14 Mar 2025

What do we buy into when we buy a home?

Buy? Rent? Squat?

10 Mar 2025

Man Called Fran

Plumbing, the depths.

15 Jan 2025

On A Mission From God

šŸ«£

03 Jan 2025

Never Forgive Them

This is a lot, but the articulation of a technology ecosystem optimized for poison is good. Also liked the comparison of AI content to PFAs in our soil. Calling Mark Zuckerberg a "putrid ghoul" is maybe the best thing I've read all year and it's January 3rd.

28 Dec 2024

Casual Viewing

On how Netflix is becoming Blockbuster.

25 Dec 2024

Chicago Christmas, 1984

"The losing goes on and on so long you begin to watch with curiosity, wondering how low you can go."

17 Dec 2024

Why Is It So Hard To Buy Things That Work Well?

An economic analysis of enshittification.

15 Dec 2024

Are You Overreacting?

Am I? Am I not?

03 Dec 2024

The Comedian Vs The Crowd

James Acaster embraces the hecklers

11 Nov 2024

The Truth of Fact, the Truth of Feeling

An old Ted Chiang short story that feels very relevant in Trump 2.0 world.

30 Oct 2024

The rollercoaster king: the man behind the UKā€™s fastest thrill-ride

Or: how a fellow Rollercoaster Tycoon player actually achieved my childhood dream

29 Oct 2024

Janus at Le Cirque

Ruth Reichl's classic exploration of the dichotomy of fine dining. Read it instead of assigned readings for my Food Studies seminar.

28 Oct 2024

ā€˜ā€˜La grande bouffeā€™ā€™: Cooking Shows as Pornography

Chan explores the eroticism inherent in cooking shows.

Jesse Eisenberg Has a Few Questions

Getting a little heavy on the New Yorker pieces, but this is just too good.

25 Oct 2024

Susanna Clarke Wrote a Hit Novel Set in a Magical Realm. Then She Disappeared.

She's back, baby!

Out of Ohio

I discovered this while looking for another article. Some great names in here ("Mavis Stranger," "Minona Seagrove"). Wonderful vignettes of hitchhiking. But the best imagery is about how the place you're from spins you both like a web and a top. How true that rings.

21 Oct 2024

On Progress and Historical Change

Written the last time it felt like things were falling apart, democratically. Great read on historical progress and our role in it, if at all.

08 Oct 2024

Her Face Was Unrecognizable After an Explosion. A Placenta Restored It.

I mean, this is just the coolest.

Should You Just Give Up?

Sisyphus couldnā€™t stop pushing his boulderā€”but you can.

Want Growth? Kill Small Business

Reframe on development economics.

01 Oct 2024

Dikembe Mutombo, a Towering N.B.A. Presence, Dies at 58

An absolute legend, and one of my first basketball heroes, dies way too young

28 Sep 2024

Allrecipes, Americaā€™s Most Unruly Cooking Web Site

Crowd sourced recipes for the masses. Good, bad, and ugly delicious.

26 Sep 2024

A Loverā€™s Theory of Marxism

A reflection of Sally Rooney's view of love within the lense of her personal Marxist views, and the Capitalist world in which she operates.

World's Oldest Cheese Found in Necklaces on Mummies in China

But how did it taste?

25 Sep 2024

The Priest Who Helps Women in the Mob Escape

Don Luigi Ciotti leads an anti-Mafia organization, and for decades he has run a secret operation that liberates women from the criminal underworld.

24 Sep 2024

You're Probably Using the Wrong Dictionary

On the pleasure of better dictionary entries.

One Man's Journey from State Prison to a Revered San Francisco Restaurant

From the chow hall of Corcoran State Prison to the kitchen of Flour + Water.

23 Sep 2024

This Hiker Just Smashed the Speed Record on the Appalachian Trail

Ultrarunner Tara ā€œCandy Mamaā€ Dower shaved 13 hours off Karel Sabbeā€™s previous record for hiking the iconic route

The Itch

Oldie but a goodie. A woman's extreme itch scratches our curiosity of psychosomatics and neural pathways.

22 Sep 2024

How the White Sox Clubhouse is Coping as Worst Team in MLB History

The very-bad-no-good White Sox are still having fun.

American Hippopotamus

A bracing and eccentric epic of espionage and hippos.

The Collapse of Self-Worth in the Digital Age

Why are we letting algorithms rewrite the rules of art, work, and life?

16 Sep 2024

Development Finance Done Right

A veteran diplomat explains how to navigate the U.S. development ecosystem, master the interagency process, and bring electricity to 200 million people.

Are Your Morals Too Good to Be True?

Scientists have shattered our self-image as principled beings, motivated by moral truths. Some wonder whether our ideals can survive the blow to our vanity.

14 Sep 2024

Lab-Grown Diamonds

Synthetic diamonds are now purer, more beautiful, and vastly cheaper than mined diamonds. Beating nature took decades of hard graft and millions of pounds of pressure.