Recommended Reading: Ted Lasso and the American decline
The new comedy of American decline
Megan Garber, The Atlantic
The so-called American decline isn’t a myth. One study found that well over half of Americans think the US is on the downward slope. Fortunately, even as America’s exceptionalism has been laid bare over the last few years, comedy has some new material. And even streaming series like Ted Lasso and Emily in Paris that offer escapism are contending with, as Garber puts it, “waning national myths.”
“Look at what we love. It’s on fire”: Stephen Colbert on Trump trauma, leadership and loss
Joe Hagan, Vanity Fair
2020 has been a tough year for everyone, there’s no doubt about that. However, if your job was to monitor the every maneuver of an objectively insane White House, you have an entirely separate set of stressors to deal with. Vanity Fair caught up with Stephen Colbert to discuss just that, as well as what he’s looking forward to most in a new administration.
The children of Pornhub
Nicholas Kristof, The New York Times
There’s no denying the popularity of Pornhub when it comes to free access to adult content on the internet. However, the site faces a seemingly insurmountable task with content moderation. It has vowed to “eradicate illegal material,” but when users can download that content when it’s active and continue to upload it afterwards, keeping that promise is a vicious cycle. And a lot of victims are paying the price.
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