"Looksmaxxing," "mewing," and defining masculinity in the TikTok era
Here's the best things I found on the internet this week!
Hey fam,
Just wanted to say thank you again to all the people who have continued to reach out checking in on me here in Los Angeles. I’m still safe! Praying that these winds don’t pick up as much as people are saying Tuesday and Wednesday, so we can finally get these fires under control and start the long long process of rebuilding the city.
In the meantime, when everything feels so abnormal and apocalyptic, it’s fun to maintain the rhythm of my usual “conversation starters,” a roundup of 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!
I’m going to steer away from a lot of L.A. wildfire content, because there’s been a lot of it in the past week and I’ve found most of it to be not very informative or forward-looking. But that’s exactly why I was so impressed by this NY Mag interview with a college professor that provides big picture answers to the causes and effects of this week’s fires on the city of Los Angeles.
Over the weekend I published a story on Forbes about sponsorship at the Australian Open. You know those logo patches that tennis players where on their shirt? Well one company is deploying a new strategy to TV marketing — patching the underdogs in marquee matches. It’s an interesting little wrinkle!
Our long read of the week attempts to define masculinity in the TikTok era, breaking down disturbing trends like “looksmaxxing” and “mewing.” It’s an ambitious and thought provoking piece from Men’s Health mag, and I’m not sure exactly how I feel about it. Would love to discuss with anyone else who reads it (reply to this email!).
Stefano Secchi’s chef videos have inspired me in the past, and I’ve gone to his restaurant Rezdora in NYC twice (incredible). Now Secchi is back with a sibling restaurant — and a new inspiring video, this time making sausage ragu from Southern Italy.
Over the next few weeks, more than 400 million Hindus will make the pilgrimage to bathe in their sacred waters in northern India, during a festival that only happens every 12 years. That’s an astounding number to me. After 50 million-plus bathers in a single day, I have to imagine that water is pretty…unappealing.
Every year, one college in Michigan puts out a “banished words” list, the top 10 words it believes are misused, overused and useless. Gotta agree with these three: cringe, era and Skibidi.
Fashion is still such a mysterious and hilarious industry to me. Walmart created an $80 knock-off version of a $10,000 Hermes Birkin bag, and thanks to TikTok (always TikTok) it’s now a status symbol in its own right.
A man in Japan makes $80,000 a year to do nothing. No, literally. People rent him out for tasks that require no effort. And that pays the bills! What a world.
Thanks for reading and sharing! On Friday we’re back talking movies…maybe a lil’ Den of Thieves 2??