Today, Suzy Weiss breaks down the latest Sydney Sweeney drama.
asserted
Weiss → break → drama
Rabbi David Wolpe recommends a poem to read on Yom Kippur.
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Wolpe → recommend → Kippur
And Peter Savodnik sits down with Taylor Lorenz, who seems like a radical leftist—she thinks Luigi Mangione is “high agency”—until she starts talking about technology . . .
But first: What does Mark Zuckerberg want?
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Zuckerberg → sit → What
Every presidential term, roughly speaking, their parent company, Meta, adds a zero to its valuation.
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company → speak → valuation
All of these platforms are controlled by one man.
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All → control → man
“His products are used by one out of every 2.3 people currently breathing, more than the total number of humans that existed in 1965,” writes Jeremy Stern, in today’s lead story, a profile of Mark Zuckerberg.
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Stern → use → Zuckerberg
To find out what drives one of the most powerful men alive, Jeremy interviewed nearly three dozen people—including his parents, his wife, and Zuckerberg himself.
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Jeremy → find → parents
He watched the Meta CEO get winded by a UFC champion, and attended a family dinner party at his home near Lake Tahoe.
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CEO → watch → Tahoe
“A lot of people probably care about public perception more than I do,” Zuckerberg told Jeremy, sitting on the couch, clearly not enjoying the interview.
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Zuckerberg → care → interview
It is first and foremost an investigation of power—the mind-boggling kind that’s accrued to the men who, since the start of the millennium, have invented products that shape how we see everything; who face the “dictator’s dilemma,” whereby people stop telling them things they don’t want to hear, until they lose their grip on reality entirely; and who, if you believe this week’s headlines about artificial intelligence, could destroy us all.
uncertain
you → boggle → us
Once upon a time, Zuckerberg himself hovered at the frontier of AI, and this piece tells the story of how he fell behind, and asks whether it’ll be the end of him.
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it → hover → him
He’s actually not an asshole, which is interesting,” said a researcher who used to work at Meta’s lab.
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who → ’ → lab
“But his source of advantage is he’s never happy.
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he → ’ → advantage
He just doesn’t fucking stop.”
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He → stop → ?
Do the tech titans owe their influence to talent, or luck?
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titans → owe → talent
Is their continued reign inevitable, or are they fighting tooth and nail to maintain it?
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they → fight → it
How do they feel about the stories we tell about them?
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we → feel → them
And do they have as much power as we assume they do, when we blame them for all of society’s problems?
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we → have → problems
Jeremy’s piece offers answers to all these questions, as well as a remarkable portrait of Zuckerberg’s character.
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piece → offer → character
“Things have been written and said about him that are so untrue from such an early age,” said Zuckerberg’s mom.
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mom → write → age
“I sometimes really wonder if anyone has ever sat back and thought, This is a real person.”
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This → wonder → ?
If you want to understand that person, click here to read the whole piece—or to download a printable version:
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you → want → version
Yet again, feminists are furious with Sydney Sweeney for profiting off her sexiness.
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feminists → profit → sexiness
For her latest ad she posed nude with everything from a football to a hockey stick—she was promoting the sports betting platform Novig—and was promptly accused of “sexualizing women’s sports.
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she → pose → sports
But, as Suzy Weiss and Dan Ahdoot argue in this week’s episode of Second Thought, this ad is not about women.
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ad → argue → women
“It is meant for incels who are living in their parents’ basements spending all their DoorDash funds on some sports gambling,” says Dan.
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Dan → mean → gambling
Suzy and Dan also explain why an Apple TV show you’ve never heard of swept the Emmys; commiserate with the mathematicians who sobbed after AI solved their life’s work; and taste-test a loaf of rye that New Yorkers are lining up to spend $60 on.
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Yorkers → explain → 60
Click below to watch the video, or listen wherever you get your podcasts.
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you → click → podcasts
This week, Amanda Knox wrote about Patrick Clancy, and what it’s like when strangers interpret everything you do as evidence that you’re a murderer; Caitlin Flanagan wrote about the feminist backlash to the Sydney Sweeney ad; and Josh Kaplan argued that canceling Macklemore has made him a martyr.
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him → write → Macklemore
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Knock Knock, It’s Cupid!
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It → knock → ?
Click here to meet a trilingual woman in Miami who’s on sabbatical, or an investigator in Miami Beach.
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who → click → Beach
If you’d like to take a chance at Free Press love, write a paragraph that defines you, including your age, where you live, and what you’re looking for, and send it over to Cupid@TheFP.com.
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you → like → Cupid@TheFP.com
How should you spend the rest of your weekend?
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you → spend → weekend
We asked our editor Will Rahn for his recommendations . . .
🍺Drink . . . Ginger beer, which is basically just strong ginger ale with a heck of a lot more ginger.
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which → ask → ginger
And I’ll even turn you on to the best one I’ve ever had: Reed’s Premium Ginger Beer, which is sweetened only with pineapple juice and honey.
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which → turn → juice
You bet.
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You → bet → ?
But it tastes marvelous and, at least in my experience, is a great salve for stomachaches.
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it → taste → stomachaches
My very pregnant wife agrees: Go get the fancy ginger ale.
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wife → agree → ale
Now, Paramount just happens to be the name on my paycheck every month, but I really do love this romantic comedy following two attractive Aussies who meet after running over a stray border terrier.
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who → happen → terrier
It’s well written, funny, and the leads are adorable.
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leads → ’ → ?
…and 7 more, not listed.
The Aporia
