What really makes a genius? 🤔 THE GENIUS MYTH by Helen Lewis challenges the myth of the lone (usually male and white) mastermind and uncovers the truth behind creativity, innovation, and who gets the credit. Get inspired and start rethinking “genius” today.

@dgraham.bsky.social: “The simplest reason Trump posted this is the same reason he posts anything: The man cannot resist making everything about himself, even if it’s the heartbreaking murder of a beloved artist in an alleged domestic dispute.”

On Rob Reiner, the guy who made that film you love. It was only after I filed that I realised what united Reiner's movies: he was interested in character, in people. And he liked them. I think that comes out in this Goldman line about Good Will Hunting. thecritic.co.uk/than...

Short new post from me about Bloc Politics. A lot of commentators have argued, with evidence from @profjanegreen.bsky.social, @robfordmancs.bsky.social and others, that British politics has split into blocs. So what does that mean for electoral strategy? 1/n benansell.substack.com/p/bloc-parties

Check out this week's SLR featuring @jjvincent.bsky.social, @timbontemps.bsky.social, @baxterholmes.bsky.social, @gedge1.bsky.social, @helenlewis.bsky.social & more! mailchi.mp/sundaylongre...

David Axelrod on how weird it is that Trump is walking into the same trap that Biden did — of telling people they’re wrong about the economy (gift link): www.theatlantic.com/politics/202...

great time to re-read these two @elainegodfrey.bsky.social stories www.theatlantic.com/politics/arc... www.theatlantic.com/politics/arc...

It's absolutely peak Bluesky that I criticised a powerful man for sexism over on X and people here are FURIOUS with me for somehow doing it wrong

What I read this year (that I can remember, anyway). substack.com/home/post/p-...

The ACLU's Chase Strangio -- who argued Bostock and Skrmetti at the Supreme Court -- thinks most sports should be segregated by sex, and that some child gender clinics didn't do rigorous enough assessments. Welcome to the Intellectual Dark Web, Chase Strangio! www.nytimes.com/2025/12/04/o...

"Crooks and frauds are attracted to MAGA because it's a place that it's 𝘢𝘭𝘮𝘰𝘴𝘵 𝘪𝘮𝘱𝘰𝘴𝘴𝘪𝘣𝘭𝘦 to be cancelled from." 'Weird sex poems' and a 'digital affair' - why has no one in MAGA blinked at RFK Jr.’s new sex scandal? @maitlis.bsky.social | @jonsopel1.bsky.social | @helenlewis.bsky.social

New by me: "The only person in this story with real power is RFK Jr., and he is—I cannot believe I am typing this sentence—maintaining a dignified silence. He doesn’t need to 'reclaim the narrative' because he’s too busy helping kids catch measles." www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2025/1...

Amazing letter in The Times (also an unbelievable play fwiw)

New by me: "The only person in this story with real power is RFK Jr., and he is—I cannot believe I am typing this sentence—maintaining a dignified silence. He doesn’t need to 'reclaim the narrative' because he’s too busy helping kids catch measles." www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2025/1...

I wrote about how and why social media has largely become boring and why it's a bad idea to eat your own brain: www.forkingpaths.co/p/is-social-...

Worth reading. And contemplating. "This, to me, was the greatest irony of the Riyadh Comedy Festival. With its Cheesecake Factory outlets and newfound interest in comedy, Saudi Arabia is becoming more American—just as America is becoming more Saudi."

"Sometimes you have to ask yourself: How did I get here—sitting in Saudi Arabia, listening to Louis C.K. do jokes about Barely Legal magazine?" I went to Riyadh to see the transformation of a country with the world's biggest cultural chequebook. Gift link: www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archiv...

Why, yes, @helenlewis.bsky.social did go to the Riyadh Comedy Festival www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archiv...

"Sometimes you have to ask yourself: How did I get here—sitting in Saudi Arabia, listening to Louis C.K. do jokes about Barely Legal magazine?" I went to Riyadh to see the transformation of a country with the world's biggest cultural chequebook. Gift link: www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archiv...

Enjoying myself imagining the thousand yard stares that all the four star generals must be greeting this with

Worcester (where I grew up) is such an interesting bellwether. Had a Tory MP 2010-2024. But the council has been getting steadily Greener, and now it’s a minority Labour administration with zero Conservatives on it, and only 1 Reform.

Whenever a politician or activist says "this is a really minor issue that's being talked up by my opponents" you should check to see if the translation actually is "my party is extremely far behind on this issue and so I'd rather not talk about it".

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":