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:
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 here
Another 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.
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:
Historic 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:
Zac & 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:
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/Heinz
Don's Picks: Nestle, Mondelez, Campbells
NPC Picks: General Mills, JM Smuckers, Conagra
In 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-explode
Zac & 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.