I Spent Months with an AI Companion. It Was Worse than Being Alone
"I hated the mindless reassurance and generic empathy."
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Whither the Nerd-Bully?
"Bill Gates was the monopolistic father figure who Silicon Valley’s young founders rebelled against—and, in so rebelling, became."
Mary Lovelace O’Neal Leaves Her Mark
The artist and Civil Rights activist dies at 84, The Met and Neue Galerie merge, and NADA is back with “abstracted horniness.”
The Top 5 Longreads of the Week
Featuring stories about celebrity look-alikes, siblings, desert living, philanthrocapitalism, and life inside a legal brothel.
Gen Z but two centuries ago
A generation of young people with ‘full hearts in an empty world’ sought hope in the face of insurmountable malaise - by Emily Herring Read on Aeon
Personally
Professionals take their work seriously. Hobbyists can take it personally. We arrive and make a promise. We do it on behalf of the client, and that promise has little to do with what we might want to do–it’s what they need us to do. And so we make our promises carefully, and
The Forgotten Moment When Superman Fought Prejudice Instead of Villains (1950)
It makes sense that Superman would take a tolerant view of immigrants and other minorities, given that he himself arrived on Earth as a refugee from the planet Krypton. The Man of Steel may strike you as an unlikely mouthpiece for progressive ideals, but 1950 found him on a
Mirei Monticelli’s Hand-Woven Banana Leaf Lamps Swell Between Material and Movement
“Human rhythm is what gives the material its character," says the artist. Do stories and artists like this matter to you? Become a Colossal Member today and support independent arts publishing for as little as $7 per month. The article Mirei Monticelli’s Hand-Woven Banana Leaf
Manhattan's Neue Galerie to Merge With Met Museum
Cosmetics billionaire Ronald Lauder's private museum has a vast collection of Austrian and German art.
In Praise of the Useless: Bertrand Russell’s Salve for Hard Times
Along the way of life, I have discovered three things you can almost always do in your darkest hour that almost never fail to recover the light: Learn something. Help someone. Feel it all. We need our sciences to learn how the universe works, to know what we don’t yet know and
Required Reading
This week: artists’ antidote to AI slop, Kimberlé Crenshaw’s new memoir, New Orleans and climate change, an Art Deco train, and what do sex workers think about “Euphoria”?
How Russell Vought Became the Shadow President
One of the biggest assholes in the Trump regime is Russell Vought — and that’s really saying something; it’s a fierce competition. He’s the guy who said in 2023 that he wanted to put federal workers “in trauma”. ProPublica produced a video in Oct 2025 about how Vought is acting
Mary Lovelace O’Neal, Painter and Civil Rights Luminary, Dies at 84
The beloved artist was best known for monumental canvases and inventive, gestural “lampblack” works.
Todd Gray Reframes Black Diasporic History
His installations of layered photos drawn from an expansive Black heritage entice viewers to keep looking, find connections, and ask questions.
Meet the Sad Wives of AI
"Are you married to a man who’s obsessed with AI? I’m so, so sorry."
Omg, Amazon Prime inserted an ad for Febreze in the...
Omg, Amazon Prime inserted an ad for Febreze in the midst of the most famous match cut in the history of cinema (in Kubrick’s 2001, when the ape-thrown bone turns into a spacecraft). I don’t know whether to laugh or cry (rn, it’s both).
A very good, very 2026 headline: Japan Runs Out of Robot...
A very good, very 2026 headline: Japan Runs Out of Robot Wolves in Fight Against Bears . “Starting at around $4,000, each bespoke Monster Wolf is now equipped with battery power, solar panels, and detection sensors.”
When Your Participation Is Decoration
This is a smart piece about where we are in America right now, post-Citizen’s United, post-Voting Rights Amendment, post-Dobbs, mid-MAGA: The VRA Was the Nice Version ( archive ). First, let’s be honest about what the Voting Rights Act actually was, because everything here on
“I believe in myself. That’s why I...
“I believe in myself. That’s why I commit.” A young skater doesn’t give up trying to land a three-stair kickflip.
At Joy Machine, ‘Feel Free’ Plumbs the Tension Between Chaos and Control
Autonomy or control may be fantasies rather than concrete realities. In 'Feel Free,' we witness four artists grappling with this enduring paradox. Do stories and artists like this matter to you? Become a Colossal Member today and support independent arts publishing for as
Art Movements: Michelle Millar Fisher Heads to Cooper Hewitt
The New York museum hires a new chief curator, Getty grants $1.8M for Black visual art archives, and an artist’s cheeky plea on the High Line.
Shape of Dreams (Zendaya × Spike Jonze)
Zendaya co-created a new collection for On, the Swiss fashion company, and Spike Jonze directed this cool promotional video starring the actress. I’ve always loved his aesthetic — along with Michel Gondry, no one makes these types of videos seem “hand-crafted” (in a way that is
Lehman College Art Gallery Presents the 2026 Thesis Exhibition
On view May 20 to 28, the show brings together over thirty undergraduate and graduate artists, reflecting a broad spectrum of conceptual inquiry and material experimentation.
Between Tropes and Treats at NADA New York
In a sea of zany little sculptures and assemblages, shiny stuff™, abstracted horniness, and kitschy vibrancy, there were works I did enjoy.
The Guardian asked authors, critics, and academics to...
The Guardian asked authors, critics, and academics to help compile a list of the best 100 novels of all time . They’ve done 41-100 so far. Selecting a book will show you who voted for it, then click on the voter’s name to see their other choices.
The 2026 National Recording Registry inductees were...
The 2026 National Recording Registry inductees were announced today . “The 2026 selections mark the first recordings by Taylor Swift and Beyoncé chosen for the registry.” Also: music from Weezer, The Go-Go’s, Chaka Khan, and Johnny Cash.
Faig Ahmed Weaves Mysticism, Science, Technology, and Craft into ‘The Attention’
At the 61st Venice Biennale, Ahmed expands upon his interest in the dialectic between digital processes and hand-crafted techniques. Do stories and artists like this matter to you? Become a Colossal Member today and support independent arts publishing for as little as $7 per
This Tiny Celestial Body Past Pluto Shouldn’t Have an...
This Tiny Celestial Body Past Pluto Shouldn’t Have an Atmosphere—but Astronomers Say They May Have Detected One .
The Guadalupe Swept Us Away. This Is the Story of All That Came After.
"In the days after last July’s historic disaster, I wrote about the tragedy that befell my family. But crawling out of the river was only the beginning."
On Children: Poignant Parenting Advice from Kahlil Gibran
"Your children are not your children. They are the sons and daughters of Life’s longing for itself... You may give them your love but not your thoughts, for they have their own thoughts. You may house their bodies but not their souls, for their souls dwell in the house of