Nick Jackson
@nbj914.bsky.social
Four-time EIC and NMA winner. Led Atlas Obscura, Pacific Standard, and SSIR. Alum: IMSA, Medill/Northwestern, The Atlantic, Built In, Slate, Outside, etc. Using this site as just a catalog of some stuff I've been reading. nbjackson.com
America’s Leading Alien Hunters Depend on AI to Speed Their Search: “The availability of such tools has coincided with a cultural shift, one fed by a cascade of U.S. Department of Defense disclosures about its own research into ufology.” www.bloomberg.com/news/feature...
November 23, 2025 at 7:33 PM
America’s Leading Alien Hunters Depend on AI to Speed Their Search: “The availability of such tools has coincided with a cultural shift, one fed by a cascade of U.S. Department of Defense disclosures about its own research into ufology.” www.bloomberg.com/news/feature...
This Easy Dinner Merges Histories (and Fish and Couscous): “Among all the accounts of silk merchants and military campaigns, I’m drawn to the ones of barley, wheat, and millet, traveling in saddlebags across mountains and deserts.” www.nytimes.com/2025/06/04/m...
November 23, 2025 at 7:32 PM
This Easy Dinner Merges Histories (and Fish and Couscous): “Among all the accounts of silk merchants and military campaigns, I’m drawn to the ones of barley, wheat, and millet, traveling in saddlebags across mountains and deserts.” www.nytimes.com/2025/06/04/m...
The Unparalleled Daily Miracle of Tap Water: “It is cheap and plentiful, and it connects you to the ecosystem around you — the shared resource pulling you into contact with all the other plant and animal life around.” www.nytimes.com/2025/05/27/m...
November 22, 2025 at 4:02 PM
The Unparalleled Daily Miracle of Tap Water: “It is cheap and plentiful, and it connects you to the ecosystem around you — the shared resource pulling you into contact with all the other plant and animal life around.” www.nytimes.com/2025/05/27/m...
Screen Names, BBM, and MP3s: The Oral History of Millennial Tech: “The internet used to come in the mail. On shiny, gorgeous discs, distributed by the fine people at America Online like street drugs — just a taste to whet the whistle.” www.theringer.com/2025/05/09/p...
November 22, 2025 at 3:57 PM
Screen Names, BBM, and MP3s: The Oral History of Millennial Tech: “The internet used to come in the mail. On shiny, gorgeous discs, distributed by the fine people at America Online like street drugs — just a taste to whet the whistle.” www.theringer.com/2025/05/09/p...
What Desi Arnaz Could Teach Hollywood Today: “He looked and sounded nothing like the preconceived notion that the entertainment business had of a successful star. So he changed the way Hollywood did business, and whom we can imagine as stars.” www.nytimes.com/2025/05/18/o...
November 22, 2025 at 2:24 AM
What Desi Arnaz Could Teach Hollywood Today: “He looked and sounded nothing like the preconceived notion that the entertainment business had of a successful star. So he changed the way Hollywood did business, and whom we can imagine as stars.” www.nytimes.com/2025/05/18/o...
‘In America, Every Generation Is Better Off Than Their Parents’: “You’ve never put money first. You’ve always believed — you were taught to believe! — that there are more important things. So why do so many of your thoughts revolve around money?” www.theringer.com/2025/05/09/n...
November 22, 2025 at 2:10 AM
‘In America, Every Generation Is Better Off Than Their Parents’: “You’ve never put money first. You’ve always believed — you were taught to believe! — that there are more important things. So why do so many of your thoughts revolve around money?” www.theringer.com/2025/05/09/n...
Rutger Bregman Wants to Save Elites From Their Wasted Lives: “Bregman, who is something of a professional optimist, is willing to admit that the arguments in his first two books ... land less persuasively now than when they were published.” www.nytimes.com/2025/05/17/m...
November 20, 2025 at 6:45 PM
Rutger Bregman Wants to Save Elites From Their Wasted Lives: “Bregman, who is something of a professional optimist, is willing to admit that the arguments in his first two books ... land less persuasively now than when they were published.” www.nytimes.com/2025/05/17/m...
Where Four Loko Art Thou? A Search for the Last Original Cans of the 2000s’ Most Loved and Loathed Forbidden Alcohol.: “Cheap, energizing, and boozy enough to reliably launch a big night turned out to be a value proposition that interested many.” www.theringer.com/2025/05/09/p...
November 20, 2025 at 6:44 PM
Where Four Loko Art Thou? A Search for the Last Original Cans of the 2000s’ Most Loved and Loathed Forbidden Alcohol.: “Cheap, energizing, and boozy enough to reliably launch a big night turned out to be a value proposition that interested many.” www.theringer.com/2025/05/09/p...
Can Whitney Wolfe Herd Make Us Love Dating Apps Again?: “You can decide if all this leaves you feeling optimistic about Bumble, about female leaders in tech, about human connection, or not.” www.nytimes.com/2025/05/10/m...
November 19, 2025 at 5:45 PM
Can Whitney Wolfe Herd Make Us Love Dating Apps Again?: “You can decide if all this leaves you feeling optimistic about Bumble, about female leaders in tech, about human connection, or not.” www.nytimes.com/2025/05/10/m...
Men, Explain Things to Me!: “When it came to which disgusting game they’d end up choosing to play on me, homophobia or misogyny, I definitely had my preference. Whichever man would go on to open his mouth, I hoped that he would catcall me.” www.thecut.com/article/dati...
November 19, 2025 at 5:44 PM
Men, Explain Things to Me!: “When it came to which disgusting game they’d end up choosing to play on me, homophobia or misogyny, I definitely had my preference. Whichever man would go on to open his mouth, I hoped that he would catcall me.” www.thecut.com/article/dati...
How the Rubik’s Cube Taught Me to Be a Better Parent: “Rotating the sections and occasionally aligning the right colors felt like mastering the right steps in a dance — although, in my case, it was more of a drunken stagger than a waltz.” www.nytimes.com/2025/05/13/m...
November 18, 2025 at 5:06 PM
How the Rubik’s Cube Taught Me to Be a Better Parent: “Rotating the sections and occasionally aligning the right colors felt like mastering the right steps in a dance — although, in my case, it was more of a drunken stagger than a waltz.” www.nytimes.com/2025/05/13/m...
A Children’s History of Millennial Williamsburg: “Way back in the early 2000s, as some of the eldest Millennials began graduating from college and setting foot in the real world, Williamsburg was emerging as the hot neighborhood of the moment.” www.theringer.com/2025/05/08/p...
November 18, 2025 at 5:05 PM
A Children’s History of Millennial Williamsburg: “Way back in the early 2000s, as some of the eldest Millennials began graduating from college and setting foot in the real world, Williamsburg was emerging as the hot neighborhood of the moment.” www.theringer.com/2025/05/08/p...
The $200 Billion Gamble: Bill Gates’ Plan to Wind Down His Foundation: “To hear Gates and his team tell it, this is the time to go all in — given the yawning gaps produced by post-pandemic setbacks and the Trump assault, and given the promise of biomedical tools....” www.nytimes.com/2025/05/08/m...
November 17, 2025 at 4:07 PM
The $200 Billion Gamble: Bill Gates’ Plan to Wind Down His Foundation: “To hear Gates and his team tell it, this is the time to go all in — given the yawning gaps produced by post-pandemic setbacks and the Trump assault, and given the promise of biomedical tools....” www.nytimes.com/2025/05/08/m...
How Millennials Learned to Sit at Their Desks and Love the Bowl: “Like Away suitcases or Warby Parker glasses, the bowl is exquisitely engineered, focus grouped, aesthetically pleasing, and sold as something that stands out from the rest.” www.theringer.com/2025/05/06/f...
November 17, 2025 at 4:07 PM
How Millennials Learned to Sit at Their Desks and Love the Bowl: “Like Away suitcases or Warby Parker glasses, the bowl is exquisitely engineered, focus grouped, aesthetically pleasing, and sold as something that stands out from the rest.” www.theringer.com/2025/05/06/f...
How Much Are We Paying for Newsletters? $50, $100 ... How About $3,000 a Year.: “On his first day publishing it on Substack, he brought in $100,000 in subscriptions. Substack, then as now, took 10 percent.” www.nytimes.com/2025/05/10/b...
November 16, 2025 at 3:05 PM
How Much Are We Paying for Newsletters? $50, $100 ... How About $3,000 a Year.: “On his first day publishing it on Substack, he brought in $100,000 in subscriptions. Substack, then as now, took 10 percent.” www.nytimes.com/2025/05/10/b...
Barry and Diane: “A relationship that began with indifference, then exploded into a romance as natural to us as breathing, surprised us and everyone else. It really is the miracle of my life.” nymag.com/intelligence...
November 16, 2025 at 3:04 PM
Barry and Diane: “A relationship that began with indifference, then exploded into a romance as natural to us as breathing, surprised us and everyone else. It really is the miracle of my life.” nymag.com/intelligence...
There’s No ‘Undo’ Button for Extinct Species: “De-extinction is a distinctly modern fantasy: the extremely appealing idea that we can, with just some pipettes and computers, undo the destruction we continue to cause the natural world.” www.nytimes.com/2025/05/07/m...
November 15, 2025 at 2:41 PM
There’s No ‘Undo’ Button for Extinct Species: “De-extinction is a distinctly modern fantasy: the extremely appealing idea that we can, with just some pipettes and computers, undo the destruction we continue to cause the natural world.” www.nytimes.com/2025/05/07/m...
The Phony Physics of Star Wars Are a Blast: “So the only way you could see a laser beam is if it hits you right in the eye. That would be bad. Bottom line: Laser beams are invisible in space.” www.wired.com/story/the-ph...
November 15, 2025 at 2:40 PM
The Phony Physics of Star Wars Are a Blast: “So the only way you could see a laser beam is if it hits you right in the eye. That would be bad. Bottom line: Laser beams are invisible in space.” www.wired.com/story/the-ph...
Are We All Drowning in Debt? We Asked 102 Cut Readers.: “Even though debt is everywhere, there’s a persistent stigma around being in the red. It’s easy to accrue even more debt just to prop up the illusion that you’re staying afloat — even thriving.” www.thecut.com/article/how-...
November 14, 2025 at 4:53 PM
Are We All Drowning in Debt? We Asked 102 Cut Readers.: “Even though debt is everywhere, there’s a persistent stigma around being in the red. It’s easy to accrue even more debt just to prop up the illusion that you’re staying afloat — even thriving.” www.thecut.com/article/how-...
Is It Colonialism When Europeans Retire in Cheaper Countries?: “Retirees chasing a lower cost of living are simply doing transnationally what many do locally — moving where their resources stretch further, like Bostonians heading to Florida for sun and savings.” www.nytimes.com/2025/05/07/m...
November 14, 2025 at 4:53 PM
Is It Colonialism When Europeans Retire in Cheaper Countries?: “Retirees chasing a lower cost of living are simply doing transnationally what many do locally — moving where their resources stretch further, like Bostonians heading to Florida for sun and savings.” www.nytimes.com/2025/05/07/m...
What Alice Munro Knew: “Munro’s stories — particularly those from the years after she learned of the abuse — are full of violated children, negligent mothers, and marriages founded on secrets and lies.” www.nytimes.com/2024/12/08/m...
November 13, 2025 at 3:35 PM
What Alice Munro Knew: “Munro’s stories — particularly those from the years after she learned of the abuse — are full of violated children, negligent mothers, and marriages founded on secrets and lies.” www.nytimes.com/2024/12/08/m...
I Think My Son Is Gay. Should I Talk to Him About Coming Out?: “Pressing fast-forward could leave him with the sense that he has lost a measure of agency — that a big moment has been pre-empted. It could also make him feel exposed or rushed.” www.nytimes.com/2025/06/04/m...
November 13, 2025 at 3:34 PM
I Think My Son Is Gay. Should I Talk to Him About Coming Out?: “Pressing fast-forward could leave him with the sense that he has lost a measure of agency — that a big moment has been pre-empted. It could also make him feel exposed or rushed.” www.nytimes.com/2025/06/04/m...
Our Idea of Happiness Has Gotten Shallow. Here’s How to Deepen It.: “Once, happiness was understood as a communal project tied to justice and shared flourishing. But over time, it evolved from an expansive ideal into something individual and small.” www.nytimes.com/2025/05/03/m...
November 12, 2025 at 4:09 PM
Our Idea of Happiness Has Gotten Shallow. Here’s How to Deepen It.: “Once, happiness was understood as a communal project tied to justice and shared flourishing. But over time, it evolved from an expansive ideal into something individual and small.” www.nytimes.com/2025/05/03/m...
Facebook Enables Extremist Views. Should I Quit and Risk Losing My Friends There?: “In the end, Facebook isn’t a neutral public square, but it’s not a cartoon villain either. It’s a business, shaped by incentives, feedback loops, and pressure.” www.nytimes.com/2025/05/16/m...
November 12, 2025 at 4:09 PM
Facebook Enables Extremist Views. Should I Quit and Risk Losing My Friends There?: “In the end, Facebook isn’t a neutral public square, but it’s not a cartoon villain either. It’s a business, shaped by incentives, feedback loops, and pressure.” www.nytimes.com/2025/05/16/m...
The Best Advice I’ve Ever Heard for How to Be Happy: “Some involve finding small opportunities for delight; some are about interacting with people; some are little exercises in gratitude.” www.nytimes.com/interactive/...
November 11, 2025 at 6:16 PM
The Best Advice I’ve Ever Heard for How to Be Happy: “Some involve finding small opportunities for delight; some are about interacting with people; some are little exercises in gratitude.” www.nytimes.com/interactive/...