Lydia Laurenson
@lydialaurenson.bsky.social
“unrelentingly honest” • fascinated by media, art, culture, community, technology, and spirituality • blog: lydialaurenson.substack.com/about • print magazine: thenewmodality.com
I see that @lydialaurenson.bsky.social has made a free PDF available for the book I recommended upthread (plus more)
Some Of My Old Books In PDF (2012)
'The S&M Feminist' and 'Confessions Of A Pickup Artist Chaser,' written under the name Clarisse Thorn, plus one more
lydialaurenson.substack.com
I never got involved in that scene because •yikes• but I read a lot of it and a lot about it, early. Strauss’ ‘The Game’ is mostly about “pickup” not make making men happy. I recommend an even stranger, gutsier book about the texture of that scene from an explicitly feminist perspective. 9/
Confessions of a Pickup Artist Chaser: Long Interviews with Hideous Men
Confessions of a Pickup Artist Chaser: Long Interviews with Hideous Men - Kindle edition by Thorn, Clarisse, Beautiful Disasters Photography. Download it once and read it on your Kindle device, PC, phones or tablets. Use features like bookmarks, note taking and highlighting while reading Confessions of a Pickup Artist Chaser: Long Interviews with Hideous Men.
amazon.com
This will be fun! I hope to see folks there
Cyrus Farivar@cfarivar.bsky.social · 4mo agoHey friends! Next week I’ll be in conversation with @reitman.bsky.social not once but TWICE. 🙌🏽 Rainey and I will be discussing her first book TRANSACTION DENIED, about “financial censorship.”💰 Tuesday, April 7 - 7pm Mrs. Dalloway’s (Berkeley) 📚 Thursday, April 9 - 7pm City Lights Books (SF) 📖
New post for the media-tech and depolarization nerds, about the new media startup @aemula.bsky.social lydialaurenson.substack.com/p/new-depola...
New Depolarization Media-Tech Startup: Aemula
It uses blockchain but maybe that's okay
lydialaurenson.substack.com
I wrote this post about Epstein last year, but it seems that many people are re-finding it now open.substack.com/pub/lydialau...
"It's Just Politics:" The Time I Met Jeffrey Epstein, Twice
The single most bizarre meeting of my life
open.substack.com
My talk from @hope.net 2025 was just posted this week! "Media, Vibe Coding, And The Long Tail" www.youtube.com/watch?v=tEZA...
HOPE_16 (2025): Media, Vibe Coding, and the Long Tail
YouTube video by Channel2600
youtube.com
❝ “The club” let newcomers run into the cancellation buzzsaw while watching to see if they survived ❞ Laurenson’s memoir reflects her characteristically thoughtful ambivalences, so I added a link to it to my post on the subject
“Cancel culture” and criticism
Personal blog of Jonathan Korman
miniver.blogspot.com
Lydia Laurenson@lydialaurenson.bsky.social · 7mo agoIn honor of the event, I republished my article to my own Substack account I included a new note up front because a commenter suggested that I only criticize the left and not the right. lol. TLDR: I don’t think there are a lot of heroes on either side lately. sigh open.substack.com/pub/lydialau...
Some spots just opened up at this event Friday evening. If you're in the Bay Area, come out and meet us - I'll be reading from my piece "Canceled Left and Right," which was originally published in The Ick by @emilybynight.bsky.social :) partiful.com/e/Z4BlVOQNTf...
RSVP to The Ick Magazine launch party | Partiful
The Ick Magazine print issue debut: come celebrate the launch of our first-ever print edition. We’ll have snacks, a big cooler of drinks, party favors, magazines to purchase, readings from contributo...
partiful.com
Today is possibly the biggest divergence I have ever seen between my timeline here and my timeline on Twitter/X
I recall reading an interview with a fella a few years ago in which he said, “Yeah, I met Epstein once. Vibes were off.” I am acquainted with @lydialaurenson.bsky.social. She is not exaggerating about living a Weird Stuff life, such that her Vibes Were Off account here is terrifying. 2/2
I wrote a post-Slutcon update! Also reposted an old interview that I did a while back, with an anthropologist who studies poly families. Plus some links to other stuff I mentioned in my Slutcon session, including a post about intergenerational co-living communities open.substack.com/pub/lydialau...
Poly Family Anthropology: Interview with Eli Sheff (2018), Plus A Slutcon Update
Decades of research into polyamorous families
open.substack.com
"If you think merely being brilliant is enough to make a person successful — or even good at surviving — then you haven’t met enough brilliant people. On the other hand, what is survival? What is success?"
Rima I Anabtawi@rimaanabtawi.bsky.social · 10mo agoA poignant, immensely courageous and most thought provoking essay, by a fellow alumna. College at Age Sixteen: What Is Intelligence For? Simon's Rock College, and the Center for Talented Youth, and the challenge of gifted children. By Lydia Laurenson open.substack.com/pub/lydialau...
A poignant, immensely courageous and most thought provoking essay, by a fellow alumna. College at Age Sixteen: What Is Intelligence For? Simon's Rock College, and the Center for Talented Youth, and the challenge of gifted children. By Lydia Laurenson open.substack.com/pub/lydialau...
College at Age Sixteen: What Is Intelligence For?
Simon's Rock College, and the Center for Talented Youth, and the challenge of gifted children
open.substack.com
If anyone can teach us about the real-world consequences of cancel culture, it's @lydialaurenson.bsky.social For the season finale of The Ick, her essay brings down the house: www.emilybynight.com/p/how-i-got-...
How I Got Canceled by the Left and Right
What cancel culture reveals and conceals about redemption
emilybynight.com
You would think I’d already know this, but I don’t: Is there any process whatsoever by which an individual mentioned in the media can complain to the media organization in question, about how a journalist handled the situation? Or is the only recourse a defamation lawsuit?
Whoever is giving out the bunny stickers and things, bring some to reg? 🥺
My talk at @hope.net went well :) I’m happy to be meeting so many interesting people here - and I’m lucky my talk was on the early side, so I can now chill and watch other people’s talks :) I’ll post the talk recording link soon!
Throneless Tech@throneless.tech · 12mo agoCheck out our very own @heretic.li at @hope.net later this week! You won't want to miss Bitpart, our 5-in-1 platform that works over Signal.
While refactoring a lot of my personal security protocols, I recently started using privacy dot com. This is a service that connects to your bank account and generates individual “card numbers” you can use to pay for things without giving your main credit card number, which means that…
Thrilled to be giving a talk at @hope.net in August in NYC. And also so excited to be coming back to that great city 💗
Supreme Court justices trying to recreate feudal monarchy entirely within the framework of a constitutional republic like a bored programmer trying to run DOOM on a smart fridge
open.substack.com/pub/betterco...
Does Protest Even Work?
Yes. If it's big enough and non-violent — BCB #144
open.substack.com
Omar Wasow@owasow.bsky.social · last yr.Consider two photos: one of an immigrant mother being separated from her child and another of a burning car. Which leads the news? Which focuses attention on the harms of mass deportations? A challenge of violent protest tactics is that they often shift attention away from the injustices they decry.
I’m at the Norman Rockwell Museum @normanrockwellm.bsky.social today. I was today years old when I learned that this picture, often used in memes, (a) was painted by Norman Rockwell and (b) is actually titled “Freedom of Speech”
Worthwhile account of what it was like to start questioning our ability to know what's actually going in our own country in the current media landscape. Not explicitly stated, but I read this as partly about death of local news removing an empirical check on national outlets
Thrilled to announce Season 4 of The Ick, featuring writing from @eurydicelives.blogsky.venki.dev, @jakee.bsky.social, @lydialaurenson.bsky.social, @ninatummyache.bsky.social, @deepfates.com.deepfates.com.deepfates.com.deepfates.com.deepfates.com + more surprise guests TBA!
ok fine I wrote something about the New Yorker article open.substack.com/pub/lydialau...
About the Curtis Yarvin "New Yorker" Profile
A statement on my ex-fiancé
open.substack.com
Just posted my interview from yesterday with @zackbeauchamp.bsky.social about his book, “The Reactionary Spirit.” 💫 Audio, background notes, and transcript are all here: open.substack.com/pub/lydialau...
"The Reactionary Spirit:" Interview with Zack Beauchamp of Vox
Zack and I discuss reactionary politics, polarization, and hints of cultural transformation
open.substack.com
One of my husband Robert's favorite quotes comes from Horace Greeley, a newspaper man who founded the New York Tribune so many years ago. I think of it often: “Fame is a vapor, popularity an accident, riches take wings. Only one thing endures and that is character.”
