A curated mix of what's on my nightstand, in my ears, and stuck in my head. The common thread: these are things I keep coming back to, and they seem to have more to say each time.
Book
Consider the Lobster
David Foster Wallace
Wallace turns any subject into an occasion to ask harder questions. The lobster is just where it starts.
essaysnon-fiction
Book
Empire of AI
Karen Hao
A reported account of OpenAI's rise and the human cost of building transformative technology at speed. Hao had unprecedented access, and she uses it carefully.
AInon-fiction
Book
The Passenger & Stella Maris
Cormac McCarthy
Two companion novels - one about a man haunted by his sister's absence, one about the sister herself. McCarthy's final works, and the most mathematically and philosophically dense things he wrote.
fiction
Book
Hyperion Cantos
Dan Simmons
The first two books follow a group of strangers making a pilgrimage toward something that may kill them, each carrying a story that reframes everything before it. Vast in scope but unexpectedly interior - the far-future concepts press hard on questions of consciousness, faith, and what it means to be human. Surprisingly spiritual for science fiction.
sci-fi
Book
Selected Poems
Rainer Maria Rilke
Returns to solitude, longing, and the inner life from every angle. Good for slowing down.
poetry
Book
The Electric State
Simon Stålenhag
A graphic novel that feels like a fever dream of late-capitalism and drone warfare, told through haunting painted landscapes. Fewer words than most books; stays with you longer.
graphic novelsci-fi
Book
Work: A History of How We Spend Our Time
James Suzman
From hunter-gatherers to knowledge workers, a sweeping anthropological account of how humanity decided that busyness was a virtue.
anthropologynon-fiction
Book
How Children Fail
John Holt
Written in the 1960s and still uncomfortably accurate. Holt watched children in classrooms and asked a simple question: what if school is the problem?
education
Book
Working Backwards
Colin Bryar & Bill Carr
The internal playbook of Amazon, written by two insiders. Less hagiography than most business books; more genuinely useful.
businessstrategy
Book
A Perfect Spy
John le Carré
Le Carré considered it his best. A portrait of a consummate liar, and an unusually clear-eyed look at how the people closest to us shape who we become.
fictionespionage
Book
Hamlet & Macbeth
William Shakespeare
Two plays about men undone by the gap between who they are and what the world demands of them. Still unmatched after 400 years.
dramaclassic
Podcast
Acquired
Ben Gilbert & David Rosenthal
Long-form business history. Each episode is a full autopsy of a single company - how it was built, the decisions that shaped it, the moments it nearly didn't survive. Episodes run four-plus hours and earn the time.
business
Visit ↗
Podcast
This American Life
Ira Glass
Themed episodes, wildly different contributors, decades of archive. A close and humanistic observation of topics uncounted.
journalismstorytelling
Visit ↗
Podcast
Freakonomics Radio
Stephen Dubner
Applies behavioural economic thinking to a vast range of topics, with an exceptional guest list of researchers, teachers, and thinkers who rarely appear elsewhere.
economicsideas
Visit ↗
Podcast
In the Dark
APM Reports
Each season takes one case and follows it until something breaks. Season two in particular sits with you - the gap between a verdict and the truth is wider than most people assume.
investigativejournalism
Visit ↗
Podcast
Odd Lots
Joe Weisenthal & Tracy Alloway
Two Bloomberg journalists talking to the people closest to the machinery of global finance. Gets into corners of the economy most coverage ignores.
economicsfinance
Visit ↗
Podcast
Fresh Air
Terry Gross
Terry Gross has been doing this for decades. Lets silence do more work than most interviewers allow.
interviewsculture
Visit ↗
Podcast
The Moth
Various
True personal stories, told live, without notes. A reminder that everybody is carrying something extraordinary around with them.
storytelling
Visit ↗
Podcast
Throughline
NPR
Takes today's headlines and traces them back to their roots. Consistently reframes things you thought you understood.
historyjournalism
Visit ↗
Movie
Heat
Michael Mann, 1995
Two men defined entirely by their work, on opposite sides of the same obsession. The diner scene between Pacino and De Niro is a contender for the best five minutes of dialogue ever filmed.
crimedrama
Movie
Contact
Robert Zemeckis, 1997
A film about science, faith, and what we do when the universe finally answers back.
sci-fidrama
Movie
The Man From Earth
Richard Schenkman, 2007
A professor tells his colleagues he has been alive for 14,000 years. Shot entirely in one room, zero budget. The ideas carry the whole thing.
sci-fiphilosophy
Movie
Arrival
Denis Villeneuve, 2016
Officially a film about alien contact. Actually a film about grief, time, and whether knowing the future changes your willingness to live it.
sci-fidrama
Movie
Blade Runner 2049
Denis Villeneuve, 2017
Asks what it means to have a life that matters when nobody is watching. Visually stunning, but the images serve the loneliness rather than replacing it.
sci-fi
Movie
Michael Clayton
Tony Gilroy, 2007
A film about institutional complicity and one man slowly running out of reasons to keep looking away. Understated in a way that makes it land harder.
dramathriller
Movie
Spartan
David Mamet, 2004
Mamet at full speed. Dense, precise dialogue where every line is quotable and nothing is wasted.
thriller
Movie
The Lives of Others
Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck, 2006
A Stasi officer surveilling a playwright slowly becomes implicated in the humanity he is supposed to be monitoring.
dramahistory
Movie
In Bruges
Martin McDonagh, 2008
Two hitmen waiting in Bruges. Funnier than it has any right to be, and then suddenly devastating.
dark comedydrama
Movie
Her
Spike Jonze, 2013
Released in 2013, it now feels less like science fiction and more like early documentation. The way Theodore learns to talk to an AI, what he projects onto it, what it reflects back - it maps uncomfortably well onto how millions of people are quietly relating to language models today.
sci-fiAI
Movie
Locke
Steven Knight, 2013
Tom Hardy, one car, one drive, one decision already made. Proof that constraint and a good actor are enough.
drama
Movie
Captain Fantastic
Matt Ross, 2016
A father raising his children entirely outside of society, and the question of whether love and conviction are enough to justify the cost.
dramafamily
YouTube
3Blue1Brown
Grant Sanderson
Makes mathematics feel like something you experience rather than follow. The series on neural networks is worth starting with.
mathematics
Visit ↗
YouTube
Kurzgesagt
In a Nutshell
Takes the biggest questions seriously and makes them accessible without dumbing them down.
scienceideas
Visit ↗
YouTube
Veritasium
Derek Muller
Consistently finds the counterintuitive angle on things I thought I understood.
science
Visit ↗
YouTube
Nerdwriter1
Evan Puschak
Essays on film, ideas, and culture. Good at naming why things work the way they do.
filmideas
Visit ↗
YouTube
Every Frame a Painting
Tony Zhou & Taylor Ramos
Archived now, but the analysis of how directors use visual language holds up.
filmcraft
Visit ↗
