3 Things: Mulaney, Communist Cookie Monster, and Dr. Timnit Gebru

Hey there,

Monday is the winter solstice and our days will slowly start getting longer again. In the meantime, I've been giving in to TV binges on these long dark nights. I was "watching" before, but now I'm REALLY going for it. We're about to be done with the current season of "The Crown" and it's so good. In my humble opinion, a great form of escapism is to watch fancy people have problems. And as a bonus, I learned that you can do a solid Charles impression by just saying the word "years" instead of "yes." I've been reading articles that fact-check the Diana storyline and even listened to a multi-part podcast called You're Wrong About: Princess Diana. (Surprisingly entertaining! I highly recommend.) 

Announcements

-You're the Expert. After a very, very long hiatus, we're back with a video episode where Wyatt Cenac, Maeve Higgins, and Karen Chee compete to understand why a scientist dosed an entire lake in northern Canada with the birth control pill. We're hoping to find a partner and funding to make more of these remote episodes in the future. But in the meantime, you can watch this one for free here

-New TED podcast! I'm excited to finally get to announce the show I've been working on for the past few months. TED hired me to host a new podcast called "How to Be a Better Human" where I will be interviewing very smart people about how to... well... be a better human. The first episode comes out on January 11th and we'll be covering everything from social media to climate change to how to change your uncle's political positions. Official TED announcement here

This week’s list

GREAT:
John Mulaney is one of the most famous standup comedians in the world. You would not expect him to take a relatively low-ranking writing gig behind the scenes on a TV show. But for the past few months, he's been working as a staff writer for Seth Meyers. Here's a very funny interview where he talks about needing a job and structure for his mental health (and is open about how his jokes have missed the mark more in quarantine since he can't really run them by live audiences for feedback.) Who's The Boss: John Mulaney (h/t Mollie)


FUNNY:
This is an incredible prank and a perfect mystery. I love that the artist got paid but that we know almost nothing else about the situation. Salute the glory of Peoria, Illinois' Communist Cookie Monster. Cookie Monster Mural Puzzles Artist and Enrages Property Owner


INTERESTING:
Timnit Gebru is a celebrated researcher and one of the leading thinkers around ethics in artificial intelligence. She's also one of the most prominent Black women in the field. Google recently fired her after attempting to censor her research on the risks to the environment and marginalized communities of deploying some specific forms of AI. This is a person who was one of the first to expose the ways that AI discriminates, a person who developed solutions that allowed for AI models to be audited and documented, and a leader who organized a nonprofit where civil rights activists, scientists, and industry could work together. Her firing is not okay. In the coming years, we're all going to have to deal more and more with the fact that algorithms and AI are not "objective" or "unbiased." Hopefully the uproar over Dr. Gebru's firing will give more oxygen to that conversation rather than chilling it. (h/t TerrynGrams)


That's it for this week. Thanks for reading! If you're enjoying these emails, please forward to a friend or spread the word. If someone forwarded you this email but you're not yet on the list, you can subscribe here.

Sending this from my winter estate,
Chris

3 Things: David Sedaris' Hugh, The King's Hand, and Genetic Testing

Hey there,

It's the third night of Chanukah, the perfect holiday for this year of quarantine. A holiday all about things lasting longer than you expected? Check. Everything in 2020 has lasted longer than it was supposed to. A holiday that gives you permission to cook and eat oily foods at home? Check. We have all been doing that for months already. A holiday where children are encouraged to gamble, because the long-term stability of their investment in chocolate coins is uncertain? Check. Google "bitcoin millionaires" as you eat the coins you just won.

Growing up in an interfaith house, we always celebrated both Chanukah and Christmas, although we famously lost the privilege of getting presents at Chanukah after my brother and I complained ungratefully when we were given the wrong color Pokemon games for our Nintendo Game Boys. Chanukah was never really about presents anyway. It's not even that important of a Jewish holiday. But it's nice to light some candles and eat a potato pancake. And if anyone is looking to invest in a cryptocurrency based on chocolate or sell a Pokemon Yellow, you know my email address.

Upcoming Events

LIVESTREAMS:
-TOMORROW. Sunday, December 13th at 3:30 p.m. Pacific / 6:30 p.m. Eastern
Dancify That: Cacao I'm the comedian judge for a holiday chocolate edition of this hilarious show. More info here 

-Wednesday, December 16th at 5 p.m. Pacific / 8 p.m. Eastern
Hidden Expert. From the National Academy of Sciences and LabX, this is a storytelling show where the audience tries to figure out which storyteller is actually a scientist. More info here 

This week’s list

GREAT:
I've been reading David Sedaris stories for longer than I can remember. He's the master of the odd detail and the self-deprecating personal essay. His boyfriend Hugh is his comedic foil, who appears in the stories to shake his head at the Sedaris family nonsense and clean up their messes (both figuratively and literally). But I knew almost nothing about the real Hugh and that's why this profile of him (the first he's agreed to) is so enjoyable. If you're a Sedaris fan, it's a very fun read: Hugh Hamrick — David Sedaris’ Boyfriend — Finally Tells His Side of Their Story


FUNNY:
I normally link to longer pieces of writing or standup or a video. But sometimes the thing that has made me laugh the most in a week is short and just bizarre. I cannot stop thinking about The King's Hand. It's a food that a person ate in their dream and then spent a week figuring out how to recreate. And it's out of control. The King's Hand  (h/t Edith Zimmerman's great newsletter)


INTERESTING:
Since the covid vaccines have been announced, I've been thinking about how incredible a scientific achievement it is and how quickly medicine has advanced in even my lifetime. Genetic tools and testing are going to save millions of lives. But there are ways in which our rapidly expanding understanding of genetics are outpacing our cultural conversations about what they mean for our future. This article, by Sarah Zhang, very sensitively lays out the benefits and the moral quandaries that we're going to face more and more of. "Prenatal testing is changing who gets born and who doesn’t. This is just the beginning." 


That's it for this week! Thanks for reading. If you're enjoying these emails, please forward to a friend or spread the word. If someone forwarded you this email but you're not yet on the list, you can subscribe here.

Spinning round and round in my office chair like a human dreidel,
Chris

3 Things: John Wilson, Ellie Shechet, and Francesca Mari

Hey there,

This week, everyone I know started posting their most listened to songs of the year from Spotify. I was curious to see mine too. By a long shot, it was "Baby Sleep Brown Noise." That made me laugh a lot. My most listened to track wasn't music at all. It was off-brand white noise intended for babies. It's from the record "Perfect Sounds for Baby Sleep," which is far above The Beatles' White Album in my own personal pantheon. A perfect chart topper for 2020. As we close out this year, I'm still making lists of goals for 2021, books I read, and everything that I felt like I accomplished this year. I like having those for posterity. But I'm not pretending this wasn't 2020. I needed some serious assistance to sleep like a baby. And luckily, it was there for me. Thank you, brown noise manufacturers. 

Side note: Writing this intro took me down a little Wikipedia rabbit hole into the "colors of noise." Apparently, the name "brown noise" comes from Brownian motion and is also known as "random walk" or "drunkard's walk." Now you know!

Upcoming Events

LIVESTREAMS:
-Thursday, December 10th at 8:30 p.m. Pacific / 11:30 p.m. Eastern
Fundraiser for Nefesh LA. I'm hosting a Chanukah-themed game show and celebration. More info here

-Sunday, December 13th at 3:30 p.m. Pacific / 6:30 p.m. Eastern
Dancify That! I'm the comedian judge for a holiday chocolate edition of this hilarious show. More info here 

-Wednesday, December 16th at 5 p.m. Pacific / 8 p.m. Eastern
Hidden Expert. From the National Academy of Sciences and LabX, this is a storytelling show where the audience tries to figure out which storyteller is actually a scientist. More info here 

This week’s list

GREAT:
I don't think anyone has captured the hilarious weirdness of New York better than John Wilson. His HBO show, How To with John Wilson, is so funny and unlike anything else on television. Each episode is assembled from years of videos that John has been shooting while living in the city. The episodes end up being packed full of tiny but jaw-dropping footage, like a woman taking a business call while hula hooping or a man casually walking down the street with a dog on his head. The show is so funny and often surprisingly moving. It's also always unbelievably weird. I love it. Official HBO Trailer  

Nathan Fielder is one of the executive producers and he posted this "behind-the-scenes" video that almost immediately goes completely off the rails. Anatomy of a Scene: The Bread Scene


FUNNY:
Ellie Shechet's "horrible lists" are some of my favorite things on the internet. She used to write them every week. But she got busy with less horrible things, so now the lists are few and far between. That just means I get even more excited when a new one pops up, because they're always amazing. Her latest is a hilarious collection of excerpts from an emotionally accurate email inbox. My email inbox, if I'm being sensitive


INTERESTING:
Francesca Mari is a Providence, RI based journalist. I don't think anyone covers the current housing crisis as well as she does. She recently wrote an Op-Ed about how 30 million Americans are at risk of being evicted at the end of this month if the government doesn't intervene. And for those who are already out of traditional housing, the situation is even more precarious and the makeshift solutions more bizarre. "The rules were simple: don't leave, don't host guests, and don't talk to anyone—not contractors, property managers, real-estate agents, or prospective buyers. If you were working a 24/7, only short trips to the market or the laundromat were allowed. The premises had to be kept clean at all times, or pay would be docked. The driver supplied Evans with a mini-fridge, a small microwave, an inflatable mattress, and plastic floor coverings to protect the carpet." Using the Homeless to Guard Empty Houses 


That's it for this week. Thanks for reading. If you're enjoying these emails, please forward to a friend or spread the word. If someone forwarded you this email but you're not yet on the list, you can subscribe here.

Relaxing to a drunkard's walk,
Chris