Hello!

The Numlock Sunday edition is a weekly interview that goes out to paid subscribers. One of my favorite parts of doing it is that I get to talk to new authors of fascinating books and people launching ambitious new projects and get to feature their work.

All of these such interviews are from this year are unlocked for everyone to read. They cover some of my favorite books and shows of the year. I hope you enjoy revisiting them, or checking them out for the very first time.

Books: Science and Technology

Numlock Sunday: Tae Kim on Nvidia's rise to the top Susie Stark · Dec 8 Read full story

I spoke to Tae Kim, author of The Nvidia Way: Jensen Huang and the Making of a Tech Giant.

We spoke about how Nvidia got started, the company culture that differentiates it from rivals like Intel, and how the American tech industry has been trending away from research and development.

Numlock Sunday: Rebecca Boyle on Our Moon

I spoke to Rebecca Boyle, a science journalist with an eye pointed up, covering the fields of astronomy and the history of it. She is out with a brand new book Our Moon: How Earth's Celestial Companion Transformed the Planet, Guided Evolution, and Made Us Who We Are, and I have been looking forward to this one since it was first announced. It’s a delightful look at our planet’s moon, and the outsized role it’s played in the development of life and society and science here on Earth. It’s now available wherever books are sold. I hope you enjoy our conversation.

Numlock Sunday: Eric Berger on the inside story of SpaceX Susie Stark · Sep 29 Read full story

I spoke to Eric Berger, author of the brand-new book Reentry and senior space editor at Ars Technica. Eric is a stellar writer and my go-to when it comes to hearing about space industry news. I was super excited about his book. We spoke about the major players of the space industry, the inspiration behind SpaceX and its impact on geopolitics, and how Elon Musk could risk it all.

Numlock Sunday: Nate Silver, On The Edge Susie Stark · Sep 1 Read full story

I spoke to Nate Silver, author of the new book On The Edge: The Art of Risking Everything. I worked for Nate for five years at FiveThirtyEight, and in a lot of ways this newsletter owes its whole existence to continuing the work I did there. Nate’s first book, The Signal and the Noise was a real inspiration to me, and this book is a fascinating continuation of that work. It dives into the world of risk-takers and those who spend much of their lives viewing the world probabilistically.

Numlock Sunday: Amorina Kingdon on the phenomenon of underwater sound

I spoke to Amorina Kingdon, writer for Hakai Magazine and author of the new book Sing Like Fish: How Sound Rules Life Under Water. We spoke about how sound works underwater, how it affects and is used by aquatic life, and where we stand on regulating underwater noise pollution.

Books: Culture and Entertainment

Numlock Sunday: Gary He photographs the McDonald's empire Dec 1 Read full story

I spoke to Gary He, author of McAtlas. This is a gorgeous new coffee table book, a photography-filled deeply-reported round-the-world adventure into one of the most interesting companies on the planet. It is a book that speaks to how we’re all charmingly different but, in many ways, people really are the same all over.

Numlock Sunday: Joanna Robinson and Dave Gonzales on the reign of Marvel Studios Oct 20 Read full story

I spoke to Joanna Robinson and Dave Gonzales, coauthors of the book MCU: The Reign of Marvel Studios, out in paperback this week. I really loved the book, it dives into what is the main flywheel of mainstream entertainment, for better or for worse, and dives into the fascinating history of the MCU. Whether you're a fan of Marvel movies or just someone living in a world dominated by them, the book is a really interesting look into contemporary filmmaking and the pressures and economics and just simply human scale of these massive operations.

Numlock Sunday: Stephen Follows on the horror movie boom

I spoke to Stephen Follows, author of The Horror Movie Report. Stephen and I go back a ways, he’s a pop culture data journalist I really respect and you’ve seen him in the newsletter lately based on his great work on stuff like Hallmark movies. He’s out with a really fun new book diving into horror movies, one of the more exciting genres in the film industry these days.

Numlock Sunday: Glenn McDonald on the future of music in the algorithmic era

I spoke to Glenn McDonald, author of the new book You Have Not Yet Heard Your Favorite Song: How Streaming Changes Music. I’ve followed Glenn’s work for years now, and this book is the result of decades of work in the field, and comes from a perspective not only of technology’s bleeding edge but also a sincere, personal love of music. We spoke about the mechanics of tracking genre data, how streaming has impacted listening trends, and how the model’s economics are holding up.

Books: History, sports and society

Numlock Sunday: Stephen Harrison on The Editors

I spoke to Stephen Harrison, tech journalist and author of the new novel The Editors. Harrison predominantly covers Wikipedia, one of the most interesting systems to emerge from the internet. His journalism dives into all the interesting, behind-the-scenes decisions and controversies on one of the most important sources of information on the internet, and that beat has informed his brand new, thrilling novel. We spoke about the inspiration behind the book, some of the biggest stories out of Wikipedia over the past few years, and what it shows about how people interact with the internet.

Numlock Sunday: Michael Waters on the queer history of the Olympics

This week, I spoke to Michael Waters, author of the upcoming book The Other Olympians: Fascism, Queerness, and the Making of Modern Sports. We spoke about the 1936 Olympics and the trans athletes who made headlines that year, the inner workings of sports bureaucracy, and the invention and evolution of sex-testing policies in athletics.

Numlock Sunday: Noah Gittell on baseball at the movies

I spoke to Noah Gittell, author of the new book Baseball: The Movie. We spoke about the history of baseball in film, what it says about how American values have changed, and what’s next for the genre.

New Podcasts and newsletters

Numlock Sunday: Kalyn Kahler on Spiraled Susie Stark · Sep 8 Read full story

I spoke to Kalyn Kahler, an outstanding NFL writer who is behind the brand new podcast Spiraled. The podcast carries on from a Sports Illustrated story she wrote called “Pray for Kabeer, Chapter III: The Followers, the Courtroom Drama and the Next Chapter.” I have been super excited to hear this podcast, it dives into fascinating topics surrounding the most popular entertainment franchise in America.

Numlock Sunday: Manny Fidel on No Such Thing Nov 24 Read full story

I spoke to Manny Fidel, co-creator of the podcast No Such Thing. I’m such a big fan of his work and think he’s incredibly talented. We spoke about the inspiration for the show and some of the topics they investigate, like do horses enjoy running, does listening to an audiobook count as reading, and could someone land a plane under duress?

Numlock Sunday: Taylor Lorenz on User Magazine Oct 6 Read full story

I spoke to Taylor Lorenz, journalist and creator of the newsletter User Magazine. Taylor is a brilliant writer who has spent the past several years covering one of the most compelling beats out there, content creators and influencers, not only how they have managed to amass massive audiences, but also how that success has had major ramifications across culture. After years of writing for some of the most esteemed publications out there, Lorenz made the move to strike out and start her own publication, User Magazine, just last week.

Numlock Sunday: Julia Alexander on the insatiable maw of human attention

I spoke to Julia Alexander, digital strategy consultant and author of the new blog Posting Nexus. Julia’s brilliant, she’s been one of the most insightful and compelling minds on attention — where we allocate it, how we measure that, and what becomes of that — for several years now, and when I learned about this new project I was incredibly excited to get her on a Sunday edition to hear more about what’s got her, well, attention.

Numlock Sunday: Christie Aschwanden on uncertainty

I spoke to Christie Aschwanden, who hosts the podcast Uncertain for Scientific American. Christie and I go way back to FiveThirtyEight together, I think she’s brilliant and one of the level best science writers out there, she’s responsible for some of my favorite journalism about the practice of science and when I heard she’s got a new five-episode podcast all about uncertainty, well, I just had to have her on. We spoke about humanity’s relationship with uncertainty, science as an ongoing process, and how not knowing can be as inspiring as it is frightening.

Thanks so much for reading!