32 Links From Around the Internet That I Promise Are Worth The Click
By Stacy Lee Kong
Image: NHL
Hi, hello. It’s a long weekend, so this week’s newsletter is mostly a list of recommendations for things to read, watch and listen to. But the world feels especially wild right now, so I definitely have a little bit more commentary than I would in our typical link round-up 🤷🏽♀️
Starting with: Jane Doe. I have been thinking about this young woman’s experience of sexual assault at a Cornell frat house basically non-stop since news broke about her civil suit, and you know what I’m finding weirdly jarring? How familiar the discourse feels. Almost every take I’ve read or watched over the past couple of weeks feels like it could have been written in 2016. Because, of course, it was. Or at least, a version of it was. I remember reading so many op-eds, reported features, essays, blog posts and Twitter threads about feminism, misogyny and sexual violence in the early to mid-2010s and feeling inspired that women were conveying their rage, pain, fear and hope for a fairer, safer future so eloquently—and encouraged that outlets were devoting so much space to these issues. I don’t know if I would have articulated it this way at the time, but looking back, it felt like I was watching these women conjure the future they wanted to see, first on the page and soon, hopefully, in real life. So, it’s deeply tragic to read pieces written right now that feel so similar, and to know that actually, we have fewer rights than we did a decade ago, and institutions are perhaps even less inclined to keep us safe. Not that this will stop me from sharing the stories that especially resonated with me, of course. Clearly, we need them more than ever. So: Gaby Del Valle’s piece in The Verge about how little platforms like Substack and X are doing to prevent people from doxxing Doe is well worth a read, both for how clearly it articulates the real motivation for this type of harassment and the way it touches on the importance of solidarity. In Vogue, Emma Specter makes the case for abolishing Greek life on American campuses. Erin Blondeau did a fantastic job of connecting the dots between this case and other incidents of sexual assault, and explaining how they all involve a societal dehumanization of women. And, Noor Ibrahim’s article in Marie Claire about what five young women who were sexually assaulted did the next day is both devastating, and helps illustrate how there is no ‘right’ response. Oh! And, it’s fascinating how racialization works, huh?
Somewhat relatedly: The NYT just published an investigation into a series of coordinated smear campaigns targeting women in Hollywood. Blake Lively is the most high-profile example, but, the report says, other, lesser-known women are suing a trio of comms professionals—lawyer Bryan Freedman, publicist Melissa Nathan and digital strategist Jed Wallace—alleging they used “anonymous websites, fabricated social media posts or promotion of unflattering articles and posts on the internet” to unfairly damage their reputations.
And not technically relatedly, but it does feel adjacent: Cosmo’s take on the NHL’s doomed ‘Hot For Hockey’ campaign perfectly breaks down the many problems with this marketing tactic, and how many of them are rooted in misogyny. (Also: it’s actually weird and terribly misguided for any professional league to pander to BookTok because we already know how that goes.)
A surge of student protests in the U.S., France, Belgium, India and Chile. (Someone on X said October is full of revolutionary hope, and I personally love that.)
Writer Daniel Kolitz’s longread on microdramas, The topic is a depressing/fascinating, but mostly I’m linking because it’s such a good read. (Perhaps important context to this one: a new study that says short-form video affects our ability to perceive time. So… yikes.)
Lake Street Dive’s cover of “I Want You Back.”
Canadian writer, poet and translator Anne Carson just won the Nobel Prize for literature, which means I am obligated to remind us all that she recently wrote this essay/concert review about Rosalía for the London Review of Books. (Also: if you’ve spent any time on tumblr, you’re familiar with her work, perhaps without even knowing it.)
Every single tweet in this thread. And also in this one, for that matter.
Max Read on why everything feels like gambling these days, by which he means culture in 2026 is basically a “postpandemic gamified speculative-trading apocalypse.” (Oof.)
My new favourite Grub Street profile.
The white men who are creating AI musicians via digital Blackface.
A belated recommendation for a Quanta mag piece from June about a scientific mystery involving planarian worms. In the ‘60s, a behavioral psychologist named James McConnell seemingly demonstrated these creatures could store memories in their RNA, before fading into obscurity when other scientists couldn’t consistently replicate his results. Six decades later, planarian worms objectively do not learn, but McConnell’s research is undergoing a bit of a revival.
The Guardian’s dive into the copyright issues around brain rot content.
The most factual tweet that ever was.
Comedian Joe Hegyes’ silly, campy TikTok series set during the Salem Witch Trials.
This GQ feature about r/BoyDinnerDiaries, and by extension, men’s mental health.
Jezebel’s annual scary story contest, which is my favourite Halloween tradition.
These diary entries from a teenager during the Great Depression, and this follow up.
(P.S., if you enjoy these recommendations, a reminder that paid subscribers get access to curated list of the most interesting things on the internet at the end of every newsletter. Upgrade here!)
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