Reading List

The most recent articles from a list of feeds I subscribe to.

Why gay guys are falling for AI thirst traps

Derek Lam has more than 31,000 followers on TikTok and nearly 40,000 on X as of this writing. He is shirtless a lot, he dances a lot, and he is shirtless dancing a lot, which may explain how he got so many fans. His comments are filled with compliments (“beautiful”) in different languages (“hombre bello […]

How “abundance” lost the Democratic war of ideas

A year ago, the hottest idea in Democratic circles was “abundance” — a growth-friendly agenda with centrist appeal that would help the party prove it was capable of shoving aside special interests and governing again.  Fast-forward a year. Today, in primary after primary, the far left is on the march. Last week’s victories for socialist […]

The organ donation boom complicating the boundary between life and death

Emily Hoffman was walking home from lunch in the Pittsburgh neighborhood of Squirrel Hill in February 2023, when a driver turning left struck her on the crosswalk. Hoffman was 34. By the time paramedics arrived on the scene, she had gone into a traumatic cardiac arrest. They strapped her onto a machine that delivered automated […]

Welcome to the July issue of The Highlight

Once upon a time, Sara Herschander writes, going through life meant interacting with the world around you — turning a fiddly key in a lock, scratching out notes on paper, dialing a phone number on an actual keypad. But increasingly, all of those tasks — and many others — feel the same: You just tap […]

How the rich got stingy

Historically, being ultra-wealthy meant that there was an obligation to share a chunk of it with the world. Gilded Age industrialists like John D. Rockefeller and Andrew Carnegie made lasting cultural and philanthropic contributions, many of which still bear their names. But increasingly, our modern billionaires don’t seem inclined to follow suit. To show just […]