SC Weekly – June 2025 – #2
~ a curated selection of discoveries ~
::: 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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My new poetry collection, Take Care, somehow made it to #27 in “Family Poetry” on Amazon. This is kinda mind-blowing.
A big thank you to all who have supported my work!
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Louisa has a poem in the new issue of The Summerset Review!
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It’s been an unfun time dealing with another plagiarism issue in the poetry community.
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::: ONE ART :::
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Book Launch: Human Resources by Erin Murphy
ONE ART is hosting the launch of Erin Murphy’s new poetry collection— Human Resources.
Wednesday, June 18, at 7pm Eastern
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Where to Submit Your Poetry (besides ONE ART)
~ Meeting Day/Time ~
Tuesday, June 24, 2025
1:00 PM (Eastern Time)
Please note: This meeting will not be recorded.
Register for the meeting: Here.
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Congratulations Katie Dozier (Green)!
Katie is ONE ART’s Haiku Editor 😊
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Congratulations to ONE ART contributors John Arthur and John Wojtowicz!
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::: The Literary Community & Beyond :::
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In this section for a reason.
‘The Ten Warning Signs’ (Ted Gioia)
“Science and tech will not disappear. But they will face an intense backlash beyond anything we’ve experienced in the last 200 years.”
“The people running the tech world fail to grasp this. They think that the next big stage is the Singularity—when everybody lets the technocracy control everything and make every decision. In fact, the exact opposite is about to unfold.”
Surprising turn towards… The Arts?
“I’m not suggesting that you can replace tech with a poem or symphony. But tech now desperately needs what can only be provided by the humanities and human values.”
Ted’s list of what constitutes “collapse of the knowledge system” is a little random, not scientific (in terms of approach), and overall dubious. That being said, I like where he’s going with this… for obvious reasons.
There’s the backlash. And then, the backlash to the backlash.
Is life a flat circle?
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Artists who got almost $1,500 a month under a basic income pilot say their work improved (Business Insider)
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‘Literary Magazines Are Not Your Validation’ (Lit Mag News)
“The question is not simply “is my work good enough?”, but rather, “where does my work belong?”. I believe that having a fierce and clear understanding of this concept is crucial to the submission process.”
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::: Podcasts :::
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‘How to Think About Writing in the Age of AI, with John Warner’
I’m currently reading John Warner’s book ‘More Than Words: How to Think About Writing in the Age of AI’. Often, I’ve said that listening to the podcast is sufficient for many nonfiction books as the books themselves are often protracted essays fluffed up to fill space. Further, many of the more scholarly nonfiction works contain a good deal of material that is for field-specific insiders and not lay readers. In any case, Warner’s book is an example where I’d suggest the book has much to offer not covered in the interviews. A text worthy of tactile engagement.
It put my mind a bit at ease regarding generative AI and is a reminder that there are good minds at work reflecting on how to improve the educational system so that the students of today are better prepared for a very different looking near-future employment and workplace ecosystem.
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How the can news make us think we need more cops
(Code Switch)
Listen to learn about “Copaganda”.
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New Books in Critical Theory: antonio c. cuyler, "Achieving Creative Justice in the U.S. Creative Sector" (Routledge, 2025)
Not as technical as it sounds. Good, level-headed, thought-provoking listen. You’ll want to hear the end, for sure, where cuyler talks about his own projects.
cuyler has a good framework for talking about DEI.
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Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov: MAGA’s Cultural Moment (feat. Wesley Morris)
This is an entertaining and smart listen.
“Pulitzer Prize-winning critic Wesley Morris joins Jessica for a sharp, funny, and deeply thoughtful conversation about the intersection of politics and culture. They unpack the rise of right-wing aesthetics, why the left feels adrift, those weird rings that adult men suddenly started wearing, and how trans rights became a political flashpoint.”
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::: Music :::
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If NPR gets defunded we could lose out on gems like this—
‘The 1A Record Club Listens To The Songs Of Summer’
Always funny to hear NPR types talk about rap and such.
In all seriousness, it would be terrible if NPR/PBS lose their funding.
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::: The Trump Regime :::
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‘Russia is at war with Britain and US is no longer a reliable ally, UK adviser says’ (Guardian)
The U.S. can’t be trusted. That’s the state of play.
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ABC suspends correspondent for calling Stephen Miller a "world-class hater" (Axios)
We are policing ourselves.
It's one of the signs.
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Andrew Yang reaches out to Musk to collaborate on new political party (Ground)
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‘Neo-Nazi group ‘actively seeking to grow in US’ with planned paramilitary training event’ (Guardian)
"It’s propaganda through actions, not just words"
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‘Trump backs arrest of California governor suing over Guard deployment to LA protests’ (Reuters)
Uhh… well, I’d say “that escalated quickly but… this keep escalating rapidly”… 3pm on June 9 and this is a developing story.
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All politics are local.
‘Popular Stephen Starr restaurants boycotted by Democrats’ (Axios)
I have an ongoing “feud” with Stephen Starr. It’s a bit one-sided shall we say.
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‘Trump admits immigration crackdown is bad for business’ (Morning Brew)
Bad for Mar-a-Lago and Trump’s other businesses.
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::: Small Explorations & Deep Dives :::
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In Death, New Life: The Science And Symbolism of a Whale Fall (Atmos)
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Meet the Inhabitants of the Mythic World of Drexciya (Smithsonian)
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Single Black women on Covid five years later: ‘The pandemic taught me, no regrets’ (Guardian)
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Some AI updates…
Previously normal web traffic to websites has drastically decreased due to Google’s AI Search. Regular searches are also competing with AI searches, in general.
Relatedly, Sam Altman has claimed that an average ChapGPT search uses a very small amount of water. Elsewhere, I’ve seen many references to the fact that video streaming (like Netflix, etc.) use a great deal of water.
Also, there’s ongoing debate as to whether or not humans should be dating AI chatbots. An evolutionary biologist believes AI is an existential threat to humanity. It could be. The hype machine is certainly working just fine. Apparently about 1/3 of Americans believe AI will destroy humanity. 1/3 of those in the field do not think this, to be clear.
This is weird… ‘OpenAI is Dorothy: How ‘The Wizard of Oz’ helps explain the dizzying AI landscape’ (Semafor)
The graphic alone…
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‘Gen Alpha side hustles: How kids are earning big online before they can even drive’ (Fast Company)
Gen Alpha is already finding ways to get paid. Most of this generational cohort is still very young.
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