::: The Open :::
Dear Reader,
I hope you enjoy this edition of SC Weekly (published on Sundays).
Please consider sharing with a friend who you think may enjoy this newsletter.
Thank you for reading and for your time.
With Gratitude,
~ Mark
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::: Personal Notes :::
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Delighted to share a new poetry craft essay I helped curate for Cleaver Magazine – 'Poetry and the Kink: The Inherent Queerness of the Poetic Line' by Matthew W. Baker
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More Cleaver essays on the horizon!
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::: ONE ART :::
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Recently announced:
ONE ART’s 2026 Best of the Net Nominations
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Announcing...
ONE ART’s September 2025 Reading!
Date: Sunday, September 7
Time: 2:00pm Eastern
Featured Poets: James Crews, Gloria Heffernan, William Palmer, Michael T. Young, Andrea Potos
Free event!
>>> Tickets Available <<<
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>>> Rescheduled for Thursday, August 28th. <<<
Visibility and Book Sales: Marketing Your Small Press Book
Instructor: John Sibley Williams
Date: Thursday, August 28, 2025
Time: 3:30-6:00pm Eastern
>>> Tickets available <<<
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::: The Literary Community & Beyond :::
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CANADIAN COUNCIL FOR THE ARTS – RESEARCH AND CREATION GRANTS
“The Research and Creation component of Explore and Create supports the initial stages of the creative process. Canadian artists, artistic groups, and arts organizations can apply to develop and make creative works. Grants provide support for creative research, creation, and project development. You may be eligible for Application Assistance to pay someone to help you with the application process if you are experiencing difficulty and self-identify as an artist who is Deaf, hard of hearing, has a disability or is living with a mental illness, or a First Nations, Inuit or Métis artist facing language, geographic or cultural barriers. This is a rolling deadline. Offers up to $25,000.” (Funds For Writers)
Sharing this, in part, to highlight that the United States is lacking in arts fundings, fellowships, grants, and other forms of support.
There is a great deal of evidence showing that historically great cultures (Trump loves the word, “great”, yes?) have all emphasized the importance of The Arts.
Government-controlled/sanctioned art is not a useful constraint for artists. (Stating the obvious.)
I see a lot of orgs that want to help with $1,000 grants (or similar) … and let’s be real that $1,000 simply doesn’t go far today. They just paid some utility bills, etc.
Hoping we (the U.S.) can get back to a culture that supports The Arts in a more serious way. This would be useful and wise as we bump up against the seemingly inevitable AI disruption that is OTW.
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‘How Does Publication in Literary Journals Affect Consideration of Your Book Manuscript?’ (Gary Grossman, Lit Mag News)
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‘The Importance of Counter-Clockwise Dance Rituals’ (Ted Gioia)
In general, I’ve been enjoying Ted’s recent posts more than usual. He appears to be on a roll.
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::: Podcasts :::
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Good Ideas Will Save the Country
(No Mercy / No Malice)
This is good. Jessica Tarlov covers a lot of important territory in this short update
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Impressive interview with Hillary Clinton.
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The Crisis of Men and Boys — with Jonathan Haidt and Richard Reeves
(The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway)
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‘How Gen Z Sees the World’ (Plain English with Derek Thompson)
I’ve been listening to a lot of Kyla Scanlon interviews… and they are all excellent.
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Ep. 45: In defense of friction ft. Kyla Scanlon (Tasteland)
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Overthink: Burnout
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Overthink: Travel
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Trust as the Next Great Commodity
(Let's Appreciate)
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Gamblemerica: How Sports Betting Apps Rewired a Generation's Relationship to Risk
(Let's Appreciate)
This is basically a PSA if you don't know what is going on in the world of gambling... which relates to literacy in the realm of how we've gamified everything.
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The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway: Why We Ignore Young Men’s Struggles (A Lost Boys Special)
Really, an important conversation. Even-handed, even-headed, well-articulated.
Don't be put off by assumptions about Scaramucci.
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The Cult-Like Tactics of Marketers and Influencers with Mara Einstein
(Under the Influence with Jo Piazza)
Fascinating.
I want to read Jo Piazza’s new novel— Everyone Is Lying to You: A Thriller
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Why Young People Love Socialism
(Honestly with Bari Weiss)
Featuring Kyla Scanlon who I'm lowkey obsessed with.
A discussion of Zohran Mamdani’s campaign promises and why they’re not all that economically feasible from an economist perspective. Of course, we know that campaigning is really about storytelling. Mamdani is a good storyteller and he knows his audience. He’s selling well and delivering is secondary. Truth be told, [many] everyday people [sadly] don’t know what they want or need anyhow.
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Under the Influence with Jo Piazza: Navigating Grief and Grief Influencing Online
Brutal. Sharing in case someone needs to hear this.
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::: Music :::
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Review of the new Maroon 5 album by Pitchfork.
“Can you even call it selling out when the whole point has always been commercial success? Love Is Like, the group’s eighth album since Songs About Jane rocked the adult contemporary scene in 2002, continues Maroon 5’s legacy of neutered, frictionless songs to activate brands to.”
Wow. Brutal.
I’ve acknowledged before that I have some extra love for Maroon 5 because, as a rideshare driver, they have high utility value. “Functional” music if you will.
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The new Deftones album dropped.
This is an example of a well-done review.
I’ve been working on coining a term to define some of the tracks.
Initially, I came up with ‘Velvet Metalgaze’.
On further consideration, I think ‘Velvet Nugaze’ is catchier and more on point.
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::: Health & Wellness :::
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“How to psychologically enrich your life” (WaPo)
Embrace play (and don’t take yourself too seriously)
Be open to new experiences (practice saying “yes”)
Allow for [some] discomfort (stretch yourself, accept small challenges)
Journal (record experiences, emotional states)
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‘What is the Air Quality Index and what a bad air day means for your health’ (Vox)
This is useful. It’s really starting to become a regular problem for me, and something I need to pay close attention to on a daily basis.
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::: The Trump Regime :::
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“Trump family’s crypto venture has generated $4.5B since election.” (Carbon Finance / WSJ)
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“That combination of commercial weakness and cultural power is what’s made businesses like CBS News such easy targets for a litigious president.” – Mark Cuban (Semafor)
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“Energy companies are on track to spend over $1 trillion by 2029 to meet that demand, and those costs are being passed down to consumers.”
“The Rhodium Group forecasts the average household will pay between $78 and $192 more annually; Energy Innovation puts it at an average $170 extra per year.”
“In addition to likely higher energy costs, the administration wants to cancel the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program, or LIHEAP, which provides emergency heating and cooling assistance to 6.7 million households, as well as rescind recent appliance energy efficiency updates and wind down Energy Star, a program that has saved consumers over $500 billion since inception through more efficient appliances. All of this makes it more likely that apartment dwellers will pay more for energy over time.”
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‘Conservative network Newsmax agrees to pay $67M in defamation case over bogus 2020 election claims’ (AP News)
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::: Small Explorations & Deep Dives :::
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Going meta … on Substack.
“Beehiiv isn’t fundraising, but it is positioning itself vis-a-vis its main competitor: Its executives have been describing themselves as a customer-focused Shopify to Substack’s Amazon.” – Beehiiv CEO Tyler Denk (Semafor)
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How not to lose your job to AI: The skills AI will make more valuable (and how to learn them)
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‘$3 a day: A new poverty line has shifted the World Bank’s data on extreme poverty. What changed, and why?’ (Our World in Data)
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‘Skibidi’, ‘delulu’ and ‘tradwife’ among words added to Cambridge Dictionary (The Guardian)
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The ‘godfather of AI’ reveals the only way humanity can survive superintelligent AI (CNN Business)
"Instead of forcing AI to submit to humans, Hinton presented an intriguing solution: building “maternal instincts” into AI models, so “they really care about people” even once the technology becomes more powerful and smarter than humans."
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Expert Says a Specific Group of People Is Leading to the Collapse of Human Civilization (Futurism)
Preaching to the choir…
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People Are Becoming "Sloppers" Who Have to Ask AI Before They Do Anything (Futurism)
The sooner we, collectively, push back hard, the better. If consumers make clear they don't want AI products and don't need them then there will be less use cases.
A common refrain I hear from smart folks is asking this question: What is the problem that AI aims to solve?
In many, if not most, instances there is no clearcut answer. In other scenarios, AI is basically ensuring planned obsolescence of human labor.
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Your Undivided Attention: Is AI Productivity Worth Our Humanity? with Prof. Michael Sandel
We are in trouble.
Humans are all too likely to lose a sense of purpose and dignity in work to AI.
Sandel asks us to ask— abundance for the sake of what?
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An article about a book that is basically about wearing clothes that project the kind of person you want others to see you as on a given day. Sure, call it “manifesting” or “energy” clothing or whatever… but these are basically just interchangeable ways of saying wear clothes that make you feel like you. And it’s totally cool to wake up and want to present different from day to day.
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“Steady 64% Say Racism Against Black People Widespread in U.S.” (Gallup)
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‘The Most Popular Dog Breeds in Each State’ (U.S. News & World Report)
Maybe Americans aren’t so different… in certain respects.
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‘Calif. teens are ditching office jobs and making $100K before 21’ (SF Gate)
Hey, I'm not anti-education by any means but this might be a wise strategy in the face of AI disruption and an opportunity to start investing early to leverage compound interest over decades.
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‘A British restaurant is launching the UK’s first water menu’ (CNN)
I think I've mentioned before that I'm a "water taster"... not everyone is... that is, I'm told by some that all water tastes the same. Not at all my experience. Surprising discovery, initially. A little like when I learned not everyone has an internal monologue.
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BirdCast - Bird migration forecasts in real-time
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‘Father-son morticians turn tattoos into wall art’ (Popular Science)
As someone with tattoos I find this practice creepy... but I also don't identify as a tattoo person.
Reminds me that some old books (including bibles) were bound with human skin. Again, creepy.
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I definitely taste water and as I live in the UK I may just have to check that restaurant out!