The Media Diet

Normally I do a monthly rundown of some interesting links, but I have to admit that over the past few months I have been more inclined toward longer form work…so I made some recommendations in Zero Stimulation rest, but find below my superlatives in a few different long form media over the past quarter…

Top book: Blood in the Machine

Ok, this might be the weakest superlative in the group - not because this one isn’t deserving, but because I read a lot of really good books…it’s just that I already told you about Orbital & Prophet Song (and Nerd Notes subscribers got a long rant about my other favorite, The Mountain and the Sea). This was definitely the best piece of non-fiction I completed though. There’s a decent chance you’ve heard about it somewhere else already, but the gist of it is that the popular conception of the Luddites is as a group of people who were so opposed to technology that they literally smashed it to pieces in the early days of the Industrial Revolution. Brian Merchant reframes who the Luddites were - not as resisters of technology but as resisters of industrial capitalism’s bend towards exacerbating inequality. This is a book to read if you want to think about how we responsibly introduce new technology that has the potential to reshape our social fabric, so - you know - pretty relevant to the moment.

Or, if you don't want to go quite as long form, you can listen to the 99 Percent Invisible episode where Roman Mars & Merchant talk about the book. It is also good, just not as good.

Top series: Andor

Related, if you want to get into resistance movements then have I got the show for you. Watching the second half of this season of Andor while the LA protests were happening (yes, I was a bit behind) shed such a clarifying light on the power plays of authoritarianism. Tony Gilroy, the showrunner, clearly did his homework on the actual history of resistance and wove some examples in without being too real world heavy handed. Still, you’ll probably want to be in a good head space before getting into this one.

And if you’re not, then maybe start by watching an hour of Mon Mothma dancing.

Top film: Sinners

As far as I’m concerned at this point, studios should just give Ryan Coogler money and let him make whatever movie he wants to make. Period. End of sentence.

I actually don’t want to say too much about anything specific in Sinners because if you haven’t seen it already, it’s great to go in with very little background. So just a few vague comments:

• the economy of narrative in this film is incredible. Coogler can create an entire backstory with a single line of dialogue and does so repeatedly. Sinners should at least get an Original Screenplay nomination, if not win the thing outright (there’s still a lot of year left, but it has set a high bar).
• Coogler is the best at the business in creating uncomfortable gray areas between good and evil. The layers of commentary on race in America in this movie are so substantial.
• There is a scene in this movie that is the most exhilarating thing I’ve seen on a movie screen since…I legitimately don’t know when. Probably since American Utopia, 4 years ago. I just kept repeating to “oh my god” to myself under my breath for several minutes.

I’m pretty sure it’s streaming somewhere now, but if there’s still a cinema near you where you can see it you should.

Top podcast: Hot Money, Agent of Chaos

This one is really something and hasn't even concluded yet. It belongs firmly in the spy paranoia genre and details the exploits of a former tech startup executive turned Russian operative, who probably was a Russian operative almost the entire time? If you've ever found yourself wondering, "how far would a nation state go to undermine the stability of one of its adversaries?" and then found yourself wondering about just how they'd go about it, this is a show for you. Let me forewarn you: the answer is many layers deeper than you might ever expect.

Top game: Pokermon

There was a moment pretty recently when I was feeling a little bit over the 2 games that I’ve spent the most time with in the past year, namely Balatro & Pokemon TCG. And that was fine with me! I was finding productive things to do with my free time, and then my oldest child happened to mention that there is a Pokemon focused Balatro mod.

It's basically Balatro, except the Jokers are Pokemon and they can evolve...

So, you know, now I’m deep down that rabbit hole.

Good news: we're all registered for the first Pokemon regional tournament of the season - back in Frankfurt where it all began! But it's not until September...

Next month, though, I think I'm ready to share how Pursuit of Play is going to evolve for this season. Things are happening! Watch this space.