What I'm working on in 2026, and why
My first interview of 2026 with Sara Moslener is now live.
Blake Chastain
Author, writer, and podcaster.
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🔗 Episodes: The Vibes Aren't Shifting
Some good cultural analysis for you.
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The Verge: Gemini is winning
Gemini is winningCould Siri be the last piece of the puzzle?The VergeDavid Pierce Being an incumbent and a company with a $4T market cap has its advantages.
Writing
Resisting Fatalism
New year, same struggle.
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CT: Yancey admits to affair, retires.
Yancey was a significant influence on me in my teens and 20s as I wrestled with evangelicalism. This is how his career ends.
The Exvangelical podcast (& more!) will return in 2026.
(A brief look back, and a quick glance ahead.)
Writing
Welcome to the new site
Hi there. 👋🏻 If you're reading this, it's likely because you're on the mailing list for my newsletter, The Post-Evangelical Post. I'm migrating off of Substack to my own Ghost website. In November 2025, after almost a decade of working full-time
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I may have to start wearing a watch again.
The ugly Pebble 2 Duo is the smartwatch for meThis is a welcome new-old idea about smartwatchesThe VergeDavid Pierce Pebble is so back.
📚Reading
Reading Notes: Enshittification by Cory Doctorow
I just recently started the latest Cory Doctorow book, Enshittification: Why Everything Suddenly Got Worse and What to Do About It. I'm early on in the book - he's still providing case studies of enshittified platforms such as Facebook, Amazon, and Apple - but I'm intrigued.
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WIRED: The Trump Administration Wants Immigrants to Self-Deport. It's a Shit Show.
The Trump Administration Wants Immigrants to Self-Deport. It’s a Shit ShowThe Trump administration has been virtually begging immigrants in the US to self-deport, even offering money. But some immigrants say it’s been nearly impossible.WIREDVittoria Elliott What a surprise.
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One more for the collection, I guess.
Bending Spoons is buying up Eventbrite, too.The Italian software company just announced billion-dollar deals to purchase AOL and Vimeo, and now it has reached an agreement to acquire Eventbrite for $500 million. Bending Spoons has added several other digital businesses to its portfolio in recent years, including Evernote,