23andme, Fast Cars, and a working invisibility cloak
These are the best things I found on the internet in the past week!
What’s up everyone,
We’re currently under a state of emergency here in California, hit by record amounts of rain and flooding that has caused real distress for some people and mass hysteria for everyone else.
Being cooped up inside has left for plenty of time for doomscrolling, and I’ve plucked out a few nuggets from the heaps of crap to give to you all. I call them my weekly “conversation starters,” the idea being that you can improve your own media diet and be an elite small-talker for the next six days. Let me know how it goes!
What’s the coolest story or thing you found on the internet this week? Reply to this email and shoot me a link. Would love to hear from you!
Goose bumps. That’s the only way I can describe this made-for-TV moment at The Grammy Awards on Sunday. Tracy Chapman, who wrote the song “Fast Car” in 1988 but hasn’t performed in public in years, performed an incredible duet with Luke Combs, whose cover of the song gave it new life this past year. As of Monday, Chapman’s version is No. 1 on the iTunes charts, her first No. 1 song ever (Combs’ version is No. 3). (**I’m sorry the above version is on Twitter, but that’s the only place I could find a full video. For a shorter clip, here’s one on YouTube.)
Here’s a version of her singing the song in 1988 at Wembley Stadium, when she had to fill in for Steve Wonder and a boisterous crowd wasn’t giving her the time of day…until she started this song and silenced them. Goose bumps again.
Our Long Read of the Week is, once again, about aliens. Stories over the past few years have most people convinced that UFOs are not only real, but that beings from outer space have visited earth. This story from New York Mag’s Intelligencer seems to credibly disprove any UFO sightings to this point, and offer counter evidence about how and why people could be misled.
During the pandemic, it felt like 23andme was everywhere (I couldn’t get past the whole DNA sampling thing personally, call me paranoid). But in a little over two years the company’s valuation has crashed from $6 billion to near zero. What happened?! It turns out it’s not the best business plan to sell a product people only need to buy once, and in this deep dive from the Wall Street Journal, it turns out that problem was just the tip of the iceberg.
It’s been open season on Hollywood pencil pushers in recent weeks, with high profile creators taking shots in the press without hesitation. David Chase’s funeral dirge for peak TV got followed by “Insecure” showrunner Issa Rae saying this in a TIME profile: “I’m sorry, but there aren’t a lot of smart executives anymore.” Even more damning, Dune director Denis Villeneuve said this (also in a TIME profile!): “…the fact that we behave like algorithms, as filmmakers. We’re in a very conservative time; creativity is restricted. Everything’s about Wall Street.”
Hate to send you too far down the biohacking rabbit hole, but my personal online fitness guru for several years has been Athlean-X’s Jeff Cavaliere. This week he broke down the 10 worst things to do after a workout (including ice baths and aspirin) if you’re trying to build muscle.
Normally talk show interviews are boring and rehearsed. What makes this chat between Jimmy Kimmel and the Dune 2 cast (Chalamet, Zendaya, Florence Pugh, Austin Butler) is that it’s extremely clear there was no prep or plan beforehand, and although it’s not very funny or entertaining, it actually feels like it reveals the true personalities of four of Hollywood’s biggest young stars.
My takeaway: Austin Butler is way cooler in real life than Chalamet, Zendaya or Pugh. But that Elvis role seems to have altered his voice permanently (despite him hiring a voice coach to get rid of it).
Scientists in China claim to have invented a working invisibility cloak, which can hide its user from not only being seen but also thermal and infrared monitoring. If it actually works as they say (IF), the applications are vast, obviously beginning with the military.
While I’m the first to tell people that Bill Simmons has lost his fastball, his annual Super Bowl prop bets podcast with Cousin Sal is required listening for anyone thinking about betting on the big game this weekend.
Thanks for reading and sharing! On Friday we’ve got to talk about Argylle and this “Mr. and Mrs. Smith” show on Amazon. Talk to ya then!