Trump loves to say that Iran’s new leaders are more moderate when precisely the opposite is true. @nargesbajoghli.bsky.social spent a decade embedded with the IRGC’s media arm, where she saw a battle between two generations play out: the moderate elders vs. the more confrontational youth.

“The hardest part is that people here are still living. Going to work, buying things for Nowruz, breathing this air. Life is continuing. And I don’t know if that’s resilience or if it’s something sadder than that" nymag.com/intelligence...

"In Australia, my cousin Ali and his friends were writing screeds against me for not using my platform to back the bombings of Iran. Old friends will no longer speak to me. Some of them I have known my whole life. Some of them, I realize now, I did not know at all." nymag.com/intelligence...

"The fujoshi switch has been flipped, and now everyone’s fujoing out" — @alexjung.bsky.social on Heated Rivalry and girls who love boys who love boys www.vulture.com/article/heat...

My first cover story at @nymag.com! I went to Utah to figure out how everything got so Mormon: www.thecut.com/article/morm...

“When I talk to students, I hear them say things that I can be taken aback by. If the instructor’s body doesn’t look a certain way, they’ll say, ‘Well, I don’t want to take class from them'" @madelesque.bsky.social on how Pilates culture got so neurotic www.thecut.com/article/pila...

"A white man points both his middle fingers and releases a teeth-baring yell, and it seems as if he were drawing a current from the pavement straight out of his mouth" @kerryhowley.bsky.social, putting words to feelings like only she can nymag.com/intelligence...

this is smart, thorough, and excellent

"The agencies themselves laid the groundwork for this project over the previous decades, as they morphed into rogue actors with increasingly radicalized unions" @michael-macher.bsky.social on how we got here www.phenomenalworld.org/analysis/enf...

I wrote about the longstanding dynamics that produced our terrifying present for @phenomenalworld.bsky.social.

"Watching the film is an emotionally raw experience. The choice to use Hind’s voice in the film is brilliant and awful. It is so alive it has the effect of pulling you into an immediate present where she could still survive." www.vulture.com/article/the-...

No director working today understands our vigilante-justice fueled moment better than Jafar Panahi, who is captured beautifully by @roxana-hadadi.bsky.social in this profile www.vulture.com/article/jafa...

What I like about this review is Chu very clearly gets bored with Williams and uses his bad book as an opportunity to think through Toqueville and engage with the question of “speech” in material terms.

I wrote about how Brad Pitt has effectively albeit transparently used F1: The Movie and its press tour to rehabilitate his image, in order to obscure the violent allegations about abuse toward Angelina Jolie & his current estrangement from his six kids, @vulture.com. www.vulture.com/article/brad...

"‘Why you blocking my sun right now? I’m trying to bask in a Zohran win.’” nymag.com/intelligence...

IDF soldiers have now themselves admitted they have been ordered to murder aid-seekers in Gaza. Truly an atrocity built on atrocity. www.haaretz.com/israel-news/...

NYT Editorial Board:

three days after I got this assigned (about a musician I love, done by a writer I admire), I experienced a sudden, unexpected, and very close death in my life, so having this piece to work on was kind of like having a grief guide to hang out with :) www.vulture.com/article/ben-...

He’s transformed the race with memorable policy proposals and a winning social-media presence. Critics argue he’s drawn to attention-grabbing stunts and that his free bus program may not be the unqualified success he claims it was. E. Alex Jung on Zohran nymag.com/intelligence...

Incredible Eric Adams anecdote from @nymag.com's Zohran piece. nymag.com/intelligence...

"That is the peril faced by every marginalized writer: He may become so accustomed to the margins he cannot recognize the center even when he is standing in it" @andrealongchu.bsky.social on Ocean Vuong www.vulture.com/article/ocea...

"The lowest moment of my life, killing someone, replays several times throughout the 45-minute episode. I can no longer separate these images from my actual memories of what I did that night." a devastating piece, deftly edited by @tomiobaro.bsky.social www.vulture.com/article/how-...

no one does it like diane warren www.vulture.com/article/dian...

"the US immigration system runs not on the enforcement of immigration laws, but on their selective nonenforcement" — fascinating dive into the contradictions of immigration and labor policy by @michael-macher.bsky.social www.phenomenalworld.org/analysis/wag...

I wrote about my kind, funny childhood friend Michelle Trachtenberg, and the group of friends that saved my life when I was a kid. www.vulture.com/article/mara...

"If there is one idea that has unified my thinking as a trans person since I embarked on a career as a writer, it is that we must give up the dream of explaining ourselves"

“We can never tell a guest what they want. It's a matter of listening to them and giving them the illusion of choice.” www.vulture.com/article/whit...

"We are living in a city that assumes, requires, and depends on the idea that every salary be augmented by a secret stash of funds" @madelesque.bsky.social on how parents money keeps NYC afloat nymag.com/intelligence...

goodbye to all that nymag.com/intelligence...

Scarlett Pavlovich just filed charges in federal court accusing Neil Gaiman of human trafficking -- and sexual abuse, assault, coercion, and rape. Amanda Palmer is named in the complaint as well, for exploiting Scarlett's unpaid labor, and neglecting to warn her about Gaiman.

For our latest cover, a harrowing piece by @lilashapiro.bsky.social on the sexual assault allegations against Neil Gaiman www.vulture.com/article/neil...

wrote about dnd www.vulture.com/article/is-d...

In Brian Jordan Alvarez’s beloved YouTube series 'The Gay and Wondrous Life of Caleb Gallo,' he cast his friends in roles based on their real-life romantic entanglements. While reenacting those scenes, one of them alleges he assaulted him. www.vulture.com/article/bria...