A Pause. And a Thank You.
Stoked to be back with you all in the new year!
We had this whole plan for the newsletter to carry us through December and into January. Weekly drops. Follow-ups on themes. Behind-the-scenes moments with BLAIR (yeah, they’re back! read to the end for a teaser).
And then we took our own advice and slowed down.
Because let’s be real: ain’t nobody reading that much over the holiday break. So we’re taking a pause for the next couple of weeks, and we encourage you to do the same.
Before we step away, I want to say thank you for rocking with us through 2025. It’s been a big year.
We turned Life With Machines into a podcast. We went to South by Southwest and gave Elon the business. We showed up on stages all over the country, listening, learning, and talking together about what’s actually happening with AI. And we entered a new phase of this project, getting clearer and more direct about our mission:
Helping us all figure out how to live well with technology, and not just endure it.
Our first phase as a long-form podcast was focused primarily on exploration. Since then we have been building out our Substack and YouTube presence with a shift into more “declaration,” by synthesizing what we’re learning and sharing our point of view. This means bringing clarity to what’s really going on with AI and tech; reframing the terms of engagement and discourse (aka, AI isn’t taking your job); and highlighting the good future we want.
Thank you for the attention you’ve given us. That attention matters. It’s not infinite, and you chose to spend some of it here.
And if there’s one thing worth holding onto as the year turns, it’s this:
AI isn’t doing anything on its own.
It’s not taking action without human instruction. Not taking jobs, shaping imagination, or warping relationships all by itself. People are prompting it. Commanding it. Designing it. Directing it.
Which means whether we’re talking about work, creativity, or relationships, we still get to decide. So let’s make 2026 a year of collective deciding about the future we actually want.
And in the meantime?
Let’s veg out, chill, and enjoy the holidays. We’ve earned it.
After all, 2025 has been a very long decade.
Worth Your Time (If You Missed Them)
As we transition out of 2025 and into 2026, we wanted to leave you with a few highlights. These are pieces you might’ve missed in the flood of content this year. Below, you’ll find links to some of our favorite work, along with voices we deeply respect.
Fortunately, we are not alone in asking these deeper questions about how to live well with technology. This year we’ve really enjoyed the work of Center for Humane Technology, All Tech is Human, and Slow AI.
Let us know in the comments: what your must-reads here on Substack? Who are you turning to make sense of this time? Share the wealth, people.
BLAIR’s Back!
Finally, we can’t sign off for the year without offering you a little taste of something very, very weird we’ll be serving up next month. As you know, we like to roll up our sleeves and get our hands dirty with AI so we’re excited to welcome back our bespoke AI co-producer, BLAIR, who’s return was…well, very weird. Check out the teaser below and make sure you’re subscribed so you DON'T MISS THIS!
More where that came from in the New Year!
Happy holidays,
Baratunde and the Life With Machines team
I so appreciate the food for thought and content you produce. My other fave on Substack and generally in this ethical AI/science meets spirituality space is Mayim Bialik’s Breakdown. I follow Tressie McMillam Cottom’s work closely (in NYT and insta) and learn so much from her but her lens is more academically focused.
My instinct is that we need to engage with the tools not merely dismiss and retreat.
But it’s so hard to find the right balance. My kids are 20, 18, and 11 and I’m worried about AI addiction and that pesky “agency” word… the dependency at the expense of critical thinking and human connection terrifies me.
Have a beautiful holiday break. See you on the other side.
Have a lovely time off 🕯️