The weekend is here! Pour yourself a mug of Colombia Tolima Los Brasiles Peaberry Organic coffee, grab a seat outside, and get ready for our longer-form weekend reads:
• I Learned the Hard Way: Private Investments Probably Don’t Belong in Your Portfolio: Wall Street is trying to expand access to private investments to mom-and-pop savers, but one veteran investment advisor warns that risks abound. Private equity, venture capital, private debt, private REITs, and their sometimes deformed spawn are the current rage at brokerage houses and wealth management firms, in large measure because the gates are opening for smaller investors just as the thrill seems to be gone for many institutional investors who seem to have had their fill of these illiquid, opaque, and often poorly performing alternatives to equities, bonds, mutual funds, and ETFs. (Barron’s)
• The 25 Most Interesting Ideas I’ve Found in 2025 (So Far): Charts and history lessons—across culture, politics, AI, economics, health, science, and the long story of progress. (Derek Thompson)
• MrBeast on His Quest to Turn YouTube Fame Into an Entertainment Empire: The master of viral videos now has a CEO to rein in spending on Lambos—and give his “banger content” an even wider reach. (Businessweek)
• American Hindenburg: In the early days of flight, airships were hailed as the future of war. Then disaster struck the USS Akron. The Navy’s response was to use less volatile helium to fill its crafts. Though the gas was rarer and more expensive than hydrogen, it would float the two remaining airships the U.S. possessed, including the first American-built dirigible, the Shenandoah (a Native American word sometimes translated as “daughter of the stars”). (Atavist)
• Sushi Is Bigger Than Ever in America. There’s One Main Reason. Once considered rarefied and exotic in the United States, sushi has become something entirely different in the last five years: convenience food. (New York Times)
• Human Design Is Blowing Up. Following It Might Make You Leave Your Spouse: The astrology-like system uses birth dates to break people into personality types and even find love and riches. From sleeping arrangements to diets, some are taking it very seriously. (Wired)
• The strongest evidence for a Universe before the Big Bang: The hot Big Bang is often touted as the beginning of the Universe. But there’s one piece of evidence we can’t ignore that shows otherwise. (Big Think)
• The Misunderstood Genius of Taylor Swift: More than just a pop star, she’s a great songwriter who proves that mass appeal and lyrical subtlety can go together. (Wall Street Journal)
• The Day Quentin Tarantino Became A Filmmaker: “Instead of falling back into my routine, I decided to change my life. I [decided] to move to Hollywood and meet other people in the business.” (SatPost by Trung Phan)
• Even Cal Raleigh’s peers can’t believe 60 HR season: ‘What he’s doing is extremely ridiculous’ When asked last week whether he ever envisioned a season like this, Raleigh replied, “I don’t think so. I mean, I just try to be the best I can be.” That night, he eclipsed Mantle’s record. (The Athletic)
Be sure to check out our Masters in Business interview this weekend with Dmitry Balyasny, co-founder of Balyasny Asset Management, and the firm’s managing partner and chief investment officer. BAM nmanages $28B for clients. Balyasny began his trading career with Schonfeld Securities in 1994; he just received Institutional Investor’s 2025 Hedge Fund Lifetime Achievement Award.
Is TV’s Golden Age (Officially) Over?
Source: Stat Significant
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