Category: media

There’s a brand of young straight men who are “relying on the gifts of biology to flesh out a personality. It works for a while, because viewers like to be complimented and to watch an attractive, familiar talking head give them a pixelated smile on a lonely day.” But to be truly successful – i.e. to make money as an influencer – the young dudes need a lot more. That’s where agents come in. – Hyperallergic

Yes. It’s weird, and it’s true: He’s a “mentor” of some sort in a new Star Wars TV show. Luckily, the show looks super-grim. Still: What? – Vulture

The company that’s into just about everything else (well, not that company, the one that just announced a huge slate of movies and TV show for its new streaming service, but a different big company): Netflix. The company’s line about podcasts: “We are always looking for different ways to engage with people. … We’re talking a lot with our documentary team about what opportunities are out there.” (Shocker: True crime is doing well for Netflix.) – Variety

When it came to making the new Dora the Explorer movie, the production company worked hard to get things right for indigenous representation. Did it pay off? “Live-action still-pan-Latina Dora, who also speaks Quechua, was created with the help of a consultant to help ensure that the indigenous language and elements were accurate.” (And the lead actor recorded and re-recorded her lines in Quechua to make sure they were correct.) – The New York Times

“It’s 2047, 100 years after India’s independence, and in the fictional nation of Aryavarta, water is scarce. The republic’s authoritarian rulers are seizing children of mixed parentage from their families, interning the mothers, and forcibly reprogramming them to serve the nation and to purify their defiled minds. … While it has drawn parallels with The Handmaid’s Tale thanks to its depiction of a draconian, patriarchal state suppressing women and restricting their reproductive rights, Leila‘s central themes also include climate change and a deeply hierarchical society organised according to religion, caste and wealth.” – BBC

“Few men in America are as popular among American men as Joe Rogan. It’s a massive group congregating in plain sight, and it’s made up of people you know from high school, guys who work three cubicles down, who are still paying off student loans, who forward jealous-girlfriend memes, who spot you at the gym. … So many people in the content business right now are trying, and failing, to get the attention of these men, and yet somehow Joe Rogan has managed to recruit a following the size of Florida.” Devin Gordon does a deep dive into Rogan’s gut appeal, what’s powerful about it, and what’s unsettling. – The Atlantic

“No one set out to turn the airwaves into a political weapon — much less deputize talk-radio hosts as the ideological enforcers of a major American political party. Instead the story of how the GOP establishment lost its power over the Republican message — and eventually the party itself — begins with frantic AM radio executives and a former Top 40 disc jockey.” (That would be Rush Limbaugh.) – The Atlantic

Amanda Hess: “As its gurus lead the men (and occasionally, women) in dabbing on eye cream, selecting West Elm furniture, preparing squid-ink risotto and acquiring gym memberships, they are building the metaphorical framework for an internal transformation. Their salves penetrate the skin barrier to soothe loneliness, anxiety, depression, grief, low self-esteem, absentee parenting and hoarding tendencies. The makeover is styled as an almost spiritual conversion. It’s the meaning of life as divined through upgraded consumer choices.” – The New York Times