Every Friday
We’re all collectively starting to breathe again
ICYMI - we hope you took Ian’s midweek advice and didn’t save too much of yourself for the preekend. I (James) had mixed results. Work stress crept in (shoutout dodging layoffs!), and I found myself rushing through the week instead of noticing the good stuff as it happened. But we’re back in the saddle today, trying (yet again) to show up for more than just Friday.
Everyone we know seems to be juggling five things at once - careers, partners, friendships across timezones. For lots of reasons, this year especially has been harder to stay focused on the long game without getting steamrolled by the day-to-day.
New Lorde dropped last week and it pretty much sums it up. Turn it up, take a scroll, and settle into this week’s Relay. We’re mixing up the format a bit (read: we finally took our significant others’ feedback) - let us know what you think. And maybe don’t wait till Friday to feel good about something.
It’s the sides of the mountain which sustain life, not the top.
— Robert M. PirsigTo me, if life boils down to one thing, it’s movement. To live is to keep moving.
— Jerry Seinfeld
Top of Mind
The death of the public intellectual (bea)
It’s also understandable that some hesitate to step into the intellectual sphere today because it feels like everything has already been said and done. We live in a time where every thought, argument, counterargument, and counter-counterargument have already been made and analyzed.
As with what feels like everything in the current age, and despite the title, the public intellectual of today has not died but entered a much more complicated, nuanced, and as bea outlines, specialized role in its engagement with society. We especially resonated with the above sentiment in her writing. When someone has already almost definitely written about that seemingly novel thought we had in the shower, it can be all too easy to just toss in the towel and not contribute to the discourse at all.
Japanese Supermarkets (Drake’s)
The welcoming calls of the staff stacking shelves trill out, mixing with cheery robotic jingles and automated voices announcing seasonal specials over the speakers. The soft, warm scent of fried chicken permeates the air, complemented by the hum of brightly lit refrigerators, the sliding glass doors and the occasional beep of a barcode scanner. To enter a Japanese convenience store (known colloquially as a konbini) is to experience an irresistible microcosm of stimulation that tingles the senses.
The accessibility & quality of a konbini puts a New York bodega to shame. I (Zach) still think about the ease of access to a $1.50 piece of fried chicken 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. On my recent trip to Japan, it was the first stop after the flight and a daily ritual thereafter. From Texas Buc-ees to New York City bodegas, convenience store culture is quirky & hyper-local no matter where you go — but Japan’s felt as close to perfection as possible.
The group chats that changed America (Semafor)
By mid-April, Sacks had had enough with Chatham House: “This group has become worthless since the loudest voices have TDS,” he wrote, shorthanding “Trump Derangement Syndrome.” Then he addressed Torenberg: “You should create a new one with just smart people.” Signal soon showed that three men had left the group: The Sequoia partner Shaun Maguire, the bitcoin billionaire Tyler Winklevoss, and Carlson.
The tech-right reshaped American politics through group chats. What started during the pandemic as casual backchannels became powerful engines of influence. It raises a question: which chats are shaping the world that we’ll never see - because we weren’t invited, or didn’t bother to start one? Neighbors aren’t geographic anymore; they’re digital. And like in this Semafor piece, there are some truly neighborly back-and-forths happening that we’re all dying to eavesdrop on. Mike Waltz if you’re reading this, please accidentally add the Relay boys to the chat.
Operating Multi-Client Influence Networks Across Platforms (Anthropic)
The operation engaged with tens of thousands of authentic social media accounts. No content achieved viral status, however the actor strategically focused on sustained long-term engagement promoting moderate political perspectives rather than pursuing virality.
Anthropic recently released a case study detailing a disinformation campaign it disrupted. The operation used AI to coordinate inauthentic behavior across social platforms. Anthropic, a public benefit corporation, claims its mission is to build reliable, interpretable, and steerable AI systems.
The question of who regulates the internet is old and unresolved. The same now applies to AI. If a group leveraging a model for targeted disinformation, is it the private sector’s job to detect and report it to the DOJ? How much of the billions flowing into Anthropic are actually funding safety - and where’s the line between responsible innovation and doing the DOJ’s job for them?
Best of Substack this Week
ICYMI: Happy Hour Edition
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 Sunday posts you can check out:
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New format is feeling good (who said that)
Hey, thanks so much for the love! I really appreciate it.