Following the Parton Playbook

Greetings, Meteor readers,

It’s been a long, sad week with the deaths of actor Tim Curry, queen of everything Dolly Parton, and, heartbreakingly, the voice of Eeyore. But, as always, we’re grateful to be working through all of it with you. In today’s newsletter, we’ve got Dolly’s legacy, Meta’s settlement, and injustice on a Navy vessel.

WHAT’S GOING ON

WWDD (what would Dolly do): The death of Dolly Parton this week has left a gaping hole in the hearts of millions, but it’s also ensured that the breadth of her philanthropic work is understood, which is no small thing. Parton’s Imagination Library donated three hundred million books; she helped fund a COVID-19 vaccine; and she once gave $12.5 million over just a few months to families who lost their homes after a fire. The New York Times notes that Parton was so good at giving her own money away that other rich people, including Jeff Bezos, asked her to give away some of theirs. Dolly Parton was, in so many ways, the blueprint.

“Dolly was not kind and generous despite growing up somewhere that was ransacked and impoverished,” writes author Mandy Len Catron, who, like Parton, was raised in an Appalachian community. “She was kind and generous because she grew up in a place where people knew how to care for one another because there wasn’t much to go around.” Community care was at the center of Dolly’s work. So: How well will the next generation of stars follow the Parton Playbook of humanitarian commitment? That’s an open question—but this weekend holds a hopeful preview.

MOTHER PARTON PERFORMING DURING THE LAUNCH OF IMAGINATION LIBRARY. (VIA GETTY IMAGES)

In Irvine, California, singer Olivia Rodrigo is hosting the Daisy Chain Fields Festival, a show that will benefit organizations serving women and girls, among them Black Mamas Matter Alliance, FreeFrom, and the Center for Reproductive Rights. This is not Rodrigo’s first rodeo when it comes to supporting reproductive freedom. In 2024, when she was touring for her album “Guts,” Rodrigo partnered with local groups to distribute condoms and emergency contraception at her shows; a portion of her tour’s proceeds went to the National Network of Abortion Funds. The backlash (“promiscuous!”) was brutal, and eventually the distribution had to stop.

Against that backdrop—and the general rightward swing of Trump 2—many artists might have backed away from embracing issues at all. But in aligning herself with 13 other acts, Rodrigo is not just showing up; she’s helping create safety in numbers and a model that other young artists can point to when their publicists tell them their words are too controversial, risky, or otherwise dangerous to the bottom line.

Against a backdrop of global funding for women’s rights organizations dropping catastrophically this year, the festival’s exposure feels meaningful. “We live in a world where most people just accept gender-based violence as normal and to be expected,” Sonya Passi, the founder of FreeFrom, tells The Meteor. “Daisy Chain Fields is giving a global stage to our message – we can end gender-based violence if we invest in survivors and…we each have a part in making it happen.”

And as a wise woman once said, “If you don’t like the road you’re walking on, start paving another.”

AND:

• Everyone is talking about Meta’s $17 billion settlement with multiple state attorneys general over claims that the tech giant intentionally made its products addictive to young people and lied about the impact of social media on mental health. But what really makes this win so sweet are the changes Meta must now adopt: stronger age verification, updated parental control tools, and time limits for teen accounts.

• It turns out July was an extremely busy month for ICE. There were 49,571 arrests last month, the highest single-month total since Trump took office. What’s more, immigrants with no criminal records are being intensely targeted, more so than ever before.

• The godfather of big tech, Bill Gates, is concerned about just how unprepared we all are to deal with AI. Maybe he could have mentioned it sooner?

• This week, a judge dismissed a lawsuit from a woman who says she was raped on a Navy transport ship. The judge asked the Department of Labor to determine whether the assault should be handled as a workers’ compensation claim, and the DOL said it should—which makes zero sense, as workers’ comp covers injuries that happen over the course of doing one’s job. The woman’s lawyer told Stars and Stripes, “Things don’t change unless someone’s willing to fight, and, no, we didn’t ultimately have a success here, but I think every time someone like Elsie is brave enough to raise their hand and fight injustice, it makes…a dent in the institutional indifference.”

• The U.S. has finally declared a state of drought disaster in parts of Puerto Rico—a move which allows impacted farmers to apply for financial relief. Not to sound like a broken record here, but maybe they could have done this sooner?

• This is so freaking ridiculous.

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