With Producer Sam pulling double-duty this week, we get into a lot, including:
Why Wirecutter recommends the ugliest products
How the killing of ICU nurse Alex Pretti by CBP in broad daylight has unleashed a huge, mainstream wave of hating ICE
A quick review of Bari Weiss’ “bold” new vision for CBS News and her announced lineup of wacko contributors
Tony Dokoupil interviewing his mom
A sidebar about how maybe TV news is bad for democracy
Jeff Bezos’ gutting the Washington Post the same week as the Melania Trump documentary insta-flopped
And in our extended episode available only to subscribers, we reminisce, gossip, and reopen deep traumatic wounds about working at Fusion and digital media in the 2010s
This week’s cultural recommendations:
Jack tried to watch Guillermo del Toro’s Frankenstein but ended up watching Rich Peppiatt’s Kneecap, about the eponymous Irish hip-hop trio, instead
Sam recommends season five of Broad City and acknowledges the existence of Harry Styles’ new song “Aperture” and Hilary Duff’s return to music
Aleks recommends subscribing to Consumer Reports over Wirecutter and the podcast Bandsplain, especially its recent episode about Portishead
Want to hear the full, extended episode on your preferred podcast app? First subscribe to Discourse Blog here. Then, follow these instructions:
Spotify: Tap the “Play” button and select “Link Account” to sync your Substack subscription and unlock it instantly.
Apple Podcasts & Others: Go to Settings in Substack > select Discourse Blog > scroll to the “private podcast feed” section > select “set up podcast” > then copy and paste the link it generates into your preferred app.
That’s it!
