Real (weird) news
Has All The Water On Earth Been Peed Before? Likely yes. Drink up.
Minnesota Woman Rescued After Being Trapped In A Mud Pit For Days Truly a testament to the human spirit. Or a cautionary tale about Minnesota.
Botched Restoration Gives Sacred Statue Bug Eyes The greatest art restoration disaster since that woman turned Jesus into a lion.
Police In Peru Dressed Up As World Cup Characters To Catch A Soccer-Loving Criminal An inspired drug raid or proof that the World Cup has officially broken everyone’s brain? Either way: got him.
A New Predator Is Moving Into Florida Swamps and It Hunts Humans. Florida looked around at its existing alligators, pythons, sharks, panthers, and hurricanes and decided the ecosystem was missing something: man-eating caimans.
Charges Dismissed For Woman With No Right Hand Accused Of Holding Her Phone While Driving Guess where this happened? Yup, Florida.
The Sun Is Going Through A Change And No One Knows Why Perimenopause?
Internet Traffic From Bots Passes Human Traffic On The Web For The First Time Bots now account for more than 57% of all web traffic. This crossover wasn’t supposed to happen until 2027. We are ahead of schedule on exactly one thing and it is this.
New Images From Space Show Nebula That Looks Like a A Crystal Ball She’s a dying star from 1,500 years ago.
As we make our way through summer, there will be less to recommend week to week, but I will always find you something. In the meantime, I read that people who spend two hours outdoors a week are healthier. That’s 17 minutes a day. You don’t have to frolic in a forest but go outside. Take a walk after dinner. Leave your phone at home. Commune with the world.
Then come back inside and watch television.
America’s Sweethearts: Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders (Netflix)
It has all the competition of sports, all the drama of a reality show, all the stakes of a talent competition. This season also has some real unexpected needledrop songs from The Chicks to Jesus Christ Superstar.
I Will Find You (Netflix)
Sam Worthington plays a man who spent five years in prison for killing his son, only for his ex-sister-in-law, played by Britt Lower from Severance, to show up with a photo that suggests the son may still be alive. It gets straight into it from the first minute, which I appreciate. No one has time for a slow-burn missing child conspiracy.
House of the Dragon Season 3 (HBOMax)
Back Sunday. I have not watched any of this season yet but I feel confident recommending it because the infamous “Dance of the Dragons” that happens this season was essentially spoiled in Game of Thrones when Joffrey takes his tour of the dragon skulls. By the way, in that same scene, he spoils what happens to Egg from Knight of the Seven Kingdoms when he grows up. I am cursed to retain useless information to the direct detriment of information relevant to my actual life. Don’t watch that link if you don’t want to know.
The Agency Season 2 (Paramount+)
Back for Season 2, and all 10 episodes drop Sunday. If you have not started this yet, now is a good time to catch up. Michael Fassbender, Jeffrey Wright, Jodie Turner-Smith, Katherine Waterston, Richard Gere, international espionage, emotional withholding, well-fitting clothes.
Next Gen NYC Season 2 (Bravo/Peacock)
The children of Bravo celebrities are back in New York City, where they will bravely attempt to build careers, maintain friendships, and start fights in restaurants.
The Bear (Hulu) Season 4
Stress, sandwiches, grief, yelling, Chicago, Jamie Lee Curtis, perfect needle drops, men in white T-shirts, and people saying “chef.” Still great.
Teach You a Lesson (Netflix)
A Korean drama about a government bureau that sends unconventional inspectors into schools where teacher authority has completely collapsed. They are authorized to use physical intervention and very unorthodox methods to restore order. It sounds unhinged and it is, slightly, but the action is good. If you liked Taxi Driver (the Korean one), same energy.
Grantchester Season 11. Final Season (PBS)
Eleven seasons in, Grantchester remains one of television’s great soft mysteries: murder, longing, bicycles, handsome vicars, emotionally repressed detectives, and the kind of English village where everyone looks like they own one good cardigan and three secrets.
Love It Or List It (HGTV/HBOMax+)
The perfect background show. Homeowners are visited by two experts, one presents a renovation plan for their current house, one shows them what they could buy and move to instead. Then they decide. It is simple. It is addictive. It has been on for fifteen seasons because the premise is undefeatable.
NOW, DOCS
All week people have been asking about Maternal Instinct (Netflix), which I recommended last week and which is now #1. Watch it. And while you’re at it watch The Crash.
Big Girls Wanted: Escaping Pearadise (HBOMax)
No gruesome murder. Just a creepy man possibly running a cult of plus-size women. There’s a good hot mic moment at the end.
STILL WATCHING
Cape Fear (Apple TV+)
I love that Apple has decided to give us one of these 90s thriller reboots every summer. Last summer was Presumed Innocent, now Cape Fear. I hope they do Primal Fear next. Or Fatal Attraction. Anyway, there’s a great surprise cameo.
Love Island USA (Peacock)
The best thing coming out of this season are the Corbin impressions. Can I get a kiss?
Love Island UK (Hulu)
Meanwhile, over in UK Love Island, Jasmine might dismantle the entire system from inside the villa. Can the show survive her? I don’t know but I need to find out.
FINALE
Not Suitable For Work The final 2 episodes of the Mindy Kaling workplace comedy
☝️ IF YOU CAN ONLY WATCH ONE
Cape Fear. Have you seen the new Valentino collection from Alessandro Michele (formerly of Gucci) and the shirts that say “Villain Teen”? Perfect for creepy Nevaeh.
WATCH PLAN
Weekend Cape Fear. World Cup
Sunday: House of the Dragon, The Agency
Monday: RHORI Reunion
Tuesday: Not Suitable For Work Finale
Wednesday: Next Gen NYC
Thursday: The Bear
IN THEATERS
Toy Story 5 (Disney/Pixar)
You can’t abandon Woody and Buzz and Jessie now! Not when they’re facing their biggest villain yet: brainrot. The toys aren’t just fighting to be played with this time, they’re fighting for the concept of physical play itself. Bonnie has received a smart tablet named Lilypad, and Woody, Buzz, Jessie and the rest of the gang have to go head to head with it. It’s a Pixar movie about the attention economy, which sounds like a lot, but Pixar has always done this, made something for the kids on the surface and for adults underneath. You’re going to cry.
STREAMING
Project Hail Mary (MGM+)
This is one of the best movies of the year. You’ll love it. And while you’re on MGM+, watch From.
Voicemails for Isabelle (Netflix)
An aspiring chef loses her sister and best friend suddenly, and copes by continuing to call her sister’s number and leave voicemails as if she’s still alive. But the number has been reassigned to a stranger who is charmed by the messages. What do you call a sad rom-com? This.
Two more reasons to read, if you need them:
1. research shows maintaining a reading habit increases your lifespan and
2. people who set aside time to read regularly come away feeling calmer and happier.
I am not above using science to make you do things.
The Unselected Journals of Emma M. Lion by Beth Brower
A completely word-of-mouth phenomenon that has been building for years and is now everywhere. An eight-volume series set in 1883 London, following the incorrigible Emma M. Lion, a witty, opinionated lady armed with a dry amusement at everything around her. This is the book equivalent of a show you discover and consume in one weekend and then tell everyone you know about.
Stoner by John Williams
You know who has genuinely good book recommendations and gets almost no credit for it? Comedian Anthony Jeselnik. He’s been doing weekly book recs under #NewBookTuesday for years and recently launched a more formal monthly book club specifically to get more people (and more men) reading fiction. His current pick is Stoner, which he calls his most consistently successful recommendation of all time and possibly the Great American Novel. Not no.
TIK TALK
Aeropickles Every once in a while a completely non-sensical delight emerges. In this case, a group of animated pickled vegetables doing aerobics. Have I done this routine multiple times since seeing this? Yes.
NUN MAXXING Nuns are having a moment. There are the Spurs Nuns, who showed up courtside at playoff and Finals games in jerseys to pray for the team. There are NYC nuns who have become in-demand roommates, per a recent WSJ piece on young New Yorkers moving into convent boarding houses for affordable rent. And then there’s the Dominican Sisters Open Mic podcast, a show hosted by a group of Catholic sisters in Ann Arbor, Michigan, that has blown up on TikTok with millions of views. They’re so cute. Watch this clip. The second nun gives Reece from America’s Sweethearts.
WOW OK A trend that is essentially an acting challenge: saying the same phrase in different ways.
Seis Sete, another Brazilian funk dance challenge. It’s 67 in Portuguese. I don’t know.
ARTICLES
Mother F*cker Emily Ratajkowski on sex as a single Mom.
What the Hell Happened at Woofington’s? The drug raid, kidnapping, and armed burglary of a luxury dog spa. My favorite true crime story of the week.
My AI Boyfriend Lauren Oyler did a wonderful job on this story. Worth reading whether you’re curious or skeptical. Especially if you’re skeptical.
THINGS TO DO
Wiki Spy Online I Spy using Wikipedia images.
Who is the most evil Disney villain, according to the data?
THE WORLD CUP The US and Mexico are both officially advancing. Merlin the good luck duck and the dressed-up Baby Jesus delivered.
I cannot stop watching the content around this tournament. Lawrence, Kansas embracing Team Algeria. St. Louis welcoming Team Bosnia. This Bosnian song about disillusionment with the American dream has become a World Cup banger. Scots taking over Boston and trying out the viral cop slide. European minds being blown by football stadiums. The entire Azteca stadium in Mexico singing a Nigerian song. I cry watching these every single day.
Now let’s talk World Cup fashion, because we have to. The French team has a French designer handbag collection that could win a cup on its own. The team from Congo arrived wearing matching leopard like fashion warriors. The Haitian team, who you may remember had incredible Olympic uniforms, delivered again. And Team Spain in head-to-toe in Loewe. Fabulous.
F1 As I’ve mentioned here before, I love the show Drive to Survive so I’ve come to love F1. Lewis Hamilton won the Spanish Grand Prix for Ferrari, ending a 686-day victory drought and claiming his first win in Ferrari red. At 41, it makes him the oldest Grand Prix winner since Jack Brabham in 1970. During his rough first season with Ferrari, Hamilton admitted he began wondering “maybe it is true that when you get to a certain point, you lose it.” He has not lost it.
TENNIS Serena and Venus Williams will play doubles at Wimbledon.
Vice just published “The Rise and Fall of the Hipster Music Era, 2000-2014,” an investigation pegged to the ongoing online argument about who hipsters really were and what they listened to.
Maggie Rogers confessing to making out at the New York Times offices at 1am is the journalism/music content we needed this week.
Also: these NY Times Joe Caramanica Song of the Week videos stress me out. How are you doing this while driving in New York City? Content creation while driving should be treated the same as texting while driving. The woman in the Big News section got pulled over for having a phone in her hand when she didn’t even have a hand. Pull over! You’re going to hit someone discussing the evolution of bro country into a more sensitive era, and then what?
Dynamic pricing is real and it is being used on you. Everywhere.
If you haven’t heard: prices now change depending on who you are, where you are, and how many times you’ve searched for something. It is likely cheaper to buy airline tickets or groceries from another country, or a public library computer than from your home, even in incognito mode.
And according to a 2025 study which analyzed prices across 40 retailers every four hours for over a month, the least expensive day to shop online is Tuesday. The most expensive is Friday, with Saturday close behind. Retailers drop prices at the start of the week when demand is low and raise them as the weekend approaches.
So, in summary, shop on Tuesday. If you open Uber, open Lyft too, they’ll drop their prices. Ideally, shop from a public computer, or use a VPN, or hide somehow.
Also: This may be obvious to some of you, but I had no idea until recently that you can reach out to your local congressional representative to help you navigate government agencies. After five years of me trying to sort out a 2021 tax return that never arrived, their office solved it in a little over a month. Your representative isn’t just a name on a yard sign you see only in election season. They have contact forms on their websites. Use them!
How it feels to be alive right now
Buying a new bag won’t make you happy
First things first: the consensus is in. Guest Extremely Helpful entries are coming. More on that soon but we have to cut this week short because it’s already way late.
Back next week with more rabbit holes, food to eat, and things to buy.
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