Life moves pretty fast
The latest from me
Welcome (back) to my newsletter
Hello, friends. As you might imagine, it is quite a time to be an American historian, especially someone who writes about tech and politics. Since the social media landscape has fragmented into more platforms and audiences than I can count, I’ve decided to return to using a newsletter to share the latest writing, saying, and doing.
If you are reading this because you subscribed long ago, welcome back! Please share with others who may be interested. If you are encountering this newsletter for the first time, hi there! You can find out more about me and my work here.
Here’s my latest:
1. talking AI with Sam Altman
Top billing this month goes to my conversation with OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, who visited the University of Washington via Zoom in a special event sponsored by the UW AI Task Force. The role of universities, prospects for entrepreneurship, energy and climate challenges, AI with “American values,” and the place of AI in history — we covered it all, and more. More about our chat here.
2. when Microsoft was a startup
Once upon a time, Microsoft was just another small Seattle startup, albeit one with a singularly driven founding team. I had a great conversation with Todd Bishop about the early days of the company and its culture on the GeekWire podcast, part of its “Microsoft @ 50” series. It’s a great episode; Dave Marquardt—the VC who went to a Husky game and in return got a 5% stake in the company for $1 million—is also interviewed. You can listen here.
3. what’s next for global trade
The free-trade era has been devastating for some parts of the US economy but a huge boon for others—and Seattle has been one of those winners. A few days after Election Day, I joined KUOW’s Monica Nickelsburg for a far-ranging interview about the potential effects of tariffs and other parts of Donald Trump’s economic plan on greater Seattle and Washington. Our conversation can be heard on KUOW this week as well as on the latest episode of their podcast Booming, here.
4. a 60 Minutes time capsule
This is a cool one. The legendary newsmagazine 60 Minutes launched A Second Look, a podcast that revisits its long-ago stories and gives them modern updates and commentary. I was the guest on an episode about “Valley Boys,” a 1982 Silicon Valley time capsule that featured the late greatMorley Safer interviewing the comparably legendary Jerry Sanders and Adam Osborne. (Readers of The Code may remember that Osborne was the entrepreneur behind that 25-pound “luggable” computer.) You can listen here.
5. the election in historical context
If it’s a presidential election year, I’m talking and teaching a lot about US presidential history. In October, I spoke to Nancy Joseph of the UW Arts & Sciences Magazine about how 2024 compared to past contests. Our interview is here (and just for fun you can compare it to a similar conversation I had with Nancy in 2016, with what turned out to be something of a groaner of a headline).
6. The American Pageant
Last but hardly least, this fall marked the publication of the 18th Edition of The American Pageant. It has been such a thrill—and a deeply rewarding research and writing experience—to join the authorial team for this celebrated text, which remains the bestselling AP US History textbook as well as widely adopted in college courses nationwide. More about Pageant here.
