i am starting a very modest newsletter concern. it's free and will be no great chore to consume. just a playlist culled from my listening and a quotation culled from my reading, every Friday. first edition arrives tomorrow. link below and in my bio. INDULGE

Karl-Anthony Towns Sr. calls out Jimmy Butler “It only hurt me as a father to hear people saying stuff that was negative that wasn’t true to bring him down. But in the end, it all paid up. Jimmy ain’t got no championship. Karl bypassed him.” (Via @JonKrawczynski, @TheAthletic , nytimes.com/athletic/7618092…)

i wrote about my reality problem. newyorker.com/culture/on-tel…

A.I. is everywhere, and it’s often hard to tell what’s even real. newyorker.com/culture/on-tel…

The first time Mahmoud Khalil called home, he thought he might be back in a few days. “Later that night, as I was trying to sleep, I heard loud cheers. A few men approached my bed, calling for me to look at the TV screen. It was split: me and Trump.”

Join the New Yorker staff writers Vinson Cunningham (@vcunningham), Naomi Fry, and Alexandra Schwartz (@Alex_Lily) for a live taping of the magazine’s culture podcast, with help from the audience. Join the wait list: newyorkerfest.visitlink.me/w…

great piece by @vcunningham on Grandmaster Flash’s book newyorker.com/magazine/2026/…

The New Yorker used “vinyls” in print—declaring this matter settled.

that was a really unfortunate way to learn what "hyrox" is

thinking once again of my beloved older cousin—may he rest in peace—and how he saddled me with this godforsaken love for the jets

3 months ago today… “"It's over! It's over! Knick fans, this is not a dream! Your long, long wait has ended! Go ahead and cry! After 53 years, the Knicks are finally NBA champions once again!"

Grandmaster Flash, one of the pioneers of hip-hop, began to create the sound in hopes of extending the part of a song that gets people dancing. “If hip-hop seems excessive, this is why: its sound was invented, at least in part, to deliver too much of a good thing,” Vinson Cunningham writes. newyorker.com/magazine/2026/…

finally, a tennis god who is sort of related to Dennis Rodman

Shelton is insane

shout out Zheng—what a cool player

reporting live from wasia: i talked with over 50 people, including the wasian meetup organizers and hollywood writers, actors, and producers, about the current moment. vulture.com/article/the-wasi…

these stricken pronouncements are starting to sound more and more like threats

Abdul El-Sayed: “There are 3M people who listen to Hasan. I want to offer them a pathway into an electoral movement where rather than sit outside the electoral system, they see a pathway around the things they agree with that he says that I agree with and a pathway that disavows the things that I disagree with. I’m glad to be on your show, but I’m not here to talk to you. I’m here to talk to the people you’re talking to” Stephen A. Smith: “I gotta confess to you: that’s a damn good answer!”

Wachtell, Lipton is proving that longform isn't dead.

the campaign against AES, waged by both parties and their messengers, is some of the most bigoted shit i have ever seen in a lifetime of paying attention to politics.