What we lose when we lose Colbert
Weekend Reads for July 16, 2025
Happy Saturday, Ink readers! As we do each weekend for our supporting subscribers, we’ve collected below some of the best writing we’ve come across as we’ve read and researched this week. Among the links you’ll find in today’s edition of Weekend Reads:
What matters most about Hulk Hogan
The prospects for public grocery stores in New York
How AI is revealing your health data
The meaning of Stephen Colbert’s cancellation
The ramifications of Columbia University bending the knee
And, as always, music to unwind with
In The Ink this week
The Epstein scandal is engulfing Trump
For the past decade, there has been nothing Donald Trump could do to alienate his base — and he knew it. “I could stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot somebody, and I wouldn't lose any voters, OK?" Trump quipped back in 2016. "It's, like, incredible."
And now, your Weekend Reads
Hulk Hogan’s legacy
Though Hogan’s final headline won’t stop the next hoax video or cloned voice, his life—and the ways it was constantly remixed, misreported and monetized—illustrate how the fight over a single leaked tape previewed the question of individual privacy rights in a world where manipulating pixels has become almost effortless. The years to come will no doubt see Hogan’s image in AI-generated content, and legal cases around digital privacy issues promise to become only more complicated. [Scientific American]
Can public grocery stores work?
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