Hi, welcome to your Weekend.

The winding path to this week’s must-read cover story on the “All-In” podcast began, for this editor, in August 2022. That’s when I first reached out to one of the show’s co-hosts, Jason Calacanis, to see if he and his fellow “besties” would sit for a profile. 

I’d met and interacted with Calacanis a few times before, once going on a walk-and-talk around San Francisco’s SoMa district, where he regaled me with his ideas for fixing the city. (This was pre-pandemic, before things got really hairy.) I thought that maybe he and his co-hosts might trust me and The Information enough to submit to an interview. No dice.

“Thanks so much for thinking of us,” Calacanis wrote me. “We’ve decided to let the pod speak for itself and are not doing any press. All the best, JCal.” 

Fair enough. But then, a week later, the hosts began talking about my and other reporters’ interview requests on the air. They tossed all of the journalists’ efforts in the same conspiratorial bucket: “You know it’s going to be a hit piece,” said David Sacks. “It’s probably going to be a hit piece, yeah,” parroted Calacanis.

A year-plus later, when my colleague Julia reached out with a similar ask, she got an almost identical answer: The pod would speak for itself. Several weeks into her reporting, after speaking with numerous people in the “All-In” hosts’ respective orbits, she went back to the subjects one last time, giving them the chance to respond to negative comments and to clarify or rebut any stated facts. 

Their emailed response? Poop emojis—two poops from Calacanis, one from Chamath Palihapitiya. This wasn’t a new gag; Elon Musk’s PR department at X has been auto-responding to media inquiries with poop emojis for months now. But it did show how far the hosts’ regard for the press had fallen.  

All the same, Julia did not, in the end, write a hit piece. In part, that’s because the “All-In” guys have created something genuinely interesting and entertaining. Their podcast provides a view into the minds of people who are, like it or not, representative of an important branch of Silicon Valley power brokers. 

Though the civility may not go both ways, we will always take them seriously and treat them respectfully. And even if they get annoyed and decide to block us on X, we will be listening.

Now onto this Weekend’s stories...

the big read

The Besties’ Revenge: How the ‘All-In’ Podcast Ate Silicon Valley

Facing challenges in their home court of tech investing, four venture capitalists have used a hit podcast to springboard into a new life as famous influencers. Julia reports on the men behind tech's favorite podcast. 

social studies

Can Instagram Save the Department Store?

Neiman Marcus, Saks Fifth Avenue and Nordstrom are employing a new kind of sales associate—one who moonlights as a social media creator. Annie talks to department store stylists who are making the majority of their sales on Instagram.

the 1:1

Vizio’s CEO Is Looking Beyond the Screen

After transforming the TV industry, only to see it get disrupted by cheap screens and big tech, Vizio chief William Wang is looking to turn things around. Reporter Janko Roettgers chatted with Wang about his personal and professional journeys, neither of which have been smooth sailing. 

Reading: The final nail in the Praxis coffin?
Earlier this year, I joined a Discord group for Praxis, a startup founded by a bunch of Ayn Rand-loving twenty-somethings who envisioned building a crypto-powered network city on the Mediterranean (or maybe in Nigeria or Ghana…they were never quite clear on that). Soon, a Mother Jones reporter uncovered the group’s bizarre fixation with “Nazi occultism” and the fact that they seemed to be burning through most of their capital throwing parties in SoHo. Still, I enjoyed checking the Discord occasionally to watch things fall apart. Imagine my surprise when I learned in this week’s wild New York Times piece that I, as well as 12,000 other server members, were being pitched to investors as “interested in moving, en masse, to a ‘beautiful, green city.’” As much as I love a Fyre Festival-style trainwreck, I think it’s time to hit “unsubscribe.” —Julia

Noticing: The tweens who scream for skin cream
Looking for a gift for the tween in your life? Head straight to Sephora. As reported by The Wall Street Journal, skincare is the must-have item for girls between nine and 14, as they head off to sleepovers with duffel bags full of serums and $62 moisturizers. The culprit behind the expensive fad is social media, as “Get Ready With Me” videos on TikTok and artful shots of skincare routines on Instagram have introduced 11-year-olds to substances like niacinamide and hyaluronic acid. There might be an upside to this fad: applying moisturizer and sunscreen can have positive effects, unlike the cheap eyeshadow I applied at that age. But the high expense and emphasis on unnecessary consumerism can lead to a whole host of negative consequences. We’ll see if this frenzy lasts or if, like Drunk Elephant’s famed bronzing drops, it fades over time. —Annie

Watching: Meta’s future’s so bright... 
This week, a handful of big TikTok influencers were suddenly sporting the same black thick glasses. You can thank Meta for the new eyewear trend—the company officially launched their own AI-powered hardware this month, selling Ray Bans glasses that incorporate a camera and connect to AI software. The videos from influencers show off the camera’s impressive camera quality and creative possibilities. But it’s also worth watching Mark Zuckerberg’s own Instagram video, in which he picked up a sweater from his closet and asked his glasses what pants would match best (the answer: dark pants). Tech-infused glasses have historically been a dead end for Silicon Valley (see: Google Glasses), but, perhaps with the handy help of AI, Meta will finally make smart glasses happen. —Margaux

Makes You Think

Elon called in the big guns: Mommy. 

Until next Weekend, thanks for reading.

—Jon