Reading List
The most recent articles from a list of feeds I subscribe to.
You can’t really “train” your brain. Here’s what you can do instead.
A lot of people are looking for ways to improve, preserve, and prolong their brain’s health. Just look at the seemingly endless amount of self-help books, podcasts, phone apps, TikToks, and Instagram Reels dedicated to the subject. And, frankly, it makes sense. Alzheimer’s disease and dementia — conditions that fundamentally involve the loss of one’s […]
Why Trump betrayed MAGA, according to Tucker Carlson
After five weeks of muddled messaging, President Donald Trump finally addressed the nation on Wednesday night to make the case for his war on Iran. That message was…still muddled. He did not articulate a clear exit plan from the conflict, fobbed the Strait of Hormuz problem off on other countries, and denied that regime change […]
What to say to relatives who love to needle you about politics
As someone who has predominantly lived in liberal cities, I am largely surrounded by people who share my political views. Guns, no way. LGBTQ+ rights, yes, of course. Abortion, absolutely. Immigration, come on in. But I also have relatives, most of whom I love and am deeply attached to, in red states, which means I’m […]
How a capybara took over the Scholastic Book Fair
This story originally appeared in Kids Today, Vox’s newsletter about kids, for everyone. Sign up here for future editions. The Scholastic Book Fair is a big deal at my older kid’s school. A couple of times a year, the auditorium gets transformed into a kid-friendly bookstore, and the elementary-schoolers get out of their regular classes to shop […]
What happened when they installed ChatGPT on a nuclear supercomputer
If there’s anything that makes people more uncomfortable than highly advanced AI or nuclear weapons technology, it’s the combination of the two. But there’s been a symbiotic relationship between cutting-edge computing and America’s nuclear weapons program since the very beginning. In the fall of 1943, Nicholas Metropolis and Richard Feynman, two physicists working on the […]