Welcome, Weekenders! In this newsletter:

• The Big Read: A lawyer who thinks social media and asbestos have a lot in common 

• The Top 5: New water toys that tech moguls love

• Power and Influence: Kamala Harris’ Silicon Valley hive is fired up

• Revisiting: The Parker Conrad–David Sacks feud 

• Plus: What eels say about planet Earth; a voyeur’s (nearly real-time) bacchanal; and a chance to stop and snap the roses. 

A week ago, a second Donald Trump presidency seemed likely. Within tech, those expectations had already led to some predictable outcomes. Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz made a vocal Trump endorsement, while Elon Musk endorsed him and reportedly pledged to donate money.

Some stranger outcomes, too! Like Mark Zuckerberg taking the opportunity to praise Trump by calling the former president’s fist-pump moment “one of the most badass things I’ve ever seen in my life.”

Zuck continued. “On some level as an American, it’s, like, hard to not get kind of emotional about that spirit and that fight,” he said, “and I think that that’s why a lot of people like the guy.” Whether Zuckerberg intended it or not, his comments sounded quite a bit like he too was endorsing Trump. (Formally, Zuckerberg declined to endorse Trump—or Joe Biden—in his fateful conversation with Bloomberg.) This was, as I said, pretty strange to hear from Zuckerberg, an executive whom Trump has threatened to prosecute. 

A week later, and the race has spun on its head. Biden is out, Vice President Kamala Harris is in, and Silicon Valley Democrats could not be more ecstatic, as we describe in this Weekend story. A Trump presidency no longer seems a certainty, especially as Harris has amassed so much money so quickly, including a $7 million donation from Reed Hastings, a gift meant to beckon more megadonors to return to the election (news our Julia Black broke).

If Harris can take their money and win, I wonder who among the Trump supporters in Silicon Valley might regret coming out. Musk? I initially would’ve guessed that he wouldn’t care; his Trump support shocked no one. But maybe he does. He has already taken efforts in recent days to deny reports that he promised to donate $45 million monthly.

People like Andreessen and Horowitz? Hmmm. Just as Trump fever seemed to hit its peak recently, I did speak to several venture capitalists who speculated about an investing schism: They could squint and foresee a Trump Part 2 world in which Trumpish founders increasingly went to Trumpish venture capitalists and vice versa. 

Would left-leaning founders distance themselves from pro-Trump investors? Politics sure didn’t seem to hamper deal flow during the first Trump presidency. Then again, Silicon Valley Trumpists weren’t quite so public about their feelings in those days. 

Actually, I think the people with the most Trump remorse will likely be leaders such as Zuckerberg—centrists and moderate Democrats who tried to navigate a shift in the political seas to their benefit. They could face some uncomfortable conversations with the leftists in their lives. And let’s face it, in the weeks after Biden’s debate debacle, many of us had at least a few conversations with people like Zuckerberg, a reminder of Silicon Valley’s tendency toward herd mentality. 

Zuckerberg, an avowed classicist, may have thought he was following the logic behind a classic Latin proverb: “Fortune favors the bold.” Generally, I prefer another: “Buyer beware.” Especially when everyone else is rushing to buy. 

Abram Brown, editor of The Information’s Weekend section, is bratwurst, not brat. You can reach him at [email protected] or find him on X.

The Big Read

An Asbestos Lawyer’s New Crusade: Suing Social Media Companies for Teen Harm

A tragedy occurred several years ago, and it involved Snapchat. In May 2017, three boys died in a car crash: Their vehicle was going over 100 mph, in their attempt to earn perceived high marks from Snapchat’s Speed Filter, which recorded their velocity as they filmed. After their death, the parents of two of the youths prevailed in a fateful lawsuit against Snap, the app’s parent company, that seemingly set a new legal standard for social media companies: While they still couldn’t be held responsible for user-generated content on their platforms, they could face litigation connected to features they developed internally.

The case sits at the heart of a growing wave of litigation launched by Matthew Bergman, a Seattle-based attorney. He is the grand poobah of a cottage industry that seeks to sue social media companies into oblivion for creating allegedly harmful features like Snap’s Speed Filter. Of course, one person’s legal crusader is another’s ambulance chaser, as our Paris Martineau describes in this week’s Big Read: Before he specialized in tech lawsuits, Bergman focused on asbestos cases.

As I’m talking about Paris’ piece, I’d be remiss not to draw your attention to another excellent feature that highlights many of the same issues: Earlier this week, our Erin Woo had an in-depth examination of fentanyl dealing on Snap and the company’s whack-a-mole attempts to stop it. Both her story and Paris’ are important, if grim, reminders of the intractable challenges around social media.

The Top 5

The New Water Toys That Tech Moguls Love

“Right around the Golden Gate Bridge, we get on the wake of the cargo ship and ride it to Alcatraz,” Ariel Poler, co-founder of Reveri Health, explained to our Annie Goldsmith. “It’s pretty fun.”

Poler was explaining the joy behind wing foiling, a sport in which brave-hearted water lovers like him climb onto a small, surfboard-shaped piece of carbon fiber and, grasping a sail, venture into the surf. After Annie volunteered herself to ask about the latest yacht toys and dockside gadgets—what a tough job, huh?—she came up with this list that includes wing foils, Seabobs and even ocean-friendly golf balls.

Power and Influence

Inside Kamala Harris’ Reenergized Web of Silicon Valley Connections 

“There’s certainly excitement,” Box co-founder Aaron Levie told me when I called him to talk about Kamala Harris. Talk about an understatement, Aaron! 

I’d say the mood among Democrats in Silicon Valley verges on orgiastic: After several weeks of severe depression over Joe Biden’s botched debate performance and the looming Donald Trump victory, the wealthy and powerful in tech and media see Kamala Harris, a native Californian, as a godsend. (I’m not overstating: Jeffrey Katzenberg, the DreamWorks billionaire, called her ascension “a blessing.”) They are hurrying to marshal millions of dollars in donations and other support for her, and they see her as a very real, if unexpected, chance to beat Trump, as this story from me and my colleagues Julia Black, Natasha Mascarenhas and Theo Wayt shows. 

The technorati’s hurried and full-hearted embrace of Harris represents a remarkable leap of faith. Harris hasn’t outlined any policy proposals in depth: The tech moguls rushing to bolster her have little idea what a Harris administration could actually mean for them. And it’s not bothering them one iota. Mostly, they care about securing Trump’s defeat. 

“I doubt she will exactly follow President Biden’s policies, but they will be similar,” said billionaire venture capitalist Vinod Khosla. “Especially on climate—and preserving our democratic institutions versus Trump’s election denialism and support for insurrection.”

The Way Back Machine

Parker Conrad Takes the Pain (2023)

Just why do Parker Conrad, the Rippling billionaire and Zenefits co-founder, and David Sacks, the GOP donor, “All-In” podcast host and one-time Zenefits CEO, dislike each other so much?  

Their feud stems from the 2015–16 board drama at Zenefits that led to Conrad’s ousting and Sacks’ replacement of him as chief executive. The two men’s animosity toward each other sparked a fracas on Tech Twitter this week that turned into an unexpected political flashpoint: Democrats tended to side with Conrad, Republicans with Sacks. 

For a Weekend Big Read in 2023, Conrad spoke to me about the Zenefits saga and its lasting scars. “Failure is really, really, really awful,” he said. “People describe it as, ‘Oh, you learn so much from failure.’ I don’t think that’s true. I think the only thing I learned was how much failure sucks and how soul destroying it is.”

Downloading: Shazam for Flowers

Last month, I took on the daunting task of DIYing my wedding flowers with my future stepmother-in-law, the former president of her local Garden Club of America chapter. What flowers did I like, she wanted to know? Uhh, those cool disc-shaped flowers? The tall ones with the cute little spots? The big…spiky ones?

That’s when I turned to PictureThis, an artificial intelligence–powered app that can identify over 400,000 plant species as fast as you can photograph them. Suddenly I could identify Icelandic poppies as the trendy bloom on every influencer’s table. I was chatting with neighbors about the spread of oakleaf hydrangeas across Brooklyn and was able to retroactively identify a trove of screenshots I’d collected on florist Instagram. I’ve cataloged dozens of blooms, along with their name origins, cultivation details and potential toxicity to my two cats. 

The app ($39.99 a year for a premium plan) even lets me know if any notable poems have been written about specific plants, like this one from Emily Brontë: “Love is like the wild rose-briar/Friendship like the holly-tree/The holly is dark when the rose-briar blooms/But which will bloom most constantly?”

As for my wedding, Canterbury bells, dinner plate dahlias and larkspurs turned out to be the day’s floral stars. But the joy of plant identification has far outlasted my bouquet. I’ve become more attuned to my surroundings and appreciative of the nature on my doorstep. Truly, this was the summer I learned to stop and snap the roses.—Julia Black

Reading: A Slimy, Terrifying Warning 

“Eel is a dirty business, always has been,” said the fisherman. “But in the old days it was dirty and safe. Now it’s just dirty.” 

It may surprise you just how dirty—and how old—the matter is. And fascinating. 

With crisp curiosity, Ellen Ruppel Shell, a former Atlantic magazine science writer, explores everything about the humble eel in “Slippery Beast” (Abrams Books), shedding light on an animal we generally try to think about as little as possible. Actually, Ruppel Shell likens our feelings about eels to a Rorschach test. “Mystery? Nuisance? Jackpot? Dinner? Threat? Depending on who you are or who you ask, eels can be all or none of those things,” she writes. “But no matter your feelings about the eel…no living creature is more remarkable.” 

Essentially, eels are dinosaurs, and Ruppel Shell explains how they’ve survived millions of years—only to be recently jeopardized by climate change and overfishing. Surprised? Well, outside America, eel is a common dish: You’ve likely seen it on Japanese menus as unagi (broiled and barbecued eel) or possibly as a Venetian secondi (grilled, served atop polenta).

As the world has recently rushed to secure new protein sources, gray markets of smugglers and shady eel hucksters have sprung up to meet the demand, which explains the fisherman’s words of caution to Ruppel Shell. (In some cases, illicit eel can fetch the same per-ounce value as illegal marijuana.) As Ruppel Shell makes clear, what’s already happening with eels could soon mirror our relationships with many more animals; we’re just much more willing to nearly exterminate the scaly, slimy ones first.

Also consider: Roblox’s child-predator problem; Andreessen Horowitz’s “moral bankruptcy”; and how much gorillas love screen time.—A.B. 

Watching: Villa Villains 

I’ve spent the last six weeks following the goings-on at a palatial villa in Fiji. It’s the setting for the latest season of “Love Island USA.” Peacock’s dating reality show has achieved unprecedented success this year—topping the streaming charts for multiple weeks in a row—in its sixth season on air. Those ratings are a testament to how unusually compelling the current season is. For years, the show, which is an American spinoff of U.K. reality megahit “Love Island,” has struggled to stand on its own. Until now. 

Formatwise, “Love Island USA” falls somewhere between “Big Brother” and “The Bachelor.” A group of young 20-somethings spend their summer stuck in a luxury estate where they must couple up to stay on the show. (Singles get kicked out and unpopular couples can get voted off.) Some form friendships. Others are lovers. Many are just reality TV opportunists, determined to ensure they stay on the island. The goal: Win the viewers’ hearts. Watchers back home vote semi-regularly—timing depends on events on the island rather than following a set schedule—to decide who to send home and which couple ultimately gets the $100,000 prize.

Unlike most reality shows, which have a delay of months (or years!) between shooting and airing, “Love Island USA” airs as close to real time as possible, which gives the show an authenticity that’s rare in the unscripted world. “What happens on a Monday is delivered to the network as complete tape on a Tuesday,” said executive producer Simon Thomas. That quick turnaround is made possible by a crew of 450 and a house equipped with 80 to 90 robotic cameras.

Final Thought

Amen to that.