Your Mid-Week Experiment
Welcome to your always free, reader-supported edition of The Experiment where we share great things to read, cook, listen to, and watch. As always, this bugga free.
Let’s get right to it:
The Russian invasion has turned decolonization efforts in Ukraine into what Masha Gessen calls a “slow-motion robbery” of civic life in Odessa. (gift link)
I read this, also by Gessen, at brunch (yes, I know, I’m very social and fun), and if I hadn’t been in public I might have wept. (gift link)
Where has Cheekface been all my life?
This is a surprising look at exactly which young people trended toward Donald Trump in 2024. Hint: It’s not young white men listening to Joe Rogan. (gift link)
Sure, it’s not the twilight of democracy we wanted, but at least you can dance to it:
If you’re doing some thinking on the subject of manhood—and I know a lot of you are—you will enjoy Charley Johnson’s examination of “The Infinite Manosphere.” h/t Elise Hu, whose newsletter Hu’s Letter (get it?) inspired this one. (Untangled With Charley Johnson)
They landed the plane after a bumpy takeoff. Surprisingly emotionally satisfying.
This is top-shelf political comedy. h/t Elie Jacobs
S and I saw Chris Estrada at the Improv in Addison last weekend. If you never saw his show This Fool, check it out.
If you want to get a head start on next weekend’s essay, watch this illuminating conversation.
This scene from Meatballs, a ‘70s teen comedy starring Bill Murray, lives rent-free in my head and had a disproportionate impact on my worldview.
We set up a merch table in the back where you can get T-shirts, coffee mugs, and even tote bags now. Show the world that you’re part of The Experiment.
Buy the book Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick banned from the Bullock Texas History Museum: Forget the Alamo: The Rise and Fall of the American Myth by Bryan Burrough, Chris Tomlinson, and myself is out from Penguin Random House.