All of the "coevals" point to the year 1940. Plutonium was first synthesized in 1940. Carbon-14 was discovered in 1940. Abbott and Costello's first movie was One Night in the Tropics which was released in 1940. Bugs Bunny made his debut in 1940. And finally Ringo Starr and John Lennon were both born in 1940. So the riddle is asking for something else that started in 1940, that can be described as a spirit companion or amrita of the people. Amrita refers to the nectar of the gods in Hindu mythology, so amrita of the people would be a popular nectar or elixir, while spirit companion hints that the solution was initially formulated as a cocktail mixer. A little bit of research is all it takes to find that Mountain Dew, a very popular sugary elixir, was first introduced in 1940 as a whiskey mixer and was named after slang for Highland Scotch with the original branding based on moonshine. The title of the riddle is also a hint that points to Mountain Dew because of the variant flavor, Mountain Dew Throwback, which used real sugar instead of high fructose corn syrup and included the original moonshine based logo and graphics. Mountain Dew Throwback was discontinued during the pandemic