I am graciously returning to your inbox after a few weeks off. I’ve finished my finals, I’m a license drone pilot, I’ve got a few more WIRED bylines to my name and I’m ready for SUMMER!!
Sarah Hills was worried about her heart.
Is All of This Self-Monitoring Making Us Paranoid? // Madison Malone Kircher // The New York Times
I recently went on a trip with a friend with an Oura ring and it drove me nuts. Now I see them on every hand I glance at… read this piece about why monitoring every biometric every minute of the day actually might not be good for the brain.
You wouldn’t exactly call it understated.
Jony Ive and OpenAI Make a Long-Shot Bet to Kill the iPhone // Dave Lee // Bloomberg
The first time I saw a computer was in 1984. I was fifteen years old and living in a sparsely populated area near a river, miles away from the closest town, in a far-northern country at the very edge of the world.
The Reenchanted World // Karl Ove Knausgaard // Harpers
I’ll admit it: A Capital One café caught my eye in February last year after its grand opening in the lacuna of a shuttered Victoria’s Secret at 2 Herald Square, its chamfered corner windows, breezy blue-and-blonde color story, and tambour accents standing out from a muddle of drab retail storefronts.
That’s That Cheap Espresso // Sophie van Well Groeneveld // NYRA
Girl they’re about to sell your [redacted] to Blackrock
Tweet in response to OnlyFans $8 billion valuation
47% of people between the ages of 16 and 21 would prefer to be young in a world with no internet.
In the next year I really want to write more about people logging off. Jael’s amazing piece about the school of radical attention, the NYTimes luddite club, and my friends switching to flip phones are all inspiration… how do you log off in a world that makes it so hard to do so (is it even possible!)?
According to some interpretations of Vedic cosmology, our solar system has reached its fourth and final age.
Impossible Familiar: On Julia Kornberg’s “Berlin Atomized” // Greta Rainbow // Cleveland Review of Books
I love this book!! Also deeming Greta the queen of the lede honestly, here’s another good piece out this week about alt lit.
Ten days after I called off my engagement I was supposed to go on a scientific expedition to study the whooping crane on the gulf coast of Texas.
The Crane Wife // CJ Hauser // The Paris Reivew
Friends—I come to you with a plea.
<3 thank you for this piece, Sam <3
As US president Donald Trump left the stage at his golf club near Washington, DC, on Thursday night, he pointed to the crowd, brought his index finger to his temple—as if to say: You know what’s coming—then began to dance. To the beat of “Y.M.C.A” by The Village People, Trump shimmied, gyrated, and pumped his arms above his head.
A Helicopter, Halibut, and ‘Y.M.C.A’: Inside Donald Trump’s Memecoin Dinner // WIRED // Joel Khalili
I spent my last two weeks at WIRED writing three stories with Joel about the Trump memecoin dinner. It honestly made me crazy but I’m better off for it. Please let me talk to you about $TRUMP at parties.
I hope you missed ‘first word’ in your inbox! Expect her more regularly going forward this summer. As a treat for staying with me here’s a list of places to “work remotely” from this summer or enjoy on your days off outside.
The skatepark.
I am partial to the Red Hook skatepark or Golconda Skate Park
NYC Public Pools!
This is tough because you can’t have your phone but also yay you can’t have your phone. Pools are open 11am - 7pm and will open for the season open for the season on Friday, June 27.
Radio Bakery line
Coffeeshop backyard that’s open late
A bunch of my favs are by my old apartment: Peck’s, Brooklyn Kolache, PHiL cafe, Clementine, Café Calaca, Polly’s Cafe, R&D foods
Wine bar open early
Prima, dear friend books (no laptops), Whoopsie Daisy, Izzy Rose
Climbing gym
Technically not outside but you are moving your body.
The beach!
Coney Island, pop into the Coney Island Starbucks if you need a bathroom or wifi (literally the nicest Starbucks in the city)
The ferry to the beach!
Rockaway Rocket/Reserve starts back up on Memorial Day. I <3 Brothers in Rockaway for a good smoothie.
Baseball game
Mets day time game >
Friend’s backyard or roof
If you are 🙏 blessed with outdoor space in the city you should be sharing and hosting, period!
Go to the Red Hook skatepark and get candy before at BonBon and you will be living a 13 year old’s dreams at 26.
As always send me your fav first sentences and I’ll include them in the newsletter.
Stay cool,
pg