Reading List: 🎼 It’s The End Of The World As We Know It, And I’m Making This Joke Again. 🎵 🎶
Sometimes, new and creative subject lines are a Friday morning impossibility.
HI FRIENDS. I cannot believe it is already mid-July in the year-of-scream-at-the-void 2024. There’s a ton to get to, but before we get to the longreads, we must flag the greatest headline of the 2024 election cycle: ‘Heritage Foundation Exec Threatens ‘Gay Furry Hackers’ in Unhinged Texts’ (Rolling Stone), as well as this thread from Jason Goldman:
LONGREADS, LET’S DO THIS!
And today’s Reading List is dedicated to all of the reasons that our dear American readers should make sure are registered to vote.
Anna Conkling, ‘GOP Rep Delivers a House Floor Speech Straight Out of ‘The Handmaid’s Tale’’ (The Daily Beast) — My favorite book is The Handmaid’s Tale. I read it for the first time in my mid-teens, wrote about it for one of my Princeton admission essays, and find myself picking it back up every year or so. And I have to say, I’m kinda numb to the fact that it’s seemingly being mined for ultra right talking points. And then I remind myself that I have less rights now than when I did when I first read the book. And then I gulp down a cup of lukewarm coffee and stare into the middle distance for an hour. Also, thank you Daily Beast for reminding me about the Instagram photo Margaret Atwood posted after Roe was overturned:
Olivia Messer and Cara Kelly, ‘“Gods in the Building”: How the Texas Senate Buries Sexual Harassment Complaints and Enables Bad Actors’ (Texas Monthly) — Haven’t read this one yet, but I’ll read most anything Texas Monthly writes about politics. And considering the outsized effect state legislatures have in creating and passing up laws and policies that can — and will ! hahahahah laugh until we cry— impact us all, a rot at the center of Texas should be noted.
Umair Irfan and Aja Romano, ‘Heat is deadly. Why does our culture push us to ignore it?’ (Vox) — I am comfortably ensconced in SF’s legendarily cold summer so I’m not suffering the heat experience of colleagues who live less than 50 miles away and are reporting 110+ temperatures measured on their porches, but reading this Vox piece and remembering that certain industry groups are opposing OSHA’s heat protection proposal (and that’s not even taking into account that super fun Supreme Court ruling! what a time we live in!) So Vox’s look at our cultural reticence towards acting on how freaking dangerous heat can be is fascinating.
Mia Sato, ‘Chum King Express’ (The Verge) — This skirts into my work life (I do hope you’ve read Tony’s ‘Be part of a better internet’ by this point, and have taken advantage of our summer membership discount campaign!) by zooming in on one remarkably effective AI sludge-creating company. The fact that one organization can have such influence over storied publications like Sports Illustrated and The Chicago Tribune starkly shows the larger impact that the online marketing industry has had on the online infrastructure that we look at and interact with all day. TL;DR: it’s really freaking grim! Cue the “I’m in Danger” gif. AGAIN. TWICE IN ONE WEEK.
Will Douglas Heaven, ‘What is AI?’ (MIT Technology Review) — If, after reading the above, you want to better understand how internet sludge can — and already is! — getting worse, I really like this funny and frank primer and think y’all should read it.
Hey, you’re fabulous! Drink that water, stay safely inside if it keeps you cool, and be kind to each other, won’t you?
xoxo Amy
