This is an amazing piece about the most important under-the-radar tech story of our time

In his Issue Sixteen essay, Max Hancock examines the new simulation technology that’s coming to make your job worse. www.thedriftmag.com/model-employ...

A pro-bug barback meme account, a full-time consumer of opium, an abyss that was once a mountain, Sigma Mussolini, and an onslaught of memories — read a new batch of Mentions by Lev Mamuya, Brian Harkin, Colin Lodewick, Tiffany Berruti, and @jamieyouwere.bsky.social. www.thedriftmag.com/mentions/

“A pig in the shape of me goes to the gas station.” Read Kathleen Ma’s Issue Sixteen poem “Battle Creek.” www.thedriftmag.com/battle-creek/

Excellent piece in the newsletter today from our Minneapolis comrade Pranay Somayajula on developing mass protagonism in response to the DHS assault newsletter.thedriftmag.com/p/fighting-f...

“Expressions of solidarity have become a feature of daily life in the Twin Cities,” writes Minneapolis organizer Pranay Somayajula in a new piece on fighting back against ICE. newsletter.thedriftmag.com/p/fighting-f...

The great Sophie Haigney is writing an advice column for our newsletter! Send in your questions to [email protected] with “Advice” in the subject line. newsletter.thedriftmag.com/p/am-i-okay-...

Introducing a new advice column from Sophie Haigney! “I hope to be conclusive in ways that are surprising and that might not supply what the person asking or reading the question hopes to hear,” she writes. newsletter.thedriftmag.com/p/am-i-okay-...

A diapered man-baby, a wisp of a gothic tale, an attempted magnum opus, a gargantuan Bey, and the demon Pazuzu — read a new batch of Mentions by Abigail Gray, Rhoda Feng, Ben Sloan, Gabe Abdellatif, and Pete Segal www.thedriftmag.com/mentions/

“Love Language,” Will Hall’s Issue Sixteen short story, imagines a dating show on which contestants aren’t able to speak directly to their prospective mates. www.thedriftmag.com/love-language/

The Mormon tradwife behind the infamous Ballerina Farm, star-crossed lovers, and Susan Sontag’s sexual conquests — read a libidinous selection of Issue 16 Mentions from Zach Ngin, @dianamheald.bsky.social, @izzyampil.bsky.social, Mathias Fuelling, and Krithika Varagur www.thedriftmag.com/mentions/

“He believed that she could desire him, wattled neck and all, and might willingly lick the penis that dangled below his belly like the cord tugged to inflate a life vest.” Read Elisa Gonzalez’s razor-sharp story “The Wife” in Issue Sixteen: www.thedriftmag.com/the-wife/

Our Issue Sixteen Dispatches examine what gets in the way of access to healthy and sustainably produced food, from California to Venezuela, the New York prison system, Gaza, and beyond. Read them all today. www.thedriftmag.com/dignity-and-...

"To those currently in power, the U.S. doesn’t even need to claim to uphold higher principles — they would be wasted on the ungrateful." - @seamus-malekafzali.com thedriftmag.com/be-grateful/

@thedriftmag.com party worth it for getting into multiple conversations about the Incredible String Band

I will be reading from this piece this evening! Come join us. www.thedriftmag.com/how-i-learne...

Our Issue Sixteen launch party is TONIGHT from 7 p.m. on at the White Horse Tavern in the Financial District (25 Bridge Street). Hope to see you there!

Drift contributor Madeline Cash’s hilarious and tender debut novel Lost Lambs is out today. Our Associate Fiction Editor Livia Wood spoke with her about the book. newsletter.thedriftmag.com/p/ordinary-p...

Great piece in the newsletter today by the one and only @seamus-malekafzali.com on media cowardice in the aftermath of the American power grab in Venezuela newsletter.thedriftmag.com/p/when-the-m...

Even as “Trump has dropped almost all pretenses regarding the United States’s real designs, the media seems determined to keep the consent-manufacturing machine running.” Read @seamus-malekafzali.com on media coverage of the Maduro kidnapping: newsletter.thedriftmag.com/p/when-the-m...

Hope to see you in New York next week!

Our Issue Sixteen party is one week away! Featuring readings by @andycawley.bsky.social, Daniel Yadin, Elisa Gonzalez, @erikmbaker.bsky.social, @alienvsrobbins.bsky.social, Katie Way, Max Hancock, Mimi Diamond, Pranay Somayajula, @seamus-malekafzali.com, and Yoni Gelernter.

“Aphrodite’s like sigh what now / Sappho, what’s your crazy heart / want now?” Read “Domme Song 5” by @alienvsrobbins.bsky.social in Issue Sixteen. www.thedriftmag.com/domme-song-5/

In the West Bank, Jasper Nathaniel writes in today’s newsletter, the “Israeli occupation bars Palestinians from maintaining their own heritage sites, then cites the resulting deterioration as justification for taking them.” newsletter.thedriftmag.com/p/israels-ar...

We’re grateful to everyone who spent time with our work this year. Don’t miss our most-read pieces of 2025!

Save the date: join us on January 14 to celebrate Issue Sixteen!

In today’s newsletter, James Wood charts the course of the political year in thirty insults: newsletter.thedriftmag.com/p/the-year-i...

We’ll be at Pioneer Works for Press Play on Sunday, Dec. 14 from 12-7pm. Come say hi!

This year, we were proud to publish eleven short stories. In the newsletter today, we reflect on the writers and editors who make our fiction section possible. We hope you’ll read or revisit our 2025 fiction, and consider donating to our magazine. newsletter.thedriftmag.com/p/the-year-i...

The Drift holiday sale continues! Today is the last day to subscribe to receive Issue Sixteen in the mail, and the last day to order merch to ensure it will arrive before Christmas. www.thedriftmag.com/subscribe/ shop.thedriftmag.com

"Digital twins are palliatives — they treat the symptoms, not the causes, of flagging productivity growth." Max Hancock for @thedriftmag.com: www.thedriftmag.com/model-employ...

“Masochistic and even suicidal fantasy has always accompanied Israeli violence,” Yoni Gelertner writes in his Issue Sixteen essay on the mythology of Masada. www.thedriftmag.com/the-masada-o...

In @thedriftmag.com, an interview with @stschrader1.bsky.social on abolition, copaganda, and the porous line between the military and law enforcement.

“I find it ridiculous and inimical to democracy that police have veto power over elected officials’ decisions, and that politicians therefore need to walk on eggshells so as not to offend them.” Read our interview with @stschrader1.bsky.social in Issue Sixteen. www.thedriftmag.com/our-diminish...

The first industrial revolution gave capitalists steam power and mechanization, the second electricity and the assembly line, and the third computers. "The fourth, apparently, will let middle management play The Sims." Go read Max's brilliant @thedriftmag.com piece on digital twins!

Issue Sixteen of The Drift is now online for your reading pleasure! www.thedriftmag.com/issue/issue-...

I have two new poems in @thedriftmag.com today 🫶 www.thedriftmag.com/domme-song-5/

Issue Sixteen is here! 🧵

Volumeheads: A new Q&A with the one and only Solvej Balle in our newsletter today newsletter.thedriftmag.com/p/autumn-cam...

New today: a Q&A with Solvej Balle, author of “On the Calculation of Volume” newsletter.thedriftmag.com/p/autumn-cam...

Both novels we excerpted in Issue Fifteen made the New York Times’s 100 Notable Books of 2025 list. Congrats to Stephanie Wambugu and Solvej Balle!

Happy holidays from The Drift! Everything in our shop is 25 percent off until January, including subscriptions. Subscribe today to get Issue Sixteen in your mailbox. www.thedriftmag.com/subscribe/

“All toys ‘are essentially a microcosm of the adult world.’” Read associate editor Tarpley Hitt on her new book, “Barbieland: The Unauthorized History,” and grab a ticket to our launch event at McNally Jackson Seaport on December 3. newsletter.thedriftmag.com/p/barbies-at...

“His name is Henry Dale, and I don’t need to tell him that time has ground to a halt,” reads an excerpt from Solvej Balle’s “On the Calculation of Volume Book III,” which is out today. “He already knows.” www.thedriftmag.com/day1144-1167...

Here it is, a very special--& especially supersized—250th #ScholarSunday thread of great public scholarly writing & work, podcast episodes, new & forthcoming books from the last week. Please add more below, share as widely as possible, & enjoy, all! 🗃️ blackwhiteandread.com/scholarsunda...

I have read a LOT of romantasy out of an intense and abiding fascination/need to understand What The Hell Is Going On With Women In My Age Group. This essay from @thedriftmag.com really nails it, without the sneering you usually find in litcrit on the genre. www.thedriftmag.com/escape-artis...

Really loved this piece on romantasy, a genre I have enjoyed that also feels like the death knell of a certain level of popular literacy

“The heroines of romantasy are flicked, nuzzled, ridden, throttled, bitten, pulled, plowed, hit, filled, soaked, and — here’s a Maas favorite — shattered.” Daniel Yadin examines the genre taking over American publishing in a new piece from Issue Sixteen. www.thedriftmag.com/escape-artis...

“The only durable response to Sudan’s famine lies with its own civilians, who must be empowered to resist the militarization of hunger,” Shahad Elfaki argues in a new Dispatch from Issue Sixteen. www.thedriftmag.com/a-grotesque-...

Once again had trouble narrowing down my four favorite mini-reviews in the latest issue of The Drift @thedriftmag.com