Skye's Small Discovery List - BlogFlock A few higher traffic curator feeds that surface articles etc from a variety of sources as individual posts. Not as broad as my other lists but I thought some people might appreciate a nice simple one to follow. 2026-07-21T04:03:20.544Z BlogFlock Cecily, Longreads, ResearchBuzz: Firehose Post on Longreads - Longreads https://mastodon.world/@longreads/116954112069726372 2026-07-20T20:08:46.000Z &lt;p&gt;&amp;quot;His sons said they were worried their father’s comfortable lifestyle would yield a &amp;#39;luxury rap vibe,&amp;#39; with lyrics about being &amp;#39;an older white rapper talking about drinking wine,&amp;#39; as Skyler put it.&amp;quot;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Ben Sisario for The New York Times: &lt;a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2026/07/14/arts/music/mike-d-new-album-beastie-boys.html" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener" translate="no"&gt;&lt;span class="invisible"&gt;https://www.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="ellipsis"&gt;nytimes.com/2026/07/14/arts/mu&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="invisible"&gt;sic/mike-d-new-album-beastie-boys.html&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href="https://mastodon.world/tags/Longreads" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag"&gt;#&lt;span&gt;Longreads&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/a&gt; &lt;a href="https://mastodon.world/tags/Music" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag"&gt;#&lt;span&gt;Music&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/a&gt; &lt;a href="https://mastodon.world/tags/Rap" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag"&gt;#&lt;span&gt;Rap&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/a&gt; &lt;a href="https://mastodon.world/tags/Hip" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag"&gt;#&lt;span&gt;Hip&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/a&gt;-Hop &lt;a href="https://mastodon.world/tags/BeastieBoys" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag"&gt;#&lt;span&gt;BeastieBoys&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/a&gt; &lt;a href="https://mastodon.world/tags/Musicians" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag"&gt;#&lt;span&gt;Musicians&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt; A Theory Of Invention - Cecily https://notnottalmud.substack.com/p/a-theory-of-invention-or-why-youre 2026-07-20T19:00:30.000Z &lt;p&gt;Daniel Frank | Not Not Talmud | 12th July 2026 | U&lt;/p&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;img src="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!I0pW!,w_1200,h_675,c_fill,f_jpg,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep,g_auto/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F4e6e973c-1631-420b-a46d-44b97531c021_4000x3000.jpeg" class="ff-og-image-inserted"&gt;&lt;/img&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;span&gt;Let me tell you about a fact I invented. In the winter, SF (or LA/Vancouver) is only a 3-hour time difference away from New Zealand.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;span&gt;This is silly. Of course, I did not “invent” this, nor am I the only person aware of the time difference between NZ and the US West Coast. But for digital nomads, or people on PST hours who work remotely, this exact framing — realizing that the 21-hour time difference can instead be viewed as a 3-hour time difference plus a one-day change (9am on a Monday in SF is 6am on Tuesday in NZ) — is a genuinely valuable insight. I could find no mention of it online or in any digital nomad community. When I shared it with co-working spaces in New Zealand, and with large communities of remote workers on PST hours, nobody had ever thought of this—and many I spoke with, upon learning this new “fact,” took advantage of it.”&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;span&gt;Most people think of an inventor as someone who creates something in the world, like a new tech company — and they view this as something other people do, but definitely not themselves.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;span&gt;And I’m here to argue that being an inventor is a much broader category than that, and that it’s incredibly valuable for everyone to think of themselves as one.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;span&gt;One of the mission statements of this blog stems from this story:&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;span&gt;Following the Soviet invasion of Lithuania, a group of Jews trying to flee the Nazis and Soviets needed to get transit visas through the Soviet Union to be able to escape. But a transit visa couldn’t be granted without an end destination that would approve them. Then a group of very creative Jews — realized that the admission policy of Curaçao was that no visa was needed, but that individual permission had to be granted by the governor, (who they had been assured by the Dutch consulate would never approve their admission). &lt;/span&gt;&lt;a href="https://jsoundbites.podbean.com/e/the-great-shanghai-escape-part-i/"&gt;&lt;span&gt;They then convinced the Dutch consul, Jan Zwartendijk, to write in their passport - Curaçao: “no visa needed”; leaving out the part about the governor. This idea then spread to many others, leading to thousands of desperate Jews to receive Soviet and Japanese transit visas.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;span&gt;It was already an existing fact that Curaçao didn’t require a visa — so writing it in a passport shouldn’t have changed anything. But it did. And this is the truth about so many “inventions”. It is taking something that already exists and, by presenting it in a new light, allowing it to be engaged with in a different way. It just so happens that this “invention” saved thousands of lives in the Holocaust.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;span&gt;Let me give you one final example before I explain my theory of invention.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;span&gt;I recently completed an incredible 11-stage hike in the Arctic Circle called the Lofoten Crossing. It’s becoming one of the fastest-growing hikes in the world in terms of popularity. &lt;/span&gt;&lt;a href="https://rando-lofoten.net/index.php?option=com_content&amp;amp;view=article&amp;amp;id=374&amp;amp;Itemid=1313&amp;amp;lang=en"&gt;&lt;span&gt;This hike, which I loved and benefited so much from doing, was “invented” by the husband-and-wife team of David Souyris (may his memory be a blessing) and Magdalena Brede&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;span&gt;. The duo didn’t create any of the actual trails — what they did, based on their vast knowledge of the Lofoten Islands, was come up with a route/itinerary that crossed the entire archipelago, incorporating as many of the best day hikes and 2-3 day hikes as possible into one continuous, doable route.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;span&gt;What they really did was create a concept. All of these trails existed before them — but by coming up with the concept of this through-hike, and bringing everything together, they created something new, something that people all across the world can see and say, hey, that 11-stage hike looks epic, I want to travel there to do this.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;span&gt;Once again, all of the hiking trails already existed, but until they came up with the framing of the hike, nobody would have done this hike — and more critically, practically none of the thousands of people who have now done the Lofoten Crossing would have even traveled to Norway. Because going to a place with a lot of great day hikes is very different from going to a place with an amazing circuit/thru-hike.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;span&gt;And even greater than this — as people start to do the Lofoten Crossing, people are going to add suggestions, people are going to find optimizations for the route, new campgrounds will materialize, buses will get scheduled, etc. Once the “concept” is invented, it serves as the structure and frame for others to build upon - where without this “invention”, nothing else could be added.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;span&gt;So my theory of invention is that anyone can do this: taking things that already exist — whether it is a time zone, a legal technicality, or a set of hiking trails — and creating a new conceptual framing that makes the underlying structure more accessible to others and creates new value.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;span&gt;Merely by coining something, tying it together, giving it a shape, you make the underlying facts legible — and more than that, the framing itself becomes its own thing, something others can point to. And once something is legible, others can start to build on it, adding even more to it.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;span&gt;Let me give some other examples of where this comes up:&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;span&gt;If you do a lot of long-distance hiking, you will eventually want very light gear. But a lot of hiking-specific gear you can buy is either very expensive, or not so light.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;span&gt;This has led to a big, decentralized drive to use regular industrial goods as hiking gear.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;span&gt;For example, on my hike of the Lofoten Crossing, I used Tyvek window-repair material as a groundsheet, Campbell’s microwaveable soup containers as teacups, a very thick garbage bag to protect my gear from the non-stop rain, Tupperware as a hiking plate/bowl, and waterproof insulated gloves intended for commercial fishermen.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;span&gt;All of these had to be invented. Not the materials, or the goods — but for someone to realize, oh wait, this non-hiking thing is actually amazing hiking gear. Once that realization gets shared online, it quickly spreads through message boards and word of mouth, transforming a cheap household item into a standardized, legible piece of gear that thousands of others now rely on.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;span&gt;The question is — not can you make a new technological invention, but rather, can you take existing hiking trails and create a longer hike through them, or realize that you can use a microwavable soup container as an ultralight hiking mug.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;span&gt;There are thousands and thousands of little things like this, where someone can choose to reframe something, give it a name or a shape, and create huge value for others. But most people don’t realize this is something they are “allowed” to do, or if they do, to share with others — and for us all to collectively benefit from more valuable insights like this, we need more people to realize they can invent things in this way too.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;span&gt;One of the simplest and most underappreciated ways to do this is curating. Curation is ultimately just another form of conceptual scaffolding; by drawing a boundary around scattered, illegible facts, you transform them into a single, usable tool that others can finally act upon.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;span&gt;When I was younger, I compiled the “best advice” on how to negotiate with Canadian telecom providers to lower your bill, which was read and used by tens of thousands of people and spread throughout the country. As a teenager, I made compilations of various Phish playlists (best jams, best soundchecks, best guitar shredding, appearances with horns) — and while almost all of my curation was just taking the community consensus and compiling the songs, the playlists were downloaded thousands and thousands of times, and even 15+ years later, I still hear from people listening to them. Since writing my compilation of my favourite posts from bloggers like &lt;/span&gt;&lt;a href="https://danfrank.ca/my-favourite-joseph-heath-articles-canadas-most-important-canadian-thinker/"&gt;&lt;span&gt;Joseph Heath&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;span&gt;, &lt;/span&gt;&lt;a href="https://danfrank.ca/the-wisdom-of-scott-sumner-my-favourite-non-econ-scott-sumner-blog-posts/"&gt;&lt;span&gt;Scott Sumner,&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;span&gt; and &lt;/span&gt;&lt;a href="https://danfrank.ca/my-favourite-holden-karnofsky-essays-pre-cold-takes/"&gt;&lt;span&gt;Holden Karnofsky,&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;span&gt; I’ve noticed a huge increase in familiarity with many of their previously little read posts.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;span&gt;This is often much easier than people think — just because the consensus is obvious and knowable by anyone that is a part of that community, doesn’t mean that it will be obvious to anyone outside of that community, or even to those in the community in 5 years time. Just as nobody I met in New Zealand had ever thought about that time difference, most people have never heard the best Phish jams, or read the best Joseph Heath blogposts, or seen the best hikes in the Lofoten Islands gathered in one place. What may feel too obvious to you — because you’re already immersed within it — is often unknown to others and recognizing this gap can create enormous value.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;span&gt;And none of this has to start big. A playlist, a gear hack, a compilation of your favourite blog posts — each one can start small, but the moment you put it into the world, others can find it, use it, and build on it.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;span&gt;So while you may never make a new scientific discovery or found a tech company - I hope you consider thinking of yourself as an inventor and eagerly sharing all the new reframings, connections, curations you can think of that add value - and just because it’s obvious to you doesn’t mean there isn’t value in sharing it with others. When enough of us do that, we all benefit from the conceptual inventions each person brings to the world.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt; Who’s Afraid Of Chinese Models? - Cecily https://stratechery.com/2026/whos-afraid-of-chinese-models/ 2026-07-20T19:00:30.000Z &lt;p&gt;Ben Thompson | Stratechery | 20th July 2026 | U&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Read the full article on the site...&lt;/p&gt; Back When Football Was Innocent - Cecily https://www.persuasion.community/p/back-when-football-was-innocentand 2026-07-20T19:00:30.000Z &lt;p&gt;Quico Toro | Persuasion | 19th July 2026 | U&lt;/p&gt;&lt;h3 dir="auto" class="subtitle subtitle-HEEcLo"&gt;The game of 1970 was nothing like today. That doesn't mean I'll stop watching.&lt;/h3&gt;&lt;div dir="auto" class="body markup"&gt;&lt;div class="captioned-image-container"&gt;&lt;figure&gt;&lt;a target="_blank" href="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!T8TB!,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F7adc0c2b-b32c-4bf2-8d0b-03347b1bbdd6_2361x1607.jpeg" data-component-name="Image2ToDOM" class="image-link image2 is-viewable-img can-restack"&gt;&lt;div class="image2-inset"&gt;&lt;picture&gt;&lt;source type="image/webp" srcset="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!T8TB!,w_424,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F7adc0c2b-b32c-4bf2-8d0b-03347b1bbdd6_2361x1607.jpeg 424w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!T8TB!,w_848,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F7adc0c2b-b32c-4bf2-8d0b-03347b1bbdd6_2361x1607.jpeg 848w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!T8TB!,w_1272,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F7adc0c2b-b32c-4bf2-8d0b-03347b1bbdd6_2361x1607.jpeg 1272w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!T8TB!,w_1456,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F7adc0c2b-b32c-4bf2-8d0b-03347b1bbdd6_2361x1607.jpeg 1456w" sizes="100vw"&gt;&lt;img src="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!T8TB!,w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F7adc0c2b-b32c-4bf2-8d0b-03347b1bbdd6_2361x1607.jpeg" width="1456" height="991" data-attrs="{&amp;quot;src&amp;quot;:&amp;quot;https://substack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com/public/images/7adc0c2b-b32c-4bf2-8d0b-03347b1bbdd6_2361x1607.jpeg&amp;quot;,&amp;quot;srcNoWatermark&amp;quot;:null,&amp;quot;fullscreen&amp;quot;:null,&amp;quot;imageSize&amp;quot;:null,&amp;quot;height&amp;quot;:991,&amp;quot;width&amp;quot;:1456,&amp;quot;resizeWidth&amp;quot;:null,&amp;quot;bytes&amp;quot;:506499,&amp;quot;alt&amp;quot;:null,&amp;quot;title&amp;quot;:null,&amp;quot;type&amp;quot;:&amp;quot;image/jpeg&amp;quot;,&amp;quot;href&amp;quot;:null,&amp;quot;belowTheFold&amp;quot;:false,&amp;quot;topImage&amp;quot;:true,&amp;quot;internalRedirect&amp;quot;:&amp;quot;https://www.persuasion.community/i/207607606?img=https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F7adc0c2b-b32c-4bf2-8d0b-03347b1bbdd6_2361x1607.jpeg&amp;quot;,&amp;quot;isProcessing&amp;quot;:false,&amp;quot;align&amp;quot;:null,&amp;quot;offset&amp;quot;:false}" alt="" srcset="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!T8TB!,w_424,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F7adc0c2b-b32c-4bf2-8d0b-03347b1bbdd6_2361x1607.jpeg 424w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!T8TB!,w_848,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F7adc0c2b-b32c-4bf2-8d0b-03347b1bbdd6_2361x1607.jpeg 848w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!T8TB!,w_1272,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F7adc0c2b-b32c-4bf2-8d0b-03347b1bbdd6_2361x1607.jpeg 1272w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!T8TB!,w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F7adc0c2b-b32c-4bf2-8d0b-03347b1bbdd6_2361x1607.jpeg 1456w" sizes="100vw" fetchpriority="high" class="sizing-normal"&gt;&lt;/picture&gt;&lt;div class="image-link-expand"&gt;&lt;div class="pencraft pc-display-flex pc-gap-8 pc-reset"&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;figcaption class="image-caption"&gt;Brazil versus Czechoslovakia in Mexico, June 3 1970. (Photo by Syndication International/Mirrorpix via Getty Images.)&lt;/figcaption&gt;&lt;/figure&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;span&gt;There’s a particular rhythm to the World Cup, a progression. It begins as an all out bacchanalia, a frenetic all-you-can-eat football buffet of multiple games each day. There’s a wonderful sense of serendipity in the wildly mismatched pairings: there is no other context in which Panamanians will all collectively channel their national fervor into temporary animosity against Croatia, and yet there it is, playing out on your screen.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;span&gt;The quality varies—no one I know had Uzbekistan-Congo circled in red marker on their calendar—but the intensity doesn’t: every match is &lt;/span&gt;&lt;em&gt;&lt;span&gt;the &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;span&gt;biggest match the particular 22 players on the pitch have ever played in their lives, and so the levels of commitment on display are always off the charts. Some matches inevitably fall flat—tapes of Japan-Tunisia could be prescribed as an effective treatment for insomnia. But others reach frenzied peaks of unlikely excitement, like the astonishing epic that Austria-Algeria turned into. Now, with the tournament expanded to 48 teams, what was already an embarrassment of riches has turned into a kind of firehose of football, an unmanageable explosion of games—some intriguing, many one-sided, a few just absurd—that exist, I’m quite sure, mostly to juice FIFA’s profits. (Not, of course, that I’ll look away for that reason.)&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;hr&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class="subscription-widget-wrap"&gt;&lt;div class="subscription-widget show-subscribe"&gt;&lt;div class="preamble"&gt;&lt;p&gt;We’re expanding our events offerings! Please check out our &lt;a href="https://www.persuasion.community/p/our-events"&gt;events page&lt;/a&gt; to join Book Club, Ask the Author, and Intellectual Bootcamp—and to watch recordings of recent events.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;hr&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;span&gt;Of course, the cornucopia can’t last forever. As the tournament moves forward teams get knocked out, and as their numbers dwindle, the math shifts. Suddenly, you come to that cruel day at the end of the Quarterfinals. Players must rest, and so you wake up to find yourself faced with an intolerable outrage: a day when, even though there’s a World Cup on, there’s no fútbol.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;span&gt;This year it was on July 8, and as happens every four years, I &lt;/span&gt;&lt;em&gt;&lt;span&gt;hated it. &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;span&gt;I tried to console myself, like I do every four years, reflecting that this is just, in reality, the way the whole rest of my life is. I don’t follow club football closely—a Champions’ League match now and again, no more than that—so when the &lt;/span&gt;&lt;em&gt;&lt;span&gt;mundial &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;span&gt;is not on, a day without football is just a day. Now, though, I saw the confusion in my kids’ eyes when I explained that the schedule forced a day off, and realized I had to do something about it.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;span&gt;Fortunately, the good people at ITV—the &lt;/span&gt;&lt;em&gt;&lt;span&gt;other &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;span&gt;British broadcaster—knew this day was coming, and they were prepared. In a moment of marketing genius, they prepared World Cup Classics, a whole section of their streaming platform serving up great games from World Cups past. Like a junkie minutely searching the rug for bits of dope that might have fallen there, I found myself looking through their offerings before clicking on the Brazil-Czechoslovakia match from Mexico 1970.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;span&gt;My kids gathered around, shooting each other concerned looks. “Wow, he’s worse than I thought,” said the 12 year old. Pretty soon, though, their eyes were on the screen… and drawn into the World Cup definitely not as we know it. There’s no 21st century razzmatazz on display, none of the hyper-produced HD glitter FIFA has learned to lard on in the intervening decades. Stadium security is a bunch of fat Mexican cops in brown uniforms sitting on the side of the pitch just watching the game. There’s no sky-cams, no referee-view, certainly no VAR, hardly even a replay after a goal. The advertising hoardings don’t flash and shift, they just sit there, selling you Camel cigarettes and Martini-brand Vermouth, Zagal shirts and t-shirts (presumably a local shirt shop in Guadalajara). When the camera pans out to the crowd, everyone is wearing their normal clothes. When it pans to the bench, &lt;/span&gt;&lt;em&gt;&lt;span&gt;it’s an actual bench, &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;span&gt;not a row of branded leather armchairs that look like they belong in a sports car.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;hr&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div data-component-name="DigestPostEmbed" class="digestPostEmbed-flwiST"&gt;&lt;div class="pencraft pc-display-flex pc-gap-16 pc-reset"&gt;&lt;a href="https://www.persuasion.community/p/yes-i-will-be-watching-every-minute" rel="noopener" target="_blank"&gt;&lt;div style="width:70px;height:70px;" class="pencraft pc-reset"&gt;&lt;picture&gt;&lt;source type="image/webp" srcset="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!_wiv!,w_140,h_140,c_fill,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep,g_auto/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fea61b278-4d5a-437c-9606-43623887fd16_7403x4938.jpeg"&gt;&lt;img src="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!_wiv!,w_140,h_140,c_fill,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep,g_auto/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fea61b278-4d5a-437c-9606-43623887fd16_7403x4938.jpeg" sizes="100vw" alt="Yes, I Will Be Watching Every Minute of FIFA’s $11 Billion Heist" width="140" height="140" class="img-OACg1c smSquare-NGbPBa pencraft pc-reset"&gt;&lt;/picture&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;div class="pencraft pc-display-flex pc-flexDirection-column pc-reset"&gt;&lt;a href="https://www.persuasion.community/p/yes-i-will-be-watching-every-minute" rel="noopener" target="_blank"&gt;&lt;h4 class="pencraft pc-reset color-pub-primary-text-NyXPlw line-height-24-jnGwiv font-display-nhmvtD size-20-P_cSRT weight-bold-DmI9lw reset-IxiVJZ"&gt;Yes, I Will Be Watching Every Minute of FIFA’s $11 Billion Heist&lt;/h4&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;div class="pencraft pc-display-flex pc-gap-4 pc-alignItems-center pc-reset"&gt;&lt;div class="pencraft pc-reset color-pub-secondary-text-hGQ02T line-height-20-t4M0El font-meta-MWBumP size-11-NuY2Zx weight-medium-fw81nC transform-uppercase-yKDgcq reset-IxiVJZ meta-EgzBVA"&gt;&lt;a href="https://substack.com/profile/1263011-quico-toro" class="inheritColor-WetTGJ"&gt;Quico Toro&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class="pencraft pc-reset color-pub-secondary-text-hGQ02T reset-IxiVJZ"&gt;·&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class="pencraft pc-reset color-pub-secondary-text-hGQ02T line-height-20-t4M0El font-meta-MWBumP size-11-NuY2Zx weight-medium-fw81nC transform-uppercase-yKDgcq reset-IxiVJZ meta-EgzBVA"&gt;Jun 11&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class="pencraft pc-display-flex pc-gap-16 pc-paddingTop-0 pc-paddingBottom-0 pc-alignItems-center pc-reset"&gt;&lt;a href="https://www.persuasion.community/p/yes-i-will-be-watching-every-minute" class="pencraft pc-reset align-center-y7ZD4w line-height-20-t4M0El font-text-qe4AeH size-13-hZTUKr weight-medium-fw81nC reset-IxiVJZ"&gt;&lt;div class="pencraft pc-display-flex pc-gap-8 pc-alignItems-center pc-reset link-HREYZo"&gt;&lt;span class="pencraft pc-reset color-accent-BVX_7M line-height-20-t4M0El font-text-qe4AeH size-14-MLPa7j weight-semibold-uqA4FV reset-IxiVJZ"&gt;Read full story&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;hr&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;span&gt;“Why are they all moving &lt;/span&gt;&lt;em&gt;&lt;span&gt;so slow?” &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;span&gt;my 12 year old asks, visibly confused. “Hadn’t they invented the concept of closing people down?” Then you notice it. The Czechoslovak defense just sort of hangs back, giving the Brazilians four or five yards in every direction on the edge of the box. Tackling is rare, and often hilariously ineffective.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;span&gt;“None of these people would get picked for &lt;/span&gt;&lt;em&gt;&lt;span&gt;any &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;span&gt;team in this year’s tournament, would they?” the 14 year old asks. “Not even for Jordan,” the 12 year old answers.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;span&gt;Of course they wouldn’t. Back in 1970, the average professional footballer in England earned the equivalent of $28,000 a year, with star players earning the equivalent of $100,000. Training sessions stopped for cigarette breaks. It was the dawn of color TV, and the sport had yet to begin its transformation into the global commercial behemoth it has since become.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;span&gt;“Daddy,” the 12 year old says after a while, “this game is super, super boring!”&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;span&gt;I can’t quite disagree.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;span&gt;Look, I love to hate FIFA for &lt;/span&gt;&lt;a href="https://www.persuasion.community/p/yes-i-will-be-watching-every-minute"&gt;&lt;span&gt;the incredible empire of greed they’ve built&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;span&gt;. But then, the training-sponsorship-ratings arms race that has developed around football is not their fault. The torrent of cash that’s poured into the game has the power of a flood, rearranging the whole football landscape and turning the somewhat frumpy spectacle of Mexico ‘70 into the dazzling show we get to see now.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;span&gt;Because for all its faults, for all the meaningless games between zero-hope tier teams, for all the soporific Qatar-Switzerlands and New Zealand-Egypts FIFA inflicted on us in its money-grubbing ways, this year’s show has been spectacular. From Norway’s inspired run to the almighty scare Cape Verde gave Argentina, this year’s tournament has already done that thing it seems to do every four years: force us to forget FIFA’s sins by enthralling us with jaw-dropping performances.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;span&gt;A month of scintillating football has led up to today’s final between Spain and Argentina. As a non-Argentinian South American I am, of course, honor bound to support whomever is playing against Argentina—it’s tradition! It helps that Spain is certainly an easy team to love. And yet it’s a testament to Messi’s unlimited on-field charisma that I would, in my heart of hearts, not really hate it if Argentina won. Because Lionel Messi long ago burst the banks of the superlatives channeled to him, transcended his Argentinianness, almost his humanity, to become a myth. Scoring eight goals in seven games at the age of 39, Messi makes the impossible routine. Surely, the moral order of the universe demands that he lift the trophy once more.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;span&gt;Sitting here hoping for these two remarkable teams to give this tournament the final it deserves, I can’t help but feel that the distance between the languid, staid football of 1970 and the turbocharged game that’s played today captures the transformation our societies have undergone these last 56 years as neatly as anything else I can think of. We live in a faster, sharper-edged world, slicker, &lt;/span&gt;&lt;em&gt;&lt;span&gt;much &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;span&gt;more competitive and &lt;/span&gt;&lt;em&gt;&lt;span&gt;much&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;span&gt; richer. What passed for entertainment back then bores the hell out of us today. Our society is brighter, sharper edged, the stakes are higher. &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;span&gt;And it just left me wondering how this year’s World Cup will look from the vantage point of 2080, when it’s Argentina-Spain 2026 that’s playing on the World Cup Classics feed, presumably, on ITV’s neurolink-enabled Experience Machine. Are my kids doomed to sit around explaining to their grandkids that they can remember back before cyborgs were allowed on the pitch? How much faster can the game get, how much more aggressive the tackling and more precise the passing? Come to think of it, how much more competitive can society go on getting?&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;span&gt;Idle thoughts, of course, that you’d only entertain because you’re bored, desperate on the days-without-a-match and watching a half-century old match between guys who wouldn’t get picked to play in today’s Bulgarian second division. Which is to say, this delectable Argentina-Spain final can’t come a moment too soon.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Quico Toro is a contributing editor at &lt;/strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Persuasion&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;strong&gt;, the founder of &lt;/strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Caracas Chronicles&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;span&gt;, Director of Climate Repair at the Anthropocene Institute, and writes the Substack &lt;/span&gt;&lt;a href="https://www.onepercentbrighter.com/"&gt;One Percent Brighter&lt;/a&gt;&lt;span&gt;. He lives in Tokyo.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;hr&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;span&gt;Follow &lt;/span&gt;&lt;em&gt;Persuasion &lt;/em&gt;&lt;span&gt;on &lt;/span&gt;&lt;a href="https://x.com/JoinPersuasion?utm_source=substack&amp;amp;utm_medium=email"&gt;X&lt;/a&gt;&lt;span&gt;, &lt;/span&gt;&lt;a href="https://www.instagram.com/joinpersuasion/"&gt;Instagram&lt;/a&gt;&lt;span&gt;, &lt;/span&gt;&lt;a href="https://substack.com/redirect/e94f86a5-4782-43a3-a6ac-0e0b396c0733?j=eyJ1Ijoia3Q5YWwifQ.GB8kGga_fm4J54VJxgS132zWgN7OrYJYgEHHV4zYMOQ"&gt;LinkedIn&lt;/a&gt;&lt;span&gt;, and &lt;/span&gt;&lt;a href="https://substack.com/redirect/97cee885-3e27-4fd5-9f2e-d1360f339b5c?j=eyJ1Ijoia3Q5YWwifQ.GB8kGga_fm4J54VJxgS132zWgN7OrYJYgEHHV4zYMOQ"&gt;YouTube&lt;/a&gt;&lt;span&gt; to keep up with our latest articles, podcasts, and events, as well as updates from excellent writers across our network.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;And, to receive pieces like this in your inbox and support our work, subscribe below:&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/div&gt; How To Feed Dogs - Cecily https://fivebooks.com/best-books/jonathan-self-on-dog-food/ 2026-07-20T19:00:30.000Z &lt;p&gt;Sophie Roell &amp;amp; Jonathan Self | Five Books | 19th July 2015 | U&lt;/p&gt; &lt;div class="page-content header-right-column medium-16 columns"&gt; &lt;div class="row"&gt; &lt;h3 class="block-heading -wholepage interview-heading"&gt;&lt;a href="https://fivebooks.com/category/nonfiction-books/"&gt;Nonfiction Books&lt;/a&gt; » &lt;a href="https://fivebooks.com/category/nature/"&gt;Nature&lt;/a&gt; » &lt;a href="https://fivebooks.com/category/nature/animals/"&gt;Animals&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/h3&gt; &lt;div class="medium-14 columns"&gt; &lt;div class="row"&gt; &lt;div class="small-20 medium-20 columns"&gt; &lt;h4 class="interview-name"&gt;recommended by Jonathan Self&lt;/h4&gt; &lt;p class="interview-description"&gt;Dogs are like wolves and should be fed raw meat and bones, says the author and founder of Honey's Real Dog Food company. He chooses the best books on dog food. &lt;/p&gt; &lt;p class="interview-credit"&gt;Interview by &lt;a href="https://fivebooks.com/interviewer/sophie-roell/" class="interviewer-name"&gt;Sophie Roell&lt;/a&gt;, Editor&lt;/p&gt; &lt;/div&gt; &lt;/div&gt; &lt;/div&gt; &lt;/div&gt; &lt;div class="row"&gt; &lt;div class="medium-25 columns interview-page-bookshelf"&gt; &lt;style&gt; .buy.submit { display: none; background-color: #fb6f73; height: 3.6rem; width: 6.5rem; border-radius: 5px; font-size: 1em; text-align: center; color: white; font-weight: bold; font-family: "AN", "Lato", sans-serif; line-height: 1.2em; text-decoration: none; position: absolute; /*margin-right: 5rem;*/ padding: 0.6rem 10px; left: -9.4rem; /*right: 0; top: -5rem;*/ } .buy.submit:hover { background-color: #fbefef; color: #fb6f73; } @media only screen and (min-width: 64.0625em){ .buy.submit { display: block; } } &lt;/style&gt; &lt;section class="show-for-medium-down book-list-mobile"&gt; &lt;/section&gt; &lt;/div&gt; &lt;/div&gt; &lt;/div&gt; &lt;div id="interviewcontent" class="small-20 medium-13 columns medium-push-4 interview-content -with-drop-cap"&gt; &lt;p class="question"&gt;Is dog food an important topic? &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;I would say it is, but for an unusual, rather convoluted, reason. I’m vegetarian. It’s slightly unusual for a man who is against the killing of animals for food to be in a business that involves killing animals for food. My personal ethics of it — and it comes down to why I think dog food is important — is that dogs and cats, and indeed all pets, are vitally important to society. Without them, most people would have almost no contact with any species other than humans. And since I think human society, although it has its good parts, is a bit like a virus or cancer on the world, anything that checks human greed and desire to destroy things is good news. Having pets around is rather good from that point of view. If you’re going to keep pets — in particular dogs and cats which are the most popular form of pets — it’s important that you look after them properly. In the case of dogs and cats, their biologically appropriate food is raw meat. Is dog food important? Yes. If we’re going to keep — and in the UK it’s 8 million — dogs as a society, it’s important we look after them properly. And I think dogs are important too, even though they use up enormous amounts of the world’s resources. &lt;ins data-fivebooks-zoneid="4" data-fivebooks-maincategory="non-fiction" data-fivebooks-id="ef0dbb2b89dcbb1a650ce88ca4840ffd"&gt;&lt;/ins&gt; &lt;script async="" src="https://fivebooks.com/serve/delivery/fbjs.php" type="230706d99c743641597330f2-text/javascript"&gt;&lt;/script&gt; &lt;script type="230706d99c743641597330f2-text/javascript"&gt; document.addEventListener("fivebooks-ef0dbb2b89dcbb1a650ce88ca4840ffd-loaded",function(evt){ try{ if(evt.detail.data.height&gt;0) { document.getElementById(evt.detail.id).classList.add("filled"); } } catch(e) { console.log(evt.detail.id); } }); &lt;/script&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p class="question"&gt;So in terms of what is biologically appropriate you say it’s raw meat. How did you come to that conclusion? &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;My vet was telling me for years that I shouldn’t be feeding my dogs Kibble, but raw food. I thought he was a jolly good vet but I ignored him. I didn’t make the switch. I was away and the person looking after the dogs, who had been listening to the vet and getting annoyed with my lack of action, switched all the dogs to raw food. I came back and found them all eating chicken carcasses, bones and mince [ground meat], very happily. I’d given up farming at that point, because I couldn’t bear killing anything, and I was wondering how I could get somebody else to produce the dog food for me using ethically sourced meat. I couldn’t find anybody online and the local butcher wasn’t interested, so I persuaded a friend, Vicky Marshall, to start the business, which became Honey’s Real Dog Food.&amp;nbsp;So I discovered almost by accident that raw meat was the right thing. Then I became obsessed with it and I went and saw a vet in America. We dissected both a wolf and a dog so I could see what their insides were like. Dogs are basically wolves. Whatever dog you have, its inside, and much of its motivation and behavior, is linked to that of a wolf. They’re kissing cousins — they can interbreed. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p class="question"&gt;And that means that raw food is better? &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;They’re the same species, so they should be eating the same diet. Wolves are carnivores, they hunt prey and they live on prey. They’re very different from humans, who are much more like cows and other herbivores. Our digestive process starts in our mouth, so about a third of it has taken place before we even swallow. We masticate. We chew our food to break it down, adding the digestive enzymes and the saliva. Dogs can’t chew. They can’t move their jaw from side to side. All their digestive enzymes are in the stomach, not in the mouth or the saliva. Dogs’ bodies are designed to hunt and kill prey. Human bodies aren’t. We can just about manage beetles, but there’s very little that humans are designed to kill without a tool. There are different theories, but some people believe that once pre-humans discovered that they could kill things and eat meat, all the extra protein is what caused human intelligence to increase, and the brain to become so much more complicated. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p class="question"&gt;But basically, if I, like many people around me, just feed my dog Pedigree Chum, it’s got wheat in it and it’s all in little bits, I’m treating the dog as if it’s a quasi-human being, rather than respecting the fact it’s more like a wolf? &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;It’s exactly like a wolf. You’re making the mistake of thinking that its food needs to be cooked. Actually, in the wild, wolves and wild dogs don’t cook. You think it needs to be eating grain, but again, in the wild, you rarely see a dog hunting a wheat field. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p class="question"&gt;Going back to your vet. Why did he keep recommending this raw food? Were your dogs not looking their best? &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;My dogs were in great shape, but every species needs to be eating a biologically appropriate diet. Pandas will die if they don’t get their bamboo, cows need to be eating grass, boa constrictors…whatever it is, we all need to eat a biologically appropriate diet. And some vets — but it’s a minority — have been aware of this for the last few decades. It all goes back to history of dog food. The first dog food producer was a man called James Spratt. He worked out he could use the waste materials from our food and create a dog biscuit out of it and really the formula hasn’t changed much. All contemporary dog food uses waste food from humans, so it’s meat that’s gone off and sub-standard grain. James Spratt used to get vets to say how good his food was, even though it wasn’t and they knew nothing. Vets are mostly trained in canine nutrition by the dog food companies. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p class="pullquote inline-el"&gt;“In the wild, wolves and dogs don’t cook.”&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;We’re now in a cycle where vets are being taught that modern processed dog food is good for the dogs and that it’s balanced. They also make money selling it, often, from their veterinary surgeries. There’s no reason for them to question it. But a few more alternative vets in the 70s and 80s started saying “Wait, hang on, this stuff isn’t very good.” There are some vets — &lt;a href="http://www.rawmeatybones.com/"&gt;Tom Lonsdale&lt;/a&gt; is one of them — who argue that processed food is causing the majority of visits to the vet. So you’ve got the food causing the problems, and the vets solving it&amp;nbsp; — with all these specialist foods for different health conditions and with drugs. If you think of human health, if we eat well and healthily and exercise, we’re much healthier. Humans that don’t eat well go to the doctor more often. It’s the same with dogs. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;aside class="ancillary-block -left show-for-medium-up anchor-offset" id="book-7228" data-book-id="7228"&gt; &lt;div class="single-book inline -placeholders"&gt; &lt;a href="https://fivebooks.com/book/give-your-dog-bone-by-ian-billinghurst/buy" rel="nofollow noopener" id="book-give-your-dog-bone-by-ian-billinghurst" target="_blank"&gt; &lt;picture&gt;&lt;source type="image/avif" srcset="https://fivebooks.com/images/NiEtFLOK1Rm-lbIy/rs:auto:100:0:1/sh:0.5/plain/fb/2015/07/0646160281.01.LZ_.jpg@avif 100w, https://fivebooks.com/images/3_bWZx5gBM_Ot7H8/rs:auto:220:0:1/plain/fb/2015/07/0646160281.01.LZ_.jpg@avif 220w, https://fivebooks.com/images/XfNWMbmbi2vUAmIo/rs:auto:40:0:1/sh:0.5/plain/fb/2015/07/0646160281.01.LZ_.jpg@avif 40w" sizes="100px"&gt;&lt;source type="image/webp" srcset="https://fivebooks.com/images/ua7D2MsjkKfOx58W/rs:auto:100:0:1/sh:0.5/plain/fb/2015/07/0646160281.01.LZ_.jpg@webp 100w, https://fivebooks.com/images/bNBU8KdX7lDXS7eR/rs:auto:220:0:1/plain/fb/2015/07/0646160281.01.LZ_.jpg@webp 220w, https://fivebooks.com/images/KwAe88Dye6m6xwzH/rs:auto:40:0:1/sh:0.5/plain/fb/2015/07/0646160281.01.LZ_.jpg@webp 40w" sizes="100px"&gt;&lt;img decoding="async" width="100" height="160" src="data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAAAAACH5BAEKAAEALAAAAAABAAEAAAICTAEAOw==" class="cover lazyload wp-post-image" alt="" sizes="100px" srcset="https://fivebooks.com/images/SQBmEi5MrC5bn5Ux/rs:auto:100:0:1/sh:0.5/plain/fb/2015/07/0646160281.01.LZ_.jpg 100w, https://fivebooks.com/images/UNbhy8sk-r7uVkd3/rs:auto:220:0:1/plain/fb/2015/07/0646160281.01.LZ_.jpg 220w, https://fivebooks.com/images/3D2b7nxaKybUolsy/rs:auto:40:0:1/sh:0.5/plain/fb/2015/07/0646160281.01.LZ_.jpg 40w"&gt;&lt;/picture&gt; &lt;/a&gt; &lt;/div&gt; &lt;/aside&gt; &lt;p class="question"&gt;Let’s go through the books you’ve chosen. Given what you’ve just said about vets, shall we start with the book by Ian Billinghurst,&amp;nbsp;&lt;em&gt;Give Your Dog a Bone&lt;/em&gt;? &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Ian is a vet in Australia. He wrote his first book in the early 1990s. He’s the one who woke everyone up and created the term BARF — biologically appropriate raw food — which is a horrible acronym but it’s really taken off. You’ll hear a lot of people refer to the BARF diet. The problem with his books is that they’re very repetitive and they make it seem very complicated, but I chose him because he really was the first vet to bring it to the public’s attention. He was roundly criticized for it, and really suffered for it, I have to say. He came and tried to talk to the Royal Veterinary Society and he was laughed at. Now, like lots of people who were before their time, he’s rather more welcomed. But back in the 1990s nobody wanted to hear it. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p class="question"&gt;So even if the book isn’t hugely well written it contains important info? &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;It does, yes. It’s a good starting off point. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p class="question"&gt;And the message is that processed food is bad and dogs should be eating their ancestral diet.&amp;nbsp; &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Yes, it’s no different to the story with human food, like Super Size Me. When we eat processed food like Burger King or McDonalds we’re much less healthy. You live less long and you’re sick a lot. That’s really what he’s saying. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;aside class="ancillary-block -left show-for-medium-up anchor-offset" id="book-7229" data-book-id="7229"&gt; &lt;div class="single-book inline -placeholders"&gt; &lt;a href="https://fivebooks.com/book/lucky-dog-weight-loss-plan-by-vicky-marshall/buy" rel="nofollow noopener" id="book-lucky-dog-weight-loss-plan-by-vicky-marshall" target="_blank"&gt; &lt;picture&gt;&lt;source type="image/avif" srcset="https://fivebooks.com/images/vb0QznwmFcDxt9A-/rs:auto:100:0:1/sh:0.5/plain/fb/2015/07/0957075316.01.LZ_.jpg@avif 100w, https://fivebooks.com/images/2-ExFyUiXT6hVkKo/rs:auto:220:0:1/plain/fb/2015/07/0957075316.01.LZ_.jpg@avif 220w, https://fivebooks.com/images/GYNApe_eMQOgoMWP/rs:auto:40:0:1/sh:0.5/plain/fb/2015/07/0957075316.01.LZ_.jpg@avif 40w" sizes="100px"&gt;&lt;source type="image/webp" srcset="https://fivebooks.com/images/KP2wx423LZj2atG-/rs:auto:100:0:1/sh:0.5/plain/fb/2015/07/0957075316.01.LZ_.jpg@webp 100w, https://fivebooks.com/images/pQ9aGOdLwtzX1l-G/rs:auto:220:0:1/plain/fb/2015/07/0957075316.01.LZ_.jpg@webp 220w, https://fivebooks.com/images/tN5TtspKA6Qx57YP/rs:auto:40:0:1/sh:0.5/plain/fb/2015/07/0957075316.01.LZ_.jpg@webp 40w" sizes="100px"&gt;&lt;img decoding="async" width="100" height="159" src="data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAAAAACH5BAEKAAEALAAAAAABAAEAAAICTAEAOw==" class="cover lazyload wp-post-image" alt="" sizes="100px" srcset="https://fivebooks.com/images/cfPax4Xoyds-QbDJ/rs:auto:100:0:1/sh:0.5/plain/fb/2015/07/0957075316.01.LZ_.jpg 100w, https://fivebooks.com/images/MzG1JM7asi86OCgW/rs:auto:220:0:1/plain/fb/2015/07/0957075316.01.LZ_.jpg 220w, https://fivebooks.com/images/fAVPLT8r3P_iryPO/rs:auto:40:0:1/sh:0.5/plain/fb/2015/07/0957075316.01.LZ_.jpg 40w"&gt;&lt;/picture&gt; &lt;/a&gt; &lt;/div&gt; &lt;/aside&gt; &lt;p class="question"&gt;On the issue of being overweight, shall we talk about your second book,&amp;nbsp;&lt;em&gt;The Lucky Dog Weight Loss Plan?&amp;nbsp;&lt;/em&gt;You mentioned in your email that this book is by your business partner, Vicky Marshall. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Around half the dogs in the United Kingdom are overweight or obese.&amp;nbsp;I chose this book because what Vicky does is she analyzes and looks at the research which shows in detail what wolves and dogs eat in the wild. She then compares it to processed food and discovers that processed food contains much higher quantities of unhealthy fat and much higher amounts of carbohydrate. We feed a lot of dogs and she discovered that it wasn’t really about changing the volume of food you give a dog, or starving it. By changing from bad fats to good fats and by increasing the percentage of protein, the dog automatically loses weight. If you change the balance of the food and switch the dog to a biologically appropriate diet, the weight just falls off. She worked on that for 4-5 years, and wrote this excellent but really short book. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p class="question"&gt;Was this before you teamed up with Vicky or after? &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;After. Once we started we said, “Yikes, half the dogs we’ve got coming in are overweight, why is that?” Working with vets and with the dog owners, she worked out a diet that helps the dogs to lose weight without them being hungry. If only it was as easy for humans… &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p class="question"&gt;Were they noticeably fat, these dogs? &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Oh, yes, obese often. We deal with a lot of overweight dogs because we have a reputation for it now. We run a program. Sometimes there are additional problems — the dog isn’t getting enough exercise or they’re being given titbits all the time — but in the majority of cases, it’s just that they’re on a Kibble or tinned food diet and the dogs are getting overweight. It’s like us eating lots of food with the wrong fat and too much carbohydrate. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p class="question"&gt;I thought your business, Honey’s, was just about delivering raw dog food for people to feed their dogs. Do you also have resident dogs? &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;We don’t have any resident dogs, but we do have a poorly dogs team and an overweight dogs team. We employ vets and veterinary nurses. You don’t have to be a customer, we’re happy to help anybody who comes to us for nutritional and health advice. That’s really been Vicky’s baby more than mine. She has someone who used to be in the pharmaceutical industry who has been with us for six years now, who heads that team up. And under her there are two vets and three veterinary nurses and that’s all they do: They provide advice. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p class="question"&gt;So if I’m worried about my dog being overweight… &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;I didn’t realize you had a dog. Have you got a dog?&amp;nbsp;Why aren’t we feeding your dog? &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p class="question"&gt;Actually I wanted to talk to you about that. Our dog is a bit schizophrenic. She was in England for 3 years while I was living in China, and she was fed dry dog food with a bit of water twice a day. And apparently she happily ate that, according to the lovely woman who was looking after her. But when the dog came back to me earlier this year, she absolutely would not eat dry dog food. She drinks my coffee, she eats the kids’ pasta with pesto. The other day she even ate my guacamole dip. So I was wondering, what is it with this dog? Does she think she’s a human being? &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Have you tried her on some mince or some chicken wings? &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p class="question"&gt;Before I go down that route I wanted to ask you: If one embarks on the raw dog food track, how much does it cost? &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;How big is your dog? &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p class="question"&gt;She’s quite big. She’s half German shepherd, half Lab. I would say about 33 pounds.&amp;nbsp; &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Do you buy meat anyway? Do you go to butchers? &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p class="question"&gt;Not huge amounts, but some. I just buy it at the supermarket, I’m afraid. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;I would say it’s going to cost you more than a bag of Kibble, but if you did it yourself, using ingredients we can advise you on, it’s going to cost around 40 or 50 GBP per month. I don’t use my own company’s food, because I live in Ireland and I don’t like to ship the food over. It seems un-environmental to send food from England. I just have the local butcher give me scraps and bits and pieces.&amp;nbsp;I’ve got an English Pointer who is probably about the same weight, and I reckon it costs me about 30-35 GBP a month. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;aside class="ancillary-block -left show-for-medium-up anchor-offset" id="book-7230" data-book-id="7230"&gt; &lt;div class="single-book inline -placeholders"&gt; &lt;a href="https://fivebooks.com/book/defence-dogs-by-john-bradshaw/buy" rel="nofollow noopener" id="book-defence-dogs-by-john-bradshaw" target="_blank"&gt; &lt;picture&gt;&lt;source type="image/avif" srcset="https://fivebooks.com/images/UzqIgkS-5d3AxkmC/rs:auto:100:0:1/sh:0.5/plain/fb/2015/07/014104649X.01.LZ_.jpg@avif 100w, https://fivebooks.com/images/bbpAlOXrnQyPw6_c/rs:auto:220:0:1/plain/fb/2015/07/014104649X.01.LZ_.jpg@avif 220w, https://fivebooks.com/images/z5emavafl6q-HDYO/rs:auto:40:0:1/sh:0.5/plain/fb/2015/07/014104649X.01.LZ_.jpg@avif 40w" sizes="100px"&gt;&lt;source type="image/webp" srcset="https://fivebooks.com/images/OmHWhOFJEWEmwwwb/rs:auto:100:0:1/sh:0.5/plain/fb/2015/07/014104649X.01.LZ_.jpg@webp 100w, https://fivebooks.com/images/1FCJW0VdJ29iFH-C/rs:auto:220:0:1/plain/fb/2015/07/014104649X.01.LZ_.jpg@webp 220w, https://fivebooks.com/images/EWzUpwaeQChVb--h/rs:auto:40:0:1/sh:0.5/plain/fb/2015/07/014104649X.01.LZ_.jpg@webp 40w" sizes="100px"&gt;&lt;img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="100" height="154" src="data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAAAAACH5BAEKAAEALAAAAAABAAEAAAICTAEAOw==" class="cover lazyload wp-post-image" alt="" sizes="auto, 100px" srcset="https://fivebooks.com/images/CzzewSJHlgPzioXl/rs:auto:100:0:1/sh:0.5/plain/fb/2015/07/014104649X.01.LZ_.jpg 100w, https://fivebooks.com/images/3wQVJeIFohSkLhSy/rs:auto:220:0:1/plain/fb/2015/07/014104649X.01.LZ_.jpg 220w, https://fivebooks.com/images/495FysAp8fEIJfXS/rs:auto:40:0:1/sh:0.5/plain/fb/2015/07/014104649X.01.LZ_.jpg 40w"&gt;&lt;/picture&gt; &lt;/a&gt; &lt;/div&gt; &lt;/aside&gt; &lt;p class="question"&gt;Let’s go on to book number 3,&amp;nbsp;&lt;em&gt;In Defence of Dogs,&lt;/em&gt;&amp;nbsp;by John Bradshaw. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;This book isn’t really about nutrition, it’s about the evolution of dogs and their relationship with humans. He begins by telling a lovely story about how when he was growing up, his grandfather had a dog who used to have a routine. Every day it used to walk into town and see people. They used to stop the traffic so the dog could cross the road, and later it would come home. And it’s true, when I was growing up, our dog was off the lead all the time. It used to have its own routine and used to go and visit people. There was much greater freedom for dogs. That’s his starting point: He suddenly realized that nowadays dogs always have to be on the lead and there are all these rather strict rules about them. This got him interested in the relationship between dogs and humans. It’s a fantastic book and really explores all sorts of things, like how dogs became domesticated and what happens within wolf packs, which is what everybody looks at because dogs and wolves are so closely connected. In particular, in training, you’ll hear a lot of people say, “Oh the dog views the family as a pack and you need to be the alpha male, you need to dominate your dog. You mustn’t let it get on the furniture, you mustn’t let it go ahead of you through the door.” In fact all that research was based on wolves that were being observed in zoos and wildlife parks. And of course those packs were not actually the same sort of pack that would exist in the wild. They were a made-up pack. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;div class="inline-box -newsletter inline-el"&gt; &lt;p class="explanation"&gt;Get the weekly Five Books newsletter&lt;/p&gt; &lt;/div&gt; &lt;p&gt;It’s a bit like taking a human being from a slum in the East End and putting him with someone from Knightsbridge and giving them two children from somewhere else. They wouldn’t act like a real human family. Once they started researching what wolves did in the wild, they discovered that the whole alpha male and alpha female thing is a complete misnomer. You’ve got a Mum and Dad and the next generation down are the previous year’s cubs who stay with the pack to help bring up the third generation. It’s a pass-through system. Then the new cubs stay on, and the teenagers go off and form their own packs and the wolves, far from fighting each other, are all very cooperative, because it’s all about survival. There is a very little fighting between wolves. It’s a really, really interesting book. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;aside class="ancillary-block -left show-for-medium-up anchor-offset" id="book-7231" data-book-id="7231"&gt; &lt;div class="single-book inline -placeholders"&gt; &lt;a href="https://fivebooks.com/book/pottengers-cats-by-francis-pottenger/buy" rel="nofollow noopener" id="book-pottengers-cats-by-francis-pottenger" target="_blank"&gt; &lt;picture&gt;&lt;source type="image/avif" srcset="https://fivebooks.com/images/HBrG9xMvFA6jWPoU/rs:auto:100:0:1/sh:0.5/plain/fb/2015/07/0916764060.01.LZ_.jpg@avif 100w, https://fivebooks.com/images/wTqKLIRuEjXXyqme/rs:auto:220:0:1/plain/fb/2015/07/0916764060.01.LZ_.jpg@avif 220w, https://fivebooks.com/images/d_FeebW66xEJjyyu/rs:auto:40:0:1/sh:0.5/plain/fb/2015/07/0916764060.01.LZ_.jpg@avif 40w" sizes="100px"&gt;&lt;source type="image/webp" srcset="https://fivebooks.com/images/n9PlQ9cSeGJsTA1z/rs:auto:100:0:1/sh:0.5/plain/fb/2015/07/0916764060.01.LZ_.jpg@webp 100w, https://fivebooks.com/images/YCZGTMuA4c7MmJya/rs:auto:220:0:1/plain/fb/2015/07/0916764060.01.LZ_.jpg@webp 220w, https://fivebooks.com/images/P-bPlUpsAROFRoLo/rs:auto:40:0:1/sh:0.5/plain/fb/2015/07/0916764060.01.LZ_.jpg@webp 40w" sizes="100px"&gt;&lt;img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="100" height="158" src="data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAAAAACH5BAEKAAEALAAAAAABAAEAAAICTAEAOw==" class="cover lazyload wp-post-image" alt="" sizes="auto, 100px" srcset="https://fivebooks.com/images/ETnJav75yXGxqRYw/rs:auto:100:0:1/sh:0.5/plain/fb/2015/07/0916764060.01.LZ_.jpg 100w, https://fivebooks.com/images/tPLi21HShD9S-3ES/rs:auto:220:0:1/plain/fb/2015/07/0916764060.01.LZ_.jpg 220w, https://fivebooks.com/images/afLdM-FXNPbcOmil/rs:auto:40:0:1/sh:0.5/plain/fb/2015/07/0916764060.01.LZ_.jpg 40w"&gt;&lt;/picture&gt; &lt;/a&gt; &lt;/div&gt; &lt;/aside&gt; &lt;p class="question"&gt;Tell me about book number 4, &lt;em&gt;Pottenger’s Cats: A Study in Nutrition&lt;/em&gt;. This is a 10-year study of 900 cats? &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Ah yes, Francis Pottenger. I can’t remember what he was doing research into, but it was something completely different. He had two sets of cats, and I believe he had 450, in the end, in each group. There were two people feeding them. One can only imagine where he was keeping them. Anyway. He had these two groups of cats and one of the people feeding them was giving them raw meat and bone, and the other was cooking it. Francis Pottenger noticed that the ones that were on the cooked food were less healthy than the ones on the raw food. So that’s what the study looked into. For 10 years, he studied these 900 cats and found that the ones on the raw food absolutely blossomed: they lived longer and they were healthy. The ones on the cooked food did much less well. Part of the reason is that the cooking kills the taurine, which cats need. Nobody knows how much taurine cats need. There’s all this stuff online about how much taurine there is in a live mouse, or in this and that. There is no real recommended daily amount of taurine, but we know cats need it. There were also other enzymes and bacteria that were being killed when the food was being cooked. The book goes back to the 1930s but it was the first serious piece of evidence that processed dog and cat food, and cooked food, was not a good idea for the animals. It’s a wonderful little book and brilliant, in its way. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p class="question"&gt;They were being fed two-thirds raw meat and one-third raw milk.&amp;nbsp;Do dogs need raw milk as well, do you think? &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;I don’t think cats actually need very much raw milk. It’s probably more important to give them oils with omegas in them, but it was early days in the 1930s when Pottenger was doing his study. What we try to do at Honey’s is replicate a wild diet, using domestic ingredients. So we know people don’t want carcasses lying around on the kitchen floor, so we analyze, if a dog was eating a rabbit, what percentage of the rabbit is going to be offal and guts? We then try and replicate that in the food we make up. In nature, probably about 10-15% of what dogs eat is vegetable matter. We increase that a bit. This is partly because once a vegetable has been picked, it begins to lose its nutritional value. So you need slightly more of it to get to the total. But it’s also because the amount of food that your dog needs to eat is much smaller in volume than you realize. People were complaining that we were starving the dogs. Nutritionally the food was already balanced but we added extra vegetable because it makes people feel the dog is getting a decent meal, believe it or not. A little bit of milk, a little bit of egg, a little bit of cheese is probably also good, but only a tiny amount. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p class="question"&gt;Do dogs eat the whole bone? &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Yes, they can digest the whole bone. They crunch it up and they swallow it. The acidity in the stomach rises when the bone is there and they have no trouble digesting it. They have a very short digestive tract compared to humans and very, very strong digestive juices, almost as strong as hydrochloric acid. So they have no trouble dealing with bone or with harmful bacteria. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p class="question"&gt;And the bone is good for them? &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;It’s vitally important. They get about a third of the nutrition from the bone itself and from the marrow, and the chewing of the bone cleans their teeth and exercises their upper body. And it keeps them amused. So the bone is fantastic all around. We give bones to a lot of rescue centers. Our food is expensive because we’re using human grade meat — we’re using organic and free range and wild meat. We do feed some dogs for free in rescue centers, but only about 15-20 of them because of the cost. We aim to make about 5 GBP per customer per month, so we’re working on a very small margin: our ingredient costs are often well over half the total price of the food. But we do have a lot of bones left over, so we give the bones to rescue centers. The rescue centers say that the dogs with the bones are happy because it gives them something to do. Otherwise, they’re just pacing around and bored out of their mind. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p class="question"&gt;You touched on the bacteria issue. We humans (almost) always have to cook meat. I don’t know how that happened. Is that because we learned cooking so long ago that we’ve adapted to it? &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;I don’t think so. I think it’s because we never used to eat meat. We’re cooking partly for the flavour and partly because we’re trying to kill off bad things. Our stomachs aren’t actually designed to deal with raw meat. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p class="question"&gt;Meanwhile raw chicken, even chicken bones when they’re raw, is good for dogs. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;All&lt;/em&gt;&amp;nbsp;bones are good for dogs. The thing is, an older animal will have harder bones, so there is a risk of a dog chipping its tooth. And some dogs are very greedy so they try to gulp the bone down really quickly, and that can cause a problem. But, basically, dogs can digest bones. Chicken bones are particularly soft, which is why we always suggest starting with a chicken bone, because the dog needs to adjust to the idea of its new diet. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p class="question"&gt;But compared to humans they don’t have a problem with bacteria, as we do when eating meat? &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;None at all, no. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p class="question"&gt;Do they ever get an upset stomach, from things like salmonella poisoning? &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;They can do, but not from our food. It would be more that they might pick up something in the park. There’s no risk from raw chicken. There are a few things, but they’re very rare. For example, if you were feeding a dog a wild pig, there is something that could be caught by the dog, but it’s now history. It’s not something that could happen in the UK today. A third of dogs have salmonella in their system anyway, and you can get salmonella off dried dog food. There’s more bacteria on a shopping trolley handle than there is on a raw chicken, just to put it into perspective. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p class="question"&gt;The Japanese sometimes eat raw chicken. But it has to be very, very good quality.&amp;nbsp; &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Yes, they do. I offered to go on television — when there was a television program about raw feeding — and eat our food, even though I’m a vegetarian, if they could get anybody from any of the big dog food companies to eat their food raw. They couldn’t get a single person from any of the processed dog food companies to come on and eat their food. So my challenge went unanswered. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;aside class="ancillary-block -left show-for-medium-up anchor-offset" id="book-7232" data-book-id="7232"&gt; &lt;div class="single-book inline -placeholders"&gt; &lt;a href="https://fivebooks.com/book/unlocking-canine-ancestral-diet-by-steve-brown/buy" rel="nofollow noopener" id="book-unlocking-canine-ancestral-diet-by-steve-brown" target="_blank"&gt; &lt;picture&gt;&lt;source type="image/avif" srcset="https://fivebooks.com/images/Cjpz9s8CwIYC9lCy/rs:auto:100:0:1/sh:0.5/plain/fb/2015/07/B004I6DP0E.01.LZ_.jpg@avif 100w, https://fivebooks.com/images/uhrW-mP0g0PcdWNV/rs:auto:220:0:1/plain/fb/2015/07/B004I6DP0E.01.LZ_.jpg@avif 220w, https://fivebooks.com/images/wpfyZdpNsbTASM1e/rs:auto:40:0:1/sh:0.5/plain/fb/2015/07/B004I6DP0E.01.LZ_.jpg@avif 40w" sizes="100px"&gt;&lt;source type="image/webp" srcset="https://fivebooks.com/images/9aHIHVsdbXn8F8Lr/rs:auto:100:0:1/sh:0.5/plain/fb/2015/07/B004I6DP0E.01.LZ_.jpg@webp 100w, https://fivebooks.com/images/9Jwsm_JUmPi4u-cb/rs:auto:220:0:1/plain/fb/2015/07/B004I6DP0E.01.LZ_.jpg@webp 220w, https://fivebooks.com/images/7qL31hwYpQwcvWxf/rs:auto:40:0:1/sh:0.5/plain/fb/2015/07/B004I6DP0E.01.LZ_.jpg@webp 40w" sizes="100px"&gt;&lt;img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="100" height="153" src="data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAAAAACH5BAEKAAEALAAAAAABAAEAAAICTAEAOw==" class="cover lazyload wp-post-image" alt="" sizes="auto, 100px" srcset="https://fivebooks.com/images/9Ua7i77EmchsNUTV/rs:auto:100:0:1/sh:0.5/plain/fb/2015/07/B004I6DP0E.01.LZ_.jpg 100w, https://fivebooks.com/images/56ahrvk-mwVsKD9L/rs:auto:220:0:1/plain/fb/2015/07/B004I6DP0E.01.LZ_.jpg 220w, https://fivebooks.com/images/EjXGQY19KLNWiDzR/rs:auto:40:0:1/sh:0.5/plain/fb/2015/07/B004I6DP0E.01.LZ_.jpg 40w"&gt;&lt;/picture&gt; &lt;/a&gt; &lt;/div&gt; &lt;/aside&gt; &lt;p class="question"&gt;So your last book, book number 5, is &lt;em&gt;Unlocking the Canine Ancestral Diet&lt;/em&gt; by Steve Brown. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Steve Brown has a dog food company in America. He’s a great chap and he’s really the one who did a lot of the analysis into what wolves are eating in the wild — what percentage of protein and carbohydrate and fat and what sorts of proteins, carbohydrates and fats they are. He then compares it to manufactured processed food and points out what the differences are. He did the research, a bit like Vicky did, because he was making the food and he wanted to know. It’s a short book, but it contains the original research which, if you’re interested in the subject, is always nice to know: To go back to the source, as it were. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p class="question"&gt;And he explains how best to replicate this diet using ‘domestic’ ingredients, is that right? So it’s also a bit practical, if you want to feed your dog that way. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Yes. He’s got recipes in there as well and eating plans. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p class="question"&gt;But not recipes for cooking. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Exactly, all raw. Initially people were a bit thrown by the idea, because it was new. But, if you think about it, dogs in the wild aren’t planning five servings of vegetables per day. They are killing prey and eating it or scavenging, and they get the balance over time. If you take that attitude to feeding your dog, thinking about what’s likely to happen to it in the wild, you realize it might not eat for two days. In fact, dogs can go up to a week in the wild without eating. So, actually, if you’re just giving your dog raw meat and bone, in roughly the right proportion, you can’t really go wrong. And then you think, well, from time to time a wild dog might find an egg, so I’ll throw in an egg. Or from time to time they might find some fish, so you could give them a tin of pilchards. A lot of people with the recipe books make it seem awfully complicated but it’s much easier than it looks. It’s as much art as science. &lt;/p&gt; &lt;div class="date-and-credit"&gt; &lt;p class="credit"&gt;Interview by &lt;a href="https://fivebooks.com/interviewer/sophie-roell/" class="interviewer-name"&gt;Sophie Roell&lt;/a&gt;, Editor&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p class="date"&gt;July 19, 2015. &lt;i&gt;Updated: March 25, 2017&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;/div&gt; &lt;div class="update"&gt; &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Five Books aims to keep its book recommendations and interviews up to date. If you are the interviewee and would like to update your choice of books (or even just what you say about them) please email us at &lt;a href="https://fivebooks.com/cdn-cgi/l/email-protection#2247464b564d5062444b5447404d4d49510c414d4f"&gt;&lt;span class="__cf_email__" data-cfemail="41242528352e330127283724232e2e2a326f222e2c"&gt;[email&amp;nbsp;protected]&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;/div&gt; &lt;/div&gt; &lt;div id="interview-right-col" class="show-for-medium-up medium-3 columns interviewee-bio _small-tint"&gt; &lt;div class="row"&gt; &lt;div class="small-5 medium-20 columns bio-component image"&gt; &lt;picture&gt;&lt;source type="image/avif" srcset="https://fivebooks.com/images/6KLkwCWhh-NyUZ1-/rs:auto:100:0:1/sh:0.5/plain/fb/2015/11/Jonathan-Self-150x150.jpg@avif 100w, https://fivebooks.com/images/hRUZ9Q-RWjAhoZ2v/rs:auto:150:0:1/sh:0.5/plain/fb/2015/11/Jonathan-Self-150x150.jpg@avif 150w, https://fivebooks.com/images/6WG6mzoo9GONU_Fx/rs:auto:75:0:1/sh:0.5/plain/fb/2015/11/Jonathan-Self-150x150.jpg@avif 75w" sizes="(min-width: 840px) 100px, calc(10.63vw + 13px)"&gt;&lt;source type="image/webp" srcset="https://fivebooks.com/images/9sf3uFYua-DRxOwb/rs:auto:100:0:1/sh:0.5/plain/fb/2015/11/Jonathan-Self-150x150.jpg@webp 100w, https://fivebooks.com/images/tBhT0Hmsc7vQHq3P/rs:auto:150:0:1/sh:0.5/plain/fb/2015/11/Jonathan-Self-150x150.jpg@webp 150w, https://fivebooks.com/images/iuMNMdA8uaw6YMJJ/rs:auto:75:0:1/sh:0.5/plain/fb/2015/11/Jonathan-Self-150x150.jpg@webp 75w" sizes="(min-width: 840px) 100px, calc(10.63vw + 13px)"&gt;&lt;img width="100" height="100" src="data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAAAAACH5BAEKAAEALAAAAAABAAEAAAICTAEAOw==" class="picture lazyload" alt="Jonathan Self" decoding="async" loading="lazy" sizes="auto, (min-width: 840px) 100px, calc(10.63vw + 13px)" srcset="https://fivebooks.com/images/zPpqeVWQSdoAX1ez/rs:auto:100:0:1/sh:0.5/plain/fb/2015/11/Jonathan-Self-150x150.jpg 100w, https://fivebooks.com/images/f1iuHEXnwuVBUSlp/rs:auto:150:0:1/sh:0.5/plain/fb/2015/11/Jonathan-Self-150x150.jpg 150w, https://fivebooks.com/images/gtAaCl2-Smdm3TLi/rs:auto:75:0:1/sh:0.5/plain/fb/2015/11/Jonathan-Self-150x150.jpg 75w"&gt;&lt;/picture&gt; &lt;/div&gt; &lt;div class="small-15 medium-20 columns bio-component name"&gt; &lt;p class="heading"&gt;Jonathan Self&lt;/p&gt; &lt;/div&gt; &lt;/div&gt; &lt;/div&gt; Designing For Surprise - Cecily https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.aej4257 2026-07-20T19:00:30.000Z &lt;p&gt;James Evans, Casey Petroff &amp;amp; Gary King | Science | 16th July 2026 | U&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Read the full article on the site...&lt;/p&gt; Post on Longreads - Longreads https://mastodon.world/@longreads/116953409303545481 2026-07-20T17:10:02.000Z &lt;p&gt;&amp;quot;His first day on the team, his commander gestured to the American with a vest full of grenades and said, &amp;#39;Stick with Giggles.&amp;#39;&amp;quot; Laura Beil for Texas Monthly &lt;a href="https://www.texasmonthly.com/news-politics/texan-risked-everything-defend-ukraine/?src=longreads" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener" translate="no"&gt;&lt;span class="invisible"&gt;https://www.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="ellipsis"&gt;texasmonthly.com/news-politics&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="invisible"&gt;/texan-risked-everything-defend-ukraine/?src=longreads&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/a&gt; &lt;a href="https://mastodon.world/tags/profiles" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag"&gt;#&lt;span&gt;profiles&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/a&gt; &lt;a href="https://mastodon.world/tags/ukraine" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag"&gt;#&lt;span&gt;ukraine&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/a&gt; &lt;a href="https://mastodon.world/tags/russia" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag"&gt;#&lt;span&gt;russia&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/a&gt; &lt;a href="https://mastodon.world/tags/conflict" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag"&gt;#&lt;span&gt;conflict&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/a&gt; &lt;a href="https://mastodon.world/tags/war" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag"&gt;#&lt;span&gt;war&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/a&gt; &lt;a href="https://mastodon.world/tags/invasion" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag"&gt;#&lt;span&gt;invasion&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/a&gt; &lt;a href="https://mastodon.world/tags/longreads" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag"&gt;#&lt;span&gt;longreads&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt; Vimeo: Vimeo On Demand — Shutdown Notice - ResearchBuzz: Firehose https://rbfirehose.com/?p=327815 2026-07-20T14:56:37.000Z <p>Vimeo: <a href="https://vimeo.com/ondemand/shutdown">Vimeo On Demand — Shutdown Notice</a>. &#8220;After many years, Vimeo On Demand (VOD) is being phased out&#8230;. If you have purchased or rented content through Vimeo On Demand, you can continue watching your library until November 20, 2026. After that date, access will no longer be available. We encourage you to download any content that supports offline viewing before the shutdown date.&#8221;</p> ABNA: Google blurs satellite imagery of sensitive Kuwait sites hit in Iranian strikes - ResearchBuzz: Firehose https://rbfirehose.com/?p=327806 2026-07-20T14:09:08.000Z <p>ABNA: <a href="https://en.abna24.com/news/1841969/Google-blurs-satellite-imagery-of-sensitive-Kuwait-sites-hit">Google blurs satellite imagery of sensitive Kuwait sites hit in Iranian strikes</a>.&#8221;Google has heavily blurred and downgraded the quality of satellite imagery covering several sensitive installations in Kuwait that were recently targeted during Iran’s retaliatory strikes against U.S. operations.&#8221;</p> Andros Fenollosa: I joined the IndieWeb, here’s what I learned - ResearchBuzz: Firehose https://rbfirehose.com/?p=327801 2026-07-20T13:57:12.000Z <p>Andros Fenollosa: <a href="https://en.andros.dev/blog/0b8e451e/i-joined-the-indieweb-heres-what-i-learned/">I joined the IndieWeb, here&#8217;s what I learned</a>. &#8220;Driven by curiosity, I decided to find out what the IndieWeb tag that kept showing up on some blogs and Mastodon toots was all about. I quickly discovered it was more than an empty concept or a feeling of nostalgia for the web of the 90s. It was a movement with concrete ideas, protocols and an active community! As I read through their wiki, I understood their position and the intelligence of their proposals more and more. Such was my enthusiasm that I decided to follow their advice and adopt the protocols that made sense for my site.&#8221;</p> Reuters: Trump calls for review related to scientific manual used by judges - ResearchBuzz: Firehose https://rbfirehose.com/?p=327783 2026-07-20T12:59:32.000Z <p>Reuters: <a href="https://www.reuters.com/legal/litigation/trump-calls-review-related-scientific-manual-used-by-judges-2026-07-20/">Trump calls for review related to scientific manual used by judges</a>. &#8220;U.S. President Donald Trump called for a review related to the Federal Judicial Center&#8217;s ​scientific reference manual in cases involving climate change, writing ‌in a Truth Social post on Sunday that the work contains &#8216;discredited&#8217; information that led to &#8216;huge losses&#8217; for the country.&#8221;</p> Courthouse News Service: Toyota broadsided by website tracking class action - ResearchBuzz: Firehose https://rbfirehose.com/?p=327773 2026-07-20T12:51:47.000Z <p>Courthouse News Service: <a href="https://www.courthousenews.com/toyota-broadsided-by-website-tracking-class-action/">Toyota broadsided by website tracking class action</a>. &#8220;Toyota was hit with a &#8216;trap and trace&#8217; class action, over what the plaintiff calls an &#8216;outrageous privacy &#8220;bait and switch&#8221; scheme.&#8217; In a class action filed Wednesday in Los Angeles County Superior Court, lead plaintiff Brittany Conner claims the Japanese automaker &#8216;secretly tracks, de-anonymizes and sells visitors’ personnel information before a user can provide legally valid consent.'&#8221;</p> New York Times: Do These C.E.O.s Loathe Each Other? Bet on It. - ResearchBuzz: Firehose https://rbfirehose.com/?p=327768 2026-07-20T12:48:38.000Z <p>New York Times: <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2026/07/19/technology/polymarket-kalshi-rivalry-coplan-mansour.html?unlocked_article_code=1.zFA.YOfA.6er4tDHnbQ9u&#038;smid=url-share">Do These C.E.O.s Loathe Each Other? Bet on It.</a>. <i>This link goes to a gift article.</i> &#8220;&#8230;the competition between the 28-year-old Mr. Coplan and the 30-year-old Mr. Mansour goes far beyond the normal bounds of corporate rivalry. Both are newly minted billionaires, intent on dominating prediction markets, which offer betting odds on sports, politics, culture and nearly everything else. By most accounts, they also despise each other with a fervor that has seeped into how their companies interact at virtually every level, according to interviews with more than 40 people in their circles, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive dynamics.&#8221;</p> Wall Street Journal: Israel’s $50 million experiment to change US public opinion - ResearchBuzz: Firehose https://rbfirehose.com/?p=327762 2026-07-20T12:38:20.000Z <p>Wall Street Journal: <a href="https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/israel-s-50-million-experiment-to-change-us-public-opinion/ar-AA28cldJ">Israel’s $50 million experiment to change US public opinion</a>. <i>This link goes to an unpaywalled, MSN-syndicated version of the article.</i> &#8220;The text messages come from senders named Emma or Sarah, with a group called Friends for Peace. &#8216;How do you think the U.S. and Israel’s peace talks with Iran will impact global security?&#8217; they ask. Millions of similar texts have flooded American cellphones in recent months. They are written with artificial intelligence, pushed by a longtime Trump adviser’s firm—and paid for by the Israeli government.&#8221;</p> Aywren’s Nook: Blaugust 2026 is On the Way! - ResearchBuzz: Firehose https://rbfirehose.com/?p=327755 2026-07-20T12:29:11.000Z <p>Aywren&#8217;s Nook: <A href="https://aywren.com/2026/07/16/blaugust-2026-is-on-the-way/">Blaugust 2026 is On the Way!</a>. &#8220;Blaugust is not a contest. While there are rewards and incentives to post a certain number of posts, that’s never what it’s been about. There are no winners or losers. There’s no failure at Blaugust. The only way to lose is to not participate and see what you’re capable of.&#8221;</p> Axios: The secret Trump administration battle to fight Chinese AI - ResearchBuzz: Firehose https://rbfirehose.com/?p=327750 2026-07-20T12:26:58.000Z <p>Axios: <a href="https://www.axios.com/2026/07/20/ai-us-china-open-source-kimi">The secret Trump administration battle to fight Chinese AI</a>. &#8220;Parts of the administration have tried to implement de facto bans on foreign open-source models before, knowledgeable sources tell Axios. Last week&#8217;s rise of Chinese model Kimi is reigniting those efforts. Pro-competition voices fear the implications.&#8221;</p> Creative Commons: Introducing the CC Open Heritage Companion - ResearchBuzz: Firehose https://rbfirehose.com/?p=327745 2026-07-20T12:24:55.000Z <p>Creative Commons: <a href="https://creativecommons.org/2026/07/16/cc-open-heritage-companion/">Introducing the CC Open Heritage Companion</a>. &#8220;The Creative Commons (CC) Open Heritage Companion is a practitioner’s guide developed to help cultural heritage institutions navigate the journey from closed to open collections. Grounded in the legal, policy, and ethical questions institutions face along the way, the Companion brings together 200+ curated resources, tools, and examples, organized into six chapters that guide practitioners from their first questions about openness to leading the field.&#8221;</p> The Verge: Google is open-sourcing its 3D emoji - ResearchBuzz: Firehose https://rbfirehose.com/?p=327726 2026-07-20T03:20:39.000Z <p>The Verge: <a href="https://www.theverge.com/design/967606/google-open-source-3d-emoji">Google is open-sourcing its 3D emoji</a>. &#8220;Now, if you want to, you can use Google’s 3D emoji in your own creations. The company shared some details about how it went about designing the little pictograms and why, as part of World Emoji Day on Friday.&#8221;</p> FAO: FAO launches CropSuit app to help farmers grow the right crops in the right places - ResearchBuzz: Firehose https://rbfirehose.com/?p=327720 2026-07-20T03:17:12.000Z <p>FAO: <A href="https://www.fao.org/newsroom/detail/fao-launches-cropsuit-app-to-help-farmers-grow-the-right-crops-in-the-right-places/en">FAO launches CropSuit app to help farmers grow the right crops in the right places</a>. &#8220;The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) today launched CropSuit, a free web-based application that combines soil information with climate information, topography, land cover and other environmental data to identify the crops most likely to perform well in a given location.&#8221;</p> Hardcore IndieWeb: Run your own website 100% independently for only $0.01/day (Neatnik) - ResearchBuzz: Firehose https://rbfirehose.com/?p=327715 2026-07-20T03:11:05.000Z <p>Neatnik: <a href="https://www.neatnik.net/hardcore-indieweb">Hardcore IndieWeb: Run your own website 100% independently for only $0.01/day</a>. &#8220;&#8230;if the idea of having complete independence and control over your content on the web is appealing to you, read on. Because that’s what Hardcore IndieWeb is all about.&#8221;</p>