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3 weeks ago | 
maxread.substack.com | Max Read
Greetings from Read Max HQ! In this week’s dispatch:A further dissection of the differences between the first and second Trump administrations, focused in this case on the sexual fantasies that structure the politics of each; andan examination of Chinese manufacturer TikTok and its response to the Trump tariffs.
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1 month ago | 
unpopularfront.news | John Ganz |Max Read
Three months ago, speaking to Quinn Slobodian and , I proposed that the market might be the only remaining form of rationality and therefore the only thing that we might be relying on to temper Trumpian madness. Now, as a person whose scattered thoughts on economics are shaped by the traditions of Keynes and Marx, this is not a particularly hopeful idea. I don’t happen to think the rationality of the market is very rational at all.
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1 month ago | 
bloodinthemachine.com | Brian Merchant |Max Read
Two genres of image loom large over the news feeds of the Trump 2.0 era so far: photos of shackled men and women, rounded up for detention and deportation, and pictures of various modes of Tesla protest; vandalized Model 3s and assailed dealerships. They are not unrelated, of course, the latter capturing the spasms of resistance to the cruel authoritarian state documented by the former.
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1 month ago | 
maxread.substack.com | Max Read
Greetings from Read Max HQ! In this week’s newsletter, a rundown of a particular flavor of I.Q. discourse on Twitter. A reminder: This newsletter, which comes out at least twice a week and almost always has at least one (1) good joke, is written an edited by one guy (me).
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2 months ago | 
maxread.substack.com | Max Read
Greetings from Read Max HQ! An A.I.-heavy newsletter this week, discussing the new short story generated by a secret OpenAI model (“it got the vibe of metafiction so right,” says Sam Altman) and the continuing use of “A.G.I.” by tech journalists. First, a reminder: This newsletter is the product of a lot of reading, thinking, listening, interviewing, staring at the ceiling, writing, deleting, writing again, etc.
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2 months ago | 
mattruby.substack.com | Matt Ruby |Tom Kuegler |Ethan Sherwood Strauss |Max Read
āTell me about the future of digital media!ā you say. OKā¦š£ Negative attention is better than no attention. National politics aināt about cash anymore. Ezra Klein:Democrats still believe that the type of attention you get is the most important thing. If your choice is between a lot of negative attention and no attention, go for no attention. And at least the Trump side of the Republican Party believes that the volume, the sum total of attention, is the most important thing.
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2 months ago | 
maxread.substack.com | Max Read
Greetings from Read Max HQ! In this week’s newsletter, a consideration of the current state of A.I. discourse. Some housekeeping: This week I appeared on Vox’s “Today, Explained” podcast with Noel King to talk about the Zizians. Also, Jamelle Bouie recently posted video of my appearance talking about Air Force One on the “Unclear and Present Danger” podcast with him and John Ganz.
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2 months ago | 
unpopularfront.news | John Ganz |Max Read |Henry Farrell |Brad DeLong
This is a regular feature for paid subscribers wherein I write a little bit about what I’ve been reading and/or watching. I’m going to comment briefly on the disgraceful Trump-Zelensky Oval Office scene, but first…In case you missed it, and I hosted political scientist on our intermittent podcast.—Speaking of podcasts, I’m very excited that next week I’ll be the first guest on Inflection Point, the relaunched Berkeley Political Economy podcast with economist and sociologist Dylan J. Riley.
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2 months ago | 
maxread.substack.com | Max Read
Greetings from Read Max HQ! A quick extra newsletter this week occasioned by the death of one of my favorite actors, Gene Hackman.
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2 months ago | 
unpopularfront.news | Pascal Boyer |John Ganz |Max Read
Current time: 0:00 / Total time: -54:12Audio playback is not supported on your browser. Please upgrade. This week on our untitled, unofficial, occasional podcast, of Read Max and I hosted our second guest: political scientist Henry Farrell, professor at Johns Hopkins University and writer of the tech and politics Substack, which we both follow with great interest. Farrell, with Abraham Newman, is the author of Underground Empire: How America Weaponized the World Economy.
