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20 September
Mathematical physicist at UC Riverside. Wrote This Week's Finds in Mathematical Physics and now the Azimuth blog on mathematics, physics and environmental science.
As the view from Moscow becomes increasingly embarrassing, it seems increasingly likely Putin will start a new more desperate phase of his war against Ukraine. Experts expect him to start a quiet mobilization of troops shortly after tomorrow's parliamentary elections. He seems to want 300,000 - 500,000 new soldiers. Despite increasing payments, recruitment has been failing to keep pace with the rising casualties. We can also expect Putin to step up attacks against Europe. More drones flying into European air space, and more stuff like this: • On August 4, 2026, a bomb squad at Leipzig/Halle A… pravda.com.ua
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Co-creator of Django and creator of Datasette; writes daily at simonwillison.net.
19 September
Co-creator of Django and creator of Datasette; writes daily at simonwillison.net.
18 September
Criminal defence lawyer in New York; writes Simple Justice, mostly about how criminal law works in practice rather than in theory.
Founder and CEO of Social Capital, a venture firm; co-host of the All-In podcast and an early Facebook executive. Writes an annual letter and a weekly newsletter on markets and technology.
17 September
Economist at George Mason University. Writes Overcoming Bias on prediction markets, signalling and the far future, and wrote The Age of Em and The Elephant in the Brain.
"Enterprising bettors could theoretically pick a longshot candidate & boost them … [by] amplifying their media coverage." So the risk to democracy is that some might try to promote underdog candidates? Horrors! magzter.com
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Demographer; writes on fertility, marriage and population, and directs the Pro-Family Initiative at the Institute for Family Studies.
Theoretical physicist and philosopher, Homewood Professor of Natural Philosophy at Johns Hopkins and fractal faculty at the Santa Fe Institute. Writes the Preposterous Universe blog and hosts the Mindscape podcast.
California has a lot to answer for. Many falling-domino memes here. Quoting @jacobtlevy.bsky.social Someone is needs to write a book about these basically simultaneous California mutataions: - of the already-bad West Coast Straussians into the actually fascist Flight 93/ January 6/ no birthright citizenship crowd -of Effective Altruism/ "rationalism" into long-termism and Roko-worship 1/ Related
Security technologist and author of books including Applied Cryptography and Data and Goliath; writes the Schneier on Security blog and the monthly Crypto-Gram newsletter.
Co-founder of Y Combinator and Viaweb; essayist at paulgraham.com.
Miriam Pawel says more than she realizes: "Students on University of California campuses may struggle with basic math, but they are graduating at record rates." Related
16 September
Theoretical physicist and philosopher, Homewood Professor of Natural Philosophy at Johns Hopkins and fractal faculty at the Santa Fe Institute. Writes the Preposterous Universe blog and hosts the Mindscape podcast.
Young academics interested in democracy: check out the postdoc program at the SNF Agora Institute at Johns Hopkins! @snfagora.bsky.social snfagora.jhu.edu
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15 September
Economics professor at the University of California, Berkeley and a former Deputy Assistant Secretary of the US Treasury. Author of Slouching Towards Utopia and writer of the Grasping Reality newsletter.
Epidemiologist; founded Your Local Epidemiologist in March 2020 to translate public-health science, and consults for organisations including the CDC.
14 September
President of the European Commission since 2019; previously Germany's defence minister.
Democracy. It’s about giving people the power to shape the society they want to live in. Tomorrow, on Democracy Day, the @EU_Commission launches the “Shape our Democracy” campaign. To invite people to share their ideas. And to make our democracy stronger and more resilient, together. link.europa.eu
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13 September
Creator of Homebrew, the macOS package manager, and a Swift developer.
The biggest problem with democracy is: it is purchasable. Related
British open-standards and open-source technologist, formerly of the UK Government Digital Service and the W3C Advisory Committee. Blogs at shkspr.mobi, where he posts a book review most weeks.
11 September
Security technologist and author of books including Applied Cryptography and Data and Goliath; writes the Schneier on Security blog and the monthly Crypto-Gram newsletter.
9 September
Programmer and writer; co-founder of Stack Overflow and Discourse, and author of the Coding Horror blog, which he has written since 2004.
7 September
Economic historian at Columbia; writes Chartbook on economics, geopolitics and history, and wrote Crashed and The Deluge.
immigration government
Their words
Voting for the AfD in the current landscape, whatever your economic issues, in short, is not a vote to have your economic issues addressed by social democracy, or welfare or government intervention.
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adamtooze.substack.com
5 September
Economics professor at the University of California, Berkeley and a former Deputy Assistant Secretary of the US Treasury. Author of Slouching Towards Utopia and writer of the Grasping Reality newsletter.
I asked a local instantiation of google/gemma4:31b-mlx to introduce itself to my new research assistants and point at its own workspace. What came back was a meditation on Plato, salamander brains, and why you should treat it like an eccentric roommate: **ThothBot Makes an Appearance in My RA-Group Telegram Chat: FRIDAY FOG & FLATLANDS** Living & working in Berkeley, California: An AI writes an introduction to my research assistants, & PanGram/SubStack grades it 100% not-slop; or, what... 1/ Google Related
4 September
Forecaster, founder of FiveThirtyEight, author of The Signal and the Noise and On the Edge. Writes Silver Bulletin, where the predictions come with numbers and the numbers are later checked against what happened.
Their words
That’s not a particularly likely outcome, but elections are often decided on the margins.
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natesilver.net
2 September
Technology writer and podcaster; former Macworld editor-in-chief, writes Six Colors and hosts podcasts on Relay FM and The Incomparable.
This is a known issue with Apple and Kickstarter and it’s very frustrating. If you backed Designed in California, go to Kickstarter, log in if you aren’t, click on your profile icon in the top left, and click Messages to get our message. fosstodon.org
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Not only did we kick off series B (Mac OS Crisis) of Designed in California today, but we recorded series C (iPod) last week and I’ve been writing series D (???!?!?!?) this week! What a wild ride this has been. Related
It’s not just a Kickstarter project anymore, it’s a real podcast. The first new Designed in California episode is out today (along with six previously previewed episodes), and members received the ENTIRE seven-episode series about Apple’s ‘90s OS crisis. @imyke and I hope you listen! relay.fm
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30 August
Writer and climate campaigner; wrote The End of Nature in 1989, founded 350.org and Third Act, and writes The Crucial Years.
28 August
Founder and CEO of Social Capital, a venture firm; co-host of the All-In podcast and an early Facebook executive. Writes an annual letter and a weekly newsletter on markets and technology.
22 August
Founder and former CEO of Zynga, the social-games company behind FarmVille, Zynga Poker and Words with Friends; says he founded ten companies in all, and wrote Life at the Speed of Play.
Here is the actual threat to Western democracy and freedom. AIPAC is battling the DSA and extreme left but portrayed as anti American. Meanwhile Qatar, muslim brotherhood, CAIR are supporting the most America hating candidates. Hiding in plain sight as always. Quoting @paulsperry_ BREAKING: The Shariah-ruling arm of the US Muslim Brotherhood has issued a fatwah unlocking an estimated $140 million a year in tithing (zakat) from American Muslims to finance the campaigns of Muslim leaders for public office including the House & Senate America Related
20 August
Author of Recoding America; founded Code for America and was US deputy chief technology officer from 2013 to 2014. Writes Eating Policy on why governments cannot do what they decide to do.
18 August
US science and technology adviser to the president, director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy; previously US chief technology officer and chief operating officer of Scale AI.
Their words
if you create a or allow for the creation of a patchwork of regulations, meaning there's one set of regulations for AI in California, another one in Maryland, another one in Texas. You know, the big tech guys, they can deal with that.
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youtube.com
14 August
Economist; Ronald A. Kurtz Professor of Entrepreneurship at MIT Sloan, former chief economist of the International Monetary Fund, and co-author of 13 Bankers and Power and Progress.
I highly encourage everyone to read @DAcemogluMIT's latest book "What Happened to Liberal Democracy?" from @DuttonBooks, just released this week. Daron not only offers insightful analysis of how and why liberalism went astray, but also lays out a vision for a better path forward. Related
12 August
Librarian, technology instructor and writer in rural Vermont; longtime community manager at MetaFilter and author of a book on the digital divide.
I am not running for re-election as a Justice of the Peace in November (14 years is enough) and I'm mostly fine with it but will miss getting to run the tabulator for elections. Today was one of those nice primaries where the people I campaigned for, gave advice to, and talked to today, all won (N=3) and the less-evil sheriff candidate handily won. I got to work the polls with my friends and see my neighbors. I'm not a big voting personal generally, but I like small town elections #vermont Related
Freelance research analyst and writer of the blog Aceso Under Glass, known for 'epistemic spot checks' of non-fiction claims.
Their words
The client was hoping for an instruction manual on buying beauty, but at least in California, money isn't the bottleneck.
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acesounderglass.com
2 August
Co-founder of Panic, the Portland software company behind Transmit, Coda, Nova and the Playdate handheld console.
Back in November, I posted something about #meshcore having not much coverage here, and I was extremely wrong about that. MeshCore in the PNW currently spans from BC down to California's northern border, and there is idle chit-chat all day long, compared to the complete silence I observed on #meshtastic. https://cascadiamesh.org/map/ Nothing's perfect, but it's amazing what a community can put together sometimes. Related
18 July
Structural engineer and senior infrastructure fellow at the Institute for Progress; writes Construction Physics on why physical things cost what they cost.
Reading List 07/18/26 A setback for California Forever, a $500 million artillery shell plant not producing any shells, the difficulty of recycling EV batteries, manufacturing wire harnesses, and more.
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6 July
Professor of international affairs at Johns Hopkins SAIS and co-author, with Abraham Newman, of Underground Empire: How America Weaponized the World Economy.
5 July
American-Polish journalist and historian, staff writer at The Atlantic; author of Gulag, Iron Curtain, Twilight of Democracy and Autocracy, Inc.
22 June
Economist at George Mason University, co-author of Marginal Revolution, host of Conversations with Tyler. Writes in short, dense claims about economics, culture and AI, and has moved position on AI in public more than once.
Their words
Justin Gest, Democratic Drain: Global Migration and the Struggle for Democracy is a political economy argument that widespread immigration can drain home countries of their democracy supporters to some extent.
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marginalrevolution.com
2 June
Founder and former CEO of Zynga, the social-games company behind FarmVille, Zynga Poker and Words with Friends; says he founded ten companies in all, and wrote Life at the Speed of Play.
Their words
It's false to believe that a company is a democracy. The way I run the company was what I called a democratic dictatorship. And I said, I want everyone everyone's voice to be heard and then I'll be the single vote. And I think that's the way a company should be run. I think there's one CEO, there's one chef. I think a good CEO is going to seek out the intellectual honesty, the truths from everywhere and hear from everybody and then they're going to make the decision and they're not going to make the decision because it's most popular in the company.
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youtube.com
14 May
Demographer; writes on fertility, marriage and population, and directs the Pro-Family Initiative at the Institute for Family Studies.
18 March
Economist at George Mason University, co-author of Marginal Revolution, host of Conversations with Tyler. Writes in short, dense claims about economics, culture and AI, and has moved position on AI in public more than once.
11 March
Hosts the Lex Fridman Podcast — long, unhurried conversations with scientists, engineers and public figures. Several of the interviews quoted elsewhere on this site are episodes of it.
Here's my conversation with Jeff Kaplan, a legendary Blizzard game designer of World of Warcraft and Overwatch, which are two of the biggest, most influential games ever made. Jeff is one of the most genuine & awesome human beings I've ever met: kind, thoughtful, hilarious, and still & forever a gamer through and through. This was a truly fun & inspiring conversation. We talk about it all: the lows, the highs, the memes, the details of the game design process, and the new game he's been secretely working on: The Legend of California. I got a chance to play the game with Jeff, and it's incredi… Related
29 December 2025
Venture capitalist and founder of Theory Ventures, previously a partner at Redpoint. Writes a near-daily blog on startups, SaaS metrics, data and AI.
Their words
White, New Yorker editor, Charlotte’s Web author, Elements of Style co-creator, is among my favorite writers.
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tomtunguz.com
14 November 2025
Environmental writer and campaigner; author of Six Degrees, The God Species, Seeds of Science and Our Final Warning.
"It can't happen here" - or can it? I talk to Professor Susan Stokes about the playbook that elected leaders use to quietly erode democracy from within — the same tactics that have turned Hungary, Turkey, and now the United States into hybrid autocracies. weplanet.org
America Related
6 October 2025
Mac and iOS developer at the Iconfactory, where he has worked on apps including Twitterrific and Tot. He writes about development at furbo.org.
15 August 2025
Founder of Terraform Industries and formerly a physicist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory; writes about energy, space and manufacturing.
energy China America
Their words
In terms of things that are causing us to lose to China, tariffs are neither here nor there because, as we've discussed, we're not sensitive to cost on power. But the environmental regulations that are actively preventing us from deploying renewable energy in the United States, like this is the reason Texas is winning. Texas is out deploying California 10 to1.
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youtube.com
6 June 2025
Director of strategy at Georgetown's Center for Security and Emerging Technology; an OpenAI board member until November 2023, and writes Rising Tide.
24 May 2025
Historian of the Second World War; wrote Normandy '44 and Brothers in Arms, and co-hosts the We Have Ways of Making You Talk podcast.
Their words
But Chamberlain was prime minister in a democracy, a parliamentary democracy, where 92% of the population were against going to war in 1938. There was not a single democratic leader in the world that would go against the wishes of 92% of the population.
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youtube.com
12 May 2025
Founder of what became Bloomberg New Energy Finance; writes and speaks on clean energy, hydrogen and the economics of the transition, and hosts the Cleaning Up podcast.
Why Tony Blair needs to reset his climate reset Two weeks ago (timed to come out just before the UK local elections), Tony Blair released a report calling for the climate movement to change tack. He’s right – and also very, very wrong. The Climate Paradox: Why We Nee…
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9 April 2025
Co-founder of Ximian and Xamarin; CEO of GitHub from 2018 to 2021; now an independent investor and funder of open technical projects, including the Vesuvius Challenge to read the Herculaneum Papyri.
Let's build ships in California! Quoting @jansramek 1/ @CAForever is answering the call to propel American shipbuilding for the next century. With today’s @POTUS Executive Order and the bipartisan SHIPS Act, we’re offering 3 miles of our waterfront to build the Solano Shipyard, the largest shipbuilding complex in America. 🧵 Related
1 October 2024
Co-founder and CEO of Anthropic; previously VP of research at OpenAI.
22 March 2024
Investigative journalist; wrote Area 51, The Pentagon's Brain and Nuclear War: A Scenario, reconstructing what secret programmes actually did from interviews and declassified records.
America
Their words
So, in addition to the Launch on Warning concept, there’s this other insane concept called Sole Presidential Authority. And you might think, in a democracy that’s impossible, right? You can’t just start a war. Well, you can just start a nuclear war if you are the commander in chief, the President of the United States. In fact, you’re the only one who can do that.
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youtube.com
17 November 2023
Political scientist at the University of Chicago and the leading exponent of offensive realism; wrote The Tragedy of Great Power Politics.
Their words
A realist like me would say that it doesn't matter whether a state is a democracy or not, all states behave the same way because the structure of the system, getting back to our earlier discussion about international anarchy, the structure of the system leaves those states no choice, whether they're democracies or autocracies.
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youtube.com
6 June 2023
Journalist; wrote We Are Eating the Earth on food and climate, and writes the newsletter Emissions.
30 April 2023
Founder of the toy manufacturer Viahart; writes about manufacturing, importing and why bringing production back to America is harder than it sounds.
7 March 2022
Experimental psychologist and author of the blog Experimental History, on psychology, science reform and creativity.
Their words
These misperceptions may bedevil people's efforts to understand and change their social worlds, distort the democratic process, and turn imaginary trends into real ones.
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doi.org
4 October 2020
Founder of Pinboard; writes Idle Words — talks and essays on the web, aviation, politics and travel.
Protests and Power In August 2020, the New York Times asked me to write an op-ed for a special feature on authoritarianism and democracy. They declined to publish my submission, which I am sharing here instead. When the George Floyd prote…
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