TouchStone Reads - December 12th, 2025

We often set aside articles that are longer, deserve a re-read, are broader in scope…or just for fun - for weekend reading. Below are some from this week - pour yourself a hot cup of coffee & enjoy...

• Where has all the weirdness gone? We’re in a recession of mischief, a crisis of conventionality, and an epidemic of the mundane. Deviance is on the decline. (Adam Mastroianni Substack)
• Weirdness, Humour & Joy (Instagram)
• The Lonely Work of a Free Speech Defender (The Daily)
• Mike Johnson’s red alert on members quitting Congress. Members of the House of Representatives are quitting Congress at a record rate, with Republican retirements and resignations outpacing Democrats by a nearly 2-to-1 ratio in the first 11 months of the year. (Axios)
• International Nationalism: As with fiber, we are in an unsettled period, with no obvious answer, and lots of chaotic, one-off gestures towards de-dollarization. (Pluralistic)
• How Louvre thieves exploited human psychology to avoid suspicion - and what it reveals about AI (The Conversation)
• Winners of the 2025 Drone Photo Awards: Explore the Beauty of the World Above. (My Modern Met)
• 13 dizzying and dazzling images from 2025 Drone Photo Awards: A lone camel, a hungry polar bear, and a congregation of herons. (Popular Science)
• Why can’t we live like this? Next week Australia becomes the first country to ban social media accounts for teens. (insidehistory)
• The world thinks we’re ‘not bad’. Canada moved from 6th to 3rd just this year. (todmaffin)
• BBC bends the knee. Dutch historian Rutger Bregman was invited to give the BBC’s Reith Lecture. Here’s what happened next. (rutgerbregman)
• Ikea's new cook-by-numbers (morozov.ideas)
• Bigger bester. Toronto Public Library is already the largest public library system in North America and the busiest in the world. This week it bought space for its new 100th branch which replaces the old St. Lawrence Market branch. (TPL)
• Last week OpenAI launched a tool called “shopping research.” Just prompt “find the best cordless vacuum,” or “pick out a new toy for my four-year-old niece,” and the chatbot will pull up a list for you. (OpenAI)
• "Age-gate social media. Jonathan Haidt asked ChatGPT how it would ruin the next generation. ChatGPT basically said: smartphones and social media. We shouldn’t allow synthetic relationships for kids under 18. No amount of money can replace basic life skills if your kid believes he or she can have a reasonable facsimile of life on a computer with an algorithm." - Scott Galloway
• And...In a 2010 interview with The New York Times, journalist Nick Bilton recounted a moment that shocked many readers: when he asked Steve Jobs, then CEO of Apple, “So, your kids must love the iPad?” Jobs replied, “They haven't used it. We limit how much technology our kids use at home.”
• How Couples Meet, 1940-2020 (Source: @SteveStuWill)
  
  

What are you reading or listening to?