Dhananjay Jagannathan
@dhananjayj.bsky.social
academic, essayist
Substack (on culture and identity): https://culturedopinion.substack.com/
Writing portfolio: https://dhananjayj.com/
Books: ARISTOTLE'S PRACTICAL EPISTEMOLOGY (OUP 2024); CULTURE AS CONVERSATION (PENGUIN forthcoming 2026)
Substack (on culture and identity): https://culturedopinion.substack.com/
Writing portfolio: https://dhananjayj.com/
Books: ARISTOTLE'S PRACTICAL EPISTEMOLOGY (OUP 2024); CULTURE AS CONVERSATION (PENGUIN forthcoming 2026)
Pinned
Cultured Opinion | Dhananjay Jagannathan | Substack
Philosophical and personal essays about culture, politics, music, food, travel, &c. Click to read Cultured Opinion, by Dhananjay Jagannathan, a Substack publication. Launched 3 hours ago.
culturedopinion.substack.com
Hey y'all, I've launched a newsletter focused on culture and identity. I'll be writing about food, travel, music, religion, politics, and other topics, as I work toward my first trade book CULTURE AS CONVERSATION, to be published by Penguin Press in 2026. Subscribe here: culturedopinion.substack.com
Reposted by Dhananjay Jagannathan
somebody who is good at the economy please help them budget this, their bullshit factory is dying
OpenAI needs to raise at least $207bn by 2030 so it can continue to lose money, HSBC estimates on.ft.com/4ij0yh8
OpenAI needs to raise at least $207bn by 2030 so it can continue to lose money, HSBC estimates
A burning platform
on.ft.com
November 25, 2025 at 7:49 PM
somebody who is good at the economy please help them budget this, their bullshit factory is dying
Reposted by Dhananjay Jagannathan
one of the coolest things about ChatGPT is how you can actually just never use it. you can fill your whole entire life with simply not once using it. it's incredible.
November 25, 2025 at 4:15 PM
one of the coolest things about ChatGPT is how you can actually just never use it. you can fill your whole entire life with simply not once using it. it's incredible.
Vaccination against childhood diseases should not be framed as a "choice". It should be the precondition for participation in society, on a par with, say, not being inclined to murder.
Third unvaccinated Kentucky baby dies of whooping cough.
Pertussis, best prevented with a vaccine, has killed three Kentucky babies in the last 12 months.
kentuckylantern.com/2025/11/25/t...
Pertussis, best prevented with a vaccine, has killed three Kentucky babies in the last 12 months.
kentuckylantern.com/2025/11/25/t...
Third unvaccinated Kentucky baby dies of whooping cough • Kentucky Lantern
A third unvaccinated infant in Kentucky has died of pertussis as public health officials urge Kentuckians to get vaccinated against the disease.
kentuckylantern.com
November 25, 2025 at 6:56 PM
Vaccination against childhood diseases should not be framed as a "choice". It should be the precondition for participation in society, on a par with, say, not being inclined to murder.
Advent officially began for me tonight when I sang the Alma Redemptoris Mater for the first time after Compline.
November 25, 2025 at 1:47 AM
Advent officially began for me tonight when I sang the Alma Redemptoris Mater for the first time after Compline.
The correct opinion about Star Wars (through the first six films) is that they were written childishly for the childish, and there's nothing wrong with that. But now our entire culture is like that, so there's nothing setting those films, or their successors, apart any more.
November 24, 2025 at 9:22 PM
The correct opinion about Star Wars (through the first six films) is that they were written childishly for the childish, and there's nothing wrong with that. But now our entire culture is like that, so there's nothing setting those films, or their successors, apart any more.
Three months of teaching Plato have clearly had their effect. I tried to write an essay about mediocrity and ended up writing an essay about love, beauty, and our desire to be more than we presently are.
open.substack.com/pub/cultured...
open.substack.com/pub/cultured...
competence is not enough
We are drowning in mediocrity, but, like frogs being boiled, we’ve only just started to notice.
open.substack.com
November 23, 2025 at 2:40 PM
Three months of teaching Plato have clearly had their effect. I tried to write an essay about mediocrity and ended up writing an essay about love, beauty, and our desire to be more than we presently are.
open.substack.com/pub/cultured...
open.substack.com/pub/cultured...
If not exactly predictable, we can at least say this was predicted.
My boy has also studied the game tape; Trump is both extremely averse to in person interpersonal conflict and extremely susceptible to superficial flattery
November 21, 2025 at 10:50 PM
If not exactly predictable, we can at least say this was predicted.
Reposted by Dhananjay Jagannathan
I think this clip is the key to understanding why Trump acted the way he did with Mamdani. His world revolves around TV ratings.
"I tell you, the press has eaten this thing up."
"I tell you, the press has eaten this thing up."
November 21, 2025 at 10:10 PM
I think this clip is the key to understanding why Trump acted the way he did with Mamdani. His world revolves around TV ratings.
"I tell you, the press has eaten this thing up."
"I tell you, the press has eaten this thing up."
I just watched someone make a left turn at high speed through a crowded intersection with pedestrians crossing with no turn signal in Manhattan. It was so egregious that I shouted "use your turn signal" and of course as he passed I saw he had his phone in one hand, steering wheel in the other.
We’ve 100% lost the war on using phones while driving and it’s the worst.
November 21, 2025 at 3:54 PM
I just watched someone make a left turn at high speed through a crowded intersection with pedestrians crossing with no turn signal in Manhattan. It was so egregious that I shouted "use your turn signal" and of course as he passed I saw he had his phone in one hand, steering wheel in the other.
Finally, a task for RFK Jr.
A dead sperm whale has washed up on Nantucket for the first time in decades. It’s too big to move — at least until officials figure out a plan.
Dead Sperm Whale on Nantucket Is Too Big to Move, for Now
A local nonprofit said the 52-ton mammal is “far too big, awkward and heavy to remove.” A town official later said it could be dragged out to sea by Thanksgiving.
nyti.ms
November 20, 2025 at 2:36 PM
Finally, a task for RFK Jr.
I don't know what an Olivia Nuzzi is, and I don't intend to find out.
November 18, 2025 at 3:44 AM
I don't know what an Olivia Nuzzi is, and I don't intend to find out.
And that's how I learned that the far-right candidate in the Chilean election is the son of a *literal* Nazi who fled Germany in 1950.
Watching Chilean election results come in and once again thinking about this tweet
November 17, 2025 at 1:44 AM
And that's how I learned that the far-right candidate in the Chilean election is the son of a *literal* Nazi who fled Germany in 1950.
The idiot enemy of your idiot enemy is still an idiot.
You can think it’s good that Massie and MTG are stirring up shit within the GOP caucus without thinking their politics in general is good. It’s not hard at all in fact?
November 16, 2025 at 6:43 PM
The idiot enemy of your idiot enemy is still an idiot.
This is it.
a “Space Force”, if you will
we need a department of kerning
November 13, 2025 at 5:51 PM
This is it.
Don Quixote has both.
books have no tech tree, no fog of war
November 11, 2025 at 1:30 AM
Don Quixote has both.
I gave lectures on Kant’s Groundwork, Aristotle’s Physics, and Plato’s Philebus today. It might the most challenging trio of texts I’ve ever taught in a day.
November 10, 2025 at 9:24 PM
I gave lectures on Kant’s Groundwork, Aristotle’s Physics, and Plato’s Philebus today. It might the most challenging trio of texts I’ve ever taught in a day.
In the calm of day, I have a slightly more sober analysis than last night when my only feeling about Chuck Schumer and the Collaborators’ Caucus was “what chickenshits”.
Schumer thought this was the best policy outcome: end short-term pain while forcing the GOP to vote down Obamacare subsidies.
Schumer thought this was the best policy outcome: end short-term pain while forcing the GOP to vote down Obamacare subsidies.
November 10, 2025 at 5:44 PM
In the calm of day, I have a slightly more sober analysis than last night when my only feeling about Chuck Schumer and the Collaborators’ Caucus was “what chickenshits”.
Schumer thought this was the best policy outcome: end short-term pain while forcing the GOP to vote down Obamacare subsidies.
Schumer thought this was the best policy outcome: end short-term pain while forcing the GOP to vote down Obamacare subsidies.
For any wondering about Schumer's role, from yesterday: "The mystery is why Schumer keeps flirting with capitulation in exchange for nothing. Democrats have the political momentum, Republicans are divided, and a majority of voters blame Republicans for the shutdown."
prospect.org/2025/11/08/w...
prospect.org/2025/11/08/w...
Why Does Schumer Keep Trying to Cave? - The American Prospect
The Senate Democratic leader and his Gang of Eight keep trying to snatch defeat out of the jaws of victory. On Thursday, they told their caucus colleagues they had ten votes to reopen the government—i...
prospect.org
November 10, 2025 at 4:42 AM
For any wondering about Schumer's role, from yesterday: "The mystery is why Schumer keeps flirting with capitulation in exchange for nothing. Democrats have the political momentum, Republicans are divided, and a majority of voters blame Republicans for the shutdown."
prospect.org/2025/11/08/w...
prospect.org/2025/11/08/w...
I’m just trying to understand how someone can get behind their podcast mic, thinking they’re prepared to talk about NYC housing, and not know the difference between affordable housing and rent-stabilized housing.
EK first pushes back, saying “This is affordable housing” and his editor replies “You’re saying affordable housing but this [policy discussion] is [about] rent-stabilized housing”. All EK can say is “That’s fair”. Hang up your boots, son. Listen to the moment here: podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/t...
The Blue Wave Cometh?
Podcast Episode · The Ezra Klein Show · 11/07/2025 · 59m
podcasts.apple.com
November 9, 2025 at 10:58 PM
I’m just trying to understand how someone can get behind their podcast mic, thinking they’re prepared to talk about NYC housing, and not know the difference between affordable housing and rent-stabilized housing.
I’ve listened to the Ezra Klein show for years. I find it useful to understand the mindset of technocratic liberalism. But roughly once per episode Klein has a moment that would make me quit and find something else to do. This week: EK is talking with his editor about housing affordability in NYC.
November 9, 2025 at 10:50 PM
I’ve listened to the Ezra Klein show for years. I find it useful to understand the mindset of technocratic liberalism. But roughly once per episode Klein has a moment that would make me quit and find something else to do. This week: EK is talking with his editor about housing affordability in NYC.
Sweden and Denmark have vibrant far-right parties predicated on the idea of welfare chauvinism: a welfare state for “us” (white, native-born) and not for “them” (non-white, immigrants). Scandinavia is not some kind of political paradise.
The GOP is petrified of Zohran Mamdani because they know once democratic socialism works here, as it has in Norway, Sweden, Denmark, and Finland, they will never be elected again.
November 8, 2025 at 5:15 PM
Sweden and Denmark have vibrant far-right parties predicated on the idea of welfare chauvinism: a welfare state for “us” (white, native-born) and not for “them” (non-white, immigrants). Scandinavia is not some kind of political paradise.
lmao. See if I wanted prime ballot position I would simply have run an actual campaign to win my party’s primary instead of posting AI slop and reminding people that they liked my father a long time ago.
November 7, 2025 at 7:45 PM
lmao. See if I wanted prime ballot position I would simply have run an actual campaign to win my party’s primary instead of posting AI slop and reminding people that they liked my father a long time ago.
The tariff case seems open and shut as a legal matter, which means we may get a 5-4 decision striking them down. But can Americans please also learn the basics of style and address and stop referring to the solicitor-general as “GENERAL so and so”, or is that simply too hard?
This is an important question: when has Congress ever said you can do tariffs by saying "regulate commerce?" (The answer is never). /5
November 5, 2025 at 10:54 PM
The tariff case seems open and shut as a legal matter, which means we may get a 5-4 decision striking them down. But can Americans please also learn the basics of style and address and stop referring to the solicitor-general as “GENERAL so and so”, or is that simply too hard?
Reposted by Dhananjay Jagannathan
andrew cuomo ran one of the worst political campaigns in modern history but i think my favorite part was in this ai ad, the pregnant bill cited chatgpt as a source and a chatgpt phone walks onto the screen and goes “that’s right”
November 5, 2025 at 10:16 PM
andrew cuomo ran one of the worst political campaigns in modern history but i think my favorite part was in this ai ad, the pregnant bill cited chatgpt as a source and a chatgpt phone walks onto the screen and goes “that’s right”