The Best Paragraph I've Read...

The Best Paragraph I've Read...Is from multiple articles from the Economist Magazine. Zac & Don Briefly discuss the following topics: Iran Divides Into 30,000 Units? USA Travel Deficit? Paying to Avoid Russia's Frontline? Decline Gulf Remittances? Reducing Buffett Waste? Ukraine = Drone Experts? More Nuclear States?

The Best Paragraph I've Read:"I have driven cross-country four times, at least if you count a 3/4 trip as valid.  I also have driving experience in virtually all states, including Hawaii and Alaska, neither of which would be part of typical cross-country travel.I recommend this mode of transport highly, especially for the United States.  Here are a few observations:"This paragraph was written by Tyler Cowen on his blog Marginal Revolution. You can read the full blog post here.Zac & Don discuss professor Cowen's rules for driving across America.

The Best Paragraph I've Read...Comes from an essay in the New York Times titled: "How Can America Be So Miserable When It Is So Rich?" The essay is written by David French. You can read the full essay here.

The Best Paragraph I've Read comes from the following two articles in the Wall Street Journal:Reclassifying Your 8th Grader for NIL & Scholarship OpportunitiesMost Elite Adults were NOT Elite as Children

The Best Paragraph I've Read:comes from the following articles that Zac & Don discuss:Nuclear Predictions Markets Are CanceledShould You Work Harder Now?Bitcoins Vibe is OffEducation Tech Doesn't Show GainsNo One Cares About Tik Tok AnymoreSingle Earning Households On the DeclineThe Russian Economy Is Dying

The Best Paragraph I've Read:"Open land represents the future in its purest form — after all, every place was no place at some point. The quest for resources, escaping bondage or seeking places to worship freely have all motivated new settlements and fresh modes of living. Buildings, sure, but also a chance to improve society in a place where the future looms larger than the past."This paragraph comes from the New York Times. The article is titled: "Maybe America Needs Some New Cities." The article is written by Conor Dougherty. You can read the full article here.Zac & Don discuss the idea of building cities from fresh land. They wonder what the pros and cons are. They also wonder if they will just become the same places with the same problems once people move in.

The Best Paragraph I've Read:"By turning childhood into a thing that can be measured,adults have managed to impose their greatest fears of failure onto the youngest among us. Each child who strays from our standards becomes a potential medical mystery to be solved, with more tests to take, more metrics to assess. The onlything that seems to consistently evade the detectives is the world around that child — the one made by the grown-ups."This article comes from the New York Times. The title is: "Are Schools a Problem?" The author is Sam Sifton. You can read the full article here.Zac & Don are joined by their good friend Dave McKay. The three discuss whether schools and their system of standards should be blamed for the rise in childhood anxiety. They wonder if it is possible phones are being unfairly blamed.

Don tells Zac whether he needs to stop or keep thinking about the following issues:Robots taking JobsThe Southern Cone ThesisChina's Growing Aircraft Carrier CollectionGreenland's Subsidized PopulationThe Dollars Declining Value

The Best Paragraph this week comes from Kent Hendrick's Blog Post on 52 Things I Learned in 2025. You can read the entire blog here.Zac and Don discuss their favorite facts and statistics that Mr. Hendricks shares in his article.

The Best Paragraph I've Read comes from the new book by Chuck Klosterman, "Football."Zac & Don discuss the first half of the book. They wonder about why so few people play the game, if it's the perfect TV product, whether the game is applied track, and more!

The Best Paragraph I've Read:"With home affordability increasingly out of reach, many young adults are making choices that are reshaping the economy — and mostly for the worse — a new research paper says. They don’t think they’ll ever be homeowners. So they stop trying, and focus on the here and now.That’s the interpretation put forth by economists Seung Hyeong Lee and Younggeun Yoo — doctoral candidates at Northwestern University and the University of Chicago,respectively — who built a mathematical model of consumer behavior. When people conclude that they will never be able to afford a home, they put less effort into their jobs, tend to spend more on luxuries and do less long-term saving, and are more likely to invest in riskier assets such as cryptocurrencies, the economists’ findings suggested."This paragraph comes from the Washington Post. The article is titled: "Abandoning home ownership may be changing how people behave at work and home." The author is Julie Zauzmer Weil. You can read the full article here.Zac and Don discuss whether it is a big deal if younger adults have given up on home buying. They wonder if it's better to spend disposable income on eating out more and purchasing crypto instead of saving for a house. They also wonder if eventually younger home buyers will come into the market just later in life.

The Best Paragraph I've Read:"Money is a source of mystery to children. They sense its power, so they ask questions, lots of them, over many years. Why isn’t our house as big as my cousin’s? Why can’t I have a carnivorous plant terrarium? Why should I respect my teachers if they earn only $60,000 per year? (Real question!) Are we poor? Why didn’t you give money to the man who asked you for some? If my sister can have Hello-Kitty-themed Beats by Dre headphones, why won’t you get me the Bluetooth-enabled Lego Mindstorms set? (It’s only $349, and it’s educational, Mom!) We adults, however, tend to do a miserable job of answering. We push our children’s money questions aside, sometimes telling them that their queries are impolite, or perhaps worrying that they will call out our own financial hypocrisy and errors. Sometimes we respond defensively and viscerally, barking back, “None of your business,” unintentionally teaching our children that thetopic is off limits despite its obvious importance. Others want to protect their children from a topic many of us find stressful or baffling: Can’t we keep them innocent of all of this money stuff for just a little bit longer? But shielding children from the realities of everyday financial life makes little sense anymore, given the responsibilities their generation will face, startingwith the outsize college tuitions they will encounter while still in high school."This paragraph comes from the New York Times. The article is titled: "Why You Should Tell Your Children How Much You Make." The author is Ron Lieber. You can read the full article here.Zac & Don discuss whether it is a good idea to tell your children how much money you make. They wonder what the benefits are and if there are any problems with the issue. They also reference the following Wall Street Journal article about No Swipe November.

The Best Paragraph I've Read:"The power line starts in a remote desert in northwestChina, where vast arrays of solar panels and wind turbines generate electricity on a monumental scale. It snakes southeast, following an ancient river betweenmountain ranges before reaching Anhui Province near Shanghai, home to 61 million people and some of China’s most successful electric car and robot manufacturers.That’s a single power line. China has 41 others. Each iscapable of carrying more electricity than any utility transmission line in the United States. That’s partly because China is using technology that makes its lines far more efficient than almost anywhere else in the world. The feat isowed to China’s ambitious national energy policies and the fact that few residents along the path of these lines dare object — even though the lines cause small electric shocks that local people said they could feel when holding a metal fishing pole."This paragraph comes from the New York Times. The article is titled "How China Powers Its Electric Cars and High-Speed Trains." The author is Keith Bradsher. You can read the full article here:https://www.nytimes.com/2025/10/11/business/china-electric-grid.htmlZac & Don discuss China and some of its latest engineering achievements. At the same time they discuss some of its potential problems such as 200 million gig workers. They then make connections to the Abundance movement in America and wonder what the future holds for both nations. Zac & Don also reference the following articles:China has a surplus of electric cars and is cutting prices.China has 200 million gig workers.China is the nation of engineers while America is a nation of lawyers.

The Best Paragraph I've ReadIf civilization is accelerating down a freeway that’s taking us away from our shared humanity—not to mention destroying the ecosystems we depend on—at whatexit do we get off? Artificial intelligence, new medical interventions, and other modern marvels allow us some choice about which natural limits we accept, and which we decide to blow past. According to Kingsnorth, each person must make individual decisions about where to begin “drawing a line, and saying ‘no further.’” Will you watch television shows written by large language models? Will you let the machines craft your emails, your college essays, obituaries for your loved ones? Will you get an AI-enabled virtual girlfriend? Will you let AI into your life knowing that data centers are metastasizing, while already-parched deserts are drained dry to cool them, while contentmoderators in Africa labor in quasi-slave conditions, sorting through images of beheadings and child abuse? Will you draw the line at letting algorithms design your baby? When the time comes, will you get your chip? Your brain-computer interface? Will you upload your consciousness to the cloud?"This paragraph comes from the Atlantic. The article is titled: "What A Cranky New Book About Progress Gets Right." The author is Tyler Austin Harper. You can read the full article here.Zac & Don discuss whether we are living in a limitless society and culture. They wonder if humans without limits is a problem or if it's as it has always been.

The Best Paragraph I've Read comes from an article in The Athletic. The article is titled: "Looking for the world's biggest stadiums? Why American College Football has most of them." The author is Seth Emerson. You can read the full article here:https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/6736868/2025/10/23/college-football-biggest-stadiums-world/Zac & Don are joined by their good friend Kevin Kopec. The three discuss why college football happens to claim most of the largest football stadiums in the world. They discuss some of their favorite stadiums and wonder why no other college has tried to build anything larger than Michigan Stadium.

The Best Paragraph I've Read comes from the Washington Post. The article is titled: "An investor called $140,000 the new poverty line. Experts disagreed but said he had a point." The article is written by Julie Zauzmer Weil. You can read the full article here:https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2025/11/29/poverty-line-green/Zac & Don discuss whether America's new poverty line is $140,000 or why such a number can trigger such debate. They discuss what the poverty line is but also wonder why so many people can "feel" a number four times bigger is accurate.

The Best Paragraph I've Read:"With investors that include venture capitalist PeterThiel and Donald Trump Jr., Enhanced is attempting to push sports into a world of logical and physical extremes, unencumbered by the rules, regulations or doping controls of traditional competition. They plan to host their ownOlympic-style competition in Las Vegas next year with a roster that already includes the British swimmer Ben Proud, who won silver at Paris 2024, and U.S. sprinter Fred Kerley, a multiple world champion. T he World Anti-Doping Agency has called it a “dangerous and irresponsible” undertaking. Seb Coe, the president of World Athletics, dismissed any participants as “moronic.” But organizers argue that they aresimply more transparent than the regular Olympics—and finally paying athletes what they deserve."This paragraph comes from the Wall Street Journal. The article is titled: "Faster, Higher, Stronger-and Full of Drugs. The Billionare Quest to Hack Sports." The article is written by Joshua Robinson. You can read the full article here.Zac & Don discuss The Enhanced Games and their desire to be transparent about which athletes are taking drugs to improve their performance. They wonder if this approach is honest, sad, or still just cheating.

The Best Paragraph I've Read:"Skipper Robert Hanson’s lines have been hit by lots ofthe killer whales that dwell in the Bering Sea. He has found the Unalaska pod to be the most savvy, skilled and aggressive — leaving just traces of halibut, the largest of which could have netted Hanson hundreds of dollars apiece.“Most of the time, you get nothing. Sometimes a lip, or ahalf a fish, if they get full,” Hanson said. “They are particularly good at what they do.”'This paragraph comes from Northern Journal. The article is titled: "In Alaska, fishing skippers and hungry orcas vie for halibut pulled from the deep." The article is written by Hal Bernton. You can read the full article here:https://www.northernjournal.com/in-alaska-fishing-skippers-and-hungry-orcas-vie-for-halibut-pulled-from-the-deep/Zac & Don discuss Orcas! They wonder if this animal has had the best decade out of the animal kingdom in terms of news coverage. They also discuss Orcas attacking yachts and eating shark livers and the other ways the animal is impacting the oceans.

The Best Paragraph I've Read:"Think of it this way. All college graduates enter acareer lottery for a chance at landing in the top 1% of earners. Recent research has found that graduates of top-ranked schools like Harvard or Stanford are 60% more likely to hit that jackpot. Essentially, they get two tickets in the lottery while graduates of public flagship universities get one. But even with that extra ticket, the vast majority of elite-college graduates aren’t winning the lottery either. Attending an IvyLeague university does open doors, but it’s not the guarantee of extraordinary success that parents seem to think. Nor does attending a different school preclude you from achieving great things."This paragraph comes from the Wall Street Journal. The article is titled: "The Elite College Myth." The author is Jeffrey Selingo. You can read the full article here.Zac & Don discuss the merits of the Elite College Myth argument. They discuss the data that shows most college grads can end up the same when it comes to long term earnings. They discuss happiness when deciding upon a college and whether people will adjust how they see the high stakes admission process.

The Best Paragraph I've Read:"When Dariya Quenneville’s infant daughter was ready for solid food, she skipped the mushed up avocado and banana. On the menu instead? Raw egg yolk and puréed chicken liver.  The child, named Schizandra, then moved on to sardines, butter and ice pops made out of bone broth. She gnawed on leg of lamb. “She would just teethe on that and soothe herself,” said Quenneville, 31. Schizandra is what her mom calls a “carnivore baby.” Most of her diet is meat, along with other animal-sourced foods like eggs and butter. “She’s an easy baby,” said Quenneville of her daughter, now almost 2. “I believe that the food in the diet is a very, very big piece of that."This paragraph comes from the Wall Street Journal. The article is titled: "Meet the Parents Raising 'Carnivore Babies,' Swapping Pureed Fruit for Rib Eye." The article is written by Andrea Petersen. You can read the full article hereAnother Best Paragraph I've Read:"Carla Dillon tried lots of ways to discipline her rambunctious 13-year-old, including making him write the same contrite sentence 100 times. But when he sprayed her with a water gun at a campground after she asked him not to, she saw only one option: She threw him in the pond, clothes and all. “Some of the best lessons in life are the hard ones,” she said. The internet calls it “FAFO,” short for “F—Around and Find Out.” It’s a child-rearing style that elevates consequences over the “gentle parenting” methods that have helped shape Gen Z. FAFO (often pronounced “faff-oh”) is based on the idea that parents can ask andwarn, but if a child breaks the rules, mom and dad aren’t standing in the way of the repercussions. Won’t bring your raincoat? Walk home in the downpour. Didn’t feel like having lasagna for dinner? Survive until breakfast. Left your toy on the floor again? Go find it in the trash under the lasagna you didn’t eat." This paragraph also comes from the Wall Street Journal. The article is titled: "Goodbye Gentle Parenting, Hello 'F-Around and Find Out'" The article is written by Ellen Gamerman. You can read the full article here. Zac & Don discuss two new trends in parenting: all meat baby diets and out feral the feral. They wonder if these are actually new trends. They discuss the positives and speculate which trend could last the longest.

Shameless Self Promotion this Week!Zac & Don discuss the book Zac recently wrote, Crypto School 2: Privot to A.I. While they discuss moments from the book, they also talk about AI in schools and wonder if education has fully considered what they should be doing with the technology. They also discuss unanswered questions, the role of principals, and if there is a good way to teach character education. You can find Crypto School 2 on Amazon here.

The Best Paragraph I've Read:"The name of this fall’s most obnoxious classmate: SixSeven. Math teacher Cara Bearden braces herself for any equation that yields the two numbers, knowing her students will immediately scream them right back at her. “SIX Sevennnnnn,” they squeal with a palms-up, seesaw handgesture that looks somewhere between juggling and melon handling. The meme is ripping across the internet and spilling into real life, especially at school. “If you’re like, ‘Hey, you need to do questions six, seven,’ they just immediately start yelling, ‘Six Seven!’” says Bearden, who teaches sixth- and eighth-graders at Austin Peace Academy in Austin, Texas.“It’s like throwing catnip at cats.” Now teachers avoid breaking kids into groups of six or seven, or asking them to turn to page 67, or instructing them to take six or seven minutes for a task. Six is a perfect number, and seven is a prime number, but only a glutton for punishment would put them together in front of a bunch of 13-year-olds."This paragraph comes from the Wall Street Journal. The article is titled: "The Numbers Six and Seven Are Making Life Hell for Math Teachers." The article is written by Ellen Gamerman." You can read the full article here.Zac & Don discuss 6-7 and their experiences in the classroom. They also discuss the concept of brain rot and the word Bro.Zac & Don also discuss the following articles:Taco Bell Ultra MarathonHistoric MRE eaters

The Best Paragraph I've Read:“The gunpowder will come. Nothing can stop it—the same old story over and over. Man will increase, and men will fight. The gunpowder will enable men to kill millions of men, and in this way only, by fire and blood, will a new civilization, in some remote day, be evolved. And of what profit will it be? Just as the old civilization passed, so will the new. It may take fifty thousand years to build, but it will pass. All things pass. Only remain cosmic force and matter, ever in flux, ever acting and reacting and realizing the eternal types—the priest, the soldier, and the king. Out of the mouths of babes comes the wisdom of all the ages. Some will fight, some will rule, some will pray; and all the rest will toil and suffer sore while on their bleeding carcasses is reared again, and yet again, without end, the amazing beauty and surpassing wonder of the civilized state. It were just as well that I destroyed those cave-stored books—whether they remain or perish, all their old truths will be discovered, their old lies lived and handed down."The paragraph comes from the short story: The Scarlet Plague. The author is Jack London who wrote the story in 1912. You can read the entire story here. Zac & Don discuss the story which was written in 1912 about a plague that hits in 2012. They discuss which predictions about the future Jack London got right. They also discuss their biggest takeaways from the story - Civilization is fragile & Nature will take everything back.

The Best Paragraph I've Read:"A place that was once entirely utilitarian is now a place to line up to get into. On social media, people profess their love for the Pennsylvania convenience store Wawa and talk about Target like it’s a habit-forming substance. Recently, I saw a guy at a bar wearing $300 pants and a sweatshirt with a logo for Kirkland Signature, the Costco house brand. When Wegmans, a supermarket chain based in upstate New York, officially opened on Long Island in February, people—they prefer the term Wegmaniacs—started waiting in line thenight before… Fong’s Instagram account, @traderjoesobsessed, has more followers than Fiji has residents. The supermarket is now a brand unto itself, not just the building that houses the other brands, and its shoppers aren’t just brand-loyal—they’re fanatical."This paragraph comes from the Atlantic. The article is titled: "What Your Favorite Grocery Store Says About You." The author is Ellen Cushing. You can read the full article here.Zac & Don discuss the idea that where you shop says something about your identity. They wonder how brands became so powerful to people. They discuss whether Trader Joe's merits all of the accolades and love that it gets from shoppers/fans.

The Best Paragraph I've Read:"The windswept town of Ellendale, N.D., population 1,100, has two motels, a Dollar General, a Pentecostal Bible college—and a half-built AI factory bigger than 10 Home Depots.Its more than $15 billion price tag is equivalent to a quarter of the state’s annual economic output. The artificial-intelligence boom has ushered in one of the costliest building sprees in world history. Over the past three years, leading tech firms have committed more toward AIdata centers like the one in Ellendale, plus chips and energy, than it cost to build the interstate highway system over four decades, when adjusted for inflation. AI proponents liken the effort to the Industrial Revolution.A big problem: No one is sure how they will get their investment back—or when. "This paragraph comes from the Wall Street Journal. The article is titled: "Spending on AI Is at Epic Levels. Will It Ever Pay Off?" The authors are Eliot Brown & Robbie Whelan. You can read the full article here.Zac & Don discuss the data that suggests maybe we are living in an AI bubble. They wonder if AI can generate the two trillion dollars in revenue it will need to pay for itself. They wonder if most people are happy to just use the free version. They also discuss this bubble prediction with the optimistic positive growth story they discussed a few weeks ago.Zac & Don also discussed this article from the Economist on China's AI strategy. You can read that here.

The Best Paragraph I've Read:"Crossing the border can be a little daunting the first time, some said. “Took us three years to work up enough nerve,” Ken Foshaug, a retired Coast Guard engineer who was staying at a nearby Sleepy Hollow R.V. park with his wife, told me. “All the guys holding guns and checking you out.Plus the whole thing of going to a foreign country to let someone drill into your teeth.” But Molar City was built on leaps of faith. It’s a place for the poor, the afflicted, the huddled masses without dental insurance. Just a shortwalk away, on the other side of the wall." This paragraph comes from The New Yorker. The article is titled: "Mexico's Molar City Could Transform My Smile. Did I Want It To?" The author is Burkhard Bilger. You can read the full story here:https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2025/08/04/mexicos-molar-city-could-transform-my-smile-did-i-want-it-toZac & Don discuss the idea of going to the dentist in Mexico. They also wonder why so many are afraid of going to the dentist and why dental coverage is so bad in America. In addition they discuss the history of human teeth and the vanity behind it all.

This week Zac & Don discuss all of Season 5 of the Against the Rules Podcast. This is the podcast by Michael Lewis. You can listen to individual episodes and the entire season here:https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/against-the-rules-with-michael-lewis/id1455379351 Zac & Don wonder about what it means to be a sports fan when there is such a heavy emphasis on sport gambling. They also discuss sports gambling and the companies that work to only keep the losers playing.

The Best Paragraph I've Read:This year, a team of researchers from Ohio State University and Oregon State University found that success in competitive youth sports might have more to do with money and opportunity than with talent and hard work. The researchers determined that 70 percent of 10th-grade high school students from families with high socioeconomic status played a high school sport, while only 43 percent of 10th graders from low socioeconomic status families played.This paragraph comes from The New York Times. The article is titled: "Youth Sports Are a $40 Billion Business. Private Equity Is Taking Notice." The authors are Joe Drape & Ken Belson. You can read the full article here:Youth Sports Are a $40 Billion Business. Private Equity Is Taking Notice. - The New York TimesZac & Don discuss the business of youth sports. They reflect on their own youth sport spending while also wondering what the impact is on kids and those kids who cannot afford to play. They wonder if America is identifying the best talent while also wondering what the end game is. The following article from the New Yorker is also referenced in the discussion:https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2025/06/30/heir-ball-how-the-cost-of-youth-sports-is-changing-the-nba

The Best Paragraph I've Read:the big packaged food brands that dominated Americanpantries and refrigerators for decades are struggling as consumers spend less on brand-name cookies, spaghetti sauce and cream cheese. The companies are grappling with a number of stressors. Shoppers, feeling pinched by higher food prices over the past two years, are cutting back or trading down to less expensive private labels. Others areeschewing highly processed foods for healthier, more natural items. And the continued rise of weight-loss drugs like Ozempic are reducing cravings for sugary and salty snacks.This paragraph comes from the New York Times. The article is titled: "As Consumers Lose Their Appetite, Food Brands Fight to Keep Wall St. Happy." The authors are Julie Creswell & Lauren Hirsch. You can read the full article here. Zac & Don discuss the current plight of the large food brands that Americans have consumed for decades. They talk about some of the options that brands have at trying to grow again. Then Zac & Don have a fantasy food company draft with the following companies: Pepsi, Hershey, Campbells, Kraft/Heinz, General Mills, JM Smuckers, Mondelez, Conagra, and Nestle.Zac's Picks: Hershey, Pepsi, Kraft/HeinzDon's Picks: Nestle, Mondelez, CampbellsNPC Picks: General Mills, JM Smuckers, ConagraIn one year we will determine which set of three companies saw the biggest stock percentage increase. Here is the spreadsheet keeping track of the competition. Both Zac & Don invested $100 equally among their three companies. https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/12ITjfJdOovZj3-0V3LA5Ph9YK5P31bcK-QhTFvktjsY/edit?usp=sharing

The Best Paragraph I've Read:"Gen Z became the first generation in history to go through puberty with a portal in their pockets that called them away from the people nearby and into an alternative universe that was exciting, addictive, unstable, and - as I will show - unsuitable for children and adolescents. Succeeding socially in that universe required them to devote a large part of their consciousness - perpetually - to managing what became their online brand. This was now necessary to gain acceptavnce from peers, which is the oxygen of adolescense, and to avoid online shaming, which is the nightmare of adolescence. Gen Z teens got sucked into spending many hours of each day scrolling through the shiny happy posts of friends, acquaintances, and distant influencers. They watched increasing quantities of user-generated videos and streamed entertainment, offered to them by auto play and algorithms that were designed to keep them online as long as possible. They spent far less time playing with, talking to, touching, or even making eye contact with their friends and families, thereby reducing their participation in embodied social behaviors that are essential for successful human development. The members of Gen Z are, therefore, the test subjects for a radical new way of growing up, far from the real-world interactions of small communities in which humans evolved. Call it the Great Rewiring of Childhood. It's as if they became the first generation to grow up on Mars."This paragraph comes from the book The Anxious Generation. The author is Jonathan Haidt. Zac & Don are joined by Heidi Mercer, the Superintendent of Lake Orion Community Schools. The three discuss how children have grown up differently in the age of the smartphone. They talk about how family concerns and student behavior have changed over the past couple decades. They also discuss cell phone bans and how Lake Orion has arrived at its new policy as a new school year begins.

The Best Paragraph I've Read:"The likelihood that AI may soon make lots of workers redundant is well known. What is much less discussed is the hope that AI can set the world on a path of explosive growth. That would have profound consequences. Markets not just for labour, but also for goods, services, and financial assets would be upended. Economists have been trying to think through how AGI could reshape the world. The picture that is emerging is perhaps counterintuitive and certainly mind-boggling."This article is from The Economist. The article is titled: "What if AI made the world's economic growth explode?"You can read the full article here:https://www.economist.com/briefing/2025/07/24/what-if-ai-made-the-worlds-economic-growth-explodeZac & Don discuss an interesting GDP growth scenario if AGI becomes a reality. How is the economy impacted with 20-30% growth? What happens to labor markets, the stock market, and interest rates? What should a person if AI takes all the jobs?

This is Part II of our Lonesome Dove discussion. Zac & Don discuss more of their favorite quotes while also wondering why the story does not get told from a Native American perspective. They wonder if the story gets a little too "Hollywood" and if they have interest in reading the sequels. Lots of spoilers.

The Best Paragraph I've Read:The Buc-ee’s representatives tried to outline the planfor about 300 locals packed into the cafeteria at Palmer Lake Elementary School on Dec. 3. But they were met with jeers. “We don’t want your Buc-ee’s, we don’t need your Buc-ee’s, we don’t desire your Beaver Nuggets,” lifelong Palmer Lake resident Alexandria Olivier shouted from the front, waving her arms angrily as the crowd applauded.This paragraph comes from the Wall Street Journal. The article is titled: "The 'Cable Cowboy' Battles a Giant Gas Station for the Soul of the West." The article is written by Jim Carlton. You can read the full article here.Zac & Don discuss the fight over Buc-ee's trying to build along a Colorado Highway. They discuss the issues along the lines of the Abundance and NIMBY Movements. They also wonder how the issue gets settled.

Zac & Don are reading Lonesome Dove. This week they reflect on the first third of the book. They wonder how a book can be so interesting while very little seems to be happening. They also wonder how authentic the characters are to those who lived in Texas during the late 19th century. They also try and speculate why a book written in the 1980's has been picking up in sales across the country recently.

The Best Paragraph I've Read:Perot was the most successful third-party candidate in modern history. You helped run his campaigns and build the Reform Party. What advice do you have for Musk when it comes to building a new party?My basic advice is: Go to rehab and then focus on creating a new political party from a position of seriousness, not of anger, not of retribution, not of retaliation. It’s a very significant mission. You’re going to be asking millions of people to volunteer, to assist you to accomplish that and to support your activities, and they need a serious leader, not somebody who’s flamboyant.This paragraph comes from an interview on Politico.com. The interview is titled: "Advice for Elon Musk from the Most Successful Third-Party Campaign in Modern History." The Interview is conducted by Catherine Kim. You can read the full interview here.Zac & Don are joined by their good friend Kevin Kopec. The three discuss whether Elon Musk's new America Party has any chance of making an impact. They discuss the challenges that third parties have in getting established. They also wonder if Elon Musk is the right guy to lead the party and how does a third party even begin to make an impact politically.

The Best Paragraph I've Read:"President Trump and Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the healthsecretary, set forth their vision on Thursday for how to “make America healthy again” with the release of an expansive report on a crisis of chronic disease in children. The report lays the blame on ultra processed foods, chemical exposures, stress, lack of physical activity and excessive use of prescription drugs, including antidepressants. The product of a presidential commission led by Mr. Kennedy, the report paints a bleak picture of American children, calling them “the sickest generation in American history.”This paragraph comes from the New York Times. The article is titled: "Kennedy and Trump Paint Bleak Picture of Chronic Disease in U.S. Children." The authors are Sheryl Gay Stolberg & Dani Blum. You can read the full article here:https://www.nytimes.com/2025/05/22/us/politics/kennedy-trump-maha-report.htmlZac & Don discuss whether today's generation are the sickest generation in history. They wonder whether our problem stems from the processed foods we eat or the lack of regular physical exercise. They also discuss the school lunch conundrum - is it better to have kids eat even if it's unhealthy food?The follow article & podcast are also discussed on this episode:MAHA Has a Pizza ProblemMcDonalds Broke My Heart

The Best Paragraph I've Read:"Let’s say there’s another pandemic. This time, a lethal disease spreads through contact with other people’s fecal matter. Precision toilet cleaning becomes a matter of life and death. In the wake of this pandemic, an aptitude test—callit the T.I.Q.—is developed to measure one’s ability to rotate brushes three-dimensionally inside holes. Kids who score highly are trained for the Toilet-Cleaning Olympiad, meant to keep the citizenry battle-ready and internationally competitive. Eventually, the world crowns a toilet-cleaningchampion—not surprisingly, someone with an off-the-charts T.I.Q. This person is the very best at a skill that is crucial for the survival of humanity. Are they a genius?"This paragraph comes from the New Yorker. The article is titled: "So You Want to Be A Genius." The article is written by S.C. Cornell. You can read the full article here:https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2025/06/23/the-genius-myth-helen-lewis-book-reviewZac & Don discuss what genius is. Can they be recognized in society? They wonder if a genius is a specialist or have multiple skills. Can genius be taught to non geniuses?

The Best Paragraph I've Read:"In a Reddit forum for people interested in buying American-made products, a commenter asked: “Is a completely made in USA life possible?” One person responded that it would require living like Ted Kaczynski, the infamous recluse known as the Unabomber who lived a primitive lifestyle in a remote cabin."This paragraph comes from the Wall Street Journal. The article is titled: "Buying 100% Made in America Is Really, Really Hard. These People Are Trying." The author is Natasha Khan & Rachel Louise Ensign. You can read the full article here.Zac & Don discuss buying America. They discuss whether it is possible to only buy American Made products. They also discuss whether having a product made in America or designed in America is better.

The Best Paragraph I've Read:The Washington Post declared 2019 the Year of the Chicken Sandwich, which the paper translated into Latin—anno pulli—presumably so time travelers from the past could understand what was going on here. As a society, we had reached peak fried-chicken sandwich. LOL. Not even close. If, six years ago, the fried-chicken sandwich was a noveltyworth standing in line for, today it is a fact of eating in America. From 2019 to 2024, fried-chicken-sandwich consumption increased 19 percent at American restaurants, while burger consumption dropped 3 percent, according to industry analysis firm Circana. Over that same period, some 2,800 fast-food and fast-casual spots devoted to chicken cropped up across the country—and about1,200 burger joints disappeared.This paragraph comes from The Atlantic. The article is titled: "The Golden Age of the Friend-Chicken Sandwich." The author is Ellen Cushing. You can read the full article here:https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2025/06/fried-chicken-sandwich-food-culture/682618/ Zac & Don discuss America's shift towards chicken sandwiches and away from burgers. They wonder if there is enough demand to support all the new restaurants. They wonder if there will be a new protein that Americans clamor for after chicken. Zac & Don also discuss the following topics: The Jockey who hit his horse too many times The wiener dog who survived in Australia alone.

The Best Paragraph I've Read:"College track and field once was a major spectator sport. Meets at Hayward Field were events. In 1970, Steve Prefontaine’s freshman year at Oregon, he competed in Pac-8 dual meets against Washington, Cal, UCLA, Washington State and Oregon State. Eugene Register-Guard printed pre-meet form charts that fans brought with them as they filled the stadium.Dual meets engaged people who knew little about theintricacies of the sport, and were more interested in who won than how many runners cracked 13 minutes, 50 seconds in the 5,000 meters. People inside Hayward in May 1972 still talk about the 1,500-meter battle between Prefontaineand Oregon State Olympian Hailu Ebba in the Oregon-OSU dual. The winning time? Who knows? Who cares? The story was about what would prevail, Pre’s strength or Ebba’s speed. Pre won as a packed stadium roared. Flash forward 50 years, all of that is gone. Dual meets have been largely pitched into history’s scrap heap. Star athletes going head-to-head in the 5,000 with the outcome of the meet hanging in the balance have been replaced by daylong invitational meets with no team scoring. Regular season college meets take place before mostly empty seats, even at the beautiful, 12,500-seat Hayward Field. “Track and field has moved away from being any kind of team sport whatsoever,” Lananna says. “Our competitions are dreadful. They’re long, drawn out, fragmented, and the modern audience can’t relate to whateverit is we’re doing.” On any given spring weekend, a college track team might send its throwers to a throws-specific meet in one city, its distance runners to a distance carnival in another city, and its sprinters and hurdlers somewhere else. The regular season goal has become to find places wherecollege athletes can record times or marks that qualify them for postseason competition. Winning an event isn’t as important as a fast time or a long triple jump or throw. Spectators aren’t part of the equation."This paragraph comes from an article in oregonlive.com. The article is titled: "Is the future of college track & field, including Oregon, in jeopardy? If we don't act now, we'll never save it." The author is Ken Goe. You can read the full article here: Zac & Don discuss the sport of track. They debate whether track should bring back and feature dual meets. They also discuss whether track needs to change its scoring system and find a way to make its product into a more compelling TV program.

The Best Paragraph I've Read:We’re so used to trying things for ourselves that it seems bizarre to imagine us ever stopping. And yet, more and more, it’s becoming clear that artificial intelligence can relieve us of the burden of trying and trying again. A.I.systems make it trivially easy to take an existing thing and ask for a new iteration. The technology is still developing, and yet already an A.I. can give you a custom recipe based on a photo of what’s in your fridge. Songwriting A.I.s can generate version after version of a new tune; image-creating A.I.s can tweak an image endlessly. Is the automated exploration of alternatives a good substitute for the organic equivalent? Is this kind of variation-creation the same thing as human creativity? These are important questions to askbecause, as A.I. grows more powerful, we will be tempted more and more to give up in advance and let it figure things out for us.This paragraph comes from an essay in the New Yorker. The essay it titled: "Why Even Try if You Have A.I.?" The author is Joshua Rothman. You can read the full essay here: Zac & Don discuss whether one should try without AI or if one should just use AI when trying to solve problems or complete tasks. They wonder how younger learners will be impacted if they never work through feedback loops.

The Best Paragraph I've Read:When we use nicknames with people we don’t know—calling Eisenhower “Ike,” for example—it imports a fondness or intimacy to the relationship, as if they are part of the family. Boys, in particular, get nicknames from their teammates, their roommates, their fraternity brothers, their co-workers. They are a common aspect of close-knit, bonding culture: You can expect a nickname in a military unit, for example. Nicknames are, by default, affirming. For a nickname to be negative, it has to be explicitly so, designed to counter our positive expectations of nicknames: Tricky Dick Nixon, for instance.I am thus concerned about the disappearance of nicknames. As my five children have grown up—they span from age 6 to 18—I have noticed with regret that not one of them has been given a nickname. And they aren’t some sort of weird outliers: None of their friends have nicknames, either. Varsity jackets that, 30 years ago, would have been emblazoned with bespoke names indicating affection and belonging—Spike, Junior, Scooter, Cheech, Rocky, whatever—now have proper, unshortened Christian names: William, James, Kristen.This essay comes from the Wall Street Journal. The essay is titled: "Where Have All the Nicknames Gone?" The author is Mark Oppenheimer. You can read the full article here: Where Have All the Nicknames Gone? Zac & Don examine three recent changes that are happening in American society and wonder which is the bigger deal? The changes are: the lack of nicknames, Kosher salt becoming the default salt, and Paper Straws going away.Zac & Don reference the following articles when talking about Kosher Salt & Paper Straws:The Great Salt Shake Up (Atlantic)Under Attack Paper Straw Fans Fight Back (Wall Street Journal)

The Best Paragraph I've Read:Political movements succeed when they build a vision of the future that is imbued with the virtues of the past. Franklin D. Roosevelt pitched his expansive view of government as a sentinel for American freedoms: of speech, of worship, fromwant, from fear. Decades later, Ronald Reagan recast government as freedom’s nemesis rather than its protector. Abundance, too, is about redefining freedom for our own time. It is about the freedom to build in an age of blocking; the freedom to move and live where you want in an age of a stuck working class; the freedom from curable diseases that come from scientific breakthroughs.This paragraph comes from an essay in the Atlantic titled: The Political Fight of the Century. The author is Derek Thompson. You can read the full essay here:https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2025/03/abundance-americas-next-political-order/682069/?utm_source=feed Zac & Don are joined by their good friend Kevin Kopec. The three discuss some of the big ideas from the new book Abundance. They discuss past government failure on housing policy, large infrastructure projects, small thinking when it comes to science and more. They also wonder if the ideas of Abundance will actually be promoted by future politicians. You can find more information about Abundance here:https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/Abundance/Derek-Thompson/9781668023488

The Best Paragraph I've Read: Modern life often prizes prepackaged conveniences. We buyready made products, eat frozen pizzas and replace what’s broken instead of fixing it. The more successful we become, the more likely we are to outsource jobs that we might have once done ourselves. Yet the effort of involvement is what gives meaning to so much of life. This paragraph comes from an essay in the Wall Street Journal. The author is Moshe Bar. You can read the full essay here:Why I’ve Become More Mindful About What I Delegate - WSJZac & Don discuss the meaning behind doing things. They wonder if it is better to make your own repairs and cook your own food. They discuss whether there is value is not outsourcing the daily tasks you can do for yourself.

The Best Paragraph I've Read:"In which domains are elite practitioners celebrating the kids being better than ever before? Would love to read about a few instances."This paragraph comes from Patrick Collinson thread on X. You can read the full thread here:https://x.com/patrickc/status/1903957601274253747 Zac & Don talk about the skills and activities that young people are better than ever at. They wonder why young people are accelerating at certain things while the average young person worldwide is seeing drops in reading and math scores.

Zac & Don are joined by varsity football coach John Blackstock. John is a cofounder of Coach's Suite, an organization focused on helping athletes navigate the realities and process of college sport's recruitment.The discussion focuses on how high school athletes should think about college recruitment. Instead of waiting for a college coach to find you, an athletes and their family must become an active participant in the process. Zac, Don, & John talk about how an athlete can get noticed by college coaches. They also talk about the major changes that are impacting college athletics and high school recruitment.You can learn more about Coach's Suite and find John's contact information at the link below.Coaching Resources | Coach's Suite Llc

The Best Paragraph I've Read:It's the 2nd annual NCAA Mascot Bracket Picks! Kevin Kopec also joins to give REAL analysis and his own REAL picks.The draft is based upon this brilliant data set and article that was written by the Wall Street Journal. The authors are: Rosie Ettenheim & Laine Higgins. You can read the full article here:https://www.wsj.com/articles/cats-vs-birds-ncaa-tournament-bracket-march-madness-b91b86ecJoin the Best Paragraph I've Read NCAA Tourny Picks Pool:https://fantasy.espn.com/tc/sharer?challengeId=257&from=espn&context=GROUP_INVITE&edition=espn-en&groupId=0812d37d-b328-4873-af95-6b07d41436b1

The Best Paragraph I've Read:"President Trump said this month that he had asked the U.S. Treasury Department to stop minting new pennies, part of an effort to cut down on what he called wasteful government spending. His remarks revived a long-running debate over whether to get rid of the smallest denomination of U.S. currency. "This paragraph comes from the Wall Street Journal. The article is titled: "Making Cents of Idea to Get Rid of Pennies." The authors are Oyin Adedoyin & Dalvin Brown. You can read the full article here:https://www.magzter.com/stories/newspaper/The-Wall-Street-Journal/MAKING-CENTS-OF-IDEA-TO-GET-RID-OF-PENNIES?srsltid=AfmBOooqmqaGo6uggA7GNB6eWOc9Y-QuhtYHJRK6jwFC7UwlDg3d1KADZac and Don discuss whether eliminating the penny is a good idea. They also wonder if it is time to get rid of the nickel and other change.

The Best Paragraph I've Read:"The social crisis of our time is not just that Americans are more socially isolated than ever, but also that social isolation is rising alongside romantic isolation, as the economic and cultural trajectories of men and women move in opposite directions. And, perhaps most troubling, the Americans with the least financial wealth also seem to have the least “social wealth,” so to speak. It is the poor, who might especially need the support of friends and partners, who have the fewest close friends and the fewest long-term partners. Money might not buy happiness, but it can buy the things that buyhappiness."This paragraph comes from The Atlantic. The article is titled: America's 'Marriage Material' Shortage. The author is Derek Thompson. You can read the full article here:https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2025/02/america-marriage-decline/681518/Zac & Don discuss the declining marriage rates in America. They also discuss its connection to other major trends such as increasing loneliness and declining population.

The Best Paragraph I've Read:Comes from the 52 things that Kent Hendricks leaned in 2024. You can read the full list here:https://kenthendricks.com/52-things-i-learned-in-2024/Zac & Don share and discuss their favorite facts and statistics from Kent Hendrick's list of 52 things that he learned in 2024.