Do By Friday

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Do By Friday

Alexandra Cox

A weekly challenge show hosted by Merlin Mann and Alex Cox.

1 hour 1 minute

Coke Fight
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15 April 2026, 10:06 pm
1 hour 20 minutes

Lemon Difficult
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8 April 2026, 7:56 pm
1 hour 44 minutes

Coxmas 2026
You should watch this episode on YouTube if you want to understand most of what’s happening.

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2 April 2026, 8:27 pm
1 hour 30 minutes

My Little Pantryman
Share your homescreens here: https://forms.gle/QxVwL2S1Namvsinz9

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26 March 2026, 12:38 am
1 hour 22 minutes

The Pitiless World
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11 March 2026, 10:53 pm
2 hours 4 minutes

Bonus Dog
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5 March 2026, 12:20 am
55 minutes 55 seconds

Not the Horse's Problem
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26 February 2026, 1:40 am
1 hour 4 minutes

Enthusiastic Horse
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19 February 2026, 12:00 am
1 hour 24 minutes

Theymaphrodite
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- Marty Supreme | Official Trailer (A24)
  Josh Safdie's new film about a ping-pong hustler, starring Timothée Chalamet.
- How A24 Created a Viral Marty Supreme Spectacle (Vogue)
  The jacket drops, the Balenciaga collab, and the marketing machine behind the film.
- Orlando (1992, Sally Potter)
  Tilda Swinton as Virginia Woolf's time-traveling, gender-shifting nobleman — this week's mini-challenge.
- Watch Orlando free on Tubi
  Go watch it. It's right here.
- Quentin Crisp
  Plays Queen Elizabeth I in Orlando; Merlin imprinted on that image.
- Tony Zhou, "Edgar Wright: How to Do Visual Comedy" (Every Frame a Painting)
  The video essay that made everyone realize Wright is doing something nobody else does.
- The Wicker Man (1973)
  The original folk horror — the thread connecting Hot Fuzz, Midsommar, and The Witch.
- Off Menu podcast
  Florence Pugh's episode, in which she reveals she does not drink water.
- Off Menu — Lucia Keskin (Chi With a C)
  BAFTA-winning comedian, discussed in the member show. "The quietest guest we've ever had."
- Claire Foy had intestinal worms from filming The Crown (Yahoo News)
  The truly disgusting reason she no longer drinks caffeine.
- Man throws shoes at Bush
  They all throw their shoes.
- Sarrasine — Balzac (Project Gutenberg)
  The Balzac novella about a sculptor who falls in love with a castrato — the text Barthes famously dismantled.
- S/Z — Roland Barthes
  Barthes's semiotic disassembly of Sarrasine — Merlin's "oh fuck you, you should read Sarrasine" recommendation.
- Gender: An Ethnomethodological Approach — Kessler & McKenna (U of Chicago Press)
  The book that changed Merlin's life in a 1988 Gender Studies class: what if there weren't just two genders?
- Gender Trouble — Judith Butler (PDF)
  The definitive text — Alex's rec that Merlin bought a beautiful copy of and still hasn't read. Here's a free one.
- Who's Afraid of Gender? — Judith Butler (Bookshop.org)
  Butler's newest book — the one Alex was actually talking about. Why are we weird about gender again?
- "A Question and Three Answers" — Merlin Mann
  Three perspectives on one question about being trans in America.
- Claude Code (Anthropic)
  Alex is getting into it and making $200; Merlin's teaching his to not watch Tommy read the paper.
- Good Time (A24)
  The Safdie Brothers' sweaty Robert Pattinson thriller — context for understanding what Safdie does.
- Uncut Gems (A24)
  Adam Sandler in a diamond district panic attack — the other essential Safdie before Marty Supreme.
- The Curse (Paramount+)
  Safdie and Nathan Fielder's deeply uncomfortable TV series.
- Ricky Jay
  Magician, card sharp, actor, historian of the unusual — referenced during the shoe-throwing bit.
- Baby Driver — Opening Titles / Coffee Run (feat. "Harlem Shuffle")
  The scene that is its own argument. Edgar Wright syncing every footstep, every door, every beat.
- Jon Spencer Blues Explosion, "Bellbottoms"
  The song that opens Baby Driver and never lets go.
- Ayoade on Top — Richard Ayoade (Bookshop.org)
  Ayoade wrote an entire book about the Gwyneth Paltrow movie View from the Top. It's called Ayoade on Top. Of course it is.
- Olivia Colman is hooked on Ayoade's book premise | Graham Norton
  The specific clip — Ayoade explaining View from the Top to a delighted Olivia Colman. Truly one of the great things.
- Can I Ask You a Question? by Jennifer Venditti (A24 Shop)
  Venditti's casting book — the woman who found the faces for Good Time, Uncut Gems, and Marty Supreme.
- Billy the Kid (2007, Jennifer Venditti) — watch free on Tubi
  The documentary that led to her casting work with the Safdies.
- Defunctland, "Journey to EPCOT Center: A Symphonic History"
  A feature-length orchestral documentary about EPCOT Center that has no business being this good.
- Defunctland, "Disney's Animatronics: A Living History"
  Bonus Defunctland for the curious.
11 February 2026, 11:22 pm
1 hour 30 minutes

Your Session Crashed
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Next week's challenge: watch Orlando (1993)
4 February 2026, 10:21 pm
1 hour 8 seconds

Future Clowns of America
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- The Nutty Professor (1963)
  Jerry Lewis as Professor Kelp / Buddy Love
- Hank Azaria on Professor Frink
  Based him on Jerry Lewis in The Nutty Professor
- Tropic Thunder
  Simple Jack; "you went full [redacted]"
- Be Kind Rewind
  Video essays on women in film history
- Stewart Lee
  British comedian; Paul Nuttall of UKIP
- Stewart Lee's Comedy Vehicle
  BBC Two series (2009-2016)
- Tailscale
  Mesh VPN; part of the Iron Troika
- Amphetamine
  macOS app to prevent sleep
- AutoMounter
  Keeps network shares mounted
- Synology
  NAS; Merlin's home server setup
- TP-Link Archer AX55
  The router
- NextDNS
  DNS with ad blocking; Iron Troika member
- Cloudflare
  Third member of the Iron Troika
- DynDNS
  Dynamic DNS; the old way
- Let's Encrypt
  Free SSL certificates
- Passkeys
  Passwordless authentication
- Hide My Email
  Apple's email aliasing
- Linda Stone
  Coined "email apnea" and "continuous partial attention"
- "Are You Breathing? Do You Have Email Apnea?"
  Linda Stone's original article
- Claude Code as elevator music
  Matt Webb on the contemplative rhythm of working with Claude Code
- J. Edgar Hoover
  FBI director; Clyde Tolson
- Cary Grant & Randolph Scott
  Lived together; "Riding the Trails Alone"
- The Carter Family
  First family of country music
- Cowboy Carter
  Beyoncé's country album
- Country Music (Ken Burns)
  2019 documentary series
- Trypophobia
  Lotus seed pods; a clown situation
- Pansy Division
  Queercore band; pun on Panzer Division
- Reformation Iconoclasm
  Defacing religious art
28 January 2026, 11:14 pm
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