Travis Swicegood

Stephen Dubner’s sign off of Freakonomics Podcast is rolling around in my head tonight. Take care of yourselves. And if you can, somebody else too.

Pick one social platform giant and one AI company and hang em up on the city walls, watch the rest suddenly remember how to be governable.

Demand DCs use renewable energy. Demand access to open weight models. Learn how to use AI effectively to do things you couldn't otherwise. Dont fire strays at friends

Still thinking about this days later.

We got to live in the same world as Dolly.

Not Dolly.

EXCLUSIVE: 404 Media placed a tracking device in a shipment of rare books to see which AI company was buying it, and found an Amazon facility where Amazon scans and destroys books. @evystadium.bsky.social has more. Investigation by @emanuelmaiberg.bsky.social here: www.404media.co/we-tracked-a...

I sincerely believe they could have ridden “They Weird, Yo” all the way to the White House.

Yeah, see, the thing is, a lot of them didn’t. Survive, that is.

Genuinely thought this bin was levitating

Man, @dansinker.com and @akilahhughes.com nailed this landing. They managed to be both optimistic and realistic. Damn it was good. Now go plant those trees!

My son, just now: “Well, at least the US went the farthest of any team that calls it ‘soccer.’”

It’s fine to root for USA tonight but please be classy and don’t make jokes about Belgians using cruel and untrue stereotypes. Belgians are NOT deathly afraid of giraffes. They DON’T all have Brian Eno tattoos. They don’t ALL breathe fire. And they don’t wear pants made of CLOVER.

KARL: Rs are gonna make you the poster child for the D Party MAMDANI: Let them. We don't have to ask ourselves what life looks like if a socialist wins. I won last year & over the course of the last 6 months what we've delivered for working people are the very things we were told were impossible.

Well yeah, if Watergate happened again it would have gone off without a hitch because no one would have known about it until a year later when Woodward and Bernstein's book came out.

Just amazing to see a politician say Hey I'm going to do these things and then just go and do them.

100% this.

If you have ever emailed a writer to let them know you enjoyed something they wrote, you are among the noblest and best and most saintly in this entire world, and I hope you sleep really well tonight.

This right here. 👇👇👇

All of the moments when I’ve seen Trump at his angriest are when he’s being questioned by a woman

Never forget the liars who told you and told you that Democratic Socialism would never work. The people that brought you Trump’s pedocracy did everything they could to stop Mamdani.

Productivity doesn't matter if you're working on the wrong thing.

As ICE ramps up their bullshit for the summer, a reminder that me and a whole bunch of other folks will get whistles out to you, for free, in quantities of 100 to thousands, to distribute in your communities. Just send a request here linktr.ee/3Dwhistles

have you tried simply turning it off and then never turning it back on again

It’s amazing how many books have found me when I needed them. And as many have found me before I knew too.

👇👇👇

Oh no, I missed this, the book was about… The—  Sir, arstechnica.com/ai/2026/05/a...

Imagine being a Russian troll assigned to Bluesky: “Comrade, today you will destabilize Western democracy by arguing with poets, policy nerds, and a raccoon avatar with tenure.”

Ok but what if *this* is the good timeline

We've been doing a little tidying up at 18f.org—a good opportunity to remind folks that the 18F guides and blog are archived on the site for anyone to use. After all, they belong to you!

@dansinker.com just making sure you saw this… for daydream material.

This gave me chills. Watch.

if you see reasonable critics of any politician getting dogpiled on any social media site, you should look at that apparent zealotry and unanimity with skepticism

we're hiring a Lead Product Designer at Bluesky. we've built the foundation — now we need someone to lead our design team and bring a fresh vision for how this app should look and feel. crazy fun & rare opportunity for the right leader! jobs.gem.com/bluesky/am9i...

when you need books more than you need a view

I appreciate that their new map makes a little swastika centered on Nashville

@jjbbllkk.bsky.social heya! Just finished up your Push From Scratch video. Just published a chord “instrument” for Push 3 (don’t really know what to call it yet) called Asterism. Free on Gumroad while I test it out and get some feedback. Would love your feedback. tswicegood.gumroad.com/l/asterism

Has a *single* media outlet warned its audience not to trust content posted by the President on his social media accounts about the events last night, because he posts AI-generated slop and intentional misinformation? Any of them?

So much false equivalence in media on gerrymandering in Texas vs California & Virginia. California and Virginia maps approved by the voters. That's a huge difference not enough people pointing out

How is there not a viable alternative to Substack already?

This is wild

Nothing like seeing your name pop up in an obituary in a Google Alert.

Thank god. Christ. But seriously folks. We cannot continue to live like this.

www.nytimes.com/2026/04/06/u...

So amazing.

Can we just leave it there?

As an American, there are always disappointments to register and arguments to engage; amid the chaos of our battered, monied attempt at self-governance, dissent is constant. But this feeling of being utterly ashamed of America and embarrassed to the core by its president is new, raw and unnerving.

i’ll say that the morningstar “chicken” nuggets are legit and i prefer them to actual chicken (my kids eat them)