March Links

What I'm reading

Author

Riley Haas
March 31, 2026

This is a monthly post about the articles and books I’m reading, as well as the podcasts I’m listening to, plus some videos I watched.

What I’m Reading:

  • Vikram Seth: A Suitable Boy (1993): So I don’t know what I’ve got myself into. My library copy is 1474 pages. I am at page 102. I don’t know if there’s any way I can read this is 9 weeks at the pace I am currently on. (9 weeks is the maximum I can have it out at one time as long as nobody has a hold on it.) And I’m not entirely sure I should. I don’t remember what list I got this from or who recommended it to me but, so far, it just appears to be a very in-depth look at a woman being forced into an arranged marriage in India 1950, and the lives of her family members. If I was particularly interested in mid century India I might be more interested in this extremely long novel. But, so far, I’m only really interested in 2 of the many characters, neither of whom are the main characters, and I find the rest of it rather uncompelling. I’m sure some people consider it one of the great novels of the 1990s. But it’s very normal prose and so far I can’t detect much great art in it. So far, it just feels like it’s a portrait of a very specific time and place, somewhere and somewhen that, I guess, a lot of people are very interested in. I’m not. At least so far. Given that I’m not even 1/10th of the way through yet, I’m debating dropping it. Should I?

  • Johann Swinnen, Devin Briski: Beeronomics: How Beer Explains the World (2017): As with so many subtitles, this one doesn’t actually tell you what the book is about. What it actually is is an economic history of beer. I’m worried it might be too brief but I was enjoying myself before I started reading my library book.

  • “Regime Change in Iran (Terms And Conditions Apply)”: This was written the day I sent my February “What I’m Reading” email but I didn’t read it until after I pressed send. So here it is a month late. I haven’t re-read it in the interim to know how correct or incorrect it was.

  • “The money behind the new Iran War”: If this reporting is accurate, a mere 25 years after the US was attacked by a Saudi Arabian terrorist the US bombed Saudi Arabia’s rival, in part, on their behalf. There are some countries in which this would be treason. Not in the US, however. In the US it’s business as usual. (Americans don’t care about their relationship with Saudi Arabia for some reason.)

  • “[The US is] Ruled By Underpants Gnomes”: Yup.

  • “Hollywood Franchise Reboots Are Full of Overpowering, Stultifying Reverence”: Amen.

  • “The one science reform we can all agree on, but we're too cowardly to do”: Death to for-profit journals. (I don’t understand why universities don’t just publish their research on their websites and license it to anyone who wants to print it. Ah well.)

  • “Bits In, Bits Out”: An AI skeptic and neuroscientist tries to temper the current enthusiasm. (He does not really address code writing, alas.)

  • “The Outliers”: “America is sometimes described as the “land of liberty,” and yet a great deal of the “liberty” in question arises, not from a principled commitment to individual freedom as a political value, but merely from heightened tolerance for anti-social behaviour…Trump channels this ethos more clearly and profoundly than any other American politician. Whether it’s wearing a blue suit to the Pope’s funeral, staring straight at an eclipse, taking his mask off during Covid, or assassinating foreign leaders, the same underlying “fuck you” impulse is at work. For a lot of Americans, telling them that they are not allowed to do something just really, really makes them want to do it.”

  • “The Incel's Veto and Other Observations”: On why men should be normal about sex and romance and why the media needs to stop pretending that the weirdest of us make up a reasonably large minority.

  • “The Hundred Years' War”: On the futility of prohibition and what 100 years of drug prohibition has done to Mexico.

  • “Gamblers trying to win a bet on Polymarket are vowing to kill me if I don’t rewrite an Iran missile story”: I’m sure the death threats and corruption are outweighed by the “transparency” and “predictive qualities” that the proponents of prediction markets believe are good reason for all of this.

  • “Why do politicians tend to be morally bankrupt?”: I don’t agree with the headline, I don’t think that it’s actually true. But the discussion as to why politicians seem to make morally dubious choices more than regular people is interesting. (Personally I believe all of us - or nearly all of us - would be compromised by power and so it makes sense that people who get power have compromised morals.)

  • “How Much a Dollar Cost?”: “We build some of the most expensive data centers on the planet in the most strategically volatile region on the planet, announce a new security paradigm that hinges on their proliferation and protection, and then launch a war against a country next door.” Remember when Google used to believe “Don’t be evil”? Silicon Valley is a long way from that now.

  • “Viva Venezuela, A Champion At Last”: Some happy news in case you missed it.

  • “My Only Prayer”: A Jewish-American comedian on being a Jewish-American during the Israeli-American assault on Iran.

  • “Save us, Digital Cronkite!”: I don’t fully agree with him on social media or AI but I did like this characterization of bad social media actors: “Basically, spreading hate and divisiveness on social media is a form of entrepreneurship.” That I agree with and I haven’t seen it said so well before. Being a terrible, politicizing asshole on the internet is good for business. Here is a more nuanced take on the same idea of AI as a force for a shared reality.

  • “Canada Is A Nation Of Cheapskates”: I think this is a little pie-in-the-sky but it’s a nice sentiment. (I am of the opinion that people will not change their views on this stuff.)

  • “Grand Delusion”: “It’s exactly as Arendt observed when she noted how intellectuals in Germany “made up ideas about Hitler…Completely fantastic and interesting and complicated things.” Just relax—I’m not saying Trump is literally Hitler; I’m saying that this is the same failure of judgment Arendt spoke of: it’s the same incapacity to apply the correct concepts to the situation, namely that the person in question is a criminal lunatic.”

  • “March, 19-21: God is a comedian”: It still amazes me what Americans chose to do to themselves and the world, for whatever reasons they each chose. Depending upon what has happened in the 9 days between when I read this and sent out this newsletter, the whole thing might be worth reading, however this is the part that really stands out: “Friday’s press gaggle. Barely exaggerated: at 12:03 PM, President Trump told reporters he wanted a ceasefire with Iran. At 12:05 he declared victory. At 12:07 he announced he was sending Marines. At 12:08 he said no boots on the ground. At 12:11 he said he did not want a ceasefire. At 12:16 he declared victory again. At 12:17 he asked for a ceasefire. At 12:23 he told NATO they were cowards. At 12:29 he said Iran was begging for a ceasefire. At 12:31 he said everything was perfect. At 12:36 he said $500 oil was a good thing. At 12:37 he demanded Iran open Hormuz. At 12:39 he said Hormuz was never closed. At 12:41 he said the US was not at war with Iran. At 12:42 he declared victory in Iran.” If the United States had a functioning representative branch of government, maybe something could be done about this before the midterms.

  • “Two cases of IP tracking in Canadian media”: A number of years ago, Canadland asked supporters for a large sum of money to help them out, in return promising membership for life. I took them up on that offer as I valued them. Since then I’ve lost some faith in them, particular in terms of how they’ve handled Israel/Palestine (an issue I generally pay zero attention to when I’m not forced to). Whatever this is, is not good. It seems to suggest that the publisher has gotten quite paranoid. It makes me sad.

  • “"Gooning Towards the Führer" as policy coordination”: Don’t worry, he’s not comparing Trump to Hitler in that way.

  • “I Sure Hate This Annoying Pandemic of Online Age Restriction Laws”: A point that I often make about book bans but about the stupid age restriction panic. You cannot ever keep your children from the world.

  • “How Natural [are] Tradeoff And Failure Components?”: This is a brief and I think very fair summary of the how so much of life is made up of tradeoffs and failures.

  • “Most Valuable Questions And Calculus: An Overthinker's Guide to MVP 2026”: This is a great breakdown on the various arguments people use to argue for their preferred MVP. I wish something similar existed in hockey.

What I’m Listening to:

  • American Prestige: “Geopolitics, the Military, and the War in Iran w/ Spencer Ackerman”: I listened to this because Spencer Ackerman, the premiere journalistic-critic of the War on Terror, was on it and mentioned his appearance in Forever Wars. However it wasn’t anything I hadn’t already heard from him or from others.

  • Behind the Bastards:

    • “Elan School: The Worst ‘Troubled Teen’ Facility”: Probably the craziest (but also most normal) part of this whole story is that what they did here was exposed in the 1970s and yet the school operated into the 1990s because it made people money.

    • “The Company that poisoned 300,000 Babies”: What does it say about me that I thought Robert’s two mentees/guest hosts were the same guy even though they had different names? This is the episode that I finally realized that Christopher wasn’t Garrison. Because one of them was the host, though, it is one of their weaker episodes.

    • “Pappa Doc and Baby Doc: Dictators of Haiti”: I knew some of this already but it was still a good reminder.

  • Canadaland:

  • Darknet Diaries: “Phrack”: This episode about the death and life of the biggest hacker zine of the era was more interesting than I thought it would be but is also one of the least interesting episodes from this otherwise great show.

  • In the Dark: Season 4 (???): I just finished their mini season about COVID in small town Mississippi.

    • “Geno”: One episode I want to draw attention to it this super weird one about a serial shoplifter who was the only person in the local jail not let out for the pandemic, who the local judge, um, judged him a “menace to society” because he broke his promise to her. It got me thinking about how we handle people like this, and how jail really isn’t solution for this man who probably is just poor, possibly dumb or possibly with mental health problems. They do find some kind of resolution but it does feel like a country with more resources devoted to these kinds of things might not have to send someone like this to jail.

  • The Zach Lowe Show [nee The Lowe Post]: He’s still talking about Giannis! Sometimes it’s about how he doesn’t want to talk about Giannis. But he still does. I need a moratorium. This is out of control. Giannis will be a Buck next season or he won’t be. Spending hours of your podcast talking about it won’t change that.

  • Reply All:

    • "Pierre Delecto and the Spooky Adventure": The first half of this is a vaguely interesting discussion of politicians with secret social media accounts, some of whom are adamant they deny those accounts are theirs. (It’s a reminder that a) everyone lies and b) you shouldn’t feel bad if you deny something minor you’ve done when first confronted with it because, apparently, it’s only human.) The second half is a fascinating insight into one of hosts (I believe the one who will eventually be forced to resign, though I haven’t got that far). If you’ve listened to this show, you know one of the two main hosts is a bit of a bully. He teases everyone (staff, guests, random callers) about just about anything and everything, including some very minor/normal stuff. (Which he claims is weird.) Turns out, the guy is terrified - and I mean terrified - of horror movies and even movies that might be a tiny bit scary. And this is what I find fascinating. Everyone lets this guy pick on them (on air!) and yet the co-host actively tries to help him get over his ridiculously childish fear instead of giving it back. Bullies bully because we allow them to and because we treat them better than they treat us.

    • “The Cure for Everything”: This is a call in episode. Two notes:

      • First, it feels like one of these calls is a prank or, as someone on Reddit put it, someone having an extreme manic episode. (The caller claims to have found a cure for baldness but won’t say what it is. Hence the episode title.) The hosts indulge this person for like 20+ minutes and it’s really weird. I guess there’s no harm if they just thought it was funny, but it’s one of the strangest moments in the history of the show, or in any podcast I listened to, and there’s a long Reddit thread about how everyone felt extremely weird about it, skipped it or, as I did, turned their speed up to get through it faster.

      • Second: I have a smart phone now, as you know, and I am addicted to a mobile game, as you may also know. Months ago, I downloaded a different game based on an ad and discovered it was not at all the same game. I found reviews online confirming my fears and I deleted it. Somehow, this has been going on far longer, even before this episode (from 2020!). This is just a mobile game ad strategy and nobody has ever got anyone to do anything about it even though it feels like the very definition of false advertising.

  • “Friendship Village": This was a fun “Yes, Yes, No.”

  • Science Vs.:

  • The Bill Simmons Podcast: I’m listening to this every Sunday (except one) because Zach’s on it. But I also decided to listen to “The Annual Worst NBA Contracts Draft” because I thought it would be fun. As with every NBA pod Simmons does, I thought some of it was really interesting and some of it was just totally insane. There are takes I agreed with and ones I thought were indicative of the guests maybe not knowing enough about the players they were selecting. (Well, one guest.) I did get to read a Reddit thread of a bunch of people complaining about it, which was fun.

What I’m Watching:

  • Chris the Producer: “I Mapped Google’s ONLY SECRET CITY”: My understanding is that it is no longer mapped, again.

  • Last Week Tonight: I forgot to add these in February so this is for two months.

    • “Viktor Orbán”: It doesn’t sound like the opposition is great but one can hope this man loses his re-election bid.

    • “Police Stings”: They’re stat pumps.

    • “J.D. Vance”: You become what you pretend to be, as I keep saying over and over again about rightwingers who court the lunatic fringe for votes.

    • “USAID”: You’ll be shocked to learn that the people who wanted to get rid of it didn’t know what it actually did.

    • “Police Body Cameras”: They do not actually make people safer.

    • “Twitter”: Honestly can’t remember if there was anything new here. But journalists and politicians should get off of it (due to the child porn). It confuses them as to what is actually relevant.

    • “ICE and DHS”: This is from sometime in February, FYI.

    • “Air Bud Part III”: The conclusion of the saga.

  • YouTube album reactions: For a while I got sucked down the YouTube album reaction rabbit hole. I don’t know what’s changed but now people can react to full albums on YouTube and they don’t get struck. I’ve tried to put them all here. Listening to/watching these makes me feel like my rock music podcast should have been group reaction videos instead. I did sort of try half-heartedly to do something like that - without the live reactions - but never could wrangle enough people.

    • Isaac Brown: This guy is a producer and so I find it interesting to hear his takes (and he has an incredible ear for instruments/production). But sometimes his lack of knowledge of music history is hilarious. (He regularly doesn’t know famous covers.) I’ve listened to him react to:

      • The Beatles: ongoing, he’s at Yellow Submarine right now but he somehow managed to miss “Hey Jude,” only their biggest ever hit. (This is what happens when Americans encounter a band that didn’t put their singles on their LPs.)

      • David Bowie: Ziggy Stardust and the Rise and Fall of the Spiders from Mars.

      • The Doors: Despite how annoying Jim Morrison fans are, one of the greatest debut albums of all time.

      • Jethro Tull: Thick as a Brick: In my opinion, the greatest album-long “song” ever, even if it is a joke. (Maybe it’s better because it is a joke.)

      • Led Zeppelin: Weirdly only three of their first four albums, I, II and the self-titled (i.e. IV or Zoso). (I assume he will hate the production of III, because it’s not great. Well, really I just mean the production on “Gallow’s Pole.”)

      • Pink Floyd: He only reacted to their biggest ‘70s albums (the usual five: Meddle, The Dark Side of the Moon, Wish You Were Here, Animals and The Wall) and nothing else.

      • Queen: A Night at the Opera: I guess this is Queen’s best album? Maybe it’s the most representative of their ‘70s sound.

      • Rush: Moving Pictures: Not my favourite Rush album but probably their most consistent and certainly their best of the ‘80s.

      • The Who: Tommy: Ha! The poor Gen Z music producer was a little put off by the subject matter.

    • JustJP: I found this guy because he was the only person on YouTube who reacted to one of my favourite albums of the 1970s. That got me listening to some other stuff. I believe he is a drummer. And he loves prog and jazz and stuff so he’s right up my alley.

      • David Bowie: Aladdin Sane: ongoing, he spreads most of his album reactions out into individual tracks and let’s them drip. One of my two favourite Bowie albums.

      • Brian Eno: Here Come the Warm Jets and Taking Tiger Mountain by Strategy: Eno’s first two albums (with actual pop rock songs on them, unlike his ambient albums) are two of my favourite albums of the ‘70s. Be warned his playlists are out of order.

      • Peter Hammill: Over: ongoing, see above. My favourite Hammill solo album but also I’ve barely listened to his solo records.

      • Love: Forever Changes: Not necessarily a favourite but arguably one of the more distinct “psychedelic” albums of the ‘60s (if you can call it psychedelia).

      • Richard and Linda Thompson: I Want to See the Bright Lights Tonight: Hands down my favourite Richard Thompson album, though I’ve only heard a few.

      • Van Der Graaf [Generator]: The Quiet Zone/The Pleasure Dome: The aforementioned favourite, and the only reaction I could find on YouTube, which is how I found my way to this dude in the first place. For those of you who don’t know, this is the most Hammill solo album VDGG ever sounded like, and the least prog-sounding, in my opinion. Far and away the most accessible VDGG album but also it doesn’t sound much like them.

    • Walterooski: I blame Mr. Bungle here. This dude’s reaction got me to listen to so many more. The difference between this guy and the two above is most of his reactions begin on Twitch so they are longer because he chats with the groupchat.

      • DEVO: Q: Are We Not Men? A: We Are DEVO!: One of the great debuts of the ‘70s, just a joy to see someone lose their shit over it.

      • Brian Eno: Another Green World: Since I couldn’t find the JustJP reaction. (Turns out JustJP has only released one video so far.)

      • Faith No More: Angel Dust: My guests on my podcast about this one didn’t like it and they made me sad. So this is better.

      • Genesis - The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway Reaction: It was really fun watch this man awed and overwhelmed and actually invested in The Greatest Rock Opera of All Time. This has to be one of the most underrated albums in rock music history (because not that many people have heard it) and so it was really nice to see someone recognize how great it is on first listen.

      • King Crimson: Red: He loved my favourite Crimson album so I kept going down the rabbit hole. (This was the second one I watched.)

      • “Mr. Bungle - California Album Reaction”: I fully enjoyed this man losing his mind to California. As I was listening/watching, I saw reaction videos to some other favourite albums of mine and so I descended down a rabbit hole.

      • Prince: Purple Rain: Not my favourite Prince album but, arguably, the Prince album noobs should listen to. Walter was a noob.

      • Ween: And then it somehow turned into a Ween reaction thing.

        • Chocolate & Cheese: Ween’s first professional-sounding album was once my favourite. It’s dated pretty poorly (as most Ween humour has) but it’s still great to watch someone be in awe of them.

        • The Mollusk: Probably my personal favourite at this point, it’s full to see someone else be impressed.

        • White Pepper: He liked this the most, which makes sense given it’s more accessible.