Creative genius, the queen of Airbnb, and leaving the cult of Swifties
These are the best things I found on the internet this week!
What’s up everybody,
Thanks so much for checking in. I’m in a great mood today because my beloved OKC Thunder swept through the first round of the NBA Playoffs, and because I found a great slate of stuff for this week’s “conversation starters,” my weekly roundup of the best, most interesting and most entertaining content on the internet. Please enjoy, share and interact with the rest of the community!
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!
This might be one of the most impressive creative expressions I’ve ever come across. It’s a five minute, unbroken freestyle rap story about approaching a girl, by a guy named Harry Mack, off of very specific prompts given on the spot. It’s a level of creative genius I can’t even really wrap my mind around.
In our Long Read of the Week, it’s Business Insider’s dramatic rise and fall tale of “The Queen of Airbnb,” a woman who built an empire in Tulsa, Oklahoma (my hometown!) at the peak of the short term rental craze, then crashed and brought dozens of innocent people down with her. Or was it fraud?
In a searing piece of criticism for The New York Times, James Poniewozik laments what he calls the “golden age of mid-TV.” He taps on a feeling I’ve had and a lot of people I’ve talked to have also felt. Why are there more ‘pretty good’ shows these days than ever, and seemingly fewer great shows?
The story everybody in my circles was talking about this week was this tale from the New Yorker about why online restaurant reservations are near impossible to get in NYC these days. A cottage industry has popped up around reselling them, sometimes for several hundred dollars a pop. In fact, one college student made $70,000 last year reselling reservations in his free time.
If you’re not watching the NBA Playoffs, you’re missing out on the best studio show in sports — TNT’s “Inside The NBA” — which is great because its best moments often have nothing to do with basketball. Like this gut-buster where Charles Barkley complains about Galveston, Texas.
Many schools in Norway banned smartphone usage. A new academic research paper shows that girls’ GPAs and test scores increased and the number of mental health consultations decreased dramatically. The boys? Zero effect.
We all know about how obsessive Taylor Swift fans are. But what happens when a Swiftie leaves the movement? It’s “like leaving a cult,” according to this excellent New York Magazine story, which captures one online Reddit forum that has become like a halfway house for recovering Swift-aholics.
Are neckties dying, or set to make a comeback? The Wall Street Journal plays fashion police.
Thanks for reading and sharing! On Friday we’re talking Challengers, the sexy love triangle tennis movie starring Zendaya. Talk to ya then!