Jed Christiansen

now: @fluxon prev: @golden (& @goseeddb) @Techstars @google ex-Londoner, drove nuclear submarines and built solar-powered race cars. Tsundoku master.

[Jed Christiansen @jedc]

Perhaps the most important startup equation? (Constant improvement trumps all)

As spotted at @homebrew HQ.

[Derek Thompson @DKThomp]

This has quietly been a miracle month in medicine.

In the last 5 weeks we’ve got news on:

- retatrutide, the triple agonist GLP-1 from Lilly, basically melting fat and body-wide inflammation at record levels
- RevMed’s new pancreatic cancer drug showing unprecedented abilities to extend life
- small trial of a one-and-done PCSK9 gene editing therapy for slashing LDL cholesterol
- Mayo’s AI-assisted radiology showing vastly improved cancer detection
- this new therapy for metastatic solid tumors

This stuff is at varying levels of evidence. Retatrutide is ~100% on its way, other stuff needs more clinical trial data. But put it together and we’re maybe on the verge of majorly reducing the mortality of heart disease and cancer, the two leading causes of death in America.

[Mike Levin @MikeLevin]

Samuel Alito’s son has worked as a lawyer inside Trump’s Treasury Department since early last year. The administration hid it.

No public resume, no LinkedIn, no mention on the Treasury website, outdated bar listings. Four former officials confirmed it.

The public was never told.

Here is why that matters.

Philip Alito served as an attorney-adviser in Treasury’s general counsel office, briefed on department matters across the board, while the Supreme Court took up a case in which the Treasury Department was a named defendant.

The department never disclosed the connection in court.

Justice Alito did not recuse.

The federal recusal law is plain. A justice must step aside in any case where his impartiality might reasonably be questioned.

That is the test.

Not whether anyone can prove influence but whether a reasonable person looking at this would doubt it. A justice ruling on cases involving the very agency that employs his son fails that test on its face.

And Treasury sits at the center of many upcoming issues, including the fight over Trump’s $1.776 billion dollar fund to reward the January 6th rioters he pardoned. That fight could be headed to the Court too.

This is exactly why the honor system has failed.

The Supreme Court is the only court in America with no enforceable code of conduct. I support withholding funding from the Court until the justices adopt a binding code with real recusal review.

Congress holds the power of the purse.

We should use it.

https://t.co/t2aZrXpaoU

[James Surowiecki @JamesSurowiecki]

Hearing cases involving your son's boss seems like something a judge should not do.

[Jed Christiansen @jedc]

@DbJared Is there an opportunity to be there to support him as he finishes? Seems like it should be something to celebrate!

[Jed Christiansen @jedc]

So the real story has now come out:

There WAS an “autopsy” done, but it was 💩💩💩. Instead of doing something about it, @kenmartin73 hid the mess.

It’s SO infuriating that so much time and effort was lost because of his poor management. 😡😡😡

https://t.co/d0xus8vDaA

[Jed Christiansen @jedc]

After listening to the last @PodSaveAmerica episode w/ @jonfavs, I don’t believe @kenmartin73 should stay as DNC chair a day longer.

I honestly didn’t care at all about the DNC until this interview - but now realize he’s the wrong person for the job. 😡

[John Arnold @johnarnold]

A fire alarm is going off and everyone is ignoring it.

[Deva Hazarika @devahaz]

It’s hard to have sympathy for striking LIRR workers when their demands include keeping policies like this:

[Jessica Riedl 🧀 🇺🇦 @JessicaBRiedl]

I can only laugh that Trump's newest idea of owning the libs is ... bringing in 30 million spanish-speaking South Americans with an even more porous border, registering them to vote, and (by extension) making them eligible for federal benefits.

Yeah... that'll show the libs. 🤪

[Seth Abramson @SethAbramson]

This paint job—if you can call it that—is costing you $7 million, America, because Trump gave a no-bid contract to a pal

This would have been Exhibit A of the sort of shit DOGE was actually *supposed* to be looking for when it was instead cutting lifesaving scientific research

[Chasten Glezman Buttigieg @Chasten]

The same Duffys who threw endless fits on national television when Pete was working from our son's ICU bedside are now bragging about their multi-month, taxpayer-funded family road trip while gas and grocery prices soar for American families because of Trump's war of choice. How much more unfocused, unserious, and out of touch can you be?

[Jed Christiansen @jedc]

@patio11 Worked for a company that sold a platform for this data. Fun fact is that they had to specifically account for the sport of volleyball in their news scrapers, because articles mentioned “kills” so frequently.

[Rich Raho @RichRaho]

About two months after Robert Francis Prevost became Pope Leo XIV, he put in a call to his bank back home, a close friend, the Rev. Tom McCarthy, told a gathering of Catholics last week. The new pope identified himself as Robert Prevost, saying that he wished to change the phone number and address that the bank had on file. The pope answered the security questions correctly. Then, the woman on the line for the bank told him that it wasn’t enough — he would have to come to the branch in person. “He said, ‘Well, I’m not going to be able to do that,’” Father McCarthy said in a video clip shared on social media. The pope tried a different tack. “Would it matter to you if I told you I’m Pope Leo?” he asked, according to Father McCarthy. She hung up.

[Jed Christiansen @jedc]

After listening to the last @PodSaveAmerica episode w/ @jonfavs, I don’t believe @kenmartin73 should stay as DNC chair a day longer.

I honestly didn’t care at all about the DNC until this interview - but now realize he’s the wrong person for the job. 😡

[Tommy Vietor @TVietor08]

Pulling out of the Iran nuclear was a catastrophic mistake.

[Streetsblog New York City @StreetsblogNYC]

We went to Staten Island to track down New York City's second-worst driver:

He's an @NYPDnews officer who has been caught blasting through school zones or running red lights in his truck more than 547 times since 2022.

[Jessica Riedl 🧀 🇺🇦 @JessicaBRiedl]

NEW from me: The 2026 version of my chart book. It is 132 pages of charts that defy liberal & conservative conventional wisdom about spending, taxes, deficits, debt, and even presidential fiscal performance.

A full career of federal budget expertise in picture form. 🧵

[Sheel Mohnot @pitdesi]

IMO being in favor of this is like being in favor of defunding the police or not enforcing the border.

Why wouldn’t we enforce rules? If they said we’re going to be using AI to audit and need fewer folks that would be great, but that isn’t what they are saying.

“The IRS workforce reductions so far would cut an estimated $46 billion in federal spending over the next decade and reduce revenue collections by $643 billion.”

[Dan Pfeiffer @danpfeiffer]

JD Vance with everything

[Election Enjoyer @ElxMapping]

visits the pope → pope dies

leads Iran negotiations → talks collapse

flies to Hungary to prop up Orbán → Orbán loses in a landslide

Man’s got a streak.

[Michael Warburton @For_Film_Fans]

In 2006 a high school English teacher asked students to write to a famous author & ask for advice.

KURT VONNEGUT (who left us 19yrs ago today) was the only one to respond.

His reply was a doozy.