Hi, welcome to your Weekend.
Hard to believe it’s been 14 months since Elon Musk walked into Twitter’s headquarters in San Francisco with his infamous "let that sink in" wash basin. Feels like 14 years, to be honest. In the time since, at least three-quarters of the company has been fired or has voluntarily departed. Those ranks include almost all of Twitter’s top managers.
One holdout has been Nick Pickles, the head of global government affairs, who has outlasted five CEOs and counting (the Linda Yaccarino regime can’t last forever) in his nine-plus years at the company. Pickles is the subject of this week’s cover story by reporter Nancy Scola, who set out to examine the policy chief’s ever-changing role at X, and to ask—what kind of person can withstand this kind of pressure?
The truth is, working at Twitter-now-X has always provided an adrenaline rush that’s hard to replicate anywhere else in tech. Pickles, who once ran for Parliament in his native England, appears well-suited for the roller coaster ride. He’s going to need all of the weapons in his political arsenal to stave off the wave of governmental investigations that are currently bearing down on X.
We hope Pickles has a good sleep and wellness routine going. The stress of working under Musk and Yaccarino, all while getting pummeled by regulators and lawmakers in the U.S., Europe, Australia and beyond, can’t be great for the body. Take care of yourself, Nick!
A personal message: This is my last newsletter as the Weekend editor at The Information. In the New Year, I’ll be joining another media startup, the San Francisco Standard, as executive editor. Launching this section two years ago and helping it to grow and reach new audiences has been one of the highlights of my 20-year journalism career. Thank you for joining the journey, for prodding it along with your comments and emails, and for making this newsletter a part of your weekend.
Now onto this Weekend’s stories...
The big read
Musk’s Mouthpiece: How Nick Pickles Fights Governments on Behalf of X
The policy guru has survived nearly a decade at Twitter and X by balancing a willingness to defend the platform in public with an internal drive to clean up its act. It’s a skill set that has helped Pickles rise up the ranks of Elon Musk’s organization.
the 1:1
The iMenace: Meet the Startup CEO Hellbent on Bursting Apple’s Bubble
Not too long ago, most entrepreneurs shied away from confronting the the world’s biggest company. But not Beeper CEO Eric Migicovsky, whose new app pulls Apple’s iMessage onto Android phones. And Cupertino is none too happy about it.
the top 5
The Top 5: Last-Gasp Holiday Gifts
Face it: You’re long past most “arrive by Christmas” shipping deadlines. To lessen your procrastinator’s panic, we sourced gift ideas you can purchase online minutes before Santa’s scheduled arrival.
Watching: George Santos, never-ending car crash
Eight days after his unceremonious ouster from Congress, following 23 federal charges that included identity theft, wire fraud and money laundering, George Santos made his inevitable appearance on Ziwe’s cringe-baiting YouTube talk show. Following in the footsteps of guests like Andrew Yang, Caroline Calloway and Chet Hanks, Santos sat down for 18 minutes of delightfully skin-crawling conversation, during which Ziwe backed him into semi-confessions, self-contradictions and blatant lies. But in the end, it was Ziwe—and all of us watching—who got played. “What could we do to get you to go away?” she asked. “Stop inviting me to your gigs,” Santos responded, his knowing smirk chilling me to my core. “But you can’t. Because people want the content.” I wish I could say he was wrong. —Julia
Reading: Kids in the age of Ozempic
The new drug in schools: Ozempic. A piece by Lisa Miller for The Cut takes a deep and empathetic view at how the semiglutide craze has impacted children, giving doctors an innovative—but potentially risky—way to treat overweight children. Miller follows 15-year-old Maria as she navigates the constantly changing medical advice for childhood obesity. She tries diets, intense exercise boot camps and even surgery. It is only after Maria combines surgery with Victoza, an Ozempic predecessor, that she’s able to lose significant weight. As it traces the myriad of conflicting, patronizing and oft-misguided advice for losing weight, the piece becomes a damnation of America’s obsession with weight loss. —Margaux
Noticing: The year of billionaire dreams
Another day, another billionaire secretly buying up thousands of acres. For Wired, Guthrie Scrimgeour writes about Mark Zuckerberg’s giant Hawaiian compound, which includes an underground bunker and over a dozen buildings. The construction has fundamentally changed the small island, flooding it with cars and out-of-town workers. The story is eerily similar to another billionaire-funded dream town in Solano County, Calif., where tech heavyweights quietly bought up over 55,000 acres of farm land to build their dream town. Both Zuck and the California Forever pioneers pressured locals to sell their land, then refused to communicate with the community until plans were well under way. The whole thing feels icky, and makes me miss the rich benefactors of yesteryear, who were content to just slap their name on a library or a university wing. –Margaux
Makes You Think
Until next Weekend, thanks for reading.
—Jon
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