Phillip Maciak

I'm writing a cultural history of the DAD! With Plume! Get ready for Father's Day 2027, friends! This is what's happening now! @duttonbooks.bsky.social

starring Oscar AIsaac

I am old enough to remember when politicians felt the need to hide behind euphemism and obfuscation. As frustrating as these obfuscations were I hope it is becoming clear to all that they were an advance, historically speaking

Using an AI agent to plan a birthday party for a child, but actually you don't have a child, and you're really planning a surprise party for the AI agent!

get your MFDA (Master's of Fine Dad-Rock Arts) at Niko Stratis University

The weird thing about the Sixers all of a sudden becoming the top story in the NBA is that you have to constantly hear national sportswriters/podcasters who have not really watched a lot of Sixers games in recent history describe players like they are space aliens who just arrived on Earth.

"Imagine if you no longer had to read or speak to your children, and you could just be an ideal AI-assisted parent: a catatonic husk ready to cuddle the same way cats curl up on dead bodies while they’re still warm." Go on, @pjmaciak.bsky.social.

I'm halfway through Ruth Schwartz Cowan's More Work For Mother, and so far the tldr is technology that promises solve for the problem of women doing most of the work in the home has a funny way of simply generating even more work to fill up the new space www.nytimes.com/2026/10/25/s...

If you convince yourself it's ok to have an AI assistant tuck your kids into bed at night, what else are you going to be ok with? pjmaciak.substack.com/p/just-read-...

This sort of AI assistant technology will only be destructive unless and until the people developing it can actually grapple with these sorts of questions because they are at the heart of everything. What is worth doing with this one life? www.nytimes.com/2026/10/25/s...

This isn't hyperbole or a joke. Parents actually called the cops and got the black boy and his family removed and the league claimed they were trespassing because he was "putting on a show" and wasn't playing "fair."

I think Americans of all walks of life would agree that we should risk a new pandemic in order to protect the luxury fur trade.

What the alien on Lanterns wishes he said to Hal Jordan

Favorite off-forgotten Skerritt role: CONTACT. He’s such a great asshole in that film.

If Marco Rubio is the GOP candidate, the Democrats can run whoever. But if it's Vance, I feel very strongly that the Democrats need to defeat him with another overachieving, cringe Millennial. AOC, Mayor Pete, Ossoff — choose your fighter.

I don't know whether it was a stealth audition reel or a really funny meta- joke, but Jack Lowden spends a majority of this season of SLOW HORSES running really fast in a single black suit and tie.

This series is so fun. I'm rooting for ATL, though it's hard to root against the Valks. The thing I will say is that I really hope whoever wins this series does it on their home court. Both of these fanbases are so insane, the champs deserve a nuclear arena meltdown. www.nytimes.com/athletic/771...

‘Wildwood’ director Travis Knight on AI: “A pencil is a tool. A paintbrush is a tool. A 3D printer is a tool. A digital capture is a tool. AI is not a tool. AI can go fuck itself.”

Such a bummer that this is what's become of QB1 Matt Saracen.

Netflix is a really fascinating story of how for years a company listens to the market (create more/better shows;), listens to analysts (create advertising products! create targeting! create live streaming opps!); generates mounds of money for folks and then... www.wsj.com/business/med...

Some folks thought this guy was doing a bit. I disagree, but, even if he was, there are plenty of techno-optimists who say shit like this, in earnest, all the time. Parenting hits different when you don't care.

Strongly endorse these University of Chicago committee recs uchicago.app.box.com/s/6ghhclma7c... -Device-free reading spaces -Limited-tech writing labs -Computerized, asynchronous no-AI testing facilities -Innovative class cadences and schedules incorporating these

As in parenting as in musicking, AI guys frame passivity wrt care and humanistic labor as a sign of high-status, bc those sorts of work (reading, listening, cultural work generally) are new domains of feminized reproductive labor right along w the trad work of parenting

Abdul El-Sayed on JD Vance: "I think America is big enough for all of us. His view of America is small like him. It's about pointing to other people and making the argument that the reason *you* don't have is because of *them.*" El-Sayed came on our pod. It's good: newrepublic.com/article/2168...

I wrote about neglect-maxxing and the AI guys who want us to stop reading to our kids. pjmaciak.substack.com/p/just-read-...

I've been pretty good about being biweekly on my newsletter, CITY CHICKEN, and a new piece is ready to drop tomorrow morning. I write about TV, mostly, but these days, there's a lot of Dad Culture and its discontents, too. Anyway, subscribe for free here! pjmaciak.substack.com

The first rule of Fantasy Basketball League is: you do not talk about Fantasy Basketball League. The second rule of Fantasy Basketball League is: please, just stop talking about Fantasy Basketball, please, I can't take any more.

OBSESSION is the DON'T CREATE THE TORMENT NEXUS for lonely men.

Just last night, Laura was telling a roomful of my students about how she framed this essay, and, lo and behold, here it is! I CAN SEE EVERYTHING!

Sharon Horgan is one of the best TV comedy writers now working; she's also one of the best TV comedy actors. You will love YOUTH.

This is not the takeaway I would have from this news and we don’t have to frame him playing a contact sport while sleep deprived like this. Football’s reliance on this gamer/warrior narrative is really insidious.