I for one would be having more fun of if I didn’t have to keep writing feminism 101 explainers of why this kind of thing is bad

I can never get over how funny the opening of Wuthering Heights is. Lockwood's inner monologue is all "Hello, Heathcliff! Like you, I am hot and brooding, so you and I will have A LOT to talk about ;)"

This is really well done biographical criticism (trigger warning like all get out) www.eruditorumpress.com/blog/the-cud...

As the Epstein files keep dribbling out with more and more names, I keep thinking about Tina Brown's private jet theory of the world — namely, that powerful people will put up with a lot of shit if it means they get to fly private tinabrown.substack.com/p/after-flyi...

I wrote about my childhood friend Alexi Pretti. Please read it and share it and remember him as a human being. @theverge.com

Breaks my heart to share this, but today is my last day at The Verge and I am looking for work! I'd really like to stay in video games, preferably in some kind of journalistic capacity but I can do PR/Marketing and maybe even a lil Narrative Design. Please get in touch! www.ashparrish.com

ESJ really popping off with this one episodes.ghost.io/vibe-shift/?...

Heated Rivalry is not quite my ministry, BUT I am delighted to have a chance to talk about why male/male romance is so popular with so many women www.vox.com/culture/4750...

My boring take on Marty Supreme is that if the film is going to build two emotional turning points around ping-pong games, it should actually do the sports movie thing of teaching the audience how to watch ping-pong.

Once you start thinking about how many pieces of technology were developed to share dubiously consensual pictures of women's bodies, you can't stop seeing it. I wrote about it here. www.vox.com/culture/4747...

No Ice rally in DC today

I'm interested that both MTG and Erika Kirk are aiming to play the public role of "forgiving Christian woman" right now. I wrote about it here. www.vox.com/culture/4744...

The first thing I did when I woke up this morning was look up this @joshuakeating.bsky.social piece from last month to understand what happened last night. www.vox.com/politics/470...

I am interested in the resonances between the fantasy of leaving the country and the fantasy of the trad wife! I wrote about it here www.vox.com/culture/4732...

"We often talk about the idea of fleeing America and its feeble social safety net as a liberating, progressive act...But the idea of escaping the work-life balance trap has darker echoes in contemporary American pop culture" Great piece from @constancegrady.bsky.social. www.vox.com/culture/4732...

Best! Books! www.vox.com/culture/4723...

Quite the specific stylistic choice here in C.K.'s final book

When I was in college I would binge-read Sophie Kinsella books all the way through finals week and into vacation as my reward for all the studying. She understood how to write a novel as light and frothy as a bubble bath. What a loss. www.nytimes.com/2025/12/10/b...

"He cannot just be president. He also has to be a good TV star. He has to win the approval of the culturati, which is the one thing he will never quite get." - @constancegrady.bsky.social

Thinking about Bugonia (which slaps) and how much it weirdly reminds me of Homeland s1. Something about the intimacy between two people trying to convince each other of a specific picture of the world, and the audience unable to determine which worldview is correct — there's a lot of power there.

Loved this @constancegrady.bsky.social joint on Hamnet, Hamlet, and the debate over "grief porn." www.vox.com/culture/4714...

I am weighing in on the Hamnet grief porn debate www.vox.com/culture/4714...

ICE is trying to claim the power to decide who gets to be a part of America, and their ads give us a glimpse into who they believe America is. Check out the full video at patreon.com/vox.

“Eternity is a terrible thought. I mean, where's it going to end?” What a legacy he had. www.theguardian.com/stage/2025/n...

oh we're over clothing trends now, they said. we're really in the era of embracing timeless fashion that will never look dated. buy it for once, buy it for life!

This very good take makes me think that on occassions where the penultimate flashback episode is the best of the season (e.g. The Rook, the worst show I have ever loved), it's a tell that the main mystery is bad www.vulture.com/article/penu...

I see that pop culture discourse finally hit bluesky, only to take the form of the most annoying form of pop culture discourse on Twitter in 2019.

A film you've seen more than seven times with a GIF

back on my bullshit about what bad nerds these people are www.vox.com/culture/4668...

god when Crispin hits she hits theamericanscholar.org/what-is-an-a...

My favorite niche drama just got hotter

Honestly this is the most beautifully written investigation of gooning a person could hope to read harpers.org/archive/2025...

Philip Pullman's new book finishing up Lyra's story came out yesterday! I wrote about how Pullman fits into the past few decades of American book banning www.vox.com/culture/4659...

imagine putting your co-byline on this graf this when your career since the 1990s has been entirely about railing against the excesses of the left

There's a new Next Page out today, and we're dipping into the fall prestige books! Mitfords, McEwan, and Lockwood, oh my www.vox.com/next-page-ne...

What are some good literary essays you've read recently? (Asking for a newsletter.)

I did a close reading of those weird ICE recruitment ads to see how they're selling themselves www.vox.com/culture/4646...

Tommy Orange an official Macarthur genius!!!

It is Jane Austen Appreciation Year always in my heart, but especially this year, when she turns a sunny 250 years old. To celebrate, I went digging through Mansfield Park to learn about what we know about what Austen thought of slavery. www.vox.com/culture/4639...

To me, the most interesting thing about Life of a Showgirl is how plainly it features Taylor saying that actually, she loves being famous. I wrote about it here www.vox.com/culture/4637...

I did not expect Taylor to sing the lyric “it’s kind of making me wet,” but it does seem right that she sings it wrt petty vengeance, her truest love

I forget how good Trilling is and then I read his essay on Mansfield Park. These bars! www.unz.com/Pub/Encounte...

oh no I remembered the existence of the song Finishing the Hat and now I am useless for the afternoon

All these think pieces about how the acotar and related are actually revolutionary because they're the "only" fantasy to center women and their desires makes me so angry. Like women don't deserve the ALREADY EXTANT fantasy novels that center them and their desires AND have decent sentences.

I talked with a criminology scholar on why focusing on the political leanings of an individual assassin is a red herring www.vox.com/culture/4618...

I delved into the history of Jimmy Kimmel's feud with Trump, and how the guy from The Man Show became the guy pissing off the president www.vox.com/culture/4619...

I spent a couple weeks researching the cold war CIA and came away ready to believe that absolutely anything can be a CIA front www.vox.com/culture/4612...

The New York Times rolls over its Sodoku lineup to the next day too early, every single day

Only Connect finally offered a mild critique of Connections in-episode and the nerds are buzzing

Whatever else The Paper is, it's a nice reminder of how good The Office crew is at keeping their internal worldbuilding to the pacing of a documentary. Especially after so many years of other mockumentary sitcoms forcing sitcom beats into a talking head format.