The first of a few pieces from my interview with Ken Burns about #TheAmericanRevolution. I got the honestly once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to walk with him and his co-directors through Old City Philadelphia and talk about history right next to where it happened. Cannot recommend highly enough.

The only story where you'll find a reference to "The Thong Song" and "Andor" in the same 800 words! www.usatoday.com/story/entert...

The most fun you'll have on TV this fall is with the likes of James Garfield and Chester A. Arthur. Seriously. - @klawls.bsky.social www.usatoday.com/story/entert...

And @klawls.bsky.social's review: - "It's so stilted, artificial and awkward not even a glass of wine and leftover Halloween candy can make it remotely enjoyable to view."

Feel every part of @klawls.bsky.social's All Her Fault review. www.usatoday.com/story/entert...

Got to go to Netflix's new "interactive experience" Netflix House. It's like a tiny Disneyland in a mall. It's heady and wild and I think a lot of people will like it. www.usatoday.com/story/entert...

Because people think you're a bitch if you don't. See also: add emoticons, softening qualifiers, and any other happy-go-lucky, no-worries-if-not! flair.

If you only read one thing about the new Taylor Swift album, make it my colleague Melissa's thoughtful review: www.usatoday.com/story/entert...

If you want to stream stuff for only $3 a month have I got news for you... www.usatoday.com/story/entert...

I'm back talking about kids and TV again and was shocked but not surprised by the way experts talk about screens and older kids: www.usatoday.com/story/entert...

Bucket list interview here: I talked to Amber Ruffin about her first Pride since coming out www.usatoday.com/story/entert...

What, and I stress, the fuck

Hi friends! I'm looking for parents of elementary-aged kids who might want to talk to me about screen time. Specifically TV screen time. How much do you let your kids watch? What shows? How is it different to you from other screen time? @ me and let's talk for a story for USA TODAY!

It's halfway through the year and I'm still thinking about every episode of #ThePitt. More and more each day this week as it happens. But anyways here's my best of 2025 TV so far list... www.usatoday.com/story/entert...

New in tonight’s @semafor media newsletter: Last year, a Business Insider editor recommended that staff check out a list of business books/memoirs that could inform their reporting. Several did not exist, and appear to have been generated by AI. www.semafor.com/article/06/0...

The amount of explicitly pro-ED content on Instagram reels lately in particular is sort of insane, and in my experience Insta actively promotes it even to users who do not follow or engage with any content about weight or even “fitness.”

tired: people AI-generating rando images of themselves as anime WIRED: AI’s energy use already represents as much as 20 percent of global data-center power demand, new analysis has found

Sirens is very very good mostly because of the cast but also because its version of "eat the rich" is "hey have you ever noticed rich people are REALLY WEIRD?!?" and we need more of that rn www.usatoday.com/story/entert...

Not for nothing, positive reviews are still *critical* because that's what a critic fricken does no matter whether they like the thing or not

heheehehe this does suggest that there's room to post things like "because i would not be offering spoiler-free enthusiasm i will not be posting about TKTK at this time"

thank you to @columjournreview.bsky.social for publishing this story. and @oliviamesser.bsky.social for being an inspiration. and all of the students. I wanted better for you. to others in the industry: we have to stop letting this happen. its simply not true that you can't do anything. I did.

If you’re up for a reading list created by real humans who love books and have great taste, check out one of my fave traditions: NPR’s summer critics’ book list. It’s as great as ever and I’m proud to be a contributor. My pick: Great Black Hope by Rob Franklin. www.npr.org/2025/05/21/n...

planning a child's birthday party for *next* saturday? this man's never done an ounce of domestic labor in his life and is already dreaming of how to outsource it

you really only have to work with kids outside of school time for a minute to see how hostile the world is to them and their mere physical presence. when you add in the supremely racist stratification of chicago it only becomes more alarming. people deserve to be somewhere together!!!

I spoke to USA Today about the Diddy trial and the myth of "mutual abuse," which normalizes men's violence through casting the protective strategies survivors use to stay alive as violations of the "perfect victim" stereotype.

My opposition to generative AI comes from the fact it's a massively wasteful technology built on theft of art and the human experience of creating and viewing art, so if it "works" I actually hate it more.

YELLOWJACKETS has been picked up for Season 4, which is not a surprise because Season 3 did very well for Paramount+, but it is surprising that it is *not* the fourth and final season. I guess see the first part of the sentence in regards to the second part of the sentence?

I want to be clear that despite all the “my bad” language, this writer appears to not at all actually understand what they did wrong. “I didn’t double check” is not the sin, YOU GOOFUS. If you can’t take the time to write a list of books people can read, pick another job, for crying out loud.

Man oh man

Ignoring the major myriad of problems with that alleged Chicago Sun Times thing, I will focus on the practical one: AI cannot discover *new information.* New summer books come from press releases! Chats with publicists! Author announcements! LLMs only trawl their data set over and over...

WHY. LIKE. Why is everyone so hellbent on trashing their reputation for what? Saving like three hours of time????? Was it worth it @chicago.suntimes.com?????????????? Embarrassing shit. Why would anyone read a paper if you can’t be bothered to write?

i have fallen fully down this well and yes, it's an entire summer Heat Index insert where most of it seems to be chatgpt

cool cool cool cool cool cool cool cool

luv to be famous

Amazon's #Overcompensating is not perfect by any means but it is SO funny and SO earnest and made me feel like I was walking barefoot at night through my college campus once again www.usatoday.com/story/entert...

If you listened or watched last Sunday's @USATODAY's The Excerpt on author and dog rescuer @NiallHarbison you'll want to join our AMA with him starting at 11:30 ET. See you there! tinyurl.com/3zex67wj

my favorite aspect of how ANDOR ends is how the villains do suffer, but not at the hands of the protagonists, because fascism eats its own even while it has the upper hand

Time is a flat circle www.usatoday.com/story/entert...

👀 source: journalrecord.com/2025/02/20/i...

Putting Call the Midwife on this list is my version of the people on Instagram showing how big 10 cm of dilation is... www.usatoday.com/story/entert...

Thanks @cbschicago.bsky.social Here are your @chicagotribune.com + Chicago Sun-Times Pope front pages for Friday

I wrote about medical TV shows in 2025 www.usatoday.com/story/entert...

God exactly. The purpose of writing papers is FOR YOU TO THINK SOMETHING THROUGH, not because a prof has a deficit in their life that needs to be filled by reading 5-7 pages of mediocre bullshit. The bulk of things I recall from undergrad are things I wrote papers about.

Idk what to post here, post to threads, still tweet. But Bluesky wins in my estimation because it has a web client. I don't do tweet about TV on my phone. It's work. I do it at my work comp. While I procrastinate writing, of course.

I finally got an invite, I shall use it responsibly.