentic web

Plus: Democrats have dealt tech billionaires a major midterm setback. These startups hope "blended" food will cut our appetite for red meat In the fall of 2025, Jeff Dodge served hungry students steaming marinara sauce and meatballs. The students loved them: 92% of those who tried them wanted them on the menu. Few could guess that mushrooms had been mixed into the meat. Dodge was testing a new product called 50/Cut from the company Joyn. The blend of seemingly simple ingredients--available as meatballs, burgers, and ground meat--could help solve one of the biggest challenges of the climate crisis: getting people to eat less meat, particularly beef.