Mathew Ingram

How writing a newsletter is like a cargo cult

As I typed thousands of words into my newsletter editing system (which somewhat ironically is called Ghost) and added dozens of links to related information for the benefit of my eleven or so paying readers, it suddenly occurred to me that I'm a little like the indigenous tribes of the Solomon Islands, who built fake landing strips and made ersatz planes out of palm fronds and tree trunks in the hope that the gods —…

https://mathewingram.com/work/2026/03/16/how-writing-a-newsletter-is-like-a-cargo-cult/?utm_source=mastodon&utm_medium=jetpack_social

French spy was born a man but lived their life as a woman

The Chevalier d’Éon was born Charles d'Eon de Beaumont on October 5, 1728, and would go on to be a French soldier, spy, diplomat and in mid-life, a woman named Charlotte. D’Eon’s military exploits in the Seven Years’ War, role in negotiating the Paris Peace Treaty, and daring service as a spy for French King Louis XV was overshadowed by speculation about their gender.

https://mathewingram.com/work/2026/03/13/french-spy-was-born-a-man-but-lived-their-life-as-a-woman/?utm_source=mastodon&utm_medium=jetpack_social

He says he is the ruler of a new country on the Danube river

“Terra nullius.” Under international law, this Latin phrase meaning “nobody’s land” describes an area of land unclaimed by any sovereign nation-state. In an age where nearly every inch of the world’s landmass has been mapped, examples of terra nullius are exceedingly rare. Along the Croatian-Serbian border, a drawn-out dispute along the River Danube has resulted in claims of terra nullius around at least four…

https://mathewingram.com/work/2026/03/12/he-says-he-is-the-ruler-of-a-new-country-on-the-danube-river/?utm_source=mastodon&utm_medium=jetpack_social

If Havana Syndrome is real it implies a massive coverup

Many -- including me -- dismissed Havana Syndrome as a psychological illness but weapons that cause such symptoms appear to be very real and U.S. intelligence has known this for some time

https://mathewingram.com/work/2026/03/12/if-havana-syndrome-is-real-it-implies-a-massive-coverup/?utm_source=mastodon&utm_medium=jetpack_social

Instead of breaking out of a prison he broke into one

Lieutenant Thomas Conrad was standing in a control room in Nashville’s new central jail when he noticed something off with one of the key rings hanging on the wall. It was midday on December 30, 2019, and in two weeks the still empty jail would take in about seven hundred inmates. While contractors were finishing their work, Conrad, a senior correctional officer with the Davidson County Sheriff’s Office, was…

https://mathewingram.com/work/2026/03/11/instead-of-breaking-out-of-a-prison-he-broke-into-one/?utm_source=mastodon&utm_medium=jetpack_social

A Spanish billionaire fell to his death and his son is a suspect

One afternoon in March 2024, Spanish society gathered at a prestigious Barcelona business school to celebrate Isak Andic, an unassuming Turkish-born entrepreneur who used to sell embroidered blouses in a Barcelona market stand and went on to found the affordable fashion brand Mango, becoming a billionaire in the process, the fifth-richest man in Spain. Nine months later, Andic was dead. On December 14,…

https://mathewingram.com/work/2026/03/10/a-spanish-billionaire-fell-to-his-death-and-his-son-is-a-suspect/?utm_source=mastodon&utm_medium=jetpack_social

A hockey dad ran a $12 million fraud against his friends

As Perardi approached the terrace, he saw that his friend, Kota Youngblood, sat at one of the tables. Youngblood was tall and imposing, with a paunch and black hair that framed pale skin. He was dressed in black, with military tattoos on his arms, and the white athletic tape that always seemed to cover his fingers. They found Eventine, Youngblood said.

https://mathewingram.com/work/2026/03/09/a-hockey-dad-ran-a-12-million-fraud-against-his-friends/?utm_source=mastodon&utm_medium=jetpack_social

In this week's Torment Nexus newsletter I wrote about how the dangers of AI have become a lot more real all of a sudden thanks to the recent dustup between Anthropic and the Department of Starting Wars https://torment-nexus.mathewingram.com/the-danger-posed-by-ai-just-got-a-lot-more-real-all-of-a-sudden/

The kind of bookstore I would like to own

When I saw the post above, my response was "that's the kind of bookstore I would like to own" — just tons of books and never any customers to bother you. It got me thinking about an old bookstore I used to go to in a small town, the kind of town with only one stop sign. The store was in an old log cabin from probably the turn of the century or so — no straight walls or 90-degree corners to be seen.

https://mathewingram.com/work/2026/03/07/the-kind-of-bookstore-i-would-like-to-own/?utm_source=mastodon&utm_medium=jetpack_social

There's a definite possibility that AI incorrectly targeted a school for a missile strike and killed 160 children

4chan knew about Epstein’s death before it was public

Among the many mysteries surrounding Jeffrey Epstein is how, exactly, a website famous for pornography and white nationalism got the scoop on his death. At 8:16 a.m. on August 10, 2019, an anonymous 4Chan user posted, "don't ask me how I know, but Epstein died an hour ago from hanging, cardiac arrest. Screencap this." It was the first public indication that Epstein, awaiting trial for sex-trafficking charges in…

https://mathewingram.com/work/2026/03/05/4chan-knew-about-epsteins-death-before-it-was-public/?utm_source=mastodon&utm_medium=jetpack_social

The danger posed by AI just got a lot more real all of a sudden

I came across a maxim many years ago in a blog post written by Chris Dixon, a startup guy who is now a partner with Andreessen Horowitz, the Silicon Valley VC outfit. In 2010 Dixon wrote: "The next big thing will start out looking like a toy," a phrase inspired by Harvard professor Clay Christensen. Dixon's post made a big impression on me at the time.

https://mathewingram.com/work/2026/03/05/the-danger-posed-by-ai-just-got-a-lot-more-real-all-of-a-sudden/?utm_source=mastodon&utm_medium=jetpack_social

I was going to write something about how newsletters are like a cargo cult -- going through the motions hoping to reproduce past riches, etc. But then I realized that this describes basically the entire modern media industry

Her cells created billions in value for drug companies

Novartis has settled a lawsuit by the estate of Henrietta Lacks that alleged the pharmaceutical giant unjustly profited off her cells, which were taken from her tumor without her knowledge in 1951 and reproduced in labs to enable major medical advancements, including the polio vaccine. It’s the second settlement in lawsuits filed by the estate that accused biomedical businesses of reaping rewards from a racist…

https://mathewingram.com/work/2026/03/04/her-cells-created-billions-in-value-for-drug-companies/?utm_source=mastodon&utm_medium=jetpack_social

He lives like a monk but he dines like a king

A couple of months ago, a man arrived for his 50th dinner at Nisei, the one-Michelin-starred Japanese fine-dining restaurant in Russian Hill. As he sauntered up Polk Street in his signature white tennis shoes, jeans, blazer, and backpack, the entire Nisei staff was waiting outside to greet him with a round of applause. It was as if royalty had arrived. Except by all accounts, it was just a guy named Michael Grepo.

https://mathewingram.com/work/2026/03/03/he-lives-like-a-monk-but-he-dines-like-a-king/?utm_source=mastodon&utm_medium=jetpack_social

https://open.substack.com/pub/hyperdimensional/p/clawed?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android&r=2gay

He found Stalin’s daughter living in a Wisconsin retirement home

Svetlana, who was then eighty-one years old, lived in a senior citizens’ center in Spring Green, Wisconsin. When we met, she was dressed in baggy gray sweatpants and sunglasses. She was short and compact, and her once red hair had turned white and had started to thin. Scoliosis had given her a hunch, and she used a cane. She showed me her one-bedroom apartment, and the little desk by a window where her…

https://mathewingram.com/work/2026/03/02/he-found-stalins-daughter-living-in-a-wisconsin-retirement-home/?utm_source=mastodon&utm_medium=jetpack_social

How Sean Penn saved a man trapped in a Bolivian prison

Sean Penn always knew that rescuing Jacob Ostreicher from his years of Bolivian imprisonment would be difficult. Ostreicher, a then-52-year-old Hasidic businessman who had moved to the country from Brooklyn to manage a rice farm, got stuck there for two and a half years after he was accused of money laundering and criminal organization. His detainment in one of Bolivia’s most brutal prisons had attracted…

https://mathewingram.com/work/2026/02/27/how-sean-penn-saved-a-man-trapped-in-a-bolivian-prison/?utm_source=mastodon&utm_medium=jetpack_social

He woke up in the morgue but went on to win the horse race

Ralph Neves was understandably disoriented when he woke up in the morgue. The slab was cold and the tag around his toe pressing into the skin. His heart, declared stopped an hour before, was racing so hard it was nearly beating out of his chest. The last thing Neves remembered, he was riding a horse at Bay Meadows on May 8, 1936.

https://mathewingram.com/work/2026/02/26/he-woke-up-in-the-morgue-but-went-on-to-win-the-horse-race/?utm_source=mastodon&utm_medium=jetpack_social

Are prediction markets fueling a gambling epidemic?

The term "prediction market" sounds so scientific, doesn't it? Like "derivatives," the financial instrument they resemble. On platforms like Polymarket and Kalshi, people place a bet on the likelihood of certain outcomes, whether political or sporting or anything else (want to bet on whether Jesus will return this year?). But the term "bet" in the previous sentence reveals what prediction markets actually are: Betting.

https://mathewingram.com/work/2026/02/26/are-prediction-markets-fueling-a-gambling-epidemic/?utm_source=mastodon&utm_medium=jetpack_social

Gang of loons showed up this morning

https://mathewingram.com/work/2022/08/09/gang-of-loons-showed-up-this-morning/?utm_source=mastodon&utm_medium=jetpack_social

Here comes the Merganser family

https://mathewingram.com/work/2023/07/08/here-comes-the-merganser-family/?utm_source=mastodon&utm_medium=jetpack_social

A murder so preposterous that stupidity was used as a defense

Oliver Karafa and Yun Lu “Lucy” Li were a perfect match. Karafa was the consummate pretty boy: his brown hair always coiffed just so, his tennis shoes pristine. With no post-secondary education and little job experience, he told whomever would listen that he was going to be a millionaire before he was 30. His wife, Li, had the looks and dimensions of a Kardashian: arched brows, high cheekbones, Barbie…

https://mathewingram.com/work/2026/02/25/a-murder-so-preposterous-that-stupidity-was-used-as-a-defense/?utm_source=mastodon&utm_medium=jetpack_social

A teenaged girl struck out Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig in 1931

When World War II came to America, baseball was one of the early victims. Many Major League players were in their early 20s and, therefore, subject to the draft. the owner of the Cubs, Philip K. Wrigley (of chewing gum fame) started the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League in 1943. While many know about the AAGPBL due to the 1992 movie A League of Their Own, few realize that women played…

https://mathewingram.com/work/2026/02/24/a-teenaged-girl-struck-out-babe-ruth-and-lou-gehrig-in-1931/?utm_source=mastodon&utm_medium=jetpack_social

He wrote a murder mystery and now his death has become one

More than halfway through the crime novel he wrote, Robert Fuller describes the frustration of a detective locked in a mystery. He rubbed the back of his neck. “Now what?” he said aloud. It has been a week since someone made their way into Fuller’s assisted living apartment in Potomac, Maryland, police say, and fatally shot the 87-year-old millionaire in the head.

https://mathewingram.com/work/2026/02/23/he-wrote-a-murder-mystery-and-now-his-death-has-become-one/?utm_source=mastodon&utm_medium=jetpack_social

Pablo Picasso on the moon landing

https://mathewingram.com/work/2026/02/22/pablo-picasso-on-the-moon-landing/?utm_source=mastodon&utm_medium=jetpack_social

Life goals — or death goals?

https://mathewingram.com/work/2026/02/22/life-goals-or-death-goals/?utm_source=mastodon&utm_medium=jetpack_social

The real AI nightmare

(from Northwestern comp-sci prof Jessica Hullman)

https://mathewingram.com/work/2026/02/21/the-real-ai-nightmare/?utm_source=mastodon&utm_medium=jetpack_social

I hate this new sundial technology

https://mathewingram.com/work/2026/02/10/i-hate-this-new-sundial-technology/?utm_source=mastodon&utm_medium=jetpack_social

The latest entry in The Torment Nexus, a newsletter featuring my analysis and perspective on technology and culture: “The crusade against TikTok is a ridiculous waste of time” https://torment-nexus.mathewingram.com/the-crusade-against-tiktok-is-a-ridiculous-waste-of-time/