In Case You Missed It ‼️

Neighbors,

Towards the end of last year, I recorded several reader interviews. One piece of feedback I heard multiple times? More roundups.

We all lead busy lives, so if you missed our last four Sunday sends, here’s your chance to catch up.

Happy reading! And scroll down for a quick Five Things I Think (I Think).

— NGL

P.S. Last letter, we reviewed CHUPPL’s latest investigation—spotlighting the cybercrime conspiracy behind the world’s biggest YouTube network. You can read it here.

1️⃣ I think Sam Altman bought “TBPN” as a narrative injection that’s destined to fail. For roughly a week (a lifetime in media), it felt like the entire tech and tech-adjacent community were talking about OpenAI’s nine-figure acquisition of a…niche business podcast. And over that week, when the topic comes up in conversation, I’d say roughly eighty percent of people I’ve talked to have no idea what “TBPN” is.

I don’t buy the notion that the audience co-hosts John Coogan and Jordi Hays have built is that valuable—or relevant, to be quite honest. Sure, B2B media is the ever-reliable profit center of the industry, given the pitch of reaching high-level decision-makers plays well with advertisers.

But OpenAI needs to convince the general public of its supposed good intentions, not CEOs. As income inequality reaches record highs, maybe “B2B Media” is simply evolving, earning a new title under late-stage capitalism: “Oligarch Media.”1

At the end of the day, though, hats off to Coogan and Hays. They can just leave in two years and literally do the same exact thing, all over again.

2️⃣ I think out of everything Ronan Farrow wrote in his Sam Altman exposé, one New Year’s Eve party stood out the most. Speaking of Altman, I’m half-convinced that the “TBPN” move happened on a whim, given Farrow—the journalist whose reporting helped kick off the “Me Too” movement—published his eighteen-month investigation into Altman just five days after the podcast acquisition.2

At any rate, I highly recommend reading Farrow’s story in The New Yorker, which is packed with salacious details regarding the AI kingpin who very well may control our future. On anecdote that gave me a chuckle due to its sheer ridiculousness: Altman and his pals hosting a “Survivor”-themed fest, with games based on the reality show to boot.

The night’s special guest? Long-running “Survivor” host Jeff Probst.

3️⃣ I think “cancel culture” has never been a real thing. And buying an ad in The Wall Street Journal is certainly not “atonement.”

Just fourteen months ago, Kanye West bought a Super Bowl commercial to sell blank white shirts with swastikas prominently featured on them—the one symbol so universally synonymous with bad guys that when the Call of Duty franchise introduced its popular “Zombies” mode in 2008, the zombies you fought were also Nazis.

Now, reports say Kanye grossed thirty-three million dollars from selling out two shows at SoFi. The ultimate “art vs. the artist” litmus text played out in real time, and our country responed with a resounding statement: cancel culture isn’t real.

4️⃣ I think that chasing rare quality over consistency “still creates distinction in the mind of the viewer.” Shouts to our neighbor, Jamie Nicholson, for referencing us in her latest post, “I Tried to Outsmart the Guy Who Invested $100M into Dude Perfect.” You can read it here.

5️⃣ I think you should join us for this month’s event. On April 23, we’ll be hosting a board game night at Studio Powder Blue. Plus: A secret premiere of our next big project.

There’s fifteen spots left! RSVP here.

Thanks for reading! Shoot us a reply, comment, or DM if anything resonated with you in particular—we respond to them all.