Happy Tuesday, FutureParty people. Here’s a brain twister: is it possible to be more productive by being less productive? That’s the thesis Georgetown University computer science professor Cal Newport puts forth in his new book, Slow Productivity. By slowing down to focus on the work that’s actually important, all the busy work that was truly slowing us down just falls by the wayside. First things first: get rid of finding time for that to-do list of all the things we really don’t need to do.

In other news… Walmart wants to ship you real stuff through Roblox, The Onion gets a modern lifeline, and Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney viva Mexico.

We hope you enjoy this and all upcoming issues, but we have one request: please share your feedback. If you have any thoughts at all about our new look, format, and direction, please reply to this email. It’ll go straight to us. Do not hold back.

Was this email forwarded to you? Subscribe

• YouTube – Mufasa: The Lion King

• X (Twitter) – The Met Gala

• Google – Jerry Seinfeld

• Reddit – Ethan Hawke

• TikTok – “Hide Away” - Daya

• Spotify – “Neverender” - Justice, Tame Impala

.ECOMMERCE.

Walmart puts its IRL product shelves in the metaverse

The Future. Walmart is testing out stores within Roblox where users can browse for and buy real items that the retailer will ship to them like any other online order. If the feature takes off, it’s likely that not only every industry (music, fashion, tech) will cash in but also that you may start to see some product startups build their flagship stores in Roblox to reach a global market.

Run into Roblox
Soon, you may be able to do your grocery shopping in Roblox.

• Inside Walmart’s Discovered experience (Walmart’s in-game shop for virtual items), the retailer will allow kids aged 13 and up in the US to buy IRL products that will be shipped to them. They’ll also be given a digital twin of the product.

• Customers will be able to browse virtual stores as their avatars, and when they find something they want to purchase, an in-game laptop will pull up the Walmart ecommerce site.

• To kick off the partnership, the shop will feature products made by popular creators, such as MD17_RBLX, Junozy, and Sarabxlla.

Walmart’s in-game IRL shop is technically just a test for now that will run through the month of May (Roblox won’t be taking a cut of sales). But if all goes well, the feature could expand to become a huge revenue generator for Roblox and may give Walmart the opportunity to become the default provider for the company.

It looks like online shopping may get a whole lot more interactive.

65.4% of you voted Listen in yesterday’s poll: Would you rather listen to your favorite podcast or watch it?

“Who wants to watch a talking head?”

“To me, most of the point of a podcast is the ability to do something else while listening.”

“We are mostly visual creatures. I like seeing people when they talk.”

.A WORD FROM OUR FRIENDS AT FOCL.

Need more sleep?

How about 1 hour and 48 minutes of more sleep every night?

That’s how many extra zzz’s you can get from Focl Deep Sleep Gummies.

In third-party clinical studies, three out of four users fell asleep faster and called Deep Sleep the best sleep aid they’ve ever used.

AKA: You’ll get your best-night’s sleep every night.

Plus, Focl Deep Sleep Gummies are Non-GMO, vegan-friendly, and gluten-free. Jackpot.

(Seriously, if you don’t love ‘em, Focl has a 60-day satisfaction guarantee.) 

Use the code ‘Futureparty’ to score 30% off when you buy two or more.

Media, Music, & Entertainment

• Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney are expanding their soccer empire with an investment in Mexico’s 100-year-old Club Necaxa, joining celebrity backer Eva Longoria. [Read More]

• Prime Video is reportedly close to securing a deal with the NBA to become one of the main exhibitors for the league’s games after the 2024-2025 season. [Read More]

• Fallout, the sci-fi show based on the popular Bethesda game, scored 65 million viewers in just 16 days — the second-biggest debut for Prime Video after The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power. [Read More]

Fashion & E-Commerce

• FKA twigs is joining Swiss running brand On as a Creative Partner to help the company expand into apparel. [Read More]

• The MLB demanded that Nike fix its new official uniforms for next year after complaints from players and derision from fans. [Read More]

• Corvas Brinkerhoff, the co-founder of immersive-arts experiences company Meow Wolf, is opening Submersive — a spa in Austin that mixes wellness with video projections, AI, and plenty of lasers. [Read More]

Tech, Web3, & AI

• Tesla shares shot up after Elon Musk secured approval for Beijing to partner with Chinese tech conglomerate Baidu to bring Tesla’s Full Self-Driving tech to Chinese consumers. [Read More]

• Congress is setting its sights on Wall Street’s mass home-buying spree during COVID, which allegedly drove up home prices and made rents soar. [Read More]

• Agog, a new media institute launched by climate journalist Chip Giller and investor Wendy Schmidt, aims to connect nonprofits with producers of extended-reality content. [Read More]

Creator Economy

• Threads launched a bonus program for creators in a push to get more Instagram influencers using the platform. [Read More]

• Twitter co-founder Biz Stone is joining the board of Twitter-rival Mastadon’s new US nonprofit arm. [Read More]

• Fashion and beauty brands are going all-in on TikTok marketing even though the app may not be available to American consumers in a year. [Read More]

.MEDIA.

Twilio founder Jeff Lawson wants to grow The Onion

The Future. Now under the ownership of tech entrepreneur Jeff Lawson and former NBC reporter Ben Collins, satirical news publisher The Onion is charting a course for a larger cultural footprint. By moving away from the clickbait content forced under its previous owners in favor of curating it across media formats, The Onion may have the goods to breed a new generation of comedy talent like SNL or The Harvard Lampoon.

Funny business
The Onion is both going back to its roots and planting seeds for future success.

• It’s transitioning away from typical display ads in favor of higher-profile brand sponsorships (but expect those brands to also get roasted).

• It’s planning on potentially bringing back its print magazine, which it had stopped in 2013 (print is starting to make a comeback with publishers).

• It’ll focus on building a social media presence, including content natively made for TikTok (expect its stories about the potential TikTok ban to be hilarious).

• It’ll make new editorial products to put behind a paywall, similar to the strategy that’s working at Puck.

Lawson and Collins wanted to demonstrate that it meant serious business with its Onion acquisition right from the get-go, naming the holding company it made the deal under Global Tetrahedron... “a reference to an evil corporation that appears in The Onion’s 1999 book Our Dumb Century,” according to The Information.

.A WORD FROM OUR FRIENDS AT NICE NEWS.

The good news-bearers

Everything seems to be bad news these days.

Everything, except Nice News, that is.

Nice News does things a little differently. They search over 100 sources to find good news to deliver to your inbox every morning. Pretty delightful, huh?

Join over 750,000 readers who wake up to good news.

• Listen: Mercedes-Benz CEO Ola Källenius speaks with Decoder about how the EV revolution is still happening… but it may be a few more years down the line than expected.

• Read: Bloomberg interviews Roman Chiporukha, co-founder of SpaceVIP and one of the first space travel agents.

• Play: Vulture’s “Wordle-for-cinephiles” game, Cinematrix, is becoming a viral sensation.

“We’re gonna need a bigger business card.”

.A WORD FROM OUR FRIENDS AT HIGGSFIELD AI.

Turn one selfie into an unlimited number of AI videos

How? With Diffuse, the new video creation app that lets you create personalized, AI-generated videos from, you guessed it, just one selfie.


With Diffuse, you can do all sorts of things, like:

• Make fun dances, reactions, memes, and more.

• Create personalized characters and drop them into scenes.

• Develop original videos with text prompts.

Both creators and everyday social media users love Diffuse. So, we think you’ll love it, too.

LATEST PODCAST EPISODE

Today we get into the potential super-merger between Paramount and Sony, how Gen Z might just be the "tool belt generation", and new legislation in Colorado that's preventing tech companies from selling your brain data.