Make sense of what’s happening, and imagine what could be.
Carefully curated recommendations on what to read, watch and listen to. For nerds and changemakers who love when something makes them go «Huh, I never thought of it this way!».Undecided? Learn more | Peek inside
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Immerse yourself in a particular topic, with some of the best links from around the web, handpicked.
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Hi, I'm David. A journalist, and a curious generalist.
I've been curating the best of the web for my newsletter since 2011. I'd love to be your diligent curator, too.
Recommendations in the Weekly Filet are things I want my friends to see.
Things that tickle and delight a curious mind.
Articles, books, podcasts, graphics, videos, photographs,...The form is never the limit.
I let these questions guide me:
1. Does it help understand a complex, important issue?
2. Does it foster empathy by making you see the world through others' eyes?
3. Does it inspire self-reflection?
If it's timely, that's good. If it's timeless, that's better.
If in doubt, I prefer nerdy, witty, ambiguous. Solutions-oriented and actionable. Candid.
Don't expect news. Expect new insights.
Expect to be surprised.
2817 recommended links since 2011
...or shuffle for a surprise
A 33-year-old Muslim born in Uganda will most likely become the next mayor of New York City. With everything that’s going terribly wrong in the US right now, it’s important to not forget that other things are happening as well. Good profile from the New Statesman.
A gripping, maddening podcast episode. The story of how anti-vax conspiracy theorists terrorise a man who just lost his pregnant wife – all because of two innocuous words in her obituary.
The essence of Rutger Bregman’s new book, and the movement he has started – The School of Moral Ambition – in one extremely well-produced 20-minute video.
Longtime readers know of my favourite nerdy subgenre: the in-depth profile of stuff our modern world runs on. Sometimes, that stuff is invisible. Like the air we breathe, and ultraviolet light that we can use to disinfect it. This profile ends with a thought-provoking question: We transformed public health by doing everything we can to guarantee clean water. We have the means to do the same with air. So how come – even after the coronavirus pandemic – clean air isn’t as universal and expected as clean water?
It’s my lucky week, with another exhibit from my favourite nerdy subgenre, the in-depth profile of stuff our modern world runs on. Another invisible one, a scientific method. Randomised controlled trials help us establish cause and effect. They let us figure out whether a drug or a treatment works – and how well. Discovering what works can save lives. But just as important is determining what doesn’t work – the piece highlights how we’ve gotten better at the latter.
Enlightening: the climate crisis, seen through the lens of insurance. As more and more things become too risky to insure, the ripple effects are felt everywhere.
I didn’t write about Charlie Kirk last week, because it was so recent, everyone was jumping to conclusions and nothing seemed worth recommending here. I’m still hesitant, but I wanted to share some thoughts that have started to form, and a piece by Ta-Nehisi Coates that gets to the heart of why this moment is so dangerous. In the immediate aftermath, it felt like more violence was bound to follow, with the far right and their president blaming the left and calling for retribution. Now that the motive and the background of the shooter look less conclusive, something else seems to be happening – less violent, but no less dangerous. Kirk gets sanitised by the centre-left, turned into a martyr by the right and this death, ironically, gets weaponised against free speech. Maybe best captured by a satirical post by journalist Judd Legum: «Charlie Kirk was a champion of free speech and anyone who says otherwise will be fired.» Ta-Nehisi Coates stresses that one cannot praise Kirk for how he engaged in debate without calling out what he said. «If you would look away from the words of Charlie Kirk, from what else would you look away?»
Something to nerd out on. A 112-slide strong presentation by the energy think tank Ember on how electrotech is rewriting the economics and geopolitics of energy. If you remember just one chart, make it 32. («The electrification ceiling is high and rising»).
A short ode to the via negativa, the method of obtaining knowledge via subtraction. Includes the case for more «How not to» self-help books at the classic quote from Michelangelo on how he created his masterpiece statue: «It’s simple. I just remove everything that is not David.» (which also happens to be my guiding principle for staying in shape).
What a wonderful concept! This new podcast, aptly called «Only one question», is all about a single yes or no question. They ask the best possible expert and follow up until they arrive at something resembling clarity. In this case, the answer to the question whether we really exist, is: «No, but…». The intro is in German, the conversation starts at 3:30.