The Free Press

One evening last spring, my husband, Nick, took a picture of our friend Dovie, grinning widely and holding up a copy of the New York Post.

Over the past two weeks, a firestorm has erupted over claims from AI researchers—and leaders of the companies they work for—that artificial intelligence is on a breakneck path toward developing the potential to destroy humanity.

It’s Monday, September 21.

Roland Fryer has spent his career finding things out and refusing to sugarcoat them.

There’s a good chance you’ve thought a lot about p(doom) recently, whether or not you knew it.

On August 26, a wall of rock and ice broke away from Langtang Lirung in the Himalayas, resulting in a massive flood and mudflow that killed thousands of people along the border of Nepal and Tibet.

President Donald Trump’s latest assault on the news media came on Friday afternoon when he decreed on Truth Social that Politico, MS NOW, and CNN are now banned from the White House.

With Israeli national elections just over a month away, the attacks of October 7, 2023, and the question of who is responsible for the failures that led to the deadliest day in Israeli history, have taken center stage.

Welcome back to The Weekend Press!

Taylor Lorenz, the technology writer and podcaster, was talking about the internet of her dreams—a world free of alarmists and doomers and Big Brother.

This is a long piece.

The moment you face the possibility of death is clarifying in a way no other experience can be.

It’s Friday, September 18.

The conservative writer and radio host Erick Erickson has long spoken out against what he sees to be the growth of dangerous and illiberal ideas on the American right, ideas that undermine the very values at the heart of conservatism.

Is America really worse than al-Qaeda?

Hello, and welcome back!

This week—and every week—America can’t take its eyes off Sydney Sweeney.

John Boyd was one of the most influential military thinkers of the 20th century, and the intellectual godfather of the U.S.

My head was bowed in prayer when I heard something strange coming from the pulpit.

For 123 years, the Sisters of the Congregation of Divine Providence, a small Catholic religious order based in Kentucky, ran The Jeanne d’Arc Residence in Manhattan as a way to give young women who were new to the city an affordable, safe place to live.

KYIV, Ukraine — I did not take it personally that a Russian drone destroyed the train behind ours as we neared the Polish border with Ukraine on Sunday.

Dear Abigail, When does one let politics dictate the end of a friendship?

It’s Thursday, September 17.

Dara Horn’s book People Love Dead Jews: Reports from a Haunted Present examines how contemporary culture sentimentalizes Jewish suffering while ignoring Jewish life.

In a corner of Cuba, a group of men are dying of old age.

Most Americans have likely never heard of MyFundAction or the Islamic University of Minnesota.

On September 15, I spent the day in a ballroom in a D.C.

NAZA, a documentary by Yuval Abraham and Rachel Szor, premiered at the Venice International Film Festival on September 10, won the Special Jury Prize, and reportedly received a record 25-minute standing ovation.

The first time I heard Macklemore, it was in a sweaty college bar with cheap drinks and a bad sound system.

It’s Wednesday, September 16.

I have Wi-Fi.

At about 1 a.m. this past Sunday morning, I pulled into a gas station in Yahodyn, in Ukraine near the border with Poland.

Last Friday, most Americans marked the 25th anniversary of 9/11 by reflecting on a day the country came under attack from an external enemy.

Tech titans are warning of an AI apocalypse.

Ayaan Hirsi Ali has been charting one of the bravest moral and intellectual journeys of the first quarter of the 21st century.

Welcome back to This Week in Canada, where the Conservatives sound a lot like the Liberals, China is coming whether you like it or not, and more.

It’s Tuesday, September 15.

People think retired Army major John Spencer lost part of his ear in combat.

Over the past week, Saudi Arabia has come under attack—on two fronts.

On the morning of April 15, 2024, Patrick Clancy ran the Boston Marathon.

“Patrick’s the one who did it.

In a world with little agreement, there is one thing that unites almost everyone: AI is the most transformative technology of our time.

A few months ago, we made a bet: Free Pressers didn’t just want to read our articles and listen to our podcasts.

It’s Monday, September 14.

Daryl Davis has been one of my most requested guests for years, and we finally got him on the show.

The moment when everyone begins talking about an issue is usually the moment when the probability of rational decision-making—call it p(RDM)—goes to zero.

For the better part of a decade, when Americans thought about energy, they thought about climate change: how to lower carbon emissions and wean the country off fossil fuels.

When is a slowdown not a slowdown, or perhaps even an acceleration?

One gorgeous Tuesday morning 25 years ago, I grabbed a cab from LaGuardia Airport into New York City.

Welcome back to The Weekend Press!