An old-school teach-in in the nation’s backyard. Come join us!!

If there's someone doing work out there on the fringes that matters to you, please let them know, because this world is going to tell them the opposite every day.

Great piece and (ugh) very misleading headline. The article is actually about the growing calls, across traditional political lines, that we need an urgent intervention on the way social media is curdling our brains and civic culture www.nytimes.com/2025/09/17/o...

Some big implications for journalism, too, where reporters often mistake trending posts as a reasonable reflection of public opinion.

Well, here's something we're trying. Thanks to @natedimeo.bsky.social @kcarterjackson.bsky.social @pastpunditry.bsky.social for helping spearhead, and to all the great scholars and storytellers who've already signed up. More info here: linktr.ee/historyteachin

This was a really great conversation between two people I admire deeply.

Had several friends told me that only when listening to this did they really understand what had played out with Trump, his advisors, crypto and artificial intelligence chips. And conflicts of interest on a scale perhaps never seen before in US history. Please give it a listen.

When I watched Sinners, there was a 90s sequence that made me think "that might be the greatest 90s in a movie I've ever seen" (you know the scene) and then yesterdady I watched One Battle After Another and had the exact same thought about the hilly car chase scene. Just incredible.

A 12-foot statue of Donald Trump and Jeffrey Epstein frolicking and holding hands appeared on the National Mall in Washington, DC on Tuesday, September 23. A plaque under the statue states that it has been erected “In Honor of Friendship Month."

First part of our episode on chilled speech is out now for all to listen to. You can still watch the full vide if you subscribe to the newsletter. Find it all at thisdaypod.com. Here are some thoughts from @jodyavirgan.com on searching for historical parallels...

dudes rock

I think we've got it all backwards. Instead of trying to get these big companies to behave ethically, maybe we just need to get the good companies to do more stuff. How do we get Patagonia to start a micro-blogging social network? Can Dr Bronner's secure the rights to air NBA games?

I think we've got it all backwards. Instead of trying to get these big companies to behave ethically, maybe we just need to get the good companies to do more stuff. How do we get Patagonia to start a micro-blogging social network? Can Dr Bronner's secure the rights to air NBA games?

A smarter, more elegant writer than me should do a piece about the cognitive dissonance of the temperature shifting but the light staying the same. Don't think I anticipated this part of climate change. Very trippy to be biking around during a fading mid-autumn sun in shorts and a t-shirt.

Trump administration's message to anyone who isn't rich and corrupt is pretty obvious: You Don't Count. www.nytimes.com/2025/09/20/u...

We just recorded a two-part review of other moments in US history where political speech has been policied in culture, academia, govt + more. Focusing on Red Scare blacklists + post-9/11 patriotic fervor. Early access full video is in our newsletter for subscribers. open.substack.com/pub/thisdayp...

We got through a lot. It'll be in the feed on Tuesday/Thursday, but if you want to watch the full unedited video - which means you get to watch me stumble through my intros - you can catch the full video in the newsletter right now.

I recently went back to a good 'ol RSS reader as my main enagement with the internet. Loaded up a wide range of sites and, no surprise, I feel more in control, more widely informed, and less generally stressed. 1/2

Unilever, parent company of Ben & Jerry's, has apparently been pressuring B&J to stay quiet rather than speak up on contemporary issues. Unilever does not want to upset the powers that be. Jerry refuses to be silenced. He resigned so he can speak up. Letter ⤵️ freebenandjerrys.com/wp-content/u...

For this week’s issue I profiled Jessica Reed Kraus, aka House Inhabit, the gossip blogger of MAHA/MAGA whose rise could only happen in the fractured media landscape of our strange times. www.newyorker.com/magazine/202...

Let's say it again: 1) Harvard said "No," and Trump has backed off. 2) Chicago (and Illinois) said "No," and Trump has backed off. It's day by day. But those who said "OK, sure," have gained nothing at all. Except shame.

The very definition of an artist. RIP, thanks for everything! www.bbc.com/news/article...

Williams was a photographer for Jet magazine. He took the photo himself. The OG selfie. Iconic. Orangeburg, South Carolina, 1956

“For nearly 50 years, his fate has remained a mystery, sparking desperate searches, raising suspicions of government complicity, and inspiring international documentaries. Now the mystery has been solved,” writes @harrietbarber.bsky.social

"Despite mounting evidence that the toxic energies of the internet have begun to spill over into our real lives, there has been a reluctance to take the things happening online very seriously." www.nytimes.com/2025/09/14/o...

I had no idea that the phrase “Back to the old drawing board” comes from this Peter Arno cartoon from March 1st 1941’s New Yorker. It’s rather splendid to be able to date the birth of what would become part of everyday speech with such precision.

I'm not kidding when I say you could teach an entire ethics course with this article. Everything from character to integrity to parrhesia, from care and solidarity to the leap into faith demonstrated repeatedly by one family in the name of what's right.

“We are the 13th largest newspaper in the country. And that is really stupid.” -Ben Collins

That's too hot

I want to share today three pieces of writing about 9/11 and the lessons I’ve learned across years of researching and studying that terrible day. www.doomsdayscenario.co/p/luck-traum...

Last week Pete Hegseth bragged about "maximum lethality -- not tepid legality"

Appreciate the shout out here, @tombreihan.bsky.social. I produced this show! Tiny Desk is always a creative collaboration between the artist and the Tiny Desk team. This one was a lot of work and it paid off.

As this scandal unfolds, just keep in mind how many times this point was completely ignored over the last decade of critiques about what goes on on college campuses.

i wonder what the weirdest individual daily commute in NYC is. there’s gotta be one guy who lives in like sheepshead bay but commutes to city island for work

Impossible to overstate my disdain for the people behind this www.hollywoodreporter.com/business/dig...

What do I know, but the word "corruption" is just sitting right there as the catch-all for everything wrong with Trump's second term, from SCOTUS to Epstein to tarrifs. Can Democratic leaders please say that word a gajillion times a day?

wrote a little bit about the greatest to ever do it

I didn’t expect to find my motivation for the week in the lead column of my bean club’s quarterly newsletter. But here we are. “It’s tempting to throw in the towel. Hopefully it will be more tempting to make beans.” Genuinely moved by this.

You push back and resist. You let them know that if you try it you’re gonna go through some things. Watch them blink.

Such a breathtaking confluence of societal failures in this Hannah Dreier story. You've got crippling healthcare costs, lack of worker protections, worsening climate-fueled wildfires, poverty, lack of opportunity for young men... www.nytimes.com/2025/09/07/u...

Taking up a team sport (in fact, one of the team-est of team sports) as an adult has made me sadly aware that many adults don't know shit about public goods.

Americans clearly don’t understand that this line of argument is entirely lost for at least a generation. Talk about the US as representing “democracy” or “the free world” will be met with scorn everywhere. The world has converged to Latin America in that regard.

Not joking when I say that "maximum lethality -- not tepid legality" (Hegseth just now) is one of the scariest phrases I've heard uttered by a government official in my lifetime.

Not much to add to the botched SEAL raid story, but it’s so funny to me when reporters have to include lines like this. I get why they do — but the answer is so obviously “it reminded Trump of action movies and he thought it would be cool to tweet about” and nothing more.

Every time you pull up a Trump administration rock, you find a teeming mass of creepy crawlies. Every time.

I believe another word for this could be "decline."

Will never internalize the fact that Billy Joel is Jewish and Bruce Springsteen is Catholic like get it together fellas

Honestly surprised that the NFL is still having someone sing "Lift Every Voice and Sing" ahead of their major games. But the conspiracy theories are going to flow like crazy given that NBC botched the mix on that performance and you could barely hear it...

Motivated reasoninig, maybe, but I think we might be entering a period of much more forceful pushback -- the Fall Of Fuck You --- to the Trump admin.