For GQ: A reported feature on the online panic around Galaxy Gas, a commercial form of whippets; interviews with local Atlanta residents and a “Galaxy Gas rapper.”

“I started thinking about it, and I’m like, this is really killing us, for real,” he said. “Put the Galaxy Gas down. We’re not bringing it into 2025.” How Galaxy Gas Became the Defining High of the Brainrot Era.

For GQ: An eerie descent into the world of looksmaxxing and its biggest school: the Harry Potter-themed Mogwarts, where young men pay monthly to receive jaw-sculpting regimens.

“I’m completely mentally destroyed because of it,” Mathias, a 15-year-old from Prague who’s spent over $1,200 on looksmaxxing supplies, told me. Meet the Young Men Paying to Attend Mogwarts

For The New York Times: A report on Minecraft’s speedrunning scene, which is thriving even 15 years after the game’s original release.

He said he had loaded more than 1.3 million Minecraft worlds to get his best time, which is 10 minutes 30 seconds. Minecraft Is An Infinite Sandbox That’s Being Beaten In Minutes.

For Dazed: An analysis of “Save Europe,” a far-right movement recycling classic dance tunes like “L’Amour Toujours” to peddle bigoted ideologies online and sparking real-life hate.

“It’s a perfect soundtrack for imagining you’re watching humankind crumble before your eyes, the rise and fall of the new Roman Empire in one hectic hype montage.” Save Europe: the alt-right movement spreading hate with dance music

For Dazed: A survey of the “brainrot humor” virus infesting the web — from Skibidi Biden and AP Brainrot Exams to Little John and AI SpongeBob deepfakes. The future, whew!

“The kids nursed on Cocomelon and Kai Cenat are clearly even more obsessed with inane absurdism than Gen Z. Who knows what’ll come next.” How brainrot humour infected the internet with surreal gibberish

For Vulture: An analysis of the cosmic death-capitalism of the viral hit Lethal Company, and how it felt cathartic playing it shortly after being laid off myself.

Lethal Company amplifies the fatigue of gig-economy work and mimics its patterns but transforms the labor into a pleasure activity. The Cosmic Capitalist Catharsis of Lethal Company.

For Business Insider: A gonzo report on the feverish wasteland of TikTok Live in the middle of the night: grifters, robots, gorillas, roleplayers, stripbaiters, and even ghost-hunters.

When I ended the experiment in the morning, it felt like coming up for air after being submerged in a sea of cultural sewage.” How I Lost My Sanity in the Dark Depths of TikTok Live.

For The New York Times: Descending into the rabbit hole of Roblox users “Bypassing audio” to sneak illicit music into the game, and the subgenre “robloxcore” created by players.

Methods include layering a song 32 times so the lyrics become deafening and indecipherable, or purposely raising or lowering its pitch so it sounds incoherent to moderators, before readjusting it in the game. How Roblox Sparked a Chaotic Music Scene.