Cheers to the weekend. Perhaps you should do a shot to kick it off...maybe a Harry Potter-themed one? Then you should read about the return of supersonic travel — it's being touted by aviation giants and startups. Plus:

Where’s the Second Supersonic Age We Were Promised?

Have you heard the news that supersonic travel is coming back?

Here at InsideHook, we’ve been hearing about it again and again and again…for years. In fact, digging through our archives, I found a story from all the way back in 2016 about a company that was touting the potential of a second supersonic age, after the Concorde was retired in 2003.

Well, it’s 2024 now, so where are the planes? That’s the question I had our correspondent Josh Sims look into. He got in touch not just with the scrappy startups with grand ambitions and headline-making press releases, but also the most serious team of the bunch: Lockheed Martin and NASA, whose experimental X-59 supersonic aircraft is eyeing an inaugural flight later this year.

The outlook between the aviation giants and the newcomers is vastly different, as you’ll see in his fascinating look at the roadblocks facing the return of supersonic travel. So how soon will you be able to once again fly from New York to Paris in three hours? Let’s find out. - Alex Lauer

Yesterday, we asked you about your favorite music format. It was close for a while, but a distinct winner came out on top. Here's what you said:

A Guide to Building Muscle Mass Over the Age of 40

If you’re getting up there in years, you can probably pinpoint the time that you were in “the best shape of your life.” It might have been a specific summer, or a single photograph, or a bench press PR.

Fitness has long maintained this strange, hazy connection with nostalgia. As we get older and slower and duties pile up, it seems perfectly reasonable to assume that your physical prime is firmly in your past.

One casualty of that conclusion? You stop going for it in the gym. Safer to play out the back nine of your life on a bike or yoga mat. (Or on the couch.)

We spoke to a variety of professional trainers and powerlifters, all of them in the 35-60-ish demographic, and they’re in agreement: while it’s definitely tougher for old guys, it is possible to build serious mass.

IN THE NEWS

An airline is giving women the choice to avoid sitting next to men.

Sandalwood-scented spaniels? PETA says absolutely not.

This list is a culmination of our collective brain power here at InsideHook, highlighting a whopping 100 products that are tailor-made for the summer.

Are Distilleries the Next Great Cocktail Bars?

Earlier this year, Amalga Distillery in Juneau, Alaska, and Barr Hill Distillery in Montpelier, Vermont, were named semifinalists for a 2024 James Beard Outstanding Bar award, and the latter moved on as one of the country’s five finalists. This wasn’t for bars in distilleries — this was an award for best bar, period. These nominations pose a two-part question: first, should we all book trips to Alaska and Vermont? And second, when did distilleries start taking cocktails and the bar experience as seriously as their spirits?

Cocktails and liquors are intrinsically linked, but traditionally, even during this modern golden age of cocktails we’ve been enjoying for the past 20 years, the two entities stayed in their lanes. Distilleries made the spirits and bars made the cocktails. Today, the lines have blurred, and distilleries across the country are opening craft-focused bars with thoughtful menus and the necessary talent to keep them running.