Xavier Greenwood
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xaviergreenwood.bsky.social
Xavier Greenwood
@xaviergreenwood.bsky.social
5.4K followers 720 following 110 posts
Senior editor at The Observer. I edit The Sensemaker and report across print and digital. Previously made podcasts for Tortoise.
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xaviergreenwood.bsky.social
Also in the paper, available in all good newsagents, and many bad ones too.
May 11, 2025 at 6:32 PM
xaviergreenwood.bsky.social
Such nice words for Football on Trial in the Project Brazen newsletter!

Listen to the first two eps on BBC Radio 5 Live at 7pm or catch the whole thing here now: www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/...

@mrabutler.bsky.social @tortoisemedia.bsky.social
March 2, 2025 at 12:42 PM
xaviergreenwood.bsky.social
The now well-worn formula of a MailOnline story:

1. See the Super Bowl is being headlined by a Black artist.

2. Recognise the innate need to dunk on said artist.

3. Find a few critical tweets that allow you to attack the artist.

4. Invite thousands of comments calling the performance 'woke'.
Kendrick Lamar slammed for 'worst halftime show ever' during Super Bowl 2025 performance before swipe at rival Drake
February 10, 2025 at 8:31 AM
xaviergreenwood.bsky.social
And what did OpenAI use to train ChatGPT?
January 29, 2025 at 10:28 AM
xaviergreenwood.bsky.social
Two poets who opened a door to the past to make sense of today
January 24, 2025 at 7:38 AM
xaviergreenwood.bsky.social
Let me go further
THE FOUR CATEGORIES Drawing originally from the work of Arischipotle, the Four Categories of food have long been held in contention. However, due to its rival theories repeatedly having been shewn to be self-defeating, it is today widely regarded as the only game in town. The categories are the following: (I) sandwich, (II) salad, (III) soup, and (IV) meat. No other categories are admitted into this schema. The categories are mutually exclusive and collectively exhaustive of all main meals – some even claim, of all possible main meals. The categories are (reasonably) to be taken as primitive notions; as such it is not in the business of the theory to attempt to define the categories using other, non-primitive terms.
January 3, 2025 at 10:10 AM
xaviergreenwood.bsky.social
I’ve been reluctant to engage with this, but I will only briefly to reshare what @ceri-t.bsky.social said on X. No slight may be “intended” by the thread below but as a journalist who has been at Tortoise for six and a half years it is felt.
December 21, 2024 at 1:44 PM
xaviergreenwood.bsky.social
How I learned to stop worrying and love the drone

In today's @tortoisemedia.bsky.social Sensemaker: www.tortoisemedia.com/2024/12/17/p...
Is it a bird? Is it a plane? Is it a hostile craft stealing state secrets? Such questions remain somewhat unanswered in New Jersey, where a slew of drone sightings has sparked conspiracies and genuine concern. New York has been sent drone detection equipment after Stewart International Airport was shut due to a sighting, while Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer has called for similar tools to be sent to New Jersey. Although some drones have been spotted over critical infrastructure, the FBI says it has no evidence they “have a foreign nexus” or pose a security threat. Of the 5,000 tips the FBI has received, fewer than 100 have generated credible leads. Occam’s razor may prove useful here. Last year the Federal Aviation Administration changed the rules to allow drones to fly at night, while the FBI says all the large fixed-wing sightings so far involve manned aircraft. Hobbyist drones and misidentification are more credible explanations than an Iranian mothership trying its luck.
December 17, 2024 at 10:05 AM
xaviergreenwood.bsky.social
Chuffed to see Who Trolled Amber, which I made w/ Alexi Mostrous (not of this parish), named one of Amazon Music’s best new shows of 2024.

Hugely grateful to @tortoisemedia.bsky.social which gives space for deep coverage not always possible in the rush of 24h news.

open.spotify.com/episode/4okm...
December 13, 2024 at 1:21 PM
xaviergreenwood.bsky.social
I'm just so very tired

www.spectator.co.uk/article/i-wi...
What does a day in Badenoch’s new life look like? Back-to-back meetings? Policy research? Time to decompress? ‘What’s decompressing, what’s that?’ she grins. Does she break for lunch? ‘What’s a lunch break? Lunch is for wimps. I have food brought in and I work and eat at the same time. There’s no time… Sometimes I will get a steak… I’m not a sandwich person, I don’t think sandwiches are a real food, it’s what you have for breakfast.’ Soggy bread is a no-no: ‘I will not touch bread if it’s moist.’
December 12, 2024 at 7:58 AM
xaviergreenwood.bsky.social
Art imitating life imitating art

www.nytimes.com/2024/12/09/b...
The legal maneuvering came to a head during several days of sealed, in-person testimony in Reno in September by Mr. Murdoch, Lachlan, James, Elisabeth, Prudence and a number of their representatives on the trust. The proceedings revealed that Mr. Murdoch’s children had started secretly discussing the public-relations strategy for their father’s death in April 2023. Setting off these discussions was the episode of the HBO drama “Succession,” the commissioner wrote, “where the patriarch of the family dies, leaving his family and business in chaos.” The episode prompted Elisabeth’s representative to the trust, Mark Devereux, to write a “‘Succession’ memo” intended to help avoid a real-life repeat.
December 10, 2024 at 10:19 AM
xaviergreenwood.bsky.social
pt 2
December 7, 2024 at 4:26 PM
xaviergreenwood.bsky.social
this really is essential viewing
December 7, 2024 at 4:21 PM
xaviergreenwood.bsky.social
Very nice review of our @tortoisemedia.bsky.social podcast in this week’s Project Brazen newsletter. Have a listen!

open.spotify.com/episode/1gR4...
November 24, 2024 at 4:37 PM