Absolutely fuck these parasitic thieves.

"Oh this? It's my emotional support raptor."

Auschwitz was at the end of a process. We must remember that it did not start from gas chambers. This hatred gradually developed: from ideas, words, stereotypes & prejudice through legal exclusion, dehumanization & escalating violence... to systematic and industrial murder. Auschwitz took time.

JOB(S) ALERT We're looking for TWO new members for the editorial team - send your application to [email protected].

I think a lot about Parmy Olson's observation that AI companies actively push everyone to talk about existential risk, because it distracts from more prosaic current day concerns like copyright theft, conditions for data workers, energy & water use, and their financial situation

Need pub recommendations for central London, large group (25+ people). Bonus points if it's on the Victoria Line.

It is an unforgiving failure, and indictment, of the modern media that we still haven't had a great longform article about that Australian woman who poisoned her family with mushrooms.

This would be a very good week for anyone who has not already abandoned the Mercator projection for maps of the world to do so

Sometimes the most radical thing you can do is educate normal people on complex subjects in ways that are engaging and digestible.

Wrote about the growing number of British people being priced out of weight-loss drugs, and the boom in black market peptides (including clones of unapproved medications like retatrutide) as a result unherd.com/2026/01/brit...

Tech founders really aren't hiding their intentions with their company names any more, are they (yes, this is real)

Thinking about organising a freelance writer's drinks in London again, drop me a note if you'd be interested!

This is quite a post www.planetearthandbeyond.co/p/reality-is...

Relevant to this week’s Substack. Hat tip also to @ryanhatesthis.bsky.social, @bcmerchant.bsky.social, and @superwuster.bsky.social open.substack.com/pub/oliverfr...

I started writing about "GEO" - the AI equivalent of SEO - and accidentally went on a rant that I've been storing up for my entire 15-year career in journalism substack.com/home/post/p-...

Bonus issue of Personal News this week: on finding out there's a lump in my brain open.substack.com/pub/oliverfr...

I got a $3,000 full-body MRI, an AI-enabled 3D skin cancer scan, and more, for GQ story inside the medical testing boom. www.gq-magazine.co.uk/article/insi...

I have spent most of this week trying to work out how to replace my workflow from Otter now that it's overly expensive and enshittified. Installed Macwhisper but struggling with the lack of some crucial functions. Recommendations welcome!

Gift link, probably the funniest thing the Wall Street Journal has done this year.

I wrote about my own personal 2025 Jealousy List, starring @taffyakner.bsky.social, @caity.bsky.social, @dkthomp.bsky.social, & @bilgeebiri.bsky.social. Please send me yours in return, and let's pretend longform never shut down. oliverfranklinwallis.substack.com/p/the-person...

I didnt know how badly I needed to read an oral history of The Grinch. www.vulture.com/article/how-...

This reads like the 4-1-2-1-2 the fans have been praying for! (It won’t be, it’ll be 4-2-3-1 with Szobozlai on the right.)

Some personal news, and some Personal News. oliverfranklinwallis.substack.com/p/what-editi...

Substack and the number of other websites down this morning. AWS? Cloudflare?

This is a totally savage and fatal mauling of Big Collagen.

I missed this at the time, but this is really another demonstration of why Sam Anderson is one of the best magazine writers alive www.nytimes.com/2025/09/21/m...

If you use GMail, AI (Gemini) was turned on yesterday by default and now scans all of your content for machine learning. To turn off, go to Settings>General and scroll down. Uncheck the box for "Smart features." There's other "Smart" add-ons as well, but that's the one that reads your content.

Editors have a really hard job, and the good ones can make something unreadable readable, and the great ones can make something unreadable into something good. But they're basically invisible, until someone tries to write without one.

South Korea's exports to tiny Kyrgyzstan just reached half a billion Dollars in one month. This stuff is obviously not headed to Kyrgyzstan but is going to Russia. The West is guilty of a collective failure on Ukraine: chasing short term profits instead of shutting down autocrats. We must do better.

I wrote this, about the worst thing that ever happened to me, and now I chose to deal with it www.theguardian.com/money/2025/n...

Wrote about imagination, memory, and the time medication caused me to stop dreaming. open.substack.com/pub/oliverfr...

Substack being down is presumably going to mean a massive surge in Bluesky traffic for the first time in years.

The joy of print newspapers, according to @chrislhayes.bsky.social (the FT Weekend is even better, obviously)

Rare case of someone who should lose their job because of AI

Every one of these "If only it were possible to..." plugs for AI is animated by an incredibly deep resentment of either talent or authorship.

Does anyone use solid shampoo and/or conditioner? I’ve been trying them out and would appreciate more recommendations. (So far Grom or Hair Blocks are winning, but I’m not 100% won round yet.)

As for this - in other words the government would rather we offshore our operations instead of generating jobs and exports in a high productivity sector in the UK. I despair...

This is the best magazine profile I've read in - oh, I don't know how long. Makes you nostalgic. Even if you don't care a jot about Ken Burns or his films (I've never even seen one), find some time for this. www.gq.com/story/ken-bu...

This is just another masterful piece of writing by @tomlamont.bsky.social. Fascinating, entertaining, poetic, human. www.theguardian.com/news/2025/se...

Finished reading Wasteland by @olifranklinwallis.bsky.social. It’s excellently researched, beautifully written and very informative. It’s taken me a while because at times the topic was as bleak as you’d expect, but I am so glad I read it. I feel better able to make my own small difference.

An @nytimes investigation finds staggering levels of insider dealing: The Trump administration confers benefits on the UAE (despite security concerns) as the UAE confers riches on the Trump family. www.nytimes.com/2025/09/15/u...

It’s not enough. They should pay the $150k fine per book.

Starmer should now appoint Reeves as Deputy PM, use her change of position to renegotiate the fiscal rules, suck up six months of shit press for it, and actually start doing some policy rather than this ming vase government.

The timing of this is objectively quite funny.

Having a fact-checking team is perhaps my favourite part about working at @gqmagazine.bsky.social, and this piece about the @newyorker.com's infamous fact-checking department captures some of the joys of the process. www.newyorker.com/magazine/202...

This is an insane caper (emailing Mi5 from the Apple Store! A fake bomb hoax! Dead-drops in poo bags!). Make time to read it.

The plastics treaty has failed again. The petrostates are using waste and recycling as a distraction - it will allow them to keep producing in perpetuity. Hard to feel hopeful when the lobby has America’s backing.

Armed Trump administration agents wearing masks just showed up outside of Gavin Newsom’s press conference. This is what rising fascism looks like.

This is a nightmare