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JD Shadel

@jdshadel.com

460 followers 260 following 790 posts

💌 Join the only lifestyle newsletter on the internet ;-) www.esckey.co Chief Editorial Officer at new media outlet ESC KEY .CO — also the only employee Work in Condé Nast Traveler (ex-Future of Travel columnist), WaPo, Them, BBC, Vice, more They/etc

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JD Shadel @jdshadel.com · May 19

“If they couldn’t be bothered to write this, why should we be bothered to read it?” ‼️

In their cathartic, broligarchy-rattling new book, “The AI Con,” @emilymbender.bsky.social and @alexhanna.bsky.social are handing out needles so you, too, can burst the hype bubble.

www.esckey.co/do-you-belie...

Do you believe in hope after “AI” hype? Emily M. Bender and Alex Hanna make the case

In this extended briefing, “TL;DR” = “Totally Legit; Def. Read” because we review “The AI Con,” the spicy new book ready to rattle the broligarchy. Plus, the authors answer ESC KEY .CO’s questions abo...

www.esckey.co

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JD Shadel @jdshadel.com · 19h

some writers in 2025 seem like they’re in a competition to prove how easily they could be replaced by “AI”

The Atlantic @theatlantic.com · 20h

Trump understood the fundamental realities of the war in Gaza in a way that “the posturing leaders of many other countries did not,” @eliotacohen.bsky.social argues. If he pulls off a peace deal, “he will deserve that gala night in Oslo.”

Trump’s Great Achievement

If the president succeeds in ending the Gaza war, he will deserve a gala night in Oslo.

bit.ly

JD Shadel @jdshadel.com · 20h

i'm a big fan of the *ideas* of the fediverse in theory, but in practice worry many people conflate decentralization and platform mechanics — as if "fediverse" is some kind of magic fairy dust that will solve problems that have little to do with ownership of a network www.esckey.co/attention-sl...

Attention slot machines, now with open protocols! What is the “fediverse” actually achieving?

Your TL;DR Briefing on things worth tracking — and talking about over your next power lunch. *Wink.* This time the thing is engagement casinos, attention slot machines and the fediverse rebels hustlin...

www.esckey.co

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ESC KEY .CO @index.www.esckey.co.ap.brid.gy · 1d

What's going on in Portland, Oregon?! I read every poster on utility poles to get answers

The day after our resident street photographer landed in Portland, Oregon, the President of the United States declared it a "war zone," intending to send in troops following absurd occupations in D.C. and Chicago. But a long walk in Northeast revealed the vibe on the street was, well, not that.

www.esckey.co

Reposted by JD Shadel

Niko Stratis @nikostratis.com · 1d

The Washing Post just discovered beards

He’s gay. She’s straight. They’re happily married.
Meet the couples who are redefining what it means to be in a relationship, including those in gay-straight and same-sex platonic marriages.
By Shane O’Neill

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Rory Blank @roryblank.bsky.social · 1d

you could just go work in a restaurant and they pay you money instead of you having to pay them

Los Angeles Times @latimes.com · 1d

This 'The Bear'-esque dining experience puts you in the center of the kitchen chaos

At Speakeasy Society's 'Family Meal,' curse words are thrown, recipes are slandered and it all makes for fun, irresistible drama.

www.latimes.com

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The New Republic @newrepublic.com · 1d

For weeks, anti-immigration agents have tossed smoke bombs at people in cars, shot so-called “less lethal” weapons like rubber bullets and pepper balls, and deployed a staggering amount of tear gas, sometimes unleashing it almost casually into streets crowded with passersby. trib.al/EtwBDCJ

Trump Is Waging War on an American City

The real threat to people in Chicago (and Los Angeles and Portland) is our maniacal president.

trib.al

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Alex Hanna-ween @alexhanna.bsky.social · 1d

I have questions. what's the x-axis? what's the y-axis? is this about linear separability? why are "we" in the middle of space?

0/10 on chart design.

Elinor🎗️ @ COLM 🍁 @elinorpd.bsky.social · 1d

bsky.app/profile/mari...

Slide with “we are here” in bottom left with an arrow pointing top right towards two groups of words: “AI2027” & “everyone dies” and then “AI con” “AI snake oil” “Empire of AI”

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Sasha Costanza-Chock @schock.cc · 2d

"In July 2024, five months before he allegedly set the fire, Mr Rinderknecht asked ChatGPT to create an image of a "dystopian painting" that included a burning forest and a crowd of people running away from a fire, according to investigators."

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JD Shadel @jdshadel.com · 17d

this is arguably the strangest essay i've ever run on ESC KEY .CO — and it's also been the one, by far, i've gotten the most thoughtful responses to from readers who are like, "yeah, me also!!"

it's my take on a fashion week recap that's not exactly about fashion week www.esckey.co/the-state-of...

The state of fashion week amid polycrisis: Dispatch from my anxiety attack at a catwalk show

This London Fashion Week has been a dazzling display of global design talent in the U.K. capital. Emerging designers turned heads. There was that upcycled parachute gown. And street style for days. Bu...

www.esckey.co

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Pavel @spavel.bsky.social · 3d

Flying cars are the perfect example of a point solution: trying to solve a systemic problem (traffic) with an individual product (fly over the traffic).

But traffic is not a technology problem; it's a social problem. Remote work, congestion fees, and dense transit-connected housing solve it better.

ae @aelkus.bsky.social · 3d

which then begs the question of why you want flying cars instead of whatever mass transportation equivalent you imagine

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Lit Hub @literaryhub.bsky.social · 4d

“The Khalidi Library represents everything the settlers cannot abide. It is a monument to, and repository of, the history and heritage of a culture they claim should not exist.” Ryan Byrnes chronicles the fight to save a medieval Palestinian library.

The Race to Save a Medieval Palestinian Library

While the golden Dome of the Rock sweltered under one-hundred-degree heat a gang of heavily armed orthodox Israelis marched on a Palestinian library. Brandishing forged documents falsely claiming t…

buff.ly

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Julia Barton @bartona104.bsky.social · 4d

I wrote about the "new look" at CBS in the late 1940s —and about a person who refused to go along. Networks ≠ moral compasses. continuous-wave.beehiiv.com/p/poetic-jus...

Poetic Justice

At the wake for narrative podcasting, a story from one who kept the flame: Norman Corwin.

continuous-wave.beehiiv.com

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JD Shadel @jdshadel.com · 4d

i have an enduring faith in each individual’s great capacity for change and transformation, which stems almost entirely from the fact that i used to wear fedoras — i got out of a free box next to a dumpster — and play mandolin in a freak folk band

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Chanda Prescod-Weinstein 🌌 @chanda.blacksky.app · 4d

I hope Ezra Klein will restrain himself from saying Bari Weiss is doing journalism the right way

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Ruth Nineke @ruthnineke.bsky.social · 5d

No this is too real! I write a to-do list every week and I tend to write in block letters to keep it clean, but when I get to my journal buddy, IT'S PURE CHICKEN SCRATCH!

I used to have pretty girl cursive! I went to catholic school!

article via @jdshadel.com

www.esckey.co/the-future-o...

The future of handwriting is, well, illegible: What do our brains lose when we stop using pens?

My hand hurts. Ouch! I take a break to read research about handwriting’s much-publicized (alleged) death spiral. I then proceed to finish drafting the latest in the experimental BTS @ ESC series entir...

www.esckey.co

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Jonathan W. Gray @elmcitytree.blacksky.app · 5d

James Baldwin to Angela Davis in 1970, discussing white Americans:

Or, to put it another way, as long as white Americans take refuge in their whiteness— for so long as they are unable to walk out of this most monstrous of traps-they will allow millions of people to be slaughtered in their name, and will be manipulated into and surrender themselves to what they will think of-and justify—as a racial war. They will never, so long as their whiteness puts so sinister a distance between themselves and their own experience and the experience of others, feel themselves sufficiently human, sufficiently worthwhile, to become responsible for themselves, their leaders, their country, their children, or their fate. They will perish (as we once put it in our black church) in their sins—that is, in their delusions. And this is happening, needless to say, already, all around us.

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Alex Hanna-ween @alexhanna.bsky.social · 7d

I have a theory that running a centralized social network drives you insane but I cannot prove the direction of the causal arrow

Jay 🦋 @jay.bsky.team · 7d

dec/acc

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JD Shadel @jdshadel.com · 7d

HOWEVER this is still an accurate GIF of me packing 😭😭😭

JD Shadel @jdshadel.com · 7d

😭😭😭

JD Shadel @jdshadel.com · 7d

Taylor Quick

JD Shadel @jdshadel.com · 7d

me packing so i can vote 4 u

a woman is laying on top of a stack of suitcases with #schitts creek written on the bottom

Alt: a woman is laying on top of a stack of suitcases with #schitts creek written on the bottom

media.tenor.com

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JD Shadel @jdshadel.com · 8d

it’s truly wild I was hyperventilating after a heavy garlic feast, breathing all over my friend, breathing heavily, mumbling: “the ink should smell like thissss”

JD Shadel @jdshadel.com · 8d

live from Portland, Oregon it’s coffee time!

A photo of me holding a cup of coffee overlooking a leafy neighborhood in Portland overcast skies, and mountains in the background church spires rise in the distance

JD Shadel @jdshadel.com · 8d

you’re not going to believe this but last night I was crossfaded and scared and whispered to my friend, you know what would protect us?! if we wrote a book and printed it with garlic ink!!

anyway thankfully my friend was like, let’s tuck you in

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Electronic Frontier Foundation @eff.org · 8d

Media companies large and small are using AI to generate news content because it’s cheaper than paying for journalists’ salaries, but that savings can come at the cost of the outlets’ reputations. www.eff.org/deeplinks/2...

Wave of Phony News Quotes Affects Everyone—Including EFF

Whether due to generative AI hallucinations or human sloppiness, the internet is increasingly rife with bogus news content—and you can count EFF among the victims. WinBuzzer published a story June 26

www.eff.org

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