Wheaties box athletes, sci-fi cities and sharks on cocaine
These are the best things I found on the internet in the past week!
What’s shakin’ party people,
You all been watching as much Olympic coverage as me? I love getting fired up about fencing, table tennis and team handball out of nowhere. And you all seen “Gold Zone” on Peacock? It’s basically “NFL RedZone” for the Olympics…incredible.
Anyway, unlike last week’s political coverage, the Olympics has not blotted out the sun of attention across the internet. And as much as I admitted last week’s content slate was weak, this week’s is really strong — and not just saying that because it includes two pieces from yours truly.
These are my regular Tuesday “conversation starters,” a round-up of the best, most interesting and most entertaining content on the internet from the past week. Use them to improve your media diet, and your water cooler conversation! 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!
I wrote a pair of stories for Forbes this week around the kickoff of the Olympic Games. The first is your classic Forbes-y list of the highest-paid Olympians and the second is a story about the iconic Wheaties box endorsement. I spoke to Caitlyn Jenner (!!), Misty May Treanor and Mikaela Shiffrin about how they turned Olympic glory into sponsorship dough, and whether or not the Wheaties box is still a valuable marketing tool in 2024.
Speaking of the Olympics, here’s a secret that will change the way you watch one event forever: everyone pees in the pool. “I’ve probably peed in every single pool I’ve swam in,” Lilly King tells the Wall Street Journal, who collected the funny stories of several Olympic pool pee-ers.
Maybe you’ve seen the photos or stories about that giant “line” city in the desert of Saudi Arabia (maybe even links from this newsletter…) and wondered … why? My must-watch YouTube explainer Dan Toomey does an awesome job explaining why the heck the Saudis are investing billions into futuristic fantasy lands with his usual dash of comedy.
This New York Times article is a great conversation starter, because even though I disagree with its premise I really wanted to hear other people’s thoughts immediately (read it and email me, I want to hear from you!). The writer says Twisters marks a big picture shift in Hollywood moviemaking toward appealing to “middle America,” or “red states,” after a decade of invasive progressive politics in blockbuster movies. While I agree that Twisters certainly used that appeal to great effect, the broader trend is way way harder to pin down.
I may turn this into a subscriber-only discussion thread this week. Be on the lookout for that.
I realize I’m playing the hits with my favorite YouTube creators here, but Almost Friday (a.k.a. Friday Beers) continues putting out short film comedy sketches that are film festival level quality. Their latest starts as a VHS-era home video of a couple of guys golfing and then devolves into a dramatic tail of saving a woman’s life.
You’ve heard of Cocaine Bear, now it’s time for a real-life sequel. Apparently sharks off the coast of Brazil are ingesting high levels of cocaine. No murderous rampages reported…yet.
Harvard Business School’s four-day, $12,000 class on building a business empire has attracted celebrities like Channing Tatum, Dwayne Wade and LL Cool J, but its professor is the hottest commodity of all right now. Really interesting story from Bloomberg.
In our Long Read of the Week, Rolling Stone unwinds the dramatic tale of Daniel Langlois, who made his fortune revolutionizing VFX in Jurassic Park before moving to the Caribbean with his partner, where he was murdered in December. It’s true crime meets socioeconomic struggle, everything you could want in a longform article.
Thanks for reading and sharing! On Friday we’ve got to talk about the world-conquering hit that is Deadpool & Wolverine.