Small talk is, in fact, good—letting you both have gratifying, low stakes conversations about things we all experience throughout your day AND letting you suss out new folks for how you vibe with them when they pass through your life

Best albums lists are uniquely great b/c in this quiet week I can just go through and listen to them all. Best movies are probably spread across a dozen services I might not have. Best books and shows are fun, but would take me months to get through. Best albums? Right there, easy to sink into!

Tis the season

Every year I am reminded that more people need to watch The Apartment (This is fun, except for it missing my personal favorite!)

Guys. I crushed my reading goal: reading [any] books that I really enjoyed! Some highlights!

I've come to enjoy listening to audio books while rucking or on the stationary bike—but you absolutely lose me when you say you're fully engaged in the act of reading while driving www.nytimes.com/2025/12/21/b...

I feel cheated that my top four metro rewind routes were D60, S2, D6X and S9

This isn't a prediction because it could have been written any time in the past 15 years, but I suspect the good people at Nieman didn't care at all because it's so true, relatable and needed www.niemanlab.org/2025/12/plea...

Before anyone quips about judging books based on these, it is worth noting there is very little crossover between this list and the Times' best books list www.nytimes.com/2025/12/14/b...

Truly, I would love nothing more than for us to stop inventing new ways of feeding content through various apps and just revive RSS

Public transit is great and helps foster dense, thriving communities with welcoming third places... ...is technically true, here, but not exactly what I meant www.wsj.com/lifestyle/travel/the-airport-lounge-where-everybody-knows-your-name-df0af519

Excited for everyone who (incorrectly) states they're looking for their penguin in their dating profiles to update it to... ...wild dogs? OK, that might not have the same ring. www.wsj.com/science/biol...

Balance of powers is justifying ligatures in your executable

Some times I wonder if there is a world out there where Zuckerberg's real legacy is helping turn Nine Inch Nails into the masters of the ethereal score Anyway, good stuff here + Tron is interesting b/c it's v much a NIN album not a Reznor & Ross one (but still good!) www.nytimes.com/2025/12/09/a...

I cannot help but wonder what things like regional news would look like with even a fraction of $15 billion invested in them each year www.wsj.com/tech/ai/meta...

My Spotify wrapped was all songs I learned to play this year. And there's a disappointment in not being where I wanted to be in various fandoms for bragging rights, but... ...I wouldn't trade that slow, engaged media take at all. That said, I still listened to more Nelly than you did.

I remain unconvinced that the way to improve self driving vehicles' efficiency is "be as aggressive as human drivers" and not simply "have transit levels of passenger density" www.wsj.com/lifestyle/ca...

This lede makes the crucial mistake of thinking any self respecting guitar head would buy amp sims _instead_ of analogue amps—when obviously a gearhead is going to buy them _both_ (and use them in parallel with a DI box amp sim) arstechnica.com/culture/2025...

I am begging the Times graphic staff to do something cool with the reader "have read" / "want to read" data they collect with all of their books coverage www.nytimes.com/2025/12/02/b...

This Cyber Monday, remember that turning off loading images in your email will help collapse open rates for every company that is emailing a vague deal to anyone they can find

I am begging Brands to actually try and sell me their product rather than simply emailing me that something I didn't know existed is now 25% off, this week

Currently, there's effectively unlimited money to build out data center infrastructure—and physical constraints are the bottleneck. www.wsj.com/tech/ai/when...

As a nerd who has loved to see other people dive deep into the stuff I've been mucking about with most of my life, it's so weird to see how everything has become gamergate www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2025/1...

God, I hope this is so disconcertingly weird (complimentary) www.hollywoodreporter.com/tv/tv-news/s...

I've been incredibly lucky to work in smart newsrooms full of dedicated people, but I was especially lucky to get scooped up by McClatchy's DC bureau after being laid off and getting a chance to work with papers so directly plugged into covering their communities. So, a gut punch—if not a surprise.

A look at the almost-half-a-trillion-dollar defense contractor's meteoric rise in value while notching little in sales growth www.wsj.com/finance/stoc...

There is a lot of irony in one of the best journalism schools in the country scheduling the first big sports event in DC in over a decade the day before Election Tuesday

Baseball is great (horrible)

Neighborhoods are good, man (porchfest edition)

Prey, I trust you know me, Ozy But look on my works and despair? I know there's, around, much decay But look on my works and despair? Prey, I trust you know, me Ozy But look on my works and despair? And all the other trunks, vast, fade, But look on my works and despair? 🎶

We have successfully created an inverse Haruki Murakami www.wsj.com/sports/nyc-m...

Excited for our future followup to this "CEOs are furious employees don't respond more promptly" www.wsj.com/lifestyle/ca...

Buses! www.nytimes.com/interactive/... (this is a great data breakdown on some of the underlying ridership and funding issues plus has a cute lil streetway and fun lil buses scattered throughout the story)

Really interesting work (and thoughts on experimental design)!

Picture of the East Wing demolition of the White House taken on my flight out of DCA.

Reading this is the oldest, most "kids these days" I think I have ever felt www.wsj.com/tech/persona...

This thread is a good story in charts on the commonwealth's off year elections

The upside to being the AV guy among your group of music friends is you get to spend a bunch of time listening to just how much better everyone gets over time. Also you get to level yourself in the mix.

My story on the front page of @chicagotribune.com today looks at the darkening rhetoric from Trump and the administration, as well as why experts on democracy say that’s a troubling sign (gift link) www.chicagotribune.com/2025/10/19/t...

Between The Last Dinner Party and Of Monsters and Men, this new music Friday is really rushing in cozy fall vibes

I am deeply fascinated at the idea that someone would rather talk to someone than just write on a blank page

Hell. Yeah. www.nytimes.com/2025/10/14/a...

The top of this thread is getting a lot of reposts in my feed, but the entire thing is full of good polling and graphics

I think a lot about how the information economy around regional news was making money but not enough so it mostly went away www.wsj.com/tech/ai/ai-b...

Did Nintendo just backdoor launch VR hardware for the Switch 2...

In addition to the images of the letter itself, some context from other historical documents www.wsj.com/us-news/law/...

This header art simultaneously reinvigorates me with youth and makes me feel a million years old. A+++

I would make one change to this program. Contact their insurance carriers, not the drivers themselves. www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/202...

I'm sorry. Spotify—the _music_ platform—introduced a chat feature‽

I am choosing to believe “My Man on Willpower” is about Hal Jordan