If you read one thing this week, make it this powerful piece by Paras Shah, who writes honestly about how it isn’t their disability that holds them back; it’s the rest of the world (“I don’t always use a cane but, when I do, people also make decisions for me. They decide which subway train to guide me toward, which menu options to read, and which of my everyday tasks – from opening a door to using my phone – are ‘inspiring’.”)
It’s official: Chaining yourself to a tree is out, and throwing mashed potato on a Monet is in. We’re all for climate action, but we’re not alone in wondering how defacing famous artwork dissuades people from burning fossil fuels. There’s even a bizarre conspiracy theory circling that it’s all a plot by the oil lobby to pit people against climate activists
What are your core values? (there’s real gold in the comments)
No one writes more brilliantly on the manufacture of celebrity than Anne Helen Petersen and this compelling deep dive into how and why the allegations against Brad Pitt have barely affected him while Angelina Jolie’s reputation has unfairly suffered is a wild read from start to finish
This piece by Honor Jones in the Atlantic on the radical romance of motherhood, and how it changed the way she sees every other relationship will rip your heart open ("Children are supposed to make divorce much harder. For me, they made it easier.")
A testament to finding middle ground and commonalities with others rather than focusing on your differences – even with people you loathe
How to survive wedding season
If you love real estate (esp Zillow) you’ll love this game
In tech news: Bruce Willis saw himself in an ad he didn’t act in and it poses the question “What do deepfakes mean for identity rights?”, YouTube has a new look, LinkedIn is cracking down on dodgy accounts, WhatsApp and iMessage both went down this week, Tinder has launched a new app just for uni students, Zuck’s metaverse is haemorrhaging money (and we’re not surprised), Apple’s iOS 16.1 is set to cost Facebook some BIG bucks, Bono has (finally) taken responsibility for forcing us to listen to *that* U2 album in 2014, and Shutterstock will soon start selling AI-generated stock imagery
We may be biassed but the only thing we agree with in this NY Times article that asks “Is the newsletter bubble about to pop?” is the bit at the end that says it’s not the end of peak newsletter; only the end of weak newsletters
Azar Nafisi, author of Reading Lolita in Tehran, explains the two things that have happened in Iran in order for the country to reach a new turning point after a month of protests
Zoe Foster Blake and Hamish Blake’s subdued, minimalist home (lol) is in Vogue Living this month and it’s… a lot
Self-professed girly girl Caroline Reilly on the resurgence of noughties hyperfemininity (“There’s a profound joy in watching women 10 or so years younger than me embracing all the fun and feminine indulgences of my youth without the toxic baggage that led to so much self-loathing and harm.”)
Aaaaaaaand fun n silly things from around the web… this ant’s face will live in our nightmares forevermore, 16 things that lasted longer than Liz Truss’ prime ministership, our fave take on that sexy baby lyric, every Easter egg in Taylor Swift’s Bejewelled music vid, why guys who go to therapy are super hot, you have no idea how chalant we are, an extremely accurate depiction of what it’s like to cook in a sharehouse, we want to know everything everywhere all at once, adult life be like, when the girls Whatsapp group tries to arrange a drink, the girl who thinks she’s one of the boys, David Attenborough delivered the best one-liner on Twitter this week, Taylor Swift can name an alarming number of cat breeds in 30 seconds, this is genius, meet the new Real Housewife of Great Britain, and the Succession season 4 teaser trailer is here !!!!!!
