V exciting news: My debut novel RETRO made the Center for Fiction 2026 First Novel Prize Longlist! centerforfiction.org/book-recs/20...

Why am I a source in this story? Amazingly, it’s not bc I report on fossil fuel propaganda, an offshoot of tobacco propaganda. It’s bc I own a shirt that says “pls don’t give me a cigarette no matter what I say” and the reporter (my bff @jessicagolds.bsky.social) wanted to know why

Reported on the return of social smoking for the @washingtonpost.com! It’s about nostalgia, nihilism, being “bad” without feeling bad, how big tobacco is still doing what they do best (making people think smoking is cool) & choosing the devil you know in a world of dangers unknown. wapo.st/4wAfSvM

HEATED x RETRO CROSSOVER 🔥💫 Had the best time talking to my beloved @emorwee.bsky.social about my debut novel Retro, climate dread, fighting to feel hopeful about the future, and friendship!!!! substack.com/@heated/note...

So proud of my friend Jess, whose debut novel is out TODAY. Buy it!

MY DEBUT NOVEL RETRO IS OUT TODAY 💫 open.substack.com/pub/retrorep...

Retro (Penguin Random House, 2026)

loved talking to @washingtonian.com about my debut novel RETRO (which comes out in one week!!!!) washingtonian.com/2026/06/16/j...

Making my vertical video debut with the @nytimes.com to ask THE pressing pop cultural question of our time: Why Do Most New Movies Look Meh? www.nytimes.com/video/movies...

My Hacks series finale recap is on @vulture.com ! www.vulture.com/article/hack...

Retro (Penguin Random House, 2026) nymag.com/strategist/a...

Have you noticed a certain meh ne sais quoi at the cinema?? You are NOT alone! So why do so many new movies look like... that? I talked to film bros and film pros for the @nytimes.com to find out! www.nytimes.com/2026/04/27/m...

Do you believe in magic and/or #Nicorah? Sparks (and missing coins) are FLYING on this week's episode of Hacks! My @vulture.com recap: www.vulture.com/article/hack...

This week on The Retro Report: WEDDINGS 🥂 Ft. the drama about The Drama, a Dorothy Baker cult classic, the most romantic thing a woman can do in the movies (divorce Cary Grant), and more! retroreport.substack.com/p/weddings-a...

Not to be parasocial about it (meta I know) but what a major celebrity sighting this week on Hacks! My @vulture.com recap: www.vulture.com/article/hack...

Do you wish you could plan a getaway to the Before? V excited to announce the launch of RETRO THE AGENCY DOT COM! Plan a trip, get your Pastport, apply for a job: the site's fully functional, so go wild! And don't forget to preorder my novel, Retro, out June 23! retrotheagency.com

"Disappear into your phone for long enough, and your phone will disappear into you, putting you to work for the platforms even in your downtime." www.nytimes.com/2026/04/06/m...

My debut novel RETRO got a Kirkus star ⭐️! "...a 2020s office novel that cleverly lampoons both the luxury travel industry & self-obsessed tech bros’ myopic innovations. A nuanced, biting cautionary tale about how not staying present can erase our very selves." www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews...

Big day for us @dceiver.bsky.social!! bsky.app/profile/lett...

Retro (Penguin Random House, 2026) www.nytimes.com/interactive/...

Trying something new at THE RETRO REPORT: a retro recap!! Time travel to 1999 to talk SATC classic, “they shoot single people, don’t they?” 🚬💗🫩 open.substack.com/pub/retrorep...

"When I recently tried explaining this dynamic to another friend—a writer/critic, no kids—he kindly reframed: “Imagine a musician in the future being interviewed about the music they grew up hearing, & they say, ‘My parents were really into KPop Demon Hunters.’”" open.substack.com/pub/thefutur...

This week’s issue of THE RETRO REPORT is all about awards that technically don’t exist, including my million dollar journalism idea: The Pulitzer Prize for Excellence in Restraint 🏆 retroreport.substack.com/p/the-only-r...

into this: "It’s not an accident that the greatest evangelists and technocrats who promote these technologies seem to have a poor grasp of human interaction." www.chrismelito.com/blog/the-but...

This week’s Retro recs are all <200 pages so if you are over hearing me talk about The Power Broker… REJOICE! open.substack.com/pub/retrorep...

I have hot theories about sex scenes, NOT-a-sex-scenes, Pet Billionaires™️ and more in this week’s issue of The Retro Report! open.substack.com/pub/retrorep...

This week on THE RETRO REPORT: do you want to get out of here? (Here = reality) I have recs for that! let’s gooooo Also: remember when Super Bowl commercials used to be the Super Bowl of commercials? I have thoughts & theories about the great advertising decline! open.substack.com/pub/retrorep...

“There are things more important than medals,” he said. “I stood up for what I believe in.” www.nytimes.com/2026/02/12/w...

Arlington ultramarathoner Michael Wardian just broke the world record for fastest time in 50Ks (!) on all seven continents (!!) www.arlnow.com/2026/02/10/a... I had a blast profiling him in 2022 for @washingtonian.com after he ran across the entire United States: washingtonian.com/2022/09/14/b...

"Unlike, say, data analytics giant Palantir or some other high-profile surveillance companies, Ring is a surveillance network that homeowners have by and large deployed themselves, powered by fear mongering against our neighbors and unfettered consumerism." www.404media.co/with-ring-am...

"What people click—and what they think they like—is largely a matter of what is available to them... It is a sign of a fatally limited imagination to assume that we can only ever desire the pittance to which we are currently reconciled." www.newyorker.com/books/page-t...

If you already miss @chrisrichards.bsky.social in the Post, get his Substack! He's A++ on Bad Bunny's halftime show w objectively correct opinions abt "Easter eggs" (ugh) & language barriers ("songs in an unfamiliar tongue aren’t obstacles so much as invitations"): open.substack.com/pub/thefutur...

Feeling so much grief and rage over the layoffs at the Washington Post. To people who've asked me what I think the vision is here, I simply must scream: THERE IS NO VISION!!! I have never seen so many men so desperately lacking in vision in all my days!!!!! retroreport.substack.com/p/i-simply-m...

[email protected] gets it www.theatlantic.com/politics/202...

“I know they would do anything, that they would hurt people, that they’ve murdered people & shot them in the back 10 times. I know that intellectually. But I still did not expect them to gas a chill friendly protest full of nurses, teachers, children & the elderly.” www.theverge.com/policy/87278...

Incredible run of questions in the latest Chotining with the cinematographer of the Melania doc www.newyorker.com/culture/q-an...

Big news for the Trackstar guys! PSA: Just profiled Jack Coyne & Co for the @nytimes.com www.nytimes.com/2025/12/17/a... bsky.app/profile/maxt...

“Victim behavior is not actually counterintuitive at all. It’s actually quite logical... The only people not surprised by the victim’s behavior is the offender. They know. I have videotapes of these guys saying, ‘I knew she wouldn’t tell, I knew she’d come back.’” www.thecut.com/article/me-t...

Today’s RETRO REPORT is all about showbiz, baby!! Ft. A review of why the Golden Globes were like… that… and an evaluation of Josie & the Pussycats worthy of its brilliance (cc @dceiver.bsky.social) retroreport.substack.com/p/chomp-on-y...

“One day, a woman wrote to me on Signal, asking me not to respond. She lived alone, she messaged, and planned to die that weekend. Before she did, she wanted at least one person to understand: Trump had unraveled the government, and with it, her life.” @hannahnatanson.bsky.social essay:

Retro (Penguin Random House, 2026)

Margaret (2011) bsky.app/profile/theo...

First RETRO REPORT of 2026 is all about making SONIC SENSE! Discussed: dream ballets, The Red Shoes (1948), Richard Linklater, Max Martin, "I Want it That Way," and more! retroreport.substack.com/p/nothing-ma...

The future is now 🥰 www.newyorker.com/humor/shouts...

I will follow Emily wherever she goes: Paris, Rome, the edge of sanity, etc. Come join me on @vulture.com where I'm recapping season five! My season premiere recap: www.vulture.com/article/emil...

Profiled Trackstar, your favorite artist’s favorite game show, for the @nytimes.com! As the prophet Addison Rae would say: put your headphones on 🎧 www.nytimes.com/2025/12/17/a...

Oui (sì): I will be returning to recap EMILY IN PARIS (ROME) for @vulture.com. If you have treated yourself to the series' signature between-scene lobotomies & need to get caught up, I recapped my recaps in this week's edition of my newsletter for you!! retroreport.substack.com/p/searching-...

"Tincher, a white woman in her mid-50s who [is] 5’ 4”, insists she was at speaking distance from the agent & said she did nothing to 'impede' their actions. 'Pretty soon they were throwing me on the ground & handcuffing me & putting me in their unmarked truck.'" www.mprnews.org/story/2025/1...

lol www.tiktok.com/t/ZP8UvLHp5/

“This is just what the world sounds like now. This is how everything has chosen to speak. Mixed metaphors and empty sincerity. Impersonal and overwrought. We are unearthing the echo of loneliness… We are saying the words that mean meaning.” www.nytimes.com/2025/12/03/m...