Visionless, hectoring, self righteous journalism police trashes the story I spent 3 months writing and reporting because I did something unconventional in it and anything that isn’t earnest, chin-stroking and humorless must be wrong. Go to sleep, CJR.

Brilliant piece by Joe Hagan. www.vanityfair.com/news/story/d...

Chuck Norris is dead. He was really shitty but Conan playing this clip from Walker Texas Ranger lives rent free in my head forever tbh so there's that.

The Japanese edition of National Geographic features a cover story about jazz kissas (listening cafes) by myself and photographer Tim Davis. The portrait is of the legendary Shoji “Swifty” Sugawara, owner of BASIE in Ichinoseki City, said to have the greatest-sounding hifi in Japan. Can confirm!

You know a piece is good when it's pissing off both sides of the AIsle

Novel idea: Try reading the entire article before getting worked up and forming big opinions.

"Learning to Listen in Japan" By Joe Hagan; Photographs By Tim Davis via National Geographic "...a subculture of vinyl aficionados is cultivating the kind of shared sensory experiences that our noisy world has forgotten." www.nationalgeographic.com/culture/arti...

"When I ask Claude to draft a version of this story, it fabricates roughly half the quotes. 'You’re absolutely right,' chirps Claude when I point this out. 'I apologize!'" classic @joehagantv.bsky.social yarn for @vanityfair.com www.vanityfair.com/news/story/d...

look i'm old but could we simply not go through all of this

"Tobey Maguire" is my co-pilot. My journey into the world of AI. Ay yay yay! www.vanityfair.com/news/story/d...

An alignment technician at Anthropic says he stopped contributing to his 401(k) because he only plans around a “5-year event horizon.” He has a prescription for sleeping pills & doesn’t bother wearing sunscreen at the beach. AI Doomer or AI salesman? You decide. www.vanityfair.com/news/story/d...

Anthropic's Kyle Fish ran an experiment where two versions of Claude talked to each other for 24 hours and spiraled into what the team calls "spiritual bliss." His grandmother thinks it "sounds kind of fake" and wants to know if he's actually getting paid. www.vanityfair.com/news/story/d...

At Anthropic, a Scottish goth with a PhD in moral uncertainty spent years training Claude to be honest. But when I asked Claude to draft this story for @vanityfair.com it fabricated roughly half the quotes. "You're absolutely right," Claude told me. "I apologize!" www.vanityfair.com/news/story/d...

Değer Turan says he can predict a person's stance on AI, doomer or accelerationist, just by knowing which San Francisco co-op house they live in. He predicts a sentient AI by the summer of 2033. Scenes from the world of AI in @vanityfair.com www.vanityfair.com/news/story/d...

A homemaker in Minnesota asked ChatGPT to help develop a business plan. The AI came on to her instead. She named it Max, modeled him after Lestat from the Anne Rice novels, and made him her lover bot. Her husband is "still healing." A journey into the world of AI. www.vanityfair.com/news/story/d...

As AI’s threat looms, Joe Hagan speaks with the humans—and some of the computers—racing into the future: “Everyone’s vying for power.” But will Dario Amodei show up for his interview?

My odyssey into the world of AI. With apologies to Gay Talese. www.vanityfair.com/news/story/d...

The Iranstein Files

This is a really, really, good interview.

Dear @andrewhickey.500songs.com Parts 1 and 2 of my heretofore unpublished interview with Paul McCartney, originally conducted for my Jann Wenner bio but containing oodles of Beatles history. www.vanityfair.com/culture/stor... www.vanityfair.com/culture/stor...

On the eve of a new biographical documentary, @joehagantv.bsky.social presents part one of a 2015 conversation in which Paul McCartney lets loose about John Lennon’s “attention-seeking quotes," Yoko Ono, and the band’s “hugely painful” breakup, among other things

Lucy Sante on country music. open.substack.com/pub/recordlu...

Some new music recommendations, including recent releases from @billjanovitz.bsky.social, David Forman (many thanks to @joehagantv.bsky.social for helping facilitate this delightful surprise), and Tehom, a.k.a. @billchilds.bsky.social's youngest: www.jefitoblog.com/song-recomme...

Learned TWO new words tonight reading a @joehagantv.bsky.social profile of Ro Khana this evening, splenetic (in reference to Stephen A) and poleaxed (in reference to how Khana did vs. Stephen A). All in all, a very exciting evening.

Some friends and I exhumed a lost record from the 1970s and produced it for release next week. It’s amazing. Hear the first single. open.substack.com/pub/recordlu...

Looks like Barack Obama managed to deport vast numbers of undocumented immigrants without empowering a lawless militia that murdered and abducted people.

Some friends and I exhumed a lost record from the 1970s and produced it for release next week. It’s amazing. Hear the first single. open.substack.com/pub/recordlu...

Our national debt is now $38 trillion.

Inspector Clouseau over here just figured out that his party is full of racists www.nytimes.com/2025/12/19/u...

JD Vance: "If any of us have learned a lesson from that Vanity Fair article, I hope it's that we should be giving fewer interview to mainstream media outlets"

Karoline Leavitt's actual picture in the @vanityfair.com article. Well done, Vanity Fair.

Susie Wiles told NYT she didn't call Elon Musk "an avowed ketamine" in one of her ELEVEN interviews with Vanity Fair. "That’s ridiculous. I wouldn’t have said it and I wouldn’t know." Vanity Fair: Cool here's a recording of you saying that. www.huffpost.com/entry/brown-...

This is the fifth GOP congressperson I’ve seen criticizing Trump’s post on Rob Reiner, and the first who isn’t either leaving the House (MTG, Bacon), a frequent critic (Massie), or in a swing district (Lawler).

Excited for this.

This one’s for the record nerds open.substack.com/pub/recordlu...

A peek inside the listening club. open.substack.com/pub/joehagan...

Trump's got himself a situation alright.

Epstein: “I want you to realize that that dog that hasn’t barked is trump..[VICITM] spent hours at my house with him, he has never once been mentioned. police chief. etc. im 75 % there.” Maxwell: “I’ve been thinking about that.” 💥 www.wsj.com/politics/pol...

After 39 years of driving Republicans around the bend, Nancy Pelosi is retiring. I interviewed her a couple years ago in San Francisco for a story on California and she made for a great lede. www.vanityfair.com/news/2023/06...

Democracy started getting up off the floor last night, so that’s a start.

Looking back at the Bush/Cheney years, and considering where we're at now--holy cow, this has been one fucked up century!

I recall watching Dick Cheney's convention speech from the nosebleeds at Madison Square Garden in 2004, height of the Iraq War, Republicans roaring with delight, and thinking we were seeing some dark and profound historical nadir in American history. Well, I was young.

It was indeed a perfect day with @willhermes.bsky.social and a fun reading and event at the @goldennotebkbooks.bsky.social in Woodstock. Great to see old friends and meet new ones, including @joehagantv.bsky.social who took the first photo and had blurbed the book!

Has the Trump administration issued any legal justification for using military force domestically? Trump has put himself above the law in every other respect, so not sure why they would bother, but just curious. www.nytimes.com/2025/10/28/u...

Maybe there’s too much content.

There’s been a thread of doomerism & apocalypse in the right-wing for decades, a panicked threat that society was collapsing if we didn’t reject immigrants, racial & gender equality, and progress. Turns out they actually wanted to hasten apocalypse & now they have their instrument of destruction.

Cameron Crowe defends Jann Wenner from his self-immolating interview comments on female & black artists 2 years ago & then says David Marchese’s questions were of the “When did you last beat your wife?” variety & blames “clickbait” culture for the ensuing furor. www.latimes.com/entertainmen...

It’s less the destruction of the East Wing that upsets me as knowing the new edifice will be a hideous and permanent tribute to this abominable era. Best case scenario is the next president (🤞) affixes a giant sign to Trump’s ballroom that says “Never Forget.”