Welcome to Lux Recommends #258, this week’s edition of what we at Lux are reading and thinking about (want to receive this by email? Sign up here).
Articles
Will cell-based meat ever be a dinner staple? “Laboratory-grown meat has been stuck in the experimental stage. For it to become a commercially viable industry, tissue needs to be grown efficiently at scale.” — Deena
Why Do Wealthy Parents Have Wealthy Children? “We found that family background matters significantly for children’s accumulation of wealth and investor behavior as adults, even when removing the genetic connection between children and the parents raising them.” — Alex
Human-made materials could now outweigh all life on Earth — Sam
Imbalance in Gut Microbiome Can Lead to Depressive-Like Behaviors — Adam G
We Asked: Why Does Oreo Keep Releasing New Flavors? “The brand’s strategy is stunning in its simplicity.” — Sam
AI needs to face up to its invisible-worker problem: “Machine-learning models are trained by low-paid online gig workers. They’re not going away — but we can change the way they work, says Saiph Savage.” — Deena
How do people spend their time? — Lux friend Lboca
The National COVID Cohort Collaborative (N3C): Rationale, design, infrastructure, and deployment — Deena
Books
The Lost Shtetl by Max Gross: “What if there was a town that history missed For decades, the tiny Jewish shtetl of Kreskol existed in happy isolation, virtually untouched and unchanged. Spared by the Holocaust and the Cold War, its residents enjoyed remarkable peace. It missed out on cars, and electricity, and the internet, and indoor plumbing. But when a marriage dispute spins out of control, the whole town comes crashing into the twenty-first century.”— Sam
Fantasyland: How America Went Haywire: A 500-Year History by Kurt Andersen: ‘In this sweeping, eloquent history of America, Kurt Andersen shows that what’s happening in our country today — this post-factual, “fake news” moment we’re all living through — is not something new, but rather the ultimate expression of our national character. America was founded by wishful dreamers, magical thinkers, and true believers, by hucksters and their suckers. Fantasy is deeply embedded in our DNA.’ — Sam
Television
Counterpart: “A hapless UN employee discovers that the agency he works for is hiding a gateway to a parallel dimension that’s in a cold war with our own, and where his other self is a top spy. The war slowly heats up thanks to spies from both sides.” — Sam
Movies
The Biggest Little Farm: “Documentarian John Chester and his wife Molly work to develop a sustainable farm on 200 acres outside of Los Angeles.”— friend of Lux Todd Pines
Rebuilding Paradise: “On the morning of Nov. 8, 2018, a devastating firestorm engulfed the picturesque city of Paradise, California. By the time the Camp Fire was extinguished, it had killed 85 people, displaced 50,000 residents and destroyed 95% of local structures. It was the deadliest U.S. fire in 100 years — and the worst ever in California’s history. REBUILDING PARADISE, from Academy Award-winning director RON HOWARD, is a moving story of resilience in the face of tragedy, as a community ravaged by disaster comes together to recover what was lost and begin the important task of rebuilding.” — Adam K
Videos
Japan has been holding precision walking competitions since 1966 — Bilal
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