Medium Cool
McLuhan’s hot/cool media taxonomy — built to explain 1960s television — turns out to be one of the sharpest tools available for understanding what TikTok, podcasts, and social platforms are doing to cognition right now.
Fisher’s Arbitrary Line
The 95% confidence threshold that gatekeeps all of published science was proposed by a single statistician in 1925, who later said it was being misused. Here’s why that happened and why it won’t change.
Cargo Cult Science
Richard Feynman named the failure mode in 1974. The replication crisis proved him right. The problem isn’t bad scientists — it’s incentive systems that make rigorous science economically irrational.
The NYT Bestseller List Rewards a Specific Kind of Book. That’s Worth Understanding.
The NYT bestseller list isn’t a sales chart. Understanding how it actually works changes how you read it — and which books on it you should trust.
Why ‘The Emperor of All Maladies’ Still Reads Like a Thriller Fifteen Years Later
Mukherjee’s biography of cancer is one of the best science books ever written. Here’s what makes it hold up — and what it tells you about how medicine actually works.
James Beard Nominations Are Out. Here’s What They Tell Us About Where New York Dining Is Headed
The 2026 James Beard nominees are out. A Long Island diner owner reads between the lines on what New York’s dining culture is rewarding — and ignoring.
