TouchStone Reads - November 1st, 2024

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We often set aside articles that are longer, deserve a re-read, are broader in scope…or just for fun — for weekend reading. Below are some from this week — pour yourself a hot cup of coffee & enjoy...

  • Trump or Kamala? Ben Shapiro and Sam Harris Debate. I challenge you to think of one debate you heard during this election that was passionate and provocative, but also civil and respectful, between a Trump supporter and a Harris supporter. I can’t think of one. That’s why we put this together. Honestly Podcast 

  • The angry Welshman. In 2013 James Howells dropped off his hard drive at a recycling centre. It contained what’s now nearly a billion dollars’ worth of cryptocurrency and its passwords. He’s trying to get it back. Town Council won’t let him look in the local dump to find it. He’s suing.

  • 18 Life-Learnings from 18 Years of The Marginalian (The Marginalian)

  • An obituary for the ages - Requiem for a wild soul (Substack)

  • Want to avoid probate fees by sharing ownership with your kids? Proceed carefully, experts say (The Globe and Mail)

  • How a 12-Ounce Layer of Foam Changed the NFL: Even the makers of the Guardian Cap admit it looks silly. (Wired)

  • TikTok executives know about app’s effect on teens, lawsuit documents allege (NPR)

  • An Epic Dystopia: How a near-monopoly gained control of most of the nation’s electronic medical records, to the detriment of medical practice and doctor morale (American Prospect)

  • Trump’s decline is too dangerous to ignore (The Boston Globe)

  • Lina Khan Is Just Getting Started (She Hopes) (Businessweek)

  • Shocking behaviour. A cheating scandal has engulfed the World Conker Championships. (YouTube)

  • November 11 is Remembrance Day and, lest we forget, it’s time to buy our poppies. We can now create a Digital Poppy online and support The Legion National Foundation's Poppy Fund.

  • Some Thoughts on What Makes New York so Great. I have, surprisingly, become New York City’s biggest apologist. (Young Money)

  • 23andMe was hacked last year, exposing DNA information on 6.9 million customers and sending the company into the financial abyss. Maybe not now. Here’s how to delete your data.

  • A list worth reading. The Baillie Gifford Prize goes to the best non-fiction book in the English language. Here’s this year’s shortlist.

  • RIP for reading. To read a book in college, it helps to have read a book in high school. But reading books (unlike snippets of them) is a dying skill. “It’s not that [students] don’t want to do the reading. It’s that they don’t know how. Middle and high schools have stopped asking them to.”

  • U.S. Deficits Election Outcome Dependent 14%-39% (Source: Jim Reid, Deutsche Bank)

What are you reading or listening to?