Latest posts
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Democracy with a Matchbook: How America Learned to Love Political Violence, Tribalism, and Excel Spreadsheets
Pod Save America did what it does best: deliver the bad news with a podcast ad break for magnesium powder and underwear that “feels like on-body AC.” The guest of honor was Dr. Liliana Mason, Johns Hopkins political scientist and unwilling Cassandra of our collapsing republic. Her subject? The roots of political violence in America
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When Congress Governs by Split Screen
Democracy has always been a little theatrical. The marble halls, the pomp, the roll calls delivered like Broadway overtures—it’s part politics, part melodrama, part daytime soap. But lately the Capitol has taken the metaphor too literally. On one screen: a government funding bill collapsing in the Senate. On the other: a resolution sanctifying Charlie Kirk,
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My Predictions for the 77th Primetime Emmys
Every year, the Emmys give us an opportunity to reflect not just on the television that entertained us, but the television that defined the cultural conversation. Some shows break through because they’re technically brilliant. Others linger because they captured a mood or gave us characters we couldn’t stop talking about. This year, the ballots feel
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A Single Round, A Million Excuses: A Cultural Critique of the Assassination of Charlie Kirk
Let us convene, grim-eyed, on the manicured quads of Utah Valley University, where normalcy shattered into shards of ideological glass in a single, solitary moment: the death of a political firebrand, felled supposedly by a single bullet from a nearby building. That bullet—cold, precise, unembellished by flourish or bombast—reduces weeks, perhaps years, of incendiary rhetoric
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In Defense of the Binge: Why Autoplay Is the New Therapy
On August 29, 2025, researchers at the University of Georgia committed the academic equivalent of saying the quiet part out loud: binge-watching might actually be good for you. Their peer-reviewed study, published in Acta Psychologica, didn’t just poke at the pop culture habit everyone denies and everyone does—it blessed it, like a priest sprinkling holy
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iPhone 17: The Awe-Dropping Slab We’ll All Pretend Not to Need, Then Buy Anyway
On September 9, 2025 at 10 a.m. PT, Apple will once again transform its glass spaceship into a megachurch of consumer longing, inviting the faithful to witness what it calls the “Awe-dropping” keynote. The name alone is a corporate sleight of hand: awe as in wonder, drop as in your rent money, and keynote as
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Big Brother, Small Man: The Rylie Jeffries Eviction Tour
When Rylie Jeffries was evicted from Big Brother Season 27, he didn’t walk out of the house so much as stumble into a reality that had been waiting to eat him alive. On the inside, he was the cowboy-hat-wearing bull rider with a showmance and a storyline. On the outside, he was suddenly the subject
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The Soundtrack of Survival: Thirteen Artists Who Speak To Me
Growing up queer, biracial, abandoned, and too often invisible, I didn’t have a roadmap. What I had were songs—other people’s stories sung like confessions, shouted like rebellion, whispered like prayers. These artists didn’t just entertain me; they saved me. They gave me language for my own sadness, resilience for my own survival, and proof that
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MTV VMAs 2025: Icons Clash with New Blood in a Spectacle of Reinvention and Awards Theater
Sunday, September 7, 2025—mark your calendars with the precision of a metronome set to “ARE YOU READY?” mode—UBS Arena in New York will host the 2025 MTV Video Music Awards, a night that treads the delicate line between nostalgia and brand-new glitter. The evening promises enough star power to cause gravitational anomalies—and I, emotional traces
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Not Perfect, Just Us: A 10-Month Love Story
Dear Matthew, On the eve of ten months, I’m putting it all in writing, because love deserves a record—even the messy parts, even the parts where I am not the hero of the scene. I know it’s “just” a month-iversary. I know it’s supposed to be silly. But if I’m honest, I’d celebrate every Tuesday