Michael Taeckens

A distressing chart. As our government sues media companies, and threatens to take away their broadcast licenses for airing critical programs, the US has now dropped to 57th in the world in press freedom.

Maybe next year we can catch Romania and Sierra Leone. gijn.org/stories/glob...

Spotify has laid off thousands in recent years, while reportedly paying artists $0.003 per stream.

Spotify profits rose 28% in Q3. Its CEO is worth $9.8 billion. It's making money off ICE recruitment ads.

Don't you think it's time put a wrap on corporate greed and exploitation?

I Want to Burn This Place Down: Essays Essays

The digital version of my book is on sale from the good place for $2.99!! bookshop.org/p/books/i-wa...

I spent a lot of time by the sea this year, but the thing that comes to mind is perhaps my favourite novel of 2025, The Book of Records, set in an endlessly sprawling, infinitely interpretable building called The Sea. Beautifully imagined and haunting.

tinhouse.com/podcast/made...

Poured Over: Elizabeth McCracken on A Long Game - B&N Reads A Long Game by Elizabeth McCracken is a thoughtful and engaging guide to the craft of writing filled with tips, tricks and personal anecdotes from an acclaimed author. Elizabeth joins us to talk about...

I spoke to Miwa Messer about my new book:

www.barnesandnoble.com/blog/poured-...

Nona Balakian Citation for Excellence in Reviewing - National Book Critics Circle The NBCC awards the Nona Balakian Citation for Excellence in Reviewing each year to recognize outstanding work by a member of the NBCC. The citation is awarded in honor of

LAST DAY to apply for the Nona Balakian Citation for Excellence in Reviewing. www.bookcritics.org/awards/balak...

🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉

The prize of $2000 will be awarded in 2026, with publication by The American Poetry Review in partnership with Copper Canyon Press in the following year. The author will receive a standard book contract, with royalties paid in subsequent years.

For complete guidelines and to submit: loom.ly/JUkTfFM

For World AIDS Day, Housing Works will again be taking part in the reading of the names of New Yorkers lost to AIDS. The rally and vigil will start at noon at the Memorial Park on Greenwich Ave and W 12th St. A few sign-up times for the reading are still available. www.nycaidsmemorial.org/wad2025

Nona Balakian Citation for Excellence in Reviewing - National Book Critics Circle The NBCC awards the Nona Balakian Citation for Excellence in Reviewing each year to recognize outstanding work by a member of the NBCC. The citation is awarded in honor of

Book critics, tomorrow is the deadline to apply for the Nona Balakian Citation for Excellence in Reviewing. Only @bookcritics.bsky.social members are eligible so please check the status of your membership before you apply here: www.bookcritics.org/awards/balak...

Today would have been the 51st birthday of Petra Mayer, who was in charge of NPR’s Book Concierge/ Books We Love for many years and wore her fingers to the bone getting it perfect every year.

Here her colleagues remember her:

www.npr.org/2021/11/16/1...

A Long Game [my conversation with Elizabeth McCracken]

At long last, here's my conversation with wonderful @elizmccrack.bsky.social, whose wonderful new A Long Game goes on sale (at least in the US) next week!

A Long Game [my conversation with Elizabeth McCracken]

The fabulous @bcdreyer.social speaks with the fabulous @elizmccrack.bsky.social about her new book, A LONG GAME (publishing on Tuesday!) 😍 @eccobooks.bsky.social @helenatsma.bsky.social
benjamindreyer.substack.com/p/a-long-game

Black Friday reminder: You can support independent bookstores and get great deals without lining the pockets of billionaires 😌

This is horrifying

People will die, and are currently dying, because RFK was granted one of the most powerful megaphones in the country. Two people who could have thrown barriers in front of his climb decided not to; there's a sex scandal here but it is not the biggest scandal.

“The Golden Boy,” by Daniyal Mueenuddin Bayazid had never quite given up the fantasy he nurtured in boyhood, of discovering himself a child of some minister or prince.

"The Golden Boy," a long extract--really, a standalone novella--from Daniyal Muenuddin's extraordinary forthcoming "This Is Where the Serpent Lives," has just been published by the New Yorker www.newyorker.com/magazine/202...

By and large, however, the allegations against the other social media platforms are less detailed than those against Meta. The internal documents cited by the plaintiffs allege: Meta intentionally designed its youth safety features to be ineffective and rarely used, and blocked testing of safety features that it feared might be harmful to growth. Meta required users to be caught 17 times attempting to traffic people for sex before it would remove them from its platform, which a document described as “a very, very, very high strike threshold." Meta recognized that optimizing its products to increase teen engagement resulted in serving them more harmful content, but did so anyway. Meta stalled internal efforts to prevent child predators from contacting minors for years due to growth concerns, and pressured safety staff to circulate arguments justifying its decision not to act.

17 strikes and you’re out. 💀

11 years ago today, 12 year old Tamir Rice was gunned down by police officers on Cleveland’s west side.

The officer shot him within seconds of arriving at the park he was playing in.

Tamir’s life mattered. It still does. My thoughts are with his family today.

As I spent more and more of my life under the care of doctors, nurses, and researchers striving to improve the lives of others, I watched as Bobby cut nearly a half billion dollars for research into mRNA vaccines, technology that could be used against certain cancers; slashed billions in funding from the National Institutes of Health, the world's largest sponsor of medical research; and threatened to oust the panel of medical experts charged with recommending preventive cancer screenings. Hundreds of N.I.H. grants and clinical trials were cancelled, affecting thousands of patients. I worried about funding for leukemia and bone-marrow research at Memorial Sloan Kettering. I worried about the trials that were my only shot at remission. Early in my illness, when I

Just an absolutely gutting essay by Tatiana Schlossberg, a writer, mother of two young children, and cousin of RFK Jr who is dying of leukemia.

www.newyorker.com/culture/the-...

well, I read it, and the salient, non-gross part is Lizza alleging, midsentence and without elaboration, that Nuzzi ran numerous “catch-and-kill operations” on RFK’s behalf, which would give her a role in both his appointment and the untold preventable deaths he has abetted in office. Cool.

I'm happy I grew up in the era of card catalogs and the dewey decimal system. Just walking into the library with a stack of index cards, a pen, and an idea.

Happy to see @lucaseschaefer.bsky.social’s novel THE SLIP on here! A thoroughly brilliant book.

Astonishing to stop and realize that, at any given moment, bands of masked men armed to the teeth are storming churches and daycares, terrorizing entire communities—and that most of the country's political establishment barely blinks.

Acquired Tastes: A Call for Submissions For younger writers, ages 15-21

I'm editing an anthology about unlikable characters and seeking work from younger writers, 15-21. If you know of one such writer who might want to submit their work for consideration, please share this call for submissions: audacity.substack.com/p/acquired-t...

Musk Is Back in Politics. Does He Want to Stay a While?

Again, it is unbelievable that this man is permitted to walk free after causing the deaths of potentially millions of people. www.nytimes.com/2025/11/18/u...

"Things happen" sometimes, like when you walk into an embassy to apply for your marriage license while your bride-to-be waits outside, but then you get bonesawed to pieces for having exercised freedom of speech as an US-based journalist and have to be carried out in a series of suitcases.

Sitewide sale this weekend. Buy 2 books and save 20%, 3 for 30%, or 4 or more and get 40% off. $75 for free shipping within the US.

www.nyrb.com

It's Sauna Season The prettiest naked bathhouse in Amsterdam—and are the men alright?

Can one cure existential ills via sweating in beautiful places? I'm sure trying! keziahweir.substack.com/p/its-sauna-...