Riley MacLeod
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rcmacleod.bsky.social
Riley MacLeod
@rcmacleod.bsky.social
7.2K followers 690 following 4.4K posts
Co-founder of Aftermath, a worker-owned site about video games, the internet, and everything that comes after. riley [at] aftermath [dot] site. Previously: Kotaku, Washington Post. Trans; he/him
https://aftermath.site/
Posts Replies Media Videos
rcmacleod.bsky.social
🙃
www.washingtonpost.com/world/2026/0...
U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi said Saturday that Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and his wife Cilia Flores have been indicted in the Southern District of New York. “They will soon face the full wrath of American justice on American soil in American courts,” she wrote on social media, after President Donald Trump said the United States had captured the couple during strikes against Venezuela.
January 3, 2026 at 1:31 PM
rcmacleod.bsky.social
My nieces and nephews no longer think it's super cool that I'm a games journalist (they think it's a *little* cool) but on the plus side they have moved on to thinking it's cool that I get movie screeners, and also it's fun to try to explain unions to kids
January 2, 2026 at 11:22 PM
rcmacleod.bsky.social
@duckvalentine.bsky.social We did not make it to New Bedford (this year!!) but fyi you can livestream the Moby Dick marathon! www.youtube.com/watch?v=kbM6...
2026 Moby-Dick Marathon
YouTube video by Whaling Museum
www.youtube.com
January 2, 2026 at 11:17 PM
Reposted by Riley MacLeod
theautumnwright.bsky.social
Being a freelancer is expensive! Some unique opportunities opened up for me and I need your help to make them happen.
Donate to Help Me Attend My First Writers Workshop, organized by Autumn Wright
GFM As much as I have procrastinated on it, I still hesitate to make th… Autumn Wright needs your support for Help Me Attend My First Writers Workshop
gofund.me
January 1, 2026 at 9:08 PM
Reposted by Riley MacLeod
critdistance.bsky.social
Thank you all for your patience! Without further ado, it's This Year In Videogame Blogging 2025, complete with a bonus This Week In Videogame Blogging, December 28, 2025!

critical-distance.com/2026/01/01/t...
critical-distance.com
January 1, 2026 at 6:28 PM
Reposted by Riley MacLeod
jmrivera.bsky.social
In one of my final two pieces for the year, I wrote about why I couldn’t stop trying to solve mysteries in 2025

aftermath.site/mystery-game...
Solving Mysteries In A World Without Answers
I spent 2025 solving mysteries in order to survive 2026
aftermath.site
December 31, 2025 at 3:16 PM
Reposted by Riley MacLeod
fenitn.bsky.social
The Post interviewed almost 100 sources for this comprehensive, revelatory account of how RFK Jr. has disrupted public health in America.

It's the capstone to a year of extensive reporting by @rachelroubein.bsky.social, @lenasun.bsky.social & @laurenweberhp.bsky.social.

Gift link: wapo.st/48YSPC1
Inside RFK Jr.’s reshaping of public health in Trump’s first year
Interviews with almost 100 people reveal how Kennedy, as health secretary, has reshaped the vaccine and broader public health infrastructure in less than a year.
wapo.st
December 30, 2025 at 1:13 PM
Reposted by Riley MacLeod
nyc.streetsblog.org
EXCLUSIVE: @zohrankmamdani.bsky.social will be sworn in as mayor on midnight on January 1 inside the old abandoned City Hall subway station, saying that he sees the venue as a symbol for the aims of his upcoming administration.
EXCLUSIVE: Mamdani Will Be Sworn In At Abandoned Original City Hall Subway Station
The mayor-elect will kick off a new era by throwing things back to an older one.
buff.ly
December 29, 2025 at 12:01 PM
rcmacleod.bsky.social
Joke's on you, Baby Steps-- I don't even *want* the god damn cup
December 28, 2025 at 11:01 PM
Reposted by Riley MacLeod
caseyparks.bsky.social
A year and a half ago or so, I read that an entire stadium in Tacoma had booed a trans runner. I wanted to know more. She was 16, and she had stood on a podium in one of the country’s most liberal states and listened to 10,000 people boo her. What I learned surprised me:

wapo.st/49lnBUK
For young transgender runner, racing wasn’t the hardest thing
Verónica García overcame poverty to become a high school track champion — twice. It made her famous for all the wrong reasons.
wapo.st
December 28, 2025 at 9:05 PM
Reposted by Riley MacLeod
brian-goldstone.bsky.social
"The win had changed her life, but not in the ways she had hoped."

A devastating, deeply moving story by my dear friend @caseyparks.bsky.social about how poverty, politics, and cruelty shaped a trans teenage runner's world.
For young transgender runner, racing wasn’t the hardest thing
Verónica García overcame poverty to become a high school track champion — twice. It made her famous for all the wrong reasons.
www.washingtonpost.com
December 28, 2025 at 4:59 PM
rcmacleod.bsky.social
As per TheGamer (but not this article?) Valnet is starting a... mod site? www.thegamer.com/ggmods-new-m...
GGMods is owned by TheGamer's parent company, Valnet
December 26, 2025 at 5:56 PM
Reposted by Riley MacLeod
margaret.bsky.social
this week's post is something i've been working on for a long time, and is a little guide to living the good life. Or it's early aughts punk nostalgia. Or it's my response to tradwife culture.

margaretkilljoy.substack.com/p/the-punk-r...
December 26, 2025 at 3:39 PM
rcmacleod.bsky.social
While calling it "the bamboo series" is a uh bold choice, I do respect the hustle of using the attention to highlight work you're proud of (will it work?), and god help me there is probably a blog in me about what exactly this whole thing actually says about the substack ecosystem lol
1) The series has been popular partly because readers enjoyed taking the story in as individual episodes that they could discuss, debate, and ask me questions about. It created a sense of community and gave me real-time feedback on what I was saying and how I was saying it. I made numerous writing decisions based on the responses that I was getting from all of you. There are downsides to serialization—including that some reviewers will make sweeping conclusions about the project long before it’s finished—but, for the most part, this experiment has been rewarding. And Substack has been ideal for this kind of journalism because the platform’s two core products—the email blasts and the social media tools—combine perfectly to publish and discuss a serialized work of non-fiction. I want Telos to be a home for more of these kinds of series, both from outside journalists and from me, and that will be a big priority in 2026. 2) Telos now has tens of thousands of new subscribers who weren’t around when I first launched in April. And a lot of you don’t have a clear sense of what else it is that we write about around here. So I want to close out the year by introducing you to some of our best material from 2025, starting with a long investigative piece I wrote in April that is nearly as wild and weird as the Bamboo Series.
December 26, 2025 at 3:44 PM
rcmacleod.bsky.social
This little kids' book is way more fun in Irish
Just then a gust of wind blew and the egg went rolling down the hill. "Oh no!" cried the puffling. Ach go tobann, shéid an ghaoth an ubh agus thosaigh sí ag sleamhnú síos an cnoc. "Ó bhó go deo," a bhéic an puifín beag. Stop the lights! 1. stop everything stop! stad! 2. to express surprise ababúna! ó bhó go deo!
December 25, 2025 at 3:45 PM
rcmacleod.bsky.social
OK, the Dyker Heights lights were worth the bike ride
A house with christmas lights A house with christmas lights A house with christmas lights
December 25, 2025 at 1:43 AM
Reposted by Riley MacLeod
joshuaeaton.bsky.social
NEW: A jubilant crowd welcomed a Meriden, Connecticut, teen home today after more than six months in immigration detention — just in time for his Christmas birthday.

My latest for @ctinsider.bsky.social — www.ctinsider.com/news/article... #nutmegsky
Meriden teen detained by ICE for 6 months says at homecoming, 'we shouldn’t be treated like this'
One supporter said they are "overjoyed to have him home for Christmas and his 17th birthday."
www.ctinsider.com
December 24, 2025 at 7:51 PM
rcmacleod.bsky.social
Screwing around with playing "Fairytale of New York" on my mandolin and reminded how this time last year I made @nikostratis.com rank all the "faggot"s www.anxietyshark.ca/and-the-bell...
and the bells are ringing out for Christmas Day
I am nothing if not open to being called to action in order to write a meandering blog post on something I actually have a lot of thoughts about but wanted to spare you a diatribe.
www.anxietyshark.ca
December 24, 2025 at 6:21 PM
rcmacleod.bsky.social
OK it’s super fucked up and most notably backwards lmao but we did do it, we knit something
A purple knit dishtowel A purple knit dishtowel, folded
December 24, 2025 at 3:31 PM
Reposted by Riley MacLeod
marisakabas.bsky.social
concentration camps.
ICE documents reveal plan to hold 80,000 immigrants in warehouses
The Trump administration wants to build seven large-scale deportation hubs to speed up deportations, internal ICE documents show.
www.washingtonpost.com
December 24, 2025 at 1:55 PM
Reposted by Riley MacLeod
juliannemcshane.bsky.social
🚨🚨 SCOOP @ms.now : The Department of Veteran Affairs has quietly implemented its abortion ban following a DOJ memo issued last week.

This will affect 9 million veterans and their dependents, and has been a long time coming: It was outlined in Project 2025.

Read/share 👇
Department of Veterans Affairs quietly implements abortion ban
A VA spokesperson confirmed to MS NOW that the ban was in place following a Department of Justice memo issued last week.
www.ms.now
December 23, 2025 at 4:37 PM
rcmacleod.bsky.social
Four rows from the end of knitting my first Thing I realized I got off somewhere and the pattern is on the incorrect side, do I rip it all back (a thing I don't feel confident doing and will surely fuck up) or keep going and just call it idk variation
December 23, 2025 at 2:47 AM
Reposted by Riley MacLeod
sjml.bsky.social
Had more than one person tell me they wanted to hear "a Catholic commentary track for WAKE UP DEAD MAN," and it was a fun excuse to rewatch the movie with my Jesuit friend JRod as we talked about how this thing feels from the perspective of young clerics currently immersed in theology studies.
Jesuit Commentary Track - Wake Up Dead Man
Two Jesuits provide a commentary track sharing their perspectives on the Church and pastoral theology in relation to the film.
shaneliesegang.com
December 22, 2025 at 3:05 PM
Reposted by Riley MacLeod
marisakabas.bsky.social
!! Here’s a link to full video of the 60 Minutes segment that Bari Weiss killed last minute, via @jasonparis.bsky.social:

is.gd/paU8Ko

(It was uploaded to the Global TV app in Canada, seemingly by accident, and has now been taken down)
December 22, 2025 at 10:39 PM
Reposted by Riley MacLeod
zackzwiezen.com
Statement from EA about the tragic death of Vince Zampella.
This is an unimaginable loss, and our hearts are with Vince’s family, his loved ones, and all those touched by his work. Vince’s influence on the video game industry was profound and far-reaching. A friend, colleague, leader and visionary creator, his work helped shape modern interactive entertainment and inspired millions of players and developers around the world. His legacy will continue to shape how games are made and how players connect for generations to come.
December 22, 2025 at 9:12 PM