How much money is a national anthem worth?
These are the best things I found on the internet this week!
Hey newsletter friends,
I promise that my week off from the newsletter was worth it. In fact, I’ll go ahead and spill the beans here ahead of its release on Thursday (don’t tell my bosses) — I GOT MY FIRST FORBES COVER STORY!
It’s a profile of UFC CEO and Trump bestie Dana White, and the rise of hyper-masculinity in business, politics and American culture. It’ll be out online on Thursday and in print in mid-February. In addition to the written feature, there’s a documentary that goes along with it, and this past week I was in New York filming my portions of it as an on-screen narrator. Stay tuned to my socials for links, and it’ll definitely be in next week’s Tuesday newsletter.
In the two weeks since the last Tuesday edition, did I miss anything important going on in the world?! Oh only the inauguration, the LA fires, the Israel-Hamas ceasefire, the TikTok ban, one of the worst plane crashes in history, NFL playoff games, the college football national championship, that bonkers Luka Doncic trade, the Grammys, David Lynch’s death…
But the point of this newsletter is not to chase conversation, it’s to create it. That’s why I call these my “conversation starters,” a roundup of the best, most interesting and most entertaining content on the internet in the past week. I’m hoping these are things you haven’t seen or even thought of before, and after you read, watch, enjoy (and share!), you can go out into your daily life and be the smartest and most interesting person in your friend group. Ambitious goal, so there’s no time to waste!
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!
Forbes does some version of this story every year (I’ve done it for the past two), but it’s so crazy it’s worth mentioning again — Super Bowl Halftime performers like Kendrick Lamar don’t get paid to perform. Yet it’s still the most coveted gig in music. I talked through the story on Forbes Talks’ YouTube show, and then crazy enough, a one-minute clip of that video went viral on Facebook with over 16 million views! Am I famous now??
It’s crazy to me that my favorite piece of post-election, “this is Trump’s America” content so far came from New York Mag’s nightlife reporter, who spent a night at the “it” parties of the new MAGA youth movement, a group of people who could not be more thrilled with the direction the country is headed. It’s an insightful, enlightening, and incredibly entertaining read.
Zach Lowe’s firing from ESPN last year hit the NBA community hard, but months later he’s now resurfaced with a straight-to-camera YouTube video reacting to that crazy Luka Doncic-Anthony Davis trade. On a channel with less than 1k subs! It looks like a hostage video, but it’s good to hear his thoughts on hoops once again.
There’s a 1.3% chance that an asteroid hits earth in 2032. It’s a near-zero chance, but in the words of Matt Damon in Oppenheimer, “zero…would be nice!”
Nvidia is the chip arms dealer is fueling the AI revolution while on one of the best stock price runs in stock market history. But apparently I’m not alone in wondering what Nvidia actually does and whether the future its creating is … good? My guy Dan Toomey is on the case.
Have you heard the story of the 11-year-old kid who pulled the world’s most coveted baseball card? The one-of-one Paul Skeenes autographed patch rookie card went to this instant legend. He turned down the Pirates offer of 30 years of season tickets, and sitting with Livvy Dunne in a box for a game (what 11 year old says no to that?!?!), but will likely cash in big at auction.
Hans Zimmer might be best known for spreading that base-y “bwooooong” sound into every single movie and trailer in the past few years (hi Chris Nolan), but he’s also the latest to take the Saudi oil money bag, and will apparently re-create the Saudi Arabian national anthem. How much is a country’s anthem worth, I wonder? May have to make a few calls and find out for Forbes.
Thanks for reading and sharing! We’ve got a ton of Dumpuary movies to talk about on Friday — comedy, horror and action hoo-ray! Talk to ya then.
Congrats on your cover story!