Hi, friends! Welcome to Installer No. 78, your guide to the best and Verge-iest stuff in the world. (If you’re new here, welcome, sorry everything’s about to get so expensive, and also you can read all the old editions at the Installer homepage.)

This week, I’ve been reading about baseball bats and work-life balance and BYD and Scarlett Johansson, watching Paradise, rekindling my love of pear-flavored jelly beans, sharing Robin Sloan’s AI take with anyone who will listen, grooving to…