Mark Wedel
@mrreeezinable.bsky.social
Kalamazoo, Michigan, journalist. Bike pedaler. I ride bikes far, I pet our kitties hard, I drink coffee like in those '80s Coffee Achiever commercials.
I cover housing, culture, bikes, road infrastructure, environment, a hodgepodge, secondwavemedia.com
I cover housing, culture, bikes, road infrastructure, environment, a hodgepodge, secondwavemedia.com
Pinned
The GOAT with the Nikon: Inside the unfiltered life of Fran Dwight – Second Wave
Fran Dwight, Second Wave photographer and newly named Community Medal of Arts award recipient, channels her introverted insecurity into a fearless, community-rooted body of work that captures Kalamazo...
secondwavemedia.com
My latest. It's odd to do a profile with someone who's your coworker, but Fran made it easy. Though she also made it hard, as I tried to go back to her childhood, her hippy days, etc., to get a full life and great photos in 3,000 words (I failed, it's over 3,000).
Reposted by Mark Wedel
“I am so bored by AI. One of the things I love about the theatre is AI can’t do it.”
Ethan Hawke is a dude 👌🏻
Ethan Hawke is a dude 👌🏻
December 9, 2025 at 8:36 PM
“I am so bored by AI. One of the things I love about the theatre is AI can’t do it.”
Ethan Hawke is a dude 👌🏻
Ethan Hawke is a dude 👌🏻
Reposted by Mark Wedel
It's truly wild to me that this just keeps happening. Coca-Cola runs an AI ad and people overwhelmingly react with disgust. They do it again, and people are disgusted again. Now McDonald's makes an AI ad that's so bad that so many people are furious about it they pull it down.
People hate AI slop!
People hate AI slop!
McDonald's Pulls Down AI-Generated Holiday Ad After Deluge of Mockery
McDonald's Netherlands is catching flak for a stupefying AI-generated video, which was roundly condemned on social media.
futurism.com
December 9, 2025 at 8:29 PM
It's truly wild to me that this just keeps happening. Coca-Cola runs an AI ad and people overwhelmingly react with disgust. They do it again, and people are disgusted again. Now McDonald's makes an AI ad that's so bad that so many people are furious about it they pull it down.
People hate AI slop!
People hate AI slop!
I know for a fact he wouldn’t be sitting there in his undergarments.
guys who bring up george washington a lot love to know absolutely zero historical or biographical information and just imagine he's a cool guy who would agree emphatically with whatever weird shit they're saying over beers after the militia meetup
Oh good, Glenn Beck has created an AI George Washington. You will be shocked to learn that the AI George Washington created by Glenn Beck sounds exactly like what would happen if Glenn Beck built an AI George Washington to sound exactly like Glenn Beck.
December 8, 2025 at 7:54 PM
I know for a fact he wouldn’t be sitting there in his undergarments.
Reposted by Mark Wedel
Sometimes, someone throws something out that hits a nerve so irritating to me that if I'm totally honest with myself I put trying to be funny second and my desire to deal with the irritating things come out as top priority.
December 5, 2025 at 3:23 PM
Sometimes, someone throws something out that hits a nerve so irritating to me that if I'm totally honest with myself I put trying to be funny second and my desire to deal with the irritating things come out as top priority.
My latest. It's odd to do a profile with someone who's your coworker, but Fran made it easy. Though she also made it hard, as I tried to go back to her childhood, her hippy days, etc., to get a full life and great photos in 3,000 words (I failed, it's over 3,000).
The GOAT with the Nikon: Inside the unfiltered life of Fran Dwight – Second Wave
Fran Dwight, Second Wave photographer and newly named Community Medal of Arts award recipient, channels her introverted insecurity into a fearless, community-rooted body of work that captures Kalamazo...
secondwavemedia.com
December 4, 2025 at 2:14 PM
My latest. It's odd to do a profile with someone who's your coworker, but Fran made it easy. Though she also made it hard, as I tried to go back to her childhood, her hippy days, etc., to get a full life and great photos in 3,000 words (I failed, it's over 3,000).
Reposted by Mark Wedel
Jacob Frey: "If we are now at the point where the federal govt is deploying agents on legal American citizens with a goal of uprooting people who have formed lives here, have families here, started businesses here, definitively made Minneapolis a better place, everybody should be speaking out."
December 3, 2025 at 4:32 PM
Jacob Frey: "If we are now at the point where the federal govt is deploying agents on legal American citizens with a goal of uprooting people who have formed lives here, have families here, started businesses here, definitively made Minneapolis a better place, everybody should be speaking out."
Reposted by Mark Wedel
This explains something that has always mystified me about drivers who rail against bike lanes and transit. Why WOULDN'T you want people to have options not to drive? It would make your own driving better! But they don't just want good traffic, they want to reinforce the NORM of driving
This is actually quite brilliant, up to and including the final sentence 🔥
December 1, 2025 at 1:04 PM
This explains something that has always mystified me about drivers who rail against bike lanes and transit. Why WOULDN'T you want people to have options not to drive? It would make your own driving better! But they don't just want good traffic, they want to reinforce the NORM of driving
Reposted by Mark Wedel
Detroiters and the Chair Company are a duology that say something important about America: Michigan is weird (fun way, charming) and Ohio is weird (upsetting way, always emitting a low-grade danger)
November 30, 2025 at 1:26 AM
Detroiters and the Chair Company are a duology that say something important about America: Michigan is weird (fun way, charming) and Ohio is weird (upsetting way, always emitting a low-grade danger)
It's pie o'clock, but the pie is all gone.
November 30, 2025 at 9:43 PM
It's pie o'clock, but the pie is all gone.
Reposted by Mark Wedel
The reality, of course, is that Miller and a significant portion of Trump’s base are the ones who failed to assimilate to America’s post-WWII culture of multi-racial democracy & religious pluralism…and they are now using their power to destroy that once dominant (and still popular) American culture.
Stephen Miller is now arguing that assimilation is fundamentally impossible and that certain cultures are not compatible with Western civilization
November 28, 2025 at 1:23 PM
The reality, of course, is that Miller and a significant portion of Trump’s base are the ones who failed to assimilate to America’s post-WWII culture of multi-racial democracy & religious pluralism…and they are now using their power to destroy that once dominant (and still popular) American culture.
Reposted by Mark Wedel
Reposted by Mark Wedel
Billionaire Binance founder Changpeng Zhao, pardoned by Donald Trump, has been accused of facilitating millions of dollars’ worth of payments to Hamas in the wake of its attack on Israel on October 7 2023. Zhao also financed the Trump family's entrance into the cryptocurrency market.
Binance founder Changpeng Zhao accused of facilitating payments to Hamas
Crypto tycoon pardoned by Donald Trump faces US court complaint from families of victims of October 7 attack
www.ft.com
November 25, 2025 at 2:06 AM
Billionaire Binance founder Changpeng Zhao, pardoned by Donald Trump, has been accused of facilitating millions of dollars’ worth of payments to Hamas in the wake of its attack on Israel on October 7 2023. Zhao also financed the Trump family's entrance into the cryptocurrency market.
Reposted by Mark Wedel
Yesterday my partner and I counted all the ads along Chicago's Brown Line for "Friend," a company selling an AI chatbot pendant, and tallied how many of those ads were defaced.
Still working on a longer piece on this, but here's the quick and dirty: we counted 104 "Friend" ads total, 42 defaced.
Still working on a longer piece on this, but here's the quick and dirty: we counted 104 "Friend" ads total, 42 defaced.
November 23, 2025 at 10:46 PM
Yesterday my partner and I counted all the ads along Chicago's Brown Line for "Friend," a company selling an AI chatbot pendant, and tallied how many of those ads were defaced.
Still working on a longer piece on this, but here's the quick and dirty: we counted 104 "Friend" ads total, 42 defaced.
Still working on a longer piece on this, but here's the quick and dirty: we counted 104 "Friend" ads total, 42 defaced.
Reposted by Mark Wedel
the key feature of "bad photoshop" was not that it was "bad" but that you could see the hand of the person who made it. "bad photoshop" is a triumph of human will over technical stumbling blocks. it's why the shaggs are magical and AI Music Slop is forgotten before you can even finish listening
November 23, 2025 at 7:40 PM
the key feature of "bad photoshop" was not that it was "bad" but that you could see the hand of the person who made it. "bad photoshop" is a triumph of human will over technical stumbling blocks. it's why the shaggs are magical and AI Music Slop is forgotten before you can even finish listening
Reposted by Mark Wedel
Now that’s a lede.
Story by @taracopp.bsky.social and @michelleboorstein.bsky.social.
Read here: www.washingtonpost.com/national-sec...
Story by @taracopp.bsky.social and @michelleboorstein.bsky.social.
Read here: www.washingtonpost.com/national-sec...
November 20, 2025 at 6:39 PM
Now that’s a lede.
Story by @taracopp.bsky.social and @michelleboorstein.bsky.social.
Read here: www.washingtonpost.com/national-sec...
Story by @taracopp.bsky.social and @michelleboorstein.bsky.social.
Read here: www.washingtonpost.com/national-sec...
Reposted by Mark Wedel
We want to speak directly to members of the Military and the Intelligence Community.
The American people need you to stand up for our laws and our Constitution.
Don’t give up the ship.
The American people need you to stand up for our laws and our Constitution.
Don’t give up the ship.
November 18, 2025 at 1:31 PM
We want to speak directly to members of the Military and the Intelligence Community.
The American people need you to stand up for our laws and our Constitution.
Don’t give up the ship.
The American people need you to stand up for our laws and our Constitution.
Don’t give up the ship.
Reposted by Mark Wedel
I have been thinking about this line today, on the value of editors, from the late great John Bennet, for no reason in particular.
November 18, 2025 at 2:14 PM
I have been thinking about this line today, on the value of editors, from the late great John Bennet, for no reason in particular.
Reposted by Mark Wedel
The worst thing AI has done to culture in just a couple years is not that people think AI generated things are real, but that they now think real things are AI generated
November 17, 2025 at 11:46 PM
The worst thing AI has done to culture in just a couple years is not that people think AI generated things are real, but that they now think real things are AI generated
Reposted by Mark Wedel
Was thrilled to help consult for this fantastic John Oliver segment on the tragic plight of U.S. public media and why, if we hope to be a democracy, we still need public media for so many things that commercial media will never provide. Deserves a wide viewership. www.youtube.com/watch?v=yknM...
Public Media: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver (HBO)
YouTube video by LastWeekTonight
www.youtube.com
November 17, 2025 at 4:09 PM
Was thrilled to help consult for this fantastic John Oliver segment on the tragic plight of U.S. public media and why, if we hope to be a democracy, we still need public media for so many things that commercial media will never provide. Deserves a wide viewership. www.youtube.com/watch?v=yknM...
Reposted by Mark Wedel
![Advertising poster promoting cycling for transport featuring four people in a row on bikes. At the top the text says, "You'd be better on a bicycle", and then in a bubble it says "Still [emphasized with big, red, italicized letters] the cheapest, handiest, healthiest way of getting about."](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:7vpdxcialxa6j5s7yh5g5jhf/bafkreihcp247ahol26isqxpjmh54kczqp6ieyycvhakzjug6ysgeqndpb4@jpeg)
Reposted by Mark Wedel
Whatever Trump is desperately covering up about Epstein, it’s clearly so bad that he thinks it could destroy him
November 15, 2025 at 1:02 AM
Whatever Trump is desperately covering up about Epstein, it’s clearly so bad that he thinks it could destroy him
Mid November beach at Lake Michigan. Not warm enough for swimming, but not cold.
November 14, 2025 at 11:23 PM
Mid November beach at Lake Michigan. Not warm enough for swimming, but not cold.