This week: The philosophy of giving away your books / The new war for the seafloor / Smarter ways to wrap presents / Evolution inspires inventors / Vitruvius and De Architectura
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1. Forecasting
Columbia Journalism Review | December 2025
“Clouds collect over the present. There are a lot of unknowns about the next twenty-five years for journalism. But we can, at least, dress for the weather.”
2. ‘I Didn’t Vote for This’: A Revolt Against DOGE Cuts, Deep in Trump Country
By Cassidy Randall | Politico Magazine | December 2025
“Trump administration policies slashing staffing and funding for public lands are waking a sleeping political giant in Montana. Will either party notice?”
3. When selling Christmas trees beats line cooking
By Sabri Ben-Achour, Ashley Rodriguez and Alex Schroeder | Marketplace | December 2025
“Most seasonal workers go to the mall. But if you’re willing to brave cold nights on the street, the gig of tree seller could be more lucrative.”
4. Oscars Bolts from ABC to YouTube Starting in 2029
By Scott Feinberg and Alex Weprin | The Hollywood Reporter | December 2025
“The Disney-owned Alphabet Network will continue to air the Oscars — long the world’s most watched awards telecast — through the 100th edition of the awards show in 2028. After that, the ceremony will be available live and for free to over two billion people around the world on YouTube, and to YouTube TV subscribers in the United States.”
5. Shaping the conversation means offering context to extreme ideas, not just a platform
By Graham Bodie | The Conversation | December 2025
“A conversation that presents all viewpoints as morally equivalent risks signaling that even extreme positions belong within normal political discourse.”
6. How Dr. Seuss Gave Us One of the Most Complex, Socially Important Heist Stories Ever
By Olivia Rutigliano | Crime Reads | December 2019
“[I]t tells the story of an outsider with no formal power who deliberately connives to swipe Christmas from those who celebrate it, precisely because it bothers him that they do. “
7. The Scramble for the Seafloor
By Rebecca Egan McCarthy | The New York Review of Books | December 2025
“With the Trump administration’s backing, an emerging industry could start mining minerals from the bottom of the sea—and risk turning the ocean into a free-for-all.”
8. How maths can help you wrap your presents better
By Sarah Griffiths | BBC News | December 2025
“Wrapping awkwardly shaped Christmas presents is always a headache, but here’s the formula for perfect gift wrap.”
9. The divide between culture reporter and critic closes
By JP Mangalindan | Nieman Lab | December 2025
“Audiences no longer want writers to simply recount what happened; they want help understanding why it mattered.”
10. The Case for Whole Books
By Johanna Winant and Dan Sinykin | Slate | October 2025
“You can’t get better at reading until you care about a text.”
11. Why I Give My Books Away For Free
By Shane Hinton | LitHub | October 2025
“People that connect with us in the right place at the right time change the stories we tell ourselves about who we are. Art is one mechanism of this connection. Sales numbers can’t represent the connective potential of a given piece.”
12. America will celebrate its 250th birthday next year. There’s a commemorative ornament for it
By Darlene Superville | Associated Press | November 2025
“The limited-edition, hand-crafted ornament features the Declaration of Independence, the document the Second Continental Congress used to announce it was breaking away from Britain on July 4, 1776. President Donald Trump has a copy hanging in the Oval Office.”
13. Why do we find our pets so cute? Bold, bin-raiding raccoons may have a surprising answer
By Helen Pilcher | The Guardian | November 2025
“Known for their urban scavenging antics, raccoons are becoming more domesticated – so how they look will gradually change.”
14. (Some) MAGA Girls Just Wanna Have Fun
By Elaine Godfrey | The Atlantic | November 2025
“What does it mean to be female and conservative in 2025?”
15. The Cocaine Kingpin Living Large in Dubai
By Ed Caesar | The New Yorker | October 2025
“Daniel Kinahan, an Irish drug dealer, commands a billion-dollar empire from the U.A.E. Why isn’t he in prison?”
16. Are millennials frozen out of the housing market? The reality may be more interesting.
By Julie Zauzmer Weil | The Washington Post | November 2025
“An eye-catching report said the average first-time homebuyer is now 40, but the story is more complex.”
17. How Inventors Find Inspiration in Evolution
By Carl Zimmer | The New York Times | November 2025
“Soft batteries and water-walking robots are among the many creations made possible by studying animals and plants.”
18. Rachel Carson
American Experience :: PBS | July 2023
“Drawn from Carson’s own writings, letters and recent scholarship, this film illuminates both the public and private life of the woman who launched the modern environmental movement and revolutionized how we understand our relationship with the natural world.”
19. Eyes Wide Shut: A Sword in the Bed
By Megan Abbott | Criterion Collection | November 2025
“Watching, we feel our own marriages exposed, our own wayward desires unmasked. The movie thus cuts deeply, making us want to avert our eyes, preferring them to remain wide shut.”
20. The Time Machine
By Melvyn Bragg | In Our Time :: BBC 4 | 2020
Also see: James Joyce’s Ulysses | The Measurement of Time | Vitruvius and De Architectura | The Siege of Tenochtitlan
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