Inspired by a question over at Cup of Jo, what are the five things that are essential in your kitchen? Mine lean black & tan: balsamic vinegar, soy sauce, parmesan, olive oil, mayonnaise. (Honorable mention: chili oil.)
Here’s a thing I didn’t know existed until the other day: credit-card sized trackers that you put into your wallet (or bag) that can be located with Apple Find My. Some come with long-life batteries and others are rechargeable. Some can play a sound when lost. This seems pretty handy for when an AirTag is too bulky.
The first one I stumbled across was this one from Paperwallet but there are also many other options.
“Trump told voters that they could indulge their resentments and still walk away richer and more prosperous. But they can’t. To embrace nativism in a global, connected economic world is to sacrifice prosperity for the sake of exclusion…”
Song Exploder
• Hrishikesh Hirway
Hayden Anhedönia has been making music under the name Ethel Cain since 2019. But it’s not just a band name or a moniker; Ethel Cain is a fictional character, a sort of alter ego that Hayden’s been creating and world building around throughout her albums. The first Ethel Cain album, Preacher’s Daughter, came out in 2022. It ended up blowing up, and it made Hayden the first openly trans artist with an album in the top ten on the Billboard chart. In 2025, she put out the second Ethel Cain album, called Willoughby Tucker, I’ll Always Love You. For this episode, I talked to Hayden about how she made the song “Nettles.” As you’re about to hear, it took on a lot of different forms, over several years, before she got to the final version.
For more info, visit songexploder.net/ethel-cain.
Remember the collection of classic airline logos I linked to a few years ago? The folks at 08 Left have taken some of those old logos and put them on hats, t-shirts, and hoodies.
New from Neal Agarwal: a series of increasingly ridiculous and difficult captchas. I burst out laughing at the vegetables one.
Announcing the 2025 PSF Board Election Results!
I'm happy to share that I've been re-elected for second term on the board of directors of the Python Software Foundation.Jannis Leidel was also re-elected and Abigail Dogbe and Sheena O’Connell will be joining the board for the first time.
A McSweeney’s list that’s not that funny: How to Tell the Difference Between a Lone Wolf and a Coordinated Effort by the Radical Left.
Citation Needed
• Molly White
Prediction markets once lived on the academic fringe. Now they’re trading billions on politics, sports, and celebrity gossip — under rules never designed for retail gamblers.
