Sky and sea combo.

We are so lucky to have this body of work in existence. www.theguardian.com/stage/2025/n...

"But software doesn’t eat anything. Tech companies do, when they gain the power to use the levers of the information economy to consolidate and dominate." @around.com on "How the Web Was Lost" for @nybooks.com: www.nybooks.com/articles/202...

I keep coming back to this week @ftweekend.com column from Janan Ganesh re: the cosmopolitan conservative. www.ft.com/content/9875...

Weekday mornings I don’t listen to story formats on the radio because, the news! news! news! But this BBC Witness History episode about Haitian singer, dancer, and folklorist Emerante de Pradines is so interesting… couldn’t switch away: bbc.com/audio/play/w...

Unsubscribing from one newsletter a day for the rest of my life.

This convo, it’s also about the decisions behind when and why we choose to write: podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/t...

Segovia on a weekday 💙

This is what it sounds like: "Information must be approved for public release by an appropriate authorizing official before it is released, even if it is unclassified.” www.lemonde.fr/en/internati...

“‘Writing is utter solitude,’ Kafka is said to have lamented, ‘the descent into the cold abyss of oneself.’ For students today, it may feel more like a cozy group chat with an algorithm.” www.nytimes.com/2025/09/10/m...

church, parque del oeste

Who appointed you to decide our future? —the Q Roula Khalaf puts to this generation’s tech leaders/scientists who, as a whole, seem to be convinced that they have the truth, that they are building a better future for all of us. Mixed Signals @semafor.com: podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/m...

This FT piece from @faniaoz-salzberger.bsky.social is worth taking the time to read. Gift link: on.ft.com/41xdSYg

What US higher education really looks like: - 43% of undergraduates attend community college - 20% of undergrads are parents, 1.4 million of whom are single mothers - 26% of students take classes exclusively online - 25% live w/their parents - 10.8 mil owe +$44,000 www.nytimes.com/2025/08/25/u...

>> The Israeli military carried out what’s called a double-tap strike: the first missile hit the hospital’s roof and killed a Reuters journalist during his livestream, followed by a second missile that hit first responders and reporters responding to the initial one. www.huffpost.com/entry/israel...

Recent economics PhDs are having new and unusual trouble entering the job market. May not seem relevant for non-academics but it is —for what it says abt the link btwn education and upward mobility, the structures supporting public research, how policy is informed, and for US competitiveness.

There’s something to be said for keeping up with basic standards. An interesting take on innovation from Janan Ganesh:

perfect empty day

So, there’s an Odyssey movie in the works.

“The last time the level of government spending was at that 8% of GDP was 1933, before the New Deal. In that year, after years of extraordinary corporate profits, the banking system had collapsed, the unemployment rate was nearly 25%, prices and productivity were plummeting, wages were cratering…”

The Guardian has a review of what’s happening in Spain, vía @mariaramirez.bsky.social: www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

The great Marilynne Robinson putting it as clearly as possible in @nybooks.com: www.nybooks.com/articles/202...

The American brain drain has arrived: www.theguardian.com/us-news/ng-i...

“Ten years ago…on June 16, 2015, Trump rode down the escalator at Trump Tower to a lobby filled with extras, to announce he was running for president. One reporter called his speech, in which he claimed that Mexico was sending criminals and rapists to the United States, "'eccentric.'”

Seems like the best day for a refresher.

Even before I heard the devastating, horrific news of political assassination in Minnesota, I woke up this morning thinking about Emily Dickinson's great poem "'Hope' is the thing with feathers -" Lots of people know this beautiful little poem, but fewer, I think(?) realize when it was written. /1

“…the administration is acting unilaterally to nix [Fulbright] awards for both American and foreign applicants that for decades have been selected jointly, effectively telling other countries that they don’t have final say in the spending of their own funds.”

“…to sit with discomfort, listen deeply, and to stay soft in hard times. Because if we still believe in a shared future, let us not forget that those whom we label as enemies, they too are human.” Yurong (Luanna) Jiang’s Harvard graduation speech is just what we all needed: youtu.be/GpR_xk-DWsQ?...

New tech and automation helps workers complete tasks faster, but it can also strip autonomy, lock in rigid processes, and prevent workers from improving how work gets done. So, we also get a decrease in ownership, productivity, and well-being. www.ft.com/content/4526... by @sarahoconnorft.ft.com

“One minor tension of my life is that I can’t bring myself to hate the Post. I find its politics detestable but its voice irresistible.” — Vinson Cunningham, @newyorker.com: www.newyorker.com/magazine/202...

I've renewed my @harpers.bsky.social subscription because of this incredible reporting and writing from @benehrenreich.bsky.social: harpers.org/archive/2025...

The Crimson editorial board: www.thecrimson.com/article/2025... "This is an attack on the fundamental value of pluralism — worthwhile for its own sake and fundamental to excellence and innovation. To protect our peers’ right to continue their education, Harvard can’t stop fighting back."

Please, read this first-hand reporting from @billshaner.bsky.social about ICE taking away a woman in Worcester, Massachusetts. www.welcometohellworld.com/they-dont-ne...

"Gatsby is prophetic not for advancing a political theory of decline, but for capturing the emotional logic of a society in thrall to raw power." www.ft.com/content/dd6f... I'd like to see the numbers on how many people @sarahchurchwell.bsky.social's article has inspired to return to this book bcse💫

“you have to train your own mind…” www.nytimes.com/2025/04/10/o...

Princeton steps up. podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/t...

ah, the joy and relief of putting an article I'm about to edit into QuillBot and seeing a big fat 0% next to "of text is likely AI."

“The power of people is greater than the people in power.” — @booker.senate.gov

Plaza Mayor, Madrid

“Cookies are a sometime food.”

“This is where Pete Hegseth and I come in.” Imagine the feeling of putting that line down knowing it will lead readers into the most bat crazy timeline.

Long music fillers on NPR these days.

The shuttering of the US Agency for Global Media — including VOA (started by the Roosevelt administration in the mid-WWII) — is very grim. Read Dan Rather (and team)’s excellent but not terribly hopeful piece: steady.substack.com/p/the-truth-... What more harm will be done to independent journalism?

I feel the need to screenshot the whole of Fara Dabhoiwala’s article about the history of free speech, but not even that would do it justice. Plus, a gift article link is much easier: on.ft.com/41wzG5x

“…today’s struggle within the Democratic Party shows a split between those who lead an opposition party devoted to keeping the government functioning, and a number of Democrats who are stepping into the position of leading the resistance to MAGA as it tries to destroy the American government.”

What we have is an administration "zig-zagging like a squirrel at rush hour and a market cowering in fear." Listen to the latest FT Unhedged w/ @katie0martin.ft.com & @robarmstrong.bsky.social, who brought their wit and fun to Madrid to do the taping (and suffer the rain.) www.ft.com/content/6a0a...

It’s a wait and see game as to how universities position themselves in response to the Trump administration’s directives. @brownepoints.bsky.social re: higher education and Trump’s “approach” to DEI, research funding, free speech, immigration, and due process: podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/w...

this account gives me great solace these days.

A good way to keep up with what's happening on university campuses in the US: - Harvard Crimson: www.thecrimson.com - Columbia Spectator: www.columbiaspectator.com - Yale Daily News: yaledailynews.com

"The silence grows louder every day." Fired federal workers, university presidents, chief executives, even longtime Republican hawks... all's quiet, out of fear. by Elisabeth Bumiller: www.nytimes.com/2025/03/06/u...