I make Dad jokes on NPR and also write books and other things.
Sometimes it’s the smaller stories that stick with me. During the pandemic, Katie Miller became close to Dr Fauci, who gave her guidance and advice on her pregnancy. According to his private diary, they became quite close. But now she has to denounce him. www.thebulwark.com/p/a-portrait...
A Portrait of MAGA PsychodramaOr: On the political necessity of denouncing one’s friends.www.thebulwark.comUPDATE: www.nytimes.com/2026/07/30/u...
Kennedy Center Halts Free Public Tours After Five Decades of Service (Gift Article)The decision to suspend tours indefinitely came after a volunteer tour guide was featured in a Times article detailing President Trump’s dramatic revamp of the Kennedy Center.www.nytimes.comPeter SagalSandy Weiswasser for President. www.nytimes.com/2026/07/27/u...
I think this is generally correct: most people don't know what the government actually does...although I think that's changing, now that they're, uh, no longer doing it.
David RobertsA reminder that people who know anything about politics -- what the parties are, what they stand for, their record, who they've elected, how government works -- are a freakish minority. Most people know *nothing at all* past the vague mythologies that sift down through pop culture.
And also: a shout-out to my colleagues at NPR news. They don’t have the same problem with management/ownership as do journalists elsewhere, but they have been punished by the Admin for their coverage, and remain under threat. Still, as someone once said, they persist. www.npr.org/2026/07/26/n...
Rage-giving, innovation and cuts: How public media has survived without federal fundsA year after President Trump signed a law ending six decades of federal funding of public media, it's a time of reinvention, innovation and clear anxiety at public tv and radio stations nationwide.www.npr.orgContinually impressed that despite the pressures/layoffs imposed by ownership and management, the reporters and editors at the WaPo continue to do excellent work covering the Trump Administration.
Matthew Hay Brown67 boat strikes 221 people killed EXCLUSIVE: Operation Southern Spear has not reduced the volume, availability, purity or price of cocaine arriving in the U.S., according to an internal DEA assessment and a closed-door Pentagon briefing for senators, and has made enforcement more difficult
Sandy Weiswasser for President. www.nytimes.com/2026/07/27/u...
Trump Gutted the Kennedy Center. A Tour Guide Wants You to See It Anyway. (Gift Article)In a dogged demonstration of love for a Washington institution, Sandy Weiswasser is among a few dozen volunteers still showing dwindling visitors a hollowed-out building.www.nytimes.comLast night, @chrislhayes.bsky.social used the occasion of the WHCD to discuss the performance of the press in his open. He makes an important distinction between ownership and the actual reporters/editors who are continuing to do the work. all-in-with-chris-hayes.simplecast.com/episodes/chr...
Chris and Jen instantly react to the White House Correspondents' Dinner | All In with Chris HayesDonald Trump attends the White House Correspondents’ Dinner amid his escalating war on the free press.all-in-with-chris-hayes.simplecast.comNYT reports that President Trump’s new plane is a flying target. Trump demands the reporters be subpoenaed. Times gets subpoenas withdrawn. Then:
Eric Lipton NYTJUST POSTED: A deep investigation by The NYT of shortcuts taken to get President Trump his Qatari-donated plane in time for POTUS to show it off during 250th anniversary events-compromises that leave the plane more vulnerable to potential threats (Free link) www.nytimes.com/2026/07/25/u...
Least important thing about this, but it’s another distorting effect of the Electoral College. There were more Trump voters in CA, a “blue state,” than in MS, AL and MO combined.
tony rommNEW: In a stunning admission, the Trump administration admitted in court documents that it canceled billions in energy grants to states "based solely" on politics -- and whether that state was represented by Democrats and backed Harris in 2024. www.nytimes.com/2026/07/24/b...
Thanks to Gordon, below, for reminding me there's another reading of that delightful essay you can listen to: www.thisamericanlife.org/117/you-gonn...
Lunch - This American LifeFamily dynamics seen strictly from the parents' perspective.www.thisamericanlife.orgGordon M. BloemI love Frazier’s writing. I was introduced to it by Garrison Keillor when Frazier read this on PHC. youtu.be/kNrQFgWcCd0?...
It really does look good, but mainly its an excuse to (once again) post the New Yorker piece it's based on, one of the finest examples of comic writing I've ever seen, by the great Ian Frazier. www.newyorker.com/magazine/199...
Coyote V. AcmeFrom 1990: “Much as he has come to mistrust Defendant’s products, Mr. Coyote has no other domestic source of supply to which to turn.”www.newyorker.comEvery Film NowFinal trailer for ‘COYOTE VS. ACME’ has been released. In theaters August 28. #CoyoteVsAcme
Is this the first use in the wild of “Chotiner” to describe an action by someone who is not Isaac Chotiner? If so, should it not be “chotinered?”
HaydonI can’t imagine a more personally humiliating thing than to be Chotiner’d by Douthat. Astonishing.
Charming! Funny! The captions I came up were terrible!
The New YorkerThe comedians try their hand at captioning New Yorker cartoons. www.newyorker.com/humor/celebr...
