TouchStone Reads - July 17th, 2026

We often set aside articles that are longer, deserve a re-read, are broader in scope…or just for fun - for weekend reading. Below are some from this week - pour yourself a hot cup of coffee & enjoy... 

• Spicy Title Alert, but Worth it!: Has America Crossed the Asshole Threshold? (The Grim Historian)

• While America celebrates July 4th with Pyrotechnics - Here's how the Chinese celebrate and demonstrate in convincing style. (All choreographed from a SINGLE computer) (YouTube)

• The Anti-Amazon. One brilliant feature of the Costco experience is, paradoxically, the constraint: as opposed to Amazon, with its near infinite assortment, or even Walmart, which has approximately 130,000 SKUs (stock keeping units, or distinct items) in the average Supercenter, any given Costco will only hold 4,000 SKUs to choose from. (Phenomenal World)

• How do you solve a problem like social media? Part I It’s all well and good saying we should regulate social media. But social media is already regulated. So why is it failing? And what could we do in response? The first installment of a serious policy analysis of what regulation would actually look like—beyond the usual hand-wringing and congressional hearings that go nowhere. (Chaminda Jayanetti)

• The Great Blogging Collapse: What Happened to 100 Successful Blogs? The results were striking: the median blog lost 85% of its organic traffic, while only 21 continued to grow. This study reveals the patterns behind the winners, the losers, and what it takes to build a blog that can survive in 2026. (Daniel Stanica)

• The creator economy is above the law: How influencers get away with anything. There’s a reason that Polymarket and most content creators don’t abide by these laws: They’re barely being enforced. Influence without accountability rarely ends well. (Prof G Media)

• The Terrorist in the Brain: What Robin Williams and Bruce Willis can teach us about dementia and what medicine can actually offer. (Skeptic)

• Video of the day: Every Jon Favreau Movie, Explained by Jon Favreau | Vanity Fair (YouTube)

• Virginia – 70% of the world!!!!!  (Source: ritholz.com)
  

• Americans are set to lose nearly $250B gambling this year—a record high, up more than 60% since 2019—and that’s before counting unofficial betting via prediction markets or crypto (Source: Joseph Politano)
  

• America’s missing middle: The shrinking 45-64 population (Source: Axios)
  

What are you reading or listening to?