Together with
Doomers vs. boomers. The era of AI is here, and people appear to be falling into two clearly-divided camps. On the one hand, there are doomers who claim AI will usher in the end of the world as we know it (complete with robot overlords and killer software). On the other hand, there are boomers (not that kind of boomer) who believe that AI will save us all. Marc Andreessen of a16z falls into the latter category — check out his wild manifesto on why.
In other news… the new golf monopoly, Coldplay’s sustainability success, and the SEC cracks down on crypto.
Top Trends
YouTube → Bottoms
Twitter → The Batman
Google → Cruel Summer
Reddit → Chris Hemsworth
TikTok → “I’m Geekin” – DDG
Spotify → “Carnavoyeur” - Queens of the Stone Age
Was this email forwarded to you? Subscribe
SPORTS
PGA and LIV merge to tee off golf monopoly
The Future. After being bitter rivals for the past year, the PGA Tour and LIV Golf have decided to put down their clubs and merge for the good of the pocketbook… er… the good of the game. With golf experiencing major growth outside the US, the PGA likely sees this as the easiest path to expanding its international footprint.
Par for the course
In the second mega-deal in sports this year, professional golf is making an international merger.
The PGA tour and LIV Golf (which is backed by the Saudi Arabia Public Investment Fund, aka PIF) are merging into a yet-to-be-named, for-profit super league.
The deal, which is expected to be completed in the coming weeks as it seeks approval from the PGA Tour policy board, would allow pros to play in opens across both leagues.
If the leagues officially merge, it would also end all antitrust litigation between the two… and, boy, have lawyers on both sides been working overtime the past year.
PIF, which is run by the Saudi crown prince, plans to pour billions into the league. It’s a move that will only fuel criticism that LIV is a vehicle for Saudi Arabia to “sportswash” its reputation — creating a well-funded, culturally-relevant distraction from its human rights abuses.
Ironically, that’s an opinion that PGA Tour Commissioner Jay Monahan had just last summer.
MUSIC
Cutting carbon // Illustration by Kate Walker
Coldplay’s tour is a big success at creating a small footprint
The Future. Coldplay made good on its promise to make its “Music of the Spheres” tour as green as possible, nearly hitting its ambitious goal of reducing its carbon footprint by 50%. The best part? Their accomplishments never came at the expense of spectacle, and their model may well serve as a blueprint for the rest of the touring industry to get more green without sacrificing the scene.
Electric encore
Backed up by Professor John E. Fernandez of MIT’s Environmental Solutions Initiative, Coldplay shared some of their tour sustainability stats.
It’s produced 47% less emissions than their last stadium tour.
100% of the show’s production is powered by an electric battery system charged in part by kinetic dance floors and stationary bikes.
86% of the reusable, plant-based LED wristbands given out to the audience have been returned.
66% of the tour waste has been diverted from landfills.
A tree has been planted for each concertgoer thus far — about 5 million to date.
Looks like the tour brought in plenty of green, too — over 7 million tickets have been sold since March 2022.
TOGETHER WITH LALA
The Wolf of Wall Street dropping June 20th
Question: Are you really a cinephile if you don’t even own collectibles from your fav film???
Don’t fret. LALA — the world’s first digital collectible marketplace that offers royalties from movies and TV shows — makes it a breeze to own exclusive pieces from iconic movies, starting with… (drumroll please) The Wolf of Wall Street.
Besides deepening your movieholic obsessions, LALA also grants access to exclusive content, communities, events, merch, and even shares in a fractional revenue stream. Jordan Belfort would be proud…
But these aren’t just JPEGs on the blockchain — LALA, founded by Hiram Vazquez and backed by Alexis Ohanian's Seven Seven Six, is revolutionizing how fans engage with film (while dishing out some serious collectibles).
CRYPTO
Crypto in the hot seat // Illustration by Kate Walker
The SEC alleges most of crypto is just unregistered securities
The Future. The Securities and Exchange Commission is taking swings at both Coinbase and Binance, arguing that tokens are nothing more than just unregistered securities and should be governed as such. If the lawsuits prevail, it’ll likely become infinitely harder for the industry to function as it has for the past couple of years and may turn off casual investors from getting involved.
Claws out for crypto
SEC Chair Gary Gensler is getting serious about reigning in the wild world of crypto.
The regulator alleges that popular tokens like Solana, Cardano, and Polygon are all securities.
So, it’s suing Coinbase (the largest exchange in the US) for acting as an illegal exchange for letting users trade unregistered securities.
Earlier this week, the SEC also sued Binance (the biggest exchange in the world) and its CEO, Changpeng Zhao, for violating US securities laws and misusing customer funds.
What does this all mean? The SEC is pushing that there’s very little of the crypto industry that they shouldn’t have oversight of. Additionally, it doesn’t really want crypto to grow, telling banks to avoid the tokens because of their volatility and potential danger to the mainstream financial system.
Seems like crypto may be hanging on for dear life in the US.
Highlights
The best curated daily stories from around the web
Media, Music, & Entertainment
Although the season 3 finale of Ted Lasso seemed like the definitive end to the series (as co-creator and star Jason Sudeikis had intended), Apple is cryptically teasing that a Ted-less spinoff may be in the cards. Read more → deadline
RTFKT, the Web3 sneaker startup acquired by Nike, has signed with CAA as it plans to expand into interactive storytelling. Read more → thr
AMC Theatres is shutting down its streaming service (yes, it had one), AMC Theatres On Demand, and moving its entire subscriber base over to the Fandango-owned Vudu. Read more → variety
Fashion & E-Commerce
Armani has planted an experimental agroforestry plantation — planting trees around existing crops and pastures — in Italy to grow sustainable cotton. Read more → businessoffashion
Angelina Jolie’s new fashion startup, Atelier, has chosen to partner with French fashion house Chloé on its first collection, which will only incorporate deadstock. Read more → hypebeast
Former Google CEO Eric Schmidt is backing a payment platform called Keeta that hopes to be the Venmo of cross-border transactions — a process that typically is slow, requires going through several banks, and has hefty associated fees. Read more → techcrunch
Tech, Web3, & AI
Mega-VC firm Sequoia Capital announced that it’s splitting into three separate firms — Sequoia Capital in the US and Europe, HongShan in China, and Peak XV Partners in Indian and Southeast Asia — as it tries to wrangle competing interests, brand confusion, and geopolitical headaches. Read more → forbes
It’s official: Linda Yaccarino, the former ad boss at NBCUniversal, started her position on the perch of Twitter yesterday. Read more → techcrunch
Autonomous-vehicle company Cruise is partnering with meal-finding nonprofit Replate to pick up would-be-discarded extra food at restaurants and businesses and deliver them to in-need organizations around San Francisco. Read more → fastcompany
Creator Economy
The WWE is officially getting in the ring with Twitch to bring “live and exclusive content” to the livestreaming platform. Read more → tubefilter
Croatian filmmaker Filip "Philatz" Filkovic used Midjourney to create an Ikea catalog of bomb shelters, and it’s darkly hilarious. Read more → insider
Chili’s has hired ad agency Mischief to build a marketing campaign around a viral TikTok from bridal influencer Madison Mulkey that detailed how she catered her wedding for under $2,000 using the fast-casual chain. Read more → tubefilter
Like what you see? Subscribe Now or Partner With Us
Today's email was brought to you by David Vendrell.
Editing by Melody Song. Publishing by Sara Kitnick.