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This week’s newsletter is brought to you by getting up at 6 a.m. thanks to falling back and having a whole extra hour to do a face mask and shuffle around in the morning.

Good Reads

Watch This Guy Work, and You’ll Finally Understand the TikTok Era (Wired)

This was the biggest thinker of the week for me because not only was it a headline that over-delivered, but it touched on several ideas I’ve been trying to wrap my head around. One I’ve grappled with this week was a LinkedIn post from my former R29 co-worker and finance writer Lindsey Stanberry (subscribe to her publication, The Purse, for more) about noticing that legacy women’s media sites are disappearing or losing influence. In the comments, someone remarked that it was because those publications were all subsisting on money from beauty and fashion, and brands are now pivoting that money to influencers instead — and economic idea this piece gets into the weeds with. The story also goes into how every aspect of the music industry has leaned into predictive analytics to find viral hits, which is something I’ve long had an issue with. Reading this helped me solidify why: we’re outsourcing the job of curation to AI. Whether it’s done by humans, who some call gatekeepers, or computers, which are just another form of gatekeeper, it yields an imperfect result and ultimately is another form of outsourcing jobs to computers.

A Trans Teen in an Anti-Trans State (New Yorker)

Just a heartbreaking read if you missed it. This is an in-depth look at the financial, emotional, and familial hardships that the anti-trans laws focused on kids 18 and under. For people who hold the family unit in such high esteem, the anti-trans brigade sure don’t trust parents of trans kids or care if they rip those families apart.

Is This the Trick to Online Dating? (Gloria)

Have you heard of the “burned haystack” method? This article breaks it down, and while I’m not currently dating and am having a “Courtney gets whatever she wants fall,” I will be implementing this next time I feel the desire to go back on apps. Also, speaking of women’s media, if you’re missing it and are a middle-aged woman, go subscribe to Gloria. Its weekly newsletter is full of good stuff.

Making Music Festivals Safer for a Diverse Group of Musicians (The Nashville Scene)

This is the best accounting of the issues queer artists faced at this year’s AmericanaFest, despite its programs to make the fest, and by default the genre, inclusive. The institutional response is a frustrating read that’s excellently reported by Rachel Cholst, who also runs Rainbow Rodeo, a site and newsletter focused on queer country.

Good Stuff

Priscilla (A24, in theaters now)

I went to see it over the weekend, and it was gorgeous and heartbreaking. It has the beauty and understatement of Sofia Coppola and is based on Priscilla Presley’s autobiography, which, if you haven’t read it, is a highly disillusioning story of a controlling relationship that she grows out of as she becomes a woman. I knew it was going to be spicy when I read about Lisa Marie Presley’s letters of disapproval to Coppola, and yet her mom is an EP on the film. And obviously, I love to see stories where a woman who has been relegated to the non-speaking role of “woman” becomes the main character.

Caroline Polachek: Tiny Desk Concert (NPR)

I haven’t been able to get “Sunset” out of my head since I watched it. Her voice is just so good.

My Stuff

I’m thrilled to share that Have You Heard This One? has been a smashing success, with more subscribers and downloads in the first three episodes than we could have dreamed of. Thanks to everyone who has given it a listen. The whole team appreciates it — and by the way, this show is produced by an all-woman team. If you haven’t yet, maybe check it out.

How the Heritage Table Became a ‘Restaurant Following a Vision’ (Eater Dallas)

At the end of August, I was invited up to Frisco to meet the chef and have a guided tour of what he’s doing because he saw a write-up of his restaurant on a map on the site and thought perhaps I didn’t get what it was. And he was right — it was something that was clarified after I ate there, and we talked through how he put some of the dishes together and where he sourced his food. This story gets into the ethics of how he sources all his food, the dish his kitchen created to make a whole-animal program a reality, and is accompanied by some stunning photography by Kathy Tran.