Hi, welcome to your Weekend.

On Wednesday night, while editing Annie’s thoroughly delightful cover story on new Twitch CEO Dan Clancy, I hopped over to Clancy’s Twitch page, just to see if he was livestreaming. To my surprise and delight, he was.

Almost two hours into a four-and-a-half hour jam session and open-mic night, the CEO sat facing the camera, playing the keyboard and howling the lyrics to John Prine’s “Angel from Montgomery.” He started hilariously off-key, pealing the lyrics, “I am an old woman...named after my mother...” an octave too high. But after some fiddling with the keys, he locked in. And the man can really sing! 

The sight of a CEO, sitting sonically naked before the microphone,  was a rarity and a revelation. It gave me instant respect for Clancy’s confidence. And it made me wish more CEOs had their own Twitch-like streams, where they'd have to reveal their authentic personalities to the public. (Might give some PR people I know heart attacks, though) 

I’m not sure what his performance style says about Clancy’s ability to run Twitch, which has been under increased pressure from parent company Amazon to turn a profit at the exact time it’s facing a rising creator rebellion. He’s off to a stumbling start, which continued in the hours after our story published on Friday.

But at least Twitch employees know they’re not working for an empty suit from Seattle. Clancy is a true Silicon Valley original. 

the big read

The Bandleader: Stuck in the Middle With Twitch’s Iconoclastic New CEO

Annie visits the Amazon-owned live streaming platform that has struggled to serve creators’ interests while also growing revenue. Can new leader Dan Clancy—a former NASA and Google engineer who lives in rural Washington and plays folk songs on his livestreams—be the man who finally makes Twitch profitable?

the 1:1

Jennifer Pahlka Hasn’t Given Up on Fixing Government

The Code for America founder still believes tech can be the answer to Washington dysfunction. Nancy Scola sits down with Pahlka, a deputy chief technology officer during the Obama administration, in advance of her new book’s release.

market research

The Electric Vehicle Newbie’s Guide to Summer Road Tripping

The new, battery-powered rides may have longer ranges than their electric predecessors. But that doesn’t mean it’s simple to drive them long distances. Tim Stevens shares what every EV road warrior needs to know before heading for the hills this summer.

Following: A viral bagel stunt gone wrong 
It all started when TikTok user @Casketpaint posted a video of a delicious bagel, but refused to tell his followers where he got it from. Fellow TikToker Trevor Rainbolt took this as a challenge. Rainbolt was uniquely qualified to track down the source of the bagel sandwich: he’s gained over 2.4 million followers for mastering the game Geoguessr, where players have to identify the location of a random Google Maps street view. They’re faceoff escalated into a facetious feud, with both TikTokers teasing each other about CasketPaint’s bagel “gatekeeping” and earning millions of views in the process. But, as GQ's Katie Napoulous reports, the good vibes didn’t last. After Rainbolt found the sandwich shop—and convinced the store to name the sandwich “the Rainbolt”—the creators’ followers decided to punish Casketpaint for withholding the store’s name, spamming him with threats and racist remarks. It’s an example of how even the most innocuous social media stunts can turn toxic; now the two TikTokers aren’t speaking, and even the bagel shop, which was enjoying a boost in sales, decided to stop posting about “the Rainbolt” on Instagram. They didn’t want to be a part of a harassment campaign. And to think it all started so hole-somely. —Margaux

Reading: Girls against the world 
Never underestimate the power of a teenage girl. That is the overwhelming message of journalist Mattie Kahn’s new book, “Young and Restless: The Girls Who Sparked America’s Revolutions,” released on Tuesday. (Full disclosure: Kahn’s a friend.) The book challenges the history classes you took in high school, telling the stories of girls who sparked progressive social movements, often beating (more famous) adults to the punch. Kahn spotlights particularly fervent teens, starting from the girls who led the 1836 protests at the Lowell, Mass., mills and wrapping up with Gen Z’s ongoing climate and social justice activism. Kahn doesn’t treat her young changemakers as flawless icons. Instead, she fleshes out the very real young women in the trenches, detailing their errors and insecurities, while explaining how their work made all the difference. “The social media—Twitter, Instagram, TikTok—that amplifies Gen Z’s efforts is new,” she writes. “The fact that girls dream of a better world and move to realize it is not.” —Annie

Watching: Cyclists’ pain, viewers’ gain
My father-in-law, a talented road cyclist, has for years tried to get me to watch the Tour de France, pro cycling’s three-week-long Super Bowl on wheels. And I’ve tried–but the sport is hard to follow without a lot of education, and frankly, it’s a bit tedious to watch in real-time. The exact opposite is true of Netflix’s new eight-part series, “Tour de France: Unchained,” which does for cycling what cousin-productions “Drive to Survive,” “Break Point” and “Full Swing” have done for Formula 1 racing, tennis and golf, respectively. But here’s what “Unchained” has that those other sports docs don’t: The sublime countrysides of France; feats of stamina and suffering that make auto racers look lazy and tennis players look soft; and the sight of 22-year-old phenom Tom Pidcock hurtling like a kamikaze pilot down alpine switchbacks at over 60 mph. The show isn’t the dumbed down primer for American audiences you might expect. It’s a gorgeous, gripping piece of high-stakes performance art—French cinema, but with crashes. —Jon

Makes You Think

Nah, take if from Dan Clancy: Never give up.

Until next Weekend, thanks for reading.

—Jon

Weekend Editor, The Information