iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Constance Grady @constancegrady.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

refamiliarizing myself with the plot of Verity in preparation for two of the finest actresses of their generation bringing it to movie screens everywhere

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Constance Grady @constancegrady.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

AI has come for DC’s anti-Trump wheatpasters now

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Constance Grady @constancegrady.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

Shocked by my own outrage to see Gilmore Girls get such a low ranking. I wonder if its cultural value got depreciated by AYITL, or maybe by the over-inflated Marvelous Mrs. Maisel — I would have expected it to end up in the 40 to 70 range. www.nytimes.com/interactive/...

nytimes.com

The 100 Best TV Shows of the 21st Century

More than 500 influential stars, showrunners and other notable names in the world of TV voted on the best series released since Jan. 1, 2000. See what they chose.

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Constance Grady @constancegrady.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

I am SET on my couch for Tendershire Farms

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Constance Grady @constancegrady.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

That so much of their movement is based on HPMoR has always felt more disqualifying to me than what SBF did

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Constance Grady @constancegrady.bsky.social · 13/09/2026

That's without going into his buy in of the narrative that capitalist appropriations of progressive analysis, like those much-maligned corporate DEI programs, are legitimate grounds for a rural-identifying conservative movement to identify as outsiders. Who's doing DEI at the honkey tonk bar?

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Constance Grady @constancegrady.bsky.social · 13/09/2026

It can feel as though these definitions are equivalent, because people use the same word to describe them: country. But they're actually describing three separate, sometimes overlapping phenomena. The piece's failure to distinguish between them clearly is, for me, the big reason it doesn't succeed.

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Constance Grady @constancegrady.bsky.social · 13/09/2026

Schmitz sort of moves back and forth between using 1 and 3 as proof of 2 — that is, saying that music that uses the formal properties of country (e.g. Cowboy Carter) or is hot on country radio (e.g. Ella Langley) is proof of a revival of rural culture, which he reads as synonymous with whiteness.

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Constance Grady @constancegrady.bsky.social · 13/09/2026

3. Marketing: as put by Barbara Mandrell, "Whoever happens to be hot in Nashville and on country stations at the time."

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Constance Grady @constancegrady.bsky.social · 13/09/2026

In Major Labels, Kalefa Sanneh comes up with three different definitions for country as a genre: 1. The formalist definition: music played with fiddles, banjos, and pedal steel, with a twang and a narrative. 2. Cultural: an expression of rural identity, with connotations of whiteness. …

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Constance Grady @constancegrady.bsky.social · 13/09/2026

I think one of the issues with the NYT rural revival piece is that it's moving back and forth between different definitions of country music — a notoriously slippery genre to define — without ever acknowledging what it's doing.

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Constance Grady @constancegrady.bsky.social · 04/09/2026

My last story for Vox is up! I looked at the rise in social deduction games like Blood on the Clocktower. They create a safe space for anti-social behavior like lying — which ironically helps create pro-social bonds. www.vox.com/the-highligh...

vox.com

How to make friends by lying to them

With the rise of social deduction games like Blood on the Clocktower, everyone can be a traitor now.

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Constance Grady @constancegrady.bsky.social · 25/08/2026

Oh no, how awful. Her work was beautiful and meaningful.

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Reposted by Constance Grady

Leila Sales @leilasalesbooks.bsky.social · 22/08/2026

This is so, so dumb and shortsighted of Vox. I read pretty much everything Constance writes. She's a brilliant writer and big-picture thinker who gives popular culture the analysis it deserves. Her inbox had better be full of job offers, stat.

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Kelly @onesmartcupcake.bsky.social · 22/08/2026

I was thrilled & honored to chat with Constance for this incredibly thoughtful article about a topic dear to my professional heart - check it out!

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Constance Grady @constancegrady.bsky.social · 22/08/2026

I have been planning to do my analysis more mechanically but it would be interesting to see what she said herself as well!

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Constance Grady @constancegrady.bsky.social · 22/08/2026

I HAVE been considering a podcast too …

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Ann Foster @vulgarhistory.bsky.social · 21/08/2026

** bangs on drum ** someone please hire Constance!!!

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Ann Foster @vulgarhistory.bsky.social · 21/08/2026

Constance Grady is a superstar of literary journalism, if you are hiring an incredible writer she’s the one for you!!

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Constance Grady @constancegrady.bsky.social · 21/08/2026

Thank you, Ann, that means a lot. We learned a lot coming up together at YKYLF!!! 💕

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Anne Trubek @atrubek.bsky.social · 21/08/2026

One of the best in books coverage. Really upset to see this news today.

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Constance Grady @constancegrady.bsky.social · 21/08/2026

I have been scheming up a newsletter for a while now that would be me reading through all the Agatha Christie novels and breaking down the mechanics of her misdirects. I will still be doing that! But should I also have general book recs and so on? What are people interested in?

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Constance Grady @constancegrady.bsky.social · 21/08/2026

All right, here's my first order of business. Like all unemployed arts journalists, I am going to start a newsletter. But I've got a couple options for the focus.

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