Your Mid-Week Experiment
5 essays, 3 articles, 2 podcasts, 1 album from the '90s, 1 TV show, and 1 SNL monologue and sketch each
Welcome to your always free, reader-supported mid-week edition of The Experiment where we share great things to read, cook, listen to, and watch. If you’d like to support my work, buy my Alamo book, buy some Experiment merch, drop some coins in the PayPal fountain, or become a paid subscriber. But even if you don’t, this bugga free.
Let’s get right to it:
THIS—> “…journalists are bad at predictions and should do some more meaningful reporting instead.” Read why reporters should put down the polling crack pipe and walk away. (Molly Jong-Fast)
Timothy Rybac used to teach a class at Harvard about how it couldn’t happen here. Then he wrote a book about Hitler’s rise to power to show it might be happening here right now.
I love a good hate-cruise story. h/t E.J. (Gary Shteyngart)
I love a good ankle story. (Simran Jeet Singh)
This conversation got good:
Interesting to see this writer’s late-career turn from covering sports to realizing the real action was in politics. (Rick Reilly)
It’s possible that the YouTube algorithm, far from radicalizing people, has a moderating influence. (Wharton)
I have been wearing this out:
“While the platforms and how we use them have evolved, human behaviors in these spaces have remained surprisingly stable.” In other words, we’ve always been garbage humans online. (Nature)
But offline, people change. Thanks to Simran Jeet Singh for recommending this lovely piece. (Anne Lamott)
Grampa, what was it like in the ‘90s?
Simon Rosenberg was right about the midterms. Here’s who he says will win the 2024 presidential election. (The New York Times)
The New Yorker’s Jill Lepore didn’t much care for Manhunt, but I like it anyway. Wait, does that mean I’m a history-obsessed uncle?
This is a smart take on Ramy Youssef’s Saturday Night Live monologue. (Hannah Giorgis)
And this makes me think I should start watching the show again.
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