Hey, everyone, you are entering Slate Plus territory. That means we kind of let our bellies out.

So there's some cursing. You've been warned. Hey, Slatesters, it's Mary. You hear that music and you know what time it is. It's Friday. And not just any Friday, it's the 4th of July. So happy 4th of July, I guess. I don't know. I don't know how y'all are feeling about that, but

it's time for a little sleep plus conversation.

We do this. So happy Fourth of July, I guess. I don't know. I don't know how y'all are feeling about that.

But it's time for a little Slate Plus conversation.

We do this like once every other week.

We drag a Slate Star into the studio with me.

And we just hash it out.

And I am so thrilled that this week, Sachi Cole is in the studio.

Hello, Sachi.

When I say studio, I mean, I'm in my closet and you're at home, but yeah, hi. Hi, it's the magic of the internet. How are you? The magic of the internet. It's funny you say that because we're talking about like the magic of the internet and whether like, I don't know, the bloom is off the rose here. Oh, girl, it's over. It's been off. It's so over. It's been over. Yeah. Okay, so usually we give this combo like 15 minutes, so we're going to put that up on the clock. I'm going to try to keep myself to it because it's about to be a holiday. But it'll start here. You wrote this great article a couple weeks back called It's Time to Log Off, and I thought of you this week, because it's July 4th, it's definitely time to log off, but also because I think I'd just share your perspective about how the Internet was once this thing that was delightful and filled with possibility, and now it feels like it's not or the

possibility it's there is bad. Yeah, I mean, it is still, everything is full of possibility,

but I think we just have a better grasp on how evil those possibilities can actually be.

I think, you know, I'm a mid-range millennial, so I remember not having

the internet and then I really remember having it. Yeah, so I remember the internet. So I'm older

than you because I'm old, but like I remember I got internetie in my adolescence because my dad

was really into computers, but like my internet was prodigy.

Yeah.

This like chat situation. And then when I was in high school, I was on a BBS, a bulletin board,

which was like all text, but I did have a handle. I was Harlot number three, by the way.

Wow. It was a time ago. And then my high school college boyfriend was

the caffeine cowboy. He ran the BBS. That's beautiful. That's amazing lore. Thank you. Thank you.

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