Nicholas Fortugno
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Nicholas Fortugno
@nickfortugno.bsky.social
280 followers 150 following 24 posts
Director of Digital Game Development Program at City College of NY, playmatician, interactive narrative critic at large
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The only thing better than watching Cuomo lose once is watching him lose twice. Go back to your faux billionaire sycophants, you creepy corrupt loser
November 5, 2025 at 2:42 AM
In case you were wondering how the budget cuts and strip mining of government was going to literally kill people, Exhibit A is Texas. Don't miss the local NWS offices were empty in a region known as "flash flood alley" lede.

messaging-custom-newsletters.nytimes.com/dynamic/rend...
The Morning: Deadly floods in Texas
messaging-custom-newsletters.nytimes.com
July 6, 2025 at 12:21 PM
A new crop of reviews from NYC and London and a couple of important meetups and conferences
June 25, 2025 at 3:06 PM
If there have been no other sunshine or rainbows in your day today, you can sleep well tonight knowing that a serial liar, sexual harasser, and opponent of ethical oversight will NOT be the person you are forced to swallow as the Democratic nominee for mayor of NYC. gothamist.com/news/nyc-pri...
Zohran Mamdani set to defeat Cuomo in stunning NYC mayoral primary upset
"He won," Cuomo said about Mamdani, even as the contest headed to a ranked choice count.
gothamist.com
June 25, 2025 at 5:08 AM
Fuck this deliberately cruel and hateful administration forever. May they rot in the hell they pretend to believe in. www.nytimes.com/2025/06/18/w...
Trump Administration Will End L.G.B.T.Q. Suicide Prevention Service
www.nytimes.com
June 18, 2025 at 5:45 PM
In case you were wondering what local collaboration with our fascistic federal policy looks like, Mayor Adams NYPD at work: hellgatenyc.com/nypd-arrests...
Photos: NYPD Arrests Protesters Blocking ICE Vans Transporting Detained Immigrants
The NYPD cleared the path for ICE's vans, despite pledges from the mayor and the police commissioner that the City doesn't assist in civil immigration enforcement.
hellgatenyc.com
May 31, 2025 at 1:13 PM
A couple of reviews and the spectrum of good and bad of immersive and concerts I (and potentially you) have in store for the coming weeks and months. open.substack.com/pub/nicholas...
Don't Stop Believing
Reviews and a Truly Mixed Bag of Immersive
open.substack.com
May 15, 2025 at 11:08 PM
A quick update on NYC and LA immersive with some heavy hitters. It truly is an immersive flowering this spring. open.substack.com/pub/nicholas...
Springtime for Immersive
A few events coming up soon, including a new Punchdrunk piece for NYC
open.substack.com
April 12, 2025 at 2:45 PM
However rightfully concerned about fascism and misogyny and corruption you are regarding this administration, remember first and foremost that they are unbelievably incompetent. We are being run by idiots. www.theatlantic.com/politics/arc...
The Trump Administration Accidentally Texted Me Its War Plans
U.S. national-security leaders included me in a group chat about upcoming military strikes in Yemen. I didn’t think it could be real. Then the bombs started falling.
www.theatlantic.com
March 25, 2025 at 1:27 PM
Reposted by Nicholas Fortugno
melaniebrewster.substack.com
A statement from (some of) the faculty at Teachers College Columbia University
docs.google.com/document/d/1...
A Statement by Teachers College, Columbia University Faculty
A Statement by Teachers College, Columbia University Faculty The Attack on American Education, from our Perspective as Teachers College Faculty March 19, 2025 We are a group of Teachers College facult...
docs.google.com
March 19, 2025 at 9:38 PM
Every single non-US academic should cancel everything they are doing in or with the US until this policy is permanently rescinded. This is fascism
March 19, 2025 at 10:53 PM
A round up of some promising and some disappointing immersive work and news about things on the distant horizon. open.substack.com/pub/nicholas...
March 18, 2025 at 3:31 AM
A bunch of festival reviews from Under the Radar/Exponential/Prototype and a slew of small immersive shows coming up in the next few weeks. open.substack.com/pub/nicholas...
February 19, 2025 at 3:54 AM
Let's see. WHO exit, Jan 6 pardons, promise of 25% tariffs to Mexico and Canada, end of tests to reduce drug costs for Medicaire. Yup, as bad as we thought. Part of me wishes I understood why people wanted this but more of me wants nothing to do with anyone who didn't vote to stop this, ever again.
January 21, 2025 at 3:53 AM
Year in review and surprising amount of new immersive stuff in NYC coming in January. open.substack.com/pub/nicholas...
December 31, 2024 at 4:48 PM
Fascinating analysis of industrial agriculture that offers hard facts (that I didn't know) on climate and farming. Tl;dr all farming is a necessary evil. Sorry, but This Is the Future of Food www.nytimes.com/2024/12/13/o...
Opinion | Sorry, but This Is the Future of Food
Every farm, even the scenic ones with red barns and rolling hills, is a kind of environmental crime scene, an echo of whatever wilderness it once replaced.
www.nytimes.com
December 23, 2024 at 1:02 AM
In case you're curious about the form, my and the No Proscenium team's list of the best work in immersive in 2024.
December 21, 2024 at 2:37 AM
Because, as we have just demonstrated, millions of Americans are willful idiots who can't absorb an ounce of public policy complexity, why vaccines are important via NYT. The tl;dr version, Google polio. Six Childhood Scourges We’ve Forgotten About, Thanks to Vaccines www.nytimes.com/2024/12/13/h...
Six Childhood Scourges We’ve Forgotten About, Thanks to Vaccines
Most Americans, including doctors, have no memory of the devastating diseases that routinely threatened children until the 1960s.
www.nytimes.com
December 15, 2024 at 10:01 PM
Did you know I have a newsletter of upcoming immersive events and reviews of things I've seen? Well, I do and I just posted my latest after a disappointing-in-so-many-ways month. Several reviews I've been sitting on, and lots of new immersive things to see in NYC. open.substack.com/pub/nicholas...
December 10, 2024 at 1:08 AM
Spread this as far and as wide as you can. Now that I am deep in the health care machine with my family, it is breathtaking how inefficient and corrupt private insurance is, and you need every tool to fight it until we kill it
fizbin.bsky.social Daniel Martin @fizbin.bsky.social · Mar 22
I don't know who needs to know this, but Pro Publica has an online thing that will format a letter to your US health insurance company to demand the records behind a claim denial. (which the insurance is then legally required to provide in most cases)

projects.propublica.org/claimfile/
Find Out Why Health Insurance Denied Your Claim
You likely have the right to access records that explain why your insurer denied your claim or prior authorization request. Use ProPublica’s free tool to generate a letter requesting your claim file f...
projects.propublica.org
December 6, 2024 at 2:52 PM
Why do I want nothing to do with people who voted for Trump this time? Maybe it's this... www.theatlantic.com/politics/arc...
The Trump-Trumpist Divide
The incoming president wants to do things his voters have not embraced.
www.theatlantic.com
November 24, 2024 at 8:46 PM
This is why I have made the decision to not engage with Trump supporters after this election. I don't know what to say to people who deny what they were directly shown. www.theatlantic.com/politics/arc...
Washington Is Shocked
Just shocked, I tell you.
www.theatlantic.com
November 20, 2024 at 6:36 PM
Congratulations, NYCLU, on ending abuse of peaceful protest. N.Y.P.D. Must Rewrite Rules for Policing Protests After Sweeping Deal www.nytimes.com/2023/09/05/n...
N.Y.P.D. Must Rewrite Rules for Policing Protests After Sweeping Deal
The department agreed to stop kettling and create an oversight board for demonstrations in a legal settlement with the state attorney general, the New York Civil Liberties Union and the Legal Aid Soci...
www.nytimes.com
September 5, 2023 at 11:23 PM
The stories we should watch in red states. These are the small steps that lead to fascism
August 13, 2023 at 3:20 PM