Sunday Soup: Superman, Passport Renewals, America's Insomnia, Stablecoins
These are the articles, streaming ideas, and books that caught our attention this week.
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As we get ready to gear up for June-quarter earnings season, we’re serving up a fresh bowl of articles, streams, and a new book that caught our attention over the last several days.
Need to renew your passport? Frustrated by a dropped customer service call? Wondering about stablecoins? We’ve got you covered.
We’re also recommending a deep dive on Google GOOGL from the folks over at Acquired, as well as a fun look at how James Gunn is reshaping the DC Movie Universe with the pending launch of Superman.
If you have a recommendation to share, we’d love to hear about it in the Comments section below.
Now enjoy this latest offering of Sunday Soup.
Articles 📰
America Has Pulled Off the Impossible. It Made Getting a Passport Simple.
"Washington isn’t known for tech innovation. How did a team of bureaucrats put their stamp on a process that hadn’t changed in 50 years?"
What Does ‘Financial Independence’ Mean, Anyway? Money Pros Weigh In.
"Like 'getting in shape,' the term 'financial independence' has the ring of being a worthy goal but resists a clear and universal definition. Thus, it’s repeated liberally by everyone from pyramid-scheme promoters to FIRE obsessives to financial advisors. So, for this week’s Barron’s Advisor Big Q, in honor of Independence Day, we asked a selection of advisors how they define the term."
That Dropped Call With Customer Service? It Was On Purpose
"Endless wait times and excessive procedural fuss—it’s all part of a tactic called 'sludge.'"
Why Can’t Americans Sleep?
"Insomnia has become a public health emergency."
Why Stablecoins Are shifting From Crypto Fringe to Corporate Strategy
"Until six months ago, stablecoins were a niche pursuit, used mostly in crypto trading and criminal activity. But these digital currencies, called 'stable' because they are backed by real-world assets like the dollar, have now become a pet project of the US administration and a hot topic in corporate boardrooms."
JPMorgan Is Revamping Its Bank for the Superrich to Cater to Global Clientele
"JPMorgan Chase is reorganizing its private bank to better serve the world’s richest people, who want to safeguard their wealth by spreading it around the globe. With a minimum required balance of $10 million, JPMorgan’s white-glove bank for the superrich is one of the preferred places for the world’s elite to store their wealth. These customers are demanding that JPMorgan invest more of their money abroad, not just in the country where they spend the bulk of their time."
Time: Most Influential Digital Voices 2025
"Over the past decade, we’ve seen a significant shift in how people view institutions and established gatekeepers. The media industry has been no exception, and while our business has been challenged, others have seen increased attention and relevance. Led by changes in consumer behavior that accelerated during the pandemic, digital creators, the entrepreneurs who have built businesses through significant online followings, have emerged to shape our culture. They are changing what we watch, how we spend our time, what we buy, and how we vote."
What We’re Streaming 📺📲
The Reading List 📖📚
Algospeak: How Social Media Is Transforming the Future of Language by Adam Aleksic
"From 'brainrot' memes and incel slang to the trend of adding '-core' to different influencer aesthetics, the internet has ushered in an unprecedented linguistic upheaval. We’re entering an entirely new era of etymology, heralded by the invisible forces driving social media algorithms. Thankfully, Algospeak is here to explain. As a professional linguist, Adam Aleksic understands the gravity of language and the way we use it: he knows the ways it has morphed and changed, how it reflects society, and how, in its everyday usage, we carry centuries of human history on our tongues. As a social media influencer, Aleksic is also intimately familiar with the internet’s reach and how social media impacts the way we engage with one another. New slang emerges and goes viral overnight. Accents are shaped or erased on YouTube. Grammatical rules, loopholes, and patterns surface and transform language as we know it. Our interactions, social norms, and habits—both online and in person—shift into something completely different."
