Stream of Reading (Prepare to be Forwarded) – An Archive of What I'm Reading
Al Lord, the former chief executive of student-loan giant Sallie Mae, has a complaint about higher education: The price of college is too damn high. Paying for his grandchildren’s education in recent years, he said, left him appalled at the tuition bills that land on his desk every semester. For those who know (or in…
The Post-Dirtbag Left For years, “Chapo Trap House” and other podcasts have paired anti-capitalist ideas with the rhetorical style of social media. Is a new form emerging? July 26, 2021 Two shows harness a progressive energy, but they differ sharply in affect.Illustration by Miguel Porlan On the evening of January 6th, while National Guard troops were…
A new Forrester report forecasts the end of digital and display advertising as we know it as consumers move away from experiences in which they can be interrupted. That’s in part because consumers are putting more trust in digital assistants to make decisions on their behalf, but, naturally, it’s also because US marketers wasted roughly…
Hacking. Disinformation. Surveillance. CYBER is Motherboard’s podcast and reporting on the dark underbelly of the internet. Tech companies have repeatedly reassured the public that trackers used to follow smartphone users through apps are anonymous or at least pseudonymous, not directly identifying the person using the phone. But what they don’t mention is that an…
James Rosewell could see his company’s future was in jeopardy. It was January 2020, and Google had just announced key details of its plan to increase privacy in its Chrome browser by getting rid of third-party cookies and essentially breaking the tools that businesses use to track people across the web. That includes businesses like…
Jeff Bezos and Richard Branson are choosing a terrible time to leave Earth. Getty; The Atlantic Dear billionaires, no one cares whom you beat to space. After Jeff Bezos, the world’s richest person, announced that he would join the first crewed flight by his rocket company, Blue Origin, later this month, Richard Branson just couldn’t…
Camille Stevens-Rumann never used to worry about seeing dead trees. As a wildland firefighter in the American west, she encountered untold numbers killed in blazes she helped to extinguish. She knew fires are integral to forests in this part of the world; they prune out smaller trees, giving room to the rest and even help…
Along the way, adult zingers were edited out, Jennifer Coolidge struggled with the “bend and snap” and the ending was changed at least three times. Behind the scenes of “Legally Blonde” with Reese Witherspoon, left, the screenwriter Karen McCullah and the cast members Selma Blair and Meredith Scott Lynn.Credit…Karen McCullah July 8, 2021 In 2001,…
OK, guys — we’re going to the underworld,” says Gerardo Medina, a swashbuckling guide with a loose ponytail and a silver eyebrow ring. “But first we have to make our way through paradise.” It’s a bright, sweltering day off the dusty main road of Tulum, Mexico. Medina has led our small group to the…
The Pop Music You Listen to Really Does Matter The story of Dr. Luke and Doja Cat shows how the industry relies on consumer passivity. But audiences can still stand against alleged abusers. Kevin Mazur / Getty; Tommaso Boddi / WireImage / Getty; The Atlantic Eras of music are commonly defined by particular sounds. The…