Every Friday

We're going Santa mode

We’re officially on the downhill slope toward Christmas and begging clients to log off, step away from the inbox, and grab a drink. We hope you’ve secured your gifts—the cut-off for delivery by the 25th is, unfortunately, upon us.

Three-quarters of Relay is co-hosting a holiday party at our casa tonight. We’re hoping the Nashville crew rolls up (or joins us at Santa’s after).

Happy Christmas, crew — scroll on down.

Olivia Dean’s “Man I Need” has been on a wave for the past few months. The feature this week is exclusively for the fellas. Scream and shout this in the car.

You will never touch the hearts of others, if it does not emerge from your own.

— Alex Karp

“A rule of thumb with humor; if you worry that you might be going too far, you have already not gone far enough. If everybody laughs, you have failed.”

— Christopher Hitchens

Top of Mind

Inside Kendall Jenner’s Cozy Grandma-Chic Mountain Home, (AD)

“Jenner was craving a rural escape to spend homey summer weekends with friends that felt well-loved and lived in, as if had been there for a while.”

Designer Heidi Caillier absolutely cooked here. I know of exactly one home designer - Heidi - and she is now my favorite. I don’t know if I could live in a home for 40 years and pop out on the other side with something that feels so well lived in and exudes so much taste. Taste is not usually quantifiable, but this place has it in spades.

Companies Are Desperately Seeking ‘Storytellers’, (WSJ)

“Compliance technology firm Vanta this month began hiring for a head of storytelling, offering a salary of up to $274,000.”

Storytellers were the story of the week. The latest in the hype-driven hiring cycle of companies trying to stay on top of the zeitgeist. It’s now a reality for most of us that things are moving so fast out there that you pretty much need to be chronically online to keep up with it. With more content than ever, companies are scrambling to figure out a way to differentiate themselves from the noise, this appears to be the latest and greatest strategy.

What we’re really looking at with a storyteller is a more artistic, maybe more “human” (for all the human-centric branding users out there) framing of brand and marketing, but the massive amount of intrigue about this new move towards storytelling shows how much brands are really leaning into the change.

The 26 Most Important Ideas For 2026, (Derek Thompson)

“As the AI buildout continues to pull electricity and manpower from other parts of the economy—and as it creates a new class of AI billionaires and near-trillionaires—it seems inevitable to me that the future of populist politics is going to revolve around attacking AI and its architects, for better or worse.”

While you could argue this should live in the Best of Substack section below, this piece by Derek Thompson deserves extra attention. The start and end of a year always creates space for reflection and prediction. Many of these are obvious, but seeing the collection of ideas paints a specific picture. I’ll let you, the reader, feel for yourself; however, it is worth introspection.

Some of my favorites include:

• 1. The end of reading

• 6. Get ready for a wave of anti-AI populism

• 21. America’s “monks in the casino” are calling for help

Don’t miss our latest Relay Shared Album.

ICYMI: Happy Hour Edition

• Our hottest happy hour conversation topic this week was on this idea. How far are prediction markets going to go? All the way? Let us know in the comments.

Someone started shorting iRobot, the Roomba vacuum maker who has as of this week filed for bankruptcy, all the way back in 2015.

• Read about how he identifies his bearish targets

The Second Industrial Revolution unfolded as American industrialists built the corporate and financial machinery needed for industrial-scale production. Out of this crucible came not only new machines but new forms of management, bureaucracy, and social organization that, over the course of a century, would be imitated, adapted, and imposed across nearly every society on Earth. The United States was the birthplace of the technological republic.

• The Making of a Techno-Nationalist Elite

Best of Substack this Week

• The Castle with All-You-Can-Drink Guinness
  – First Class Jerk

• The Print Edition (print media is back again)
  – Michael Williams David Coggins

• What To Buy That Improves Quality of Life (had to share one gift guide, we thought this was a thoughtful take)
  – Ryan Peterman

This Week in Relay’s Shopping Cart

Carl Striped Polo In Merino Wool, (Jack)

My girlfriend picked this Alex Mill sweater up for me the other day while we were holiday shopping. It’s the ticket.

Gisele TENCEL™ Modal Long PJ Set, (Zach)

Inversely this week, featuring something I gave as a gift. I personally think an overpriced essential or luxury replacement of something the recipient would never buy themselves, is a perfect gift. These Eberjey PJs perfectly fall into this category.

It’s Not That Deep, Randy

Thanks for reading—or for mega scrolling all the way down here.

The internet is an overwhelming mess of headlines, ads, and mid takes from the worst people you know. Big Tech owns our attention spans. Everything is content. Nothing makes sense.

We’re not here to “fix discourse” or “build a better internet.” Relay is just our attempt to riff on what we’re already talking about at happy hour without feeling like we’ve been hit by a content truck. Some analysis, some memes, call it a day.

You might like it. Tag along.

We also have Quick Reflections you can check out:

• Beyond what do you do

• Five Ways Not To Drink An Iced Coffee

• Requiem for Travel

• Media way stations from the summer that refuses to end.

Subscribe and leave us a comment so we know you’re out there.