In a world gone mad, paper planners offer order and delight

PLUS: The true story of an "antifa invasion," and why Amazon hasn't conquered games. View this email in your browser  |  Manage newsletter subscriptions  10.11.20 The pages look so beautiful. Maybe they are spare and clean, nothing but checkboxes of tasks to accomplish. Maybe they are a riot of decoration and floral stickers and coordinated colors. Join the planner communities on Instagram and YouTube and you are sure to find someone whose style reflects your own, who will inspire you to live a better, happier, more structured life. When Quinci LeGardye first dove into the world of planners for WIRED, she was in awe of some of the women whose videos she was watching. "I wondered if I'd just stumbled on the most productive person in the world," she writes this week for Backchannel. LeGardye, who covers culture and news affecting California's Black communities, went deeper, exploring how the community intersects with race, the pandemic, and even the history of record-keeping. What she found surprised her. "I had a preconceived idea of the average planner babe when I started: a married mom with a side hustle who was distanced from the real world and, like, read Rachel Hollis books. Basically the Christian Girl Autumn meme," she says. "A lot of my initial skepticism and fear of toxic positivity informed that idea. But I eventually realized that the planner community can't be distilled into a meme. Everyone has different lives, histories, and interests, and they all come together around planners." Does she use paper planners herself? Yes! And after reading her thoughtful, wry piece, you might stock up on delicious pens and structured binders, too. Sarah Fallon | Deputy Editor, WIRED   BACKCHANNEL In a World Gone Mad, Paper Planners Offer Order and Delight BY QUINCI LEGARDYE On Instagram and Facebook, members of a wonderfully obsessive community organize every aspect of their lives—through pandemics and protests—with binders and stickers.   SOCIAL MEDIA The True Story of the Antifa Invasion of Forks, Washington BY LAUREN SMILEY A false report on Twitter exploded into a call to arms. Then a bus, carrying a family and two dogs, rolled into a remote Northwestern town.   BACKCHANNEL Amazon Wants to 'Win at Games.' So Why Hasn't It? BY CECILIA D'ANASTASIO The company that brute-forced its way into so many industries may now have met its match.   IDEAS Your Food Isn't 'Natural' and It Never Will Be BY BENJAMIN R. COHEN In all eras, we've tried—and mostly failed—to police the boundary between acceptable and unacceptable.   UNCOMFY SEATS How Cities (and Citizens) Create Hostile Environments BY KURT KOHLSTEDT AND ROMAN MARS From uncomfortable benches to sidewalk boulders, objects that say "go away" can be hard to detect—until you start noticing them.   OPINION The Right Way to Cover Hacks and Leaks Before the Election BY GARRETT M. GRAFF The media knows it screwed up in 2016 with John Podesta. Here's how it should do better in the final weeks of the 2020 race.         This e-mail was sent to you by WIRED. To ensure delivery to your inbox (not bulk or junk folders), please add our e-mail address, wired@newsletters.wired.com, to your address book.   View our Privacy Policy Unsubscribe or manage your newsletter subscriptions