Looksmaxxing into the future

👀 What I’m watching: Inside the Manosphere

🌍 Where I’m traveling: Local and International

👕 What I’m wearing: Blue!

🥥 What I’m drinking: Coconuts

👨🏼‍💻 What I’m processing: Story selection

The last 24 hours have been a crash course for me in the “manosphere” - the world of young men who desire, above all else, approval from other men. Naturally, that’s not how they view it, and we’ll get into that.

But, as ever, I am quite hopeful for the young people of today. Every generation has reasons to cringe - just look at Facebook! Or the White House! Or millennial podcasts (which I admittedly enjoy)! Calling out the many contradictions of our society help to make it better, whether it be documentaries or goofy independent news creators on various vertical video platforms with a twice-a-week newsletter.

And if you like what we’re doing here at Local News International and are excited to watch us expand and grow our network, I hope you’ll consider becoming a paid member. As a millennial, I am legally required to say “ha ha but no worries if not.” Still, if you can consider clicking the pretty graphic below:

If you become a member before Wednesday, you can join our first town hall of the year on March 25 at 8 p.m. ET.

Friday night, on a plane from New York to DC, I decided to watch Louis Theroux’s latest documentary “Inside the Manosphere.” And then on Saturday night, SNL parodied the red-pilled influencers that make up the Manosphere, with a gigachad mogging on Colin Jost while discussing looksmaxxing. If none of this is making sense to you, you’re one of the lucky ones.

Naturally, this triggered the influencer “Clavicular,” who has helped popularize the idea of smashing your own jaw with a hammer to break the bones and make your jawline sharper.

Starting back in 2019, when I first got the Washington Post on TikTok, I felt like just keeping up with Gen Z (and Gen Alpha??) trends was its own job, much less trying to make content that may appeal to this group.

Seven years ago, it felt like I was slowly walking the opposite direction in a lazy river. Slow work, but easy enough. Now I feel like I’m swimming upstream down a roaring river while words like “y-pilled” zip past me. The first time I heard any of these terms was on the Pod Meets World podcast. That’s right, I am learning Gen Alpha terms from Gen X podcasters recapping their 1990s television show. That sound you just heard is my knees cracking as I stand up to walk this off.

The worst part is that so many of these new terms aren’t harmless and quirky like they were in early TikTok. This isn’t “Save the turtles” or “sksksksksk.” It’s language based in toxic, backwards, and often dangerous ideas of how men can and should act in society. In short, a small but vocal group of online male influencers in their 20s and 30s are attempting to drag 13-year-old teenage boys into the 19th century.

When I finally watched the Manosphere documentary Friday night, I felt a number of reactions. First, Louis Theroux is incredibly funny and so good at letting people contradict themselves with the simplest questions. He’s also the perfect person to explore this topic - a man so completely secure in his own skin and masculinity, not even a jaw hammer could break his resolve.

But I also felt this sense that the documentary needed more, like it was incomplete. After some reflection, I think that’s because I wanted more of these toxic male influencers to get their comeuppance in the same documentary. But for the most part, they all continue to thrive and succeed in their online bubbles, scamming teenage boys and projecting their childhood trauma onto the world (a particularly depressing moment occurs when one of these young disciples claims they’ve learned that depression isn’t real).

I think it’s easy to cope with this horrific behavior by looking for a “they will get their justice” silver lining. It’s how many of us have processed the inhumane actions of ICE and the Trump administration. “I can’t wait for the Nuremberg trials,” you’ll often see in the comment sections of yet another ICE crime caught on camera.

There may very well be trials for these people. But the much more difficult solution and follow-up actions may be to address the root cause of this and slowly work to make the world better, to help guide young men away from this behavior. I think Theroux masterfully does the first part in his documentary, unpacking how we got here. He’s doing so by approaching his subjects with empathy and kindness, not scorn and dismissiveness. He very well may judge them while off-screen, but his interactions are thoughtful. He’s direct and clear in his viewpoint, but never condescending.

I’m eager to continue exploring the “manosphere.” Not so I can contribute or profit off of its toxic worldview, but so I can help dismantle it, through empathy, understanding, and action. In that vein, if there’s any particular stories you’d like me to cover in the world, send them my way at [email protected].

Last week, I was lucky enough to speak to the National Council for Marketing & Public Relations, or NCMPR, at their national conference in DC. These wonderful people work in marketing and social media for community colleges across the country. They were an absolute delight. And I got to shoot a video about DC statehood while there.

Then we went up to New York (hence, the video we shot on a train), for the Social Fresh conference. This is a group of some of the best social media marketing people in the country. I spoke to them about our work and what I expect the future of social video will look like. Then, after scavenging for candy at BonBon NYC (my toddler made very clear demands for “pink candy” over Facetime), I took the plane back to KC, where I watched that Manosphere documentary and first episode of Black Mirror’s seventh season, which was so well-written and acted and absolutely devastating.

We’ve got a lot of traveling coming up. At the end of March, we’ll be in Chicago for the Online News Association (ONA) conference where we’re teaching a class on short-form video. A couple weeks later, I’ll briefly head to Perugia, Italy for the International Journalism Festival - one of my all-time favorite festivals. And in early June, we’re going to Marseille, France for the World News Media Congress. To be honest, I have no idea what happens at that last conference. My co-founders Lauren and Micah probably do. I’ll leave some space below for them to explain it to me (as they often do) and to you, dear reader.

If any of these cities or countries has an interesting story you’d like to cover, shoot me another email! Again, at [email protected].

After we revealed our new mug and t-shirt on the DFTBA store, we got some quick feedback. One, people were excited. And two, they wanted the shirt in blue.

Well, have I got news for you, blue-shirt-LNI-lovers …

The blue shirt is available to purchase right this minute! It will appear in Monday’s video. If you see it, comment in the video with the blue shirt emoji 👕. I’ll reply with “you have passed the test.” Hopefully we will adequately confuse anyone who doesn’t read the newsletter.

In a meeting on Friday, I was offered coconut water, which I gladly accepted. I love coconut water, though I have always felt the bottled stuff, with their weird added flavors, are just okay. Better than water itself, but nothing to write home about, much less in a newsletter.

But then something miraculous happened: it actually tasted like coconut water. It was as if I had been transported back to Puerto Escondido, Mexico and someone had just expertly notched open the top of a coconut with a machete and handed it to me. This is the culprit:

Once again, I must dutifully inform you that this week’s food and/or drink recommendation is not an ad. I just love it. And once again, I must inform anyone who works in marketing for this product that I would very happily accept your money to talk about this coconut water every day for the rest of my life in short videos, newsletters and in our up-and-coming longform series. Send your inquiries (and free coconut water) here.

I am often asked (and was this last week) how we handle story selection at Local News International. In other words, how do we decide what to cover every day? There are a number of factors that contribute to what story we pick. Sometimes, the story is so big, it would be impossible not to talk about it. Presidential election results, for example. Or an ICE shooting. Or if Cirie won Survivor 50. Other times, location can matter. If we’re in an area that could inform the story, and there’s not an otherwise massive story that day, I may use our local surroundings as the backdrop. This was the case for last week’s long-promised video on DC statehood. Or the following day, when I wanted to talk about TSA lines but also needed to take a four hour train. I just used the trip itself as a storytelling device.

But that all said, it can still be impossible to decide a story some mornings. Tomorrow is a great example. I have been writing a video about the Metaverse, and how Zuckerberg has all but abandoned it. But there’s also a number of ongoing stories, like gas prices, Trump gold coins, Joe Kent’s resignation and ICE being deployed to airports to support TSA.

So, what do I do? Can I combine them?

I often do. Even though our videos are never longer than three minutes, I sometimes structure them like a sitcom. As an example, it would be easy to make the “A storyline” about ICE being deployed to airports. The Trump gold coin story could be the “B storyline.” It’s relatively easy and quick to explain what’s going on with Trump’s narcissistic plans to get his face on more shit. That would just be three or four lines, while I could focus on the “A storyline” about ICE. The “C storyline” could be a quick reference to gas prices rising even higher. Maybe a character debates driving instead of taking the plane, but remembers gas prices are skyrocketing.

So, there’s a lot of different approaches. But no matter what, there’s one common denominator in the approach: it has to be a story I care about and want to cover. That might sound ridiculous, but it’s important, especially in the content-making world. Often, people feel like they have to cover a story. And it shows. You can see in their eyes that it’s something they’re not passionate about.

Some days, I do think after-the-fact, “oh, maybe we should have covered [a different story] instead today.” But I never regret the video I made. Because before I see the negative or positive reactions to a video, before I post it, even before I start to edit the footage I have, I stop and think, “am I happy with what I made?” If the answer is no, I don’t even bother. But if it’s yes, then I can post without regret.

If you’re a content creator of any kind, I highly recommend checking in with yourself like this before posting. It gives you the resolve you need if a video flops. Sure, there’s plenty of things you can learn from a poorly-performing video. But if you were proud of what you made, it’s really hard to feel bad about it.