Good morning.  Last Friday, Las Culturistas hosts Bowen Yang and Matt Rogers announced the nominees for their very official and not-at-all unserious Las Culturistas Culture Awards.

Among the nominees was Amelia Dimoldenberg, stunning for the “Pop Crave Award for Excellence in Journalism.” Sorry, Publish crew…we’ll get ’em next year.

— Hannah Doyle & Syd Cohen

Ryan Trahan and Haley Pham are 35 days into their daily vlog series visiting 50 states in 50 days, staying in a different Airbnb each night.

So far, they’ve received 2–4 million views a day and raised $4.9 million for St. Jude Children's Research Hospital (nearly 5x their original goal). 

Trahan gave Colin and Samir a call from the road to share why he’s doing the series, how it’s coming together, and where he wants to go next. 

Here are some highlights →

Wondering how they’re pulling this off? Trahan is working with a team of five and shoots mostly on an iPhone. 

“It’s so interesting to commit to something if you don’t know if you can pull it off. That type of ambition and dream scares me and that’s almost why I want to do it.” Trahan said. “I know that part of the reason it will work is because so few people are willing to try it.”

Wondering why audiences are so into this? It’s all about repeatable segments, which Trahan plans the night before.

Wondering why they didn’t recruit sponsors? Despite using products and services from brands like Kia and Airbnb, Trahan and Pham didn’t pursue sponsorships to ensure the series felt authentic to its ultimate goal: fundraising. Now, several brands (including some Fortune 500 companies) have donated upwards of $700K.

“I feel like if we had a sponsor or a partner paying my team and I it wouldn’t come across as genuine. And I think people are way more excited about brands donating than ‘this series is sponsored by this person—try their product,’” Trahan said. “My viewers are a lot less likely to try their product than if Airbnb donates $250K and has a chef come to our house as part of their new offering.”

Check out the full conversation here.

Ever wondered how slang terms like “skibidi” or “gyatt” came to be? Or why TikTok users self-censor by saying words like “unalive?”

If so, you’re in good company. Linguist and Harvard grad Adam Aleksic, better known as Etymology Nerd, has built an audience of almost 3 million by breaking down how social media shapes language (and vice versa). 

And now he’s bringing his theory to the bookshelf. Aleksic’s book, Algospeak: How Social Media Is Transforming the Future of Language, aims to further expand on the research presented in his short-form content. It’s coming out tomorrow.

“I strongly believe that the medium is the message. The algorithms are fundamentally rewiring the way we communicate,” Aleksic told us. “Social media is the single biggest determinant of our culture right now.”

Zoom out: Beyond relying on social media for research purposes, Aleksic and many other academic creators like him have used their platforms to secure book deals and other promotional opportunities that might be harder to come by in the traditional academia world. At the end of the day, Aleksic wants to drive his audience to engage with him beyond the comment section.

“I want to funnel people toward my Substack and toward my book because I feel like I can express my thoughts in more nuance,” Aleksic said. “This again comes back to the limitations of the algorithm medium and how we have to communicate differently there. There’s a reason I wrote this book.”

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Over the weekend, Skillhouse, a horror film starring creators including Bryce Hall and Hannah Stocking, opened in theaters nationwide.

Cue the ring light: The movie was shot nearly three years ago at the popular 2020 content house Sway House. It follows 10 fictional creators who have to compete in social challenges and gain likes in order to survive.

Josh Stolberg, who wrote Saw X and romcom Good Luck Chuck, directed the film, and it features other celebrities like rapper 50 Cent and actor Neal McDonough.

Big picture: Horror is becoming a well-proven genre for creators. Racka Racka’s movies have been box office successes, and Kane Parsons’s highly-anticipated A24 film is set to start production this summer.