The latest from The Second Swim (the piece has a voiceover by yours truly).

'The lesson of the play is that love is transformative—and Shakespeare is clear-sighted about the uncomfortable fact that that transformation can be for the worse.' NEW from me at The Second Swim 🏊🏼‍♀️

drionaitalia.com/p/because-the-…

Even if you completely disagree with Graham's views on trans issues, that is no reason to deprive the public of what seems to be an amazing musical. The two things are completely unconnected. It's so childish & spiteful (also I want to see the musical). #FreeFatherTed

OMG, this is a level of Americanness I didn't even know existed.

Our own Jonathan Kay has scooped many important Canadian news stories for Quillette because 'sources couldn’t get Canadian outlets to return their calls, as their stories didn’t fit the preferred ideological narrative of most Canadian publications.”

quillette.com/2024/04/19/inv…

K A N G A R O O I N B I O

Mr Grass Couch is my favourite Aussie man. If anyone needs me to vouch for him, I am here!

'A brief interlude of shambolic democracy might make authoritarian rule seem attractive by comparison.'

John Lloyd for Quillette on the strange nostalgia for communism in Russia & Romania.

quillette.com/2024/04/18/nos…

Thanks to Sohan Dsouza & John Wood Jr. for pointing out that the entire TED talk is more sensible than this snippet suggests. However, I continue to feel it's very problematic. I'll keep my powder dry here, though, as I think we will be covering it shortly.

Supporting Ukraine is such a clear moral and political imperative that those who want to argue against it have to resort to the most despicable and dishonest tactics.

This is a lovely description of Quillette: the great debunkers of orthodoxies.

Godard was really a dreadful filmmaker.
Quillette's writers are the great debunkers of orthodoxies. Now, Charlotte Allen (@MeanCharlotte) has debunked cinema's greatest myth.
Jean-Luc Godard in Retrospect Part I: Abstraction Hero (1930–65) quillette.com/2024/04/10/jea…

NEWS

Google has fired 28 employees who staged in sit-in which was protesting the company’s $1.2 billion cloud contract with Israeli government.

Nine employees were also arrested.

In a note sent to employees the company says: “If you're one of the few who are tempted to…

Fascinating.

youtube.com/watch?v=3kXy2n…

I've been neglecting my Substack because I feel I never have the time to write a PROPER piece for it. But I just decided to put some random thoughts in there, rather than tweeting them. Possible win?

'None of these sex-changing creatures are mammals, much less human. Rather, they’re insects, fish, lizards, and marine invertebrates whose biology is different from our own in countless (fascinating) ways.'

quillette.com/2024/04/17/fro…

The overlap in the Venn diagram of people who comment on articles and people who read those articles is the tiniest sliver, nail-paring thin.

“Garland resists neat closure and easy moralizing. The experience is thoughtful, troubling, and spectacular.” Allan Stratton for Quillette

quillette.com/2024/04/18/ame…

Arrest this man.