David Garten

Opinion | How the Manosphere Hijacks Young Men’s Interest in Science

“That kind of humility is no different from enduring the hardships required to become a champion middleweight boxer, a great rock climber or a master musician.”

Good piece by @adamfrank4.bsky.social

www.nytimes.com/2025/10/03/o...

Opinion | What It Takes for a Working-Class Kid to Get a College Education

“I’m no better than Silas, and it’s not fair that he and his siblings continue to face such fierce headwinds without the help I took for granted.”

This is a good piece by @bethmacy.bsky.social

www.nytimes.com/2025/10/02/o...

Most Voters Think America’s Divisions Cannot Be Overcome, Poll Says

Most Americans get their news from algorithm-driven social media owned by, and enormously profitable for, some of the most powerful companies in the world.

www.nytimes.com/2025/10/02/u...

How to sabotage your own housing goals A law to make Albany more affordable has backfired — an example of a pervasive problem highlighted by the bestseller “Abundance.”

Albany's progressive Common Council increased affordable requirements from 5% to 7-13% in 2023, making market-rate housing infeasible. The policy backfired, & could increase rents because of no new supply. Best writer on NY’s housing crisis: @erik-engquist.bsky.social therealdeal.com/new-york/202...

Has yet to win the general election, but wins a dem primary in an off year in a deep blue city, with a minority of eligible voters, after serving for a few years in the Assembly with very little accomplishments.

Vanity Fair: He’s a legend and possibly the future of politics.

While a lot of attention has focused on whether Mamdani will keep Tisch, when it comes to truly addressing housing affordability, the real question is whether Mamdani will continue Adams’s policies.

Mayor Adams’ real estate legacy will endure, even if few remember him for it Mayor Eric Adams is ending his bid for re-election, closing the book on a fruitful and frustrating four years for NYC real estate

"But mayors do not, for the most part, create much housing. Their responsibility is to create the conditions that allow the private sector to build. On that standard, Adams can stake a claim as the most pro-housing mayor"

Good piece by @erik-engquist.bsky.social

therealdeal.com/new-york/202...

A really informative conversation:

podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/t...

A really informative conversation:

podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/t...

Opinion | ‘One Battle After Another’? That’s Gen X in a nutshell. In Paul Thomas Anderson’s new film, Leonardo DiCaprio captures Generation X in middle age.

“It really has been just one battle after another. To win is to continue fighting…None of us look like we did in 1997. And yet we’re still here. And it turns out we’re not done fighting.” - @williamfleitch.bsky.social

www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/202...

Go see One Battle After Another ASAP.

The right and the art of putting on a united front In spite of bitter divisions, Trump’s Maga coalition always rallies round when it needs to

“The problem is if you cannibalise too many from your own tribe, you end up running out of members.”

Spot-on piece by @jemima.bsky.social

www.ft.com/content/80f0...

that dude just beat you with a D2 quarterback

Opinion | Legislators Should Force Social Media Platforms to Tell the Truth

“Now is the moment for legislation — while this deal is closing — to reset expectations about how tech companies shape our information ecosystem.” - important piece by @ebakerwhite.bsky.social

www.nytimes.com/2025/09/25/o...

New York City Office Shooter Had CTE, Medical Examiner Finds Shane Tamura was diagnosed postmortem with the brain disease associated with head injuries and often found in football players.

There is no credible reason he should have been legally allowed to buy a gun.

www.wsj.com/us-news/nyc-...

Opinion | Candace Owens Is a Latter-Day Gnostic Conspiracy theories about Charlie Kirk follow a first-century Christian heresy.

“The danger isn’t merely that this mindset leads people to believe falsehoods. The deeper problem is that it makes democratic engagement impossible.”

Today’s gnosticism is something that plagues the right and the left.

Good piece.

www.wsj.com/opinion/cand...

Opinion | How Trump nearly doubled his support from Black voters New data shows historic gains made by the president among this racial demographic.

Interesting piece by @drtedj.bsky.social. Definitely worth a read.

www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/202...

With New Plan, Hochul Fast-Tracks Housing Supply

This is good.

www.nytimes.com/2025/09/22/r...

YouTube video by American Experience | PBS Trailer | HARD HAT RIOT | AMERICAN EXPERIENCE | PBS

Here is the trailer: youtu.be/07holVlIorY?...

Hard Hat Riot & class revolt: The battle in Manhattan’s streets and the splintering of America The central question at the heart of so much of today’s political commentary is who best represents working Americans. Once the working class was solidly Democratic. Not anymore. Why did blue…

“If you want to understand the cultural earthquake shaking American politics today…you need to go back to a violent afternoon in lower Manhattan.”

Highly recommend the documentary, Hard Hat Riot, by my friend, Marc Levin.

www.nydailynews.com/2025/09/21/h...

Sam Harris: Log Off Charlie Kirk’s assassination lit a fuse. Social media turned it into a bonfire, writes Sam Harris.

Social media amplifies extreme views as though they were representative of most Americans, and many of us are losing our sense of what other people are really like.”

www.thefp.com/p/sam-harris...

“If liberty means anything at all, it means the right to tell people things they do not want to hear.” - George Orwell

Social Platforms Duck Blame for Inflaming Divisions Before Charlie Kirk’s Death

Congress, have the courage to revisit Section 230 ASAP.

www.nytimes.com/2025/09/16/t...

Flagging for @edsbs.bsky.social

Thanks, “truth-teller”

To fight extremists, Trump administration warms to Russia-friendly junta America has ramped up intelligence sharing with Mali’s repressive military junta, current and former U.S. officials said, as extremists gain ground in West Africa.

Such a reductive headline.

www.washingtonpost.com/world/2025/0...

Opinion | Democrats Cannot Just Buy Back the Working Class

Economic populism, including Bernie Sanders’s and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s Fighting Oligarchy tour, is the easy part. A populism that ignores most Americans’ social outlook has never proved able to win a majority outside dire economic times.
www.nytimes.com/2025/09/14/o...

The NYT on 9/15/2025: At least 260,000 civilians trapped in Sudan face a dire choice: risk being starved or bombed if they stay, and raped or killed if they flee

Guest essay in the NYT on 9/16/2025: My U.N. Commission’s Finding: Israel Is Committing Genocide

Starving Children Eat Animal Feed in Besieged Sudanese City

Meanwhile…

www.nytimes.com/2025/09/15/w...

Is Andrew Cuomo toast? Zohran Mamdani doesn’t quite have the mayor’s race locked up, but he’s a heavy favorite unless there’s an October Surprise.

“Zohran is ahead based on younger voters, college graduates, and residents of Brooklyn and Manhattan — basically what you might think of as the New York Times-reading portion of the electorate.”

open.substack.com/pub/natesilv...