jenny g. zhang

sort of at peace knowing that my sydney sweeney piece has ticked off both libs declaring that a denim brand is a nazi and small business owners named dale who insist i'm jealous of sydney and racist toward white people. that's how you know you've hit the perfect equilibrium

on sydney sweeney and celebrity as a sales mechanism slate.com/life/2025/07...

Sydney Sweeney Has Caused an Uproar. It Was Always Going to Come to This. It was inevitable.

wrote about the sydney sweeney inflection point and how celebrity can cheapen and tarnish slate.com/life/2025/07...

wrote about really ruined love island usa this year: the specter of "america," which haunted nearly every decision and dynamic inside that villa
slate.com/culture/2025...

the state of reality TV and fervent fandom slate.com/culture/2025...

how about you read and find out

The Controversy Over This Summer’s Hottest Show Just Keeps Getting Uglier A reality show kicked off a contestant over a racial slur. What’s happened since hasn’t been pretty.

wrote about the biggest news cycle of this day and age... love island usa and the sheer ugly wreckage of what is happening with reality tv and the internet slate.com/culture/2025...

i know you'll never do this to me

getting a million writer pitches now that are all basically "i asked AI to ___." i'm telling you this for your own good: ENOUGH

The Complete Andor Mini-Series Our grand Andor mini-series is finally complete!

Our grand Andor mini-series is finally complete! Shoutout to @jennygzhang.bsky.social, @pauladlerstein.bsky.social, @davidaustinwalsh.bsky.social, @davidklion.bsky.social, and Matt Duss for helping us explore every political nook and cranny of the Andor universe www.bangbangpod.com/p/the-comple...

reason no. 983 to abolish comedians: this email blast promoting a podcast and standup show from some guy who indiscriminately added every single person whose contact info wasn't properly bcc'd on a writers guild event notification

the girls are fightinggg

someone should invent a way for it to be vacation every day

fair and honorable

Trump Is Selling One Job as America’s Future. I Did It—and It’s Absolutely Miserable. Bringing back the punishing factory floor to make America great again is like giving yourself severe acne to recapture your youth.

what it's like on the factory line, by Franklin Schneider, genuinely (probably) one of the best writers to ever do it slate.com/life/2025/05...

Review | This book strips away the orange peel to ask what fruit means In “Foreign Fruit,” Katie Goh looks into the history and personal significance of oranges.

speaking of diaspora lit, reviewed a book about fruit / asian identity for @washingtonpost.com www.washingtonpost.com/books/2025/0...

Force people into a rat race for security instead, and they'll do everything they can to get and stay ahead. They'll cut corners. They'll take shortcuts. And, yes, they'll readily have a computer do all of their thinking for them.

Everyone Is Cheating Their Way Through College ChatGPT has unraveled the entire academic project.

excited to be one of the few remaining humans with a functioning brain and critical thinking skills in 20 years nymag.com/intelligence...

@vanjackson.bsky.social and I are really enjoying this series special for the pod. This time we’re honored to host both @jennygzhang.bsky.social and @pauladlerstein.bsky.social.

"Perfectly aligned with Valnet's long-term growth strategy, Polygon will now integrate Valnet's Gaming Portfolio, which includes industry- leading publications such as Game Rant, TheGamer, Fextralife, OpenCritic, DualShockers, and HardcoreGamer," the company said in a press release. "This addition follows Valnet's recent acquisition of FextraLife earlier this year, further strengthening its position in the gaming media landscape. With Valnet's proven operational excellence, Polygon is poised to reach new editorial heights through focused investment and innovation."

Wow sounds awesome! Definitely gotta check that out, especially since they are apparently firing everybody who made Polygon good
www.theverge.com/news/659575/...

went on bang-bang pod to talk about andor (again!)

Psyched to kick off our @bangbang1492.bsky.social series on Andor with Slate culture editor @jennygzhang.bsky.social. Link in comments. @vanjackson.bsky.social

I had a long chat with Jenny about SEE FRIENDSHIP and the process of writing it while working in journalism — sorry to quote myself but here's a bit I will emphasize over and over:

Should I write a book? Should you? A candid interview with author Jeremy Gordon about what writing a novel did to and for him.

should i write a book? should you? should anyone? i asked Real Novelist @jeremygordon.bsky.social, who said that, realistically, the world doesn’t need any more novels, but there are still reasons to do so if you so choose jennygzhang.substack.com/p/should-i-w...

i never forget

recalling the time i was trying to publish a book excerpt from an author, and their literary agency was proving difficult to work with, so i gave up and said let's cut our losses, sorry we couldn't make it happen this time, and the agent replied berating/threatening me and cc'd my company's CEO

SOMEONE JUST DO IT! DO IT ALREADY!!!!

"There’s a ghost casting a pall from beginning to end: the death of American magazines as a source of power, taste, and money."

Thanks, Wealthy Magazine Editors, for Telling Us How Good You Once Had It Bottomless budgets. Important journalism. In-office brow care. Graydon Carter wants to make sure you know how great magazines used to be.

in a banner week for "jenny doing stuff in the public eye" i reviewed graydon carter's new memoir, which is ultimately an elegy in want of an examination slate.com/culture/2025... @slate.com

i don't recall saying it was a specialized skill! i'm serious, i look forward to seeing others' reporting on it if he replies