Oli Franklin-Wallis

Even when unthinkable things were happening to me, my first instinct was to work. Am I addicted? It was only years later, when I heard the word workaholic being used seriously for the first time, that I wondered whether I had a problem

I wrote this, about the worst thing that ever happened to me, and now I chose to deal with it www.theguardian.com/money/2025/n...

What happens when you can't imagine anything If I say, 'picture an apple', can you do it? If you can't, you may have aphantasia. Some very personal thoughts on the New Yorker's latest story.

Wrote about imagination, memory, and the time medication caused me to stop dreaming. open.substack.com/pub/oliverfr...

I’d love to do this!

Substack being down is presumably going to mean a massive surge in Bluesky traffic for the first time in years.

The joy of print newspapers, according to @chrislhayes.bsky.social
(the FT Weekend is even better, obviously)

Rare case of someone who should lose their job because of AI

Every one of these "If only it were possible to..." plugs for AI is animated by an incredibly deep resentment of either talent or authorship.

I’m not the person to ask for hair care, but I think the Faith In Nature ones are great.

Does anyone use solid shampoo and/or conditioner?

I’ve been trying them out and would appreciate more recommendations.

(So far Grom or Hair Blocks are winning, but I’m not 100% won round yet.)

As for this - in other words the government would rather we offshore our operations instead of generating jobs and exports in a high productivity sector in the UK. I despair...

Ken Burns Loves America—and You Can, Too Ken Burns’s obsession with this country can be felt in all 234 hours of his roughly 40 films—including his latest mega-doc, The American Revolution. At a moment when we are once again arguing about th...

This is the best magazine profile I've read in - oh, I don't know how long. Makes you nostalgic. Even if you don't care a jot about Ken Burns or his films (I've never even seen one), find some time for this. www.gq.com/story/ken-bu...

The human stain remover: what Britain’s greatest extreme cleaner learned from 25 years on the job | Tom Lamont From murder scenes to whale blubber, Ben Giles has seen it – and cleaned it – all. In their stickiest hours, people rely on him to restore order

This is just another masterful piece of writing by @tomlamont.bsky.social. Fascinating, entertaining, poetic, human. www.theguardian.com/news/2025/se...

A photograph of a paperback book, in a hand, in a garden. The cover is light blue and contains an image of a squashed, blue-tinged plastic bottle that I assume would’ve contained water. It includes the words: Oliver Franklin-Wallis, Wasteland, and a few quotes of praise for the book.

Finished reading Wasteland by @olifranklinwallis.bsky.social.
It’s excellently researched, beautifully written and very informative. It’s taken me a while because at times the topic was as bleak as you’d expect, but I am so glad I read it.
I feel better able to make my own small difference.

Thanks for reading! Sorry about the bleak…

Anatomy of Two Giant Deals: The U.A.E. Got Chips. The Trump Team Got Crypto Riches.

An @nytimes investigation finds staggering levels of insider dealing: The Trump administration confers benefits on the UAE (despite security concerns) as the UAE confers riches on the Trump family. www.nytimes.com/2025/09/15/u...

Anthropic Agrees to Pay $1.5 Billion to Settle Lawsuit With Book Authors

It’s not enough. They should pay the $150k fine per book.

You're right - I mispoke. I mean, abandon the manifesto pledges (no tax changes), not the fiscal rules. (Though those are also stupid, a straightjacket of our own creation.)

Starmer should now appoint Reeves as Deputy PM, use her change of position to renegotiate the fiscal rules, suck up six months of shit press for it, and actually start doing some policy rather than this ming vase government.

The timing of this is objectively quite funny.

I have a version of this conversation about three times a month.

The History of The New Yorker’s Vaunted Fact-Checking Department Reporters engage in charm and betrayal; checkers are in the harm-reduction business.

Having a fact-checking team is perhaps my favourite part about working at @gqmagazine.bsky.social, and this piece about the @newyorker.com's infamous fact-checking department captures some of the joys of the process. www.newyorker.com/magazine/202...

This is an insane caper (emailing Mi5 from the Apple Store! A fake bomb hoax! Dead-drops in poo bags!). Make time to read it.

The plastics treaty has failed again. The petrostates are using waste and recycling as a distraction - it will allow them to keep producing in perpetuity. Hard to feel hopeful when the lobby has America’s backing.

Armed Trump administration agents wearing masks just showed up outside of Gavin Newsom’s press conference.

This is what rising fascism looks like.

This is a nightmare

The problem with not posting I’ve not really posted much lately.

I posted about not posting. (Or: ‘why being offline as a creative is career suicide’) open.substack.com/pub/oliverfr...

Opinion | Two Words: Plastics Treaty Even if the jury on microplastics is still out, there is enough evidence of the harmful effects of chemical additives in plastics for the U.N. to act now.

"This is a high-stakes moment for anyone invested in what plastics might be doing to our health." Read @olifranklinwallis.bsky.social's latest for us! nytimes.com/2025/08/07/o...

Opinion | Two Words: Plastics Treaty

We don’t know exactly what plastics are doing to us. But the evidence is bad enough for us to act now. My essay for @nytopinion.nytimes.com www.nytimes.com/2025/08/07/o...

Sharing this for the simple reason that it's worth knowing about. This will kill parts of the internet you dislike, but it will kill a much larger part that you probably value.

How I’m Fixing My Broken Attention Span The infinite scroll has ruined our ability to focus. Is wasting more time the key to getting it back?

This is great. www.vulture.com/article/atte...