The Internet is a rabbit hole that’s oh-so easy to get sucked into. The problem is so many things get buried under goat parkour videos and endless listicles that “will restore your faith in” just about anything. That’s why we’re curating a short list of the best of the best (aka”the Greatist”) meaningful, thought-provoking, hilarious, and/or just incredibly cool content we’ve come across this week. In other words, it’s the stuff we’d email/gchat/tweet/text you immediately if we were besties. Because while we’ll never stop striving to bring our readers amazing content on a daily basis, we know not all the best stuff comes from us. (For the record, we’re not saying you shouldn’t also watch the goat videos.)
1. The Future of Iced Coffee (The Atlantic)
We’re in the midst of a coffee revolution, and we probably don’t realize it. A decade after Starbucks first introduced bottled Frappuccinos (even at your local gas station), Blue Bottle, the darling of the indie coffee scene, is rolling out cartons of its New Orleans iced coffee at Whole Foods locations in San Francisco and New York. This long read gives the full story behind Blue Bottle’s quest to deliver an impeccable cup—a cute milk-like carton in this case—of coffee to your local grocery story.
2. What Do You See When You Look in the Mirror? (YouTube)
Make sure you have a box of tissues on hand when watching this short documentary, a follow-up to the music video for John Legend’s female power anthem, “You and I.” The mini-documentary features a handful of the women from the music video answering the question, “What do you see when you look in the mirror?” The raw answers bring you on a roller coaster of emotion, from sadness to elation, victim to victory.
3. James Hamblin: Email Is Ruining Us: A Brilliant Solution (The Atlantic)
To say we’re big fans of Atlantic senior editor James Hamblin would be a huge understatement, which is why we’re totally fine with sharing two things from The Atlantic this week. Plus, Jim—we’re on a first name basis—has some great points in this video. Americans are in a toxic relationship with email—we spend nearly 30 percent of our work week on it! Thankfully he has a simple but genius solution.
4. Women Pace Marathons Better Than Men Do (The New York Times)
Who runs the world? Girls. A new study of nearly 100,000 marathoners found that women are better at pacing themselves in long distance races than their male counterparts. The reasoning is likely both physiological (men typically run out of stored-fat fuel before women) and psychological (the “risk strategy” of running—common among men—where you start strong and hope it lasts, usually doesn’t end well).
5. Someone Found Every Name From “Mambo No. 5” on Coke Bottles (BuzzFeed)
Whip out your Jellies, snap bracelets, and cargo pants. It’s time to celebrate like it’s 1999. One ingenious Reddit user arranged Coke bottles from the company’s Share a Coke campaign in the order of the seven women Lou Bega name drops in his one-hit wonder, “Mambo No. 5.” Time well spent, sir.
