Good posture, great sleep and magical questions -- a guide
These are the best things I found on the internet this week!
What’s up friends,
We’re now one win away from the first professional sports championship in the history of my home state of Oklahoma. I am practically shaking with excitement as I type that.
One quick programming announcement, though it won’t affect many of you. I launched the pair tier of this newsletter last year on my birthday, but before July 10 this year I’ll be shutting down the paid tier. My premium offerings didn’t catch on like I thought and ultimately were not worth the time investment to keep doing, so you’ll probably notice that they’ve stopped recently. I appreciate everyone that bought in. Some time down the line I will rethink how that tier can work and potentially relaunch.
In the meantime, here’s a new batch of my weekly “conversation starters,” the best, most interesting and most entertaining content on the internet in the past week. Hope you enjoy and share!
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!
In honor of Father’s Day on Sunday (so thankful for mine!), GQ explored the age-old question: Why do dads watch TV standing up? Hilarious read and in my experience, highly accurate.
Our Long Read of the Week is an incredible one from Wired: an inspiring profile of a blind videogame designer and streamer who was shot by his father at age eight, became a Paralympian and now is on a mission to make the videogame industry inclusive for everyone. He’s a beacon of light.
On a more serious note, the Air India flight crash is one of the deadliest in aviation history. Yet somehow, one man walked out of the plan wreckage without any major injuries. Naturally, everyone wants to talk to him.
I learned a ton about the surprising health benefits of good posture from this Wall Street Journal story — circulation, respiration, digestion and bladder function. Plus it gives some practical ways to start improving it no matter where you’re starting from.
If you want to cut through small talk or awkwardness in group settings (this newsletter is called “conversation starters,” after all), NPR offers a couple of what they call “magical questions” that get everyone talking, and tells us how we can come up with our own.
Ok how come nobody told me that actor Randall Park — that guy from Always Be My Maybe and The Interview — has insane freestyle rap skills??? Never judge a book by its cover!
It’s been a while since we’ve checked in with the Almost Friday crew, for my money the best sketch comedy group on the internet right now, and this was their best in a while: when a DUI stop goes VERY wrong. (Here’s me providing one more entree into the bizarro world of alt internet comedy)
I have several friends who are hooked on Oura rings and sleep tracking watches, and since they know how much I care about sleep they always ask why I don’t get one. It turns out, sleep doctors feel the same way I do, saying fixating on Oura performance data can lead to more anxiety and by extension worse sleep.
Thanks for reading and sharing! We’re back talking movies on Friday with Materialists in the lead spot. Can’t wait!