the new olivia bangs!

would it be insane for me to ask for a cover for my nonfiction book about friendship in the style of 1990s fantasy mass market paperbacks? probably, right?

that last part is key, we do not, I repeat DO NOT continue to engage

I used to be intimidated by negotiating for equipment at the gym w bros, being perceived by them, etc, but one thing that really recommends at least the gym bros of DC, is they are very receptive to a brief bit. a lil small talk quip as you grab a barbell clip, we chuckle, and then we both move on!

If an AI future is what I'm getting left behind from, then Christ, just leave me behind. A girl can only pivot so much, hoss, and I hung up my pivotin' boots some time ago. I don't make videos even though that was supposedly the future of writing ten years ago — I mean, I guess I do, but they're little banjo practice videos for my friends, not expressions of a desperate careerist impulse. I use social media with the attention-crazed dopesickness of an addict, not the care and forethought of a professional, as any cursory read of my posts will confirm. I'm a writer by trade — a creative, as you might say — and here you are, running a business you don't even understand into the ground, deskilling my trade and expecting a thank you when you explain how you're doing it. If I don't devalue myself the way you continually devalue me, you warn, I'll be left behind. Okay, says I! Quit making it my problem and go! The dust you leave me in will settle, and in the meantime, I will keep doing my work in much the way I've done it since I first became literate.

‘if you don’t learn to use AI, you’ll get left behind!’ 🍆✊
www.patreon.com/posts/155290...

I know we're a nation of delivery now, but doordash can never replicate one of life's greatest pleasures: eavesdropping on an insane conversation at the restaurant table next to you

no greater camaraderie exists than the line for the women’s bathroom at a public event when everyone is just a liiittle tipsy

solidarity to propublica's union! ✊

The Return of TV’s Best Bromance On Scrubs, Turk and J.D. present a vision of male friendship that is sneakily radical.

I wrote about my beloved J.D. and Turk and their sneakily radical friendship

www.theatlantic.com/culture/2026...

Julie is lying on her stomach on a bed, looking back over her shoulder at her ass, which a sleepy white cat is melted atop, like those clocks from that Dali painting

it’s time I stopped hiding. I have a chronic case of Cat Ass. its only symptom: every time I lay on my stomach, I sprout a cat on my ass. there is no cure

This is no way to live, man

just living for the part of the day where I can engage in my fiber crafts and watch the adventures of a handsomely bearded brooding doctor…I call it Pittin’ & Knittin’

“living life a quarter mile at a time” but it’s just me going for a really short walk around the neighborhood then going home and sitting back down

The Tension That Defines Modern Life Most people have a smartphone. But many want to use it less.

I wrote about the collective yearning for a more analog life that has sprung up recently and why, for most people, it hasn't manifested in actually dumping their smartphones: www.theatlantic.com/family/2026/...

Sam! 🥹

What AI ‘Friends’ Reveal About Human Friendship Social chatbots offer relationships that are low effort, completely personalized—and hollow.

AI-chatbot “friends” are one logical destination for the current trend of human friendship—but “using these tools to address loneliness has the potential to make it worse,” Julie Beck writes.

Friendship, on Demand AI chatbots offer relationships that are low effort, completely personalized—and hollow.

I've been working on this for ages and it's finally up today!

I was p. baffled by AI friendship, until I realized: AI is a logical, if extreme, extension of the kind of friendship our culture already values: individualistic friendship that is on your own terms

www.theatlantic.com/family/2026/...

Friendship, on Demand AI chatbots offer relationships that are low effort, completely personalized—and hollow.

and with so much empathy for the loneliness many people are experiencing, and the difficulty and time it takes to make human friendships, many of the experts I spoke to were not convinced that AI is better than nothing. It could end up being worse than nothing.

www.theatlantic.com/family/2026/...

AI promises a friendship without the inconvenience of other people; one that is all about you, all the time. It is perfect for a hyperindividualistic culture that valorizes "low maintenance friendships" and asks whether a given relationship "serves me"

Friendship, on Demand AI chatbots offer relationships that are low effort, completely personalized—and hollow.

I've been working on this for ages and it's finally up today!

I was p. baffled by AI friendship, until I realized: AI is a logical, if extreme, extension of the kind of friendship our culture already values: individualistic friendship that is on your own terms

www.theatlantic.com/family/2026/...

the Christian-devens-Emily-aubry axis is truly something

I don't know how to get on SurvivorSky, or where my Survivorheads are at, but let me just say I am having the BEST time with season 50 and I am all-in on Christian, my pants-pooping king.

The Impossible Predicament of the Uninsured My aunt couldn’t afford to go to the hospital. She ended up there anyway.

"All she could afford to be was grateful." a heartbreaking, personal look at what happens when you're uninsured, by @jenishawo.bsky.social

www.theatlantic.com/magazine/202...

the new snail mail songs are that rare and precious genre of “makes me believe spring will actually come”

they are vitamin d, they are an ssri, they are fixing my brain chemistry

A ‘Survivor’ Contestant’s Empathetic Reality-TV Novel Stephen Fishbach mines the drama of competition shows to write a cautionary tale about trying to edit down the mess of life.

I really enjoyed Stephen Fishbach’s novel Escape!—as a Survivor fan, and as someone who thinks way too much about how the desire for narrative shapes our lives
www.theatlantic.com/books/2026/0...

Americans Love Their Neighbors Statistics say this is a time of disconnection. Minnesota’s response to ICE shows otherwise.

a tribute to everyone who hasn’t forgotten how to love their neighbors 💙

www.theatlantic.com/family/2026/...

two journalists arrested for practicing journalism—Don Lemon and independent journalist Georgia Fort

essential essential essential life-giving, hopeful piece of writing

Can We Just Let Teens Exist in Public? When malls ban unaccompanied minors and when cities enact curfews, they restrict adolescents’ ability to participate in society.

legalize teens!!!
www.theatlantic.com/family/2026/...

'Fuck You, 2016' On blaming a year for the things that happen in it

the funny thing about everyone memorializing 2016 on social media is that at the time, people famously hated that year, to the point that everyone was constantly posting "Fuck you 2016" on social media and John Oliver burned the numerals in effigy on TV

www.theatlantic.com/technology/a...