Two former NBA players mistake cruelty for activism

The three-year-old birthday party weekend extravaganza was a massive success and I’m excited to return to the concept of sleeping at night after a week’s worth of splash party prep. We’ve got another busy week at LNI, including a brief trip to New York. As always, email me with any story pitches you have from New York or Kansas City or anywhere else in the world. And if you ever see a funny, relevant clip you’d like to see get the cue card treatment, send that too: [email protected]

An important reminder: there’s only one day left to take advantage of our anniversary sale. Please consider supporting my independent journalism with a membership to LNI. I’m offering 25% off annual subscriptions at all levels if you sign up by tonight! I’ve been so grateful for everyone’s support over the last year on this wild ride.

I have a few tattoos on my back and they’re all quotes, ranging from Ernest Hemingway to SpongeBob Squarepants. But one I’m most fond of is a common adage rephrased from the movie Her.

It’s a bit dramatic, this quote, but I do find it increasingly relevant in the misinformation age, as information spreads so fast we have a hard time keeping track of the actual narrative.

And I suppose it’s ironic I have a tattoo from an AI bot character but, to be fair, the movie was written by a human. And it’s one of my all-time favorite movies. I watched it a ton when it first came out. But somehow, it’s been a solid 7 or 8 years since I saw it last (maybe because it’s not streaming? Why is the most relevant movie of today not streaming?).

Last night, I rented it on YouTube and started my rewatch. I didn’t make it far. The 3-year-old birthday splash party really took a lot out of me. Still, just the opening scenes are remarkable in how prescient they are to 2026. Even fashion is pretty accurate, from the clothes to the mustached men. The touchscreen flip phone that some smartphone companies have started to push is here, too.

The huge advantage of having seen this film when it first came out is remembering what it was like to watch in 2013, how some scenes felt foreign or strange. Today, they wouldn’t feel that way at all. The way Joaquin Phoenix’s character Theodore walks through the world in his headphones, oblivious to those around him, is completely normal today. We used to make fun of Bluetooth earpiece bros talking to themselves. Now, with AirPods (which this film also predicted), it’s a common experience in everyday commutes.

And of course, there’s the driving force of the film, an AI bot - far smarter than its human - that Theodore falls for. In just a few short years since AI made a massive leap in its capabilities, this has become all too common. Magazine profiles about AI significant others have become almost a trope. It’s everywhere and happening more often. Most impressive (and sad) of all, the film predicted just how lonely this would make people feel. AI isn’t technically the villain. It’s the world humans built to make this kind of loneliness possible.

There’s gonna be a ton to unpack when I finish this film. Don’t be surprised if I find a way to reference it in an upcoming video. I’ll also talk about it on the Film Club at the End of the World podcast soon. I’ll link it in this newsletter when it’s published.

After many 3-year-olds tried and failed to break open a piñata yesterday, my 7-year-old nephew finally broke it open with a fury and determination I’d only ever seen from his mom. Many candies spilled out, including lollipops and gum (yuck, I hate gum). But one candy stood out. As I watched some parents quietly grab this candy after the kids had cleared out, I realized a simple truth: Smarties are the best candy.

Now, hold on, before you send in your furious emails. Let me make my case. My favorite candy to eat is probably a Butterfinger, Snickers or Reese’s (in that order). But Smarties don’t melt in the summer heat. Smarties are good at Halloween, in Easter eggs or Valentine’s Day cards. They are sweet, they are versatile, no one dislikes them. If we had to create a median candy that most people would be satisfied with in any situation, it would be Smarties.

Did I convince you? Do you have a better argument? Let me know at [email protected]. And allow me to leave you with a far more controversial opinion: Sixlets are better than M&M’s.

Back at The Washington Post, we started “burning in” captions into our videos. This means that the text on screen is on the video file too, not just captions in the app. When you download the video on TikTok, for example, the captions are still there because I typed them out in Premiere Pro when editing and placed them on the screen (often strategically, so they don’t go over a patterned shirt or other difficult-to-read section of the screen).

We started doing this after Chris Vazquez, our current LNI colleague and former Post co-worker, highlighted how this made the videos more accessible. He was right! And honestly, as tedious as it can be sometimes, I really like writing in captions, especially when I can sneak in a joke, or use it to punch up the timing of a dialogue reveal.

When we created our caption format, we tried to make it near-identical to the TikTok in-app captions. That way it wasn’t distracting and the videos didn’t look too polished. Believe it or not, at one time, making a video feel too produced really hurt it on TikTok, an app where people went viral for seemingly effortless moments. We’re mostly past that, and I can now flex my editing skills even more, producing full-fledged three-minute news shorts almost every day. So, I think it’s time to start coming up with a brand new caption style.

I’ll be working on this with LNI graphics designer Sarah Hashemi, finding a font (and possibly color!) that matches all other LNI assets. I’m excited for this to add some pop to the videos without distracting from the content itself. And hopefully, it’ll help to immediately signal to you that you’re watching one of our videos, on whatever app you’re on.

There seems to be a common trend with transphobic public figures and it’s that they are no longer in their prime. They are no longer at the peak of their career and while they may still have many devoted fans, it’s just not the same. This is the case for J.K. Rowling, who naturally still basks in the royalties of Harry Potter and the entire sections at Barnes & Noble devoted to her seven books and companion books. The spin-off Fantastic Beasts films did okay but ultimately were prematurely canceled. The jury is out on how the TV series will perform when it premieres in December. But it’s not the red carpet Potter film premieres and midnight book release parties of the early 2000s.

When Rowling attacks a trans person or trans people as a whole and earns some attention from it, you have to wonder what her motivation is to keep going after a small minority of people with her disinformation campaigns. I can’t see inside her head. I don’t know what Horcrux locket hangs on her neck. But I did think of her when I saw this news about two former NBA players declaring for the WNBA draft.

Former NBA player Royce White, who played three games in one season, declared for the WNBA draft, in a clear transphobic stunt. Another former NBA player and sometime political activist, Enes Kanter Freedom, also declared for the same purpose. They both are claiming to self-identify as women in an attempt to mock trans people and the WNBA’s vague policy.

The WNBA has not taken an explicit stance on transgender women in the league. The league’s collective bargaining agreement says, “Only players who are women are eligible to play in the WNBA.” If you support trans people and their existence, you likely have said that trans women are women, which would qualify a trans woman for the league. Strangely, I do agree that the vagueness of the policy is not helpful. I just happen to disagree with White and Freedom’s view of trans people. If the WNBA would like to be trans-inclusive, then the above sentence should clarify their stance on trans women. They are meeting this week to review the policy (look out for my video on this when that happens).

The issue of trans women in sports continues to be a controversial topic. Different countries and sports leagues have continuously changed policies in all kinds of directions in the last few years. But here’s what I know: saying that you “identify as a woman” to then declare yourself for a women’s professional league is transphobic. It’s not an attempt to engage in the discourse in good faith. It’s a gross, attention-seeking stunt to make trans people feel small - or worse - nonexistent. So, here’s your attention, White and Freedom. You may not like how it looks in history books.

As a semi-sequel to my Friday newsletter thoughts on the Hank Green discourse, here’s a really good video (below) that mostly echoed my feelings and also touched more on the addictive aspects of AI.

You can also watch Hank’s latest video, which includes a new Hank AI policy in the caption. Go Hank!