Some interesting things to read this weekend in March

It’s the week of The National Magazine Awards, which is more or less the Oscars for journalism nerds. It’s also a great time to find new stories to read. Here are all the nominees . You’ll see plenty from The Atlantic , which is also up in the big category of General Excellence. But there are lots of other pieces I’ve loved. Just in one category, you have an incredible story about the painter Matthew Wong —“not painting is pain,” he says at one point. Then there’s a story from Outside about a man who has dedicated his life to skipping stones. And the Verge / Epic go on the hunt for one of the lost female hackers of the 1980s. (And, though it isn’t a nominee, all journalism nerds need to read this wonderful piece about J.D. Salinger’s editor by Mary Norris.)

The most important thing I’ve read recently though might not be any of this, it’s Stephen Wolfram’s outstanding, and exhaustive, description of what Chat.GPT is doing . It’s dense. But it explains how many of the key concepts—from word completion, to temperature, to transformer architecture—work. I’ve read a lot of explainers and this is my favorite.

As that form of AI (rightly) gets all the attention, I was also impressed by this essay about the difficulties right now, and all the engineering tradeoffs, in virtual reality . And this piece from IdleWords making the case about why it’s so hard to get to Mars . Plus, I never tire of reporting on what’s been happening at Twitter . I’m always happy to read about Virginia Heffernan’s adventures, like her going to TSMC. And you know I’ll be swept in by an essay about Stanford’s War on Fun .

There have been a series of powerful essays about running recently. Here’s a wonderful list . I was also inspired by Lauren Fleshman’s new book, Good for a Girl , about her life in running but more importantly, the structural ways the sport can be terrible for young women. And I was heartbroken by this essay about the pain of one of my early running idols, Lynn Jennings.

For politics, you have to read this profile of Arnold Schwarzenegger grappling with the existential question of life. And the story of Wilmot Collins , who fled the civil war in Liberia and became a mayor in Montana. I also highly recommend this essay in The Alpinist about loss and the way the wilderness helps us process pain, from Jason Nark.

For listening, I loved this conversation between Lex Fridman and the brilliant biologist Lee Cronin . It’s from a year ago, but it’s also four hours long. And you absolutely have to listen to the Atlantic’s new podcast, Holy Week , about the aftermath of the assassination of Martin Luther King.???

That’s it for now! I hope to have some more wonderful recommendations after learning about all the winners on Tuesday.