This edition of PGL comes a week late, as I bumped it for last week’s more timely thoughts about what my favorite band was really trying to say at their D.C. shows last week. You can read that here, if you haven’t already.
Also, I’m going to start linking the PGL archives at the bottom of each of these posts, for those who have come to the newsletter more recently, or just missed them the first time around.
Alright, enough housekeeping. Let’s get to it.
Recommended Newsletter
Thomas Zimmer’s Democracy Americana is an unvarnished look at the ways in which our Democracy is under attack. A professor at Georgetown, Zimmer writes with a refreshing straightforwardness that so many of our modern day political commentators lack, whether from fear of backlash or a genuine devotion to unyielding centrism. He’s also got a podcast, if that’s more your speed.
Other Links
Let’s start with the heaviest lift, but one well worth your while. As much as I hate the blue/red state labels we assign — as our country is far more divided between urban and rural lines when it comes to ideologies — North Carolina may well be our most purple state. Fueled by progressive research institutions on one side and anchored in the deep history of the American South on the other, its checkerboard, county-level voting results reflect deeply different viewpoints living in close proximity to one another. As a teacher in Greensboro, Anne P. Beatty is on the front lines of the fight against censorship and racism disguised as moral panic that has broken out at school boards across the country.
Great journalism often shines a light on a problem that the general public isn’t even aware of. ProPublica, which is doing some of the best work out there right now, does exactly that with this brilliant piece of storytelling about sprawling trains that block children’s path to get to school, and the dangerous crossings many of them have to make on a regular basis to get past them.
A perfectly-timed photo can tell an incredible story, even when it’s unintentional. That’s what happened on graduation weekend in Bloomington, Indiana. Thankfully, the photographer also took the time to put the photo into a broader context.
This one’s a bit older, but is a good reflection about the last couple decades of popular culture and how repetitive and reductive so many aspects of it have become. An apt warning that came before the rash of recent AI developments.
Oh, hey, speaking of AI, maybe don’t use it to write your court filings. This lawyer learned that lesson the hard way.
Also, probably don’t give the keys to your life over to ChatGPT to make decisions for you, unless you want it to ruin your marriage.
Many things struck me about this doozy of a dispatch from the National Automobile Dealers Association show — the grim vibe, the choice of speakers, what passes as entertainment at such a spectacle. But perhaps the biggest is how representative the car dealership is of the fundamentally broken vortex of generative wealth and power that our society facilitates, and how the ultimate middlemen of the American dream of transportation “freedom” insulate themselves against and profit from everyone else. It’s a fascinating read.
Let’s leave you with a story that serves as a reminder of what sports can be at their best. A Division III women’s golf team was in the midst of a nightmare season full of injuries and other setbacks and desperately needed two new members to keep competing…and for their conference to still meet the minimum requirements to qualify a team for the national championships. They needed two someones, two anyones, to join, even if they’d never played before. This is the story of the two young women who stepped forward.
My Links
With Unbound Gravel (the unofficial gravel racing world championships) this weekend and Netflix’s Tour de France documentary Series Unchained debuting next week, now’s a good time to bring back my Global Sport Matters feature from last September on whether the bike racing world can capitalize on the pandemic cycling boom. If you don’t already know about or understand the booming popularity of Unbound, well, here you go.
Since I wrote that story, Justin Williams has launched his own criterium racing series in the States, as well. If you’re a cycling fan reading this, what are you paying attention to and looking forward to the most in the world of racing in 2023? Let me know in the comments, and see you next week.