"ants became farmers roughly 66 million years earlier than we did."

I wrote about the stranger-than-fiction miracles of coevolution in nature and human society—and a smarter framework to understand ourselves. (Or: what connects avocados, ants who farm fungus, karma, and our relationship with dogs?)

Man Wouldn't Have Worn Costume To Work If He'd Known He Was Getting Laid Off

Heartwarming attitudes and actions that should spread worldwide "Our enduring inability to separate out homelessness from blame and those who “deserve” support ends up blinding us to what is ultimately an empirical question over what works and what doesn’t."

This is a long read but it's about the most positive thing I've seen in a while. Ostensibly (and constructively) about homelessness and poverty but relatable to broader politics and governance

Excellent article: "Greater Change’s results are impressive. According to their own checks, 85 percent of their clients have achieved 'permanent housing or sustained stable housing' in 2024-25. And 39 percent of their clients got a job in the aftermath of the intervention from Greater Change...."

The same is true of the Black Death, Mount Tambora’s eruption and the Mongol Invasions.

This is actually incredibly interesting

A GREAT read. Please have a look… “Most government policies remain based on hunches, what lawmakers say will work, rather than by testing various options to verify what works best. No experiments done, no evidence required.”

Should we just give cash to homeless people? I wrote about what the evidence shows--and a London-based charity called Greater Change that has a simple, innovative way of making a difference:

The film “I Swear” is one of the best movies I’ve seen in the last several years. Funny, but above all, *extremely* moving. The world would be a better place if more people saw it. (And Robert Aramayo deserves an Oscar.) www.youtube.com/watch?v=oeWq...

Brian Klaas on fine form: "You only live around 30,000 days; today is one of them, and the world is far too fascinating a place to waste any more of them on something so destructively boring." And yes, I see the irony.

Lovely review in @audiofilemagazine.bsky.social of our #DouglasAdams audiobook #BookSky - featuring @brianklaas.bsky.social @stephenfry.bsky.social @realbaddiel.bsky.social @sanjeevbhaskar.bsky.social @lucycooke.bsky.social and many others. www.audiofilemagazine.com/reviews/read...

Some news: The Washington Post is preparing to cut newsroom staff even after several high profile exits. Bezos’ new opinion editor has privately told people The Post is in “severe financial distress.” Details in @status.news www.status.news/p/washington...

One of the better photographs depicting modernity, I'd say:

There are a lot of things happening under Trump that are illegal. The question that determines whether America remains a democracy or a competitive authoritarian regime is whether that matters.

Last year, it was CrowdStrike. This week, AWS. We are engineering critical social systems that are completely contingent on single points of failure. It’s designed fragility and it produces catastrophic risk—all because it’s marginally more efficient. We are foolishly careening toward disaster:

Demolishing American history for a grotesque, gilded vanity ballroom, paid for by opaque donors bribing the president.

I'm super grateful to now be a UK citizen, but I did end up spending £17,000 in visa fees over 12 years to get there. Changing visa types brings you back to zero; in-person appointments are extortionate (thousands of pounds) for little more than scanning documents (often done by other immigrants).

Japan finally has a woman as prime minister: Sanae Takaichi. But Japan's proportion of women in parliament (16%) is still extremely low relative to other developed democracies.

Can you imagine if Keir Starmer got private companies that he had direct power over and rich donors who wanted deregulation to pay £250 million in donations to knock down part of Big Ben to make his own little special tower? Because that's what Trump is doing to the White House literally right now.

The Democrats need to get a hell of a lot of cameras on the White House and plaster the photos everywhere. It's not just the brazen symbol of a megalomaniac destroying national heritage; it's happening during a government shutdown when ordinary people aren't getting paid. Make every American see it.

Instead of scrolling. Read this. It’s excellent.

Looking forward to hosting @arvd.bsky.social on Thursday evening at UCL for a discussion of what The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy and the wisdom of Douglas Adams can teach us about modern politics. Tickets are free, but you need to book. Hope to see you there. Here's the link:

“…early social media fostered rather than replaced real-world connections.” I often feel like this is the white dragon we’ve all been chasing for 20+ years. Excellent article.

This is brilliant, particularly this line about early social media: ‘If you got exposed to insane opinions, that was only because your real-world friends were insane’

I wrote about how and why social media has largely become boring and why it's a bad idea to eat your own brain: www.forkingpaths.co/p/is-social-...

Very funny

This is a great piece with a number of interesting and worrying facts…

I wrote about how and why social media has largely become boring and why it's a bad idea to eat your own brain: www.forkingpaths.co/p/is-social-...

A long list of sociopathic grifters fit this profile

A good read 👇🏻

The president (or maybe not president) of Madagascar—a radio DJ who overthrew the island’s yogurt kingpin in a coup d’état—just fled the country in a French helicopter after Gen Z protests. I wrote about the most interesting island you know nothing about, with bonus pictures of me with lemurs:

This is an enthralling read🤯

A coup just took place in Madagascar. I wrote about it--and why it's the most interesting island you probably know nothing about.

What a fascinating read.

This is a really interesting read, regardless of whether you is the kind who usually is interested in African authoritarians or not!

If Mills were to win, she would start her term at the age of 79, meaning she would end her first term when she's 85. This has become a defining feature of modern US politics. (Chuck Grassley is 92; Bernie is 84; Trump is 79, etc).

The president (or maybe not president) of Madagascar—a radio DJ who overthrew the island’s yogurt kingpin in a coup d’état—just fled the country in a French helicopter after Gen Z protests. I wrote about the most interesting island you know nothing about, with bonus pictures of me with lemurs:

Very much looking forward to this event with @brianklaas.bsky.social at @ucl.ac.uk next week -- discussing #DouglasAdams #Politics and #People #BookSky www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/douglas-ad...

A year from now the US will be consumed with election tension. It is already building: Will midterms be free and fair? Will MAGA Republicans accept the results? Give @brianklaas.bsky.social and I 56 minutes to talk it through frdhfirstroughdraftofhistory.substack.com/p/what-condi...

Uh

I wrote about some good news: a UK charity that's combating homelessness with some extremely simple, straightforward interventions that use flexible, decentralized decision-making and treat people as people. Their approach showcases the importance of experimental and evidence-based public policy:

I wrote about all the lived experiences and strange structures of modern society — many of which we take for granted — that were literally impossible for all previous generations of Homo sapiens. www.forkingpaths.co/p/we-are-dif...

Two years on from October 7th, here’s my essay on Just War Theory and how philosophers are making sense of the carnage in Gaza:

Very normal conception of journalism from a person who has never been a reporter but now is in charge of one of the largest media outlets in the most powerful country on the planet.

"We’ve invented an upside-down world where Starbucks never changes, while rivers dry up and democracies collapse." An interesting read:

This was fascinating.

This is a really arresting way to look at how different our experience is from that of almost all our progenitors. An intriguing read.