The Weekend by The Information Staff

Every Saturday

The Weekend

By The Information Staff

Know what happens when Silicon Valley logs off—the trends and people shaping culture, technology and everything in between.

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Recent Editions

Pete Buttigieg Wants Everyone to Buy an EV. Just Not Necessarily From Elon Musk

Pete Buttigieg Wants Everyone to Buy an EV. Just Not Necessarily From Elon Musk

By Jon Steinberg · May 14, 2022 8:00am PDT

Hi, welcome to your Weekend! This was one of those weeks when I was glad that I follow the Doomscrolling Reminder Bot (@Doomscroll_bot) on Twitter. I needed those hourly reminders—“Hi, are you doomscrolling?”—to close the browser window and catch my breath. It’s not every week when $200 billion in crypto goes poof! in a... Hi, welcome to your Weekend! This was one of those weeks when I was glad that I follow the...

He Sold His Company for $310 Million. One Year Earlier, He Was Bloody and Broken in a Psych Ward

He Sold His Company for $310 Million. One Year Earlier, He Was Bloody and Broken in a Psych Ward

By Jon Steinberg · May 7, 2022 8:00am PDT

Hi, welcome to your Weekend! When you’re not celebrating the mothers in your life this weekend (hot tip: you can still order last-minute bouquets on Bloomnation), I recommend reading Annie’s powerful profile of Andy Dunn. I first learned about Dunn and the menswear e-commerce brand he co-founded, Bonobos, in the late-2000s when I was... Hi, welcome to your Weekend! When you’re not celebrating the mothers in your life this...

WTF Is a VTuber? Who Are the Muskiest Men in Tech? And Why Is This 28-Year-Old an 'Absolute Nightmare' for Web3 Evangelists?

WTF Is a VTuber? Who Are the Muskiest Men in Tech? And Why Is This 28-Year-Old an 'Absolute Nightmare' for Web3 Evangelists?

By Jon Steinberg · Apr 30, 2022 8:00am PDT

Hi, welcome to your Weekend! We’re on week three of Elon–Twittergate and the hits just keep on coming. (Get it? Because Elon likes the weed. Anyway...) It seems like months since the rumors about Musk’s takeover began spinning, and we’ve got months more until the deal closes. Predicting how this drama ends is impossible, but if Musk’s past... Hi, welcome to your Weekend! We’re on week three of Elon–Twittergate and the hits just keep...

Rosie the Riveting: The Stunning Success Story of Fanhouse Founder Rosie Nguyen

Rosie the Riveting: The Stunning Success Story of Fanhouse Founder Rosie Nguyen

By Jon Steinberg · Apr 23, 2022 8:00am PDT

Rosie the Riveting: The Stunning Success Story of Fanhouse Founder Rosie Nguyen

Rosie the Riveting: The Stunning Success Story of Fanhouse Founder Rosie Nguyen

By Jon Steinberg · Apr 23, 2022 8:00am PDT

Hi, welcome to your Weekend! If you were one of those insatiably curious kids who liked to rip apart toasters or ham radios and figure out how to reassemble them (a pretty common hobby in Silicon Valley, I’d wager), you’re going to love Stephen’s story about Lumafield. The CT scanning startup, with offices in Cambridge, Mass. and San... Hi, welcome to your Weekend! If you were one of those insatiably curious kids who liked to...

Art by Clark Miller

The Crypto Prince and the Ethereum Killer: A Tale of Two Blockchain Billionaires

By Jon Steinberg · Apr 16, 2022 8:00am PDT

Hi, welcome to your Weekend! In a week that saw the world’s richest man sucking up all the oxygen in the newsroom, it is important now for us all to step away. To take a deep breath, to celebrate Easter or Passover or Ramadan with our families, to watch some NBA playoffs (go Warriors!), to play outside with our kids or animals. Sing it with... Hi, welcome to your Weekend! In a week that saw the world’s richest man sucking up all the...

Tech Workers Return to the Office, With New Norms and New Expectations

Tech Workers Return to the Office, With New Norms and New Expectations

By Jon Steinberg · Apr 9, 2022 8:00am PDT

Hi, welcome to your Weekend! Our company returned to three days of in-person work this week, and we clearly weren’t alone. Downtown San Francisco, where The Information’s headquarters are located, was noticeably less of a ghost town, with salad joints, coffee bars and bike lanes all back to bustling (the hot spring weather may have... Hi, welcome to your Weekend! Our company returned to three days of in-person work this week,...

What's Behind the Marc Andreessen–Jack Dorsey Crypto Holy War?

What's Behind the Marc Andreessen–Jack Dorsey Crypto Holy War?

By Jon Steinberg · Apr 2, 2022 8:00am PDT

Hi, welcome to your Weekend! It’s been a few months since two Silicon Valley titans started passive-aggressively sniping at each other on Twitter, and I'm still thinking about what it all meant, and why it all started. The war of words, blocks, and memes between Jack Dorsey and Marc Andreessen wasn’t only fascinating because of the... Hi, welcome to your Weekend! It’s been a few months since two Silicon Valley titans started...

The Information Weekend's Special Kids and Tech Issue

The Information Weekend's Special Kids and Tech Issue

By Jon Steinberg · Mar 26, 2022 8:00am PDT

The Information Weekend's Special Kids and Tech Issue

The Information Weekend's Special Kids and Tech Issue

By Jon Steinberg · Mar 26, 2022 8:00am PDT

Hi, welcome to your Weekend! As the father of two tween girls, I eagerly anticipated the results of The Information’s first-ever survey of tech parents. The report is fascinating, both for the questions it answers, and the new ones it raises. How many hours of screen-time per day is “normal”? Is anyone out there actually letting kids use VR... Hi, welcome to your Weekend! As the father of two tween girls, I eagerly anticipated the...

Paris Hilton, Bored Apes and the Making of a Hollywood Crypto Cabal

Paris Hilton, Bored Apes and the Making of a Hollywood Crypto Cabal

By Jon Steinberg · Mar 19, 2022 8:00am PDT

Hi, welcome to your Weekend! Before you jump ahead to Margaux’s cover story about the Hollywood cabal behind a surge of celebrity crypto investments, I wanted to share another story from one of this weekend’s contributors.Katia Savchuk, a former reporter at Forbes, was born in Ukraine and immigrated to the U.S. at the age of four. Two weeks... Hi, welcome to your Weekend! Before you jump ahead to Margaux’s cover story about the...

Photographs by Bloomberg. Art by Mike Sullivan.

The Other Sides of Sunny Balwani

By Jon Steinberg · Mar 12, 2022 8:00am PST

Hi, welcome to your Weekend!Anita Raghavan’s investigation into the life of Sunny Balwani began with a photograph. While googling around for images of the reclusive ex-president of Theranos, who went on trial this week for his part in the Elizabeth Holmes scandal, Anita stumbled over a 1988 yearbook from the University of Texas at Austin. There,... Hi, welcome to your Weekend!Anita Raghavan’s investigation into the life of Sunny Balwani began...

Tech Workers Respond to the Realities of War, While Tech Leaders Grapple With the Realities of Their Own Power

Tech Workers Respond to the Realities of War, While Tech Leaders Grapple With the Realities of Their Own Power

By Jon Steinberg · Mar 5, 2022 8:00am PST

Hi, welcome to your Weekend!More than any other industry, tech attracts a global workforce. According to one 2018 report, 71% of tech workers in Silicon Valley are foreign born. And tech leaders have never been shy about their desires for the US to reform its immigration laws in order to attract even more foreign talent. So it should come... Hi, welcome to your Weekend!More than any other industry, tech attracts a global workforce....

Joseph Gordon-Levitt on Becoming Travis Kalanick

Joseph Gordon-Levitt on Becoming Travis Kalanick

By Jon Steinberg · Feb 26, 2022 8:00am PST

Joseph Gordon-Levitt on Becoming Travis Kalanick

Joseph Gordon-Levitt on Becoming Travis Kalanick

By Jon Steinberg · Feb 26, 2022 8:00am PST

Hi, welcome to your Weekend!The world has watched armed conflicts unfold through social media before—the civil war in Syria, to name one, produced indelible images that rocketed around the internet. But there’s never been anything like what’s transpired this week in Ukraine. For every devastating account of Ukrainian civilians fleeing the... Hi, welcome to your Weekend!The world has watched armed conflicts unfold through social media...

Mapping Playboy's Digital Reinvention, Where NFTs Are the Magazine and the Metaverse Is the Mansion

Mapping Playboy's Digital Reinvention, Where NFTs Are the Magazine and the Metaverse Is the Mansion

By Jon Steinberg · Feb 19, 2022 8:00am PST

Hi, welcome to your Weekend!For most of our kids’ lives, my wife and I have avoided giving them much technology. We’re not puritanical about it, but we saw little upside in letting our two girls own their own phones, tablets, smartwatches, or gaming consoles. But now that they are 12 and 10 years old, the daily drumbeat to let them have all of... Hi, welcome to your Weekend!For most of our kids’ lives, my wife and I have avoided giving them...

Crypto Scams Have Gotten Way Out of Control

Crypto Scams Have Gotten Way Out of Control

By Jon Steinberg · Feb 12, 2022 8:00am PST

Hi, welcome to your Weekend!As we were preparing a slate of stories for the week, the Department of Justice announced on Tuesday that it had made its “largest financial seizure ever,” reclaiming $3.6 billion of the $4.5 billion in Bitcoin that was stolen from Bitfinex, a currency exchange, in 2016. You likely heard about this story, because... Hi, welcome to your Weekend!As we were preparing a slate of stories for the week, the Department...

Tired of Being Sidelined by 'Another Boy's Club,' Women Are Demanding Their Piece of the Crypto Pie

Tired of Being Sidelined by 'Another Boy's Club,' Women Are Demanding Their Piece of the Crypto Pie

By Jon Steinberg · Feb 5, 2022 8:00am PST

Hi, welcome to your Weekend!Is there a cryptocurrency linked to schadenfreude? Because you can bet its price would have skyrocketed this week on the news of Meta suffering the biggest wipeout in U.S. corporate history, losing $230 billion in market value in a single day. It’s a safe bet that no tech company in history has built up the ill will... Hi, welcome to your Weekend!Is there a cryptocurrency linked to schadenfreude? Because you can...

The Information Weekend: A Tech Shaman Rises in the Yucatan; a Guide to Surviving the Crypto Winter; and Why You Should Give ‘Cheer’ a Chance

The Information Weekend: A Tech Shaman Rises in the Yucatan; a Guide to Surviving the Crypto Winter; and Why You Should Give ‘Cheer’ a Chance

By Jon Steinberg · Jan 29, 2022 8:00am PST

The Information Weekend: A Tech Shaman Rises in the Yucatan; a Guide to Surviving the Crypto Winter; and Why You Should Give ‘Cheer’ a Chance

The Information Weekend: A Tech Shaman Rises in the Yucatan; a Guide to Surviving the Crypto Winter; and Why You Should Give ‘Cheer’ a Chance

By Jon Steinberg · Jan 29, 2022 8:00am PST

Hi, welcome to your Weekend!If you’re feeling some post-New Year’s malaise right now, you’re not alone. It’s only natural amidst a volatile week on the stock market, the onset of a potential crypto winter, and the forecast (on the East Coast, at least) of snowpocalypse. But it’s good to know that you can ignore the doldrums and duck out to... Hi, welcome to your Weekend!If you’re feeling some post-New Year’s malaise right now, you’re not...

Art by Haejin Park. Photograph courtesy of Caroline Spiegel.

The Information Weekend: The Queen of Audio Porn; the Temptation of the Sneakerheads; a Heretical Wedding; and Parentverse Takes Your Kid Questions

By Jon Steinberg · Jan 22, 2022 8:21am PST

Hi, welcome to your Weekend!With apologies to next month’s annual Hallmark holiday, the theme of this weekend’s issue is love. Annie writes about a well-connected founder building an audio platform for better self-love. Malique talks to sneakerheads about their love of fresh Nikes and Adidas, and asks whether that love will translate... Hi, welcome to your Weekend!With apologies to next month’s annual Hallmark holiday, the theme of...

Art by Haejin Park.

The Information Weekend Does Wyoming, Featuring the Tech Transplant’s Guide to Cowboy Living, an Intro to Crypto’s Favorite Senator, and a Glimpse of the Great DAO Land Grab

By Jon Steinberg · Jan 15, 2022 8:00am PST

Hi, welcome to your Weekend: Special Wyoming Edition!Why devote a whole issue to Wyoming, you ask? Because the smallest state in the union has been been playing an outsized role in tech lately, writing laws that encourage the growth of cryptocurrencies, DAOs, and other instruments that are at the forefront of Silicon Valley innovation right now.... Hi, welcome to your Weekend: Special Wyoming Edition!Why devote a whole issue to Wyoming, you...

The Great Immigrant Resignation; Why iPod Shuffles Are In; Why Cryptospeak Is Out; and Presenting Our First-Ever Holmesie Awards

The Great Immigrant Resignation; Why iPod Shuffles Are In; Why Cryptospeak Is Out; and Presenting Our First-Ever Holmesie Awards

By Jon Steinberg · Jan 8, 2022 8:00am PST

Hi, welcome to your Weekend!While we can’t say that the start of 2022 was as disorienting as last year’s insurrection-impeachment-inauguration triple-whammy, the new year still began with a couple of pocket-sized bombshells. Out here in Silicon Valley, the Elizabeth Holmes trial ended as many expected: with the ex-Theranos boss’s conviction on... Hi, welcome to your Weekend!While we can’t say that the start of 2022 was as disorienting as last...

The Information Weekend’s Last-Call 2021 Culture List

The Information Weekend’s Last-Call 2021 Culture List

By Jon Steinberg · Dec 31, 2021 8:00am PST

The Information Weekend’s Last-Call 2021 Culture List

The Information Weekend’s Last-Call 2021 Culture List

By Jon Steinberg · Dec 31, 2021 8:00am PST

Hi, welcome to your Weekend: New Years Eve edition!There were plenty of unmissable cultural moments in 2021: “Squid Game” exploded, “Dune” dazzled, Olivia Rodrigo and Taylor Swift dominated, Bennifer reunited, “Friends” and Carrie Bradshaw returned, and sea shanties took over TikTok. But those were just the headliners. Suspecting there was more... Hi, welcome to your Weekend: New Years Eve edition!There were plenty of unmissable cultural...