Come hang out with me Thursday night at Substack Presents: Casey Lewis's The After School Debate Club! The Substack team is letting me open the event to all subscribers, but there aren’t many tickets left so move fast. Grab one here (it’s free!).
TikToker Bella Poarch was invited to sit front row at Prada; Taylor Swift fans are convinced her 19th album is imminent; Caroline Calloway has a new “experimental memoir” in the works; KJ Apa cast as Bradley Nowell in Sublime biopic; and Tyler, the Creator nabbed the number one spot on Complex’s 2024 Streetwear Power Ranking.
IN A FIRST, YOUNG MEN ARE MORE RELIGIOUS THAN YOUNG WOMEN, nyt
For the first time in modern American history, young men are now more religious than their female peers. Part of the reason for this, Ruth Graham writes, is that young men have different concerns. They’re less educated than their female peers, and in major cities, they earn less.
ACTIVISTS HAVE FALLEN HARD FOR DATING APPS. INVESTORS SHOULDN’T, ft
Match’s paying user base has shrunk the past seven quarters year on year, and shares have plummeted — at its 2021 peak, Match was worth almost $50B; now its value stands at just $9.3B. “Fixing” dating apps is obviously easier said than done, but I’m baffled that none of these platforms have been able to meaningfully turn things around. There are so many valuable consumer insights out there — do something!
NONSENSE SELLS, airmail
Cazzie David examines the rise of the “vibe trend” — blueberry-milk nails, hot rodent boyfriend, tomato-girl summer, etc. — which often are little more than marketing schemes and have become big business for brands.
No influencer has been able to capitalize on these vibe trends better than Hailey Rhode Bieber, inventor of “glazed donut skin,” “cinnamon cookie butter hair,” and “strawberry girl summer,” the Instagram caption heard round the world. Her post, a carousel of summery pictures from August 2023, preceded the launch of strawberry-hued beauty products from her skin-care company, Rhode. They sold out immediately.
NO PEOPLE, NO PROBLEM: AI CHATBOTS PREDICT ELECTIONS BETTER THAN HUMANS, semafor
Aaru, a company founded by two 19-year-old college dropouts, has developed a method of accurately predicting election results using AI chatbots. “No traditional poll will exist by the time the next general election occurs,” says cofounder Cam Fink. “There are massive issues when you’re using real people. You never know if someone is telling the truth.” As of earlier this week, Aaru was projecting that Harris would win the popular vote by 4.2 percentage points.
MEET THE PEOPLE USING CHATGPT AS THEIR THERAPIST, dazed
The appeal of using ChatGPT as a makeshift therapist is that it’s free and fast — and, crucially, not human. "When I talk to ChatGPT, it’s the first time I’ve been able to be fully honest with myself, which has helped me the most,” says Taylor Mazza, 25, who turns to ChatGPT nearly daily for advice. What could go wrong?
TEENS ON TIKTOK ARE USING AN UNEXPECTED DEVICE TO GET HIGH, vice
Young people have found a new way to get high off nitrous oxide and now it’s going viral on TikTok. A culinary product made by Galaxy Gas, which produces whipped cream chargers, a stainless-steel cartridge that transforms ingredients into a whipped state but dispenses nitrous oxide on its own if no other ingredient is present.
P.S. This week’s podcast episode is about, among many other things, dorms! What did (or does) your dorm room look like? How much did you spend to decorate it? Record a voice memo (here’s how to do that; anonymous is fine!) and email it to me at hi@caseymorrowlewis.com and we’ll include it on the pod!
One last thought:
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VICE, I would think you of all media outlets would know that this is not a new way to get high.
The last time a Republican won the popular vote was George W. Bush in 2004. So, 20 years ago. A chatbot predicting Kamala will win the popular vote the +4 points is about as useless a prediction as their gets.