Mar 5, 2024 2 min read

You Should Read - Mar 5

Just One Thing

What Is Politics is may be my single most favorite YouTube channel, at last of the moment. The host is a lawyer, anthropologist, and anarchist and weaves gripping explanations of a wide range of concepts, all grounded in simple to understand but unusual definitions of common political concepts.

After a long silence, this week he dropped a 2-hour+ backgrounder on the conflict in Palestine, with usual bombast and insight. "My presentation will surely disappoint everyone...because it's sympathetic to both narratives and I genuinely am sympathetic to both narratives even if I know that they're both full of shit in so many ways."

Collected Ephemera

BBC The 'Banned' Star Trek Episode That Promised a United Ireland: When sci-fi writer Melinda M Snodgrass sat down to write Star Trek episode "The High Ground", she had little idea of the unexpected ripples of controversy it would still be making more than three decades later.

GQ Is Dr. Bronner’s the Last Corporation With a Soul?: It started as a kooky soap company with a counterculture ethos. Today, the family-run business is an unlikely juggernaut and one of the most outspoken companies in America. Here’s how Dr. Bronner’s is rewriting the playbook for corporate success by doubling down on its vibey values.

Amber Case Inside the Very Human Origin of the Term “Artificial Intelligence” — And Its Seven Decade Boom/Bust Cycle: Now nearly 70 years old, “artificial intelligence” was actually first coined due to the most uniquely human of motives: Ego and competitiveness.

McGill University Small Dietary Changes Can Cut Your Carbon Footprint by 25%: McGill researchers find evidence that partially replacing red and processed meat with plant protein foods can increase lifespan and mitigate climate change.

Washington Post A Socialist Writer Skewered the Formula One Scene. Then Her Article Vanished: Editors for Road & Track aren't saying why they yanked Kate Wagner's story from the website shortly after it published. (The article in question.)

Quartz Paul Graham Has Accidentally Explained Everything Wrong With Silicon Valley’s World View: from 2016, but sadly, urgently, still relevant. Probably even more so, now.

The Wabbit Hole