2025 Year in Review: Our most popular and controversial columns
We summarize our top six posts from the past year
When we created this newsletter a little under five years ago to coincide with the publication of our book, we didn’t anticipate that we would still be producing new content this far out. We now have nearly 10,000 subscribers, 16,000 followers and had roughly 300,000 readers this year. So thanks to everyone for tuning in — and a special thanks to people who recommended our newsletter to others or became paid subscribers this year!
Here is a summary of our most popular posts from the past year: 3 summarizing new scientific papers from the Center for Conflict & Cooperation and 3 riffing on cultural trends and ideas. Check them out below:
Top 3 articles from the Center for Conflict and Cooperation’s Research Bulletin:
How social media distorts our perceptions
The experience of interacting with others on social media is becoming more and more distant from reality. Jay recently wrote an article for the Guardian exploring this disconnect. He explains how social media creates a deeply distorted picture of society, amplifying outrage and division far beyond what most people experience in their daily lives.
Social media doesn’t just reflect public opinion, it distorts it like a funhouse mirror, amplifying extreme opinions and hate. Jay explored this phenomena in this newsletter and in an article he wrote for the Guardian, explaining how seeing these distortions can lead us to de…
