Concerned by journalism’s decline and the déjà vu discourse around it? This week, I recap a year of meta media headlines and connect that to the psychological toll of watching your industry collapse. It’s also a meditation on a magazine that taught me the business, which just died without a word.
I first began using an Apple Watch to track my sleep. My watch told me I wasn't sleeping enough. It also alerted me that my heart rate was elevated when I would run to catch a train. Then I stopped wearing it. What happened next?
Every year, freelance journalism pays less. A typical gig today pays 80% less than the same assignment in 2001. It is no longer a sustainable career. It is, more often, a side-hustle, or the domain of the rich. But in the ashes, we have an opportunity to build a different kind of writing career.
Your TL;DR Briefing on things worth tracking — and talking about over your next power lunch. This time the thing is the pattern of corporate, venture-backed and billionaire-owned media censoring the very voices we need right now. (And some ✨personal news ✨.)
*By which I mean, this anthology from the Lambda Literary Award-winning Girl Dad Press is a flirty, fun time. Tuck Woodstock and Niko Stratis join us to talk about which “Sex and the City” characters should transition, the importance of silliness and how independent publishing will destroy you.
Getting too many newsletters? You're not alone. But rather than giving you a good reason to add another to your inbox, this newsletter writer lets you pay them and not receive any of their newsletters. Is this the future of media?
Correction: I have actually been sick in bed for three days *not* reading, writing or even thinking about newsletters. Hence, I am publishing, gulps, a Best of ESC KEY .CO listicle, optimized for pity shares on social media — or something like that.
Your TL;DR Briefing on things worth tracking — and talking about over your next power lunch. *Wink.* This time the thing is absurd: Edelman profits on fossil fuel cash while representing U.N. climate talks in Brazil, as revealed in Clean Creatives' research into Big Oil in the creative industries.
The day after our resident street photographer landed in Portland, Oregon, the President of the United States declared it a "war zone," intending to send in troops following absurd occupations in D.C. and Chicago. But a long walk in Northeast revealed the vibe on the street was, well, not that.
This London Fashion Week has been a dazzling display of global design talent in the U.K. capital. Emerging designers turned heads. There was that upcycled parachute gown. And street style for days. But this recap is about an anxiety attack I had. Before the one show that, ultimately, gave me chills.
Between “The AI Con” book tour and marking three years of her “accidental” hit podcast, she still has time for Power Lunch. The director of research at DAIR — and ex-senior research scientist at Google — talks “AGI” silliness, the power of imagining possible futures and, of course, roller derby.
Your TL;DR Briefing on things worth tracking — and talking about over your next power lunch. *Wink.* This time the thing is the Back Indie Media Drive, Project C’s newsletter merger and the new new media ecosystem emerging beyond Substack’s walled garden.