What's Not the News: May 14
Welcome back to Not the News. Two important announcements before the content you’ve all come to expect/love:
“Stronger Together” is this Sunday at 12:30 pm EST. You get to hear from your fellow Excelers about the remarkable initiatives they’ve started in response to the coronavirus pandemic. This is really our community at its best. Register here.
(This event is so important we’re spotlighting it in a newsletter whose sole raison d'être is not to talk about the coronavirus.)
Join the Excel Slack! We’re planning to use Donut to make it even easier to connect with Excelers you haven’t met before.
OK, back to the main event.
Read
Society Needs Healthy Cities
Density is good. Cities are the most environmentally friendly way to live, and at their best they’re unrivaled engines of opportunity, innovation, and tolerance.
The problem, says the New York Times’s Editorial Board, is that each American city is two cities: rich and poor. There is an amazing amount of social potential lost because of inequality.
Even in cities where the rich and poor continue to live under the same local government, economic segregation saps political support for common, egalitarian infrastructure. Rich New Yorkers donate generously to beautify Central Park while resisting the taxation necessary to maintain parks in neighborhoods they never visit.
Progress ultimately requires the consent of the governed: Economic segregation is getting worse because Americans with wealth and power don’t want to help Americans without wealth and power.
That’s really it, at the end of the day. If there’s one thing we’re learning right now, it’s the value of sacrificing just a little for the benefit of people you don’t know.
Wait, So What’s the Point of Offices?
When something is pervasive, it can be hard to remember it hasn’t always been here, or that it doesn’t have to exist. Remember those articles we sent a few weeks ago about the nuclear family and monogamous relationships?
The office is the same. (Not The Office, which I can’t remember a time without.) Literally from the very beginning people were complaining about it. And it doesn’t seem work all that well for today’s working parents.
So, what’s the point of offices anyway? After a tour through history, 1843 Magazine gets to this point:
We are realising that the pretence of an orderly life at the office is also a liberation. Putting on a perfectly ironed silk shirt or a crisp suit and leaving the house may be contrived but it is also, says Kellaway, “one of the beauties of working life...It allows us to be a different person.
It’s all a little flowery, but if you want to take a critical look at the way you work, this is a good place to start.
Wait, but Why?
Something a little different for our third recommendation this week. (Dare I say, innovative?) Not one interesting thinkpiece, but one website with a ton of unique articles.
It’s Wait, but Why, a site with long-form posts about all sorts of interesting topics from why we procrastinate to why we haven’t yet encountered alien life forms. It has become fairly popular and even caught the attention of everyone’s favorite oddball Elon Musk, resulting in a series of posts.
Start with the light and casual topics of “How to Pick a Career (That Actually Fits You)” or “How to Pick your Life Partner (Part 1).” (We know stories about love are hits around here.)
Watch
Conan Without Borders (Netflix)
We’re talking about the Israel Episode in particular. This started as a classic Jewish-mother recommendation to watch Conan O’Brien’s travel series when he goes to Israel. Surprisingly, I genuinely enjoyed it. O’Brien says his mission is “to try and make some people laugh and in the process alienate everyone.” Relatable.
Bojack Horseman (Netflix)
Oh man, where to begin here. So, you’ll look at the thumbnail and think it’s just an adult cartoon with anthropomorphic animals. No other show manages to be as silly, serious, nuanced, and dramatic at the same time. S1 is good. Other seasons are stellar.
Listen
Caliphate
Follows NYT reporter Rukmini Callimachi as she reports on the Islamic State and the fall of Mosul. A chilling and rare expose on the Islamic State—start from the beginning and prepare to not want to stop listening.
Freakonomics
Expert- and data-driven analysis of issues you’re interested and issues you’ve never thought about, from the business of sports to the war on sugar to why crime is at historic lows.
Start with: Abortion and Crime, Revisited
Cook
Sheet Pan Nachos
On the long list of things I’m missing during SIP, one unsung hero is the experience of late-night post-bar food. In San Francisco, my personal favorite is a heaping plate of nachos.
Horchata
I’ve wanted to make this ever since I heard that Vampire Weekend song. (Me writing this: “What was it called? [Googles it] Oh right, “Horchata.”) It’s only been 10 years.
xoxo, Not the News
—Charlie & Meital