The tech billionaires are missing the point of their favorite sci-fi series
Much ink has been spilled, at Vox and elsewhere, about the broligarchs — the tech billionaires whose influence on all our lives cannot be understated. This piece from Constance Grady provides a novel look at their ideology via a close read of the science fiction books beloved by Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, and Mark Zuckerberg.
🎧 My colleague, the scammer
We seem to live in a golden age of scams, but this one was new to me: Thanks to remote work, American companies are unwittingly hiring North Korean operatives. These agents are funneling their salaries back to the North Korean regime, and also stealing information from the US. Today, Explained walks us through this truly wild tale.
How switching to a flip phone deepened my friendships
My dependence on my iPhone is…extreme. I imagine most readers of this newsletter feel the same way! I love how easily it connects me to my friends and family; I hate how much time I spend mindlessly scrolling on it. Izzie Ramirez tried out a flip phone for (almost) a month, and while she’s convinced me of its merits, she also lays out a good case for why it’s probably not a product I could return to after nearly 20 years of smartphoning.
Christian nationalists decided empathy is a sin. Now it’s gone mainstream.
I certainly never thought the concept of empathy — that is, understanding someone else’s feelings — would become a hot-button issue. And yet! Here we are. Many confounding ideas have been making their way through our very broken information ecosystem lately. This one, explained by Aja Romano, might just leave you reeling.
🎧 The man who walked butterflies on a leash
Did you know that static electricity is likely super important to the insect world? And that one way scientists are learning about this is by putting butterflies on leashes? This fanciful fact is brought to you by the always thought-provoking Unexplainable podcast, and Vox correspondent Benji Jones, whose stories about animals constantly blow my mind.
Are Democrats fumbling a golden opportunity?
One way to look at our current political situation, as per Christian Paz, is that we’re dealing with “a broadly unpopular president and two unpopular parties.” Reading about why, and also where Dems in particular can go from here, really helped me get a handle on an especially mushy period when the midterms are still quite far off.
