My subscriber exclusive weekly round up has returned! Everyone help me welcome back my weekly reading round up, which will compile all the things I've produced during the week, along with links to other things I've been reading and thinking about. This piece is exclusively for
Tech billionaire Sam Altman positions his company’s artificial intelligence, including ChatGPT, as humanity’s savior. But the human race can’t trust the OpenAI CEO, according to a recent New Yorker Sam Altman profile. From his earliest days in the tech industry, Altman has toggled between exaggerations (at best)
The GOP started the Gerrymander Wars, Democrats will finish it Gerrymandering has been a thing in American politics for over a century now. The practice of drawing district lines to favor one political party over another is named after former Massachusetts governor Elbridge Gerry, who signed a bill in 1812
Those of you who are following me on Bluesky know that my cat has been in the animal hospital since Tuesday and he's barely hanging on. This morning I made the decision to cancel all further work this week, including the piece I had planned for the newsletter.
“Harry Potter” author J.K. Rowling’s trans persecution feeds off her vast fortune. Rowling uses her estimated $1.2 billion net worth to directly fund anti-trans causes. As executive producer of the upcoming Harry Potter HBO show, Rowling will make even more money that she can funnel into what
Piker's success comes because he gives his viewers access to our paywalled news system – through his own political lens. If you're at all connected with political media like I am these days, you simply can't go more than a few hours without hearing Hasan
So many people have told me that paying for all of the good independent journalists is impossible. The new Trustfnd bundle is an important step towards giving the reading public what they want. Much has been written about the current state of journalism. The industry is, generally, in the shitter.
I get that outrage farming is the easiest way to get clicks these days but please cut me some slack. No, I do not believe we should capitulate on sports. No, I don't think we should cede the sports argument to the right wing. No, I don'
The right has nearly achieved total victory on the trans athlete policy debate. From here on out, their outrage bait should have significantly diminishing returns. Note from Katelyn: Welcome to all of my new readers coming here from the Indie Media Bundle! I don't believe in paywalling news,
(Editor's note: Burns Notice and Katelyn are now offering an indie media bundle with The Handbasket (Marisa Kabas) and Spitfire News (Kat Tenbarge). For just $8.50, you can sign up to support all three independent journalists for 30 days. See here to sign up) Listen on: Apple|
Ignore the specific issues for a second, and look at how she operated her campaign. She taught us lessons on a new way to run for office. You're not supposed to run for congress in a city you just moved to. You're not supposed to run
Pete Hegseth’s résumé maps the trajectory of a man who failed upward from Fox News host to Donald Trump’s Secretary of Defense. As Brett Kavanaugh’s Supreme Court hearings proved, sexual assault allegations are rarely a roadblock to a powerful job in the Trump administration. In fact, Donald