Josh Levin
@joshuablevin.bsky.social
Host of Replay Booth. Host of Slow Burn seasons on David Duke and Fox News. Creator of One Year. Author of NBCC winner THE QUEEN. https://www.josh-levin.com/
Pinned
Josh Levin
@joshuablevin.bsky.social
· Nov 3
www.replaybooth.show
I'm thrilled to announce the pilot episode for a new sports history podcast called Replay Booth. The pilot, "Wilbur Huckle for President," is live now. If you liked Slow Burn and/or One Year and/or Hang Up and Listen, you'll love this www.replaybooth.show/p/replay-boo...
Reposted by Josh Levin
It's been really lovely reading all the tributes to Dan. Many people have asked if they can contribute to support his wife and son. You can do so here: everloved.com/life-of/dan-...
February 2, 2026 at 9:32 PM
It's been really lovely reading all the tributes to Dan. Many people have asked if they can contribute to support his wife and son. You can do so here: everloved.com/life-of/dan-...
If I'm running an NFL team, my first question during the interview process is whether this was AI generated. If you're not writing your own LinkedIn Taco Bell sponcon, then can we really trust you with the keys?
February 2, 2026 at 9:35 PM
If I'm running an NFL team, my first question during the interview process is whether this was AI generated. If you're not writing your own LinkedIn Taco Bell sponcon, then can we really trust you with the keys?
@redargyle.bsky.social hey Anthony, can you email me at josh.levin@slate.com? have a question for you about curling. thanks!
February 2, 2026 at 5:54 PM
@redargyle.bsky.social hey Anthony, can you email me at josh.levin@slate.com? have a question for you about curling. thanks!
Reposted by Josh Levin
I think the key that unlocks Dan was his desire to share the things he loved with other people. Wouldn’t be the worst way to honor him if we make the effort to do that for the things we love, too. defector.com/dan-mcquade-...
Dan McQuade, 1983–2026 | Defector
Dan McQuade, our friend and colleague, died this week at the age of 43. He is survived by his wife and young son. At the end of 2024, Dan was diagnosed with neuroendocrine cancer. The news of his diag...
defector.com
January 29, 2026 at 3:06 AM
I think the key that unlocks Dan was his desire to share the things he loved with other people. Wouldn’t be the worst way to honor him if we make the effort to do that for the things we love, too. defector.com/dan-mcquade-...
Reposted by Josh Levin
for our latest HIMMW interview: @joshuablevin.bsky.social left a 20-year "forever job" at Slate to go independent. We break down the finances of the jump:
🎙️ The cost of self-funding narrative podcasts
📖 Negotiating unpaid sabbaticals to write books
💸 Adjusting to a "TBD" income
🎙️ The cost of self-funding narrative podcasts
📖 Negotiating unpaid sabbaticals to write books
💸 Adjusting to a "TBD" income
January 26, 2026 at 10:57 PM
for our latest HIMMW interview: @joshuablevin.bsky.social left a 20-year "forever job" at Slate to go independent. We break down the finances of the jump:
🎙️ The cost of self-funding narrative podcasts
📖 Negotiating unpaid sabbaticals to write books
💸 Adjusting to a "TBD" income
🎙️ The cost of self-funding narrative podcasts
📖 Negotiating unpaid sabbaticals to write books
💸 Adjusting to a "TBD" income
Reposted by Josh Levin
I talked to @joshuablevin.bsky.social about the evolution of "welfare queen" politics during Trump 2.
www.huffpost.com/entry/trump-...
www.huffpost.com/entry/trump-...
Don't Lose Sight Of The 'Unprecedented' Reason Trump Is Coming For Minnesota
Outrage over welfare cheats used to prompt calls for reform, not paramilitary operations.
www.huffpost.com
January 21, 2026 at 8:02 PM
I talked to @joshuablevin.bsky.social about the evolution of "welfare queen" politics during Trump 2.
www.huffpost.com/entry/trump-...
www.huffpost.com/entry/trump-...
For @earbudspodcol.bsky.social, I collected my fave podcast cultural history/mysteries, including work by @99pi.org's Christopher Johnson, @leonneyfakh.bsky.social, @geedee215.bsky.social + @willa.bsky.social (& the pilot episode of Replay Booth naturally) newsletter.earbuds.audio/p/cultural-h...
5 History Podcasts That'll Blow Your Mind About the Past 🕰️
5 cultural history podcasts that unravel hidden narratives, challenging preconceived notions and revealing surprising insights about the past through expert storytelling and deep investigative journal...
newsletter.earbuds.audio
January 19, 2026 at 5:53 PM
For @earbudspodcol.bsky.social, I collected my fave podcast cultural history/mysteries, including work by @99pi.org's Christopher Johnson, @leonneyfakh.bsky.social, @geedee215.bsky.social + @willa.bsky.social (& the pilot episode of Replay Booth naturally) newsletter.earbuds.audio/p/cultural-h...
Reposted by Josh Levin
You can get carried away with these historical analogies and I tried hard not to do that here
Reagan, obviously, was not Trump
But some similarities hard to miss — and they can help us understand what’s happening www.thebulwark.com/p/how-somali...
Reagan, obviously, was not Trump
But some similarities hard to miss — and they can help us understand what’s happening www.thebulwark.com/p/how-somali...
How Somalis Became the New ‘Welfare Queens’
Trump has reinvented Reagan’s old attack, with one key twist.
www.thebulwark.com
January 14, 2026 at 1:04 PM
You can get carried away with these historical analogies and I tried hard not to do that here
Reagan, obviously, was not Trump
But some similarities hard to miss — and they can help us understand what’s happening www.thebulwark.com/p/how-somali...
Reagan, obviously, was not Trump
But some similarities hard to miss — and they can help us understand what’s happening www.thebulwark.com/p/how-somali...
Been kind of a rough game for Chris Fowler but all is redeemed if he says "this is for all the VRBOs"
January 9, 2026 at 3:59 AM
Been kind of a rough game for Chris Fowler but all is redeemed if he says "this is for all the VRBOs"
Reposted by Josh Levin
One of the three extant buildings from Storyville, the famous red-light district in New Orleans, is facing demolition. I found that it'd been a Black bar, making it the only link to the community of color that lived and worked on the backstreets of the district.
acloserwalknola.com/places/joe-v...
acloserwalknola.com/places/joe-v...
Joe Victor's Saloon - New Orleans Music Map
Joe Victor’s Saloon is one of only three extant structures from Storyville, New Orleans’ fabled red-light district, which was integral to the development of jazz in the early 1900s. The business was l...
acloserwalknola.com
December 22, 2025 at 11:08 PM
One of the three extant buildings from Storyville, the famous red-light district in New Orleans, is facing demolition. I found that it'd been a Black bar, making it the only link to the community of color that lived and worked on the backstreets of the district.
acloserwalknola.com/places/joe-v...
acloserwalknola.com/places/joe-v...
Reposted by Josh Levin
Just in time for the holidays, a feature story on the 1977 Xmas party that changed the marijuana legalization movement forever. There was a rock band, strobe lights, a juggler, silver trays full of joints, and an allegation that Jimmy Carter's drug czar did cocaine ...
slate.com/news-and-pol...
slate.com/news-and-pol...
Donald Trump Just Brought a Long-Sought Policy Goal Closer Than Ever. It All Might Have Been Different Without One Night in 1977.
A scandal followed—and, five decades later, no one agrees on what happened.
slate.com
December 23, 2025 at 6:00 PM
Just in time for the holidays, a feature story on the 1977 Xmas party that changed the marijuana legalization movement forever. There was a rock band, strobe lights, a juggler, silver trays full of joints, and an allegation that Jimmy Carter's drug czar did cocaine ...
slate.com/news-and-pol...
slate.com/news-and-pol...
Reposted by Josh Levin
Holy %$##*%^&. A @newyorker.com essay by Louis Menand about my book
Is the Dictionary Done For?
The print edition of Merriam-Webster was once a touchstone of authority and stability. Then the internet brought about a revolution.
www.newyorker.com
December 22, 2025 at 4:15 PM
Holy %$##*%^&. A @newyorker.com essay by Louis Menand about my book
Now that this story has been published, I grant permission to all NFL teams to pursue a 36-23 scoreline today.
I wrote for @theatlantic.com about the NFL's baffling scoreboard mystery: Why has a game never ended 36-23? Join me (via gift link!) on this @nflscorigami.bsky.social quest w/help from @jonbois.bsky.social, Dave Mattingly, some Scorigami-loving academics, and more www.theatlantic.com/science/2025...
No NFL Game Has Ever Ended in a Score of 36–23
A scoreboard mystery
www.theatlantic.com
December 7, 2025 at 2:45 PM
Now that this story has been published, I grant permission to all NFL teams to pursue a 36-23 scoreline today.
Dave's Scorigami spreadsheet is incredible stuff docs.google.com/spreadsheets...
December 5, 2025 at 4:16 PM
Dave's Scorigami spreadsheet is incredible stuff docs.google.com/spreadsheets...
I wrote for @theatlantic.com about the NFL's baffling scoreboard mystery: Why has a game never ended 36-23? Join me (via gift link!) on this @nflscorigami.bsky.social quest w/help from @jonbois.bsky.social, Dave Mattingly, some Scorigami-loving academics, and more www.theatlantic.com/science/2025...
No NFL Game Has Ever Ended in a Score of 36–23
A scoreboard mystery
www.theatlantic.com
December 5, 2025 at 3:07 PM
I wrote for @theatlantic.com about the NFL's baffling scoreboard mystery: Why has a game never ended 36-23? Join me (via gift link!) on this @nflscorigami.bsky.social quest w/help from @jonbois.bsky.social, Dave Mattingly, some Scorigami-loving academics, and more www.theatlantic.com/science/2025...
Reposted by Josh Levin
Today's article pick from Damn History, a free monthly newsletter for readers/writers of #popularhistory. Congrats to writer @joshuablevin.bsky.social & @defector.com! (H/t @barryyeoman.com)
Read/subscribe to Damn History: damn-history-16d93f.beehiiv.com/subscribe
defector.com/wilbur-huckl...
Read/subscribe to Damn History: damn-history-16d93f.beehiiv.com/subscribe
defector.com/wilbur-huckl...
Wilbur Huckle For President: Solving A 61-Year-Old Mets Mystery | Defector
Earlier this year, on a cold Sunday in January, I walked into an antique store in a Washington, D.C. suburb. When I go to a shop like this one, I’m not looking for chairs or lamps. My interests are a ...
defector.com
December 3, 2025 at 2:20 PM
Today's article pick from Damn History, a free monthly newsletter for readers/writers of #popularhistory. Congrats to writer @joshuablevin.bsky.social & @defector.com! (H/t @barryyeoman.com)
Read/subscribe to Damn History: damn-history-16d93f.beehiiv.com/subscribe
defector.com/wilbur-huckl...
Read/subscribe to Damn History: damn-history-16d93f.beehiiv.com/subscribe
defector.com/wilbur-huckl...
Reposted by Josh Levin
Big breaking news at Bounces:
Serena Williams has applied for reinstatement to tennis, adding herself back into the tennis anti-doping program to set herself up for a comeback to competition in 2026.
Read all the details here:
www.benrothenberg.com/p/serena-wil...
Serena Williams has applied for reinstatement to tennis, adding herself back into the tennis anti-doping program to set herself up for a comeback to competition in 2026.
Read all the details here:
www.benrothenberg.com/p/serena-wil...
Breaking: Serena Williams Is Preparing to Return to Tennis
The 23-time major singles champion has filed paperwork that sets a 2026 comeback to professional tennis in motion.
www.benrothenberg.com
December 2, 2025 at 4:52 PM
Big breaking news at Bounces:
Serena Williams has applied for reinstatement to tennis, adding herself back into the tennis anti-doping program to set herself up for a comeback to competition in 2026.
Read all the details here:
www.benrothenberg.com/p/serena-wil...
Serena Williams has applied for reinstatement to tennis, adding herself back into the tennis anti-doping program to set herself up for a comeback to competition in 2026.
Read all the details here:
www.benrothenberg.com/p/serena-wil...
Reposted by Josh Levin
Here’s my oral history of CREED, the movie not the band. With help from Ryan Coogler, Michael B. Jordan, Tessa Thompson, and many more. www.theringer.com/2025/11/25/m...
If I Fight, You Fight: The Oral History of ‘Creed’
Ten years ago, Ryan Coogler and Michael B. Jordan cemented their partnership and pulled off a million-to-one shot, bringing the ‘Rocky’ franchise into a new era
www.theringer.com
November 25, 2025 at 3:14 PM
Here’s my oral history of CREED, the movie not the band. With help from Ryan Coogler, Michael B. Jordan, Tessa Thompson, and many more. www.theringer.com/2025/11/25/m...
Reposted by Josh Levin
"The Moscow crew shipped off all those pizzas and 20 cases of Pepsi to the parliament building, to fortify Yeltsin and his supporters against the coup. Antoniadi had inserted Pizza Hut into a political crisis." —Kelly Jones & @joshuablevin.bsky.social for @slate.com
In 1990, One of the Great Forgotten Acts of American Subterfuge Unfolded. It Involved Pizza Hut.
A delicious caper of vodka bribes and world-altering salad bars.
slate.com
November 19, 2025 at 8:16 PM
"The Moscow crew shipped off all those pizzas and 20 cases of Pepsi to the parliament building, to fortify Yeltsin and his supporters against the coup. Antoniadi had inserted Pizza Hut into a political crisis." —Kelly Jones & @joshuablevin.bsky.social for @slate.com
Reposted by Josh Levin
New:
On 1xBet, the strange and shady company which has become rapidly more visible across tennis in 2025 despite *many* reasons for tours, tournaments, and federations to steer clear of its mess.
Lots of odd details here, free for all to read at Bounces:
www.benrothenberg.com/p/1xbet-tenn...
On 1xBet, the strange and shady company which has become rapidly more visible across tennis in 2025 despite *many* reasons for tours, tournaments, and federations to steer clear of its mess.
Lots of odd details here, free for all to read at Bounces:
www.benrothenberg.com/p/1xbet-tenn...
Bottom Dollar
On the shady practices of 1xBet, and its rapidly growing presence across tennis.
www.benrothenberg.com
November 13, 2025 at 9:17 PM
New:
On 1xBet, the strange and shady company which has become rapidly more visible across tennis in 2025 despite *many* reasons for tours, tournaments, and federations to steer clear of its mess.
Lots of odd details here, free for all to read at Bounces:
www.benrothenberg.com/p/1xbet-tenn...
On 1xBet, the strange and shady company which has become rapidly more visible across tennis in 2025 despite *many* reasons for tours, tournaments, and federations to steer clear of its mess.
Lots of odd details here, free for all to read at Bounces:
www.benrothenberg.com/p/1xbet-tenn...
Slow Burn/Fiasco/Backfired's @leonneyfakh.bsky.social: "I loved the episode and getting the newsletter a week later felt amazing as it tuned me into various little details that had stuck with me subconsciously. Alas I have basically no social media presence left so I don’t know how to tell anyone."
In the Replay Booth newsletter, I've got a cornucopia of goodies for all the Huckle-heads out there: some great photos, a questionnaire he filled out in 1966, multiple unauthorized Wilbur Huckle baseball cards, and more!
www.replaybooth.show/p/every-week...
www.replaybooth.show/p/every-week...
Every Week Should Be Wilbur Huckle Week
Thank you for subscribing to the Replay Booth newsletter, where I’ll be sending updates on a podcast series that—according to the Guardian, in our first published review—has “the same sense of cheerfu...
www.replaybooth.show
November 13, 2025 at 4:02 PM
Slow Burn/Fiasco/Backfired's @leonneyfakh.bsky.social: "I loved the episode and getting the newsletter a week later felt amazing as it tuned me into various little details that had stuck with me subconsciously. Alas I have basically no social media presence left so I don’t know how to tell anyone."
In the Replay Booth newsletter, I've got a cornucopia of goodies for all the Huckle-heads out there: some great photos, a questionnaire he filled out in 1966, multiple unauthorized Wilbur Huckle baseball cards, and more!
www.replaybooth.show/p/every-week...
www.replaybooth.show/p/every-week...
Every Week Should Be Wilbur Huckle Week
Thank you for subscribing to the Replay Booth newsletter, where I’ll be sending updates on a podcast series that—according to the Guardian, in our first published review—has “the same sense of cheerfu...
www.replaybooth.show
November 13, 2025 at 3:54 PM
In the Replay Booth newsletter, I've got a cornucopia of goodies for all the Huckle-heads out there: some great photos, a questionnaire he filled out in 1966, multiple unauthorized Wilbur Huckle baseball cards, and more!
www.replaybooth.show/p/every-week...
www.replaybooth.show/p/every-week...
Reposted by Josh Levin
The first eppy of Replay Booth, @joshuablevin.bsky.social’s new sports history podcast, is sensational. Highly recommended! I can’t wait to hear more.
I'm thrilled to announce the pilot episode for a new sports history podcast called Replay Booth. The pilot, "Wilbur Huckle for President," is live now. If you liked Slow Burn and/or One Year and/or Hang Up and Listen, you'll love this www.replaybooth.show/p/replay-boo...
www.replaybooth.show
November 9, 2025 at 5:57 PM
The first eppy of Replay Booth, @joshuablevin.bsky.social’s new sports history podcast, is sensational. Highly recommended! I can’t wait to hear more.
Thank you to Gwilym Mumford of @theguardian.com for this shout-out for Replay Booth. Listen now! pod.link/1462685560/e...
November 7, 2025 at 2:55 PM
Thank you to Gwilym Mumford of @theguardian.com for this shout-out for Replay Booth. Listen now! pod.link/1462685560/e...