Greg Mitchell has authored more than a dozen books (see most of them here) and directed four recent PBS films, including the current “The Atomic Bowl.” Subscribing to this newsletter is still FREE—so if you want to help fund, maybe purchase one of those books, thanks. Or recommend this Substack to a friend!
You no doubt have heard by now that new NYC mayor Mamdani used to be a rapper named Young Cardamon, but perhaps you’ve never seen him in action. So here is a video where he appears with a Ugandan known as HAB, made for the soundtrack for the fine film directed by his mom, Mira Nair, “The Queen of Katwe.”
Lot of coverage of the Mamdani inaugural yesterday but you may have not heard about Indie singer Lucy Dacus singing the classic labor and women’s suffrage anthem “Bread and Roses.”
If you missed bitter viral commentary yesterday sparked by Trump’s new CBS anchorman Tony Dokoupil—handpicked by Bari Weiss—launching a little video message to viewers: "On too many stories, the press has missed the story. Because we've taken into account the perspective of advocates and not the average American. Or we put too much weight in the analysis of academics or elites, and not enough on you." Yeah, that’s what we need now—more Twitter-like commentary and less news, more anecdotal advice from low information “average” viewers and less from experts….
At least there’s this:
Tesla Car Sales Fell 9% in 2025, Falling Behind China’s BYD
Our historian buddy Rick Perlstein, author of several bestsellers on key conservative leaders including Nixon and Reagan, has this wonderful modern analysis of one of my favorite all-time novels:
More of My “Songs of the Year”
We opened a couple of days ago with first ever recording of Woody doing “Deportee.” Here are a few others. Mavis and Tweedy coming this weekend.
Larkin Poe, “If God Was a Woman”
T Bone Burnett, “The Pain of Love”
Lucinda Williams, “The World’s Gone Wrong”
Van Morrison, “Remembering Now”
Jesse Welles, “The Poor”
From Tunes to Toons
Matson:
Ben Jennings:
KAL’s readers picked this as his favorite cartoon for 2025:
Ohman:
Photo Finish
“Preservation Hall, at Midnight, New Orleans”
Cartoonists have been the truth tellers of 2025. Looks like we are going to need them awhile longer. What were they playing In the photo? That’s just where my mind went.
Great links, thank you.