Covering news, pop culture, and media should be a straight-forward thing one should think, but today it’s hard to get a sense of what is true and false. On this week’s edition of Everipedia Culture Roundup, we recognize people that report the facts. Hassan Bargathi was the founder of the popular culture staple Only Hip-Hop Facts. Christie Smythe is writing a book that is an expansion on the biggest story she ever reported, the arrest of Martin Shkreli. Armin van Bitcoin isn’t a journalist by any means, but he truthfully shares his opinion on cryptocurrency and trading to his tens of thousands of followers on Twitter. Marko Jukic is using the scientific method to improve language-learning techniques in order to increase the success rate of fluency. And Muzmatch is the honest dating app specifically for Muslims. Enjoy! A picture of Hassan Bargathi Hassan Bargathi If you have ever been on your Twitter timeline and seen an interesting tidbit about your favorite rapper, it most likely came from Only Hip Hop Facts. The account ran by Hassan Bargathi, educated fans for years and had a far-reaching impact on the hip-hop community. Unfortunately, Bargathi passed away this week, leaving many to mourn his loss. Bargathi was a sign of the extent of how far hip-hop has reached on a global scale, being born in Libya, raised in Jordan, and later going to school in Dubai. Bargathi will be missed and surely has and will inspire others with his passion for the culture. Christie Smythe on Linkedin Christie Smythe Christie Smythe has been covering business and legal proceedings for a number of years, but her biggest story by far came in 2015. It was at that time that Smythe broke the story of “Pharma Bro” Martin Shkreli’s arrest which became Bloomberg’s most read story of that year (she was writing for the outlet at the time). Today, Smythe is an associate editor for The Insurance Insider and is writing a book about Martin Shkreli. She has sure come a long way from her days reporting for local papers such as the St. Louis Business Journal and the Cape Cod Times. I hope she finds an “Underwriting Bro” equivalent to expose in the insurance industry! Armin van Bitcoin on Twitter Armin van Bitcoin In the world of Crypto Twitter, there are a number of characters that populate users timelines. Some of them are academics, others are traders, but the most intriguing have always been anonymous. Enter Armin van Bitcoin, a Bitcoin enthusiast (obviously) that takes his name from the world-famous Dutch DJ Armin Van Buuren. With nearly 40k followers to date, the topics of his tweets mostly deal with the trading and speculation of Bitcoin as well as commentary of the crypto space overall. Outside of Bitcoin, he is a married man and a proud father. If there is one thing for sure, it is that Armin’s offspring will understand crypto in such a different manner than us who lived before in a fiat-only world. Marko Jukic on Twitter Marko Jukic It’s not every day that you get to talk to someone that dedicates there life to the study of language and how to improve the teaching of it, but that’s exactly what I did when I interviewed Theoretical Linguist Marko Jukic for IQ TALK. Having a global perspective since a young age, Jukic has immersed himself in cultures and languages from around the world both in his youth and currently in adulthood. The main problem he is trying to solve is why the success in becoming fluent in a second language is so low (outside complete immersion) and what methods are there to solve this. Marko himself has significant proficiency in 6–7 languages and honestly, I would be surprised if he doesn’t learn more. And if you are reading this Marko, let me know when you develop your novel language-learning techniques, I would love to use them! Muzmatch Logo Muzmatch There are over 400 million single Muslims in the world and only one app that almost all of their parents would approve of, Muzmatch. Started in 2014, Muzmatch is a highly-targeted dating app that connects and matches members of the Islamic faith with their cultural norms in mind. As founder Shahzad Younas said, “Muslims don’t date, they marry.” Muzmatch has gained significant traction not only with users but with investors as well, having been part of Summer 2017 Y Combinator class. With Islam being the fastest growing religion in the world, Muzmatch will be there to help connect all of those in the faith.
