JK Rowling, Thomas Keller, and some guy selling you unpasteurized milk
These are the best things I found on the internet in the past week!
Hey newsletter fam!
We’re back on our Tuesday grind after a week off. It’s a helluva week to be an Okie, as my Oklahoma City Thunder roll into the NBA Finals as massive favorites to win the first professional sports championship in the state’s history. I’m headed back to my home state this weekend to go to Game 2. Thunder up!!!!
In the meantime, I’ve got some “conversation starters” for you, a round-up of the best, most interesting and most entertaining articles, videos and other content that the internet served up in the past few days. I hope you take some time to read, watch, 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 my latest story for Forbes, I reported that Harry Potter author JK Rowling is a billionaire again, more than a decade after she dropped off the list. Despite her unapologetic and controversial social media posts against the transgender community, her empire continues to grow to new heights. “How do you sleep at night,” asked one angry Twitter commenter. “I read my most recent royalty cheques,” Rowling replied, “and find the pain goes away pretty quickly.”
The French Laundry is one of the most famous (and, if you’re Gavin Newsom, one of the most infamous) restaurants in the United States—the three-Michelin-starred creation of celebrity chef Thomas Keller. This is the remarkable story of Keller’s rocky relationship with food critics over the years, including one for the San Francisco Chronicle that Keller asked to leave The French Laundry — but ended up cooking for her personally instead. It is our Long Read of the Week.
Preeminent celebrity whisperer Zach Baron over at GQ talked with Christopher McQuarrie to figure out how the **** they pulled off some of those insane stunts for Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoning.
If Nathan Fielder’s theatrics on “The Rehearsal” got you interested in planes and pilots—and did you see Fielder’s wild appearance on CNN trolling Wolf Blitzer this week?—newsletter MVP Dan Toomey is coming in hot with one of his funny YouTube reports on what’s wrong with the aviation industry.
What if you literally had all the money in the world? This YouTube explainer describes what that would practically look like and mean for your life. In short, NOT GREAT!
One company in the U.K. is hoping to use half a million ice-making robots to “refreeze” massive sections of the polar ice cap. Scientists are split on whether it could be a solution to climate change.
At a club in Austin, Texas, appropriately called the Sapien Center, one he-man podcast host is developing a sort of headquarters for the Make America Healthy Again movement championed by RFK Jr., selling unpasteurized milk with a side of institutional mistrust. He is profiled exceptionally in Texas Monthly.
Thanks for reading and sharing! We’ve got Wes Anderson’s new movie The Phoenician Scheme and as well as HBO Max’s Mountainhead on deck for Friday, talk to ya then!