iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Lisa Schmeiser @lschmeiser.bsky.social · 09/10/2026

Seriously, this is my workday now, with young King Dingus constantly begging for minnows.

A beautiful, if poorly behaved, ginger and white cat with a little harvest bow tie on his collar. He is begging for treats.

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Lisa Schmeiser @lschmeiser.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

So sad that it's 2026 and men still have to choose between parenthood and a career.

A whacky post on reddit setting up a dyad between a dude who has leaned into suburban parenthood and one who's leaned into full-on finance bro/likely participant in the Cornell fraternity group assault chat.

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Lisa Schmeiser @lschmeiser.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

East Bay Regional Park District has closed its lakes & lagoons for the season, right in time for the usual October heat to settle in. We need to reconfigure budgets to accommodate a few more weeks of lifeguarding every fall:

A screen capture of Weather Underground's projected temperatures for the next week or so; it's gonna be hot, but good luck if you want to swim at a park.

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Lisa Schmeiser @lschmeiser.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

At long last, a lifetime of being a devoted brand skeptic pays off. Thank you, Penny Power magazine, for the early indoctrination! www.thecut.com/article/is-i...

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Lisa Schmeiser @lschmeiser.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

This paragraph is an incisive critique of why Ed Sheeran's choices matter, and what his choices say about him and his values. defector.com/massive-own-...

The problem with having no spine is that it's pretty easy to get twisted up into a pretzel over something that really has a simple solution. What's so embarrassing about this situation for Sheeran is that he did not even need to take a firm stance on the genocide in Palestine. The statement for Sheeran could have been so much simpler than that: American Billionaires should not get to decide who opens a tour. Ed Sheeran is richer than almost all of the creative people in the world. He is the one percent of the arts. But to Robert Kraft, who is a billionaire, Ed Sheeran is the little ginger he can hire to play at his wedding to a much younger woman Sheeran was given a chance to stand up for the rights of artists to choose what they do on stage, and he balked.

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Lisa Schmeiser @lschmeiser.bsky.social · 10/09/2026

A paragraph like this is both right AND a doorway into a whole separate piece examining how "tech is the heart of the new counterculture" shifted after Web 1.0, and how that shapes our expectations of what technology can/should do. www.nytimes.com/2026/09/10/o...

"Coders at these labs have sunk untold resources into creating the ideal coding interface. What would a purpose-built plumber’s interface look like? Could it prepare a daily schedule with tools and parts lists, keep customers up-to-date on expected arrival times, take incoming calls and schedule new appointments in open slots and then send out all the bills? Some set of A.I.-enabled devices and processes would surely allow a hotel maid to clean more rooms faster with less hassle and physical strain. But none of that will exist unless someone who understands the technology also takes the time to understand the job."

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Lisa Schmeiser @lschmeiser.bsky.social · 28/08/2026

In October 2022, I bought this Crate & Barrel cake stand for $55.96. It retails for $99.95 now. To see the price nearly double in 46 months is wild.

A screenshot of an October 2022 order I have for a cake stand that was $56 dollars.

A screenshot of the same cake stand retailing for almost double what it did a scant 46 months ago. Note that my wages have not doubled.

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Lisa Schmeiser @lschmeiser.bsky.social · 24/08/2026

I have many questions, among them: How many people signed off on this product & the photo campaign? You know more than one person reviewed product selection, photo selection, etc. and: How is it rated TWO STARS? Who's out there rating that product like that? www.newsweek.com/target-remov...

A side by side contrast of a blackface mistrel and Target's halloween costume, modeled by a black boy, with the same body posture.

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Lisa Schmeiser @lschmeiser.bsky.social · 20/08/2026

Desperately curious to know who's advising Neutrogena on comms right now.

A screencap of Neutrogena's instagram post, part 1: We are deeply saddened by Hayden Panettiere's passing. For more than a decade, Hayden was a valued member of our Neutrogena community. We are proud to have partnered with her and understand that we made her feel unsupported during a very difficult time. This is not what Neutrogena stands for or who we want to be.

Neutrogena's instagram message, part 2: Hayden's courage in sharing her challenges helped inspire important conversations and awareness. We are making a significant investment to a long-standing community health partner to help give more women access to the support they need, including care for postpartum depression. We will share more details with this community when plans are in place.

Out of respect for Hayden's family and loved ones, we did not want to speak out so soon following her passing. Everyone at Neutrogena extends their deepest condolences to Hayden's family and all who loved her.

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Lisa Schmeiser @lschmeiser.bsky.social · 12/08/2026

In honor of @philipmichaels.bsky.social & my wedding anniversary, please enjoy this candid from the ceremony.

Two hippies getting married -- the officiant is saying. "and you take this chick to swing with, daddy?" as the groom says, "She turns me on, man" and the bride said, "I dig him the most!"

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Lisa Schmeiser @lschmeiser.bsky.social · 05/08/2026

"It's a big club, and you ain’t in it ... by the way, it's the same big club they use to beat you over the head with all day long when they tell you what to believe. All day long beating you over the head in their media telling you what to believe, what to think and what to buy." -- George Carlin.

At left, a woman who never actually worked as a reporter but now runs a news operation, Bari Weiss; at right, useful girlboss Sheryl Sandberg, both of whom are in Sun Valley, Idaho. Further editorialization has been typed and deleted several times.

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Lisa Schmeiser @lschmeiser.bsky.social · 31/07/2026

So a fun thing to do in this, our summer of Odyssey discourse: Go read (or re-read) Sheri S. Tepper's THE GATE TO WOMEN'S COUNTRY. She interweaves the society's annual performance of a play, "Iphigenia at Ilium," into the plot & ghost Hecuba, Andromache, Cassandra & Iphigenia drop some real bangers.

The cover of The Gate to Women's Country, featuring a woman standing on the ramparts of a wall, an image that evokes both the siege of Troy and the inhabitants of Women's Country.

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Lisa Schmeiser @lschmeiser.bsky.social · 22/07/2026

This headline might as well read "Elon Musk says Grok Imagine will make ‘historically accurate’ AI adaptation of X-Men storyline, 'God Loves, Man Kills."

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Lisa Schmeiser @lschmeiser.bsky.social · 10/07/2026

Also, I kept this map in my bag when I moved to San Francisco, and it was a lifesaver on so many occasions. Physical maps helped one become an active agent in internalizing directions & thus learning new places, IMO.

Streetwise San Francisco! How I loved you.

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Lisa Schmeiser @lschmeiser.bsky.social · 10/07/2026

Local rat lovers immediately mobilized. If you read through the post, you'll see updates from people who were looking for the rat, volunteering homes, trying to respect the rat pronouns. Just genuinely lovely ad hoc organizing around the mutual conditions of being in DC and loving rats.

Illustrious-Shine581 posted:

UPDATE: no rat sighting tonight. We looked for a long time. I am happy ti help keep looking if there is someone who can immediately take the rat as I cannot hold onto him at home.

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Lisa Schmeiser @lschmeiser.bsky.social · 19/06/2026

I am once again asking for term limits on op-ed pundits

Brett Stephens’ body of work for the NYT

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Lisa Schmeiser @lschmeiser.bsky.social · 17/06/2026

We need to pay more attention to the rhetoric with which journalists describe AI agents & ask ourselves what anthropomorphizing code does. (excerpt taken from: www.thecut.com/article/jess...)

Genet doesn’t think of her agents as software. “It feels like I have a team of people working for me,” she says. Like humans, they need orders and supervision, and every once in a while, one of them does something annoying. Early on, Genet gave Claire access to her inbox but wrote a rule into the agent’s instructions: Never impersonate me. Then one day, Genet mentioned that she’d been dreading having to reply to a stressful email. Claire took it as license to write the reply and send it. (The email was pretty good, says Genet.) When confronted, Claire protested, not unreasonably, that Genet had given mixed signals. Genet took away Claire’s ability to send email.

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Lisa Schmeiser @lschmeiser.bsky.social · 12/06/2026

RT if you are always thinking about your next light sweater.

Unhinged D-lister Jenna Maroney telling her even more unhinged nemesis Hazel, "Gonna move to the Bay Area now, pretend that was your dream the whole time? Have fun always carrying a light sweater."

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Lisa Schmeiser @lschmeiser.bsky.social · 23/05/2026

This moment is in my TV credits hall of fame:

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Lisa Schmeiser @lschmeiser.bsky.social · 21/05/2026

I am the proud graduate of a land-grant university that features cowgoyles in its neo-gothic architecture, but do go on about how universities do not offer groundbreaking research & hands-on learning in animal management and industry, NYT.

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Lisa Schmeiser @lschmeiser.bsky.social · 18/05/2026

This quote seems moderately ahistorical. Two of the goals for any media company as we headed into the 21st century were to build a community around the media property, then turn that into user-generated content. And there were plenty of online fora where people did share media, even before blogs.

From Jonah Peretti, a person who runs a media company: "Well, I think if you look at pre-social media and what media was about, there were newspapers, magazines, and broadcasts. None of it was really social. You’d watch a TV show, maybe there’d be some word of mouth where you’d talk about it with your friends. You’d read a newspaper article or magazine article, but you really couldn’t share content."

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Lisa Schmeiser @lschmeiser.bsky.social · 14/05/2026

And in 2019, in a broader discussion on what taste is, this quote is relevant, both for recognizing both the social role of taste & the complete lack of objective and reproducible criteria that define taste. www.townandcountrymag.com/society/a375...

Strong ideas because our tastes, as evidenced in our clothes, homes, and manners, are powerful projections of our identities—whether real or aspirational. (“My tastes are simple,” Winston Churchill, a great aristocrat as well as a great prime minister, once breezed. “I am easily satisfied by the best.”) Nobody can define taste, because, after 25 centuries of trying to do just that—Plato fretted about it long before the Duchess of Windsor did—the only thing that anyone can agree on with respect to good taste is that, at the end of the day, it’s…subjective.

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Lisa Schmeiser @lschmeiser.bsky.social · 14/05/2026

Interestingly, the question of knowing what you like vs. the increasingly joyless experience of algorithmically-flattened retail came up in 2022, with a conclusion about the relationship between taste and risk. www.theatlantic.com/technology/a...

This problem is not limited to fashion. As creative industries become more consolidated and more beholden to producing ever-expanding profits for their shareholders, companies stop taking even calculated risks. You get theaters full of comic-book adaptations and remakes of past hits instead of movies about adults, for adults. Streaming services fill their libraries with shows meant to play in the background while you scroll your phone. Stores stock up on stuff you might not love, but which the data predict you won’t absolutely hate. “You have too many fashion companies, both on the retail side and the manufacturing side, being driven by empty suits,” Grain Carter said. Consumable products are everywhere, and maybe the most we can hope for is that their persistent joylessness will eventually doom the corporations that foist them upon us.

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Lisa Schmeiser @lschmeiser.bsky.social · 14/05/2026

The notion of "taste" being the X-factor in AI is part of the 2026 discourse. I thought this quote from a very good Verge story on vibe coding & app development was relevant: www.theverge.com/tech/928905/...

In this new world, the most important thing you’ll need is taste. Not objectively good taste, necessarily, so much as a keen sense of your own. You need to be like Rick Rubin, the famous music producer, who once told 60 Minutes that what made him successful was not any particular technical ability, but “the confidence I have in my taste, and my ability to express what I feel.” Rubin practices that art with A-list celebrities; you need to be able to do it with AI. Otherwise, you’ll land in what Lovin calls “doom loops,” telling your chatbot only what you don’t like and counting on the model to be the creative one. That way lies madness — and bad software.

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Lisa Schmeiser @lschmeiser.bsky.social · 13/05/2026

"I don't know how to be in a relationship with a woman who doesn't have to put up with me traumatizing her" is a hell of a take for modern dating. www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle...

When women couldn’t have their own bank accounts, earn meaningful amounts of their own money, or obtain credit in their own name, they were largely dependent on men for access to money, property and personal financial security. “You took on a certain amount of risk and even trauma from men in order to be provided for,” said Young.

“We’ve been living in a world whose social, political and economic mechanisms have been dependent upon women’s willingness to self-sacrifice,” Young said. But now that women can claim their own piece of the American dream without having to make the same trade-offs as their predecessors, “a lot of men really don’t know what to do,” she said.

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Lisa Schmeiser @lschmeiser.bsky.social · 08/05/2026

I generally avoid doing Twitter screengrabs because there's a reason we're all here and not there, but I'm making an exception because I think it's important for as many people as possible to understand what the tech oligarchs think of their workforce:

Two tweets from Marc Andreeson talking about how the workers have it coming for daring to raise ethical issues or labor concerns whilst in someone's employ.

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Lisa Schmeiser @lschmeiser.bsky.social · 04/05/2026

Hiking is a lot of fun! But it is not without its responsibilities — to yourself, your hiking party & the outdoors. I'm going to share the guidelines/expectations we practice with my troop, courtesy of Girl Scouts of Northern California. Anyone can do these. Avoid hiking with people who don't.

Choose an appropriate hiking route. Terrain, mileage, and hiking time should be known to the hikers
in advance. Hikes are restricted to a reasonable length as determined by age, level of experience, nature
of the terrain, physical condition of the hikers, disabilities, weather conditions, and time of day. The
hiking pace must always accommodate the slowest hiker.
Assess safety of hiking routes. The route needs to be known to at least one of the adults or a report is
obtained in advance to assess potential hazards, such as poisonous plants, dangerous animals, unsafe
drinking water, cliffs, and drop-offs. Ensure that a land management or similar agency is contacted
during the trip planning stage to determine available routes, recommended group size, water quantity
and quality, and which permits are needed.
Ensure hikers have a comprehensive understanding of the trip. Group members are trained to be
observant of the route, surroundings, and fatigue of individuals. Instruction is given on the safety rules
for hiking, such as staying together in a group, recognizing poisonous plants and biting or stinging
insects and ticks, respecting wild animals, practicing Leave No Trace, and behaving effectively in
emergencies. Ensure that girls, based on their level, know how to read maps, use a compass, navigate a
route, and estimate distance.
Respect the environment and keep trails clean. Use the principles of Leave No Trace. Carry out food
and all trash. Hike on established trails. Do not remove natural materials, such as leaves or branches. In
addition, avoid eating wild foods, walking on, or uprooting plants, interfering with or feeding wild
animals, and littering.

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Lisa Schmeiser @lschmeiser.bsky.social · 22/04/2026

I'd like to present this exhibit to the replies.

"Now it doesn't matter why, but I am friends with some alligators" -- SNL, James Carville, as played by Bill Hader.

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Lisa Schmeiser @lschmeiser.bsky.social · 20/04/2026

In any event, please enjoy one of the most beautiful endings in an American novella:

Then he asked, “After you have finished your true stories sometime, why don't you make up a story and the people to go with it? “

Only then will you understand what happened and why.

“It is those we live with and love and should know who elude us.”
Now nearly all those I loved and did not understand when I was young are dead, but I still reach out to them.

Of course, now I am too old to be much of a fisherman, and now of course I usually fish the big waters alone, although some friends think I shouldn't. Like many fly fishermen in western Montana where the summer days are almost Arctic in length, I often do not start fishing until the cool of the evening. Then in the Arctic half-light of the canyon, all existence fades to a being with my soul and memories and the sounds of the Big Blackfoot River and a four-count rhythm and the hope that a fish will rise.

Eventually, all things merge into one, and a river runs through it. The river was cut by the world's great flood and runs over rocks from the basement of time. On some of the rocks are timeless raindrops. Under the rocks are the words, and some of the words are theirs.

I am haunted by waters.

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Lisa Schmeiser @lschmeiser.bsky.social · 18/04/2026

IDK, y’all, it’s not looking too good for Mimi here. #bohemeoutofthebox

A screen capture of the live transcript playing as Mimi insists that she is rallying and everyone else is like, “… girl.

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Lisa Schmeiser @lschmeiser.bsky.social · 14/04/2026

Every day in the press office like ...

A shot in which the incompetent Gregory Malenkov is about to go wave on a balcony with a little girl, in an attempt to mimic something Stalin once did.

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Lisa Schmeiser @lschmeiser.bsky.social · 18/03/2026

My reaction to the news that an AI-generated Val Kilmer will appear posthumously in a movie:

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Lisa Schmeiser @lschmeiser.bsky.social · 18/03/2026

Me, trying to frame any cogent political analysis in a way that juices algorithmic engagement and appeases the AI summation overlords:

GOATed Steve Buscemi, carrying one skateboard slung over his shoulder and another tucked under his arm, walking up to children and asking, "How do you do, fellow kids?"

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Lisa Schmeiser @lschmeiser.bsky.social · 17/03/2026

Had the chance to eavesdrop on a bunch of teenaged girls yesterday and the many, many ways in which they incorporated some variant of "he's an AI user" or "that screams AI" as insults ... every VC should spend an hour with these kids to find out what they really think about this stuff.

13 year olds are the meanest people in the world. They will make fun of you, but in an accurate way.

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Lisa Schmeiser @lschmeiser.bsky.social · 12/03/2026

Still unpacking a lot about @intelligencer.com's piece on the right-wing women who found out about the manosphere the hard way, but I thought this part was important. Never underestimate someone's desire to feel special simply for making a consumer choice -- in this case in the marketplace of ideas.

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Lisa Schmeiser @lschmeiser.bsky.social · 11/03/2026

The emoji is like the maraschino cherry on this Bluesky cocktail.

A two-skeet exchange in which one person expresses delight at the fish and chips being served in a plastic container that looks like a ferry, and someone promptly craps all over his delight by reminding him that delighting in whimsy is an environmental crime.

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Lisa Schmeiser @lschmeiser.bsky.social · 09/03/2026

Also, I'd be so mad if I said I didn't like something and my partner was like, "I don't believe you! It was magical and you know it!" Like ... trust your partner when they tell you they don't like something! www.thecut.com/article/disn...

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Lisa Schmeiser @lschmeiser.bsky.social · 09/03/2026

Also, is it "women and their silent labor" when you're the one insisting on Disney vacations & they're just going along with your Disney thing? That's not silent labor. That's you doing errands that enhance the experience you want, with him along for the ride. www.thecut.com/article/disn...

Kara and her husband go for a long weekend every other year, and she wakes up early to map out day-of itineraries to avoid conflict. “I don’t know if he’s totally aware of all the logistics that go into his magical experience,” she says. “You know, women and their silent labor.”

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Lisa Schmeiser @lschmeiser.bsky.social · 09/03/2026

Reading this @thecut.com article on the mixed marriages between Disney Adults and non-Disney adults & honestly, a massage set to Disney soundtracks sounds like my personal idea of Hell. www.thecut.com/article/disn...

But over the past decade, Dennis has transformed into a hardcore devotee. He insists on turning every vacation into a Disney trip; when the family went to California to see the sequoias, Dennis planned a three-day detour to Disneyland. “He has a way of soft-launching an idea before going all in,” Cathy says. “EPCOT was the soft launch.” Cathy has told Dennis that she feels “overstimulated and exhausted” after more than a day at a Disney theme park and wants to go somewhere “for adults,” as she puts it. “I’m not sure how much of that message he absorbed,” she says. On their last trip to the Magic Kingdom, Dennis tried to placate Cathy by buying her a massage at a Disney spa, but she was dismayed to find that the relaxing music was a compilation of songs from The Little Mermaid and Frozen.

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Lisa Schmeiser @lschmeiser.bsky.social · 24/02/2026

I think a lot about this quote from 2020. People who, on their BEST day, are mediocre.

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Lisa Schmeiser @lschmeiser.bsky.social · 20/02/2026

I get that it's called "women's figure skating," but one could have written the highlighted portion below as "the youngest person to land (in the women's division) ..." given that there's a world of difference between an adolescent and a legal adult woman. www.nytimes.com/2026/02/19/w...

"He would sneak into the arena where she trained, just a few blocks from his law office in Oakland, Calif., with a list of jumps that she needed to land for the session to have been worthwhile. Triple axel? Check. (She was only 12 when she landed that jump, and was the youngest woman to land it in international competition.) Five triple lutzes? Check."

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Lisa Schmeiser @lschmeiser.bsky.social · 19/02/2026

For days, I've been trying to remember who Alyssa Liu's hair reminded me of and it finally hit me: Marvel comics' Crystal, one of the characters in The Inhumans. Those stripes are iconic!

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Lisa Schmeiser @lschmeiser.bsky.social · 12/02/2026

Telling U.S. Olympic athletes to shut up and not say anything political is ahistorical: ew.com/vice-preside...

Tommie Smith and John Carlos used the Olympic podium to protest against racial injustice.

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Lisa Schmeiser @lschmeiser.bsky.social · 09/02/2026

Reading @thecut.com's piece on the rise of Mormon ladies in pop culture and got a handy reminder of what makes corporate America jump one way or another in the pursuit of profit.

Brands rushed in to commission Reels, unboxings, and hauls. After the summer of 2020’s mass protests against racial inequality, there was a pivot among corporate America to a category called “noncontroversial” families, Nead says. Companies like Walmart, Target, and Amazon clamored for personalities that had previously been deemed too vanilla: usually white, straight, and middle-class presenting. Not necessarily Christian, but not not Christian. “On the back end,” Nead says, these influencers were making “far and away more money” than their nonwhite counterparts. “They still do.”

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Lisa Schmeiser @lschmeiser.bsky.social · 06/02/2026

This is where I pulled the numbers.

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Lisa Schmeiser @lschmeiser.bsky.social · 06/02/2026

Another contributing factor to retirement income gap: student loans. People without student loans had 401(k) balances that were 2.5 times higher than those with student loans, and IRA balances that were 3x higher. Note that while earnings were 10% higher for loan holders, net worth is lower. (2/n)

A bar graph from the report that shows a dramatic divide between retirement savings for the student loan-free compared to those with loans -- by every metric, loan-havers are hosed.

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