Watching my daughter grow up without evangelical religious trauma is breathtaking. She’s not scared of a hell, or a god who would condemn her to everlasting torture, and she’s never heard of a rapture. Growing up without that fear really does something good to a young person.

ruin two bands by combining them: arcade [earth wind &] fire

God can’t see your sins at an all you can eat buffet

Some news:

Not now, haunted Victorian shoes

this is insane to me. the doj had forever to look into this. now they're like liveblogging on x like they have no more information than a random person on social media

Man, am I grateful for sewers. I cleaned my apartment this morning, took a shower, use the bathroom, I’m currently running the dishwasher and doing several loads of laundry. All that dirty water is being handled by the Northwest Bergen County Utility Authority. Amazing stuff.

In case anyone ever fears you’re not supporting the author by reading from a library, you absolutely are! And the more people request a book the more copies they buy!

Friday (personal) news drop: I moved my site off substack and will be writing full-time in 2026. www.blakechastain.com/the-exvangel...

Larry Ellison and other billionaires want us all fighting over basic dignity and human rights so we don't form a unified consensus that they're a planetary cancer

thank goodness our country's financial wellbeing isn't tied to this industry

The Vanity Fair photographer from the Susie Wiles story. Holy. Shit. www.washingtonpost.com/style/power/...

They're a gang blockading the street. Why are the police doing crowd control work for them?

They updated the website today to remove the word "independent" Before (left), after (right)

The fact that a song with the words “pray for me” in the title is so moving you need people to pray for you is a little on the nose, please decrease your number by one Beth in the name of public safety

Made the mistake of listening to “Mother, Pray for Me” by The Beths

Our president is cruel.

i'm going to say this once: we need more johnny dangerously references

You know what doesn’t engender Christmas cheer? Reading about evangelicalism.

"there's a new serif in town"

New analysis of the Turin Strike Papyrus—a detailed account from 1157 BCE—shows how artisans building the royal tombs at Deir el-Medina staged a coordinated walkout after going 18 days without grain rations. tinyurl.com/29822yb2 #ShareGoodNewsToo

After this, federal agents tear gassed the public on their way out of Elgin, per our photographer who was present. The Feds tear gassed eight Chicago neighborhoods this fall and now a suburb.

i have never been more interested in the coverage of a newspaper & more turned off by their relentless ads than by the Chicago Tribune neé Tronc

sometimes i find old memes i made that are still sadly relevant

Two questions: 1. Did you eat grass on the playground as a child? 2. Do you enjoy matcha as an adult?

what is the opposite of a working stiff? a working supple? that doesn't sound right but upon further thought neither did working stiff

1,000 US evangelical pastors are in Israel this week on an Israel-backed tour to show support. It's being billed as the biggest trip of US Christian leaders ever, and reflects some evangelical leaders' concern that support for/focus on Israel is waning in their community 1/3

Shuffalo, 0m 51s 🟡🟡🟡🟡 🟡🟡🟡🟡🟡 🟡🟡🟡🟡🟡🟡 🟡🟡🟡🟡🟡🟡🟡 🟡🟡🟡🟡🟡🟡🟡🟡 🤩🤩🤩🤩🤩🤩🤩🤩🤩 www.newyorker.com/puzzles-and-...

the little ego boost i get when i finish a sunday crossword in under 30 minutes

Reza Aslan said my book is "[a]t once alarming and hopeful, this is a book that every American must read, regardless of religious affiliation," and my sales numbers indicate that every American has not in fact read the book yet www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/747796...

There’s something delightfully weird and still so practical about Lower Wacker. Do you hate driving downtown? Are you willing to traverse the underworld to avoid it? The signage is minimal and the lighting is haunted but the traffic flows

i’ve been experimenting with shortening ‘thanksgiving’ to ‘tgiving’ while jotting down notes. i’ll be honest i don’t like it either and will be abandoning the practice

if you like lo-fi, there’s a good chance you dig instrumental music, so why not try some jazz. the genre is woven through american history and has led to all sorts of scenes around the globe. there’s so much to explore.

Today is my last day of work at my current employer. After today I’ll be focusing for the first time on creative work and being the best spouse and parent I can be. I’m anxious in both senses of the word and glad to be entering into something new.

I've struggled with self-esteem and self-doubt my whole life, but I've never thought that if I was a centibillionaire that I would ship a product with such specific glazing for me that I would put those esteem issues front and center for the whole world to see: www.theverge.com/ai-artificia...

Huge @tinanguyen.bsky.social scoop: Trump is preparing to try and ban all state AI laws, going so far as having Brendan Carr’s FCC pull rural broadband funds from states that try to regulate AI www.theverge.com/ai-artificia...

oh no, what a completely expected outcome www.nytimes.com/2025/11/1…

i don't know who needs to (not) hear this but this album is 20 years old music.apple.com/us/album/the...

lots of interesting data here (h/t @gerardomarti.bsky.social): www.graphsaboutreligion.com/p/how-big-is.... Looking at *why* doesn't factor into this, but it would surprise no one that I think the reach of conservative media (incl. evangelical media) is a factor.

Political Gap Between Pastors & Pews “Political partisanship of the average mainline pastor diverges significantly from the politics of the folks sitting in their pews.” Ryan Burge analyzes recent PRRI data to highlight pervasive pattern in Mainline Christianity 👉 open.substack.com/pub/ryanburg...

Really excited for the upcoming announcement of my two new Ai startups Project Frankenstein and Project Literally The Titanic

I knew it 😝

3 years to launch encrypted DMs, real loser energy over there at X

sorry but you can't say you 'flamed out and faded away' if you can arrange multiple glossy op-eds and profiles in prestige publications at the drop of a hat, please have an ounce of perspective

the folks who somehow make it into a very small slice of the media/political elite sure do just live in a different reality

We didn't know it at the time, but this was his answer to a question on the job application for VP of the United States.

This is inexcusable. Allegations of abuse inside ICE Broadview facility but ICE destroyed the video evidence. Time to let everyone go -- and then lock up those who destroyed the evidence.

More US adults identify with no religion (29%) than with the Catholic Church (19%) or evangelical Protestant denominations (23%). www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/...