Friday Open Thread: What are you reading, listening to, or otherwise paying attention to?

Summary: Happy Friday, y’all! Today we’re launching a new weekly feature for our premium subscribers: the Friday Open Thread. If you’ve never heard of an “open thread” before, it’s a term from the early days of blogging, where writers would ask their communities to share what’s on their minds (as related to the topic of the blog, at least, heh). Hightower is always looking for stories—especially stories of strong grassroots success!—that might not be on his radar, and we want you to help shape the work we’re doing here. You can also use this space to ask Hightower questions, and we’ll be answering the best ones. Other ideas to share: recipes (we’re huge foodies, unsurprisingly), music, films, shows, other culture on your radar. Try to keep your rants to a minimum—there’s plenty to rant about, but we want to make sure no one overwhelms the whole conversation.