Chris Beam
@chrisbeam.bsky.social
What do architecture critics think of Trump's ballroom and Obama's library? I asked them (gift link):
www.bloomberg.com/news/article...
www.bloomberg.com/news/article...
Trump’s Ballroom and Obama’s Library: Critics Assess Presidential Architecture
An evaluation of Trump’s White House renovation and his predecessor’s “Obamalisk” in Chicago.
www.bloomberg.com
November 5, 2025 at 2:31 PM
What do architecture critics think of Trump's ballroom and Obama's library? I asked them (gift link):
www.bloomberg.com/news/article...
www.bloomberg.com/news/article...
Reposted by Chris Beam
🎇New package alert @wired.com! This one has been in the works for months. If WIRED was going to tackle AI -- something we cover daily -- we had to go big. So here are 17 different stories about the way AI is changing us, even as the technology itself keeps moving www.wired.com/ai-issue/
AI of a Thousand Faces
What happens now that AI is everywhere and in everything? WIRED can’t tell the future, but we can try to make sense of it. Behold: 17 readings from the furthest reaches of the AI age.
www.wired.com
October 27, 2025 at 11:21 AM
🎇New package alert @wired.com! This one has been in the works for months. If WIRED was going to tackle AI -- something we cover daily -- we had to go big. So here are 17 different stories about the way AI is changing us, even as the technology itself keeps moving www.wired.com/ai-issue/
Are we in an AI bubble?
George Gilder, the tech guru who famously got blindsided by the 2001 telecom collapse, scoffs at the current AI data center mania. “It’s way overbuilding,” he says.
www.bloomberg.com/news/article...
George Gilder, the tech guru who famously got blindsided by the 2001 telecom collapse, scoffs at the current AI data center mania. “It’s way overbuilding,” he says.
www.bloomberg.com/news/article...
‘I Believe It’s a Bubble’: What Some Smart People Are Saying About AI
A growing group of critics say we’re in an artificial intelligence bubble. Is it true? If so, how would we know?
www.bloomberg.com
October 9, 2025 at 2:31 PM
Are we in an AI bubble?
George Gilder, the tech guru who famously got blindsided by the 2001 telecom collapse, scoffs at the current AI data center mania. “It’s way overbuilding,” he says.
www.bloomberg.com/news/article...
George Gilder, the tech guru who famously got blindsided by the 2001 telecom collapse, scoffs at the current AI data center mania. “It’s way overbuilding,” he says.
www.bloomberg.com/news/article...
Reposted by Chris Beam
Obsessed with this portion of @alibreland.bsky.social’s latest, on “heritage Americans,” not just because it’s snappy, but because it reveals much about the nature of the ideology these people have: superior, unwavering, fundamentally rooted in historic unreality www.theatlantic.com/technology/2...
October 7, 2025 at 12:55 PM
Obsessed with this portion of @alibreland.bsky.social’s latest, on “heritage Americans,” not just because it’s snappy, but because it reveals much about the nature of the ideology these people have: superior, unwavering, fundamentally rooted in historic unreality www.theatlantic.com/technology/2...
Josh Wallace Kerrigan had a bold idea: To make AI video that does not suck.
www.wired.com/story/the-fu...
www.wired.com/story/the-fu...
The Future of AI Filmmaking Is a Parody of the Apocalypse, Made by a Guy Named Josh
Behold Neural Viz, the first great cinematic universe of the AI era.
www.wired.com
October 7, 2025 at 1:27 PM
Josh Wallace Kerrigan had a bold idea: To make AI video that does not suck.
www.wired.com/story/the-fu...
www.wired.com/story/the-fu...
Crypto Bros Are Trying to Monetize Charlie Kirk’s Death
Every big news event is a memecoin now.
www.bloomberg.com
September 17, 2025 at 5:57 PM
I spoke with Dan Wang, who argues in his new book "Breakneck" that the US needs to rekindle its love of engineering -- and that means learning from China:
www.bloomberg.com/news/article...
www.bloomberg.com/news/article...
China Is Run by Engineers, and the US by Too Many Lawyers
In his new book, Dan Wang argues that America is too good at making rules, and could learn from Beijing’s laser focus on technical innovation.
www.bloomberg.com
August 15, 2025 at 3:01 PM
I spoke with Dan Wang, who argues in his new book "Breakneck" that the US needs to rekindle its love of engineering -- and that means learning from China:
www.bloomberg.com/news/article...
www.bloomberg.com/news/article...
Spent a brain-melting amount of time talking, reading, and thinking about the Zizians:
www.nytimes.com/2025/07/06/b...
www.nytimes.com/2025/07/06/b...
She Wanted to Save the World From A.I. Then the Killings Started.
www.nytimes.com
July 6, 2025 at 2:42 PM
Spent a brain-melting amount of time talking, reading, and thinking about the Zizians:
www.nytimes.com/2025/07/06/b...
www.nytimes.com/2025/07/06/b...
Reposted by Chris Beam
"My article, titled 'Year of the Pigskin,' was natural Hollywood bait," Christopher Beam writes. "Now a Chinese studio appeared to have simply lifted the idea":
How I Accidentally Inspired a Major Chinese Motion Picture
A decade ago, I wrote a story about transcending cultural boundaries through sports. Now it’s a movie with a very different message.
bit.ly
June 8, 2025 at 8:15 PM
"My article, titled 'Year of the Pigskin,' was natural Hollywood bait," Christopher Beam writes. "Now a Chinese studio appeared to have simply lifted the idea":
A Chinese movie studio (unofficially) adapted my 2014 article about an American football team. The differences from the original say a lot about how US-China relations have deteriorated
June 8, 2025 at 4:40 PM
A Chinese movie studio (unofficially) adapted my 2014 article about an American football team. The differences from the original say a lot about how US-China relations have deteriorated
Reposted by Chris Beam
What a sad & poignant story -- the kind of thing that will serve a mile marker when historians write about the loss of US democracy.
How Trump Defeated Columbia
The inside story of an unconditional surrender.
nymag.com
May 19, 2025 at 11:04 PM
What a sad & poignant story -- the kind of thing that will serve a mile marker when historians write about the loss of US democracy.
Reposted by Chris Beam
SECOND LIFE by @amandahess.bsky.social is out today! bookshop.org/p/books/seco...
Second Life: Having a Child in the Digital Age
Having a Child in the Digital Age
bookshop.org
May 6, 2025 at 2:01 PM
SECOND LIFE by @amandahess.bsky.social is out today! bookshop.org/p/books/seco...
Reposted by Chris Beam
the one and only @amandahess.bsky.social has written the most moving book about "having a child in the digital age"—but it's really about so much more. it's a meditation on the oppressiveness of tech, the fragility of humans, the miracle & bittersweetness of life... i would love for you to read it
April 25, 2025 at 6:56 PM
the one and only @amandahess.bsky.social has written the most moving book about "having a child in the digital age"—but it's really about so much more. it's a meditation on the oppressiveness of tech, the fragility of humans, the miracle & bittersweetness of life... i would love for you to read it
Reposted by Chris Beam
If you were a Trumpcast listener, this may be what you need now: my new show w/Stephen Metcalf. It's designed to be adrenaline for a better future.
We look straight at the catastrophe. And we ask what can be built from the rubble. It's also free & ad-free.
podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/w...
We look straight at the catastrophe. And we ask what can be built from the rubble. It's also free & ad-free.
podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/w...
What Rough Beast
Politics Podcast · What Rough Beast, hosted by Virginia Heffernan (Wired, Trumpcast) and Stephen Metcalf (Slate, Culture Gabfest) is a podcast where we bear witness to America’s demise, and ask what m...
podcasts.apple.com
April 12, 2025 at 9:09 PM
If you were a Trumpcast listener, this may be what you need now: my new show w/Stephen Metcalf. It's designed to be adrenaline for a better future.
We look straight at the catastrophe. And we ask what can be built from the rubble. It's also free & ad-free.
podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/w...
We look straight at the catastrophe. And we ask what can be built from the rubble. It's also free & ad-free.
podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/w...
Ayn Rand gave Leonard Peikoff everything—her ideas, her copyrights, and her money. Then he fell in love with his caregiver.
My deep dive on the battle for Ayn Rand’s estate:
www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archiv...
My deep dive on the battle for Ayn Rand’s estate:
www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archiv...
The Ugly Fight Over Ayn Rand’s Estate
The author gave Leonard Peikoff everything—her ideas, her copyrights, and her money. Then he fell in love with his caregiver.
www.theatlantic.com
March 30, 2025 at 1:20 PM
Ayn Rand gave Leonard Peikoff everything—her ideas, her copyrights, and her money. Then he fell in love with his caregiver.
My deep dive on the battle for Ayn Rand’s estate:
www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archiv...
My deep dive on the battle for Ayn Rand’s estate:
www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archiv...
Reposted by Chris Beam
Interesting read.
Jason Riddle “doesn’t shirk his complicity,” writes @johnhendrickson.bsky.social. “But the path that led him to the Capitol sheds light on how someone without much direction suddenly found it in a day of rage and mayhem”:
The January 6er Who Left Trumpism
Not every Capitol rioter was a card-carrying seditionist; some have regrets, and a few are even refusing a pardon. Jason Riddle is one.
www.theatlantic.com
January 25, 2025 at 2:14 PM
Interesting read.
Reposted by Chris Beam
"Devoted aide" might be an understatement www.nytimes.com/2024/11/25/u...
November 25, 2024 at 7:51 PM
"Devoted aide" might be an understatement www.nytimes.com/2024/11/25/u...
Reposted by Chris Beam
Behavioral science is troubled and overly influential in general, but “business-school psychology,” as my colleague and editor @engber.bsky.social calls it, is basically just a machine for fraud, erected to enrich its fraudsters.
www.theatlantic.com/magazine/arc...
www.theatlantic.com/magazine/arc...
The Business-School Scandal That Just Keeps Getting Bigger
The rot runs deeper than almost anyone has guessed.
www.theatlantic.com
November 20, 2024 at 4:01 PM
Behavioral science is troubled and overly influential in general, but “business-school psychology,” as my colleague and editor @engber.bsky.social calls it, is basically just a machine for fraud, erected to enrich its fraudsters.
www.theatlantic.com/magazine/arc...
www.theatlantic.com/magazine/arc...
Reposted by Chris Beam
"In the collective mind of U.S. voters, the concept of democracy appears to be so muddled, and their commitment to it so conditional, that it makes you wonder what, if anything, they’d do anything to stop its erosion—or whether they’d even notice that happening." www.theatlantic.com/politics/arc...
The ‘Democracy’ Gap
Almost all Americans say they support democracy—but they have very different ideas about what the word means.
www.theatlantic.com
November 19, 2024 at 2:45 PM
"In the collective mind of U.S. voters, the concept of democracy appears to be so muddled, and their commitment to it so conditional, that it makes you wonder what, if anything, they’d do anything to stop its erosion—or whether they’d even notice that happening." www.theatlantic.com/politics/arc...
Reposted by Chris Beam
“Mate, I’ve never had a bad day in journalism in my life. ...You win, you get drunk because you won. You lose, you get drunk because you lost.” --Steve Dunleavy www.nytimes.com/2019/06/25/b...
Steve Dunleavy, Brash Face of Murdoch Journalism, Dies at 81 (Published 2019)
An Australian with sartorial dash, he was a reporter, columnist, editor and TV correspondent who practiced a feisty brand of tabloid journalism.
www.nytimes.com
November 15, 2024 at 6:54 PM
“Mate, I’ve never had a bad day in journalism in my life. ...You win, you get drunk because you won. You lose, you get drunk because you lost.” --Steve Dunleavy www.nytimes.com/2019/06/25/b...
Spent some time with Michael Lewis, who has nothing controversial to say about anything:
www.nytimes.com/2023/10/06/b...
www.nytimes.com/2023/10/06/b...
Michael Lewis Doesn’t Do Villains
With his new book about the crypto mogul Sam Bankman-Fried — and new questions about his old work — the famously charmed writer finds himself under a microscope.
www.nytimes.com
October 6, 2023 at 4:43 PM
Spent some time with Michael Lewis, who has nothing controversial to say about anything:
www.nytimes.com/2023/10/06/b...
www.nytimes.com/2023/10/06/b...
New story for WIRED: “The AI Detection Arms Race Is On,” starring an idealistic Princeton grad entrepreneur who wants to preserve the human touch, a Stanford wunderkind who wants to see AI unleashed, and … John McPhee
The AI Detection Arms Race Is On—and College Students Are Building the Weapons
Gen Alpha is quickly developing tools that identify AI-generated text—and tools to evade detection.
www.wired.com
September 14, 2023 at 1:31 PM
New story for WIRED: “The AI Detection Arms Race Is On,” starring an idealistic Princeton grad entrepreneur who wants to preserve the human touch, a Stanford wunderkind who wants to see AI unleashed, and … John McPhee