The Sunday Digest
Everything we published this week
What We Published
This week’s output: 1 article + 3 podcasts
📝 ARTICLES 📝
Assessing Clubhouse’s Post-Pandemic Future
by Li Jin and Nathan Baschez in Means of Creation
This week's weekly news roundup begins with a look forward for Clubhouse, in wake of its "eventful week" (see below for more on that). How will it deal with competitors? Why did it enable tipping, and what problems might it encounter? Li and Nathan offer answers to all those questions—and more bits of news from the passion economy.
Read (8 minutes)
🎧 PODCASTS 🎧
#15 - Restful Writing
The Long Conversation with Rachel Jepsen
TLC went interactive this week, with an on-air writing prompt listeners can engage with alongside Rachel, Dan, Nathan and Taylor. The question? What is it like when your house is completely silent? Even if you don't have ten minutes to set aside for writing, the episode is worth a listen, as the panelists reflect on what it's like to write with a deeper connection to physical space as a foundation.
Listen (24 minutes)
#69 - Shadow Work & #70 - Nathan screwed up (an honest post-mortem)
Talk Therapy with Dan Shipper & Nathan Baschez
This week's conversations between cofounders complement each other perfectly. On Wednesday, Dan and Nathan took an invitation from a listener to discuss the Jungian concept of "Shadow Work"—and compare different therapy modalities along the way. Next, they found a way to put theory to work, discussing a recent blip in their working relationship in an extended episode that marks some of their most introspective podcasting yet.
Listen to #69 (16 minutes) & #70 (35 minutes)
Nat's Roam course gets an update
You may have seen an excerpt from Nat Eliason's "Oatly: The New Coke" making the Twitter rounds this week, but as usual, he's got more planned...including a fresh version of his course on how to mold note-taking tool Roam to your personal needs. Check it out...and stay tuned for more from Nat here, on the world of milk substitutes and seed oils...
What’s Going On
News you might have caught or missed this week.
Clubhouse
One day after it was revealed that Clubhouse was in discussions about a $4 Billion dollar valuation, another shocker about the social audio phenomenon made waves: Twitter had discussed acquiring the company for the same sum, only days earlier. While it's not entirely clear whether the valuation emerged from early discussions with Twitter—which have apparently already broken down—the duo of news items makes clear that Clubhouse has no plans to stop growing and making waves. Every's Nathan Baschez, for one, wasn't surprised about this development, given his year-old predictions for the platform:
More News:
- A Tiny Particle’s Wobble Could Upend the Known Laws of Physics
- Unpacking what Substack's VC funding round means for media
- How an offshore wind boom in the US could boost ocean research
What We’re Reading
Our favorite writing from beyond Every
The Real Moms of TikTok
TikTok has become the emblematic social media tool for a generation of young people. But what about those further down the age spectrum? Zara Stone at OneZero has a fascinating, and moving, look at "the growing number of midlifers"—particularly women—who have found TikTok as a place to express themselves and find an online community. Stone makes clear how the app appeals to viewers and posters over the age of 40 where others have not, citing TikTok's algorithm as the ideal audience-finding for a generation that wasn't raised on the practice. It's an important piece on a swath of users that are often left out of positive social-media conversations.
More Reads:
- The Mythology of Red Bull (The Generalist)
- The WeWork Documentary Explores a Decade of Delusion (The New Yorker)
- Behind the Scenes of a 5,000 Word Draft (Culture Study)
Culture Corner
What to read, watch, play and listen to—according to our staff
Rachel Jepsen: "I recommend getting yourself a copy of Kink, a 2021 story anthology compiled by R.O. Kwon and Garth Greenwell. The Long Conversation listeners will recognize at least a couple of the amazing writers on the roster—Alexander Chee and Carmen Maria Machado, alongside others like Roxane Gay, Brandon Taylor, and Chris Kraus. Truthfully, some of these stories fail to hit the mark for me by staying on the surface of the central concept, which I think is anyway far too narrowly defined. But the book as a whole is extraordinarily compelling, its true voices exploring a variety of experiences of desire, love, joy, sex, loss, and also, in the case of Greenwell's incredible contribution, violation. Greenwell is the author of 2016's gorgeous novella What Belongs to You and last year's novel Cleanness, which is set in Bulgaria and explores the memories of intimate encounters and relationships of an American teacher as he prepares to leave. Now that book is a triumph all the way through."
Tweet of the Week
🎊 Congrats, Andy! 🎊
An Invitation to Every
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