PJ Vogt

Like the idea that at home you would just put a needle into your skin is just like up until very recently for most people something they won't do.

Still something a lot of people won't do.

But GLP-1s broke that seal for a lot of people.

So in Silicon Valley, it seems a bunch of research-minded nerds have spread these drugs, largely through word of mouth, after having been inspired by Peptides' earlier adopters, the online bodybuilding community.

The next places Peptides go, though, are both a bit seedier and a bit more concerning.

After a short break, we follow Peptides into two internet neighborhoods that I did not realize were at all adjoined, Maha and the Luxe Maxxers.

Welcome back to the show.

So this is what we'd charted before the break.

Peptides first appear online in the early 2000s on bodybuilding forums, one more obscure chemical that the bench pressers are trying.

They stay there more than a decade.

But in the late 2010s, biohackers, Bay Area tech geeks who wanted to experiment on their bodies, they'd started getting into this too.

At this point, peptides have left message boards.

They're now being discussed also on self-optimization podcasts, podcasts famously a gateway drug.

But peptides remained essentially niche until just a few years ago.

2023 is when Ozempic changes everything.

After Ozempic, lots of people go online looking for off-brand, gray-market Ozempic from compound pharmacies and Chinese labs.

Some of these places, in addition to selling generic GLP-1s, also sell other peptides.

And these other peptides are now being advertised by a rising class of influencers who will spread them to new communities.

I talked to a second writer about this phase of the peptide spread, reporter Ezra Marcus.

Ezra spends a lot of time on the internet's margins.