James Mishra - Dark Shift

Science

Did Scientists Really Find Life on Venus?

(They didn't, but they did find some interesting signs...)

Music

David Prorok Can Rap. And So Can You.

He is on a mission to teach anybody how to rap.

School

COVID-19 is Turning Universities into Trainwrecks

If you were about to go to college, consider taking a gap year.

Politics

Why Mental Illness Might Hold the Key to Strong Leadership

It may turn out that being a little neuroatypical might make someone a better military or political leader.

Technology

What Is GPT-3 and Why Is It Talking to Us?

Silicon Valley is buzzing because of GPT-3, which is the newest piece of research from the Elon Musk-backed research institute OpenAI.

Technology

What the Tech Industry and the Media get Wrong About "Cancel Culture"

There is a roaring debate between voices in Silicon Valley and the journalists that cover them over "Cancel Culture"--specifically whether journalists are acting maliciously when negatively reporting on or criticizing figures in tech. But both sides are denying the truth.

Galaxy Brain

If We Met Space Aliens, Would We Have to Kill Them?

The Chinese science-fiction author Cixin Liu challenges that in his popular series The Three-Body Problem, which explores what human interaction with space aliens might look like [...]

Music Business

How K-Pop Fans Became Heroes of the Black Lives Matter Movement

The death of George Floyd in Minneapolis kicked off a political movement around the world, Korean pop music fans have since banded together in a large and unlikely group of activists. [...]

Music Business

Ten Books About the History of Record Labels

The way the music industry behaves in today's digital age often goes all the way back to the inventions of the radio and the phonograph. These ten books--listed in no particular order--are some of my favorite for figuring out how record labels have grown and evolved over the past few decades. [...]