Startups Weekly: 2019’s dead startups

Welcome back to Startups Weekly, a weekend newsletter that dives into the week’s noteworthy startups and venture capital news. Before I jump into today’s topic, let’s catch up a bit.…

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This Cave Contains the Oldest Story Ever Recorded

At this very moment, you're a participant in one of the things that makes us human: the telling and consumption of stories. It's impossible to say when our species began telling each other stories—or when we first evolved the ability to use language to communicate not only simple, practical concepts but to share vivid accounts…

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The Two Myths of the Internet

On January 21, 2010 Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton addressed a crowd at the Newseum in Washington, DC. She was there to proclaim the power and importance of “internet freedom.” In the previous few years, she said, online tools had enabled people all around the world to organize blood drives, plan demonstrations, and even…

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The 7 Best Albums of 2019

It was a curious time to make and consume music in 2019. The sounds came at us from every direction—via streaming platforms, from TikTok, the teen-dominated micro-entertainment app that favors impermanence, on YouTube and Instagram Stories, reverberating from darkened theaters that told stories of stiletto-wearing strippers who robbed greedy Wall Street goons during the recession.…

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The Decade That YouTube Changed TV

Without YouTube, late night TV barely exists. That’s not because Lilly Singh, a YouTuber with nearly 15 million subscribers, made television history in September by taking over Carson Daly’s slot on NBC. No, not really. A Little Late with Lilly Singh is just the latest installment in a trend that began 10 years ago, when…

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12 Best After-Christmas Sales (2019): Amazon, REI, GameStop, Best Buy, and More

Rudolph has come and gone, but there are quite a few post-holiday sales going on. Now is a great time to use up any gift cards that you may have received yesterday. Or, if you still have a few stragglers to shop for, you can pick them up a belated gift at a discount. The…

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The 2010s Killed the Cult of the Tech Founder. Great!

When Larry Page and Sergey Brin announced they were giving up their “day to day” duties at Alphabet early this month—leaving the heavy lifting to Google CEO Sundar Pichai—an era ended in more ways than one. As much as the news made history for the Mountain View search giant, it was also a fitting end…

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