She posted 25 TikToks on her wedding day

+ AI rage bait, Jake Paul's VC fund, home-cooked apps, Etsy witch drama, crypto's D.C. power player, business idiots, the conservative dating app scene, and how Kidz Bop took over the airwaves

May 27, 2025

Hi! I’m back from a week in NYC where I had non stop meetings and recorded a couple things that I’m excited to share soon. I also got to attend the premiere of the new HBO movie Mountainhead.

Mountainhead is a comedy/drama about four tech billionaires played by Steve Carell, Jason Schwartzman, Cory Michael Smith, and Ramy Youssef, who gather for a guy’s weekend at a luxurious mountain estate. An AI crisis unfolds and is set to potentially destroy the world. I don’t want to give too much away, but the movie was so hilarious and spot on. You can watch the trailer below. I couldn’t believe how accurate the film was in satirizing Silicon Valley billionaire culture.

If you’re a Succession fan you’ll love this movie. It was written and directed by Jesse Armstrong, the creator of Succession.

Aside from that I am working on some stories for later this week and the usual link list and news roundup is below.

I also just published the second installment of my new YouTube series Free Speech Friday, where I break down bad laws and efforts to censor speech on the internet, about the Take It Down Act.

The stated goal of the Take it Down Act is to combat non consensual intimate images (NCII), colloquially known as revenge porn. But that's not what this law does! What the Take It Down Act actually does is make it so that anyone, at any time, can get content posted about them online that they don't like taken off the internet within 48 hours, no questions asked.

Watch my full breakdown with Becca Branum, Deputy Director of the Center for Democracy and Technology's Free Expression Project.

TikTok’s Royal Wedding

Half of TikTok was inundated with content from influencer justjazzyidk’s wedding this past weekend. There were dozens of podcasters, TikTokers, Instagram stars and lifestyle creators in attendance. Not only did they post a relentless stream of content, but the bride herself posted over 25 times in real time during every moment of the ceremony.

In a post event TikTok video Jaz explained how she did it and why. Months before her wedding, she created a massive spreadsheet of content ideas, complete with timing, the outfit she’d be wearing in each video and so on. She then had her assistant that day film and upload all the content to her channels. Her videos amassed millions of collective views and she said that because her audience has given her the lifestyle she has, she wanted them to feel included in her big day.

Weddings have been major influencer events for a while now. As I wrote in my book, one of the earliest examples of influencer marketing was actually Star Jones’ 2004 wedding, which had a slew of sponsorships and content moments. By the mid 2000s, brands were getting more involved in weddings.

All of this ultimately trickled down to the public, and by 2019 we were already seeing some influencer brides creating pitch decks for their weddings and wedding-related activities. Influencers, especially lifestyle influencers, recognized that weddings provide an enormous audience growth, monetization, and brand building opportunity.

Emily Sundberg

noted in her newsletter, people are already posting their own TikToks of the beauty products from Jaz’s wedding that they’re buying and Jaz has become a household name across areas of TikTok who previously weren’t aware of her.

I definitely suggest watching Jaz’s full TikTok below where she details the work that went into her content plan. I predict that more brides will be hiring videographers and social media content assistants for their big day as they seek to memorialize their memories in shareable shortform video formats.

@justjazzzyidk and i’m so glad you guys enjoyed it

Tiktok failed to load.

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What I’m reading

Adam Friedland Could Be the Millennial Jon Stewart. But Does He Want That?

The 38-year-old comedian started his YouTube series The Adam Friedland Show mostly as a joke. But in the wake of an election that podcasters helped swing in Donald Trump’s favor, he’s fielding interview offers from politicians desperate to connect with disaffected young voters any way they can—even if it means getting trolled on camera by the former co-host of a podcast called “Cum Town.” — GQ

Wrong Again, Democrats: Paying “Influencers” Misses the Boat

Party insiders are spending millions to find the liberal Joe Rogan. How about perfecting the message before searching for the perfect messenger? – The New Republic

The Conservative Dating App Scene Has Evolved. Singles Want to ‘Make America Hot Again’

Right-leaning city dwellers in their 20s and 30s say it can be hard to find people who share their political views. A raft of dating apps and events wants to help them change the culture. – Wall Street Journal

How Coinbase’s Brian Armstrong Became Crypto’s Power Player in Washington

The CEO is building a lobbying machine that could shape regulation and politics for years. – The New Republic

There’s more film and television for you to watch than ever before — good luck finding it

Streaming used to be easy. Now it feels like a full-time job – Salon

An Indian Entrepreneur Is Luring Ed Sheeran, Travis Scott to Mumbai

Major pop stars are starting to tour in India for the first time and a 26-year-old ticketing company is making it all happen. Lucas Shaw profiled BookMyShow, one of the most interesting media companies in the world. – Bloomberg

The Infuriating Savviness of Kidz Bop

Why did we let a generation of kids grow up listening to whiny, sanitized covers of pop hits – Can’t Get Much Higher

Google Is Burying the Web Alive

AI, chatbots, and the end of the link economy – New York Magazine

We Are in the Era of the Business Idiot

Middle management has seized power, breeding out true meritocracy and value-creation in favor of symbolic growth and superficial intelligence. – Ed Zitron

The big winners of the loneliness epidemic: nice guys with jobs

Good men are harder than ever to find. Which is good news for the good men who are out there. – Business Insider

User Mag news rundown

A bunch of companies with DEI in their name, like DEI Equipment in Ohio, and others have been swept up in the backlash against diversity programs and are having their businesses review bombed and harassed.
People are now using AI to generate rage bait personas specifically optimized to trigger people online.
Celebrities are all clamoring to speak at Harvard Business School in order to get an Instagram post out of it, overwhelming the school and inundating the school with erroneous requests.
63% of men say AI’s impact on the U.S. over the next two decades will be very or somewhat positive, compared with just 36% of women.
McDonald's scalpers in Japan are wasting full meals to flip anime toys for $80+.
Jake Paul's VC fund is investing in military and AI tech companies including weapons manufacturer Anduril.
More people are “home cooking” their own apps as “vibe coding” with new AI tools makes it possible for just about anyone to create personalized apps—no programming required.
DJ Khaled teamed up with Ashton Hall for a collab.
The girl who went viral for not washing her face to “reset her skin barrier” just did a Cerave ad where she washed her face.
Someone’s secretly hoarding 150 lizards inside Brooklyn’s McKibbin Lofts.
Chateau Marmont is building Ryan Murphy his own suite.
The Devil Wears Prada 2 is hitting theaters May 2026.
The next Hunger Games film is holding an open casting call for fans with any talent and no experience.
Connie Francis just reacted to going viral on TikTok 63 years after dropping “Pretty Little Baby”.
The Rizzler says that as president, Americans would have universal free housing.
The Coca-Cola 600 has officially displaced Monaco F1 as the place to be for the global elite.
CoComelon is moving from Netflix to Disney+.
Kai Cenat said he’s rejected streaming deals from platforms like Netflix and Prime Deals to stay independent
An Etsy witch exposed her client by sending the guy she was trying to put a love spell on all of her DMs and screenshots.
California has dethroned Hawaii as the most expensive state based on the cost of monthly household bills.
The top contributor on X’s Community Notes is a random antivirus startup.
Why is IMAX suddenly everywhere? Movie studios are putting more emphasis on the IMAX brand as it stands out as a bright spot in the theater business.
A self-driving truck startup siphoned trade secrets to Chinese companies.
Mocktail prices have gotten out of control with some mocktails costing nearly $20.
Fro-yo is making a comeback, as young people feed 00s nostalgia.
A wholesome story about a local video rental shop.