Together with
A day at the races. What a weekend, Future Party people. Between the Indy 500, Monaco Grand Prix, and the series finale of Succession, there were plenty of surprise finishes over the holiday. We hope the ongoing debt ceiling talks (extended to June 5) end slightly less dramatically.
In other news… Bert Kreischer dreams big, Swifties hit the black market, and Neuralink gets the green light to put chips in your brain.
Top Trends
YouTube → No Hard Feelings
Twitter → Margot Robbie
Google → The Little Mermaid
Reddit → Will Ferrell
TikTok → “Gasoline” - Halsey
Spotify → “Retina Show” - Tame Impala
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ENTERTAINMENT
Bert Kreischer has big plans for Berty Boy Productions
The Future. Bert Kreischer and his wife, LeeAnn, are quietly crafting a DIY comedy empire. And since they own and control almost all of the content created, the Kreischer’s — along with Kevin Hart — may be proving that the next big act in comedy is turning your image into an all-entertainment brand.
Big laughs, big impact
Through Berty Boy Productions, the Kreischers have been busy building a “business flywheel of fun,” according to Fast Company.
Bert, a staple on the comedy tour circuit for decades, has a slate of Netflix specials, podcasts, a cooking show on YouTube, and a comedy festival tour.
All those projects feed into each other, such as Kreischer using podcast audience data to determine where to stop on his tour — that has led to big turnouts in places like North Dakota and Mississippi.
Bert is also a relentless marketer on social media (think Ryan Reynolds, but with bigger pants) who has struck brand deals with Liquid Death, Freewaters sandals, Olipop, Manscaped, and Pop-Tarts.
And with this weekend’s release of his first starring movie role, Sony’s The Machine (which is based on his infamous stand-up bit), the Kreischer’s seem to be just getting started.
MUSIC
Taylor’s golden tickets // Illustration by Kate Walker
The ins and outs of the TSwift black market
The Future. Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour, which sees Swift pulling in over $10 million a night (slowly becoming the best-selling tour of all time), has fans scrambling by any means necessary to get their hands on tickets. But with thousands of people posting up in parking lots to listen to a concert because the 70,000-seater stadium is sold out, the truth may be that there is currently no venue big enough to meet the demand of a Swift show.
“You’re On Your Own, Kid”
Of the 14 million people who tried to purchase Swift tickets on Ticketmaster, most came up short… so they’ve gone through some alternative routes to score them.
On resale sites like StubHub and SeatGeek, tickets are going for a starting price of $1,000 — some of which were originally purchased for as low as $49.
When those sites don’t work, fans try private Facebook or Twitter groups that match up buyers and sellers — one Twitter account even gets 2,000 replies per ticket offering.
And with the prices so high, some are bartering in unique ways to pay for the tickets, like the lady who offered the use of her $4,000/day wedding venue in Idaho or the pizza-shop owner in Louisiana who offered free pizza for a year in exchange for tickets.
According to Bloomberg, the Eras Tour may be the perfect demonstration of the economic concept of “inelasticity” — no matter how high the price of a good or service rises, the demand will remain the same.
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TECHNOLOGY
Neuralink is a go for brain-implant human trials
The Future. Elon Musk's brain-interface startup Neuralink has received FDA approval to start human trials, giving the company the go-ahead to implant microchips into actual human brains. While applications to join the clinical trial haven’t opened yet, it may be difficult to find willing participants on the heels of a published leak from Germany’s Handelsblatt that found that Tesla has buried thousands of safety complaints over its Autopilot feature.
MuskMind
Musk has the green light to put chips in your brain.
The microchips, which Neuralink says could help people with paralysis regain movement, bring sight back to the blind, or enhance “able-bodied human performance,” have been approved by the FDA to start human trials.
That surprisingly comes right on Musk’s schedule — last November, he said the company was six months away from getting the go-ahead (after getting denied approval in the past).
They've been tested on monkeys which led to some learning how to play video games, while other animal testing resulted in what some employees have said caused needless suffering and deaths.
While Neuralink will certainly get the most press for the milestone, the company may face competition from Synchron, which has already released results from its first human trials conducted in Australia.
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Highlights
The best curated daily stories from around the web
Media, Music, & Entertainment
As Drake contemplates an eventual retirement from being an active recording artist, it looks as though he may shift his attention to his now-independent label, OVO Sound. Read more → complex
Wes Anderson has no interest in watching the AI-generated videos mimicking his work that is trending on TikTok, so he doesn’t feel too self-conscious about his style. Read more → fastcompany
Independent podcast studios and networks are merging in order to grow to a degree that they actually make money. Read more → bloomberg
Fashion & E-Commerce
This year’s Cannes Film Festival is France’s unofficial fashion week. Read more → businessoffashion
A new digital tool called “Recycle Check” will allow users to check which items can be recycled in their areas via a QR code. Read more → fastcompany
Chanel is boosting sales by making the brand’s premium offerings even more premium. Read more → businessoffashion
Tech, Web3, & AI
After a crop of near-shore shark sightings across the US, New York is deploying drones to keep watch for them at state beaches. Read more → axios
Tools For Humanity, a crypto startup co-founded by OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, has raised $115 million to expand its eye-scanning tech that is used to create a unique digital identity for everyone on the blockchain. Read more → bloomberg
AI robotics startup Figure has generated $70 million in funding to build a humanoid robot, “Figure 01,” that can take on our chores… but mostly deal with labor shortages. Read more → bloomberg
Creator Economy
TikTok is getting to the chatbot game with Tako — an AI that can converse with users and answer questions. Read more → wsj
YouTube is turning off its Instagram-like Stories feature on June 26. Read more → theverge
Livestreaming platform Kick is in hyper-growth mode as it prepares to go to war with Twitch. Read more → tubefilter
Future Forecast
The launch of Death By Bloom, a collection of 111 snapshots of an imagined space created by DJ and world builder Aluna leading to the release of her new album.
Navigate AI and Web 3 confidently with the help of Yaro’s comprehensive coverage of emerging tech.
Traveling the world with Rainn Wilson to unpack the science of happiness.
The baby naming TikTok that predicted the ending of Succession.🤯
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Today's email was brought to you by David Vendrell.Editing by Nick Comney.
Publishing by Sara Kitnick.