The Present Age Weekly Recap: February 11, 2022
Spotify, Rogan, toilets, and a whole lot more.
Welcome to the weekly recap. In this post, I’ll be linking to my work from the week, sharing some stories from others I thought were interesting, and providing a few casual thoughts on [gestures at everything]. If you’d like to receive this weekly email ONLY, please go to your account page and under “Email notifications” uncheck every box except “TPA Weekly Recap.” If you don’t want to receive the weekly recap, leave all boxes except “TPA Weekly Recap” checked.
Spotify, clogged toilets, and more!
On Tuesday, I wrote about the type of predictable conundrum a company might find itself in after shelling out a reported $100 million for the exclusive licensing rights to The Joe Rogan Experience. I’m pretty happy with how this piece turned out, and I hope you enjoy it, as well:
Then, on Thursday, I woke up irritated by yet another example of a U.S. political journalist saving juicy scoops for future books rather than reporting them out whenever they first learned the info. In this case, it was New York Times reporter Maggie Haberman and a story about Trump flushing pieces of printed paper down the White House toilet.
I’ve got some pieces in progress for next week (I’m hoping to send out 4 newsletters with at least a couple of them being for paid subscribers). Stay tuned for that!
Posts from others that I want to draw attention to:
Over at Lucid, Ruth Ben-Ghiat has an interview with Badiucao, the Chinese political artist whose reimagined Olympic posters have been making the rounds on social media over the past couple of weeks. Definitely worth a read!
Over at Adam Johnson’s The Column, he’s got a piece breaking down the racist “crack pipe” attack on Health & Human Services’ harm-reduction program. As Johnson writes, “This is how humane policy dies.”
The always wonderful Michael Hobbes has a post (and video!) about cancel culture. Absolutely be sure to subscribe. He doesn’t post super often, but when he does, it’s a must-read.
Good dude and fellow Cubs fan Nick Offerman started a newsletter this week called Donkey Thoughts. His recent book, Where the Deer and the Antelope Play, is a great read, as well!
And finally, Washington Post opinions writer Rana Ayyub has a piece discussing her experience being targeted in an online pile-on and how journalism schools need to do more to prepare aspiring writers for the intensity of such an experience.
That’s it for this week! Please leave any questions, comments, feedback, or recommendations (definitely recommendations) in the comments below. Have a good weekend, everyone!
This disclaimer was inspired by Ty Burr’s Watch List.