Never News: What hath the Eyes of Mr. Peanut seen?

[Imagine me clanging a very loud and unpleasant-sounding bell]

HEAR YE HEAR YE! This is a reminder to you all that it is outrageously easy to become a member of our paid subscriber list, where you shall reap in the delights of extended segments! No ads on our episodes! An AI version of my own voice helping you go to sleep!!!! My own mother used that audio of AI me to try to fall asleep one night — it unleashed such profound existential queries into my psyche that I shall never be the same and YOU COULD BE NEXT!

You know where to go to access these incredible treasures: neverpo.st, then click "become a member." And now! We shall begin the dispersal of the news.

Some Internet aperitifs...

The latest in surreal moments captured for the Internet: Abe Lincoln at the airport. From Spain, a new anti-dating apps method of finding singles in your area that involves either an upside-down pineapple, a bag of lentils, or a head of lettuce (depending on what you're looking for). Fake AI bands, fake listeners, but a very real $10 million. A delightful report from the unsanctioned Brooklyn goldfish pond, which looks so shockingly lovely I was amazed?? And finally, Snapchat reserves the right to put your face in an ad, apparently.

Also also! Our beloved producer and researcher Audrey Evans was featured on an excellent entry in Plugging In, the blog by Oldster Magazine. In it, Audrey talks about aging online, and how being on the Internet affects the way we get older. It's a topic that we're going to cover soon (!!!) on the show, so this is a lovely teaser for that upcoming segment!

And now, the main courses...

ROLLING STONE: How 9/11 got turned into a meme

This is one of those articles that perfectly identifies something that I had vaguely logged somewhere in the back of my mind but never thought about directly. It wasn't long after the attacks on the World Trade Center that people started, in fits and starts, to joke about it. Some of those attempts famously flopped, while others became the stuff of heavily online in-jokes, like the kind of "jet fuel can't melt steal beams"-style humor that was especially popular in the 2010's. But, as this article expertly explores, the online meme-ification of 9/11 has evolved into something different as the cultural memory of that event, the people involved in/around it, and the War on Terror have changed in the public imagination. Regardless of how you feel about the jokes themselves, there's some really interesting stuff in here.

SHOW NEWS: Extended cuts, Posts From The Field, and interstitials!!

Boy oh boy do I have lots of fun stuff for you this week. FIRSTLY, we have, incoming, extended segments of BOTH segments from Flashing Eyes In Which My Hopes Rise — Mike's conversation with Don Caldwell about the legacy of the laser eyes meme, and our conversation (including me, your beloved narrator) from our segment What Is Going On Here? SECONDLY, we'll have Hans's amazing audio from the Minnesota State Fair for Posts From The Field (if you're already an Every Post+ member, you already have access to it!). And THIRDLY AND FINALLY, we want to hear from you about posts that changed your life! Email us at theneverpost@gmail.com, send us a voice memo via airtable, or leave us a voicemail at 651-615-5007!!

404 MEDIA: Harris campaign makes ads for the brain-rotted masses

There's no question that the methods used to attract young voters have noticeably changed this election cycle. But this latest move by Kamala Harris's campaign team is uniquely interesting to me. A string of campaign videos have been popping up online that employ a style of video that is notably modern and also ubiquitous for lots of us: a video showing two split-screen clips, one that is actually meant to be the "content" of the video, and another that simply provides visually stimulating...stuff. Things like a hydraulic press squishing candles, or gameplay from Subway Surfers. These videos are used to keep the attention of users who might not be easily drawn in by a single video clip of someone talking, or a scene from a movie. And Kamala HQ has decided to recreate that exact style of video for their campaign ads, showing clips of the current VP up top, while another clip of nonthreatening, vaguely pointless visual stimulation plays silently below. I don't know how to feel about this, so I merely present it to you as "huh!"

THE WALL STREET JOURNAL: Skinny is the new skinny, of course

Note: this article discusses disordered eating

The online influencer ecosystem has never fully sloughed off the terrible, age-old practice of fat-shaming, though it's hard not to feel like there's been a noticeable uptick in that ole chestnut as of late. Much has been written about the pendulum swing away from body positivity/body neutrality of the 2010's and back toward the ultra skinny beauty standards that plagued the 2000's. But this piece in WSJ does a good job of showcasing just how pervasive that kind of content can be, and often is, with the specific example of TikTok creator Liv Schmidt. There's also interesting points in here about how an app like TikTok, which relies so heavily on an algorithm to feed you relevant videos, is attempting to undermine content that could promote disordered eating.

Et voila, we've reached the end of this installment of Never News. It's still approximately a billion degrees here in Chicago, where I live, which I know I will miss come February but I currently find very annoying. The desperation with which I crave the crisp fall weather is unshakeable and all-consuming! Though in time, all things pass.

And finally, this is exactly how it feels to bring you the newsletter every two weeks: