In October of 2025, Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs was sentenced to 50 months in prison. The gust of media attention on the international case came to an abrupt halt. His sexually exploitative conduct had been established, Cassie had gotten justice, and another rich, powerful man had been exposed in the seemingly dark underbelly of the Elite’s depraved sexual proclivities.

Stuck at home taking care of a sick cat, my partner and I were in the market for some light viewing when we discovered that “The NeverEnding Story” was streaming for free. It had been about twenty years since I’d watched the 1984 fantasy epic, and I was giddy at the prospect of reminiscing with the life-size puppets and miniature set pieces that had ignited my childhood imagination and stalked my nightmares.  But beneath the thrill of scratching that ever-present itch of nostalgia was an underlying anxiety: What if this movie that occupied such a halcyon realm in my early memories didn’t hold up? Would a rewatch uncover previously overlooked racism (à la “Lady and the Tramp”)? I could hardly recall a theme or moral—what if the whole thing was incoherent or worse, cringingly saccharine?

But here’s the thing The Odyssey is not: complicated. Nolan’s Odyssey is an adaptation of the famous epic, but instead of pulling from older translations, Nolan references Emily Wilson’s work, the first woman to ever translate the Odyssey into English. In Wilson’s translation she starts, controversially, with a request: “Tell me about a complicated man.” Nolan’s adaptation fundamentally refuses that request.

When June rolls around, people all around the country look forward to watching the newest season of Love Island USA. Hot, young, single strangers enter a foreign villa hoping to find a romantic connection. At the same time, people sit back at home and watch these relationships develop, dissolve, and occasionally surprise everyone involved. The entertainment comes from watching seemingly ordinary, everyday people navigate attraction in real time. Someone might enter the villa convinced they have found their person and change their mind a week later, while another couple that seemed destined to win could fall apart overnight.

Many, many of the greatest writers have suffered with substance addiction, with alcohol as a frontrunning favorite. That got me wondering, what is the relationship between writing and alcohol? Does one come before the other? 

It was virtually impossible to avoid Kalshi ads this summer. Kalshi is a prediction market platform launched in 2021 that people use to bet on everything from the weather to military outcomes, though for the past few years, its primary use has been to facilitate sports betting. As Love Island USA returned with a bang, still trying to recreate the magic it found two seasons ago, Kalshi turned its attention to the reality dating show. 

Found guilty? We’ve let another attain a position of federal power. Found innocent? Democrats lose all ethical standing to prosecute for the Epstein files. Platner staying in this race, whether he has support from his party or not, sets a precedent that I’m not sure can ever be undone.

The problem with this 2016 brand of optimism is that it is an obfuscation. It directs our attention to shimmering ideals of liberty and away from the very real issues of rising wealth inequality, entrenched racism, environmental devastation, and the obstinate refusal of our leaders to do anything to fix these problems. Instead of interrogating the idiosyncratic American goal of forging a classless society on an economic system reliant on the existence of a labor class, or acknowledging the malignant grip of whiteness on our meritocratic mythologizing, 2016 gave us Hamilton, which laundered the images of the founding fathers, and hipsterism, which presented a more inclusive and quaint brand of whiteness.