Democratic Party leaders know they need to moderate on cultural issues to win back working-class voters—so why don’t they? www.theatlantic.com/politics/arc...

This is as rambling a Trump speech as I've ever heard: old Biden, crime-ridden Washington DC, the MAHA discovery of a cure for autism, interspersed with occasional anecdotes about Charlie Kirk. On Fox News, I just saw a shot of people sneaking out early from the seated areas to avoid the rush.

At #TAF25, Monica Lewinsky says she’s grateful to younger generations for helping shift the perception of her story, saying they wondered: “How is it that the 24-year-old person with the least amount of power in this situation had the largest consequences for what happened?” bit.ly/3IkhDd9

It's not a great sign for Bluesky that all the Your Party drama is playing out on X

"The 'performative utterance' - a sentence that bends reality into the speaker’s preferred form with words alone—might be a concept championed by the postmodern left, but it has been embraced by Trump and the MAGA right, who believe that saying something is 90 percent of doing it."

And they looked from podcaster to administration official, and administration official to podcaster; but already it was impossible to say which was which. www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archiv...

Strong Message Here returns for its autumn run, now with 100 percent less me, but no shortage of odd political language to discuss. This week @aiannucci.bsky.social has @rialina.com in the co-host chair to talk about PHASE 2 (which may already be over): www.bbc.com/audio/play/m...

I was initially resistant to this — a panto! Groundbreaking! — but its sheer demented energy is incredibly appealing. I hope Cole Escola plays Mary when it transfers to London. Jinkx Monsoon was good but a bit bellowing.

Having said something popular on radicalisation, let me say something unpopular. People on the left are going to have to tolerate sharing online spaces with the centre and centre-right if they don‘t want those people to radicalise.

Something I talked about in the post I did over the summer on radicalisation. It's an important factor in elite radicalisation. samf.substack.com/p/the-radica...

I’m a broken record on this, but — there are so many examples of famous people radicalised by midlife career/personal knockbacks. Ant Middleton was on yday’s march. He got done for tax offences and lost his TV work. Now he’s mates with Tommy Robinson.

My pitch was "if you love comic characters like Uriah Heep and Mrs Jellyby, you'll also love Mustrum Ridcully and Nanny Ogg". www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/...

I took up @helenlewis.bsky.social ‘s advice and read ‘Mort.’ It was considerably joyous. #StrongMessageHere

It's wild how many entries in the Epstein birthday book are basically "felicitations Jeffrey, you big sleazeball, here's to many more years of questionable relationships with girls!!!" Kudos to @cwarzel.bsky.social for wading through it. www.theatlantic.com/technology/a...

Devout tightarses take note: The Genius Myth is a kindle daily deal today, for £1.99. www.amazon.co.uk/Genius-Myth-...

For the antepenultimate Strong Recommends, @aiannucci.bsky.social chose Tehran (Apple TV) which is broadcast in a mixture of Hebrew, Farsi and English, to emphasise the different perspectives of the characters: www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/...

Admittedly, this is not my most lofty moment but, honestly, arguing for free speech is literally the most thankless thing you can do. Yes I agree with it even when people are saying things I don't agree with! That's the point!

This is why the Coutts "debanking" story was such a gift to Farage. Like Trump, he makes a mint (pun intended) from advertising crypto and bullion to people primed to distrust anything you can put the word "mainstream" in front of.

I'm at NatCon this week, where I am trying to listen more than post. But here's a vibey quote from one panel: "Remigration has become the essential political question. We have entered a period in which Winston Churchill maters less to us than Enoch Powell."

Graham Linehan thinks I'm a "cynical, careerist hack" because I don't share his views. I think he's an obsessive, rude jerk. But I also don't think that should be illegal. (Gift link) www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archiv...

Keir Starmer just managed a "further and faster", a "hard yards" AND a "delivery, delivery, delivery" in two sentences now on the BBC. Also, we are now in the "second phase" of his government (the total number of phases is very much TBC).

Join us on Wed 3rd Sept as we invite Helen Lewis to Brighton to discuss her new iconoclastic book, The Genius Myth, with Rafael Behr, at the Tusk Room, Walrus Pub, Ship Street. Tix link in comments @helenlewis.bsky.social @rafaelbehr.bsky.social @penguinrandomhouse.bsky.social

This is how we pay for the Bakerloo Line extension FREE TO READ!) takes.jamesomalley.co.uk/p/bakerloo-e...

Yet another sign of Trump's shift towards a more chaotic version of Chinese-style autocratic state capitalism. samf.substack.com/p/capitalism...

On why Israel’s attack on the Nasser hospital looks like a war crime in so many different ways. www.theguardian.com/world/2025/a...

“They claim to read the same books” is such a multilayered burn, I LOVE it

Humans have tried for centuries to understand a quicksilver quality that defies explanation. In this week's Time-Travel Thursdays, @helenlewis.bsky.social writes about the flawed ways we decide who is a "genius":

My latest: On the AI aesthetic, techno-millenarianism, and why the new right doesn’t understand genius.

“Maybe clips of a president’s son defending habeas corpus and mentioning a crack dealer named Bicycles is what the attention economy demands,” writes @helenlewis.bsky.social, suggesting Democrats should find a candidate like Hunter Biden, but without the baggage.

BBC NEWS / AFP / BBC NEWS / REUTERS JOINT STATEMENT: “We are desperately concerned for our journalists in Gaza, who are increasingly unable to feed themselves and their families. "They are now facing the same dire circumstances as those they are covering. "

Are Private Eye jokes now... criminal? PALESTINE Solidarity campaigner Jon Farley was arrested during a silent march in Leeds last weekend. What egregious act had prompted the police to act? He was, er, carrying a Private Eye joke piece as a placard! (1/2)

this @helenlewis.bsky.social lede: “Defending mainstream journalism these days is about as appealing as doing PR for syphilis. Nonetheless, here I am.”

The full #StrongMessageHere is resting but for the next ten weeks on #BBCSounds @helenlewis.bsky.social and I will be discussing our recommendations on what to watch, listen to, read or sniff over the summer. First up, the fantastic movie #TheBalladOfWallisIsland. www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/brand...

It's the last Strong Message Here before the show regenerates into Strong Recommends for the summer: "We haven't always told our story as well as we should." www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m...

This @cwarzel.bsky.social piece is right: it's very telling that, at the same time Elon Musk was fretting about birth rates and having a "legion" of kids, he was entirely indifferent to his USAID cuts killing thousands of children in Sudan and elsewhere: www.theatlantic.com/technology/a...

Open science nerds might find this interesting, on the retracted research of Hans Eysenck, the "people's psychologist." helenlewis.substack.com/p/the-flawed...

NEW EPISODE OUT NOW! Today’s bad idea is ‘genius’, the label that's enabled all sorts of terrible behaviour through the ages. Writer & broadcaster @helenlewis.bsky.social‬ explains how and why the idea of genius gets misapplied to people and things that just aren’t. Find us at...🎧 ppfideas.com

"People worry about seeming heartless, or disrespectful, when they note the inevitable effect of time on senior politicians, particularly those who were trailblazers in their youth," @helenlewis.bsky.social writes.

Should great art excuse monstrous artists? Orwell didn't think so... Over on our newsletter, the brilliant @helenlewis.bsky.social digs into one of George Orwell's most incendiary essays. Read on - then join us live in London next week! orwellfoundation.substack.com/p/should-gre...

Celebrated the UK launch of The Genius Myth by talking about Milton, Mahler & Musk with @aiannucci.bsky.social - probably the best set of audience Qs I've ever had, too. (My rule when picking a book topic is "what will be interesting to talk about for weeks on end?") uk.bookshop.org/a/6497/97817...

Whether through layoffs or resignations, Tesla has lost many of the employees that helped build the world's most valuable car company. Without them, Elon Musk is about to face his biggest challenge yet:

An absolute master and legend

It'll be two years, this Monday night. Time, at last, to write about Agnes.

NEW: Future Foward, the super PAC backing Kamala Harris, thought her campaign made strategic errors that may have cost her victory. Harris strategists felt the same about Future Forward. Inside the breakdown w/ @ashleyrparker.bsky.social GIFT LINK: www.theatlantic.com/politics/arc...

Wrote this before the Iran strikes but it still applies. "Netanyahu is taking advantage of the Trump presidency to prolong the Gaza conflict, keeping his extremist coalition partners in the fold and himself in power." www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archiv...

What makes one man merely accomplished and another a genius? And which descriptor makes a man more likely to engage in an ego-crushing battle with the president? On “Radio Atlantic,” Hana Rosin talks with Helen Lewis, the author of “The Genius Myth.”

This is why I love Radio 4. Next week I'm doing Start the Week with the authors of books on Tupac Shakur and Gertrude Stein. TOGETHER AT LAST. www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m...

Felt it was important to chronicle the campaign against trans people that the Trump administration has been waging. You can advocate for women's sports and spaces, and high standards of evidence in youth medical care, without being gratuitously cruel. www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archiv...