It’s still January next week?
Hey friends,
Great to be in your inbox this morning! For the new subscribers, hi, hey hello, and thanks for joining the 3000 of us that curl up and hang out on the weekends. For those who have been around awhile, don't worry, your goodies are just a quick scroll away.
This is Hard Copy, the free comfort newsy for cozy weekends. Unwind with the latest book recommendations, original columns, playlists and music worth listening to, and the best in film and television. If podcasts are more your jam, you can listen to our podcast, Your Weekly Breakdown, back this week with our first episode of 2025.
As always, this note jam-packed with great recommendations for your leisure time (books! TV! music!) and a few headline highlights on work, women, and culture. I like keeping you in the know, and I love your feedback! Email me anytime.
For now, let's get to the good stuff!
Be well,
Emily
Oh! One more thing: we're lining up some special projects to share on YouTube. It's pretty quiet and unloved over there, so show please some love and subscribe to our brand-new channel!
Your Recommendations
📺 Watch
The Night Agent is back with Season 2. I loved Season 1, which is like a coming-of-age spy soap opera and Season 2 is much more of the same. Mindless, easy, fun. (Netflix)
American Primeval is decidedly less easy and much more gory and intense. That said, if you don’t mind that sort of thing, enjoy westerns and Betty Gilpin (of Glow fame), and don’t mind staring at Taylor Kitsch (does anyone?), then you might enjoy this. (Netflix)
Lauren Greenfield is bringing important topics to the screen with her latest docuseries, Social Studies. If you’re interested in how childhood and teen dynamics are impacted by social media and phones, this is for you! Gobbled it up after my co-host Caitlin mentioned it on the podcast. (FX/Hulu/Disney+)
🎧 Listen
While my friend Aidan curates playlist for us sometimes, it was a quick text from her this week that is worth highlighting: she shared this album (Cinema by Sunnan) and said “a great Sunday listen”. She knows the Hard Copy ~*vibes*~, and man she hit the mark yet again with this one. What a blissful listening experience.
For those that are into it, FKA Twigs has a new album out. It's a very experimental and electronic album, with a few tracks that will surely keep the club goers happy. It's *really* cool if you're open to something different.
For more mellow in your life, folky country artist Dorothea Paas recently released a really pleasant album, Think of Mist. She's got a new-age Joni Mitchell thing going for her.
Otherwise, find a playlist to suit your desired vibes on our ever-growing list of curated tunes, made just for you!
📚 Read
2024 Booker Prize winner Kairos by Jenny Erpenbeck is story of a romance begun in East Berlin at the end of the 1980s. The passionate yet difficult long-running affair of Katharina and Hans hits the rocks as a whole world—the socialist GDR—melts away. Bleak and beautiful.
Kingmaker by Pamela Harriman is about Winston Churchill’s beloved daughter-in-law who, at 20, became a “secret weapon” during World War II, strategically wining, dining, and seducing diplomats and generals to help win over American sentiment (and secrets) to the British cause against Hitler. Vibrant, superb.
I *know* a lot of you will have already gobbled up Rebecca Yarros’ third book from the Empyrean series Onyx Storm but I HAVE NOT HAD THE CHANCE! I’m indulging this weekend for my birthday, so send me a DM later so we can squeal about it together! For those not yet familiar, Rebecca Yarros writes incredible popular and very dishy romantasy novels, filled with incredible military strategy and wars. And sex. Perfect! Start with book 1, Fourth Wing.
Key Takeaways from our friends on the interwebs
Tech + Work
Chinese scientists and engineers are applying ChatGPT-like technology to sex robots, aiming to create interactive, AI-powered companions in the face of technical and ethical challenges. (South China Morning Post)
“The new generation of sex dolls, powered by AI models and equipped with sensors, can react with both movements and speech, significantly enhancing user experience by focusing on emotional connection rather than just basic conversational abilities,” CEO Evan Lee said.
A private sector investment of up to $500 billion will fund infrastructure for artificial intelligence, aiming to outpace rival nations in the business-critical technology. ChatGPT's creator OpenAI, SoftBank, and Oracle, are planning a joint venture called Stargate, which he said will build data centers and create more than 100,000 jobs in the United States. (Reuters)
Your phone is destroying your social life. Our lives have become increasingly (irreversibly?) mediated through our devices. There are screens between us and the world and this monumental change in the human condition. Are the trade-offs in each case truly worth it? (Vox)
Women
Cecile Richards, a prominent advocate for women's rights and other progressive causes, died Monday. Richards was best known for her work leading Planned Parenthood. (NPR)
Bumble founder Whitney Wolfe Herd returns as CEO amid dating app market decline and the current CEO resigning citing “personal reason”. Wolfe Herd left the post in Jan 2024, but she’ll be back running the company she started in 2014 after co-founding Tinder. (The Verge)
Culture
The Oscar nominations were announced this week, and it's a great reference for what you need to watch before the awards ceremony on March 2. (The Hollywood Reporter)
Someone invented a fake therapist and got "her" quotes in tons of news articles. Ever since generative AI programs like ChatGPT burst into the public’s consciousness in late 2022, many of our digital experiences have gained a fresh sheen of mistrust, and for good reason. The fake therapist duped everybody from Mashable to the Daily Mail. (Futurism, Allure)
Speaking of AI, did you hear the one about the busy 28 year old woman who fell in love with her ChatGPT boyfriend? And yes, they do have sex. (NYT)