Paul Matzko
@paulmatzko.bsky.social
Historian, author of The Radio Right (Oxford 2020), day job: tech & abundance at the Institute for Humane Studies.
Every death from kidney disease is a policy failure.
If we allowed people to sell their spare kidneys, people like Nick Mangold wouldn't have to die while waiting for a donor replacement.
By treating kidneys like blood instead of like plasma, we cause thousands of unnecessary deaths per year.
If we allowed people to sell their spare kidneys, people like Nick Mangold wouldn't have to die while waiting for a donor replacement.
By treating kidneys like blood instead of like plasma, we cause thousands of unnecessary deaths per year.
October 26, 2025 at 7:46 PM
Every death from kidney disease is a policy failure.
If we allowed people to sell their spare kidneys, people like Nick Mangold wouldn't have to die while waiting for a donor replacement.
By treating kidneys like blood instead of like plasma, we cause thousands of unnecessary deaths per year.
If we allowed people to sell their spare kidneys, people like Nick Mangold wouldn't have to die while waiting for a donor replacement.
By treating kidneys like blood instead of like plasma, we cause thousands of unnecessary deaths per year.
As I wrote before the election in October last year:
September 19, 2025 at 1:02 AM
As I wrote before the election in October last year:
Lots of (deserved) animus for the MAGA candidate who sicced ICE on the Hyundai plant, but bear in mind that a union guy gave her the tip.
Unions maximize benefits for union members, even when that means collaborating with fascists and when it comes at the expense of the general welfare.
Unions maximize benefits for union members, even when that means collaborating with fascists and when it comes at the expense of the general welfare.
September 10, 2025 at 4:54 PM
Lots of (deserved) animus for the MAGA candidate who sicced ICE on the Hyundai plant, but bear in mind that a union guy gave her the tip.
Unions maximize benefits for union members, even when that means collaborating with fascists and when it comes at the expense of the general welfare.
Unions maximize benefits for union members, even when that means collaborating with fascists and when it comes at the expense of the general welfare.
A very silly article. The underwhelming release of GPT-5 is another sign that simply scaling LLMs won't lead us to AGI (whatever that means) and neuro-symbolic systems which *might* still have years of R&D to go.
Far from "resurgence," AI doomerism is doomed. 2025 might just be its apogee.
Far from "resurgence," AI doomerism is doomed. 2025 might just be its apogee.
August 21, 2025 at 5:37 PM
A very silly article. The underwhelming release of GPT-5 is another sign that simply scaling LLMs won't lead us to AGI (whatever that means) and neuro-symbolic systems which *might* still have years of R&D to go.
Far from "resurgence," AI doomerism is doomed. 2025 might just be its apogee.
Far from "resurgence," AI doomerism is doomed. 2025 might just be its apogee.
The NYPost has never been able to resist a clickbait lede, but this is low even by their standards.
He slipped in a parking lot. It makes as little sense to blame a catfishing AI for his death as it would for me to blame the public library for the car crash I got into while driving there.
He slipped in a parking lot. It makes as little sense to blame a catfishing AI for his death as it would for me to blame the public library for the car crash I got into while driving there.
August 17, 2025 at 8:39 PM
The NYPost has never been able to resist a clickbait lede, but this is low even by their standards.
He slipped in a parking lot. It makes as little sense to blame a catfishing AI for his death as it would for me to blame the public library for the car crash I got into while driving there.
He slipped in a parking lot. It makes as little sense to blame a catfishing AI for his death as it would for me to blame the public library for the car crash I got into while driving there.
Same energy. Covering up burnout by claiming to be a martyr for a cause, any cause.
August 15, 2025 at 2:14 PM
Same energy. Covering up burnout by claiming to be a martyr for a cause, any cause.
I can answer that, Ted. For the same ostensible reason you, a Christian, routinely wear a yarmulke: to show respect to people of a different faith when attending their religious observances.
Then again, I'm not sure using one as a campaign billboard shows all that much respect!
Then again, I'm not sure using one as a campaign billboard shows all that much respect!
August 3, 2025 at 2:01 PM
I can answer that, Ted. For the same ostensible reason you, a Christian, routinely wear a yarmulke: to show respect to people of a different faith when attending their religious observances.
Then again, I'm not sure using one as a campaign billboard shows all that much respect!
Then again, I'm not sure using one as a campaign billboard shows all that much respect!
“Abundance-lovers of the world unite!”
This is from a Ronald Reagan column in 1978, a reminder that we ought to think of what @ezrakleinbot.bsky.social & @dkthomp.bsky.social et al are part of as the Second Abundance moment.
This is from a Ronald Reagan column in 1978, a reminder that we ought to think of what @ezrakleinbot.bsky.social & @dkthomp.bsky.social et al are part of as the Second Abundance moment.
July 28, 2025 at 6:53 PM
“Abundance-lovers of the world unite!”
This is from a Ronald Reagan column in 1978, a reminder that we ought to think of what @ezrakleinbot.bsky.social & @dkthomp.bsky.social et al are part of as the Second Abundance moment.
This is from a Ronald Reagan column in 1978, a reminder that we ought to think of what @ezrakleinbot.bsky.social & @dkthomp.bsky.social et al are part of as the Second Abundance moment.
There is Discourse™ about Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian using AI to turn a still image of his late mother into a video and finding it emotionally resonant.
It's interesting both how visceral and how...religious the negative reaction is. It's seen not just as bad but as blasphemous.
It's interesting both how visceral and how...religious the negative reaction is. It's seen not just as bad but as blasphemous.
June 24, 2025 at 12:57 AM
There is Discourse™ about Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian using AI to turn a still image of his late mother into a video and finding it emotionally resonant.
It's interesting both how visceral and how...religious the negative reaction is. It's seen not just as bad but as blasphemous.
It's interesting both how visceral and how...religious the negative reaction is. It's seen not just as bad but as blasphemous.
Surely, the power of the US bombing and our military machine will prompt a “rational” reaction from Iran. 🙄
Some things haven’t changed in sixty years, and Trump is old enough that he ought to have learned this lesson multiple times over! #VietnamWar #McNamara
Some things haven’t changed in sixty years, and Trump is old enough that he ought to have learned this lesson multiple times over! #VietnamWar #McNamara
June 22, 2025 at 6:06 PM
Surely, the power of the US bombing and our military machine will prompt a “rational” reaction from Iran. 🙄
Some things haven’t changed in sixty years, and Trump is old enough that he ought to have learned this lesson multiple times over! #VietnamWar #McNamara
Some things haven’t changed in sixty years, and Trump is old enough that he ought to have learned this lesson multiple times over! #VietnamWar #McNamara
My working hypothesis is that the correlation between the unusual number of suffocation deaths and Mormon population share in these states is a product of the church’s strong disapproval of divorce.
Look, maybe there’s a reason “Mormon spousal murder” is basically an entire true crime subgenre!
Look, maybe there’s a reason “Mormon spousal murder” is basically an entire true crime subgenre!
June 21, 2025 at 1:36 AM
My working hypothesis is that the correlation between the unusual number of suffocation deaths and Mormon population share in these states is a product of the church’s strong disapproval of divorce.
Look, maybe there’s a reason “Mormon spousal murder” is basically an entire true crime subgenre!
Look, maybe there’s a reason “Mormon spousal murder” is basically an entire true crime subgenre!
Quite a lot of anti-terrorism work is security theater. Still, they probably shouldn’t have put a recent theater kid in charge of it.
June 4, 2025 at 11:58 PM
Quite a lot of anti-terrorism work is security theater. Still, they probably shouldn’t have put a recent theater kid in charge of it.
One basic flaw with AI alarmism is that it's hard to tell an actual predictive trend vs an artifact of early adopters just being weird and unrepresentative.
eg, people w/ real romantic relationships are 1) unlikely to spend 93 min a day w/ an AI girlfriend & 2) unlikely to be early adopters.
eg, people w/ real romantic relationships are 1) unlikely to spend 93 min a day w/ an AI girlfriend & 2) unlikely to be early adopters.
June 4, 2025 at 7:52 PM
One basic flaw with AI alarmism is that it's hard to tell an actual predictive trend vs an artifact of early adopters just being weird and unrepresentative.
eg, people w/ real romantic relationships are 1) unlikely to spend 93 min a day w/ an AI girlfriend & 2) unlikely to be early adopters.
eg, people w/ real romantic relationships are 1) unlikely to spend 93 min a day w/ an AI girlfriend & 2) unlikely to be early adopters.
Turns out, FedSoc should have gone with a period instead of a question mark.
June 3, 2025 at 7:21 PM
Turns out, FedSoc should have gone with a period instead of a question mark.
Musk signaled why he backed Trump and launched DOGE: bailing out his companies from investigations that posed an existential threat to his empire.
All the fraud, waste, and abuse talk was window dressing for what might turn out to be the most successful act of rent-seeking in American history.
All the fraud, waste, and abuse talk was window dressing for what might turn out to be the most successful act of rent-seeking in American history.
May 30, 2025 at 10:44 PM
Musk signaled why he backed Trump and launched DOGE: bailing out his companies from investigations that posed an existential threat to his empire.
All the fraud, waste, and abuse talk was window dressing for what might turn out to be the most successful act of rent-seeking in American history.
All the fraud, waste, and abuse talk was window dressing for what might turn out to be the most successful act of rent-seeking in American history.
Most relatable thing Elon's ever done.
May 29, 2025 at 5:14 PM
Most relatable thing Elon's ever done.
Really important piece about the past / future of the web from Stratechery that can be summed up with these two back-of-the-envelope financial models.
May 20, 2025 at 5:04 PM
Really important piece about the past / future of the web from Stratechery that can be summed up with these two back-of-the-envelope financial models.
Not sure whether golf courses receiving billions in tax breaks is the insult or the injury to the finding that living near them can double your risk of developing parkinson disease.
May 11, 2025 at 8:36 PM
Not sure whether golf courses receiving billions in tax breaks is the insult or the injury to the finding that living near them can double your risk of developing parkinson disease.
The fact that we can't buy $10k new cars like this in the US for short commutes is entirely a policy failure, not a true market failure.
May 9, 2025 at 9:35 PM
The fact that we can't buy $10k new cars like this in the US for short commutes is entirely a policy failure, not a true market failure.
It's a government of Fox News, by Fox News, and for Fox News.
And it's been an immediate governing disaster of Fox News, by Fox News, and for Fox News.
And it's been an immediate governing disaster of Fox News, by Fox News, and for Fox News.
May 9, 2025 at 12:27 AM
It's a government of Fox News, by Fox News, and for Fox News.
And it's been an immediate governing disaster of Fox News, by Fox News, and for Fox News.
And it's been an immediate governing disaster of Fox News, by Fox News, and for Fox News.
For that matter, AI tools are also improving the performance of those same implants by automatically and on the fly fine-tuning their performance to match the boutique needs of the individual and the particulars of a given physical context.
May 8, 2025 at 2:06 PM
For that matter, AI tools are also improving the performance of those same implants by automatically and on the fly fine-tuning their performance to match the boutique needs of the individual and the particulars of a given physical context.
Their first use case is for announcements in noisy public spaces like train stations where cochlear implants don't work well and in a context where human interpreters are rare.
May 8, 2025 at 2:06 PM
Their first use case is for announcements in noisy public spaces like train stations where cochlear implants don't work well and in a context where human interpreters are rare.
Musk has the humor of Gallagher. Loves a lame prop gag.
May 1, 2025 at 12:07 PM
Musk has the humor of Gallagher. Loves a lame prop gag.