Have we tried just ... letting this person who owns a whole social network of his own keep his grievances there instead of acting like they need to be on every platform?

For your scrolling pleasure this weekend, my latest newsletter ... on virtual assistants and Stephen King pastiches. notes-from-economy-class.beehiiv.com/p/maybe-we-l...

If I were a YouTube Premium subscriber, I'd be super-peeved that my monthly cost rose 14% for features like "generate a personalized playlist." It seems like the perk of a la carte pricing should be a la carte feature subsidization, too.

I am real sorry to have to remind you all that "being shitty to women" is in no way disqualifying behavior for any white man running for office, and may actually do a little to boost them in the polls.

I refuse to believe that most people doing Catalogues on the New Yorker's website need three tries to get everything right. They're glazing us.

democrats talking about toxic masculinity is particularly pertinent

Warmest thanks to SNL for guaranteeing I will never be able to take any of the HBO show about the fighty families seriously thanks to "Blonde Dragon People." www.youtube.com/watch?v=L9wz...

are you just going to do this for every generation

OMG, the sheer adrenal rush I just got from opening a contributor's doc for editing — this piece for No Jitter is gonna be so good & I can't wait for my readers to see it. (All my contributors and staff bring something special to the table, I hasten to add.)

I read Roone Arledge's memoir this past summer, and right after he takes over ABC News, there's a bunch of producers and anchors telling him "Go away, sports boy, nobody wants you here." And they all kept their jobs. But then Roone Arledge wasn't an unqualified blogger who seeks out bootlickers.

Also anyone with any actual experience managing a newsroom knows that if you have real reporters in your bullpen they will confront you with real questions about your intentions. If you can’t handle it, you have no business managing a newsroom.

MAHA, everyone! www.nytimes.com/2026/06/02/w...

Got an email from Cigna reading, "We processed a claim" and my Apple Watch legit logged a spike in heart rate.

I think it's important to put this is a large framework of understanding. Democracy, equal treatment under law, accessible education, a merit-based economy, prosperity, all produced a Black president and lots of empowered women -- and elite America said enough. www.nytimes.com/2026/06/01/u...

Upon dormitory move-in, we got complimentary boxes of Cracklin' Oat Bran (all these companies trying to grab larval adult consumer mindshare early!) and to this day, I love this cereal for straight-up snacking.

why are they "looksmaxxers" and not Chinfluencers

I did not know this, and imagining a lot of people my age howling along to “Unskinny Bop” and “Every Rose Has Its Thorn” is delighting me.

Third Friday newsletter incoming! Brought to you courtesy of the quietest hospital I've been in, four hours of sleep and not enough coffee. notes-from-economy-class.beehiiv.com/p/we-re-all-...

Third Friday newsletter incoming! Brought to you courtesy of the quietest hospital I've been in, four hours of sleep and not enough coffee. notes-from-economy-class.beehiiv.com/p/we-re-all-...

Here's what I do think is true: Anybody who tells you that they can speak for all writers, with regard to AI or anything else, should be presumed full of it unless proven otherwise. All writers don't even *use computers*. This kind of statement is designed to create a reality, not describe one.

Airline CEOs have spent the last few years dealing with the ongoing safety issues at airports (thanks to this admin) and rising fuel costs (thanks to this admin), I am sure they will be super-chill if they now have to reconfigure all of their flights all over the country during peak vacation season.

"A company is ultimately for the benefit of its shareholders. Its goal is not to maximize or maintain employment, it’s to make profits." I, for one, appreciate it when execs are straightforward like this. respawnfirst.com/google-vp-on...

Good analysis of the Everlane/Shein deal, and the point that VCs and PE companies may actually not understand why people get attached to certain retailers: www.retaildive.com/news/why-eve...

But ... but ... but I can make liters of limoncello on my own. Or clementinacello, which is what I currently have going.

Bari Weiss runs a CBS News org that no longer has the institutional know-how to get its reporters Chinese visas even with ample advance notice. Who really thinks anything she runs is going to understand or value the customer support & logistics expertise required for this sort of events business?

Mine used to be "I felt unseen. Unknown in my marriage. He would stand in front of the laundry pile for hours, accusing me — [1/547]" Then I tweaked my algorithm so it's basically now all photography feeds from Monterey up to Astoria. A++, highly recommend this approach.

Handy reminder: I'm off the substack and back on my newsletter here: notes-from-economy-class.beehiiv.com/p/cash-for-c...

Hey, hey, hey, it's my second newsletter in two weeks! This time, how Everlane is really the Ben & Jerry's all over again. notes-from-economy-class.beehiiv.com/p/cash-for-c...

Circumstances are such so a corporate leader saw nothing wrong with saying this in the first place: “It’s not cost-cutting. It’s replacing in some cases lower-value human capital with the financial capital and the investment capital we’re putting in.” www.theguardian.com/business/202...

I went to a college where farmers sent their kids to equip those next-gen ag industry professionals with the critical thinking & know-how to make informed decisions about they would feed their foodsheds & keep the farm going. But do go on about the false dichotomy between ranching & education.

I am the proud graduate of a land-grant university that features cowgoyles in its neo-gothic architecture, but do go on about how universities do not offer groundbreaking research & hands-on learning in animal management and industry, NYT.

President Donald Trump’s top-down attack on DEI has trickled into every aspect of work: www.hrdive.com/news/womens-...

ME: So maybe this is my sign to switch to Duckduckgo? ME, five seconds later: I may need to do more research. mashable.com/article/duck...

Wednesday has become Widow's Bay night in the Schmichaels household and I am already looking forward to being SAT once the sun goes down.

So help me, I need the Strategist to run a follow-up piece if anyone clicks through and buys a motorcycle after reading Robby-Bobby's round-up of things he can't live without: nymag.com/strategist/a...

For one wild and giddy moment, I thought this read "Greendale Community College" and thought, yeah, this is absolutely something that would backfire on Dean Pelton.

"I run WIRED magazine, Tom." "You do?" "I sure do."

This quote seems moderately ahistorical. Two of the goals for any media company as we headed into the 21st century were to build a community around the media property, then turn that into user-generated content. And there were plenty of online fora where people did share media, even before blogs.

"My name is Barney, and I'm an alcoholic." "Mr. Gumble, this is a Girl Scout meeting." "Is it, or is it that you girls can't admit you have a problem?"

I'm going to argue it's generational, but a broad answer might be "Check the Lilith Fair lineups from 1997-1999 and you have your answer."

WOW. puck.news/everlane-is-...

ICYMI, I rebooted my newsletter.

At long last, I've finished the Substack migration and figured out Beehiiv. Then I had enough brain power to write a post. Happy Friday! notes-from-economy-class.beehiiv.com/p/welcome-to...

Getting elected is an agreement you make with your constituents, and if you don't do the job you violate that contract.

The baby boom lasted 19 years and despite Derek's deciding a year or two ago that a mid-war bump should count as part of the boom, various actual demographers have decided that it shouldn't.

Shot: "Their message is less that AI can help women have it all, and more that it might help them not backslide. The new ambition isn’t to keep scaling new heights — it’s to cling to what you already have." www.thecut.com/article/ai-g...

For @wired.com's Backchannel newsletter this week, I wrote about shrinking benefits in the corporate world and what this signals about power shifts in the workforce. It's maddening—but so is the rising cost of healthcare and the total lack of social safety net in the US www.wired.com/story/compan...

The Internet is disappearing before our very eyes and it’s why we should all support that absolutely critical work of @archive.org

"Reporters and editors who get their ideas from their social-media feeds — which is most of them, most of the time — can mistake a paid simulation of public interest for the real thing and then make it real by covering it." www.vulture.com/article/soci...

This article on how digital pieceworkers manipulate your social media feed via clipping is yet another sign that we are not too far off from paying for curation services that give us a. more of an illusion of control, and b. "exclusive" access for cultural capital. www.vulture.com/article/soci...