My favorite albums of 2025 part 1: Sudan Archives - The BPM Dijon - Baby Nourished by Time - The Passionate Ones Billy Woods - GOLLIWOG Water From Your Eyes - It’s a Beautiful Place Amaarae - Black Star Geese - Getting Killed Smerz - Big City Life Los Thuthanaka - Los Thuthanaka

The goal of Spotify’s algorithm isn’t to help you discover new music, its goal is simply to keep you listening for as long as possible. It serves up the safest songs possible to keep you from pressing stop. Read more from @terrenceobrien.bsky.social: www.theverge.com/column/81574...

#3 of our free daily articles from @terrenceobrien.bsky.social: OpenAI's Head of Preparedness will be responsible for issues around mental health, cybersecurity, and runaway AI.

There's something so satisfying about taking one of Lovecraft's most explicitly racist and xenophobic stories and flipping it on its head.

My original headline: OpenAI is hiring a head of "oh god, what have we done?"

We've been so worried about robots taking our jobs or gaining sentience and starting nuclear wars we didn't even consider the humble groin kick.

Pitch for a show: Hoarders, but with billionaires. We hire mental health professionals and financial experts to go and convince people to part ways with their unhealthy piles of money.

Year 1 data on congestion pricing in Manhattan… * Vehicle traffic: -11% * Foot traffic: +3.4% * Storefront vacancy: -0.9% * Pollution: -22% * Revenue for mass transit: $548M So YES this has been a huge success.

This is such a misleading headline. What the article actually says is: The wealthy are doing great. The military spent a bunch of money and corporations are raking in record profits. Average Americans saw no improvement. www.nytimes.com/2025/12/23/b...

The full spiked 60 Minutes CECOT package, clean & subtitled. 1/5

This is 404 Media's @jasonkoebler.bsky.social waving at himself through a Flock camera; one of 60 we learned was left exposed to the open internet. Not only could anyone with a link livestream it, but some admin portals were open with no login credentials required. www.404media.co/flock-expose...

The New York Times investigated 346 people who donated at least $250,000 to Trump and found that more than half of them (197) have received pardons, jobs, government contracts, special treatment, or favors.

Weiss won't be happy until she's torched the credibility of the entire organization. This is only the beginning, I'm sure.

Did you know that I host a show on @makerparkradio.bsky.social? Here's the playlists from the last few episodes: music.apple.com/us/playlist/...

I love Last Christmas as much as the next guy, but your holiday playlist is in need of a refresh.

the extremely rare phenomenon of the “Threads banger” @timduffy.bsky.social

This sucks. I've seen so many incredible shows at Music Hall and Northsix, before that.

I am obsessed with weird minimalist / retro projects like this. What would I do with it? I don't know, but it's rad looking. www.typeframe.net/docs/px-88

Merriam-Webster’s 2025 word of the year is ‘slop’

Just in case any journalist or editor reading this is tempted to minimize Trump's Reiner post because it's a "showbiz thing" and "real" stories are happening: No. It's a President thing and a decency thing, and if you don't understand that those things are newsworthy, you are failing in your duties.

I... I just fucking can't. Whatever apocalypse awaits us... climate? meteor? nuclear? It can't come fast enough.

Musicians are getting really tired of this AI clone ‘bullshit’

One of the most frustrating things about the democratic party is how quickly they've embraced anti-intellectualism. Being the party of the "factory floor" and the party of the "faculty lounge" are not mutually exclusive.

Decided to talk about my favorite album of the year this weekend: The dense and delightfully chaotic Sudan Archives record The BPM. It's got everything from trap high-hats, to house piano stabs, and Irish jigs. What more could you ask for?

Absynth is back and weirder than ever after 16 years

The combination of the Nuphy Air60 and the Boox Palma 2 have become my goto distraction-free writing setup. Perfect for quiet nights behind the bar.

I truly do not understand what the @mets.com are doing this off season.

I wish I could go back and warn myself that 'If I Had Legs I'd Kick You' was not a good choice of movie to watch right before bed. I'm so wound up and anxious I might not sleep for 3 days.

Disney, Star Wars, and Marvel may be pure slop at this point, but at least it's human-generated slop? Not sure we need Sora-generated AI slop further polluting the waters there.

I wrote this piece because I really believe our shopping habits are ruining our lives. I also believe we are thinking about influencers all wrong. There has to be more to digital life than buying things, and convincing others to buy as well. www.theverge.com/cs/features/...

This might be the best horror film of the 2020s so far.

"In the beginning was the word—first, it was spoken, and then, for some reason, it was slammed." :chefs-kiss: @markrichardson.bsky.social pitchfork.com/reviews/albu...

Watching Andrew Huang nerd out dissecting the KPop Demon Hunters soundtrack is pure joy. youtu.be/HTsdbMpY0bQ

Jeremy Carrasco is teaching people to spot the AI slop flooding social media and trying to hijack your attention.

Has anyone told them that the government giving kids $1,000 in stocks so that "Every child in America is going to be an owner of the biggest employers in this country," isn't really capitalism? www.businessinsider.com/trump-accoun...

It's the final Bandcamp Friday of 2025. Might I recommend this album from University? abandcalleduniversity.bandcamp.com/album/mccart...

It's simple — @propublica.org workers should not be replaced by artificial intelligence. Our contract proposal specifically says that generative artificial intelligence ("GAI") should not be used to replace employees. Management struck out this entire section in their response to our proposal.

I feel like my whole life has been leading to this moment.

"Rise of the LLeMmings" is top-notch. www.theatlantic.com/technology/2...

Suno is taking over Nashville's writing rooms. “You tell it the genre and it totally does the whole thing, it’s insane.” The tech is ubiquitous, “from entry-level songwriters to the top dogs” use it. Check out the story for audio samples. From @charlieharding.bsky.social:

I honestly had completely forgotten about this Los Thuthanaka record. It's so good, though. Just threw a wrench in my year end list. losthuthanaka.bandcamp.com/album/los-th...

The guy who makes a living buying and reviewing weird garbage from Instagram ads gets it. youtu.be/W8Z3MfNpJpE

I've found some of the comments on The Verge defending Suno to be very suspicious. Then I found this: networknotes.motiveunknown.com/p/how-suno-p... Apparently, it's been running a Facebook page that's pretending to be an independent music outlet that really just exists to hype Suno.

Manoush Zomorodi says her tombstone would read: "she clicked links and saved lots of articles to read another time and never actually read them." I've never felt more seen.

Alternate take, maybe you just hate music?

Love watching this reemergence of the spirit of the early web. Especially since it appears to be largely driven by younger generations who are already realizing the internet they've been handed is a miserable place lacking in community. So they've taken matters into their own hands.

This week's episode of my radio show featured tracks from Carrier, No Joy, The Hellp, Shygirl, and Armand Hammer. vimeo.com/1140950537?f...

"Freelance journalism in 2025 is an incredibly difficult place to build a career. But, it turns out, it’s a decent enough arena for a scam." thelocal.to/investigatin...

In non-Black Friday deals news...