Read Max

• Talking 'American Canto' and Jeffrey Epstein with John Ganz

  This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit maxread.substack.comThis week, John and I talked about the journalist Olivia Nuzzi, an excerpt from whose new memoir American Canto ran this week in Vanity Fair; her ex Ryan Lizza’s follow-up; Ganz’s annoyed response; the publication of Jeffrey Epstein’s emails; why Epstein would have loved the A.I. age; and what this all has to do with Machiavelli.While the chat is free when live, and a short preview is available above, only paying subscribers can access the archive of these chats as video and podcast audio!

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• Talking Zohran and Kalshi with John Ganz and Jay Kang

  This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit maxread.substack.comGreetings from Read Max HQ! Every other Wednesday at 2 p.m., John Ganz (author of The Year the Clock Broke and proprietor of the Unpopular Front Substack) and I host a Substack Live chat about politics, tech, culture, and the pieces we’ve been working on. Paying subscribers can access the archive of these chats as video and podcast audio.This week, we w…

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• The Silicon Valley-Trump bet

  Greetings from Read Max HQ! This week’s newsletter is a video-slash-podcast-slash-Substack Live with my friend John Ganz. Among the topics discussed:* The Epstein birthday book and the unbelievably creepy tone of the messages* The “tech summit” between Silicon Valley executives and the Trump administration last week* The “A.I. Bubble”: What it is, whether it might be bursting* Why A.I. slop is bad for the soul and not art* Why old Sony electronics from when we were adolescents are good for the soul in the same way that art isYou can watch above, or listen to the audio version on any of your favorite podcast platforms.A reminder: Read Max is a reader-funded endeavor. Practically speaking, what that means is that producing Read Max newsletters and associated audiovisual products is my job, and in order to do my job well, I need to make money from it, so that I can exchange it for essential goods and services such as food and housing and vintage Sony electronics. If you like the job I do--if you find my writing (and recording) enlightening or entertaining, or even if it just helps you numbly pass the time such that you can put off the anxiety that accompanies awareness of mortality--please consider becoming a paying subscriber, for the bargain price of $5, or about a beer a month. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit maxread.substack.com/subscribe

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• Steelmanning Peter Thiel

  My friend John Ganz and I reformed our intermittent podcast this week to talk about New York Times columnist Ross Douthat’s interview with PayPal founder Peter Thiel. Among the topics covered:* Why Thiel is obsessed with Greta Thunberg, who he seems to think is the Antichrist;* What “steelmanning” is, and why it’s damaged Thiel’s ability to answer questions from even friendly interviews;* The Zohran Mamdani campaign as anti-Thiel politics.You can listen to the podcast here, or on whatever platforms you get your podcasts from.A reminder! Read Max, whether in text or audio form, is the product of an extensive amount of work--research, reporting, deliberation, writing, editing, recording, staring at the wall, etc. Nearly all of my compensation for that work comes from paying subscribers, whose generosity represents about 90 percent of my total income. If you find Read Max rewarding to you at all: If it makes you laugh, smile, think, sigh, whatever: Please consider upgrading your subscription. Not only will you help ensure its continued existence, you’ll also get access to a second, paywalled newsletter every week featuring recommendations for books, movies, and music that you might not otherwise know about. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit maxread.substack.com/subscribe

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• Two deeply upsetting photographs

  Greetings from Read Max HQ! Today’s post is a Read Max audiovisual product featuring cohost Sam Biddle, senior technology reporter at The Intercept.A quick interstitial reminder: Read Max is a subscription business! In order to devote the time I do every week to reading, writing, reporting, thinking, procrastinating, and all other activities essential to the production of this twice-and-sometimes-thrice-weekly newsletter, I need to “convert” readers into “paid subscribers,” a task I attempt to accomplish with these touts. If you find what I do valuable to you--if you think you learn something, or are entertained, or get mad in a productive way--please consider compensating me for that value for the unbelievably low price of $5 a month. Think of it like buying me a beer once a month in exchange for something like 20,000 almost entirely properly spelled and punctuated words of insight, argument, criticism, good sci-fi recommendations, and sometimes even humor. Yesterday Sam and I “went live” to talk about a set of new stories on tech’s ever-increasing ties to the defense industry:* A recent white paper from OpenAI outlining the company’s vision of A.I.’s geopolitical future, about which Sam wrote more here;* Mark Zuckerberg and Palmer Luckey burying the hatchet and partnering on a V.R. headset for the military; and* Palantir's controversial new role counting human beings for the U.S. government.What do these partnerships tell us about the present and future of the tech industry, A.I., and geopolitics?Also up for discussion: What’s going on at Apple? And two distinctly unsettling photographs, the first of Luckey and Zuckerberg breaking bread……and the second, a sort of wedding-announcement pic of former Apple designer Jony Ive and OpenAI C.E.O. Sam Altman:Please enjoy, here on Substack, or, without video, on any of your preferred podcast platforms! This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit maxread.substack.com/subscribe

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