What Mamdani and Martha Stewart tell us about the vibe shift

An election win and a politically incorrect cookbook show that Americans are embracing candour over caution

yesterday 9

Jemima Kelly

Elon Musk’s Grokipedia is a major own goal

Humans might be highly imperfect and biased but they are still better than AI at getting to the truth

03.11.2025 10

Jemima Kelly

AI is killing the magic

Not knowing whether art originated in someone’s heart or a data centre is a major enjoyment-killer

19.10.2025 10

Jemima Kelly

The fashion for the young: turn to the radical right

The intellectual energy of new rightwing movements is drawing in young people

13.10.2025 5

Jemima Kelly

Crypto skulduggery isn’t a bug, it’s the whole point

Exploiting regulatory loopholes is the name of the game

05.10.2025 30

Jemima Kelly

The right and the art of putting on a united front

In spite of bitter divisions, Trump’s Maga coalition always rallies round when it needs to

28.09.2025 10

Jemima Kelly

Donald Trump’s adventures in Windsorland

The US president luxuriated in a warm bath of royal pomp and circumstance

19.09.2025 20

Jemima Kelly

Trump is turning the White House into Mar-a-Lagoland

Paving over the Rose Garden and gaudily embellishing the Oval Office make the US president look desperate

07.09.2025 10

Jemima Kelly

Maha: Making America Held to international standards Again

A new Texas law on food labelling defers to ‘appropriate authorities’ in some more liberal corners of the world

02.09.2025 5

Jemima Kelly

What padel has taught me about the power of play

It has been an education to engage in something I’m not very good at

10.08.2025 10

Jemima Kelly

Influencers in Number 10? Inevitable

Get past your nausea and you’ll see that it’s canny public relations for governments to want to be where the voters are

03.08.2025 10

Jemima Kelly

The Very Online Right has come for Britain too

New media repackages old fashioned bigotry for the modern age

27.07.2025 10

Jemima Kelly

Unapologetic brands lean into the vibe shift

Heritage and tradition supplant bland conformity as big names ditch ‘quiet luxury’

20.07.2025 5

Jemima Kelly

Summertime sadness is a real thing

There is, after all, nothing quite so miserable as feeling unhappy when we are meant to be feeling good

13.07.2025 10

Jemima Kelly

The power and the glory of profanity

Donald Trump’s inclination to swear is coarse, un-presidential, and highly effective

29.06.2025 20

Jemima Kelly

The art of being an unchill host

Possessing a sense of occasion is a rare thing in our lonely and socially impoverished culture

22.06.2025 3

Jemima Kelly

The Trump-Musk love affair was about daddy issues, not bromance

Theirs wasn’t really a friendship at all but a more complex and primal bond

16.06.2025 10

Jemima Kelly

Mr Darcy and the Mandela effect

Once we have approximated a story enough times — individually and collectively — that becomes our ‘truth’

08.06.2025 10

Jemima Kelly

Why is Trump so obsessed with other men’s looks?

Flattery is only part of the story for a president who behaves like the star of his own movie

26.05.2025 10

Jemima Kelly

The scourge of the ‘woke right’

The radical Maga right has a way of looking at the world that chimes with the illiberal left

18.05.2025 20

Jemima Kelly

Life is too important not to laugh at it

Humourlessness and pomposity aren’t always the best antidotes to buffoonery and despotism

11.05.2025 5

Jemima Kelly

The new White House influencer briefings are a terrible look

These propaganda dissemination sessions are more suited to Pyongyang

04.05.2025 7

Jemima Kelly

Trump and the art of ‘dealism’

His acolytes are discovering that it’s not so much about any particular policy as having blind faith in the man himself

27.04.2025 7

Jemima Kelly

It’s the hope that saves you

Far from being foolish or self-indulgent, it should be considered a virtue

20.04.2025 10

Jemima Kelly

JD Vance has the zeal of the convert — and that’s a problem

The vice-president thinks nothing of lecturing America’s friends and allies

06.04.2025 20

Jemima Kelly

The deep eccentricity of Donald Trump

The US president’s rather bizarre character is crucial to understanding why he is so successful

30.03.2025 30

Jemima Kelly

My date used AI to psychologically profile me. Is that OK?

Large language models are unaware of the offline context that sensitive information might be employed in

23.03.2025 10

Jemima Kelly

The shift to a more oral culture is not all bad

Anxieties about the decline of literacy are well founded, but the spoken word opens a welcome space for nuance too

16.03.2025 40

Jemima Kelly

America needs a serious opposition

Democrats should spend less time on gimmicks and more on communicating what they actually stand for

09.03.2025 20

Jemima Kelly

Ugly showdown or lovefest, Trump is all about the message

Over the past week, we have seen two very different sides to the president’s communication style

02.03.2025 10

Jemima Kelly

When we politicise everything we make society stupider

By losing our ability to see things at face value we are losing our grip on reality

23.02.2025 10

Jemima Kelly

The rights and wrongs of politicians ‘doing God’

JD Vance’s musings on Catholic theology drew a rebuke from the pope himself

16.02.2025 40

Jemima Kelly

Welcome to the ‘mask-off’ era

The return of Donald Trump to the White House captures a broader cultural shift

02.02.2025 30

Jemima Kelly

The cravenness of Mark Zuckerberg

Changes to the fact-checking regime at Meta make it look like he’s caving in to Trump

13.01.2025 30

Jemima Kelly

Let us abandon our ‘fat, relentless egos’ in 2025

If we focus more on what’s going on around us, we may end up feeling better about things

29.12.2024 6

Jemima Kelly

Trump and the power of Mar-a-Lago

The former property developer well understands how buildings and spaces can be used effectively as propaganda

22.12.2024 7

Jemima Kelly

Podcasts, politics and the craving for imperfection

Lo-fi, unpolished performances have become more popular than carefully stage-managed versions of reality

15.12.2024 5

Jemima Kelly

Democrats must not abandon the moral high ground

Joe Biden’s decision to pardon his son Hunter invites comparison to Donald Trump’s most censured actions

08.12.2024 4

Jemima Kelly

The grim ghost of crypto future

Overconfidence since the election victory of Donald Trump could tee the sector up for its next collapse

01.12.2024 3

Jemima Kelly

The Trump vibe shift was there for all to see

Voters didn’t enter the polling booths holding their noses; they went in with their eyes wide open

24.11.2024 10

Jemima Kelly

Why attacking Trump’s character has proven so ineffective

Moral grandstanding is not the best way to convince people to come over to your side

03.11.2024 4

Jemima Kelly

If you’re going to multitask, do it mindfully

Doing more than one thing at once can feel overwhelming — but it can also be liberating

27.10.2024 6

Jemima Kelly

The power and the perils of Trump’s ‘flow state’

The former president’s latest town hall was a spectacle even by the standards of modern American politics

20.10.2024 6

Jemima Kelly

News avoiders relinquish their democratic privilege

Our fractured, algorithm-driven attention economy is all too easily exploited when people aren’t paying attention

13.10.2024 10

Jemima Kelly

How I learnt to stop worrying and (mostly) love the e-bike

Unsightly kerbside debris to some, eco-friendly cycles for hire have improved urban journeys

06.10.2024 2

Jemima Kelly

The farce that is America’s ‘crypto election’

This campaign may be awash with crypto money and rhetoric but it’s not clear that either of the candidates really care

29.09.2024 3

Jemima Kelly

Embarrassment, what is it good for?

The feeling may be superficial but that doesn’t make it any less agonising

15.09.2024 10

Jemima Kelly

We must not allow free speech to become a partisan issue

Repelled by the characters of those who decry censorship, we fail to value rights that are fundamental to liberal democracy

08.09.2024 40

Jemima Kelly

Why does calling Trump ‘weird’ hurt him so much?

Democrats are beating the former US president at his own game

01.09.2024 2

Jemima Kelly

Why do we find it so hard to accept coincidences for what they are?

Apparently meaningful relations between events get us hunting for causation in vain

25.08.2024 10

Categories

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Popular

What Mamdani and Martha Stewart tell us about the vibe shift

Jemima Kelly

Elon Musk’s Grokipedia is a major own goal

Jemima Kelly

AI is killing the magic

Jemima Kelly

The fashion for the young: turn to the radical right

Jemima Kelly

Crypto skulduggery isn’t a bug, it’s the whole point

Jemima Kelly

The right and the art of putting on a united front

Jemima Kelly

Donald Trump’s adventures in Windsorland

Jemima Kelly

Trump is turning the White House into Mar-a-Lagoland

Jemima Kelly

Maha: Making America Held to international standards Again

Jemima Kelly

What padel has taught me about the power of play

Jemima Kelly

Influencers in Number 10? Inevitable

Jemima Kelly

The Very Online Right has come for Britain too

Jemima Kelly

Unapologetic brands lean into the vibe shift

Jemima Kelly

Summertime sadness is a real thing

Jemima Kelly

The power and the glory of profanity

Jemima Kelly

The art of being an unchill host

Jemima Kelly

The Trump-Musk love affair was about daddy issues, not bromance

Jemima Kelly

Mr Darcy and the Mandela effect

Jemima Kelly

Why is Trump so obsessed with other men’s looks?

Jemima Kelly

The scourge of the ‘woke right’

Jemima Kelly

Life is too important not to laugh at it

Jemima Kelly

The new White House influencer briefings are a terrible look

Jemima Kelly

Trump and the art of ‘dealism’

Jemima Kelly

It’s the hope that saves you

Jemima Kelly

JD Vance has the zeal of the convert — and that’s a problem

Jemima Kelly

The deep eccentricity of Donald Trump

Jemima Kelly

My date used AI to psychologically profile me. Is that OK?

Jemima Kelly

The shift to a more oral culture is not all bad

Jemima Kelly

America needs a serious opposition

Jemima Kelly

Ugly showdown or lovefest, Trump is all about the message

Jemima Kelly

When we politicise everything we make society stupider

Jemima Kelly

The rights and wrongs of politicians ‘doing God’

Jemima Kelly

Welcome to the ‘mask-off’ era

Jemima Kelly

The cravenness of Mark Zuckerberg

Jemima Kelly

Let us abandon our ‘fat, relentless egos’ in 2025

Jemima Kelly

Trump and the power of Mar-a-Lago

Jemima Kelly

Podcasts, politics and the craving for imperfection

Jemima Kelly

Democrats must not abandon the moral high ground

Jemima Kelly

The grim ghost of crypto future