A newsletter about Pop Culture, Software Studies, Business Strategy, Media Platforms, Algorithmic Management, Game Design, and everything in between.

FEATURED

Essays

Boomerang

Empires have a way of seeding their own destruction.

Essays

Retrograde

Like water, gold simply can’t tell you what it used to be.

  • Reuters Econ World: Europe’s energy security

    Listen: https://ift.tt/id3aTUy A blackout in Spain and Portugal exposes the region’s weak point. Europe’s energy security is fragile and facing challenges on a number of fronts. Relying on U.S. liquefied natural gas to plug a Russian supply gap after Moscow’s… more ›

  • Long Now: Stephen Heintz, Kim Stanley Robinson: A Logic For The Future: International Relations in the Age of Turbulence

    Listen: https://ift.tt/8G102Im Stephen Heintz and Kim Stanley Robinson say we live in an “Age of Turbulence.”Looking around our geopolitical situation, it’s easy to see what they mean. Faced with the ever-growing threat of climate change, the looming potential breakdown of… more ›

  • https://ift.tt/qPwdoKu

    https://www.politico.com/news/2025/04/26/donald-trump-washington-club-00311720 more ›

  • Watching o3 guess a photo’s location is surreal, dystopian and wildly entertaining

    Watching OpenAI’s new o3 model guess where a photo was taken is one of those moments where decades of science fiction suddenly come to life. It’s a cross between the Enhance Button and Omniscient Database TV Tropes. The process is… more ›

  • On with Kara Swisher: Judith Butler on Why Gender Is in Trump’s Crosshairs

    Listen: https://ift.tt/Lgp07QK Philosopher and critical theorist Judith Butler, Distinguished Professor in the Graduate School at UC Berkeley, has been at the forefront of gender theory for 35 years. But while their work Gender Trouble: Feminism and the Subversion of Identity,… more ›

  • American Panopticon

    The Trump administration is pooling data on Americans. Experts fear what comes next. If you have tips about DOGE and its data collection, you can contact Ian and Charlie on Signal at @ibogost.47 and @cwarzel.92. https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2025/04/american-panopticon/682616/ more ›

  • a16z Podcast: What Comes After Mobile? Meta’s Andrew Bosworth on AI and Consumer Tech

    Listen: https://ift.tt/BT7sgeu Are we nearing the end of the smartphone era? In this episode, a16z Growth General Partner David George talks with Meta CTO Andrew “Boz” Bosworth about what comes after apps and touchscreens. From smart glasses to AR headsets,… more ›

  • Dario Amodei — The Urgency of Interpretability

    In the decade that I have been working on AI, I’ve watched it grow from a tiny academic field to arguably the most important economic and geopolitical issue in the world. https://www.darioamodei.com/post/the-urgency-of-interpretability?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email more ›

  • Art Market Trends 2025

    Welcome to Art Market Trends, Artsy’s new research-driven report on the key topics shaping the art industry and collecting in 2025. https://www.artsy.net/article/artsy-editorial-art-market-trends-2025 more ›

  • Here’s How To Share AI’s Future Wealth

    As AI advances, many have become worried about the technology’s potential to concentrate unprecedented wealth among a few, while eroding the economic value of human work for everyone else. https://www.noemamag.com/heres-how-to-share-ais-future-wealth more ›