Stefan Rhys-Williams
@stefanrhyswilliams.bsky.social
Trying to do some writing when I can...
Substack: https://stefanrhyswilliams.substack.com/?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=web&utm_campaign=substack_profile
Substack: https://stefanrhyswilliams.substack.com/?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=web&utm_campaign=substack_profile
Wrote about drinking and addiction and why narratives are important even when they're distortions—feat. Joan Didion, Michael Deagler and Leslie Jamison and some real confessional shit from me
open.substack.com/pub/stefanrh...
open.substack.com/pub/stefanrh...
What I talk about when I talk about drinking
“Like all addicts, I had trouble explaining my behaviour,” writes Michael Deagler in his excellent novel Early Sobrieties. Our protagonist, the wonderfully named Dennis Monk, has a few ready explanati...
open.substack.com
December 9, 2025 at 8:30 PM
Wrote about drinking and addiction and why narratives are important even when they're distortions—feat. Joan Didion, Michael Deagler and Leslie Jamison and some real confessional shit from me
open.substack.com/pub/stefanrh...
open.substack.com/pub/stefanrh...
Liz Truss TV is just as demented as I was hoping. It’s like she’s being advised by a team of mad sycophantic chatbots cheering her on as she lays waste to the singed remains of her reputation
December 6, 2025 at 9:41 AM
Liz Truss TV is just as demented as I was hoping. It’s like she’s being advised by a team of mad sycophantic chatbots cheering her on as she lays waste to the singed remains of her reputation
Wrote about Professor David Betz, an obscure academic doing the rounds on the alt-right media circuit (Triggernometry etc), predicting that the UK is heading for civil war—possibly within five years. Who is this guy? Give it a read!
open.substack.com/pub/stefanrh...
open.substack.com/pub/stefanrh...
The Civil War Will Be Streamed
Doom-mongering is the new anti-woke
open.substack.com
November 28, 2025 at 4:59 PM
Wrote about Professor David Betz, an obscure academic doing the rounds on the alt-right media circuit (Triggernometry etc), predicting that the UK is heading for civil war—possibly within five years. Who is this guy? Give it a read!
open.substack.com/pub/stefanrh...
open.substack.com/pub/stefanrh...
Very funny to me that New York magazine are writing about Milton Keynes like it’s at the vanguard of modernity
nymag.com/intelligence...
nymag.com/intelligence...
The Droids Taking Over One of England’s Strangest Towns
Want a glimpse of our robot-filled future? Just go to Milton Keynes.
nymag.com
November 24, 2025 at 5:07 PM
Very funny to me that New York magazine are writing about Milton Keynes like it’s at the vanguard of modernity
nymag.com/intelligence...
nymag.com/intelligence...
Nothing makes me happier than a new magazine subscription!!!
November 22, 2025 at 3:45 PM
Nothing makes me happier than a new magazine subscription!!!
Couple of chapters in and this is really really brilliant
November 21, 2025 at 6:52 PM
Couple of chapters in and this is really really brilliant
30th anniversary cover of Infinite Jest is actually kinda cool (compared to the copy I have at least, which I have never read)!!!
November 19, 2025 at 2:22 PM
30th anniversary cover of Infinite Jest is actually kinda cool (compared to the copy I have at least, which I have never read)!!!
Excited to read the ur text of confessional writing about self destruction
November 19, 2025 at 2:03 PM
Excited to read the ur text of confessional writing about self destruction
Writing something on what Mark Fisher would’ve made of Spotify Wrapped—where could I pitch such a thing??
November 18, 2025 at 5:13 PM
Writing something on what Mark Fisher would’ve made of Spotify Wrapped—where could I pitch such a thing??
Does anyone know where this David Betz guy came from? Seems to have written a book on “fortification in 21st century” and a couple of essays in military strategy magazine but he’s now on loads of popular podcasts predicting the advent of civil war in the UK and beyond? How? Why??
November 5, 2025 at 2:27 PM
Does anyone know where this David Betz guy came from? Seems to have written a book on “fortification in 21st century” and a couple of essays in military strategy magazine but he’s now on loads of popular podcasts predicting the advent of civil war in the UK and beyond? How? Why??
What’s the deal with all the podcast bros talking about an inevitable civil war in the UK + US? There’s a creepy, slightly horny vibe to these conversations, the sense they’re sort of willing it into existence??
November 4, 2025 at 6:21 PM
What’s the deal with all the podcast bros talking about an inevitable civil war in the UK + US? There’s a creepy, slightly horny vibe to these conversations, the sense they’re sort of willing it into existence??
Any editors out there want to commission a piece on what famous anti capitalist doomer Mark Fisher would have made of Spotify Wrapped?? Cus I’m writing it
October 31, 2025 at 9:41 PM
Any editors out there want to commission a piece on what famous anti capitalist doomer Mark Fisher would have made of Spotify Wrapped?? Cus I’m writing it
Amazing that the two best essays I’ve read in the last week have been about, respectively, why we should abolish the monarchy and compulsive, pathological wanking
October 30, 2025 at 7:19 AM
Amazing that the two best essays I’ve read in the last week have been about, respectively, why we should abolish the monarchy and compulsive, pathological wanking
If you only read one article today make it this—absolutely blistering piece of writing from The New Statesman's Will Lloyd
www.newstatesman.com/politics/202...
www.newstatesman.com/politics/202...
Abolish the monarchy
It’s more than Prince Andrew – the whole House of Windsor is rotten to the core
www.newstatesman.com
October 29, 2025 at 5:34 PM
If you only read one article today make it this—absolutely blistering piece of writing from The New Statesman's Will Lloyd
www.newstatesman.com/politics/202...
www.newstatesman.com/politics/202...
So great to see an essay this good go properly viral - knowing this kind of thing still happens makes me really happy. The fact it’s about wanking is even better. Got myself a Harper’s subscription. A little slice of shared culture. Just brilliant stuff
harpers.org/archive/2025...
harpers.org/archive/2025...
The Goon Squad, by Daniel Kolitz
Loneliness, porn’s next frontier, and the dream of endless masturbation
harpers.org
October 23, 2025 at 11:21 PM
So great to see an essay this good go properly viral - knowing this kind of thing still happens makes me really happy. The fact it’s about wanking is even better. Got myself a Harper’s subscription. A little slice of shared culture. Just brilliant stuff
harpers.org/archive/2025...
harpers.org/archive/2025...
Yesssss and Go Long at number 1?? Get the fuck out of here
www.theguardian.com/music/2025/o...
www.theguardian.com/music/2025/o...
Where’s her Pulitzer already? Joanna Newsom’s 20 best songs – ranked!
Ten years on from the release of her rococo masterpiece, Divers, we count down the singer-songwriter-harpist’s most beautiful and devastating tracks
www.theguardian.com
October 23, 2025 at 4:24 PM
Yesssss and Go Long at number 1?? Get the fuck out of here
www.theguardian.com/music/2025/o...
www.theguardian.com/music/2025/o...
Wrote about meeting Christopher Hitchens back in 2010, the crop of imitators who flooded the internet after he died, why the “creator economy” is a vortex of dangerous nonsense and the mainstream media is good actually: open.substack.com/pub/stefanrh...
Christopher Hitchens—So Much to Answer For
The reply guy industrial complex
open.substack.com
October 23, 2025 at 9:24 AM
Wrote about meeting Christopher Hitchens back in 2010, the crop of imitators who flooded the internet after he died, why the “creator economy” is a vortex of dangerous nonsense and the mainstream media is good actually: open.substack.com/pub/stefanrh...
Spent a month chatting to an AI boyfriend for this essay on companion apps, loneliness and the commercialisation of intimacy—featuring Mark Fisher, DFW and some thoughts on why Spike Jonze’s Her doesn't feel like science fiction anymore.
open.substack.com/pub/stefanrh...
open.substack.com/pub/stefanrh...
The Love Machines
Can a robot break your heart?
open.substack.com
September 30, 2025 at 8:35 PM
Spent a month chatting to an AI boyfriend for this essay on companion apps, loneliness and the commercialisation of intimacy—featuring Mark Fisher, DFW and some thoughts on why Spike Jonze’s Her doesn't feel like science fiction anymore.
open.substack.com/pub/stefanrh...
open.substack.com/pub/stefanrh...
Just watched the trailer for the new PTA film and... is he about to upend expectations and release a truly dire, derivative, charmless film???
www.youtube.com/watch?v=kQUP...
www.youtube.com/watch?v=kQUP...
One Battle After Another | Official Trailer 2
YouTube video by Warner Bros.
www.youtube.com
August 30, 2025 at 1:17 PM
Just watched the trailer for the new PTA film and... is he about to upend expectations and release a truly dire, derivative, charmless film???
www.youtube.com/watch?v=kQUP...
www.youtube.com/watch?v=kQUP...
Wrote this a while ago
open.substack.com/pub/stefanrh...
open.substack.com/pub/stefanrh...
Heartstopper is gaslighting an entire generation
Why do I feel so conflicted about this charming celebration of gay teenage life?
open.substack.com
August 27, 2025 at 6:58 AM
Wrote this a while ago
open.substack.com/pub/stefanrh...
open.substack.com/pub/stefanrh...
Wrote about why I feel so conflicted about Vincenzo Latronico's novel 'Perfection' (beautifully wrought tabloid moralising), ‘Girls’, and what it means to be a millennial in 2025:
open.substack.com/pub/stefanrh...
open.substack.com/pub/stefanrh...
Millennial Dirge: The Problem with 'Perfection'
Why it’s time to retire generational discourse
open.substack.com
August 25, 2025 at 12:55 PM
Wrote about why I feel so conflicted about Vincenzo Latronico's novel 'Perfection' (beautifully wrought tabloid moralising), ‘Girls’, and what it means to be a millennial in 2025:
open.substack.com/pub/stefanrh...
open.substack.com/pub/stefanrh...
Remember when Scarlett Johansson released an album of Tom Waits covers??
August 21, 2025 at 1:37 PM
Remember when Scarlett Johansson released an album of Tom Waits covers??
A cool thing about Bristol is I just woke up and this is the view from my bedroom window
August 10, 2025 at 6:22 AM
A cool thing about Bristol is I just woke up and this is the view from my bedroom window
God this is so excellent
July 25, 2025 at 7:20 PM
God this is so excellent
Brits are always bitching about American English but “faucet” is a much nicer word than “tap”—there’s a certain lyrical quality to it, well done guys. 10/10 no notes
July 25, 2025 at 4:09 PM
Brits are always bitching about American English but “faucet” is a much nicer word than “tap”—there’s a certain lyrical quality to it, well done guys. 10/10 no notes