A list of good reads

• BBC Future looks at how AI is bringing film stars back from the dead—and is not very happy about it. 
• Why are TikTokers pretending to be robots and saying 'ice cream so good'? You may not give an eff about TikTok but this Washington Post (splainer gift link) trend piece gives a whole new twist to the stripper bar format. 
• The Atlantic looks at the ‘new Mark Zuckerberg’—the upgraded version that enjoys trolling Elon Musk and poses “sweaty and shirtless.”
• New Lines Magazine has the story of pepper—the world’s most important and underappreciated spice.
• Quartz looks at the AI-themed message in ‘Oppenheimer’. Related good watch: why Oppenheimer deserves his own movie—a good refresher on the fact after you’ve watched the fiction.
• The Print explains why ‘Barbenheimer’ is a genius marketing lesson.
• New York Times via The Telegraph looks at how Nelson Mandela went from hero to scapegoat in South Africa.
• Al Jazeera profiles Heba Saadieh, the first Palestinian World Cup referee—who is debuting in the Women’s World Cup that kicked off on Thursday.
• Popular Mechanics offers a satisfyingly nerdy answer to the question that plagues many humans: why does hair turn grey?
• If you love ‘The Bear’, here’s a New Yorker tribute to a show it describes as a “gritty fairytale of cooking and grief.”