today in tabs: get that national park merch while you still can
ALSO: Starbucks is crowd-sourcing ideas from TikTok, a monetization disparaity/gap is growing amongst creators, and more
Happy Tuesday, July 15th. Halfway through and almost to one of the slowest months of the year (for most folks, sorry campaign friends).
Just a reminder: every Tuesday and Friday, I’ll be in your inbox with the latest in politics, tech & social media, culture, and other relevant topics – and I’ll share some notes and tips on what I’m keeping my eye on.
Want to do a super fun, super cool rapid interview for this newsletter like this or this??? Reply to this email or hit the button below. Tips, thoughts, concerns, good jokes, bad jokes, tea, etc?
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Parks gift shops directed to report items that ‘disparage Americans’
Brengel said park leaders face a choice of following the administration’s directive to flag everything that could possibly be deemed anti-American or following an individual park’s mission, which may be to inform the public about the civil war, Indigenous history, slavery or other topics this administration might consider defamatory of historical Americans. (WaPo, 7/12)
A red state reckons with Trump's 'big, beautiful bill'
Louisiana loves Trump but needs Medicaid. How does a deep-red state reconcile the two? Interviews with a dozen Louisianans, most of whom supported Trump, suggest that many in the state have absorbed the arguments that Trump and his congressional allies used to sell the bill. (NBC News, 7/12)
Hundreds at Alligator Alcatraz have no criminal charges, Miami Herald learns
Mixed among the detainees accused and convicted of crimes are more than 250 people who are listed as having only immigration violations but no criminal convictions or pending charges in the United States. The data is based on a list of more than 700 people who are either being held under tents and in chain link cells at Florida’s pop-up detention center in the Everglades or appear slated for transfer there. (Miami Herald, 7/13)
How incel language infected the mainstream internet — and brought its toxicity with it
Once algorithms got involved, the incel terms were amplified by the online Matthew effect: a phenomenon where content that is slightly better at grabbing your attention performs exponentially better on social media. As their memes were recombined into other “phrasal templates” and caught on as comedic references, they were eventually able to reach mainstream popularity. (The Verge, 7/14 – free version)
Their Water Taps Ran Dry When Meta Built Next Door
The situation has become so dire that Newton County is on track to be in a water deficit by 2030, according to a report last year. If the local water authority cannot upgrade its facilities, residents could be forced to ration water. (NYT gift link, 7/14)
TikTok Refutes Reports That It’s Developing a Separate US Version of the App
Maybe that’s rankled government negotiators, who would prefer to get TikTok as is, which is why TikTok has sought to correct the record on this front. But it also hasn’t corrected the record, or clarified its stance. It’s just saying that there are errors of fact in the report, which includes a range of details about the project, and any one of those elements could be what TikTok is referring to. (Social Media Today, 7/10)
Lucy’s note: As the article notes, this is definitely not a full refutation. It still seems quite possible that a US version of TikTok, which is allegedly being called M2 internally, might be up and running as early as this fall.
The creator economy is still growing year-over-year, but a monetization gap is emerging
NeoReach noted that creators who work in labor-intensive content categories struggle to keep up with the demands of platform algorithms. That’s one reason why, on NeoReach’s list of genres ranked by relative revenue generation, art content wound up close to the bottom. (Tubefilter, 7/14)
Bad Bunny's Residency Projected to Generate Over $200 Million for Puerto Rico's Economy
The estimate is based only on hotel packages booked by the production company with the firm, which means it doesn't consider individuals who opted to book a hotel independently. Compared to this time last year, there's been a 70 percent increase in hotel occupancy thanks to Bad Bunny's shows. (Complex, 7/14)
Starbucks’s new Secret Menu is a perfect strategy to tap TikTok
This strategy is a far cry from how Starbucks used to look at viral creations: as operational headaches that were at odds with its own business model. Instead, Starbucks can analyze a viral menu item, decide if it needs to be tweaked for scale, and then share it back with its audience in a way that can work. (Fast Company, 7/14)
Gabby Windey to Host Alex Cooper’s ‘Love Overboard’ Reality Dating Series
Gabby Windey, the former Bachelorette co-lead who won season three of The Traitors, has been tapped to host Hulu’s Love Overboard reality dating series from Alex Cooper’s Unwell Productions and Jeff Jenkins Productions. (The Hollywood Reporter, 7/14)
Lucy’s note: If you know me, you know I believe that Gabby Windey is genuinely re-inventing how we think about podcasts. She is the only person where I actually prefer it if she doesn’t have a guest!
Remembrance of Scents Past
Marks’s research is meticulous. For the Docklands show, she pinpointed specific smell memories by consulting oral histories that the museum had collected from people who had lived and worked around the docks; at Chatsworth House, she combed through its extensive archive of menus. (The New Yorker, 7/10 – free version)
Lucy’s note: A quick flag here: I went to the Met Costume Institute exhibit that included smells last year… and for that experience, at least, they needed to be clearer when you were about to smell something bad. My friends and I were immediately dry-heaving near priceless clothes and objects lol.
When did life advice get so unhinged?
In the lifestyle space, advice-seeking often has a formula: I want to level up my life in some way, how can I do it? However, in recent years there has been a concerning shift to actively avoid all expert advice, to defer to public opinion on how to get the fastest, most extreme results (this shift has permeated across online culture and spaces, but we’ll stick to lifestyle for now). (DAZED, 7/9)
Extra Credit 🤓
Some newsletters I thought were excellent recently:
“Boy Math and Grandpa Gamers” from
of“A Reader’s Guide to the Big Beautiful Bill: Part 2” from
ofWildly helpful and well-done, Part I is here.
Annie-Mai’s latest Social Tea newsletter
If you’re a fan of the fabulous
+ , definitely also check out Annie-Mai!
That’s all for now – I’ll see you on Friday!