John and Craig gather our listeners' favorite news articles and ask, How Would This Be a Movie? Stories include an underground network delivering menstrual supplies in Minneapolis, a millennial travel group, how the US hacked ISIS, and a fake college squash team.

But first we follow up on modern comps, email issues, teaching screenwriting, and what it means to be undeniable. We also answer listener questions on querying reps with a published book and whether writers really need to repeat the plot for a second-screen audience.

In our bonus segment for premium members, what do we do with all our old CDs and DVDs? We weigh the pros and cons of physical media.

Links:

How an errand for a 12-year-old immigrant in Minneapolis became an underground operation by Jasmine Garsd and Sarah Ventre for NPR
I Went on a Package Trip for Millennials Who Travel Alone. Help Me. by Caity Weaver for The New York Times
How the US hacked ISIS by Dina Temple-Raston for NPR
Whitman College: The Best College Squash Team in History by James Zug for Squash Magazine
Shipping Out by David Foster Wallace
Email deliverability tester
Disempowerment patterns in real-world AI usage by Cornell University and Anthropic
The world's greatest song that simply shouldn't exist
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Scriptnotes is produced by Drew Marquardt and edited by Matthew Chilelli.

Email us at ask@johnaugust.com

You can download the episode here.

725 - Torn from the pages of Squash Magazine