The Monday List 15.17 | What We’re Reading This Week

Mondays might not be your favorite day of the week, but the good news is that we’re all in this together ladies and gentlemen. As purveyors of prime Grade A web content, the SolidSmack crew has done some of the heavy-lifting to make sure you get your Mondays started on the right track.

Welcome to The Monday List.

Each Monday, we’ll link you up with some of the most insightful, informative, and socially-relevant stories to keep tabbed, bookmarked, reading listed, pocketed, or what have you. Be sure to check in each Monday morning for a new crop of freshly sprouted words curated straight from the source of your favorite homegrown ‘Smack.

What We’re Reading This Week:

Sleep Is the New Status Symbol
At M.I.T.’s Media Lab, the digital futurist playground, David Rose is investigating swaddling, bedtime stories and hammocks, as well as lavender oil and cocoons.

A Town Forgotten
Cairo has no hotels. The only fast food franchise is a Subway — closed the days I was there. The last grocery store left in 2015. For shopping it has a Dollar General and two corner stores.

How to start a panic over coffee cups
Can the “the most famous hot cup in the world” compete with imitators?

Special Experience
Whether at the bottom of the ocean, in the Arctic Circle, or on Mars, a sense of wonder can help an explorer of terra incognita stay sane.

The Gig Economy’s False Promise
In reality, there is no utopia at companies like Uber, Lyft, Instacart and Handy, whose workers are often manipulated into working long hours for low wages while continually chasing the next ride or task.

Instagram Killed the Retail Store
The members of Gen Z are rewriting the rules of selling fashion.