Seinfeld, Earthquakes, And Bossa Nova (See / Read / Listen To This: Issue #1)

Welcome to the first edition of See / Read / Listen to This, and thanks for letting me into your inbox. Hopefully, you’ll find at least one or two of the links below to be delightful. In these first few editions, I’m trying to get a sense of what resonates with people, so if you enjoy anything let me know so I can include more of that in the future.

Oh, and if you have any suggestions for cool stuff to include in the next edition, please do let me know!

See:

John Mulaney: The Comeback Kid (Netflix)
Mulaney is the funniest working comedian in my book, and his last special (New in Town, also on Netflix) was one the funniest things I’d ever seen. His comedy appeals to pretty much everyone who enjoys laughing.

Celebrity Nano-Impressions (2:17 on Youtube)
Impression master Ross Marquand nails the tiny moments of A-list actors (e.g. Antonio Banderas forgetting his password). Good for a quick chuckle.

Phoenix (Netflix)
Incredible tense drama of a woman who, after facial reconstruction surgery, becomes involved in an unbelievable case of mistaken identity. One of my favorite movies of 2015 that is both 98 minutes long and has a 98% rating on Rotten Tomatoes.

Crowd Control at a Japanese Comicbook Convention (10 Second GIF)
Mesmerizing.

Read:

The Really Big One (~20 Minutes)
Widely considered one of the best pieces of 2015, this article investigates the massive earthquake that will inevitably destroy a sizable portion of the coastal Northwest. Terrifying and astonishing, left me wondering how I’d never heard of this before.

Is it Okay for Vegetarians to Eat Jellyfish? (~5 Minutes)
Thought-provoking quick read on the confusing future of vegetarianism. There are a multitude of motivations to not eat meat, but depending on what yours is, you may find it acceptable to eat jellyfish, or ants, or lab-grown meat. Shout-out to Brady B. for sending this my way.

Jerry Seinfeld Intends to Die Standing Up (~20 Minutes)
Fascinating profile for anyone who enjoyed the show Seinfeld or is curious about how a billionaire entertainer lives. “The other day, perusing this file, he found a joke in which, discussing touch-screen phones, he likens the act of scrolling through a contact list and deleting names to the effete, disdainful gesture of a ‘gay French king’ deciding whom to behead.”

When One App Rules Them All: The Case of WeChat and Mobile in China (~10 Minutes)
Essential reading for anyone interested in technology or business. WeChat, if you’re not familiar, is much, much more than a messaging app. Within it, you can: “hail a taxi, order food delivery, buy movie tickets, play casual games, check in for a flight, send money to friends, access fitness tracker data, book a doctor appointment, get banking statements, pay the water bill, find geo-targeted coupons, recognize music, search for a book at the local library, meet strangers around you, follow celebrity news, read magazine articles, and even donate to charity … all in a single, integrated app.” This is (possibly) the future of mobile.

Listen to:

99% Invisible: Best Enjoyed By (Podcast)
90% of Americans, including myself, throw out food because it’s past the date on the label. After listening to this 15 minute podcast, I might change that. Crazy stat: The avg. American wastes about 25% of the food they buy!

Joao Gilberto – Joao Gilberto (Music)
One of my favorite bossa nova albums from the master, Joao Gilberto. This album is mostly just his voice and his guitar with minimal percussion, and is the perfect thing to relax to after a long day. I linked Youtube but if you have Spotify, listen to it in better quality there, please.

Planet Money: The Experiment Experiment (Podcast)
The soft sciences have been going through a bit of a crisis lately, as many published studies, particularly in psychology, can’t be reproduced. This means many of the conclusions and insights we hold for how humans work might be false, or at the very least incomplete. This podcast is a great primer to the problem of non-reproducible scientific studies, reasons for the problem, and even provides a potential solution

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