iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Nathan Heller @nathanheller.bsky.social · 28/07/2026

I've never left less than amazed by a Betye Saar exhibition—she was an artist of real rigor, range, and imagination, one of our greatest among the living. R.I.P. www.nytimes.com/2026/07/27/a...

nytimes.com

Betye Saar, Artist Who Upended Black Stereotypes, Dies at 99

Working with dolls, family photographs, fabric scraps and other found objects, she became a leading figure in assemblage art.

0111

Nathan Heller @nathanheller.bsky.social · 25/06/2026

But, also, these are not mutually exclusive. A healthy higher-ed system has a Cal and a Stanford, a U.T. and a Rice—and lots of (ideally tuition-free) junior colleges. Many people touch more than one of these institutions over the course of their educations and work; it's all the same pipeline.

020

Nathan Heller @nathanheller.bsky.social · 19/06/2026

Mark loved to be self-effacing, but he was one of the greats—an assiduous reporter and a writer who was funny and free. So many of us at the magazine grew up reading him, and kept looking to him for a sense of how it could be done. A huge loss.

1102

Nathan Heller @nathanheller.bsky.social · 12/06/2026

I count my lucky stars I got to visit the huge, delicious retrospective last summer—probably the most remarkable single-artist exhibition I've seen, and a moving case for Hockney as one of the real giants, alive with restlessness and daring and uncertainty and, above all, creative generosity. R.I.P.

020

Nathan Heller @nathanheller.bsky.social · 04/06/2026

Raise a glass. This was, as far as I know, the first culture-discussion podcast—eighteen years!—and the template on which all the others were based. When I was a junior staffer at Slate, so many moons ago, having one's work discussed on the Gabfest was the greatest thrill. Probably still.

0121

Nathan Heller @nathanheller.bsky.social · 03/06/2026

Agree. "Content" makes it easier to talk as if people are responding to business and distribution models rather than to work. No one—no one!—decides to spend hours with "content." They're either taken up with the piece in front of them, in the specific reasons it's irresistible, or they're not.

030

Nathan Heller @nathanheller.bsky.social · 31/05/2026

I spent some time with George Lucas and Mellody Hobson; here's the first look at the huge and unusual museum they are opening in Los Angeles this fall, after about a billion dollars of their own money and years of lost access to their dining-room table. www.vogue.com/article/luca...

vogue.com

Inside the Otherworldly Lucas Museum of Narrative Art in Los Angeles

George Lucas and Mellody Hobson on the massive new architectural icon—housing their personal collection of art and artifacts—opening in September 2026

041

Nathan Heller @nathanheller.bsky.social · 07/05/2026

Cruise ships: where every virus known to science shows up first. Book now!

030

Nathan Heller @nathanheller.bsky.social · 29/04/2026

I find American higher education interesting (as some NYer readers probably know) in part because it's near the center of other ripples in American society. This is a case of data echoing what one hears often in speaking with people abroad, not just in France. www.nytimes.com/2026/04/29/w...

nytimes.com

In France, American Universities Lose Their Allure in the Trump Era

020

Nathan Heller @nathanheller.bsky.social · 27/04/2026

Here's Fabio Bertoni, The New Yorker's own general counsel and a giant of the field, on Kash Patel's lawsuit against The Atlantic and defamation lawsuits more generally. www.newyorker.com/news/the-led...

newyorker.com

Kash Patel’s Implausible Lawsuit Against The Atlantic

Kash Patel is suing The Atlantic. His lawyers “seem to misunderstand how the law (or logic) works,” Fabio Bertoni writes.

071

Nathan Heller @nathanheller.bsky.social · 23/04/2026

RIP MTT. His arrival at the S.F. Symphony, in 1995, brought the most excitement for a conductor I've seen directly. He made it one of the most vaunted, proudly daring orchestras in the world. It was thrilling, for a kid, to watch someone remake his creative world. www.nytimes.com/2026/04/23/a...

nytimes.com

Michael Tilson Thomas, Celebrated American Conductor, Dies at 81

1114

Nathan Heller @nathanheller.bsky.social · 18/02/2026

It's not just the water; societies that value art create art.

0112

Nathan Heller @nathanheller.bsky.social · 15/02/2026

Isn't this, notoriously, the old serial-killer trick?

050

Reposted by Nathan Heller

Letters of Note @lettersofnote.com · 12/02/2026

Happy birthday to one of my favourite haters, Charles Darwin

157102973045

Nathan Heller @nathanheller.bsky.social · 11/02/2026

There is nothing order-keeping, law-enforcing, or public-safety-protecting about this.

020

Nathan Heller @nathanheller.bsky.social · 08/02/2026

My view here is: let's go. If someone's writing truly is indistinguishable from what an A.I. grinds out, by all means, step aside. It just demarcates more clearly the realm of writing that A.I. can't do—what's original, human, singular, and interesting—and makes its special value clearer.

050

Reposted by Nathan Heller

James Fallows @jfallows.bsky.social · 05/02/2026

Very good @newyorker.com piece on Gavin Newsom, by @nathanheller.bsky.social. Gets way, way past the usual media shorthand about him. (I respect what Newsom has done as mayor, lt gov, and now two-term gov of America's best state.) www.newyorker.com/magazine/202...

newyorker.com

Gavin Newsom Is Playing the Long Game

California’s governor has been touted as the Democrats’ best shot in 2028. But first he’ll need to convince voters that he’s not just a slick establishment politician.

2613730

Nathan Heller @nathanheller.bsky.social · 05/02/2026

Yes. Every time you disrupt, revolve, start from scratch, etc., you give yourself a fresh slate of problems and knock-on effects to notice, track, guard against, and solve. Most institutions highly imperfect, but have that behind them. They let you pick up the thread of improvement at a later point.

030

Reposted by Nathan Heller

Nick Field @nickfield.bsky.social · 01/02/2026

"The Governor, who has not changed his cellphone number since becoming mayor of San Francisco, in 2004, has nine thousand twenty-two personal contacts on his phone" www.newyorker.com/magazine/202...

newyorker.com

021

Nathan Heller @nathanheller.bsky.social · 04/02/2026

This is a great assessment, and seems nearly exact.

050

Reposted by Nathan Heller

The New Yorker @newyorker.com · 03/02/2026

When Gavin Newsom first entered public office, at the age of 28, there was a feeling that he would flourish without ascending to the top—too slick, too swank, too smug. Three decades later, the criticisms are the same, but his prospects have transformed. newyorkermag.visitlink.me/KV6N0q

newyorkermag.visitlink.me

Gavin Newsom Is Playing the Long Game

California’s governor has been touted as the Democrats’ best shot in 2028. But first he’ll need to convince voters that he’s not just a slick establishment politician.

135011

Reposted by Nathan Heller

Cato Institute @cato.org · 03/02/2026

The US immigrant population generated more in taxes than they received in benefits from all levels of government every year from 1994 to 2023. The Cato study provides the first-ever 30-year analysis of the fiscal effects of immigration on government budgets. ow.ly/jy8a50Y8kM3

8043812253

Reposted by Nathan Heller

Radley Balko @radleybalko.bsky.social · 03/02/2026

Floored by this story. A man wrote a pollite email to a federal prosecutor objecting to the deportation of an Afghan seeking asylum. DHS responded with an administrative warrant to get the man's info from Google, then visited his home to intimidate him.

newrepublic.com

DHS Hunts Down 67-Year-Old U.S. Citizen Who Criticized Them in Email

The Department of Homeland Security is using a little-known tool to go after its critics.

27499195071

Reposted by Nathan Heller

The New Yorkerest @newyorkerest.com · 03/02/2026

"Gavin Newsom Is Playing the Long Game" by Nathan Heller (@nathanheller.bsky.social) is our pick from the February 9, 2026 issue of The New Yorker. newyorkerest.com/issue/2026/02/09?u…

newyorkerest.com

Gavin Newsom Is Playing the Long Game

031

Nathan Heller @nathanheller.bsky.social · 02/02/2026

I profiled Gavin Newsom, on whom hopes are being pinned, at length in this week's @newyorker.com. I report closely on the way he thinks, operates, builds coalitions, and on. And, yes, the hair. www.newyorker.com/magazine/202...

282

Nathan Heller @nathanheller.bsky.social · 23/01/2026

"Thank you for your attention to this matter!" is such an oddly self-minimizing sign-off from a Commander in Chief. It is how you end your note to the shampoo company's corporate e-mail address that may never be checked, letting them know that their new bottle leaks in a suitcase.

0100

Nathan Heller @nathanheller.bsky.social · 18/01/2026

Such bad news about the tariffs, but at least there are so many other enticements to keep people here in the United States, such as our affordable health care, stable economy, vibrant cultural institutions, and freedom to walk the streets without being asked for papers!

092

Nathan Heller @nathanheller.bsky.social · 24/12/2025

Thinking today of a Christmas Eve, years ago, when I got to the register at City Lights Books just ahead of Tom Stoppard. He wore a tweed suit and a big silk scarf and carried an enormous stack of books with the merry air of someone who'd found just the thing, just in time. Sic perpetuum sit.

0120

Nathan Heller @nathanheller.bsky.social · 23/12/2025

Regarding "60 Minutes," useful to remember that most people have no idea how the standards, norms, and protocols of journalism work (and why should they?), so when someone claims that a story didn't meet standards, she might be trying less to seek industry accord than to seed the idea with public.

030

Nathan Heller @nathanheller.bsky.social · 18/12/2025

I always say that the MOST special thing about The New Yorker is that you can read something from fifteen years ago, thirty years ago, seventy years ago, and find it to be as fresh and engrossing and worth your time as a piece published on Monday. This is the best periodical archive in the world.

0121

Nathan Heller @nathanheller.bsky.social · 09/12/2025

At least eighty-five per cent of the work of writing onto a blank page is figuring out what not to write.

031

Nathan Heller @nathanheller.bsky.social · 08/12/2025

There ought to be a word for the great American tradition of generating an idea you know is ridiculous and impractical in the final countdown to a meeting, just to hold space and show that you are generating ideas. Feignstorming?

2144

Nathan Heller @nathanheller.bsky.social · 29/11/2025

Unexpectedly heartbroken by the death of Tom Stoppard. He was—as a writer with a high-flying career, but also as an artist—the real thing.

050

Nathan Heller @nathanheller.bsky.social · 20/11/2025

An important point about A.I. writing, not to be lost, is that no one enjoys reading it.

171

Nathan Heller @nathanheller.bsky.social · 20/11/2025

My lovely and brilliant colleague Mark Singer is always very funny about his ongoing nightmare of the one magazine profile he never wanted to do continually returning to relevance, like the re-gifted holiday fruitcake that keeps coming back.

050

Reposted by Nathan Heller

Mark Harris @markharris.bsky.social · 15/11/2025

Some inspiring words on cinema in the streaming era from the Pope. Yes, THAT Pope.

The logic of algorithms tends to repeat what “works,” but art opens up what is possible. Not everything has to be immediate or predictable. Defend slowness when it serves a purpose, silence when it speaks and difference when evocative. Beauty is not just a means of escape; it is above all an invocation. When cinema is authentic, it does not merely console, but challenges. It articulates the questions that dwell within us, and sometimes, even provokes tears that we did not know we needed to express.

8452411408

Nathan Heller @nathanheller.bsky.social · 09/11/2025

Helen Rosner, @hels.bsky.social, who brings frankness, precise expertise, sane perspective, and humanity to her writing about food, is one of my favorite critics to read these days, full stop. www.newyorker.com/culture/the-...

newyorker.com

La Boca Is All Smoke, No Fire

The Argentinean chef Francis Mallmann is notorious for his love of cooking over open flames. With his New York début, he fizzles out.

130

Nathan Heller @nathanheller.bsky.social · 28/10/2025

A real and alarming loss for CBS News, or any operation. Dickerson is both an irrepressibly responsible journalist and one of the most patient and good-faith colleagues in the industry. deadline.com/2025/10/john...

deadline.com

John Dickerson To Depart CBS News In First Major Talent Exit Under New Paramount Owners

John Dickerson, co-anchor of CBS Evening News who has been with the network since 2009, said that he is exiting at the end of this year.

161

Nathan Heller @nathanheller.bsky.social · 24/10/2025

The President says that his team is accepting $130 million checks from individuals whose identities cannot be disclosed and using that money to fund the military, so don't worry.

193

Nathan Heller @nathanheller.bsky.social · 18/10/2025

One way to think about this, perhaps, is as a side effect of an increasingly plutocratic-standard society. As middle-class life becomes more fundamentally uncomfortable and plutocrats exercise increasingly visible influence, more busy, ambitious people feel an entitlement to billionaire-style life.

171

Nathan Heller @nathanheller.bsky.social · 13/10/2025

A small thing—but also not—is that I've never seen a greater explosion of misuses of the English language by people in public life wearing suits and ties than recently. "Begs the question" is one of the most minor. It helps support this sense of language coming unmoored from reality.

031

Reposted by Nathan Heller

The New Yorker @newyorker.com · 12/10/2025

Diane Keaton, who died today, at 79, was “one of the most comedically pure and brainy actresses in our midst,” Penelope Gilliatt wrote, in 1978. www.newyorker.com/magazine/1978/12/…

921432

Nathan Heller @nathanheller.bsky.social · 10/10/2025

I disagree. High school and college are still, for better and worse, the closest things to wormholes in American society—where people can enter with one future and exit with another—and places of intellectual acculturation, where style and values are set. Flip a switch there, and the effects ripple.

290