Ryan Teague Beckwith

"experienced gay person" sounds like Costanza saying he's a "confirmed heterosexual"

We should call these insecurities

OK but suppose we sliced up the poor quality opinions into tranches then bundled and resold them as new securities

On the day that @opb.org CEO Rachel Smolkin posted this video, saying OPB’s funding gap of $5 million was closed, I was also told by the Chief Content Officer that Hush was canceled. Eighty percent of my income, and my health insurance - gone. I was given no reason for the cancellation. 1/x

This is one of those things that I think is quietly important – when these people are talking shit about cities, Portland or Minneapolis or New York or Charlotte or wherever, you have to loudly say, “no, fuck you, you’re lying, that town and its people whip ass and you’re the asshole”

Tie this together with the “AI actresses are virgins” guy and we are cooking

For eschatological insights I always turn to <checks notes> Joe Rogan

Low key hilarious way to get people to click through your political spam email

FDA official proposes ‘impossible’ standards for vaccine testing that could curtail access to immunizations

If new proposals detailed in an FDA memo are put into place, experts told me it would mean the end of annual flu shots. And end of most vaccines for pregnant people. And maybe the end of updates to pneumonia vaccines. And more.

www.cidrap.umn.edu/childhood-va...

"Captain Gains" on Capitol Hill Shang-Jin Wei & Yifan Zhou WORKING PAPER 34524 DOI 10.3386/w34524 ISSUE DATE November 2025 Using transaction-level data on US congressional stock trades, we find that lawmakers who later ascend to leadership positions perform similarly to matched peers beforehand but outperform them by 47 percentage points annually after ascension. Leaders' superior performance arises through two mechanisms. The political influence channel is reflected in higher returns when their party controls the chamber, sales of stocks preceding regulatory actions, and purchase of stocks whose firms receiving more government contracts and favorable party support on bills. The corporate access channel is reflected in stock trades that predict subsequent corporate news and greater returns on donor-owned or home-state firms.

令 1 1 -9 -8 -7 -6 -5 -4 -3 -2 -1 1 2 3 4 5 7 8 9 Year Figure 2: Estimated dynamic quasi-difference-in-differences coefficient, di, of equation(3), with vertical dashed lines representing 90 percent confidence intervals. The point estimate of the year in which the lawmaker became a congressional leader (Year 0) is normalized to zero. BHAR over the 250 days following each trade is the dependent variable and calculated using the Fama-French five-factor plus momentum as the benchmark model.

After becoming a congressional leader, a politician’s stock portfolio beats out those of peers by 47 (!!!) percentage points a year through trades timed around bills and firms that later get government contracts

www.nber.org/papers/w34524

via @florianederer.bsky.social

Typically you would gerrymander your safe seats to win by a comfortable 10 point margin. But if the margin were to swing wildly to 14 points, all your "safe" seats are lost.

The results in Tennessee should make Republicans think twice about attempting to gerrymander right now. They might end up creating supposedly safe R districts that go blue in a wave election.

With ranked choice voting, Democrats & Republicans “have a chance to create a presidential primary system that encourages candidates to run broader campaigns, avoid negative campaigning, & allows voters to feel their voices were heard.”

– @ryanbeckwith.bsky.social in @ms.now ⬇️ #RankedChoiceVoting

Choosing to read "Giving Tuesday" as something Gen Z would say about the vibe

My First Byline: Sarah Paris TV Editor, Fanfare

Thanks again for the inclusion, @ryanbeckwith.bsky.social !
open.substack.com/pub/yourfirs...

My First Byline: Sarah Paris TV Editor, Fanfare

"Your readers won’t care whether you went to Harvard or to 'The' Ohio State University, but they will care if you can move them and share vital truth." yourfirstbyline.substack.com/p/my-first-b...

the cover of SIMPLICITY: the main character of the story, Lucius, getting pulled down and off the page by glowing vines. A pair of hands from a robed figure reaches for him.

my new book is out today. it's about separatism and utopia and bodily autonomy and cults and capital and love and revolution and nature and sex and all the things we owe to each other. I'm so proud and excited and nervous for you to read it. i hope you do. simplicitybook.xyz

no can do but I can get you Chekov's weird vest there if you want

Reboots that were better than the original.

Movies that were better than the book.

Great culture can save lives. Literally.

Amazing letter in today’s @thetimes.com about Tom Stoppard

I'd add that his characters also justify it because they believe all personas are cons, so why not just roll with it

Welcome!

BIG NEWS! So excited to announce my new role as senior enterprise editor @ms.now, where I’ll work alongside @brandyzadrozny.bsky.social to build on our incredible coverage at the intersection of politics, extremism and culture.

This is a dream team, I can’t wait to get started. Watch this space!

Statement from Kids Can Press publisher of Franklin the Turtle

🔥 BREAKING: A spokesperson for Kids Can Press, the publisher of the Franklin the Turtle books, messaged me today about Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth using the likeness and image from the books to make light of killings in the Caribbean in his post yesterday on X.

Idea: Hanukkah horror movie "Eight Nights at Freddy's"

They already have Five Nights at Freddy's

What do Elon Musk and Peter Thiel think

band with the most obvious songs that are somehow constantly misinterpreted

"Cat Person" but make both of them awful

"One" by U2