I also wrote about moose. And hair. And about how finding a second copy of *the same exact photo* of my great-grandmother changed my whole understanding of what the photo meant. (I tried to make this funny but honestly? I am furious and in some despair about this!) substack.com/home/post/p-...

Moose Can’t Pivot. Right?

On photographic evidence, fear, and hair.

substack.com

New ep of "Experts in a Dying Field"! We discuss two "comedians' comedians"--Maria Bamford and Norm Macdonald--their opposing philosophies re: the role of personal disclosures in comedy, and the 2 documentaries about them Judd Apatow put out on Netflix last month. youtu.be/82jhrpmU6i8

Norm Macdonald and Maria Bamford: On 2 "comedians' comedians" and Apatow's documentaries about them.

YouTube video by Experts In A Dying Field

youtu.be

I've identified several of my/other articles taken down (on Project 2025's proposed porn ban, right-wing pedophilia conspiracy theories, anything w/ 'porn' in headline, etc)— when I asked the owner about this, he sent me rude/useless emails and said I "owe Jezebel an apology"

Anna Merlan @annamerlan.bsky.social · 2w ago

Jezebel’s new owner is reportedly deleting old blogs that aren’t “brand safe,” which means that this very timely investigation I did into a sketchy reality TV producer pushing a rape lawsuit against Trump is seemingly just gone. When I click the link it just goes to their homepage

honestly thrilled to learn about the creator of the Albany bulb Water Lady. And that's not even the point of this piece about Osha Neumann, a master of casual asides (here's another: "and I have a section about reading Herbert Marcuse, who happens to be my biological father")

Rick Paulas@rickpaulas.bsky.social · 2w ago

I interviewed a true hero of mine about his new book (for sale on the streets soon!) for the @oaklandreviewofbooks.org. www.oaklandreviewofbooks.org/just-enough-...

I chatted with Lili and Patrick about THE NATHAN FIELDER ELIZABETH HOLMES movie, who is the real villain in it, the way nothing it true or false, and it's long and could have been so much longer. www.youtube.com/watch?v=vq8w...

You Can See Everything

YouTube video by Experts In A Dying Field

youtube.com

I am so thrilled to see how many people are joining @heydaybooks.com for our annual Harvest celebration! This year we are honoring Indigenous children's book authors, activist Jane Fonda, historian Rhae Lynn Barnes, and more! Join us: heyday.salsalabs.org/Harvest2026/...

Heyday Harvest 2026

RSVP to attend Heyday's 20th annual Harvest.

heyday.salsalabs.org

Told the kids we were going to El Cerrito yesterday for their friend's bday party and the whole drive, they were like "ok but where IS the small montaña"

We went deep on You Can See Everything youtu.be/vq8whJ12KuI

You Can See Everything Video

YouTube video by Experts In A Dying Field

youtu.be

Here's the first of a series I'm writing on Guzmán's work. Tomorrow will be the 7-year anniversary of the biggest protest (1.2 million people) in Chilean history. The 2019 "estallido social" is the subject of Guzmán's last film. It's weird to watch documentaries age substack.com/home/post/p-...

Who Says You Can’t Change the Past?

Patricio Guzmán’s last film caught Chile’s 2019 uprising at its most hopeful. 7 years later, Chileans don’t just regret the estallido. They’re increasingly sure they were never there.

substack.com

Chilean filmmaker Patricio Guzman--most famous for "The Battle of Chile" died last month. It was fun to talk about his work--and what got better and worse over his 50 years making movies--with @patrickiber.bsky.social even though my computer melted down at one point www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rxwz...

Revisiting Patricio Guzmán

YouTube video by Experts In A Dying Field

youtube.com

Helen DeWitt turning down the Nobel Prize next year because she doesn't want to do the Instagram reaction pic.

Caroline Casey@cacasey.bsky.social · last mo.

look at these cuties, just the absolute best people

In the interest of spreading the love a little, TV-wise, I wrote about 50 shows that made my "Best 100 TV shows of the 21st Century" list but not the NYTs. somepersonalnews.substack.com/p/50-shows-t...

50 Shows that made my Best Of list but not the NYT’s

from an expert in a dying field

somepersonalnews.substack.com

New ep! some experts in dying fields (me, @patrickiber.bsky.social & @zunguzungu.bsky.social) talk Sophy Romvari's film "Blue Heron" + FEELINGS nb: I'd finished watching (and gotten a raging migraine) ~9 minutes before we started. not in PEAK FORM but, y'know, real "real" youtu.be/cS5FveHwFDA

Sophy Romvari's Blue Heron | Experts in a Dying Field

YouTube video by Experts In A Dying Field

youtu.be

Episode 3, which we will post next week, is about the independent film Blue Heron. I really encourage people to watch the movie before listening to our conversation. This is a powerful one www.youtube.com/watch?v=JeWg...

BLUE HERON - Official Trailer

YouTube video by JANUS

youtube.com

In Episode 2 I asked actual TV critics what the New York Times list got right and got wrong, while I thought about how the shows reflected the moments of their production www.youtube.com/watch?v=pCPd...

The New York Times' 100 Best TV Shows of the 21st century | Experts in a Dying Field

YouTube video by Experts In A Dying Field

youtube.com

In Episode 1 we broke down the Netflix adaptation of 100 Years of Solitude and ended up talking a lot about the book, including what made it it such a significant cultural event in a way that the TV show (although quite good) has not been www.youtube.com/watch?v=hLyj...

Netflix's One Hundred Years of Solitude | Ep. 1 Experts in a Dying Field

YouTube video by Experts In A Dying Field

youtube.com

We have other jobs so it's one object a week for us, but we'll go long on it. Could be a film, TV show, essay, book, etc. and once we're in rhythm we'll let people know what is coming so that they can follow along, if desired

Part of the backstory here is that I was sad to see Slate's culture podcast wrap its 17-year run; I had learned a lot about movies, music, books, etc. that were worth thinking about through it. I encouraged Aaron and Lili to do a culture podcast and they told they would if I did, more or less

The podcast is up and running. "Experts in a Dying Field" includes the Washington Post's former TV critic, @lililoofbourow.bsky.social, writer and critic @zunguzungu.bsky.social of the Oakland Review of Books, and me. Each week we are taking on a cultural object, big or small, present or past

Here's Ep 2 of Experts in a Dying Field, in which @zunguzungu.bsky.social, @patrickiber.bsky.social and I gab about the 100 Best TV Shows list and how shows age (my favorite example is Gen Z viewers marveling at how nice Walter White's house is. "He has a pool?!") www.youtube.com/watch?v=pCPd...

The New York Times' 100 Best TV Shows of the 21st century | Experts in a Dying Field

YouTube video by Experts InADyingField

youtube.com

ICYMI, I wrote about literal and metaphorical nitpicking. (also "Tangled," microscopy, a 17-year-old girl who died of peritonitis in 1943, parenting, Robert Hooke, corpse brides, poker, dolls and bad moms) It's been a complicated week somepersonalnews.substack.com/p/nitpicking

If you get lice, you have to wait 9 days before you can apply a second dose of the poison and find out whether any new ones have hatched. This is my record of that nine-day window. somepersonalnews.substack.com/p/nitpicking

Two critics and a historian walk into a bar, drenched in obsolescence, to talk about pop culture, old internet drama and rabbitholes we've spent too much of our wild and precious lives burrowing down. Welcome to Experts in a Dying Field with me, @patrickiber.bsky.social and @zunguzungu.bsky.social

Netflix's One Hundred Years of Solitude | Ep. 1 Experts in a Dying Field

YouTube video by Experts InADyingField

youtube.com

I wrote about whether Odysseus is a *dad* or a *father* — and why Christopher Nolan should just get a phone and not be such a turd about it. pjmaciak.substack.com/p/the-dadyssey

The Dadyssey

Six Theses on Christopher Nolan’s Dad Issues

pjmaciak.substack.com

Burned out on the Kavanaugh circus, I figured a graveyard in Patagonia would be the emptiest place on Earth to wallow in "political grief"? "Is that a thing? IS THE POLITICAL PERSONAL?" I scribbled on the plane, like a weirdo. Then some stuff happened. somepersonalnews.substack.com/p/a-bare-ass...

hello! the day after yesterday seems like as good a time as any to introduce what I've been working on since getting laid off from the Washington Post (plus or minus a couple of decades). welcome to Some Personal News: confessions of an ex-pundit

Lili Loofbourow@lililoofbourow.bsky.social · 2mo ago

one day you look up and twenty-five years have zipped by since you started the thing. and you're different, and the world has thinned. and yet here we are. and here it all is. so here we go. some personal news: substack.com/home/post/p-...

one day you look up and twenty-five years have zipped by since you started the thing. and you're different, and the world has thinned. and yet here we are. and here it all is. so here we go. some personal news: substack.com/home/post/p-...

Muchos años después

We were all slightly different people 20 years ago.

substack.com

Being laid off with hundreds of WaPo colleagues sure does make a person think I've thought, for instance, it sure is lucky no one in charge over there puts ideology over free speech