Published in Forge·PinnedMember-onlyPrepare for the Ultimate Gaslighting*You are not crazy, my friends. — *Gaslighting, if you don’t know the word, is defined as manipulation into doubting your own sanity; as in, Carl made Mary think she was crazy, even though she clearly caught him cheating. He gaslit her. Pretty soon, as the country begins to figure out how we “open back up” and…Crisis9 min readCrisis9 min read
Mar 1Member-onlyThese Three Simple Words Can Calm Your Racing MindLife Tips from a Movie Set — I just wrapped a short film for The New Yorker, and I am thrilled to be sharing it with you and with the world in a few months. Last week found me on set back to work directing after a painful three-year hiatus, which started out as “The Great Pause”…Society4 min readSociety4 min read
Feb 28Member-onlyThe $47 (!) Manhattan Pizza — And Why We Refused to Eat ItI will never pay $47 for a pizza. You have to be out of your mind to pay $47 for a pizza. You have to be not only utterly starving but utterly stupid. You have to be either dying from hunger or desperate to prove a point on a first…Economy3 min readEconomy3 min read
Feb 28Member-onlyThe Pure Insanity of Banning DragDrag is art. A beautiful art. I learned this at 42 when Covid rendered me immovable in bed for six weeks. In January 2021, I wasn’t going anywhere anytime soon, so I had a lot of time on my hands. So I started watching RuPaul’s Drag Race from the beginning…Society3 min readSociety3 min read
Feb 8Member-onlyTen Things We Learned at the State of the Union AddressIn no particular order, here are ten takeaways from tonight’s SOTU. Joe Biden is having none of your bullshit, Big Pharma and Big Tech — though he did limit his attack to specific examples and policies like insulin prices and social-media exploitation of children, which are pretty low-hanging fruit. He…Politics3 min readPolitics3 min read
Jan 31Member-onlyA Human Wrote This, not ChatGPTThat’s me. Not the best picture. But that’s the thing about humans: we are imperfect. This post will be equally imperfect. Because a human wrote it. As the world meets its AI future with the public introduction of ChatGPT, we are seeing the frightening power of robots and algorithms, which…AI4 min readAI4 min read
Jan 31Member-onlyWe Think Prices are High in the US? Reporting from Southern Europe…Hello, friends and readers. Thanks to the internet, I am working from six hours in the future this week, celebrating a very belated Christmas here in Montenegro with our European family. If you follow my work at all, you know I enjoy writing whenever we are here. It’s such a…Travel5 min readTravel5 min read
Jan 28Member-onlyThat Video, That Video, That Horrific VideoYou don’t need to watch the Tyre Nichols videos to be horrified. If you have seen them, you know the horror. If you are curious and can stomach it, a simple Google search will lead you to them. A 29-year-old man is beaten to death on camera after he’s pulled…Society3 min readSociety3 min read
Jan 18Member-onlyOde to a $27 Salad ($41 with Delivery)There are certain moments when you just hit your limits. For lunch today, I collided with a limit. Smack! A salad — no larger than a cereal bowl, no heavier than a book — filled with nothing more than lettuce, tomatoes, cucumbers, chickpeas, and salmon the size of a minnow…Economy2 min readEconomy2 min read
Jan 1Member-onlyThe Joys of a Small Christmas TreeThis was the first year since 2019 that I put up a Christmas tree. In 2020, of course, the world ravaged by Covid, I skipped what a former boyfriend once called my “pagan ritual.” I found myself in a new apartment after my New York City landlord raised the rent…Christmas3 min readChristmas3 min read
