Reality Check

Why Are We Still Doing This?

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The Curious About Everything Newsletter #65

The many interesting things I read in July 2026

The Curious About Everything Newsletter #63

The many interesting things I read in May 2026

The Curious About Everything Newsletter #60

The many interesting things I read in February 2026

Eight Lessons from the Distributed Podcast So Far

Looking back over the 2019 run of the Distributed podcast, one is struck by the wealth of insights our guests have shared in each and every episode. We’ve spoken to CEOs, activists, lawyers, author…

The Curious About Everything Newsletter #66

The many interesting things I read in August 2026

The Framework to Find Traction for your Product

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Tread carefully, because you tread on my fucks.

This newsletter is free to read, and it’ll stay that way. But if you want more - extra posts each month, access to the community, and a direct line to ask me things - paid subscriptions are $2.50/month. A lot of people have told me it’s

Episode 5: Metaphors for AI, with Shannon Vallor

This week, Adam talks with Shannon Vallor, a philosopher of AI, about the metaphors we use to talk about AI and ourselves. They also dunk on libertarians and San Francisco billboards, and consider what kind of hope we can have for the future of technology.Messages:  • Support the show at patreon.com/DreamingAgainstTheMachine  • Follow us on Bluesky and Instagram  • Subscribe to the show wherever you get your podcasts!  • Check out other great podcasts from Multitude like Wow if TrueAbout the show:Dreaming Against the Machine is a podcast about envisioning a realistic and hopeful future. Each week, the show’s host, journalist and astrophysicist Dr. Adam Becker, will have an earnest (and entertaining!) conversation with a guest about possible futures, seen through the lenses of history, science, and culture. In a world where tech oligarchs and their power fantasies are driving visions of the future, Dreaming Against the Machine aims to take back the terms of the public conversation about what our world can and should be.

The AI Industry Is Lying To You

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Oh God, It's Raining Newsletters

On the rise of newsletter production, consumption, and monetization, and how email is one of the most powerful and resilient publishing platforms.

The Dark Forest Theory of the Internet

Why the dark forests of the internet — podcasts, newsletters, and other private channels — are growing, and why might that pose a problem

Topics — Real Life

ABOUT TOPICS: Since we began Real Life in the summer of 2016, we’ve run many essays across a range of topics, with a particular focus on the personal and cultural implications of living with technology. Our aim is not to track the news cycle so much as the longstanding social issues that inform and transcend it. We wanted to make it easier to read and explore Real Life beyond our chronological archive, so we’ve created these Topics to gather in one place the work we’ve published on some key themes. More Topics will be added to this page over time.