Some recs for your weekend - open to all this weekend:

1/ Pretty interesting piece on how vulnerable we are to digital attacks. Doesn’t feel great! Want to touch grass!

2/ A letter from the outgoing EIC of Jewish Currents on fighting for her cause and staying in it. Interesting counter-post to Sam Harris from Thursday’s post.

3/ Nearly 40,000 objects and items you can see on various Wikipedia pages. A fun little collage! Clicking on an item takes you to a new page with many more versions of similar items. Love it.

Bonus / In honor of Juneteenth, some interesting history out of the Village.

That’s all for today. Have a great weekend.

We did not have the weather gods on our side this trip. Mostly gloomy, rainy days. But we made the best of it!

After departing CPH at 9am and landing in NYC at 11:30am, my body and my sleep could not be more off. I’ll be spending the next few days recovering! (Monica, I hope you are reading this while sipping on a delicious coffee filled to the brim with lactaid-free milk!)

Ok, some recs for you:

1/ Beautiful photos of abandoned homes throughout America.

2/ On the flight home, I read and watched two movies. Still making my way through the available pages of On the Calculation of Volume, and find it deeply moving. As for films, the two I watched I’d recommend you check out!

The first, It’s Never Over, Jeff Buckley.

The second, a French film based on a real story, Case 137.

Both should make you sufficiently depressed!

3/ Sam Harris on why he won’t debate critics of Israel. He added necessary footnotes. Still parsing out my thoughts!

Sam Harris

Why I Won’t Debate Critics of Israel

Note (6/12/26): The response to this essay has been quite colorful. I’ve added a few footnotes to clarify points that seem easily misunderstood…

Read more

14 days ago · 7861 likes · 1289 comments · Sam Harris

That’s all for today. Have a wonderful Thursday.

We’ve been on the go most of our time in this fine country, so I’m pretty tired. The weather has also been oddly chaotic, mostly rainy with bouts of beautiful sunshine. It’s confused. I’m confused. We’re all doing our best.

We head to Malmö tomorrow, where I will surely have an epic massage at this insane spa. It’s the highlight of the trip, so let’s hope for the best.

Anyway, on to the recs for this weekend:

1/ This is your brain on caffeine.

Read more

Just got here and am loving Stockholm so far. Monica is an excellent travel partner and we’ve planned an exciting day today involving Vikings and ABBA. So yeah, I’m happy.

Let me get you some recs for your day:

1/ Super interesting piece on Iran.

Persuasion

The Islamic Republic Is More Dug in Than Ever

The war with Iran is now in limbo, somewhere between ceasefire negotiations and the next explosion…

Read more

17 days ago · 141 likes · 4 comments · Mitra Vand

“This is what they wanted all along—to die for their cause. And now the war is giving them exactly that.”

2/ Some NYC windows for ya.

3/ This is a fun little game! Let me just say, some days are easier than others.

Bonus/ Prep for the World Cup by learning where the teams are staying. Absolutely wild.

I’m off to enjoy my vacation! Have a wonderful Thursday.

On to the recs for this weekend:

1/ Great article on how tech leaders are making decisions about our futures despite our nature as humans. It’s starting with driverless cars…

Many of these drivers are immigrants. Many are people whom …

Read more

On to today’s recs. Some great reads for ya:

1/ This piece, The Best Free Bread in America from the Atlantic, was really as good as everyone said it was. It’s so funny and oddly touching.

2/ On the outrage machine.

These three things are not connected in the slightest, but all share one distinct throughline: people acting absolutely insane online about something that just doesn’t matter that much. Burden’s book was great—a must-read. I don’t care if she has a trust worth $65 million; it was captivating. West and Amanda getting caught holding hands in Rome is not offensive to me; they made a bad choice, and the people in their lives will act accordingly. The running community will continue to clock 100-mile weeks and share Strava scores, whether or not you think a brand activation was stupid. We are all, myself included, just too invested in things that don’t matter. Maybe we need a distraction from our mundane lives, or we are simply, after years and years, still too logged on. But as a guy who gets mad about meaningless stuff for a living, even I have a line. All this chatter only helps the thing you hate. Burden is going to sell more books, Summer House reunion ratings will have Andy Cohen looking for a fifth house, and Satisfy’s Shopify is filled with francs. But the point is, we cannot be this invested; sometimes it’s ok to shake your head, get a few good quips off in the most active group chat, and move on—without logging into Reddit, cracking knuckles, packing a lip, and writing 10,000 words on a “controversy” we will all forget about tomorrow. I will never stop paying attention, but maybe we should try to process things a bit differently.

3/ Sort of related…Internet Hive mind. “A collection of thoughts from working writers, critics, artists, and editors on how they conceive of writing the internet.”

It is morning. I have not yet opened my eyes. I reach into my skull, pull out my brain, and plunk it down into the stream of the internet. The stream courses over and around and through my brain. It lifts my brain and carries it downstream. Now my brain is smacked by a bit of flotsam; now detritus lodges in its creases. Sometime later, it is night. Have I opened my eyes? Where is my brain? Did I think this thought, or was it a tweet?

—Sofia Warren, cartoonist and author of Radical: My Year with a Socialist Senator

That’s it for today. Please share this with anyone you think may enjoy and have a great Thursday. Next edition will be coming to you from Sweden 🇸🇪.

Recs for this weekend:

1/ Love this site that shows you a Rothko that matches the weather you’re experiencing based on time and location.

2/ This is gonna be good. Same director responsibl…

Read more

I’m going to pull back to posting only on Thursdays. If I have a new “Opp of Expert” to share, that’ll come out on a Tuesday, but otherwise we’re back to once a week. Premium posts will still drop over the weekend. Thank you as always to folks that subscribe at that level.

Ok, onto today’s post…

Morning!

Wild that we’re almost done with May. Where does the time go?

Went to the Rockaways earlier this week and saw a family of dolphins bopping around. Tickled my heart.

It’s taken me a little too long to respect and admire nature and the way of things. Better late than never, I guess.

Here are your recs for today:

1/ This was a really great post from . Made me think a lot about intention and what it takes to really be a skilled writer.

popstars are being accused of wanting old men to have a wank to their pictures for strutting about in their whimsical Generation78 dresses. the blame has been placed on them- they are to fault for how the perverted interact with them.

2/ Wild story. Portrait looted by Nazis found in home of Dutch SS leader’s family.

3/ Incredible photographs. Can’t believe these are real.

Bonus/ Some visual eye candy from Milan Design Week.

That’s all for today. Have a great Thursday. What are you reading/seeing/consuming? Let me know!

1/ Super interesting read in The Atlantic on masculinists. Classic Helen Lewis wit applied to a daunting topic!

2/ Three sided zippers are finally here!

In action (Credit: Jiaji Li):

3/ Good interview on getting information out of Iran to the masses.

I believe that you need to meet your audience where they are and then move them. But mainstream media meets their audience where they are and lets them stay there. If you look at the coverage of Iran in the US right now, Iran and Iranians are almost exclusively represented by dead bodies when there are people actually living through this moment! Despair, misery, yes, all of that stuff is part and parcel of the horrific situation in which Iranians find themselves in, but it’s infantilizing when the only angle the media is willing to advance is to feel sorry for them. These are smart, accomplished, thoughtful human beings. They don’t need us to feel sorry for them. They need us to take them seriously as intellectuals.

Bonus/ Cool contest for writers. Hurry, you have a week.

That’s all for this week. Have a great rest of your Tuesday.

Last week was a productive one. Went to Chicago for an expo, shot and edited a sizzle video for a VC client, and saw Becky Shaw for a second time. What a week!

Onto the recs for your weekend:

1/ Love when Jerry Saltz goes in on the art world.

After seven minutes of bidding this week, Christie’s sold a magnificent Jackson Pollo…

Read more

1/ Love this series. Such a clever approach to art.

Inspired by “Boulevard du Temple,” Louis Daguerre’s 1838 photograph, Alexey Yurenev asked people across New York how long it takes them to earn one dollar and used their answer to calculate the exposure time for their respective portraits.

2/ I really enjoyed reading Rejection last year. Fun interview with author Tony Tulathimutte, here. Read the book!

Counter Craft

Processing: How Tony Tulathimutte Wrote Rejection

On a semi-regular basis, I interview authors about their writing processes and craft practices. You can find previous entries here. This week I’m very excited to be talking with Tony Tulathimutte, whose new book Rejection is one of the most hilarious, outrageous, and brilliant books I’ve read all year. …

Read more

2 years ago · 222 likes · 11 comments · Lincoln Michel

Great quote:

Any advice for a reader going through rejection in life and/or literature?

In general, don’t dispute or haggle. Also, when you’re not ready for, correct about, or deserving of the thing you want, acceptance is worse than rejection.

3/ Interesting pod as we start to celebrate America’s 250th.

Have a great rest of your Thursday.

Here are your recs for today:

1/ On similes.

2/ Super interesting read on our performative natures. Some really good points!

Hilde's Visions

Do you hate Jia Tolentino, or do you hate yourself?

It’s sometimes said that America is the country of youth. I’m not so sure. Real young people are engaged in moving toward the future…not enclosing themselves in the complacent resignation that’s been assigned to them…

Read more

a month ago · 189 likes · 32 comments · Hilde von Bingen

3/ Can’t tell if this will be cool or not cool. But I guess I’ll keep an eye on it! Anyone know anything?

Ok that’s all for today! I’m due for a very long session at Renew!

I mean they have a Scrub Daddy claw machine, so this expo is pretty special.

Read more

Some recs for you today:

1/ Anyone read Waiting Mag? Speaking of how great NYC is, we likely have the most creative class of food and beverage industry professionals in the world. Sign up for the newsletter, here.

2/ The good one sentence can do. For the writers out there! Keep chugging.

You are at an inflection point. This is the moment when you’ve decided to make something brand new happen with your writing. All you have to do is sit down and write and suddenly everything can shift at once. Even if it’s just one new sentence that stands out from the rest of them. That one sentence can change the course of an entire book.

3/ POV: The creative industries are about to split in two. Interesting commentary on AI and the state of the creative industry. A lot of people I know are wrestling with AI use and the next steps. Found this article to provide an interesting, realistic take.

That’s it for today. Have a great Thursday. See you premos this weekend.

Yesterday there were 5 different couples that came between 3:30-5:30pm to take wedding or engagement photos. Winter is very much over!

On to the recs. Really varied collection of posts for you today. Hope you find them worthwhile.

1/ This was an interesting interview. I don’t spend much time consuming the crazy that is Tucker Carlson, but I thought the conversation here was really well done. Lulu Garcia-Navarro is an expert interviewer and it really shows here. She manages to have patience but also push back. Just a really interesting, wide-ranging conversation that provided some insight on contemporary American politics for me. Hope you find it compelling, too.

2/ Devastating piece, beautifully written. Worth reading.

After Sari, many others were lost. Members of my family, people I saw every day. Each of them was killed at a different time and in a different place, as if death kept returning to me in new forms to finish what it had begun with Sari. With each loss, I felt something else break inside me. And yet I did not cry as I had the first time. It was as if my tears had run out, or as if my heart had learned to protect itself with silence. I heard the news and felt I should collapse, but something inside me was rigid. No sound came out, no tears fell. Sometimes I sat alone and blamed myself: “Have I lost my humanity? How can you not cry for your relatives? How has death become ordinary?”

3/ NASA Dropped More Than 12,000 Photos from the Artemis II Mission. So cool! For gearheads, they used a couple of Nikons and an iPhone 17.

That’s it for today. Hope you have a great Tuesday and I’ll see you Thursday. Please share this with anyone you think may find it interesting.

The drive up here was lovely. The trees are green and the air fresh and it’s a beautiful reminder of the changing seasons. Looking outside Susannah’s room to the all the green really does inspire awe. Makes me feel like …

Read more

1/ The Fallacy Fallacy

Persuasion

The Fallacy Fallacy

Have you ever wondered why people believe the moon landing was faked, vaccines secretly poison us, and Mercury in retrograde can ruin your love life? Why does irrationality seem so pervasive? A popular answer, beloved by academics and educators alike, …

Read more

4 months ago · 255 likes · 24 comments · Maarten Boudry

Most of all, fallacy theory misleads us about the real sources of human irrationality. Most people intuitively grasp the basic rules of logic and probability—we wouldn’t have survived otherwise. Human reason is a bag of tricks and heuristics, mostly accurate in the environments in which we evolved, but easily led astray in modern life. And it is strategic and self-serving, motivated to reach conclusions that serve our own interests.

2/ A tipping point at last? “The case for thinking the Iran War means the implosion of the Trump era.”

The Weekly Dish

A Tipping Point At Last?

Read more

2 months ago · Andrew Sullivan

3/ Another wonderful piece from Heather Hogan. On how writing about her personal life set her free.

Cattywampus

The Untold Story Inside You

“There is no greater agony than bearing an untold story inside you…

Read more

2 months ago · 74 likes · 10 comments · Heather Hogan

Writing has freed me from so many of my fears. It has liberated me from the people and institutions who instilled those fears in me. And it has delivered me from the obliterating loneliness of hiding my real self — my fuck-ups, my triumphs, my bruised feelings and broken heart, my joys, all the things I’ve survived — from the world.

Bonus/ Little art piece for ya, post-Met Gala

Have a good Thursday.

On to the recs for today:

1/ Lena Dunham has been posting a new series called, “Dunhamisms” and it’s really good. She offers detailed advice for readers and this may be a true calling for her.

2/ Theatre people: highly recommend seeing Becky Shaw. It’s a fun one.

3/ Ever wondered how an art exhibit comes together, physically in the space? This is an excellent, long description on the process.

Object Labels

The Anatomy of an Exhibition

For a very long time, I had absolutely no idea how art got into a museum. If you had asked me, I probably would have smiled and said “magic.” I would have only been half-joking (*cue the nervous bead of sweat making its way down my forehead…

Read more

2 months ago · 704 likes · 120 comments · Alya

That’s it for today. Have a great Tuesday!

1/ Spell Your Name with NASA’s Earthly Alphabet of Aerial Images

Using the tool is simple: type in your name, or any word, and Landsat returns it in the form o…

Read more

Welcome to Opposite of Expert, a series from The 33 Project.

Opposite of Expert is for curious generalists. Each post will tackle a new subject you may know nothing about. Instead of aiming for mastery, the goal here is modest: learn just enough to hold a relevant conversation. In other words, tickle that part of your brain that likes to learn something new.

Format-wise, I connect with one person who is an expert on a subject and ask them three questions. Instead of the traditional back and forth interview style, these expert guests then send me either voice notes or short video responses to my questions. This way you get to hear/see it straight from the expert. Feel free to comment on subjects you want to learn more about and share feedback. Enjoy!

View all previous episodes, here.

I am so excited to share this episode with you. Today you get to hear from actor extraordinaire Jed Resnick.

I worked with Jed back in 2017/2018 making my first short film, She’s Marrying Steve. Jed was not only perfect in the role, professional and witty, but he also just happens to be a totally delightful human being.

Since working together, Jed’s continued to act professionally in TV, film and theatre. He’s currently playing Dave in the touring company for MJ the Musical. Knowing his chops, I thought he’d be the perfect expert to walk us through what it takes to be a professional, touring actor.

So, let’s get into the answers that will help us all be more capable of holding an informed, relevant conversation on the topic of: TOURING IN A MUSICAL.

Question 1/ Starting out super basic...How does one get a job on a touring musical? Did you go into a casting and try out? Is there a formula to this?

Ready for a Rent throwback? Audio from the tour. Video of baby Jed touring Rent.

Question 2/ I watch a lot of “day in the life” of a broadway performer TikToks. I feel like there’s a ton of vocal warm ups and stretching. Can you walk me through a show day from waking up to going to sleep? What stays the same? What changes? Give me a full picture, please!

Collecting yogurts is iconic. I love the routine he’s crafted for himself - feels like a traditional job in that sense.

Question 3/ When you’re touring, I’m guessing you’re dealing with a ton of variation. Not just the types of audiences, but the literal theaters and stages and acoustics are all different. How do you adjust your performance when the stage you initially rehearsed on is nothing like the stage you perform on!?

Criminal that the day off is a travel day! Also, fellow audience members, watch those claps! 😂

Alright that’s it for today. Thank you again, Jed for such thoughtful answers. Hope you enjoyed this ep and feel free to share and follow Jed!