Phillip Maciak
@pjmaciak.bsky.social
TV Critic @ The New Republic //
DAD: A POP HISTORY (Plume 2027) //
teaching @ Wash U in STL //
pjmaciak.substack.com
1, 2, 3, 4, 5, sixers
DAD: A POP HISTORY (Plume 2027) //
teaching @ Wash U in STL //
pjmaciak.substack.com
1, 2, 3, 4, 5, sixers
Pinned
Phillip Maciak
@pjmaciak.bsky.social
· Apr 16
I'm writing a cultural history of the DAD! With Plume! Get ready for Father's Day 2027, friends! This is what's happening now! @duttonbooks.bsky.social
Anecdotally, I haven't met a person who's had a positive interaction with, say, an AI customer service bot. The party who says that it seems like a weird idea to build our entire economy around something this janky and buggy will seem like they're telling the truth. www.nytimes.com/2026/02/08/o...
Opinion | The Democrats Again Risk Losing Voters They Take for Granted
www.nytimes.com
February 9, 2026 at 5:21 PM
Anecdotally, I haven't met a person who's had a positive interaction with, say, an AI customer service bot. The party who says that it seems like a weird idea to build our entire economy around something this janky and buggy will seem like they're telling the truth. www.nytimes.com/2026/02/08/o...
lol
February 9, 2026 at 4:34 PM
lol
Reposted by Phillip Maciak
The Atlantic should do an essay about how one consequence of grade inflation is that we're all still talking about Quentin Tarantino as if he's a person who's made a great movie in the past sixteen years.
December 3, 2025 at 3:13 PM
The Atlantic should do an essay about how one consequence of grade inflation is that we're all still talking about Quentin Tarantino as if he's a person who's made a great movie in the past sixteen years.
Reposted by Phillip Maciak
"Tell me you know nothing about the Muppets without telling me you know nothing about the Muppets."
February 7, 2026 at 2:20 AM
"Tell me you know nothing about the Muppets without telling me you know nothing about the Muppets."
Reposted by Phillip Maciak
The current regime took a week to abolish USAID, which is three times as old and was not in the news every day for brutalizing children
“We cannot just abolish ICE!”
Bestie, you are older than ICE.
Bestie, you are older than ICE.
February 8, 2026 at 3:59 PM
The current regime took a week to abolish USAID, which is three times as old and was not in the news every day for brutalizing children
Reposted by Phillip Maciak
Please enjoy my most viral tweet of all time shared anew every year by dozens of slop aggregator accounts far and wide.
February 8, 2026 at 2:48 PM
Please enjoy my most viral tweet of all time shared anew every year by dozens of slop aggregator accounts far and wide.
Reposted by Phillip Maciak
"...you just have to start. Roughly, badly, not how you picture, and probably different than where you’ll end up, but the value — in a writer’s case — is in writing and in turn, giving somebody the choice to read you." @wtevs.bsky.social www.basketballfeelings.com/p/degradatio...
Degradation by design
Valuation's dark side as seen in the NBA trade deadline, gutting of The Washington Post, and Giannis Antetokounmpo's investment in the betting platform, Kalshi.
www.basketballfeelings.com
February 8, 2026 at 3:24 PM
"...you just have to start. Roughly, badly, not how you picture, and probably different than where you’ll end up, but the value — in a writer’s case — is in writing and in turn, giving somebody the choice to read you." @wtevs.bsky.social www.basketballfeelings.com/p/degradatio...
shut up and play the hits
I found this yesterday in a secondhand copy of a TS Eliot book of poems.
February 8, 2026 at 2:19 AM
shut up and play the hits
Reposted by Phillip Maciak
The Post's announcement named Book World as a discrete entity being eliminated, which led to a lot of kind words, all of which are greatly appreciated. But other critics weren't in a section entirely eliminated (though what will remain of it, I have no idea), so I've seen much less about them. 1/2
February 6, 2026 at 7:16 PM
The Post's announcement named Book World as a discrete entity being eliminated, which led to a lot of kind words, all of which are greatly appreciated. But other critics weren't in a section entirely eliminated (though what will remain of it, I have no idea), so I've seen much less about them. 1/2
I log back into x twice a year for the trade deadline and NBA free agency, and while, yes, it is an unhinged soup of conspiracies I've never even heard of, and a space for anti-semites to experiment with the power of AI, it is also a place where Sixers fans talk about the team like absolute maniacs.
February 6, 2026 at 6:48 PM
I log back into x twice a year for the trade deadline and NBA free agency, and while, yes, it is an unhinged soup of conspiracies I've never even heard of, and a space for anti-semites to experiment with the power of AI, it is also a place where Sixers fans talk about the team like absolute maniacs.
FYI, if Giannis had been traded, I was going to post, "this isn't a trade, it's a conscious untetokoupling." But they didn't trade him.
February 5, 2026 at 9:41 PM
FYI, if Giannis had been traded, I was going to post, "this isn't a trade, it's a conscious untetokoupling." But they didn't trade him.
WaPo shuttering its sports section during the trade deadline as Shams Charania tweets out NBA front office press releases that he's run back and forth through Google Translate five times is a real snapshot of the industry rn. Thank goodness for Defector.
February 4, 2026 at 6:43 PM
WaPo shuttering its sports section during the trade deadline as Shams Charania tweets out NBA front office press releases that he's run back and forth through Google Translate five times is a real snapshot of the industry rn. Thank goodness for Defector.
Reposted by Phillip Maciak
there isn’t a better Books desk in the country than the one at the Washington Post. I’m not really sure there’s anything else to say
February 4, 2026 at 2:26 PM
there isn’t a better Books desk in the country than the one at the Washington Post. I’m not really sure there’s anything else to say
Reposted by Phillip Maciak
One loosely organized review publication —drawing on editors now looking for work, the many newsletters out there, with one centralized subscription plan. A coop of sorts. Something in between a magazine and a newsletter
February 4, 2026 at 5:37 PM
One loosely organized review publication —drawing on editors now looking for work, the many newsletters out there, with one centralized subscription plan. A coop of sorts. Something in between a magazine and a newsletter
Reposted by Phillip Maciak
Seconding this, with perhaps adding in some room for arts/books coverage.
I still think the best idea for progressive donors is to just revive every alt-weekly in the country and staff them with 10 reporters each.
I wrote a bit about the misguided effort by Democrats to replicate Joe Rogan the right-wing podcast ecosystem.
February 4, 2026 at 4:36 PM
Seconding this, with perhaps adding in some room for arts/books coverage.
Reposted by Phillip Maciak
the $75 million Jeff Bezos set on fire for that Melania propaganda piece could have funded most independent newsrooms for literally decades
always bears repeating that this is NOT a financial decision. jeff bezos is worth over 250 billion dollars. he can afford to lose many millions and never even notice it. this is, at its core, a political and personal decision by bezos to destroy the post
WASHINGTON (AP) — Washington Post says one-third of its staff across all departments, not just the newsroom, is being laid off.
February 4, 2026 at 3:11 PM
the $75 million Jeff Bezos set on fire for that Melania propaganda piece could have funded most independent newsrooms for literally decades
Lili Loofbourow is one of the best TV critics alive.
Becca Rothfeld is one of the best book critics alive.
Becca Rothfeld is one of the best book critics alive.
February 4, 2026 at 4:25 PM
Lili Loofbourow is one of the best TV critics alive.
Becca Rothfeld is one of the best book critics alive.
Becca Rothfeld is one of the best book critics alive.
Reposted by Phillip Maciak
Please don't report this as a straightforward business story; it's a story about coercive social transformation being imposed by people so rich they've ceased to see the rest of us as legitimate stakeholders in our own lives
February 4, 2026 at 2:29 PM
Please don't report this as a straightforward business story; it's a story about coercive social transformation being imposed by people so rich they've ceased to see the rest of us as legitimate stakeholders in our own lives
Reposted by Phillip Maciak
In addition to sports, the Washington Post is killing its book section, suspending its Post Reports podcast, restructuring its metro section, and shrinking its international footprint.
February 4, 2026 at 2:18 PM
In addition to sports, the Washington Post is killing its book section, suspending its Post Reports podcast, restructuring its metro section, and shrinking its international footprint.
Reposted by Phillip Maciak
Saw someone say James Harden job hops every two years like a true millennial and I really enjoyed that post.
February 4, 2026 at 1:19 AM
Saw someone say James Harden job hops every two years like a true millennial and I really enjoyed that post.
"Prolific swap" is a world-historically great Shamsism.
BREAKING: The Los Angeles Clippers are trading James Harden to the Cleveland Cavaliers for Darius Garland and a second-round pick, sources tell ESPN. Prolific swap of the star point guards.
February 4, 2026 at 1:13 AM
"Prolific swap" is a world-historically great Shamsism.
Reposted by Phillip Maciak
I'll go further! I have never liked Neil Gaiman's work very much, and the temptation is there to smugly say, "SEE??!" now that his shittiness has come to light. But I didn't dislike his work because I could tell he was terrible; I disliked it because it didn't work for me! That's a different thing.
"actually his stuff was very Derivative and not Original" like, you don't have to do this. it is good for us all to sit with the cognitive dissonance that a very bad person can make very good art. it is good for us to work through the moral ramifications of that.
February 3, 2026 at 6:37 PM
I'll go further! I have never liked Neil Gaiman's work very much, and the temptation is there to smugly say, "SEE??!" now that his shittiness has come to light. But I didn't dislike his work because I could tell he was terrible; I disliked it because it didn't work for me! That's a different thing.
Reposted by Phillip Maciak
A lot of centrist Democratic pundits would simply have become Republicans by now if Trump hadn't soiled the brand so bad. They advocate for Democrats to "strategically" adopt or avoid criticizing right-wing ideas even when it isn't good strategy because they agree with those ideas!
@gelliottmorris.com continues to have been right about immigration as an electoral issue
www.bostonreview.net/forum/how-no...
www.bostonreview.net/forum/how-no...
February 3, 2026 at 6:24 PM
A lot of centrist Democratic pundits would simply have become Republicans by now if Trump hadn't soiled the brand so bad. They advocate for Democrats to "strategically" adopt or avoid criticizing right-wing ideas even when it isn't good strategy because they agree with those ideas!