Your Mid-Week Experiment
This newsletter didn't snub any filmmakers, so we got that going for us
Thanks, all, for the enthusiastic read so many of you gave to last weekend’s essay on obscenity on whether the real obscenities are naughty words or the mass murder of children. It’s already one of the most popular essays in the history of The Experiment, which worries me. You all seem oddly fixated on the “F” word. Hey, whatever boats your float.
But that’s last week’s news. Today we have a glorious harvest of recommendations on what to read, listen to, and watch, not to mention cook. It’s a lot, so let’s get to it:
If you are a communicator for any cause, you have to read this lest you wallow forevermore in ignorance. (Nicholas Kristoff)
Yes, it’s self-referential and plowing essentially no new ground, but this was a funny bit:
“I’m Not Ashamed of My Stutter” (José Ralat, whose Instagram you have to follow if you live in Texas and like tacos)
Ate this—> Check out the Dallas episode of Netflix’s Taco Chronicles. José Ralat and I went to Maskaras and ate tacos ahogados and damn near everything else. Highly recommended.
“Porn is titillating, tanks are profound.” (Scott Galloway)
Speaking of porn, ate this, too—>pancake pot pie (Ellen’s)
Khurangbin, the Houston trio, is where tension goes to die.
Here’s where to hide from an atomic blast (Gizmodo)
Here’s how to cook the perfect boneless, skinless chicken breast (Faith Durand)
Here’s how to do Miley Cyrus’ workout, which, if you can, respect. (Pop Sugar)
Talk less in conversation. (Time)
And because I’m loading you up with how-to’s…
These tips on how to provide chatGPT with better writing prompts provides good insight into where we are with public AI right now (One Useful Thing (And Also Some Other Things)) h/t Brendan Hodgson’s great newsletter for communicators
CNET got busted publishing (often inaccurate) AI-generated articles (The Byte)
How is anybody supposed to get any work done when this song exists?
The number of Americans who are spending more than they’re making is increasing. How many eggs are you people buying? (Axios)
Made this —> buttery lemon pasta with almonds and arugula (New York Times)
Andrew Cashen is a bad man:
“The delighted response about an unremarkable show of gratitude demonstrates how little of it he’s done to date; and the relish with which his glancing interactions were recalled indicates how low the expectations bar is for DeSantis and what it means to an important constituency when he clears said bar.” (Politico)
Here’s a fun history of the Marge Vs. The Monorail episode:
Tár is as good as Ann Hornaday says, and it reminded me to give a listen to Mark Maron’s chat with director Todd Field.
We turned on The Legend of Molly Johnson because we thought it would be fun adventure/revenge flic. It was not, but it was good. ALL THE TRIGGER WARNINGS.
I finally watched Sing Street because it was about to go off Netflix. If you like music movies and feel nostalgic about ‘80s Brit pop, you will be charmed, utterly.
Thanks to Noom, I lost 40 pounds over 2020-21 and have kept it off since then. Click on the blue box to get 20% off. Seriously, this works. No, this isn’t an ad. Yes, I really lost all that weight with Noom.
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.
We’ve also got a tip jar, and I promise to waste every cent you give me on having fun, because writing this newsletter for you is some
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. Out in paperback now!