Recent articles
May 24, 2026
What I'm Hearing from Readers
It’s painful to admit, but the comments emails from readers are sometimes better than my articles. Here are some recent responses.
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May 22, 2026
Anti-AI Laws Now Get Unanimous Support from Left & Right
In just three years, Silicon Valley has destroyed its entire support network. It's still in denial—but that won't last.
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May 20, 2026
65 of My Favorite Quotations
Ranging widely from Seneca to Ringo Starr
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May 17, 2026
The Hottest Musician in 2026 Is 'Problematic' Michael Jackson
And that's exactly what the music business wants
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May 12, 2026
Rick Beato Versus the NY Times
The backlash over the best songwriter list intensifies
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May 11, 2026
How to Tell If You're Living in a Binary Crisis
And how to get out of it
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May 9, 2026
72 Hours in New Orleans
I came. I saw. I ate beignets.
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May 7, 2026
My 9 Rules of Criticism
Advice to wannabe reviewers
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May 4, 2026
The Fantastic Nicknames of Jazz
If you’re a jazz fan, see how many of the nicknames in the poem below you can identify.
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May 2, 2026
12 New YouTube Videos I'm Recommending Right Now
Including the trendiest band of the current moment
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April 30, 2026
Socrates vs. the Venture Capitalist
Which side do you pick?
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April 28, 2026
The NY Times Asked Me to Pick the Greatest Living American Songwriters
Here's my ballot for the Times survey
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April 25, 2026
Movie Theaters Are Coming Back (for the Saddest Reason)
It's a five-letter word that starts with G.
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April 23, 2026
Why I Believe in Karma
Let me share the evidence
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April 21, 2026
The 10 Most Popular Articles from The Honest Broker (2021-2026)
In celebration of my fifth anniversary on Substack
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April 18, 2026
Did Streaming Subscription Prices Just Hit the Wall?
Consumers have learned three winning strategies for defeating subscription fatigue.
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April 16, 2026
Blues Legend Robert Johnson Like You've Never Heard Him Before
I'm recommending these 12 new YouTube videos
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April 9, 2026
The Ten Commandments of the New AI Religion
This is the creepy creed of our time
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April 7, 2026
Tells Us What You're Doing
Today is open mic day at The Honest Broker
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April 5, 2026
How to Read the Great Books in 52 Weeks
A conversation on my humanities reading program
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April 2, 2026
New Music Is Slowly Dying
It's getting murdered by its own caretakers
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April 1, 2026
I'm Recommending 14 New Albums
Here are some of my favorite recordings of 2026 (so far)
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March 30, 2026
Everything You Expect Is Missing in 'Project Hail Mary'
And that's for the better
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March 28, 2026
The Story of My Mysterious Pain
I never talked about my pain. But it kept getting worse and worse.
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March 26, 2026
Four Steps to Hell
Can this really be the aesthetic vision of the 21st century?
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March 23, 2026
Montaigne and the Origins of Substack
Self-publishing has a glorious history—but what's coming next is even better
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March 20, 2026
The Strangest Book in Harvard Library
100 years ago, Arthur Inman decided to write the most brutally honest and explicit diary in history—so he hired people to tell him their intimate secrets
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March 18, 2026
The Shock of the Old
What happens when everything is a reboot?
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March 13, 2026
Can a 100-Year-Old Mouse Save Disney?
And other recent jottings in my journal
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March 10, 2026
AI Actress Tilly Norwood Drops a Video—and It's Cringe on Steroids
"At least Skynet was honest about trying to erase humanity..."
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