Kevin Nguyen

Pitchfork was the music tastemaker of the blog era. Now, after media empire Condé Nast acquired it and eventually gutted the staff, several former Pitchfork writers are launching a (mostly) worker-owned music site called Hearing Things. NYT has the backstory of how it came together.

(In an era where everyone is starting newsletters, I’m excited for a new, good old fashioned homepage to bookmark.)

Last month, I published a story about tennis embracing the electronic line calling system — and all of the data, sports betting, and financial implications that come with it. Wimbledon, the most prestigious of the Grand Slams, just announced it will get rid of human line judges at next year’s tournament. At this point, the ELC takeover is inevitable.

Darryl Campbell’s new book, Fatal Abstraction, argues that many of Big Tech’s issues are related to “managerialism.” His reporting — some of which he published for The Verge — finds that Silicon Valley’s love of spreadsheets, productivity software, and MBAs has undermined many companies’ ability to ship good products. Or in Boeing’s case, keep doors from flying off planes.

The book isn’t out until next April, but you can pre-order it now.

The Flytrap is a new indie newsletter in the vein of Defector and Aftermath, featuring a number of smart contributors including Verge regular s.e. smith. The group of ten writers is currently trying to launch their publication by crowdfunding through Kickstarter.

After a live-streaming debut on Sunday, September 5th, Ryûsuke Hamaguchi’s follow-up to Drive My Car will hit the arthouse platform exclusively on October 1st. That will make it easier for viewers to watch the film twice, which is what the director suggested when we spoke to him.

Tennis has big plans for the future: TikTok, sports betting, and a lot of matches in Saudi Arabia. Last year, I started reporting on Hawk-Eye, the electronic line-calling technology used by the US Open. That sent me down a much longer rabbit hole after I learned the data used to call balls in or out was feeding into the algorithms used by gambling oddsmakers.

You can read the story or check out the bite-size version below.

Ezra Edelman, who directed the Oscar-winning masterpiece O.J.: Made in America, has been working on an expansive nine-hour film about Prince. But as the New York Times Magazine reports, the artist’s estate is attempting to block its release, which they worry will tarnish the reputation of Paisley Park.

We might not have a doc to watch, but in the meantime, Sasha Weiss’s story has many details from the film and incredible material about Edelman’s editing process.