Stephen Schenkenberg
@schenkenberg.bsky.social
Comms, strategy, design, books. Post mainly about culture I enjoy. #STL | stephenschenkenberg.com
Reading Alice Gregory’s fascinating New Yorker piece about the “strange afterlife of Hilma af Klint” brought me back to seeing the remarkable show of her work at the Guggenheim in 2018 (photo from our trip abov... https://stephenschenkenberg.com/2025/11/29/reading-alice-gregorys-fascinating-new.html
November 29, 2025 at 3:36 PM
Reading Alice Gregory’s fascinating New Yorker piece about the “strange afterlife of Hilma af Klint” brought me back to seeing the remarkable show of her work at the Guggenheim in 2018 (photo from our trip abov... https://stephenschenkenberg.com/2025/11/29/reading-alice-gregorys-fascinating-new.html
"The velvet worm, a squishy little predator that looks like the stretch-limo version of a caterpillar, has a whimsical MO: it administers death by Silly String."
What a lede from Elizabeth Anne Brown in “Slime Attack,” a short front-of-book piece for Scientific American.
What a lede from Elizabeth Anne Brown in “Slime Attack,” a short front-of-book piece for Scientific American.
November 28, 2025 at 3:02 PM
"The velvet worm, a squishy little predator that looks like the stretch-limo version of a caterpillar, has a whimsical MO: it administers death by Silly String."
What a lede from Elizabeth Anne Brown in “Slime Attack,” a short front-of-book piece for Scientific American.
What a lede from Elizabeth Anne Brown in “Slime Attack,” a short front-of-book piece for Scientific American.
Such rich writing from Richard Mabey in his book “The Cabaret of Plants: Forty Thousand Years of Plant Life and the Human Imagination”:
"Everywhere I have travelled plants have surprised me by their dogged loyalty to ... https://stephenschenkenberg.com/2025/11/26/such-rich-writing-from-richard.html
"Everywhere I have travelled plants have surprised me by their dogged loyalty to ... https://stephenschenkenberg.com/2025/11/26/such-rich-writing-from-richard.html
November 27, 2025 at 2:00 AM
Such rich writing from Richard Mabey in his book “The Cabaret of Plants: Forty Thousand Years of Plant Life and the Human Imagination”:
"Everywhere I have travelled plants have surprised me by their dogged loyalty to ... https://stephenschenkenberg.com/2025/11/26/such-rich-writing-from-richard.html
"Everywhere I have travelled plants have surprised me by their dogged loyalty to ... https://stephenschenkenberg.com/2025/11/26/such-rich-writing-from-richard.html
Dan Wang, sharply introducing the thesis to his new book Breakneck: China’s Quest to Engineer a Perfect Future:
"The best hedge, I know against tightening intentions between the two superpowers is mutual curiosity. ... https://stephenschenkenberg.com/2025/11/25/dan-wang-sharply-introducing-the.html
"The best hedge, I know against tightening intentions between the two superpowers is mutual curiosity. ... https://stephenschenkenberg.com/2025/11/25/dan-wang-sharply-introducing-the.html
November 25, 2025 at 11:48 PM
Dan Wang, sharply introducing the thesis to his new book Breakneck: China’s Quest to Engineer a Perfect Future:
"The best hedge, I know against tightening intentions between the two superpowers is mutual curiosity. ... https://stephenschenkenberg.com/2025/11/25/dan-wang-sharply-introducing-the.html
"The best hedge, I know against tightening intentions between the two superpowers is mutual curiosity. ... https://stephenschenkenberg.com/2025/11/25/dan-wang-sharply-introducing-the.html
“The Game She Wrote on a Boat Kept Her Afloat” — Lovely NYT profile (with a few scene-setting GIFs) of a young game designer living the life she seemed destined to live.
November 3, 2025 at 1:10 AM
“The Game She Wrote on a Boat Kept Her Afloat” — Lovely NYT profile (with a few scene-setting GIFs) of a young game designer living the life she seemed destined to live.
From “AI Models Get Brain Rot, Too“, in Wired:
"A new study from the University of Texas at Austin, Texas A&M, and Purdue University shows that large language models fed a diet of popular but low-quality social media conten... https://stephenschenkenberg.com/2025/10/23/from-ai-models-get-brain.html
"A new study from the University of Texas at Austin, Texas A&M, and Purdue University shows that large language models fed a diet of popular but low-quality social media conten... https://stephenschenkenberg.com/2025/10/23/from-ai-models-get-brain.html
October 23, 2025 at 12:59 PM
From “AI Models Get Brain Rot, Too“, in Wired:
"A new study from the University of Texas at Austin, Texas A&M, and Purdue University shows that large language models fed a diet of popular but low-quality social media conten... https://stephenschenkenberg.com/2025/10/23/from-ai-models-get-brain.html
"A new study from the University of Texas at Austin, Texas A&M, and Purdue University shows that large language models fed a diet of popular but low-quality social media conten... https://stephenschenkenberg.com/2025/10/23/from-ai-models-get-brain.html
Great conversation: For his podcast The Rebooting — which explores sustainable media businesses — Brian Morrissey interviews Monocle’s Tyler Brûlé. I believe I first became a Monocle subscriber around 2010, when Ta... https://stephenschenkenberg.com/2025/10/21/great-conversation-for-his-podcast.html
October 22, 2025 at 2:53 AM
Great conversation: For his podcast The Rebooting — which explores sustainable media businesses — Brian Morrissey interviews Monocle’s Tyler Brûlé. I believe I first became a Monocle subscriber around 2010, when Ta... https://stephenschenkenberg.com/2025/10/21/great-conversation-for-his-podcast.html
Maggie Gram, early on in her fascinating new book “The Invention of Design: A Twentieth-Century History”:
"People all over the world tried to ride these waves in ways that might preserve their own dignity and power. Our cont... https://stephenschenkenberg.com/2025/09/19/maggie-gram-early-on-in.html
"People all over the world tried to ride these waves in ways that might preserve their own dignity and power. Our cont... https://stephenschenkenberg.com/2025/09/19/maggie-gram-early-on-in.html
September 20, 2025 at 2:33 AM
Maggie Gram, early on in her fascinating new book “The Invention of Design: A Twentieth-Century History”:
"People all over the world tried to ride these waves in ways that might preserve their own dignity and power. Our cont... https://stephenschenkenberg.com/2025/09/19/maggie-gram-early-on-in.html
"People all over the world tried to ride these waves in ways that might preserve their own dignity and power. Our cont... https://stephenschenkenberg.com/2025/09/19/maggie-gram-early-on-in.html
Yesterday via Kottke, I learned that MIchael Sippey had built a new project: 3books, a nicely organized collection of all the books that Ezra Klein’s guests recommend at the end of his show. Great idea, well-executed. ... https://stephenschenkenberg.com/2025/09/04/yesterday-via-kottke-i-learned.html
September 5, 2025 at 1:12 AM
Yesterday via Kottke, I learned that MIchael Sippey had built a new project: 3books, a nicely organized collection of all the books that Ezra Klein’s guests recommend at the end of his show. Great idea, well-executed. ... https://stephenschenkenberg.com/2025/09/04/yesterday-via-kottke-i-learned.html
“American culture was shifting Si-ward” — Michael M. Grynbaum on Si Newhouse: https://stephenschenkenberg.com/2025/08/30/american-culture-was-shifting-siward.html
August 30, 2025 at 7:21 PM
“American culture was shifting Si-ward” — Michael M. Grynbaum on Si Newhouse: https://stephenschenkenberg.com/2025/08/30/american-culture-was-shifting-siward.html
Digital diary reminded me that 22 years ago I published an essay about receiving 7 letters of rejection from 6 PhD programs: www.thecommonspace.org/2003/06/sour...
The Commonspace > June 2003 > From the Source
www.thecommonspace.org
June 24, 2025 at 2:14 PM
Digital diary reminded me that 22 years ago I published an essay about receiving 7 letters of rejection from 6 PhD programs: www.thecommonspace.org/2003/06/sour...
Chef’s-kiss sentence from Orlando Whitfield’s “All That Glitters: A Story of Friendship, Fraud, and Fine Art”:
January 4, 2025 at 2:58 AM
Chef’s-kiss sentence from Orlando Whitfield’s “All That Glitters: A Story of Friendship, Fraud, and Fine Art”:
Annual look back at a few cultural highlights from the year: stephenschenkenberg.com/2024/12/27/y...
Stephen Schenkenberg | Year in Review: 2024
As I’ve done for the past few decades, I’m ending the year with a look back at some cultural highlights I found most fulfilling during the past 12 months: …
stephenschenkenberg.com
December 27, 2024 at 6:54 PM
Annual look back at a few cultural highlights from the year: stephenschenkenberg.com/2024/12/27/y...
Spine blurb, 1856. Sneakily snagged from a private letter Emerson sent Whitman. (From “The Look of the Book,” Mendelsund and Alworth)
December 17, 2024 at 1:28 AM
Spine blurb, 1856. Sneakily snagged from a private letter Emerson sent Whitman. (From “The Look of the Book,” Mendelsund and Alworth)
Annually, 11/30 means it’s time for another three weeks of Low’s “Christmas.” open.spotify.com/album/1SITmI...
Christmas
Low · Album · 1999 · 8 songs
open.spotify.com
November 30, 2024 at 9:22 PM
Annually, 11/30 means it’s time for another three weeks of Low’s “Christmas.” open.spotify.com/album/1SITmI...
Lovely, gentle new album from Clem Snide: “Oh Smokey” open.spotify.com/album/4bflEH...
Oh Smokey
Clem Snide · Album · 2024 · 8 songs
open.spotify.com
November 16, 2024 at 9:00 PM
Lovely, gentle new album from Clem Snide: “Oh Smokey” open.spotify.com/album/4bflEH...
Excellent interview w/ Jesse Eisenberg @newyorker.com.web.brid.gy. I can still remember seeing him for the first time in “Roger Dodger” in the early 2000s, perhaps at the Music Box in Chicago. A committed, inquisitive art-maker. www.newyorker.com/culture/the-...
Jesse Eisenberg Has a Few Questions
The multihyphenate discusses his new film, “A Real Pain”; grappling with what it means to be good; and the scripts, songs, and jokes that “never see the light of day.”
www.newyorker.com
November 16, 2024 at 3:24 PM
Excellent interview w/ Jesse Eisenberg @newyorker.com.web.brid.gy. I can still remember seeing him for the first time in “Roger Dodger” in the early 2000s, perhaps at the Music Box in Chicago. A committed, inquisitive art-maker. www.newyorker.com/culture/the-...
“The Zone of Interest” was an astonishing film. How it shows what it chooses to show; the sounds we just barely hear of what it chooses not to show — a remarkable work of art made with deep sensitivity. Streaming on MAX.
November 16, 2024 at 3:19 PM
“The Zone of Interest” was an astonishing film. How it shows what it chooses to show; the sounds we just barely hear of what it chooses not to show — a remarkable work of art made with deep sensitivity. Streaming on MAX.