Dez Reads. Get This Bear Out of My Supermarket

Josh is out solving the crisis of the day and will soon be gearing up for the Detroit Tigers vs. Seattle Mariners Game 5 of the ALDS this evening. So it’s Mark Emerson here, and I’ll be pinch-hitting in his place. Little does he know, I’m a Mariners fan and he’s in for a rough night.

It’s officially fall, baseball playoffs are here, and hibernation season calls. Though it seems like everyone may not have gotten the memo because this week’s lead story features a bear doing some last-minute grocery shopping in Arizona. Phil Bogdan takes us into the wild with a real reminder that not every viral video is AI-generated nonsense.

Katie Runkle digs into Bari Weiss’s rise from Substack rebel to CBS News editor-in-chief, a story that has as much to do with power and media as it does with how far persistence (and a good newsletter) can take you. MaryGrace Lucas brings us back to earth, or rather off the grid, with a Nobel Prize winner who found out he’d won while on a digital detox in the Rockies.

Diane Chaaban follows with a thoughtful tribute to Jane Goodall, whose life remains proof that curiosity and courage can change the world. And because no week is complete without a little sports drama, I break down LeBron’s latest Decision, which turned out to be less of a career announcement and more of an ad for Hennessy.

Thank you, as always, for reading along with us.

Here we go.

Bear in Aisle Three

AP. Bear walked into southern Arizona grocery store and ran around for a few minutes

I’m not gonna lie. A recent viral video of bunnies jumping on a trampoline left me hardened. I thought I could catch any AI-generated hoax, but that extreme bunny cuteness forced my guard down just long enough for my pride to catch a devastating blow to the chin. That’s why my hoax-o-meter was on full alert when I read an Associated Press story featuring video of a bear running through a Southern Arizona grocery store.

My first reaction was, “A bear in the southern Arizona desert?… Running in and out of a grocery store, the holy grail of food sources, without taking one bite of anything?… No, the AP’s reporters were clearly duped by AI.” But out of respect for the AP, I looked deeper. I learned that bears do actually live in southern Arizona – and that it was a real event with multiple eyewitnesses and video to prove it.

Turns out there are some videos you can still actually believe in, especially when they’re vetted by trusted news sources. It’s not a hard-hitting example of why we need professional journalists, but it’s a “beary” memorable one (Cue the crickets!).

– Phil Bogdan

The Free Press Goes Primetime

NPR. Who is Bari Weiss? CBS News’ new editor-in-chief is a vocal critic of legacy media

I’ve been enamored with Bari Weiss for years, studying the unpredictable responses to mentioning a Free Press article in conversation.

The Paramount sale shocked me. I fell prey to the ‘sell-out’ criticism… but it quickly gave way to admiration. Weiss took a Substack and turned it into a publication with a subscription more expensive than the NY Times. Ironic, right? And now she used it to barter her way up to legacy CBS News editor-in-chief.

I’m excited to watch her wade back into the world of big publications subject to societal politics, public sentiment, and industry lobbying, but this time with the power. Will we see a TFP-esque revolution at CBS? Or will she pull another Jerry Maguire in a few years’ time?

Whether you’re an “America-loathing far left”, a “history-erasing far right”, or somewhere in between, you can’t escape Bari Weiss, and I wouldn’t bet against her either. A force to be reckoned with, as she attempts to bring her romantic ideals of journalism back to mainstream media – “honesty, doggedness, and fierce independence.”

– Katie Runkle

Offline and On Top of the World

The Guardian: Scientist learns he has won Nobel prize while on digital detox in US mountains

“Sorry I missed your earlier call.” Those are the charming six words newly minted Nobel Prize winner Fred Ramsdell said to Adam Smith, the chief scientific officer for Nobel Prize outreach, when they finally connected days after Ramsdell and his colleagues won.

Everyone else knew, but no one could reach Ramsdell. With his phone on airplane mode, Ramsdell, his wife, and their husky-mix canine were away near Yellowstone National Park, wrapping up a trip through the spectacular Idaho, Wyoming, and Montana Rocky Mountains. These are places so breathtaking that it feels absurd to pull out your phone and place it between your own eyes and the wildlife around you.**

But Ramsdell says his wife stepped away for a moment to check back in with real life and started screaming; he and his colleagues Mary E. Brunkow and Shimon Sakaguchi had won the Nobel Prize.

Essentially, they’d discovered how the immune system keeps itself in check, giving a massive boost to researchers and scientists aiming to develop new therapies for everything from cancer to autoimmune diseases. But it took decades of academic and industry collaboration to convert their discovery into real-world applications.

“Back in the year 2000, no one was going to do gene therapy in vivo. No one was going to do cell therapy for autoimmune diseases. There weren’t even cell therapies for cancer at that point. It was too expensive, too hard. All the reasons, which were true at the time, which are no longer true.” Ramsdell said. “Now there are clinical trials running, patients are being treated, and we’ll see where it ends up.”

That’s huge. And, like the moment Smith finally got to congratulate Ramsdell, it’s worth the wait.

** Note: when the wildlife is a gaddabout bear cub in the grocery store, this rule doesn’t apply. Unless I’m being eaten, I’m recording.

– MaryGrace Lucas

Jane Goodall’s Legacy of Moxie

NYT. Jane Goodall, Who Chronicled the Social Lives of Chimps, Dies at 91

As a National Geographic alum, Jane Goodall’s passing feels personal. Few conservationists ever achieved her level of global icon status: knighted “Dame” by now King Charles, honored with a 2025 U.S. Presidential Medal of Freedom, and awarded just about every accolade under the sun (save for the Nobel Peace Prize). And yet, at 23, she was hardly an academic powerhouse; armed only with the equivalent of a high school diploma, a stack of wildlife books, and relentless curiosity.

Skeptics dismissed her as merely a “National Geographic cover girl.” Ironically, her lack of traditional training gave her an edge. Free from traditional methods, she saw what others missed: tool-making chimps, empathy, even primate warfare.

In true rom-com fashion, she even married the National Geographic photographer documenting her research.

To me, Jane symbolizes chasing passion over pedigree. Say yes to opportunity, even if the odds are stacked against you – it might just take you to the mountaintop.

– Diane Chaaban

LeFumble

USA Today. Lakers fan suing LeBron James due to ‘Second Decision’ stunt

LeBron’s done it again, making another decision without quite thinking it through. This week, he teased fans with what looked like a major career announcement, a callback to his infamous 2010 ESPN special where he told the world he was taking his talents to South Beach. The internet exploded with speculation. Was he retiring? Changing teams? Coaching? Instead, it turned out to be an ad for Hennessy.

The video, shot in the same dramatic tone as The Decision, quickly racked up millions of views and about as many confused reactions. Fans weren’t sure whether to laugh, roll their eyes, or pour themselves a Hennessy in solidarity. For LeBron, who often walks that blurry line between cultural icon and self-made spectacle, this one might land somewhere in the middle.

The stunt threw fans for such a loop that one disappointed Lakers fan is now suing him for $865, claiming “fraud, deception, and misrepresentation” after buying tickets under the assumption the video was a real retirement announcement. Suing LeBron over a parody video is about as logical as suing Tom Brady after his first retirement, but it does say something about how believable LeBron’s brand of overproduction has become.

In the end, The Second Decision wasn’t a scandal, just another slightly out-of-touch PR move from one of the game’s greatest who sometimes seems too big to read the room. Another LeDecision, another mixed reaction.

– Mark Emerson

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