It’s Whiskey Friday with Tony Dokoupil

This is an amazing piece about the most important under-the-radar tech story of our time

A pro-bug barback meme account, a full-time consumer of opium, an abyss that was once a mountain, Sigma Mussolini, and an onslaught of memories — read a new batch of Mentions by Lev Mamuya, Brian Harkin, Colin Lodewick, Tiffany Berruti, and @jamieyouwere.bsky.social. www.thedriftmag.com/mentions/

Tonight!! George and I will be talking about modernity, intellectualism, what we can hope for, and other light topics

And be sure to check out Ma’s “Sonnet for Desert” while you’re at it. www.thedriftmag.com/sonnet-for-d...

“A pig in the shape of me goes to the gas station.” Read Kathleen Ma’s Issue Sixteen poem “Battle Creek.” www.thedriftmag.com/battle-creek/

Enjoyed talking about Make Your Own Job on It's Been a Minute with Brittany Luse at @npr.org! www.npr.org/2026/02/02/n...

Excellent piece in the newsletter today from our Minneapolis comrade Pranay Somayajula on developing mass protagonism in response to the DHS assault newsletter.thedriftmag.com/p/fighting-f...

Excellent piece in the newsletter today from our Minneapolis comrade Pranay Somayajula on developing mass protagonism in response to the DHS assault newsletter.thedriftmag.com/p/fighting-f...

Introducing a new advice column from Sophie Haigney! “I hope to be conclusive in ways that are surprising and that might not supply what the person asking or reading the question hopes to hear,” she writes. newsletter.thedriftmag.com/p/am-i-okay-...

The great Sophie Haigney is writing an advice column for our newsletter! Send in your questions to [email protected] with “Advice” in the subject line. newsletter.thedriftmag.com/p/am-i-okay-...

I wrote this song on Saturday, recorded it yesterday and released it to you today in response to the state terror being visited on the city of Minneapolis. It’s dedicated to the people of Minneapolis, our innocent immigrant neighbors and in memory of Alex Pretti and Renee Good. Stay free

Powerful reflections from @katpburke.bsky.social lithub.com/letter-from-...

Ben Sloan on a Megalopolis talkback

Pete Segall on Dourif père et fille

A diapered man-baby, a wisp of a gothic tale, an attempted magnum opus, a gargantuan Bey, and the demon Pazuzu — read a new batch of Mentions by Abigail Gray, Rhoda Feng, Ben Sloan, Gabe Abdellatif, and Pete Segal www.thedriftmag.com/mentions/

The Mormon tradwife behind the infamous Ballerina Farm, star-crossed lovers, and Susan Sontag’s sexual conquests — read a libidinous selection of Issue 16 Mentions from Zach Ngin, @dianamheald.bsky.social, @izzyampil.bsky.social, Mathias Fuelling, and Krithika Varagur www.thedriftmag.com/mentions/

“Love Language,” Will Hall’s Issue Sixteen short story, imagines a dating show on which contestants aren’t able to speak directly to their prospective mates. www.thedriftmag.com/love-language/

Great stuff in @jewishcurrents.bsky.social “Accommodating militarism in higher education for the sake of fighting Trump will not do anything to prepare the academic profession to eventually confront its complicity in American-sponsored atrocities.” jewishcurrents.org/higher-eds-b...

a not insignificant number of people on Threads seem to believe the snow storm was The Government's attempt to refreeze the Leviathan, the world-eating serpent, which was getting loose (to eat the world, I assume)

The argument against ICE isn't an especially difficult one to make politically in this moment. The issue is that people who substantively disagree with abolishing ICE prefer having a proxy fight about strategy to discussing that stance. Many such cases.

Terrific essay by @erikmbaker.bsky.social in Jewish Currents "Accommodating militarism in higher education for the sake of fighting Trump will not do anything to prepare the academic profession to eventually confront its complicity in American-sponsored atrocities" jewishcurrents.org/higher-eds-b...

"To those currently in power, the U.S. doesn’t even need to claim to uphold higher principles — they would be wasted on the ungrateful." - @seamus-malekafzali.com thedriftmag.com/be-grateful/

Cannot believe people on here seriously believe the western European military powers will go to war with the United States over Greenland. Sorry, folks, the US is protected but not bound by NATO, and the other signatories are bound but not protected from the US! You got fooled!

🧵 The autoworker at the Dearborn Truck Plant is a proud member of a strong and fighting union—the UAW. He believes in freedom of speech, a principle we wholeheartedly embrace, and we stand with our membership in protecting their voice on the job.

I will be reading from this piece this evening! Come join us. www.thedriftmag.com/how-i-learne...

Drift contributor Madeline Cash’s hilarious and tender debut novel Lost Lambs is out today. Our Associate Fiction Editor Livia Wood spoke with her about the book. newsletter.thedriftmag.com/p/ordinary-p...

“Where once [universities] shook their heads at the naivete of the students whose chants asked them how many kids they’d killed today, now they are practically submitting their tallies to the DOD, one last desperate gambit to maintain the status quo.” jewishcurrents.org/higher-eds-b...

A wonderful essay by @erikmbaker.bsky.social that situates academic organizing against Trump and genocide in a long history that includes Science for the People and early 20th-century predecessors: jewishcurrents.org/higher-eds-b...

It’s pretty fucked up to sack Aaron Rodgers instead of debating his ideas

Government accounts just post like this now and that’s how policy is made

"Where admin once they shook their heads at the naivete of students asking them how many kids they’d killed today, now they are practically submitting their tallies to the DOD." Historian Erik Baker on universities' doomed compromise with American militarism: jewishcurrents.org/higher-eds-b...

I'm so glad we have this essay by @erikmbaker.bsky.social, who argues convincingly that we should not restore US govt connections with academic science without attending to the inherent militarism of those connections. As he notes below, academic freedom has always been at stake.

Online today @JewishCurrents: my examination of how nearly a century of cooperation between American universities and the military-industrial complex has made a mockery of the concept of academic freedom jewishcurrents.org/higher-eds-b...

Online today @JewishCurrents: my examination of how nearly a century of cooperation between American universities and the military-industrial complex has made a mockery of the concept of academic freedom jewishcurrents.org/higher-eds-b...

“Since peace was declared, Israel has killed more than 400 Palestinians and wounded over 1,000 more, while its de-facto annexation of the West Bank has only accelerated.” ← @erikmbaker.bsky.social on 2025 themorningnews.org/2025-the-yea...

In your mailbox and in bookstores imminently!

Great piece in the newsletter today by the one and only @seamus-malekafzali.com on media cowardice in the aftermath of the American power grab in Venezuela newsletter.thedriftmag.com/p/when-the-m...

Clearer than ever that the right regards queerness as a crime punishable by death

It is now confirmed from multiple sources that ICE shot a legal observer dead on Portland in Minneapolis between 34th and 33rd street. The victim is dead

Hope to see you in New York next week!

Thanks to Nick Juravich and @thenation.com for this wonderful review of Make Your Own Job! www.thenation.com/article/cult...

And read Robbins’s “Domme Song 10” today as well. www.thedriftmag.com/domme-song-10/

“Aphrodite’s like sigh what now / Sappho, what’s your crazy heart / want now?” Read “Domme Song 5” by @alienvsrobbins.bsky.social in Issue Sixteen. www.thedriftmag.com/domme-song-5/

The heroes

Save the date! In a few weeks I have the honor of talking with the great George Scialabba at @harvardbookstore.bsky.social about his new book.

Yuri Slezkine on the evolving power politics of Russian facial hair

525 things can be true, people. 1 The world is all that is the case. 1.1 The world is the totality of facts, not of things. 1.11 The world is determined by the facts, and by their being all the facts. 1.12 For the totality of facts determines what is the case, and also whatever is not

I'm starting to question the legitimacy of the FIFA Peace Prize.