GOOD EVENING!

This is OUT OF SCOPE, your weekly intel to fuel your water cooler conversations, delivered to your inbox every Monday. If someone forwarded you this email, be sure and subscribe here. 

LUNCH BREAK

five consumption recs for the time between meetings

1. WHAT MAKES IT POP? Rosalia on redefining pop music – required listening if Anne Hathaway’s Halloween costume went over your head.

2. FRESH AF PRODUCE. We’ve let the hype get to our grocery stores.

3. SPELL CHECKS. How witches are making bank. 

4. LANGE MAY SHE REIGN. The queen of AHS is back on the call sheet – something not even she saw coming. 

5. RIGGING NETS. Inside the NBA mafia gambling scandal.

was the moon landing faked?

Shapewear mogul and criminal justice reform advocate Kim Kardashian has seen success in a great many disciplines. Rocket science, however, eludes her. That much was abundantly clear in a recent clip of her debunking the Apollo 11 moon landing for a somewhat bewildered Sarah Paulson.

NASA has responded, we’ve had our laughs. But before we move on, let’s take a moment to look inward.

Kim has resources most of us can't fathom – all the wealth, access, and time to make informed decisions. She has a staff whose job includes managing her public image. And she still ended up parroting a conspiracy theory that's been debunked for half a century.

I’m not Kim K., you say. And, it’s true, you’re not. Few of us wield the influence to warrant NASA personally responding to our bad takes. But you've probably believed something false recently. 

We’re all consuming information faster than we can properly verify it – scrolling at breakneck pace down feeds clogged with AI-fabricated content – and occasionally passing along things that turn out not to be true. 

The internet's democracy of information is messy. Turn humans loose in this ecosystem – curious, pattern-seeking humans, who get a dopamine hit from feeling smarter than everyone else – and one person’s conjecture crescendos into mass-consumed misinformation.

So, here's the question worth sitting with: what's your moon landing? Maybe it's a nutritional claim, a political narrative, some investment advice from a YouTuber with the charisma to make speculation sound like expertise.

The question isn't whether you're smarter than Kim Kardashian. We all inevitably encounter claims we lack the expertise and/or bandwidth to properly evaluate. The question is whether you're humble enough to read Kim’s snafu as a cautionary tale.

TREND RAPPORT

viral vocab of the week 

GROKIPEDIA (n.) –  A new encyclopedia powered by the controversial AI model – which got off to a rough start last week. 

MOG (v.) –  To outclass in attractiveness, talent, or achievements. The term has its roots in bodybuilding forums.

FANCAM (n.) –  A fan-created video featuring the object of their fixation, often set to dramatic music and heavily embellished with campy filters and transitions.

SEE YOU NEXT MONDAY!

###