This week: Exploring how animals keep us healthy / Meet the people who love killer plants / Dogs and dating apps / Studying a tsunami in real time / Mocha Dick, the whale that inspired ‘Moby Dick’ / Most emails between Greg Abbott and Elon Musk are redacted
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1. People are tired of dating apps. Can dogs help?
By Maggie Penman | The Washington Post | November 2025
“A new dating app matches people through their shared love of dogs. There’s even an option to make a profile for your pup.”
2. ‘The American Revolution’
By Ken Burns, Sarah Botstein and David Schmidt | Florentine Films :: PBS | November 2025
“Thirteen American colonies unite in rebellion, win an eight-year war to secure their independence, and establish a new form of government that would inspire democratic movements at home and around the globe. What begins as a political clash between colonists and the British government grows into a bloody struggle that will engage more than two dozen nations and forever change the world.”
Also see, from The Hollywood Reporter: Who Plays Who in Ken Burns’ The American Revolution
3. Gov. Greg Abbott was ordered to release emails with Elon Musk. Most of the 1,400 pages are blacked out.
By Lauren McGaughy | The Texas Newsroom | November 2025
“The heavily redacted emails reveal little of the two men’s relationship.”
4. Want to build a sustainable local newsroom? These 21 steps will help you get there, a new report finds
By Sophie Culpepper | Nieman Lab | November 2025
“Having dedicated staff to generate revenue was transformational to an organization’s chances of sustainability.”
5. Welcome to the killer plant club
By Ashley Stimpson | The Washington Post | October 2025
“Inside the passionate fellowship of carnivorous plant enthusiasts.”
6. ‘It sounded kind of crazy:’ How ripples in the high atmosphere warned scientists of a tsunami in real time
By Chris Baraniuk | BBC News | November 2025
“Tsunamis are notoriously difficult to spot on the open ocean as they race towards shore. But in the summer of 2025, scientists watched one unfold as it happened.”
7. What is the role of native bees in the United States?
U.S. Geological Survey | June 2025
“Some of the native bees are specialists on the very plants that we use for food, including squashes, pumpkins, gourds, and the annual sunflower.”
Also see, from The Washington Post: Species That Save Us
8. On ‘Mocha Dick,’ the White Whale of the Pacific that Influenced Herman Melville
By Tim Queeney | LitHub | August 2025
“Initially sighted off the coast of the Chilean island of Mocha in the Pacific, the powerful whale was dubbed Mocha Dick. (Dick was a generic name used at the time like Joe is today — Herman Melville follows this convention by naming his literary whale Moby Dick.)”
9. Why people trust influencers more than brands – and what that means for the future of marketing
By Kelley Cours Anderson | The Conversation | November 2025
“Rooted in celebrity culture but driven by digital platforms, the influencer economy represents a powerful force in both commerce and culture. I’m an expert on digital consumer research, and I see the rise of influencers as an important evolution in the relationship between companies, consumers and creators.”
10. ‘Showgirls’ Nearly Killed Her Career. Now She’s Touring the World With It
By David Canfield | The Hollywood Reporter | November 2025
“Elizabeth Berkley’s biggest year onscreen in more than a decade — with a role in Ryan Murphy’s soapy legal drama ‘All’s Fair’ — happens to coincide with the 30th anniversary of her most infamous performance. She’s seizing the moment.”
11. How the Web Was Lost
By James Gleick | The New York Review of Books | December 2025
“The Internet was not meant to suck.”
12. Up and Then Down
By Nick Paumgarten | The New Yorker | November 2025
“The longest smoke break of Nicholas White’s life began at around eleven o’clock on a Friday night in October 1999.”
13. Why I Run
By Nicholas Thompson | The Atlantic | October 2025
“I took up the sport to be like my father. I kept going because he stopped.”
14. Leaf-Peeping in Texas Is a High-Risk, High(ish)-Reward Activity
By Amanda Albee | Texas Monthly | October 2025
“We set off on a quest for fall foliage at three state parks in East Texas.”
15. Scrutiny grows over Trump competence – but can an unfit president be removed?
By Adam Gabbatt | The Guardian | October 2025
“Impeachment and 25th Amendment offer routes for removal – but experts say the system is set up to protect the president.”
16. An Army of Robot Telescopes in Texas Makes the Stars Feel Closer Than Ever
By Kenneth Chang | The New York Times | October 2025
“Starfront Observatories allows amateur astronomers to rent a spot for their telescopes and photograph the cosmos over a high-speed data connection.”
17. It’s Pedro Pascal’s World Now
By Dave Holmes | Esquire | April 2023
“After years of grinding away, the suddenly-everywhere actor is enjoying fame and near-universal adulation thanks to his dual streaming blockbusters The Last of Us and The Mandalorian.”
18. The Boys of ’36
American Experience :: PBS | August 2017
“In the summer of 1936, nine working class young men from the University of Washington took the rowing world and the nation by a storm when they captured the gold medal at the Olympic Games in Berlin … giving hope to a nation struggling to emerge from the depths of the Great Depression.”
19. Scientists say North Atlantic right whale population slowly increasing
Associated Press | October 2025
“Once hunted to the brink of extinction, the most venerable of the leviathans now numbers 384, up eight from past year.”
20. The Tree of Life: Let the Wind Speak
By Kent Jones | The Criterion Collection | September 2018
“I think that for Malick the imitation of nature is intensified and purified to such a degree that it becomes a devotional act.”
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