How to Stop a Dictator . “Democracy is in fact a powerful motivating factor: When people are convinced that there’s a threat to their political freedoms, they can be motivated to go to extraordinary lengths to defend them.”
From Helene Schjerfbeck to Glenn Ligon, here’s what to read — and where to go when the snow clears.
Just dropped this morning: the trailer for the final season of For All Mankind . When season four’s teaser trailer came out, I caught some flack for suggesting that “if you tilt your head and squint…you see For All Mankind as a prequel/origin story for The Expanse”. It looks
The varied, confrontational works on view at Madrid's La Casa Encendida are reminders of the intense labor required to protect liberty.
Top tier nerd shit. “ WalkmanLand is a tribute to the long forgotten portable music players from the 80-90s. The Walkmans.”
"One of the most unusual — and fun — events in college sports is a high-stakes spreadsheeting competition in Las Vegas."
Well, this is one of those things I wish I’d known about earlier — sessions with Isabel Wilkerson, James McBride, Ocean Vuong, Rebecca Solnit, Lauren Groff, Judy Blume…all sold out. 😭
Early on in the promotional period for season two of Andor, a series explicitly about fascism that depicted a genocide, Disney asked creator Tony Gilroy not to use the words “fascism” and “genocide”. Now that promotional period has passed and he can speak freely. Here’s
"How an unexpected email led me to crack the mystery of Charles Saunders."
A Meta employee who works on AI safety let an AI agent named OpenClaw loose on her inbox and it deleted all her email . (This tracks; companies like Meta actually don’t care about AI safety and hire accordingly.)
I Hate Trump’s Awful Policies, but I Love That He’s a Huge Asshole . “I don’t like Trump’s immigration laws; they’re racist and economically disastrous. But I do love how evil he is.”
Writer Lauren Groff on how she works . “After she completes a first draft, she puts it in a bankers box — and never reads it again.” And: “We all need to fill ourselves with the ghosts of other writers.” Her new book is out now.
Blizzard shuts down museums in New York, Prince Andrew's arrest photo is hung at the Louvre, a beloved hand-drawn calendar in Los Angeles, and a biography of a mountain.
From art to religion to sex, instrumentalisation has drained away intrinsic value. But life is about more than material benefits - by Julian Baggini Read on Aeon
There are two feet of snow blocking your car from the road. This is a problem. Except it’s not a problem if you don’t need to leave the house for a few days—the snow will melt on its own. And it’s not a problem if you had decided to move to the island of Saba […]
In ancient Egypt, writing hieroglyphs was a highly specialized skill, one commanded by only a small fraction of the population. The fact that there were more than 1,000 characters to memorize probably had something to do with that, but the variety of surfaces on which
In Italy, roughly 70% of households have a Bialetti Moka Pot. And chances are you have one too. But are you using it the right way? Probably not, says James Hoffmann, the author of The World Atlas of Coffee. Above, he sets the record straight, demonstrating the best technique
Mount Rushmore, originally known as Six Grandfathers, gets its own biography, plus Sarah Bond on museums’ approach to polychromy and whiteness.
In “Biography of a Mountain,” author Matthew Davis deftly weaves together interviews and stories that reveal so much more than a linear narrative of the monument’s history.
“We” Haven’t Lost Our Sense of Shame. Only Republicans Have. “I remember when Republicans used to lecture us all the time about the disappearance of shame in our culture…”
Token Anxiety . “This voice in my head that says ‘something could be running right now’ just doesn’t shut off. I’m not even building a company. I’m just addicted to building my random ideas.”
Fia Backström explores this nexus of environmental degradation, disaster capitalism, and intergenerational poverty through embodied, compassionate, and durational research.
Alan Taylor has shared a bunch of photos of the just-concluded Winter Olympics “featuring infrared imaging, vintage cameras, optical filters, digital composites, unusual angles, unexpected subjects, and more”. Two of my favorites: The first photo is of a curling match taken
For 40 years, Nib Geebles and Abira Ali have chronicled the unspoken, day-to-day minutiae of their hometown in their beloved calendar.
“Antibodies harvested from the blood of paediatricians are up to 25 times better at protecting against the common respiratory infection RSV than existing antibody therapies , and are now being developed as preventative treatments.”
"Scientists and philosophers studying the mind have discovered how little we know about our inner experiences."