The very best internet content of 2023!
These are the best things I found on the internet this YEAR
Merry soon-to-be Christmas friends!
It’s the end of another year of “Conversation Starters,” my round-up of the best, most interesting and most entertaining content on the internet each week. I’m trying something new here as we reach the final edition of the year (next week is Christmas and the week following will be 2024!).
Going through every round-up from the year, I’ve picked out the best-of-the-best content in a handful of categories so that you can catch up on what you may have missed throughout the year. These were the stories, videos and memes that I found myself referencing, thinking about and talking about with others more than any other. Enjoy!
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!
Ok we’ll start on the self-indulgent side, with the best of my personal writing from the year. My favorite newsletter edition I put out was my birthday essay, which really felt like I was exercising some demons (or at least working through an existential crisis. This behind-the-scenes look at my Russell Westbrook profile for Forbes was cool and I should probably do more like it.
The “biggest” story I did for Forbes was undoubtedly naming Magic Johnson a billionaire (which he talked about on Kimmel), but my personal favorite story may have been the one about the ‘death match’ between Twitch and Kick for the future of internet livestreaming.
I also wrote about a ton of movies for the newsletter, but you’ll need to wait for my annual year-end Friday wrap-up to catch the highlights there.
The celebrity profile is a lost art. Negotiated access and quid-pro-quo have turned 99% of all such stories into fluff piece garbage. But that 1%…oh that 1% is glorious. It’s also a lineup of some of my very favorite journalists on the planet: Reeves Wiedeman on Shams Charania, Zach Baron on Martin Scorcese, Caity Weaver on Flo from Progressive, and Jia Tolentino on Olivia Rodrido.
Yet none of those stories landed with the sonic boom of Clare Malone’s profile for The New Yorker of Hasan Minhaj, which exposed him for lying in his comedy and then got him to comment on said lies on-the-record. Incredible stuff.
No story created more conversation, and dare I say consternation, all year among me and a couple of my close friends who decided to have their first babies this year than this New York Mag cover story by Allison P. Davis about how babies test, and maybe even ruin, adult friendships. “Babies, those little assholes, really do show up in our lives like a popular girl transferring into school in the middle of the semester. Their sudden presence, though welcomed, coveted, hard won, and considered a blessing to their parents, throws the social order into disarray.”
I’m always inspired by the broadcaster Ernie Johnson. Listen to EJ tell Dan LeBatard about how he found a work-life balance and identity through a dramatic confrontation with a coworker. This clip gave me goosebumps.
My list of personal rants has grown and solidified this year. Among the hills I’m willing to die on:
TURN OFF SUBTITLES, NOW! The Atlantic makes the case.
Rotten Tomatoes is “the most overrated metric in movies,” it’s “erratic, reductive, and easily hacked — and yet has Hollywood in its grip.”
TikTok is now holding restaurants hostage, turning dishes into drippy bundles of excess and every restaurant into a hibachi-style chef show at tableside.
As long as we’re talking about food, my favorite food-related story of the year was in The New Yorker about how Taco Bell always seems to come up with new creative food monstrosities. Turns out it’s a team of 60 developers who ask important questions like, “Can 14 Flamin’ Hot Fritos corn chips be added to the middle of a burrito and retain their crunch?”
As I always say…You Can’t Script Sports.
Whether that meant two college women’s golfers who shot 276 and 158 in a competitive round and ended up inspiring all of us.
The “Super Bowl of surfing” was won by an ON-DUTY lifeguard who competed during breaks from his job.
Or the assistant bowling coach at S.F. Austin University having a relationship with one of the bowlers, leading to a divorce with his wife…the team’s head coach. “I knew it was kind of a no-no, but there’s not a rule saying it can’t happen,” said the coach, one of several absolutely incredible quotes in the local paper.
The very best Headlines That Require Not Context of the year: Man with prostate cancer suddenly develops thick Irish accent. Doctors found the cause.
No one can deny 2023 was the year of Taylor Swift. But fandom went to far in the case of a handful of crazy young people in Argentina camping out for front row Taylor Swift tickets for FIVE MONTHS, in Pitchfork.
If not T-Swift, the year’s other biggest star was Ozempic. For my money this was the definitive story on the “miracle” weight-loss drug.
S/O to my favorite content creators!
The most consistently funny sketch comedy is happening not on “Saturday Night Live,” but rather the social channels of Friday Beers. This sketch, guest starring Taylor Misiak (Ally from “Dave”) about a garage sale is hilarious and also like just an awesome short film at the same time??
Dan Toomey and his “Good Work” YouTube channel educated me on any number of business topics this year, like consultants, private equity, college endowments and A.I., all while cracking me up in the process.
I came to Elle Cordova for the sophisticated humor like how famous authors would ask you out or how legendary artifacts of history talk to each other, but got more than I bargained for with genuinely effective thought experiment that can rewire my brain chemistry.
This hilarious Los Angeles Times account of a $150 “nude dinner experience” is the most eye-roll worthy L.A. thing you’ll ever read. “Nudity represents so much more than the act of being naked. It’s surrender,” the host says.
Here’s a piece of public policy the United States should adopt immediately — $130,000 speeding tickets. Seriously! In Finland and other countries, tickets are pro-rated based on an offender’s income. Brilliant.
For the journalism nerds…this podcast between the Editor-in-Chief of The New Yorker and the publisher of The New York Times is probably the best conversation on the current state of journalism that I’ve ever heard. It’s not contentious but it is confrontational as the two men share different views on the role of objectivity in “mainstream media.” In my opinion, required listening for all media consumers (so all of us).
Thanks for reading and sharing! We’re not quite to year-end time on the movies side. This Friday we’re covering American Fiction, Poor Things and Zone of Interest. Talk to you then!