Happy Tuesday, September 1st! And happy whole new month, wow!
FYSA, every Tuesday and Friday, I’ll be in your inbox with the latest in politics, tech & social media, culture, and other relevant topics – and I’ll share some notes and tips on what I’m keeping my eye on.
And finally, if you enjoy this newsletter and want to share it with your network (and/or your chronically online friends), or buy me a matcha, that would be so appreciated 🙏
AUTHOR’S NOTE: putting on my law student hat for one second… if you are a progressive/pro-democracy lawyer and/or advocate who works closely with legal matters who is down to offer support/wisdom/advice to law students, please send me a note :)
Millions of Dollars in Secret Spending Could Upend the 2026 Midterms
Secret money is not new. But the pervasiveness has reached industrial scale in 2026 — and serves as a preview of its coming prevalence in 2028. Nearly every major primary and battleground race this fall has been or will be shaped by secret funds. The anonymously sourced expenditures are so big that, in some instances, they are outstripping the spending of campaigns themselves, making candidates seem like bystanders of their own elections. The trend is especially true in primaries. (NYT gift link, 8/31)
Kalshi suspends N.C. GOP candidate for U.S. House for betting on her own campaign
Laurie Buckhout will pay a $2,500 fine in addition to serving a three-year suspension in settling the case, Kalshi announced Monday morning. “I bet on myself. Literally,” Buckhout said in a statement Monday morning. “It was a dumb mistake, and as soon as I learned there was an issue, I worked to make it right.” (Spectrum News, 8/31)
Lucy’s note: “as soon as I learned there was an issue” is crazy, I fear
AOC rejoined DSA this month after 7-year absence
DSA plans to begin its formal presidential endorsement process early next year, and the socialist group’s national leadership is split on whether to endorse her. But DSA chapters in Los Angeles and Atlanta have already passed resolutions calling on her to run for president, and NYC-DSA is expected to pass a similar resolution during its citywide convention in November. (City & State NY, 8/26)
MapQuest’s app surges to No. 1 in Navigation after refusing to rename Lake Ontario
The 30-year-old company remarked that it received “hundreds of thousands” of new downloads since its decision to keep the name Lake Ontario in place, and saw its app’s usage climb to 50 times above its normal levels. Third-party data from market intelligence provider Sensor Tower confirms the surge, noting that MapQuest saw 184,000 and 162,000 total global and U.S. app downloads respectively during the week beginning August 24, each representing an increase of more than 10x week-over-week. (TechCrunch, 8/31)
Pentagon secretly installs military influencers in civilian roles
The Pentagon has secretly installed several conservative military veterans with large online followings in government roles, declining to disclose their assignments as they amplify Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s viewpoints and attack those who scrutinize the Trump administration, according to people familiar with the matter and corroborating material. (WaPo, 8/30 – free version)
Lucy’s note: brutal news week for influencers/the practice of influencing it seems like p. 1
He Was a Top Lawn Care Influencer on YouTube. Then Everything Went Haywire.
Greg filmed skits in which Sharky chased Victoria and Annabelle through the house and stole their candy. The comments were full of praise. “People loved the girls,” Greg said. “They were rooting for us. I was making $1,000 a month.” But there was a pitfall. The fans were easily bored and forever hungry for novelty. He constantly had to devise new ideas — new “seasons,” as he put it. (NYT gift link, 8/30)
We tested how AI chatbots would handle foreign propaganda. They did surprisingly well
All of the chatbots, as well as Google’s AI Overview, correctly pointed out that the premise of the question was faulty. Google’s Gemini wrote that the claim “stems from a Russian disinformation campaign aimed at deflecting blame after a major military strike.” On average, chatbots correctly debunked false narratives about three-quarters of the time. (NPR, 8/30)
Olivia Rodrigo’s Daisy Chain Fields Festival Was a Day Full of Superstars, Nonprofits, and Joy
Rodrigo next teamed up with Morissette — with whom she appeared on the cover of Rolling Stone in 2021 — for a scorching version of Morissette’s classic “Ironic.” Philanthropist Melinda French Gates joined Rodrigo and pledged to double the $10 million being donated. Rodrigo’s final guest was Nicks. Together they performed a showstopping “Landslide,” which found the pair trading verses and dancing together. “She reminds me of me, when I was her age a hundred years ago,” Nicks said of Rodrigo. (Rolling Stone, 8/30 – free version)
Some Gen Z men are ‘pheromone-maxxing.’ What does that mean?
It might not seem like the most natural dating strategy, but some Gen Z men on TikTok are embracing their natural musk. They’re calling it “pheromone-maxxing.” “Stopped washing my hair at all and now I unironically get more compliments on how it smells and looks (from women),” one user posted. “Pheromone maxxing is key.” (USA Today, 8/31)
Lucy’s note: Gen Z 2.0, I’m so sorry… but what is WRONG with y’all!!!
America Fell in Love With Filler. Then Came the Great Deflate
This shift has hit the U.S.’s $3.3 billion facial-injectables market. Average quarterly spending on facial fillers in the U.S. declined from about $970 million in 2023 to $850 million in 2025, according to healthcare data from Guidepoint Qsight. For Juvéderm, one of the market’s most popular fillers, global revenue was down 15% in 2025 from 2024, parent company AbbVie reported, demoting the filler from its status as a billion-dollar product. (WSJ gift link, 8/31)
Americans Still Skeptical That UFOs Are Aliens
Americans were also more inclined to associate UFOs with earthly than supernatural causes the two prior times Gallup measured this, although the alien-skeptical share was higher in 2019 (60%) than in 2021 (50%) and today. Meanwhile, rather than become increasingly convinced that some sightings have been alien spacecraft, the percentage of Americans who are unsure has grown, from 7% in 2019 to 13% in 2026. (Gallup, 8/26)
This Oregon library ditched Dewey Decimal and got people excited about books again
The new Stevens Ranch Central Library in Bend, Oregon, a 100,000-square-foot branch designed by architects from the Miller Hull Partnership, features a new philosophy of organization and engagement. In addition to a new set of shelving units designed to feel more like a bookstore, books were placed using the libraries’ proprietary Wayfinder system. (Fast Company, 8/31)
Could Letterboxd Be Worth $1 Billion?
The industry is littered with cautionary tales. Just last month, Whip Media announced it was shutting down TV Time, a community app similar to Letterboxd, despite its trove of hyper-valuable ratings and genre data. “While we loved supporting TV Time, it was no longer sustainable to continue operating the service as a free app, and there’s not enough demand for a paid app,” the company said in a statement. (Whip Media had harvested its first-party data to sell enterprise B2B analytics, but presumably didn’t see enough engagement to make real money from ads. Or perhaps they just wanted to pivot to A.I.) (Puck, 9/1 – free version)
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Extra Credit 🤓
Substacks That Really Substacked This Week 🤌
Don’t Tell Me What To Do from Rachel Janfaza of The Up and Up
Let Lili Reinhart Slay a Pap Walk in Peace from Stephanie McNeal of Side Chat
Trump’s dumbing down his most important font from Hunter Schwarz of Yello by Hunter Schwarz
Sneaky Links
TL;DR I’ve inexplicably started receiving codes to stuff… here are the things I actually like :)
My BNTO code for August is LC7QE5 for $20 off (if you know me IRL, you know my rant about the Nuulification of the 20-something city dweller)
I also have a code for CampSnap??? And I do love my CS8 camera from them but like I don’t think I said that online? Either way, it’s LUCYR10 for 10% off (updated from 7% woohoo!!)
That’s all for now – I’ll see you on Friday!
Nicely done, Lucy! I really like the way you word and craft your articles, it all comes together really well and makes them enjoyable to read. I especially enjoyed your article on the Oregon library that ditched the Dewey Decimal System and got people excited about books again.
Do you think there’s value in preserving the physical book experience in an increasingly digital world, and could that be beneficial to future generations?