Matt Pearce
@mattdpearce.com
May the forces of evil become confused on the way to your house. Opinions are my own (but they are correct)
https://mattdpearce.substack.com
https://mattdpearce.substack.com
Reposted by Matt Pearce
cigarette company
Per "internal documents written between 2023 and 2025 and viewed by The Washington Post... Instagram staffers considered the mandate to boost teen metrics their top goal last year," including "boosting their messaging activity... to set up an early pipeline for lifelong use of Meta’s platforms."
Inside Instagram’s all-out battle to win the nation’s teens
Instagram has pursued a yearslong strategy to win teens back to the app after its critics said the platform wasn’t safe for them, documents obtained by The Post show.
www.washingtonpost.com
December 26, 2025 at 4:54 PM
cigarette company
Reposted by Matt Pearce
I've been thinking about this sign for 6 months. a phrase I'll treasure forever. a metaphor with boundless potential
December 26, 2025 at 4:09 PM
I've been thinking about this sign for 6 months. a phrase I'll treasure forever. a metaphor with boundless potential
Reposted by Matt Pearce
Martin Luther: Goes outside
500 Peasants: There goes Dr Pussyfoot! There goes Dr Easychair!
500 Peasants: There goes Dr Pussyfoot! There goes Dr Easychair!
December 26, 2025 at 4:09 PM
Martin Luther: Goes outside
500 Peasants: There goes Dr Pussyfoot! There goes Dr Easychair!
500 Peasants: There goes Dr Pussyfoot! There goes Dr Easychair!
The Reformation must have been amazing for blogging.
December 26, 2025 at 3:50 PM
The Reformation must have been amazing for blogging.
Reposted by Matt Pearce
Norman Mailer struck Gore Vidal at a party; Vidal got back up and said, "Once again, words fail Norman Mailer"
What's an insult you'll never forget?
December 26, 2025 at 6:13 AM
Norman Mailer struck Gore Vidal at a party; Vidal got back up and said, "Once again, words fail Norman Mailer"
MARTY SUPREME is an all-time “some guys” movie. Casting director was a lunatic with a vision.
December 26, 2025 at 1:48 AM
MARTY SUPREME is an all-time “some guys” movie. Casting director was a lunatic with a vision.
Reposted by Matt Pearce
Reposted by Matt Pearce
December 25, 2025 at 1:46 PM
Reposted by Matt Pearce
Reposted by Matt Pearce
when i had just gotten into journalism (and had been reading a lot of new journalism) i always wondered whether i was just worse at interviewing people because my quotes were never as good as the ones in the stories i loved. when i found out why i was fairly amused
I thought, based on the social media-fication of the @rachelaviv.bsky.social Oliver Sacks piece, that Sacks had invented patients wholesale. But instead it’s what was once seemingly secretly acceptable among highbrow writers: making up quotes and details about people to make them more interesting.
December 24, 2025 at 4:19 PM
when i had just gotten into journalism (and had been reading a lot of new journalism) i always wondered whether i was just worse at interviewing people because my quotes were never as good as the ones in the stories i loved. when i found out why i was fairly amused
Reposted by Matt Pearce
Subscriptions are both the procrastinator's delight and maybe the best gifts? Got my brother a subscription to the Baffler and the London Review of Books for Christmas last year. We spent all year texting about the nerdiest LRB reviews we read. This year he just wants us to renew them both.
December 18, 2025 at 8:52 PM
Subscriptions are both the procrastinator's delight and maybe the best gifts? Got my brother a subscription to the Baffler and the London Review of Books for Christmas last year. We spent all year texting about the nerdiest LRB reviews we read. This year he just wants us to renew them both.
For your holiday reading consideration: Marguerite Yourcenar’s “Memoirs of Hadrian.”
mattdpearce.substack.com/p/dead-dream...
mattdpearce.substack.com/p/dead-dream...
![Yourcenar's historical Hadrian is a conscientious warrior who hates war, who wants to see and inhabit the full breadth
of the world he inherits, who loves poetry and climbs volcanoes to be first Roman to see the day's sunrise, who falls tragically in love with the young Antinous. The norms of Roman culture might as well be alien to us today (there's the matter of Antinous' age when they meet, for one thing), but the echoes of history meant "Memoirs of Hadrian," published in 1951, would be told as what we might now call a queer love story.
[picture of a damaged ancient bust of Hadrian’s lover Antinous]](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:qvyj3hxm4opuuddzrhcbiio6/bafkreiepwrfw3aidrvdv774zdxg6i6rty24ksecepoa2mz7qz2bg4risja@jpeg)
December 23, 2025 at 7:25 PM
For your holiday reading consideration: Marguerite Yourcenar’s “Memoirs of Hadrian.”
mattdpearce.substack.com/p/dead-dream...
mattdpearce.substack.com/p/dead-dream...
Reposted by Matt Pearce
[first day as a shepherd]
boss: where are you going?
me: [pointing] star
boss: what? why
me: [shrugging] baby
boss: where are you going?
me: [pointing] star
boss: what? why
me: [shrugging] baby
December 23, 2025 at 1:24 AM
[first day as a shepherd]
boss: where are you going?
me: [pointing] star
boss: what? why
me: [shrugging] baby
boss: where are you going?
me: [pointing] star
boss: what? why
me: [shrugging] baby
Reposted by Matt Pearce
Really enjoyed @mattdpearce.com write-up here, might have to check out Memoirs of Hadrian
In reviewing Marguerite Yourcenar’s “Memoirs of Hadrian” I thought about the psychological weirdness of our own imperial ruler guys.
mattdpearce.substack.com/p/dead-dream...
mattdpearce.substack.com/p/dead-dream...
December 22, 2025 at 3:23 PM
Really enjoyed @mattdpearce.com write-up here, might have to check out Memoirs of Hadrian
In reviewing Marguerite Yourcenar’s “Memoirs of Hadrian” I thought about the psychological weirdness of our own imperial ruler guys.
mattdpearce.substack.com/p/dead-dream...
mattdpearce.substack.com/p/dead-dream...
December 22, 2025 at 3:06 PM
In reviewing Marguerite Yourcenar’s “Memoirs of Hadrian” I thought about the psychological weirdness of our own imperial ruler guys.
mattdpearce.substack.com/p/dead-dream...
mattdpearce.substack.com/p/dead-dream...
Perhaps we should film a debate between a concentration camp guard and an abandoned toilet over whether CECOT is good. Brought to you by Bank of America.
December 21, 2025 at 9:58 PM
Perhaps we should film a debate between a concentration camp guard and an abandoned toilet over whether CECOT is good. Brought to you by Bank of America.
Reposted by Matt Pearce
[preparing to get screamed at] I think I officially don’t need to know if you’re mad that an article is paywalled. Perhaps that can be an Inside Thought
December 21, 2025 at 9:20 PM
[preparing to get screamed at] I think I officially don’t need to know if you’re mad that an article is paywalled. Perhaps that can be an Inside Thought
I read Marguerite Yourcenar’s “Memoirs of Hadrian” and freaking loved it.
mattdpearce.substack.com/p/dead-dream...
mattdpearce.substack.com/p/dead-dream...
Dead dreams of the emperors
Reading Marguerite Yourcenar's "Memoirs of Hadrian” in the age of Musk and Trump.
mattdpearce.substack.com
December 21, 2025 at 8:59 PM
I read Marguerite Yourcenar’s “Memoirs of Hadrian” and freaking loved it.
mattdpearce.substack.com/p/dead-dream...
mattdpearce.substack.com/p/dead-dream...
Reposted by Matt Pearce
Same here, @mattdpearce.com, with some footnotes:
I still have Insta, Facebook, TikTok accounts for posting stories for work (and yes, to make reels for work/my stories) — but aside from the weeks before, during and after my stories publish, I keep the apps off of my phone. I also left X.
I still have Insta, Facebook, TikTok accounts for posting stories for work (and yes, to make reels for work/my stories) — but aside from the weeks before, during and after my stories publish, I keep the apps off of my phone. I also left X.
I think there’s a broad hunger for this kind of shift and journalists/writers/podcasters should evangelize it aggressively. And we should say that it doesn’t need to be total: You don’t need a print newspaper to tone down the algorithm’s role in your life. mattdpearce.substack.com/p/four-big-t...
December 21, 2025 at 4:59 PM
Same here, @mattdpearce.com, with some footnotes:
I still have Insta, Facebook, TikTok accounts for posting stories for work (and yes, to make reels for work/my stories) — but aside from the weeks before, during and after my stories publish, I keep the apps off of my phone. I also left X.
I still have Insta, Facebook, TikTok accounts for posting stories for work (and yes, to make reels for work/my stories) — but aside from the weeks before, during and after my stories publish, I keep the apps off of my phone. I also left X.
Reposted by Matt Pearce
Oh, this quote is from @mattdpearce.com’s year-end wrap-up, of course, didn’t mean to omit that: mattdpearce.substack.com/p/four-big-t...
Four big things I learned in 2025
Lessons about media and politics from one of America's weirdest years.
mattdpearce.substack.com
December 19, 2025 at 4:31 PM
Oh, this quote is from @mattdpearce.com’s year-end wrap-up, of course, didn’t mean to omit that: mattdpearce.substack.com/p/four-big-t...
I’ve had my differences with huge pieces of shit but will swallow my pride and support their professional boxing careers. Never let them tell you that you can’t do it!
December 21, 2025 at 4:23 PM
I’ve had my differences with huge pieces of shit but will swallow my pride and support their professional boxing careers. Never let them tell you that you can’t do it!
Reposted by Matt Pearce
the zoom out was 🤌
December 21, 2025 at 12:50 AM
the zoom out was 🤌
Reposted by Matt Pearce
“Consuming media today is so easy, it’s like resting on a royal pillow, being fanned by ostrich feathers while someone brings you grapes. It’s nice to be comfortable, but make sure you’re leaving the palace gates to look around once in a while.” Via @mattdpearce.com.
I think there’s a broad hunger for this kind of shift and journalists/writers/podcasters should evangelize it aggressively. And we should say that it doesn’t need to be total: You don’t need a print newspaper to tone down the algorithm’s role in your life. mattdpearce.substack.com/p/four-big-t...
December 20, 2025 at 11:26 PM
“Consuming media today is so easy, it’s like resting on a royal pillow, being fanned by ostrich feathers while someone brings you grapes. It’s nice to be comfortable, but make sure you’re leaving the palace gates to look around once in a while.” Via @mattdpearce.com.
Reposted by Matt Pearce
About 3 years ago I started buying random contemporary novels again and reading them, and it's been great.
I think there’s a broad hunger for this kind of shift and journalists/writers/podcasters should evangelize it aggressively. And we should say that it doesn’t need to be total: You don’t need a print newspaper to tone down the algorithm’s role in your life. mattdpearce.substack.com/p/four-big-t...
December 19, 2025 at 4:30 PM
About 3 years ago I started buying random contemporary novels again and reading them, and it's been great.
Thank you to my bank for asking the hard questions.
December 19, 2025 at 5:50 PM
Thank you to my bank for asking the hard questions.