last week in the wild: #05

house hunting, Coldplaygate, and bad Elmo

last week in the wild is a weekly Sunday recap: cultural digest, quote round-up, and highlight reel of cultural moments and/or headlines I payed attention to last week. each one includes links to everything I published the previous week, a few memes I liked, and some feel-good Notes from around Substack—in case you missed something and want to catch up all in one place.

July 13th — July 19th

Happy Sunday, friends! I hope you' had a lovely week out in the wild.

I’ve been house-hunting, so I’ve spent a lot more time offline than usual. Hoping to secure a place in the next couple of weeks and finally settle down. I’ve been living the apartment life with my two massive dogs for the last 2.5 years, and it’s officially time for a yard. I’ve been joking that I work hard so my dogs can have a house—they deserve it.

The next week or two might be a little chaotic on my end, so if I’m slower to reply or a little less active, that’s why. Nothing bad—just life moving forward. Literally.

I have a love-hate relationship with moving. I love the reset and the blank slate energy. I loooove reorganizing everything—especially my books. (I’m finally going to have a full reading room for my 750+ books! Can’t wait to share pics of my “library” ha.) That said, it’s been triple digits heat in Vegas lately, so I’m not looking forward to the physical aspect of the move, but oh well. Send electrolytes.

Not a ton else to report—house-hunting has consumed most of my brain this week. Hoping to be settled soon, with a yard full of happy dogs and a reading room full of slightly too many books (but let’s be honest, there’s no such thing as too many books.)

all free essays published last week —

July 13th: how to become antifragile

July 16th: the art of feeding your mind: a framework for conscious consumption

July 18th: 6 non-performative ways to make personal growth feel effortless

what paid readers read last week —

July 14th: THE DAILY 5—WEEK 4

July 14th: the revolutionary act of *just existing* (artist spotlight: Berthe Morisot)

July 15th: how i use AI to sharpen my taste and pursue the real me

#Coldplaygate sweeps the internet

At a Gillette Stadium concert on July 16, Astronomer’s CEO Andy Byron and the company’s HR chief appeared in a blurry embrace on the jumbotron—sparking immediate internet frenzy as #Coldplaygate went viral. Both were placed on leave; Byron resigned on July 19 and was replaced by interim CEO Pete DeJoy. The episode ignited broader conversation about public scrutiny, workplace relationships, and how quickly a live moment can become a global meme. The memes were ruthless and brutal—and incredible.

Elmo bad

Only one week after Grok became MechaHitler, the official Elmo 𝕏 account was hacked and used to post antisemitic, racist, and conspiratorial messages before being locked down. Sesame Workshop confirmed the breach and restored control within days. For a character synonymous with kindness, this was one social media collapse nobody saw coming. At this point, all we can do is… laugh??

The Coldplay memes were incredible. Every so often, there’s a cultural event that somehow unites us all, regardless of politics—where all the classic banger formats start to resurface with a new twist—this was definitely one of those moments. Here are a few of my favorites:

Modern day art—

People were even vibe coding games about it 😂

It’s gone full meta: now all the stadiums are doing a “Coldplay cam” instead of a “kiss cam”—if you make it on, you duck and cover LOL

Some feel-good wholesome Notes I loved from around Substack:

I’ll leave you with this read I enjoyed from last week. This is basically how I learned to “fall in love with learning” and started to shamelessly follow my curiosities: How to Start Researching as a Hobby by Sarah Schauer.

I’d add this to the end: once you have all your notes and highlighted sections, you can throw those bad boys into an AI chat to help you really synthesize the knowledge. I like to do this because it helps me spot themes or favorite concepts—it also helps me connect more dots on my big web of ideas mind map that I keep in my Notion.

I hope you enjoy the rest of your weekend—go wildly.

XO, STEPF

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ICYMI, LAST-LAST WEEK IN THE WILD 🐆

last week in the wild: #04