Wyatt's Wavelength

Wildly entertaining. Earth becomes a deadly game show run by aliens, and it's way better than it has any right to be. Darkly funny, surprisingly emotional, and impossible to put down. Princess Donut is the perfect representation of a pampered cat. Best LitRPG I've read.

Sanderson delivers a masterclass in payoff. Every puzzle piece from the previous two books clicks into place in ways I didn't anticipate. The final act is relentless—world-ending stakes that actually feel earned. This is why you read epic fantasy trilogies. The magic system reaches its full potential here, and watching characters deploy allomancy in increasingly creative ways never gets old.

Fascinating premise: what happens when humanity conquers death? The moral questions around who gets to decide who dies are genuinely thought-provoking. YA but doesn't pull punches. Shusterman handles the ethical complexity with real nuance—this isn't a simple good-versus-evil story.

The weakest entry in the trilogy. Political maneuvering dominates the narrative, and while Sanderson's worldbuilding remains meticulous, the pacing suffers. Too much time debating siege tactics, not enough momentum. The character development is strong, but stretches of this book feel like necessary setup rather than compelling story. Power through for the payoff in book three.

Peak Shakira before the English crossover. The production is raw and urgent, blending rock edge with Latin pop sensibility in ways that continue to sound fresh. "Ojos Así" brings Middle Eastern influences that were radical for mainstream Latin pop in 1998. This is the album that made her a global star for good reason—it's bold, experimental, and unapologetically Shakira.

The orchestral indie rock blueprint that launched a thousand imitators, but few have matched the raw emotional urgency here. "Wake Up" and "Rebellion (Lies)" are generational anthems. The album tackles grief and loss with a sincerity that could've been maudlin but instead feels cathartic and life-affirming.

Zach Bryan proves he's the real deal... AGAIN. Stripped-down storytelling that cuts deep without unnecessary production. This is what modern country should sound like: raw, literate, and emotionally direct. No Nashville polish, just songs that matter.

The most expensive divorce album ever made. Marvin airing out his failed marriage in real time—bitter, beautiful, and brutally honest. Initially panned, it's aged into one of his most fascinating works. The vulnerability here is uncomfortable but compelling. He's working through his pain in the studio, and you're witnessing it unfold. Not an easy listen, but a rewarding one.

Late-era Rufus doesn't capture the magic of their earlier work. I respect the craft and Chaka's voice remains incredible, but this one didn't land for me. The title track has moments, but the album as a whole feels formulaic compared to their peak output. Not bad, just not essential.

I get why it's influential and respect the proto-punk electronic experimentation, but this just didn't hit. Too abrasive without enough payoff. The minimalist approach feels more tedious than revolutionary in practice. Not for me.

China isn't just dominating EV production—they're conquering European markets while American automakers flounder. BYD's technology edge and vertical integration are forcing legacy manufacturers to play catch-up. Their European market share jumped to 8% in 2025, and they're targeting 15% by 2027. The US response is protectionist theater that doesn't address the core problem: Chinese manufacturers are simply building better, cheaper EVs. This will reshape global auto supply chains and potentially kill Detroit's last chance at relevance.

The race to AGI has no brakes. OpenAI's o3 and Anthropic's Claude Opus are converging on human-level reasoning, and the rhetoric around displacement is shifting from "if" to "when." Sam Altman's recent comments that "most knowledge work will be automated within 36 months" aren't hype—they're prediction. We're sprinting toward a future where white-collar jobs evaporate faster than we can retrain workers, and nobody in power is preparing for the social consequences. The productivity gains will be staggering; so will the unemployment.

De-dollarization is accelerating. BRICS nations are settling oil trades in yuan, Saudi Arabia is accepting non-dollar currencies for crude, and central banks are dumping treasuries at the fastest pace since 2015. This isn't abstract theory—it means higher borrowing costs for the US, reduced leverage in foreign policy, and inflation that's harder to control. Within a decade, the dollar could lose its reserve currency status, and Americans will discover what it's like to live in a country that can't simply print its way out of debt.

Prediction markets are infiltrating public discourse. Polymarket now updates Bitcoin probabilities every five minutes, Kalshi runs live odds on Fed decisions, and political pundits cite market percentages like gospel. This is fundamentally changing how we process uncertainty—replacing expert opinion with aggregated bets. The accuracy is impressive (Polymarket called the 2024 election better than any poll), but we're also creating financial incentives to shape narratives. When enough money rides on a prediction, the line between forecasting and manipulation blurs.

Brilliant piece on how Jollibee became the Philippines' dominant fast food chain by beating McDonald's at their own game. It's a story about postcolonial identity, nostalgia, and how a chicken chain became a symbol of national pride. Tayag shows how Jollibee adapted American fast food to Filipino tastes—sweeter sauces, bone-in fried chicken, spaghetti with hot dogs—and in doing so, created something distinctly theirs. The business strategy is fascinating, but it's really about cultural resilience.

Sharp investigation into how academic accommodations have exploded at elite colleges. Students are gaming disability systems for extra time and quiet testing rooms, and schools are incentivized to enable it. Horowitch shows that disability diagnoses are proliferating faster at selective institutions than anywhere else—not because elite students are uniquely struggling, but because accommodations have become an arms race for competitive advantage.

Fascinating historical perspective on motherhood expectations. For millennia, the bar for "good mother" was literally "don't die during childbirth and keep your kids alive." Now we've created impossible standards; Pinterest-perfect birthday parties, organic everything, constant engagement. The piece traces how postwar prosperity and modern psychology transformed parenting into an all-consuming identity project. It's part history, part cultural criticism, and it'll make you rethink every parenting trend.

Deep dive into London's economic stagnation and path to recovery. Despite being a global financial hub, London's productivity growth has flatlined for a decade. The Economist lays out why; regulatory burden, housing crisis, infrastructure underinvestment—but also makes the case for optimism. The city has the talent, the institutions, and the global connections to rise from the ashes. Whether it will depends on political will to make hard choices about planning reform and public investment.

Stephen King adaptation about time traveling to prevent JFK's assassination. James Franco delivers a surprisingly nuanced performance, and the butterfly effect consequences feel earned rather than contrived. The pacing sags during the middle episodes with too much romance subplot, not enough temporal paradox, but the finale brings satisfying closure. Solid execution of a tricky premise.

Excellent breakdown of the 1979 Iranian Revolution and its enduring impact on Middle Eastern geopolitics. The hosts unpack how the Shah's modernization program created the conditions for Khomeini's rise, and why the revolution's anti-Western fervor still shapes Iranian foreign policy today. They make complex historical forces accessible without oversimplifying. Essential listening for understanding current Iran tensions.