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"Hobert's dreams include starting a lifestyle brand, but he wants to build his credibility first. A few years ago, his instinct may have been to start a blog. But Hobert says he loves to talk and was never the best writer, so a different medium has more appeal: a personal podcast. With his Purpose in the Youth podcast, he hopes to tell the stories of people who have found what they are passionate about. He was preparing to launch the first episode this week. The timing couldn't be better for new grads like Hobert to get in on the podcast craze. Twenty-one percent of Americans age 12 or older say they have listened to a podcast in the past month. That's a 17 percent increase in the last year and a 75 percent increase since 2013."

"Elon Musk sipped whiskey and smoked marijuana during a 2 1/2-hour podcast with California comedian Joe Rogan that touched upon everything from flame throwers and artificial intelligence to the end of the universe. "I'm not a regular smoker of weed," the Tesla Inc. chief executive officer said late Thursday on the podcast, which was shown live on the internet. Musk, 47, took one drag from what Rogan described as a joint containing tobacco mixed with marijuana, which is legal in California."

"Snowballing shareholder lawsuits. Email fights with reporters, a possible libel suit in the offing, a brow-furrowing interview with The New York Times. Yes, you could say Tesla's Elon Musk has had quite the summer. And despite Thursday night's multi-hour, congenial, blunt-smoking, and far-ranging conversation on Joe Rogan's podcast-covering AI, the Boring Company's tunnels, the nature of evil, Instagram, and Musk's new idea for an electric, vertical takeoff and landing supersonic airplane-there's no reason to think those worried about Musk's state of mind have been eased. The CEO has won legions of fans for his refusal to do public company-ing like everyone else. Tesla has long refused to spend money on marketing, and it has no reason to: Musk's gleeful, whimsical, sometimes downright bizarre public persona makes plenty of news, at no charge. But after a wild few months, observers have been pushed to ask: At what point does that personality become too much? At what point does Tesla the company decide it's better off without the man who has led it for the past decade?"

"Fact is, there really is no such thing as "the media." It's an invention, a tool, an all-purpose smear by people who can't be bothered to make distinctions. Consider: There are hundreds of broadcast and cable TV networks, a thousand or so local TV stations, a few thousand magazines and newspapers, several thousand radio stations and roughly a gazillion websites, blogs, newsletters and podcasts. There's also Twitter, Facebook, Snapchat, Instagram and who knows what new digital thing. All of these, collectively, now constitute the media."

"I've been a heavy phone user for my entire adult life. But sometime last year, I crossed the invisible line into problem territory. My symptoms were all the typical ones: I found myself incapable of reading books, watching full-length movies or having long uninterrupted conversations. Social media made me angry and anxious, and even the digital spaces I once found soothing (group texts, podcasts, YouTube k-holes) weren't helping. I tried various tricks to curb my usage, like deleting Twitter every weekend, turning my screen grayscale and installing app-blockers. But I always relapsed. Eventually, in late December, I decided that enough was enough. I called Catherine Price, a science journalist and the author of "How to Break Up With Your Phone," a 30-day guide to eliminating bad phone habits. And I begged her for help."