| MIKE HOGAN,
EXECUTIVE DIGITAL DIRECTOR |
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Happy 20th birthday to YouTube! Whether you feel like the video behemoth was born yesterday or can’t imagine life without it, you’ll want to read Joy Press’s deep dive into its top creators’ ever-expanding ambitions. Speaking of ambitions, Elon Musk says he’s just about achieved his goal of strip-mining the federal government, so he’ll soon start devoting more time to the mess at Tesla, while RFK Jr. is just getting started on his master plan to Make America Healthy Again by banning artificial food dyes (seems good?) and…overseeing a national tracking system for autistic people (seems bad?!). You soon may not be able to find a red Froot Loop in this town, but you can still get a fix of YouTube-style dopamine thanks to a delightful new video featuring our May cover star, Sebastian Stan. Scroll on—and tell us what you think of our new newsletter format at vfdaily@vanityfair.com. |
Two and a half billion people watch YouTube videos every month, and its content has partially—or completely—replaced traditional television viewing for many of them. Where a previous generation of families might’ve gathered to watch How I Met Your Mother or Survivor, they now communally binge Amelia Dimoldenberg’s Chicken Shop Date or Michelle Khare’s Challenge Accepted. That makes YouTube an uncomfortable bedfellow for traditional Hollywood, which is in a painful state of contraction. |
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What more could YouTube want? Joy Press dove into the question, talking to creators, agents, and YouTube CEO Neal Mohan. Along the way, she hung out at the studio of Good Mythical Morning creators Rhett McLaughlin and Link Neal, who’ve turned their YouTube popularity into a sprawling company, complete with an investment fund for the next generation of digital creators. What they don’t have are Hollywood awards and the prestige that accompanies them. |
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The embattled electric vehicle company may be in worse shape than we thought. |
The news of this deeply invasive effort came just days after RFK Jr. referred to autism as an “epidemic” that “destroys” families and children, and mischaracterized autistic people as being unable to hold jobs, have relationships, or pay taxes. |
VF spoke to The Morning Show showrunner Charlotte Stoudt about the 2023 episode where a TV anchor went to space—and the questions we really should be asking. |
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This month’s cover story on Sebastian Stan delves into his extraordinary journey from Communist Romania to the Marvel Cinematic Universe. So if you want to know all about his life, start there. For the accompanying video, we wanted to explore another aspect of Stan’s appeal: his excellent taste. The guy just has a knack for choosing cool acting projects, and it seems as if every time he’s interviewed he shouts out another great book, record, podcast, or movie.
And so, in the debut episode of a brand-new series called Tastemaker, we presented Stan with a series of prompts. Responding to them in real time, without preparation, he freestyles one choice recommendation after another: the best show to binge after Gossip Girl, the best NYC restaurant for a first date, the best Sebastian Stan movie to see with your grandmother, and more. We promise you’ll come away with a list of things to check out, along with a new appreciation for Stan’s uniquely compelling point of view. |
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