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Orwell's case that bad prose and bad politics feed each other: dying metaphors, pretentious diction and meaningless words let writers stop thinking, and political language exists to make lies sound truthful and murder respectable. It ends with six rules for writing that remain the most useful page of style advice in English, including the one that tells you to break the others sooner than say anything barbarous.
July 13, 2026
Scott Alexander's team publishes its plan for AI going well, Joel Mokyr defends his Nobel thesis, and Ted Gioia argues the Odyssey belongs in the music department.
March 16, 2026
Sean Carroll's Mindscape episode on surveillance, Gwern's writing process revealed, and Martha Nussbaum on why fear is toxic to democracy.
February 16, 2026
An EconTalk episode on America's WWII production miracle, Gwern's scaling hypothesis revisited, and Scott Alexander introduces the AI 2027 scenario.
