Harrison Richlin

writer he/him

[The Hollywood Reporter @THR]

Deal Lethargy Forces Hollywood Writers to Leave Money on the Table. That Needs to Change https://t.co/xY2CWDckau

[Shelby Grad @shelbygrad]

I wrote about why the misery and malaise clouding L.A. feels so hopeless these days. I sought answers in the Johnathan Gold, the "Pulp Fiction" $5 shake and all those people who brag about getting a great deal on a grand house in the early 90s https://t.co/g7inLG6fil

[Yasir Ai @AiwithYasir]

🚨BREAKING: Two researchers from UPenn and Boston University just published a paper that should be uncomfortable reading for every CEO automating their workforce right now.

The argument is straightforward. Every company replacing workers with AI is also eliminating its own future customers. Laid off workers stop spending. Enough of them stop spending and nobody can afford to buy anything. The companies that fired everyone end up selling into an economy with no purchasing power left.

Every executive can see this. The math is not complicated. But here is why nobody stops.

If you do not automate, your competitor does. They cut costs, lower prices, take your market share, and you collapse anyway. So every company automates knowing it is collectively destructive because the alternative is dying alone while everyone else survives. The researchers proved this is a Prisoner's Dilemma playing out in real time.

The numbers are already moving. Block cut nearly half its 10,000 employees this year. Jack Dorsey said AI made those roles unnecessary and that within the next year the majority of companies will reach the same conclusion. Salesforce replaced 4,000 customer support agents with AI. Goldman Sachs deployed a coding tool that lets one engineer do the work of five. Over 100,000 tech workers were laid off in 2025 and AI was cited as the primary driver in more than half those cases. 80% of US workers hold jobs with tasks susceptible to AI automation.

The researchers tested every proposed solution. Universal basic income does not change a single company's incentive to automate. Capital income taxes adjust profit levels but not the per-task decision to replace a human. Collective bargaining cannot hold because automating is always the dominant strategy.

They also identified what they call a Red Queen effect. Better AI does not solve the problem, it accelerates it. Every company chases faster automation to gain market share over rivals but at the end everyone has automated equally, the gains cancel out, and the only thing left is more destroyed demand.

The one thing the math says could work is a Pigouvian automation tax. A per-task charge that forces companies to account for the demand they destroy each time they replace a worker.

The conclusion is that this is not a transfer of wealth from workers to owners. Both sides lose. Workers lose income. Companies lose customers. It is a deadweight loss with no market mechanism to stop it on its own.

(Link in the comment)

[Dr. Mia Brett @QueenMab87]

Why did y’all need a research paper to tell you that if no one has a job companies don’t have customers

[Mayor Zohran Kwame Mamdani @NYCMayor]

Hey New York, no one likes unnecessary scaffolding.

Thankfully, we have a plan — and John Wilson is here to help break it down.

[Chris O'Falt @cofalt]

The children of Scorsese

[Daniella @DaniellaMazzio]

New from me: About 9 months ago, I set out to write about how NEA funding cuts would impact the film industry. The more I researched, the more I realized the history of NEA support is key to the bigger picture of indie filmmaking in the U.S.

➡️ Part One: https://t.co/Jlweh40jsm

[n @ctrlarchive]

as werner herzog said best, yi yi illuminates the power of cinema

[GFed @GfedGoCrazy]

April fools doesn’t hit the same living in a misinformation epidemic

[alex zaragoza @byalexzaragoza]

Hollywood's creatives are fighting to survive the big industry job drought any way they can. A few of them spoke to me about how they're getting by, from translating in doctors' offices to starting a swim school in their backyard. More in L.A. Material.

https://t.co/E76IOxB1J3

[Rachel @meta_rach]

I can see 4 movies a week in IMAX for $25.97 a month with AMC’s A List 😂

[Elizabeth Warren @SenWarren]

Netflix just got a $2.8 BILLION payout from Paramount for its failed Warner Bros. deal.

Then Netflix turned around and raised prices on millions of customers.

[Maddie @maddiewhittle]

IT WAS JUST AN ACCIDENT was obviously the greatest movie of 2025 and with each passing day it grows more embarrassing that the Academy didn’t fully recognize its significance

[Boze Herrington, Library Owl 😴🧙‍♀️ @SketchesbyBoze]

I love that the villain of the film is a child’s tablet. I love how it’s honest about the effect these devices have on kids: how they rob them of sleep, play, & friends. I hope it starts a discussion of the dangers of letting screens be babysitters. I hope parents will listen.

[Candice Frederick @ReelTalker]

Today is the first anniversary of this post. I'm still looking for a new job. If anyone needs a culture journalist with deep experience in reporting, critical analysis, cover stories, etc., let's connect. Highlights of my work are below. Full portfolio and email are in my bio.

[Sean Fennessey @SeanFennessey]

Sign up for @Kanopy with a library card and watch as many Frederick Wiseman films as you can. RIP.

[Bill Ryan @faceuh8]

Coincidental to Duvall's passing, I've noticed a lot of people over the past year announcing that they've finally read and loved LONESOME DOVE by Larry McMurtry. It's a good time to remind everyone that Duvall felt his best performance was as Gus McRae in the great TV adaptation.

[Winter @LeftyWinter]

AOC in Berlin: "We all need to buckle up. That is the moment that we are in. But if there is any place that shows that good people can prevail over the horrors of inhumanity, it is Berlin. It is Berlin. And it is so many other places around the world that can be a front line to show that we can overcome and we can defeat fascism by a class based solidarity that champions all of us. I think about this, I think about this, and I'll end with this note, but I think about this very often because, of course, the universal health care systems in Europe are the envy of every American. And it is truly, ah, such a revolutionary. Environment that you all grow up in the universality of health care, because it really is a decision and an affirmative material commitment to everyone's basic humanity, to human dignity. And to me, it is not a coincidence that universal health care systems across Europe were established in the wake after World War Two. They are directly connected where you had all of this destruction, in all of this rubble that was built on a politics of persecution and division. But when we decided to move past that, we built material systems based on universality, affirming our our human dignity. And I think it's so important for us to recall those lessons for today, ah, as we confront many of the shadows of those similar movements."

[Hannah Riley Fernandez @hannahcrileyy]

today’s mass media layoffs really go beyond “industry news.” we’re watching the removal of the people who explain what’s actually happening to us, beyond canned press releases and official narratives, at a time when we need that the most. healthy democracies need journalism!!