Here is our weekly survey of things worth looking at, here and elsewhere.
Streaming
While not a big fan of the Olympics, watching cyclist Remco Evenepoel's double-win—time trial and road race—has been a treat. He is a remarkable athlete, and less visible than he should be in the Age of Pog (dominant Slovenian cyclist Tadej Pogačar). That he somehow escaped death in a terrible 2022 crash into a ravine somehow largely escaped mention in his wins over these past ten days. Here is a stripped-down look at the incident.
Elsewhere on the Site
On the site this week you may have missed various posts, but you'll likely want to check out our weekly Paper Watch, which you can find here. It's on the rapid rise in polypharmacy, new work on red meat consumption and health, and lots more.
Podcasts
Our podcast pick of the week is Melvyn Bragg on BBC In Our Time talking with his guests about bacteriophages. It's an approachable introduction to the origins, workings, and importance of these viruses that kill bacteria. It is an important and fascinating aspect of human biology and immunology.
Books
Paul's recommendation is Ajit Varki and Danny Brower's quirkily brilliant if sometimes frustrating book Denial. In it they argue that the human denial of our mortality was an important, emergent step in the evolution of modern humans, one that hasn't happened in other species. That capacity for denial (and denial of denial) has immense explanatory power for many aspects of human behavior, especially when faced with things we would rather were not true, from health and fitness, to illness, to climate change, to politics, to, yes, death.
Music
Paul has been listening to Lana Del Rey's cover of John Denver's classic Take Me Home Country Roads. While she doesn't entirely make it her own, it is haunting in its own minimalist, torchified Del Rey way.
Gear
Paul has been running more frequently in his Nike Pegasus trail shoes. While they have all the flaws of maximalist, Hoka-esque shoes, and they are more expensive than we would like, they feel a little less ... maximalist and clunky than Hoka's ubiquitous Cliftons and Speedgoats. (Note that they are also available in an even more expensive DIY customizable version, where you can go full I Be Me, as unnecessary as that might be.)
Back next week with another edition.
