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You know the version of me who lives by headlines and deadlines. But many of the stories I love talking about, don’t quite belong in the hard-news category: the disgraced public figure staging an improbable comeback, the surprise hit unnerving an entire industry, the baffling trend that somehow captures the moment.
So I’m making room for those conversations.
Think of this as a summer indulgence. It’ll run alongside, not replace, the usual coverage. Some of the subjects are serious. Some are deliciously trivial. Most reveal something about how we live now, and a few are simply fun to dish about.
For the first conversation, I called Candice Lim, formerly of Slate’s pop-culture podcast ICYMI. She now writes The Best and Worst Thing, a Substack that sorts through the week in culture. Candice notices things the rest of us are already absorbing but haven’t stopped to examine.
We discuss why Hunter Biden, of all people, is having a redemption summer and becoming an unlikely hero to parts of the younger internet. We puzzle over a horror film made for $700,000 by two guys who came up through YouTube, and whether they’re the future of moviemaking or just the next thing Hollywood will fail to replicate.
We also venture into darker territory: why some men choose violence rather than divorce, and what the manosphere may be teaching them about women, rejection and control.
Then we turn to a mystery in which the only apparent victim is proportion: we unpack the current state of women’s pants, which have reached dimensions best described as architectural.
You can also watch on YouTube here.
I had a genuinely good time. Listen and tell me whether you’d like more conversations like this.
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