The trans rights backlash is extremely real and very worrying for progressives. The public is aligned with conservatives on several issues like sports, restrooms, and minors' access to care. It's possibly the worst issue for progressives I've ever polled. theargumentmag.com/p/the-trans-ri…

My latest: on a new exhibition of dazzling color photography by William Eggleston, in what may be the last-ever dye-print photos: theguardian.com/artanddesign/2…

From last week: I wrote about An Autumn's Tale (1987), a charming Hong Kong romance set in NYC, for a Valentine's Day roundup of lesser-seen romance films: theguardian.com/film/2026/feb/…

My latest -- I wrote about the Carlson-Huckabee showdown, and the disconnect it reveals between MAGA nationalists and the Trump admin on Israel: theguardian.com/us-news/2026/f…

Fun piece by Alaina Demopoulos on how Letterboxd has changed the movie-going experience: theguardian.com/film/2026/feb/…

"'Okay. Yeah absolutely. Sounds good,' Clavicular responds, then turns to his phone and says, to the chat, "This is like a bookmaxxing jester.'" gq.com/story/inside-c…

nytimes.com/2026/02/22/boo…

"[A]n Arcadia Police detective [asked] Silvia about the number of children she had. ... Silvia consulted an Excel spreadsheet on her phone before responding that the tally was twenty-one." newyorker.com/magazine/2026/…

fortune.com/2026/02/21/lap…

.David Smith on the end of mass-market paperbacks: theguardian.com/books/2026/feb…

Craziest thing I’ve learned lately The warm yellows on these retro gadgets come from rare pigments: Quinacridone Gold (PO49) and Nickel Dioxine Yellow (PY153) Car makers and household goods used them heavily until demand crashed in the early 2000s (PO49) and 2012 (PY153)

“They just said, ‘Elaine from Atlantic, white girl with a hat and notepad. She’s interviewing people in the crowd. She’s a top-notch hater and will spin. She needs to leave.’” theatlantic.com/politics/2026/…

wsj.com/finance/invest…

There is absolutely a case that the US government needs to exert more political control over A.I. as a technology given what its own architects say about where it's going and how world-altering it might become. But the best case for that kind of political exertion is

Fascinating positioning by Mamdani that makes it seem like he hasn't met many Iranian New Yorkers

"A combat-unit commander told non-commissioned officers ... that the Iran war is part of God’s plan and that Pres. Donald Trump was 'anointed by Jesus to light the signal fire in Iran to cause Armageddon and mark his return to Earth ...'" jonathanlarsen.substack.com/p/us-troops-we…

Industry's "pitch-black view of power, its operating logic of unrelenting self-interest and its sacrifice of specificity and continuity for spectacle and scale, feel very of the moment. I’m still not sure how much I mean that as a compliment." theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2…

“There is no doubt that the Kurdish people overwhelmingly oppose the regime of the Islamic Republic of Iran ... Yet they also fear being abandoned once again.” cnn.com/2026/03/03/pol…

"Third, there was the reframing of regime-change wars to mean only operations that put boots on the ground." unherd.com/2026/03/how-jd…

My latest -- I wrote about the White House's unsettling war propaganda "hype videos" for the age of Twitch: theguardian.com/us-news/2026/m…