Imagine a butler whose sole purpose is to supply you with whatever you desire. He studies your dopamine output...and constantly supplies you with cigarettes. I wrote about why AI faces the same problem as social media: it's incentivized to feed our base desires www.riskgaming.com/p/ais-cigar...

Coco Gauff is about to step onto the court at Wimbledon. But the headlines have been entirely focused on an apology she recently received—one she accepted, but her fans strangely did not. I wrote about this confusion that happens when a private apology goes public.

It's election day in New York City! To celebrate, we had the leaders of @abundanceny.bsky.social on the Riskgaming podcast. We talked housing, subways, community boards, Robert Moses, and the politics of growth.

The details of my friend Alistair’s deportation are even more horrific than I previously thought. Recommend reading his brutally honest account:

Hi everyone I was denied entry, detained, and deported from the USA over the last 48 hours because of my reporting on the Columbia student protests I arrived back in Melbourne hours ago and had my phone handed back to me upon landing

I wrote about Joni Ernst's "apology," the medicaid cuts, getting banned on X, and the legacy of my late Uncle Ravi

Thanks to all who joined up for our Riskgaming meetups in DC and Pittsburgh and our runthrough of Southwest Silicon in London. We’ll have more Riskgaming events throughout the summer, so stay tuned. Sign up at www.riskgaming.com to be the first to know

The internet didn’t used to suck this much. @dannycrichton.com and I talked to the great @noupside.bsky.social about middleware, community gardens, this website, and how to make the internet fun again. Transcript below! www.riskgaming.com/p/how-can-we...

We have probably not found aliens, yet. Science is all about uncertainty—but you wouldn't know it from the headlines. I wrote about how the media has decreased trust in science, and aided the Trump Administration's war on science, for the Riskgaming newsletter: www.riskgaming.com/p/the-nyts-...

I wrote about chess and a cheating scandal that happened today on Twitch and the apology that followed open.substack.com/pub/laurence...

It’s a big day for us at the Riskgaming Initiative—we now have our own website and substack, and to celebrate Danny has penned a brilliant and only slightly crazed manifesto on what the hell this is and why we’re doing it. Give it a read! t.co/JWL8b8DbCN

We should protest arbitrary deportations to El Salvadorian gulags because it's the right thing to do. But it's also a smart political tactic. You absolutely should attack your opponent's strength.

Yesterday a business school in Lithuania did a play-through of our China/EV Riskgaming scenario without us even knowing! Building a worldwide Riskgaming community like this is one of the great advantages of being open source.

The obsession with trade deficits, manufacturing jobs...Trump clearly has China envy. So we had @neilthomas123.bsky.social and @katelogan.bsky.social, two top China industrial strategy experts, on the pod. They played our riskgame and told us what we got right, wrong, and everything in-between

Maybe us Jews really do control the markets and the weather

I wrote about comms consultants, that guy big ballz, and how the right wing plays the apology game better than the left on twitter. (Also: I'm moving from a private newsletter to substack!) laurencepevsner.substack.com/p/on-comms-c...

TSA agents should be able to nominate well-behaved and efficient boarders to get lounge status

In LA they just sell you viral products straight from TikTok

Obsessed with this pickle tower, complete with a pickle juice waterfall, erected for a German election results watch party

a special 60-second teaser for our lovely Bluesky fans

We like to shame politicians for staying in their jobs too long and furthering gerontocracy. That means we should also do the reverse, and praise the ones that step aside for the next generation.

The motto of USAID is "From the American people." But we've invested too much in arguing that foreign aid is for the American people. My piece in the Atlantic on foregrounding the moral case for foreign aid: www.theatlantic.com/internationa...

The Moynihan Center at The City College of New York is excited to announce our 2025–2026 senior fellowship opportunities! We are now accepting applications for the Moynihan Public Scholars Fellowship and the Moynihan Postdoctoral Fellowship. 👇🏽 1/ moynihancenter.ccny.cuny.edu/news-events/...

I'm hosting a new riskgame (immersive simulation) on the perils and possibilities of biotech. You’ll get to step into the shoes of a scientist, diplomat, or epidemiologist when a crisis hits. Tell me if you'd like to join us in NYC or LA. Fills up fast -- DC already full!

Our commons are collapsing. The US pulled out of the Paris Accords, the WHO. China is cutting undersea cables. Antarctica is up for grabs. Online, fact checking is out, paywalls are up, and platforms are polarized. In person, we spend our time home alone. Third places, gone.

Real life Tashi Duncan getting to the Australian Open final is vengeance for the Challengers score snub at the Oscars

Madison Keys, American firepower, American hero

My latest for @mcsweeneys.net on the biggest promise that has already been broken: www.mcsweeneys.net/articles/i-a...

I’m putting together a regular “Abundance & Ales” happy hour for people who support or are curious about the abundance agenda. Flatiron in NYC, first drink is on me. DM me your email to get details

Naomi Osaka: "[Muchova] crushed me when I wore my best outfit at the U.S. Open, so this was my little revenge" *crowd reacts* "Revenge is not a bad thing!" #tennis

Ursula K. LeGuin on technology

fascinating. I would have thought a fire resistant house would be solid concrete but it seems you can make a big difference with some relatively small design alterations www.bloomberg.com/news/article...

Day 2 of posting my dad's #astrophotography until he notices: MILKY WAY SENTINEL "A hoodoo in Goblin Valley State Park, Utah, looks solemnly over a deserted landscape, as the Milky Way rises in the sky." 📸Charles Pevsner #space #astronomy

Very proud of my brother who is literally unearthing the understudied connection between prehistoric beasts and us

Part of the success and thrill of congestion pricing is seeing a government program work immediately, at the snap of a finger. Imagine if we could build trains, housing, power plants at a similar pace. Instead, simple fixes feel like minor miracles.

Day 1 of posting my dad's #astrophotography until he notices: THE STINGRAY NEBULA "This is an exceedingly faint HII (atomic ionized hydrogen) region about 700 light years away in Sagittarius, requiring lots of imaging time to capture — 13 hours, in this case." 📸Charles Pevsner #space #astronomy

"This next section of the rules is on how to build and maintain your fortresses. It’s not really necessary, so we’ll just skip it, but rest assured, I will use an obscure rule from this section to win later on, and you’ll have no idea what I just did."

“Small changes can beget big things.”

The DNC will choose a new chair Feb 1. But the names of the members who will vote is secret, even to *other members.* Until today. We are publishing a list of all 448 voting members of the DNC, to show how power is concentrated & flows inside the national party. Micah Sifry has the story.

In this week's newsletter, @jamesfolta.com and I collect great writing by Talib Babb, Grace Fetterman, @setherubin.bsky.social, and @ginnyhogan.bsky.social & @lpevs.bsky.social. Plus, @markpaglia.bsky.social's latest solo RPG & my upcoming workshops. Check it out & subscribe here ⬇️

Honored that this "Old Favorite" of the late great Brian Agler resurfaced in today's Newsletter of Humorous Writings Re-reading the piece, I was shocked to see we somehow predicted both the AI takeover *and* the Russia-Ukraine war in...2020?

As fires rage in southern California, I was shocked to learn that 4% of calls to fire departments are for actual fires It’s similar to the “invisible job” problem of doormen. Titles can be deceiving, you don’t always know all the different kinds of work people do!

Fun fact: both Denmark and Panama were just elected to the UN Security Council until 2026. On day 1 when Biden admin arrived at the UN, we were laser focused on building up relationships with our fellow council members. Seems Trump is too, in his own way.

My piping hot take is that the G train is the best train -never gets stuck underground because there’s never another train ahead of it -chiller people (no manhattan commuters) -you get a lil workout in when you need to sprint to catch the shorter car

We should make taxes and fares tie directly to related programs more often. If you want to be part of the few who drive, you help pay for the many who subway. People buy into policies they understand!

I don’t quite have the right words to describe Rejection by @tonytula.com, but it really pierced me and it’s the closest thing to reading David Foster Wallace I’ve encountered since we lost him. It’s upsetting and hilarious and impressively deranged.

We are now living through a few precious weeks of freedom before the overlords watch our every move. That’s right, nothing you listen to right now will end up in your Spotify wrapped. Enjoy your liberty while it lasts.

I just got back from running simulations with China and EV experts in NYC, DC, and SF. The conclusion in game after game was the same: China is eating our lunch and we’re not getting it back.

I have a tradition every year of writing up an article reviewing my top ten albums to come out that year, and my article for this year is out now! Give it a read and let me know what you think! skpevsner.medium.com/spencers-top...