oh my god you have to read this until the end www.telos.news/p/part-1-how...

ok I read some of the Nuzzi piece and I am pleased to announce that I will never feel bad about my own writing ever again

Ton Koopman giving the world premieres of BWV 1178 & BWV 1179 RIGHT NOW

“Elon tried to ban The Onion on X and failed. His inability to be cool affects everyone’s lives.” english.elpais.com/technology/2...

Had a great convo with @scottgum.bsky.social about the importance of independent music media, AI, and the evolution of @stereogum.com

I really did not enjoy Jay Bhattacharya & Matthew Memoli’s screed against pandemic & virology research for the flagship blog of a “free-market think tank." Instead of getting mad, I accepted @jeremyfaust.bsky.social's kind invitation to take a factual & scientific blowtorch to it.

SOMEONE: Fuck you! BOVINO: That’s not very nice. THE MOST MOM VOICE YOU’VE EVER HEARD: Well, are you doing nice things?

People say Cancel Culture is real and then you see Lydia Tár being invited to meet the Pope. 🙄

Private equity and big tech have monopolized industries, including healthcare, with impunity over the last decade. Democrats have generally stood by and let it happen. By appointing Lina Khan, Mamdani is signalling a new direction for his party. My latest. www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...

NEW pub in @science.org 🥳 Is it sponges (panels A & B) or comb jellies (C & D) that root the animal tree of life? For over 15 years, #phylogenomic studies have been divided. We provide new evidence suggesting that... 🔗: www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

The new music I've been enjoying this week, from classical to pop to whatever the hell "House" was:

“Dubal…said…she was “kind of in tears” after the ruling. “This represents saving higher education, saving public research and the standing up of faculty and staff and students,” said Ms. Dubal, who is also a law professor at the University of California, Irvine.” www.nytimes.com/2025/11/14/u...

Hold up

The new music I've been enjoying this week, from classical to pop to whatever the hell "House" was:

On measles and vaccines, Canada can’t keep ignoring the elephant in the room: Political identity is now the driving force behind vaccine hesitancy, by @caulfieldtim.bsky.social www.thestar.com/opinion/cont... via @thestar.com

Well that sucks

Our weekly briefing is out, this one touching on Medicaid but mostly looking at what we’re losing in federal food safety oversight. Spoiler, it is “things that keep our food from making us sick.” unbreaking.org/blog/this-we...

for my @newyorker.com column I profiled Nick Arter, a consultant turned musician who began producing AI songs under the name Nick Hustles a year ago and has hit millions of streams and gone pro. Where is the line of human creativity in the post-AI music industry? www.newyorker.com/culture/infi...

Pop music has mostly abandoned the art of covering other people’s music, says the critic Wesley Morris. But what makes a song a cover? The singer Cecile McLorin Salvant joins Wesley to talk about the art of singing music originally performed by someone else. nyti.ms/4pfa9rP

Isaac Chotiner Larry Summers interview when

🚨🚨🚨

is this an insane comparison

I’m writing about the pop girlies again. My thoughts on Charli XCX’s “House”:

what

Scientists are seeing the same democratic backsliding that others are—but often without language to name it. 📊 That's why we are doing a thematic analysis of Unbreaking to recognize patterns + prepare together. Learn more:

I think somehow it's going to take a lot more then that. But yes, that would be welcome.

“Debts are temporary. But I could live with these pieces forever.” Back in December, we sat with Adam Tendler to talk about his 2026 Grammy-nominated album, Inheritances. Check out the interview at:

Canada pushes to join Eurovision: ‘This is about protecting our identity’

everyone living around light pollution and clouds right now:

As someone who looks at a lot of Manhattan plots, I can say that an under-appreciated cause of false positive GWAS hits is stuff stuck to my computer screen.

There's an exclusive, closed-to-media MAHA summit tomorrow. Here's the full agenda I was leaked In attendance will be JD Vance, RFK Jr, Bhattacharya, Makary, actor Russell Brand (who is facing rape and sexual assault charges), and dozens of other MAHA influencers and people in Trump's orbit

My thoughts on Canada’s adoption of the US’s anti-DEI rhetoric, and what it could mean for Canadian research

Joyce Carol Oates sitting across a desk from Kendrick Lamar: "So I'm putting a team together..." Isaac Chotiner knocks on the open door.

My thoughts on Canada’s adoption of the US’s anti-DEI rhetoric, and what it could mean for Canadian research

Breaking News: Tatsuya Nakadai, the Japanese film star known for “Ran” and other classic movies, has died at 92.

For years, advertising has been how Stereogum made money to pay its writers. While we made progress moving away from that model, Google AI search has decimated the business almost overnight. Today we relaunch with a greater focus on subscription. We’d love your support: stereogum.com/2478838/ster...

Literal shot: Questionable methodological chaser:

Canada lost its #measles elimination status today. Here's something @jwnickerson.bsky.social and I wrote a while back in @theconversation.com for @msf.ca: "Measles is a humanitarian issue, and its unwelcome reappearance in Canada is a reminder of its importance" theconversation.com/measles-is-a...

Making my way through this extraordinary interview between @garthgreenwell.bsky.social and Brandon Taylor while I should be working, and this paragraph, about all the things that cut people off from each other, absolutely hit me in the face.

"Budget's $2.7B cut to foreign aid leaves international development in limbo, say NGOs" #Budget2025 #Canada www.cbc.ca/news/politic...

Did you know that in Canada, if a budget doesn’t pass the government doesn’t shut down? Federal workers aren’t furloughed. Funding for social services doesn’t dry up. Failure to pass a budget triggers an election. It puts the politicians jobs on the line. They get the budget passed.

Interesting that NY gov Kathy Hochul felt compelled to put out a statement against Dems' deal to end the shutdown

“The problem is that when it is installed in a health sector that prizes efficiency, surveillance and profit extraction, AI becomes not a tool for care and community but simply another instrument for commodifying human life.”

It’s been a busy writing week! In case you missed it: On Rosalía’s new album, and why the classical-pop divide matters less than we might think

Update on the Guardian article about Washington National Opera, featuring some shocking quotes from Francesca Zambello: as heard on NPR, the Kennedy Center has responded to the article to say that the idea that WNO is considering leaving the KC is false www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...

Excellent interview by @kevinng.bsky.social with soprano Nadine Sierra on bel canto, new roles... and the Met Sonnambula that very nearly didn’t happen: bachtrack.com/interview-na...

pre-writing a devastating obituary for your enemy is god-tier hating of a kind you don’t often see anymore. renaissance haterism. beautiful stuff.

A Sharon Begley byline, almost 5 years after her death. Upon hearing the news James Watson had died, a STAT reporter said in our Slack, "I wish I could read what Sharon would have written." Incredible news: Sharon in fact did pre-write a Watson obit. And it is masterful and excoriating. 🧪🧬🧫