Nicotine and Politics: A Cultural Exploration

Vapes like Elf bars seem to be everywhere now. Meanwhile, Zyn nicotine pouches have become a huge seller for Philip Morris and are in such demand that it's sometimes hard to find them in stores. So where are all these new nicotine products coming from? What's the regulatory approval process for these? And what is it like to launch a new nicotine product right now? In this episode, we speak with John Coogan, the former co-founder of dietary supplement Soylent and most recently the co-founder of Lucy Goods, which makes nicotine gum. We talk about the booming market for Zyn and other nicotine products, plus the byzantine ways in which some of these companies are structured. We also talk about the death of Juul and how we seem to have ended up with a very strange gray market for vapes.

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