Content Consumed: Love Island, Bill Russell, and Climate Criminals
Hello, hi, hey! Happy Monday.
In today’s Content Consumed:
✨ Investing in real estate as a form of self-care
🏝️ Love Island finale: Takeaways from this season
🏎 The strategic clownery of F1’s Ferrari team
🏀 Bill Russell: The blueprint for athlete activism
✈️ Celeb Climate Criminal #1: Taylor Swift
The complexity behind the “Investing in Real Estate as a Form of Self-Care” theory
Welcome to the housing crisis, baby! Simply put: there is a housing shortage, especially on the West and East Coasts. It’s supply and demand; it’s greedy real-estate-adjacent corporations like Zillow flipping homes; it’s economically mobile folks buying up apartments in big cities to rent as Airbnbs.
So, should we encourage women to buy more real estate to flip and rent out—as a “form of self-care”?
Hell yes: empowered women with their own ambition, money, and goals.
Hell no: greater strain on an already feeble housing market.
Love Island finale: Takeaways from this season
- Men shall never face consequences for their actions in the villa.
Luca and Dami bullying Tasha, the first hearing-impaired contestant on the show, for 20 episodes straight? No worries! They’re in the finale now. Adam Collard, who received reports from domestic abuse charity Women’s Aid during his first appearance on Love Island four years ago, received a ticket to this season and landed in 5th place. Even Jacques, a notoriously shitty lad, is already living his best life outside the villa. - Older contestants make for better television.
Exhibit A: Ekin Su and Davide. They’ve done all the shit they’re gonna do as wild young kids, and now these two are in their late 20s and genuinely looking for a connection. And brand deals, yes. But they have more reason to fully participate and (hopefully) win than, say, a 19-year-old nepotism baby of a famous U.K. soccer star. - Where were the challenges and hideaway nights?
Where did the Twitter challenge go? Some of these Islanders, specifically Luca, need an ego check — actually, a general reality check about their behavior. What about that challenge where producers reveal what Islanders have said about each other behind each other’s backs? Instead, the challenges this season were goofy. And no one had opportunities to win a night in the hideaway.
My vote: Ekin Su and Davide. Their love story was the best, the most authentic, and I’m obsessed with their personalities and need that spin-off ASAP.
“Strategy? What strategy?” says the Ferrari team.
Welcome to the circus! You’ll find ringleader and Ferrari team principal Mattia Binotto leaving the pitwall as his team fails once again. “Hard tires?” Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton, Redbull’s Max Verstappen, and Mercedes’ George Russell laughed in the cool-down room after they all podiumed at a race that Ferrari was supposed to win.
Strategic elements of Formula 1 can be hard to figure out. But, as Vice explains, Ferrari has dedicated its 2022 season to illustrating how F1 strategy works by repeatedly screwing up, and at this Sunday’s Hungarian Grand Prix they taught their masterclass. Charles Leclerc deserves better!
Bill Russell: The blueprint for athlete activism
With eleven NBA championships and dozens of other records, it’s easy to say that Bill Russell was a fantastic athlete. But he served a higher role as one of the first activist-athletes. His record of civil rights advocacy is substantial, and his legacy has endured for half a century since.
LeBron’s championing of education for at-risk youth, Steve Kerr’s anti-gun advocacy, Steph Curry’s afterschool programs in Oakland, Chris Paul’s voting rights work. Nearly every NBA athlete now honors a cause close to their heart, that they put time and money into. And Bill Russell started that.
Enemy of the Climate, Taylor Swift
What began as Internet people riled up over Kylie Jenner’s his-and-hers private jet Insta pic has now exposed Taylor Swift’s carbon emissions.
First, after Kylie posted the photo, a Twitter account that tracks private jet usage revealed she had just been on a 17-minute flight.
Soon, Drake’s carbon footprint was revealed to be equally bad. His poorly thought-out defense: Sometimes the planes are just being moved between airports!
Finally, perhaps through the inspiring witchery of Kris Jenner, Taylor Swift was announced as having the worst climate impact of all celebrities.
But don’t worry! Her reps clarified: “Taylor’s jet is loaned out regularly to other individuals. To attribute most or all of these trips to her is blatantly incorrect.”
Or, as one Twitter user put it: ‘“She generously rents out her jet for her poorer friends who can’t afford their own personal jets to use” is the funniest possible way to put a humanitarian spin on her carbon emissions.’
That’s it for today! I hope you have a wonderful Monday.
See ya,
Casey
P.S. Looking for a longer read? Check out my piece about Amazon’s push into health care and why it’s painfully American.
P.P.S. Be sure to follow this column on Medium to see Content Consumed in your feed every weekday. Thanks!
