Hi. I wrote an essay about AI slop: How it feels like an invasive species for the internet. How its boosters describe building a future that’s devoid of craft. How frictionlessness can be nihilistic & how this stuff seems to leach part of our shared humanity out of the world. I hope you'll read it.

My book Live to See the Day is off to the printer and available for preorder. I’d love it if you bought a copy or spread the word. It took me around the world — and took seven years to write! Which is fitting for a book about things that might never happen. www.penguinrandomhouse.ca/books/645965...

Punching back: After being diagnosed with Parkinson’s, I’m literally in the fight of my life. Parkinson’s is the fastest growing neurological disease in the world, affecting 110,000 Canadians, by Marni Jackson www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/arti... via @theglobeandmail.com

The Globe and Mail's (@theglobeandmail.com) incredible Opinion team is hiring an editor. Details below, but message me if you have any questions: jobs.dayforcehcm.com/en-US/theglo...

Fix it don’t snuff it. In the Toronto Star today I write a defence of Ridgeway Plaza. People want this kind of downtown experience but we’ve built so much of Canada for cars & hostile to people. Ridgeway is a canary in our civic coal mine, a symptom of a bigger disease: cars.

Such a breathtaking confluence of societal failures in this Hannah Dreier story. You've got crippling healthcare costs, lack of worker protections, worsening climate-fueled wildfires, poverty, lack of opportunity for young men... www.nytimes.com/2025/09/07/u...

School started in #Montreal this week, and our school-street / rue-école is back! The street outside our children’s elementary school is closed to cars—but open to people. I have an essay in @theglobeandmail.com telling the story of how we made it happen: www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/arti...

I wrote about Noel Gallagher, the chief: defector.com/the-oasis-re...

Avid readers have probably already seen their favorite authors--many of whom rely on these grants to buy time to finish their books--posting in shock about the form rejections they've received from the NEA. Well, here is the obituary. www.npr.org/2025/08/26/n...

The fact that the thing we're calling artificial intelligence *can't do math* and yet we're jamming it into programs that successfully *have done math* for decades, then warning people against using the AI to do math, seems like an excellent summary of where we are.

For those curious, this is the description of the session being led by an AI at Eden Mills (it's also the first event of the festival in the program after the launch party). the "fellow co-weaver" is the ED of the foundation that provided funding to create the chatGPT powered AI that wrote the "book

Four young Afghan siblings were hiding in Pakistan, desperate to avoid deportation, when @dougsaunders.bsky.social met them. This is their epic, harrowing story (I'm biased but I'm extremely proud of Doug for his role in helping bring the Hamidis to Canada.) www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/arti...

“We need your help, Doug, they identified us in the apartment.” This is a movie: www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/arti...

“What does due process look like for a toddler?” Incredible reporting by @saramojtehedz.bsky.social, Kathryn Blaze Baum, @mahima-singh.bsky.social, @janicedickson.bsky.social www.theglobeandmail.com/canada/artic...

BBC International Editor Jeremy Bowen has confirmed that the entire Al Jazeera team in Gaza City has been killed.

Al Jazeera’s Anas al-Sharif has been killed in an Israeli attack on a tent for journalists outside Al-Shifa hospital.

When his wife died, the paleontologist Barry James poured his grief into the reconstruction of a triceratops skeleton that they had started together.

Trump's war on facts has reached a new level and the message is clear: Government officials who deal in data now fear they have to toe the line and adopt his version of reality no matter how false or risk losing their jobs. www.nytimes.com/2025/08/03/u...

One of the greatest city maps ever made (by @chazhutton.com)

Being obsessed with the weather isn’t new, but this fixation has been modernized with hyper-localized streams of information, push notifications and influencers who feed on its addictive nature – all against the backdrop of extreme weather events. My latest: www.theglobeandmail.com/canada/artic...

Fantastic stuff www.newyorker.com/magazine/202...

It would be impossible for me to love this story more, about visiting-day at sleepaway camp What have we become www.thecut.com/article/how-...

With 'Kreative Kontrol' reaching 1,000 episodes this week, we talked to host @vishkhanna.bsky.social — and his frequent guests Ian MacKaye, U.S. Girls, and @cadenceweapon.bsky.social — about what makes the music and culture podcast so indispensable

All the dire implications notwithstanding it is hilarious how evil this technology is. Billions of dollars spent on this greasy lying stupid thing that was literally built to replace people, and everyone that uses it gets weaker, lazier, dumber, and sadder for having done so. Well done all around.

My latest, from the Israel-Gaza border, where I listened in as tour groups came to view the ruins of Gaza: www.irishtimes.com/world/middle...

In June, I visited a book club at Grand Valley Institution for Women, a maximum security prison. After our conversation about my book, we wrote this poem together. It’s in @theglobeandmail.com today. [Gift link] www.theglobeandmail.com/gift/e51db13...

Breaking News: Israeli military officials say they have no proof Hamas routinely steals UN aid, undercutting a claim Israel has used to limit food for Gaza.

Good one www.thesmallbow.com/p/how-to-feel

In light of this week's Hockey Canada trial verdict, it's worth listening to the young woman who was raped by Jacob Hoggard and is still in therapy from the trauma of that trial.

Newsletter: This is the Hater's Guide To The AI Bubble: genAI is nothing like Uber or Amazon Web Services, there are no profitable genAI companies, agents do not and cannot exist, there is no AI SaaS story, and everything rides - and dies - on selling GPUs. www.wheresyoured.at/the-haters-g...

Hi, yes, g'morning. This is awkward. But targeting a reporter - hi! - with surreptitiously obtained photos and details of her tooling around town is an attack on the public's right to know. www.theglobeandmail.com/canada/artic...

We made a river. My long read on Toronto’s visionary port lands project: www.theglobeandmail.com/canada/artic...

I visited the park last night. It’s incredible. The most important public space to open in Toronto this century. www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/arti...

Not really an overstatement to say that the test of a free society is whether or not comedians can make fun of the country's leader on TV without repurcussions.

i'm sure these two things aren't related at all

Here we go.

Come work at @theglobeandmail.com. We’ve just posted a number of new editorial positions: jobs.dayforcehcm.com/en-US/theglo...

Huge news in the world of Canadian literature: The Giller Prize says it will shut down at the end of 2025 if it doesn't receive federal funding: www.theglobeandmail.com/arts/books/a...

WIRED sent a detailed request for comment to the Department of Justice at 7:40 am on Tuesday. Two minutes later, Natalie Baldassarre, a public affairs officer for the DOJ, replied: “Refer you to the FBI.” The FBI declined WIRED’s request for comment. by @dmehro.bsky.social again obvi

you've heard about the college kids who can't do anything without ChatGPT's help—but what about the students who oppose generative A.I. for myriad reasons and refuse to rely on it as a shortcut? well, I found and spoke with a few of them here: slate.com/life/2025/07...