Every Friday
Bitcoin is at a 3 month low so I’m blowing my bonus and none of you can stop me.
Relay or Nowhere
We’re so back team. Hope good things fell in your lap to wrap up February. After last weeks slog we’re grabbing some happiness while it’s here: job offer ✓ Tokyo marathon ✓ Bachelor bender recovery ✓ NYC birthday weekend ✓
If that team update was too sincere for you (we’re all about balance here at Relay), here’s the worst AI video ever posted by the sitting leader of the free world as a palette cleanser. This is not a take on economic development in Gaza—we would never folks.
Lord Varys - sorry we mean Elon Musk - spent the week irritating cabinet members by requesting their underlings send the five bullet Friday to the Doge inbox. His approval rating might be plummeting but you know what isn’t? Morale over here on Substack :) like comment subscribe.
Andrew Tate, the measles, and Christianity are also so back as of this week (yes, this list is incredibly cursed). Gen Z seems to have finally leveled off the steep downward trend that’s been plaguing Christianity in the states for the last decade. Our moms are all jazzed up.
Legacy media was completely shut out of the Epstein Files drop - we’re not entirely sold its going to be the blockbuster it’s hyped up to be but major news outlets just cant seem to catch a break.
As always, thanks for reading. Toss this on before you start scrolling.
“It is a serious thing just to be alive on this fresh morning in the broken world.”
- Mary Oliver
“… which is that humans are the same everywhere and that the degree of variation between members of our species is very slight.”
- Christopher Hitchens
Top of Mind
Behind The Screens
Some are saying Microsoft is killing Skype, transitioning users to Microsoft Teams. Please god not more Microsoft Teams. Acquired in 2011 for $8.5 billion, Skype once dominated video calls but with evolving communication needs and the rise of integrated platforms, Microsoft is consolidating its services to focus on Teams. Surely Skype gets less hate than Teams. Can we kill them both?
Cal Newport. The productivity-minded folk’s messiah (and for good reason) wrote a feel-good piece on an experience of the internet that harkened back to the “good old days”. We hope Relay can be your very own version of the Talk Nats blog.
If you’re a Red Rising or Altered Carbon (stick to season one) fan, you’ll like this sci-fi style account of our near-immediate future. Warning. We do not recommend this for bedtime reading unless you want to spiral. Proceed with caution.
From Washington
Another week of pivotal crypto lore and murky regulation. The SEC closing its investigation into OpenSea marks a turning point for NFTs and the broader crypto industry. By not classifying NFTs as securities, the decision removes a major regulatory hurdle that could have stifled innovation. This follows a similar move with Coinbase, hinting at a more favorable stance toward crypto under the current administration. For builders and investors in Web3, this signals a crucial moment of opportunity—regulatory clarity can mean the difference between rapid growth and stagnation.
“I am also directing you to conduct an immediate investigation into why my order to the FBI was not followed. You will deliver to me a comprehensive report of your findings and proposed personnel action within 14 days.” — Attorney General Pam Bondi
We’re dying to know if Kash is cooked and what his play is here. Attorney General Pam Bondi has accused the FBI of withholding critical documents related to the Jeffrey Epstein investigation. In a letter to FBI Director Kash Patel, Bondi revealed that, despite her repeated requests, she received only about 200 pages, primarily flight logs and contact lists. She later learned that the FBI's New York field office possesses thousands more pages that were not disclosed. Tim Dillion please do an emergency episode on this—the people need you.
Ctrl+Alt+Culture
“Spending forty days without my phone did not make me magically happier. I wasn’t awed by the sunrise every morning. I didn’t suddenly find that all my relationships were so much deeper and richer. I did find myself ambiently uncomfortable in situations that had previously been helpfully smoothed over by a glowing screen. I got bored. I got lost.”
The phone takes a lot of heat for making everyone’s mental state worse. Jonathan Haidt has clearly pointed out that a lot of it is completely warranted. Sam Kriss tested it out and had a refreshing, honest take on what happened during forty days and forty nights phone-less. A less dramatic change than a lot of us would expect.
War is brutal, indifferent to progress. Drones, AI, and cyber warfare have changed tactics, but not the suffering, destruction, or chaos. Each generation believes its conflicts are more advanced, more precise, more humane—yet war remains the same. The tools evolve, but the violence endures. For those shaping the future, this is the lesson: technology may change how we fight, but never what war is. Read more on this in The Lindy Newsletter, another banger from one of Relay’s favorites.
We’ve built a world where distraction is the default—always plugged in, always stimulated, never fully present. But what happens when we strip away the noise? The unintentional raw dog forces us to confront the moment. Without artificial hype, focus deepens. Awareness sharpens. Discomfort isn’t something to avoid, but something to lean into.
Personally, I don’t see myself abandoning the Airpods anytime soon but it’s something to think about. — Ian
It’s Not That Deep, Randy
I’m in a serious “find odd website design” phase - Jack
^^ Also Big Booty 25
Working Title, Sunday
We published our first Sunday edition of Relay last week! Give it a read and hit Jack with a comment.
ICYMI: Happy Hour Edition
Web design peaked in 1996 (max nussenbaum)
How to Start a Commonplace Book (and Why You Need One) (milk and cookies)
On Steve Jobs, Drugs, AI, Risk and the Enduring Magic of Silicon Valley (Core Memory)
NYC on 35mm (it’s ursula’s world)
Alex Karp’s Fight for the West (The Free Press)
How to Make Superbabies (lesswrong)
I Can Explain Why the Nazi Salute Is Back (The Free Press)
Stripe bounces back to $90bn-plus valuation after surge in AI demand (Financial Times)
Thanks for reading—or for mega scrolling all the way down here.
The competition for our clicks, attention, and time has never been fiercer. More apps, more news, more of everything. Big Tech has centralized the web, commoditizing our screen time and dictating how we consume information. As our online selves continue to age, how do we ensure we’re truly tuned in—not just absorbing, but thinking critically?
Relay is a collective effort to distill information across tech, politics, and culture. It stands in direct opposition to the hollow drift toward cheap consumption, regrettable minutes, empty engagement, and a distorted understanding of the real world. It’s a refusal to let algorithms erode our ability to think critically—and an invitation to participate meaningfully, despite apathy becoming the social norm.
We’re focused on more signal, less noise. Tag along (it’s free).
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