The future of journalism, according to the internet
Here's the best things I found on the internet this week!
Hello fellow internet explorers,
You really can be anything you want to be folks — even Pope. Or a White Sox fan. (Seriously what are the odds that a crowd cutaway during a broadcast of the 2005 World Series was focused on the man who is now the leader of the Catholic church? And how the heck did someone find that?!)
That’s the kind of gem that simply would never have been found in a time before the internet and social media, a kind of all-encompassing amoeba that spits out the best and worst of humanity like a firehose.
I hope my weekly “conversation starters” can cut through the mess and give you the very best, most interesting and most entertaining articles, videos and other content that could possibly be found on the ol’ world wide web. I hope you take some time to read, watch, enjoy, and then chat about it with a friend or two!!
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 tweet send my mind spiraling. The future of magazine style reporting might just be deeply sourced/researched gab sessions like this extremely informative and fascinating deep dive on Pablo Torre’s podcast about Bill Belichick and his strange relationship with the 24-year-old Jordon Hudson. I’m not sure how I feel about that evolution.
Adding to the above—I’ve been pointing out the amazing work Dan Toomey has been doing on YouTube for a while now, and he is definitely the prototype of a journalist in the future. He’s not breaking news or telling magazine stories, but his deeply sourced/researched breakdowns of business topics are entertaining enough to get me interested in really archane subjects like “what is private credit?” aka the mysterious new industry cranking out billionaires.
Headlines That Require No Context, via NPR: He let snakes bite him some 200 times to create a better snakebite antivenom.
We’re 100 days into congestion pricing in New York City — the pay-for-access traffic rules I supported in this newsletter for years before it was actually put into effect — and New York Mag checked in to see how it’s going. In a word? Perfectly.
Forget voting for class president. One elementary school in Chicago held a full papal conclave for the class—and the results were incredible. Rather than a popularity contest it seems like the process gave kids a chance to affirm each other. It’s very wholesome (though there were memes and jokes to be made too). Shoutout to astute reader Allison for sending this to me!!
Here’s a random fun fact you’ll probably never forget: there are 4.5 sheep for every 1 human in New Zealand. But that ratio is down from 22:1 in the 1980s, and could continue to shrink in the new few years.
Most of us agree that 1) sleep is incredibly important and 2) we don’t get enough of it. So it’s little surprise that the country has become obsessed with a supplement that will fix that problem. Yet the Wall Street Journal asks, “Is magnesium a magical cure for troubled sleep?”
You may have heard that two-thirds of people who went to Coachella this year paid for their tickets using layaway style programs. This great YouTube explainer breaks down exactly why “buy now, pay later” is a trap.
Thanks for reading and sharing! I’ll be back with movie talk on Friday!