A new podcast from The Financial Times. The first two episodes take you back to the early days of the web, and a German engineer’s rise to the «Darth Vader of Porn». The podcast promises to reveal the shadowy financial and power structures of the porn industry — and if those first two episodes are any indication, it will be worth your time.

An excellent in-depth report on gender confirmation surgery and how Thailand became a top destination for it. Its success is a symptom of Western failure.

Who knew that Helsinki’s main bus station can tell you the secret to a creatively fulfilling career? The way it operates is a powerful metaphor: Don’t be disheartened if it feels like you’re following everyone else’s path rather than being original and creative. The key is simple: «Stay on the bus. Stay on the fucking bus.» (If you like the column, you might also like the author’s book «Four Thousand Weeks», which happens to be among the books that make readers of the Weekly Filet feel hopeful)

The next wave might be picking up force, but in public awareness, Covid keeps fading. I’m reminded of the saying that pandemics end when people stop caring. This piece from The Atlantic serves as a good reminder of where we stand and what lies ahead. (The title is a nod to a piece from early 2020 that changed how I saw Covid)

I’m sure you know the photograph. A naked girl, running from a napalm strike, screaming. That was 50 years ago, during the Vietnam War, Kim Phuc Phan Thi was 9 years old (If you’re interested in more background on how the iconic image came to be, I recommend this thread). Today, in an essay in The New York Times, she reflects on how that photograph changed her life. Drawing from her own experience, she makes the case for publishing images from school shootings: «We must face this violence head-on, and the first step is to look at it.»

You’ve probably seen a couple examples of this (if not, you’re in for a treat): Artificial Intelligence is now able to create images based on a simple text prompt (say, «An elephant watching Netflix in a hotel room, in the style of Edward Hopper»). This excellent video explains how it all works, and what new questions this technology raises.

A simple question, an interesting imagined reality: «What would happen if people across the world suddenly stopped flying completely?» (Also good to keep in mind that for most people, not flying — let alone regularly and across continents — is already the reality. Just 11% of the global population took a flight in 2018.)

A short conversation, rich in insights with director Ava DuVernay (Selma, When They See Us). On leadership, on storytelling, on knowing when to say «I don’t know», and on why you shouldn’t ask children what they want to be when they grow up.

Alex Steffen is one of my favourite writers for making sense of the climate crisis. In this powerful essay, he addresses a fundamental issue we humans face with the climate crisis: «We’re trying to understand an unprecedented future with the worldviews of an older age, formed on a different planet.» It reminded me of one of my favourite quotes, by Paul Graham: «When experts are wrong, it’s often because they’re experts on an earlier version of the world.» With the climate crisis, it’s not just about the experts, but all of us. One particularly trenchant phase that will stick with me: «persistent nostalgia for the future we thought we had». The climate crisis, among many other things, is a narrative challenge.

Anne Applebaum’s reminder to everyone who thinks that the war in Ukraine can be ended if only Putin is offered some sort of face-saving off-ramp. This belief, she argues, is based on two false assumptions: 1. That Putin wants to end the war, that he needs an off-ramp. 2. That Russia, even if it were to begin negotiating, would stick to the agreements it signed. Her conclusion: «The only solution that offers some hope of long-term stability in Europe is rapid defeat.» ‌