JD Shadel

@jdshadel.com

551 Followers 291 Following

💌 Join the only lifestyle newsletter on the internet ;-) www.esckey.co Chief Editorial Officer at new media outlet ESC KEY .CO — also the only employee Work in Condé Nast Traveler (ex-Future of Travel columnist), WaPo, Them, BBC, Vice, more They/etc

Google AI Overview for the search query "dog ate my homework" reads: "If your dog literally ate your paper homework, first check if any pieces are salvageable or take a quick photo of the shredded remains to prove your claim. Next, immediately email your teacher to explain what happened, politely ask for a brief extension to reprint or rewrite it, and attach any digital draft you might have saved."
A friend sends me a text of Reba shirt saying “thought of you”
IKEA announces the Meatball lollipop.
Photo of platform sandals in a second-hand shop's window; the sandals platform is adorned with the photo of a burger
Key Lime color Apple iBook G3
Screenshot of anxiety.eco article with the headline reading: The rise of Ultra Mid Fashion: Fast fashion brands really want you to believe they’re mid-market Many have adjusted prices to reflect their new positioning, but the changes don’t go much deeper than that. From John Galliano at Zara to Stella McCartney’s “Insights Board” for H&M, the pivot to mid-market is, well, mid.
Anne Carson speaking in 2016 to The Guardian upon the release of her collection “Float”: Your work extends our idea of poetry. Do you have a personal definition of what poetry is? If prose is a house, poetry is a man on fire running quite fast through it.
Early 20th century illustration of a person writing a letter at a desk
A hot sauce bottle with a red cap, filled with orange-red sauce. The label features a white starburst shape with the text "Can you handle this?" at the top, "Neurospicy!" in large red and pink lettering in the center, and "I don't think they can handle this!" at the bottom.
Screenshot of a LinkedIn direct message exchange. Carter sends an unsolicited sales message reading: "Hi JD, Your profile showed strong momentum in sales development. We guarantee qualified meetings each month or we work for free, helping any industry achieve reliable pipeline. Interested in discussing?" JD Shadel (They/Them) replies at 4:52 PM: "Thank you, Carter. My consulting rate is reduced for a limited time to £500 per session. In the session I will: -analyze your sales pitch for your services -provide detailed feedback -outline actionable steps you can take to improve your conversions with the target audience persona. This rate includes one hour session, materials review, and written feedback; you're welcome to record the session, as well. Payment is required up front, then I can have my assistant Shelby reach out to schedule a session at" — the message is cut off at the bottom of the screenshot.
Rage Song By Girl Group Lyrics screenshot reads: No I, didn't fuck your lite up You went online Spent three hundred pounds on crypto
Bluesky prompt asks “Are you writing in Dutch” as I drafted the aforementioned post
I doctored The Washington Post's homepage to update their tagline to "Billionaires Thrive in Darkness"
Screenshot of a part of a draft email reading: Some of our friends think we're possibly making a career mistake for launching an independent fashion media company in 2026. The media business is brutal right now. Reader-funded journalism is really hard to make sustainable. The odds are probably against us. But the odds are worse if nobody tries. And when we read your survey responses, we thought: these are our people. Might as well give it our best shot.
Practice question for the Life in the UK test: “What time do pubs usually open on Sundays in the UK?” (The correct answer is 12 noon on Sunday; 11 on other days.)
A dogeared copy of CAConrad’s “Listen to the Golden Boomerang Return”
Block print handkerchief with tomato’s on a light cotton material
r/digitalnomad • 16h Cheapest country to rot in? Question I don't care about internet, culture, things to do, vibes, whatever. I just want the cheapest, safest possible place where I can stay as long as possible without moving around and just have my savings last as long as possible to have food and shelter and watch youtube.
A still life of a Heinz can of beans with a spoon resting in the can on a side table with a cold glass of white wine next to it. A plant behind and art.
A painting of Alexander the Great looking v sassy
Screenshot of the ESC KEY .CO CMS backend showing the title of a post to be published soon ... "This year in early internet GIFs"
VeganFTA has a chatbot, ChatFTA
screenshots of AI generated vegan campaign images including a sheep wearing a wool sweater with the words, "who suffered for your wool sweater"
With all indications that the US is about to do something in Venezuela, December might prove to be Rubio's most diplomatic outing yet. The entire world will undoubtedly be watching, including his boss, forever testing his protégé for a still uncertain future. David Kaufman is a writer and editor based in New York. For more opinion, analysis and insight, subscribe to Monocle today. Want more? Charlotte McDonald-Gibson knows where the Maga crowd hangs out after work and it's not all bad. Take a look inside the raucous Butterworth's restaurant here. Want more stories like these in your inbox? Sign up to Monocle's email newsletters to stay on top of news and opinion, plus the latest from the magazine, radio, film and shop. Enter your email address SUBSCRIBE
A view of the Eiffel Tower in Paris standing outside the contemporary art center, Palais de Tokyo
Screenshot of my LinkedIn post that reads: Thrilled I got a promotion! Yes, I'm happy to announce that I’m starting a new position as Chief Editorial Officer ;-) of ESC KEY .CO* *this is actually fake news; i just made a company page for my insightfully weird weekly newsletter, written for terminally online pros like you who should, like, totally log off more but you can't exactly escape the internet anyway follow or whatever bye *** The only "person" that liked it is the new company page, controlled by me
"I choose violence"
We know, we know, we know ... Seeing these messages is annoying. We know that. (Imagine what it's like writing them ...) But it's also extremely important. One of the Guardian's greatest assets is its reader-funded model.
Screenshot of a BBC News headline that reads: Rugby hooker called prostitute in Virgin Media Welsh translation error
Trinkets Ashnikko ... Am I just a bird? Am i just a crow? Looking for, something shiny for my nest? (Ah-ah-ah) I collect them all, trinkets, souvenirs Pretty princess boys, they're my found objects (Ah-ah-ah)
"I don't want to be in a situation for even an hour where I'm not enjoying myself." —Kim Cattrall
Screenshot of text messages from me to a friend, reading: Today 20:14 A long walk is really the greatest pleasure in life. The thing that gives so many otherwise unremarkable days meaning — the only way to live in a city is to romanticize the city and the surest way to do that is to walk through the city like you're walking in a film Anyway, lol hello
email from "News from Google" with the subject like "AI prompts to try for Halloween"
Ad for the game Royal Match that shows a puzzle game you have to solve to keep a king from dying
A photo of me holding a cup of coffee overlooking a leafy neighborhood in Portland overcast skies, and mountains in the background church spires rise in the distance
screenshot of cheesy stock photography mocked up with cheesy headline: this one is a cotton field and a person with long hair holds a tablet, to which I've added text to the tablet that reads "Looks like cotton fields but blurry" because the field is out of focus
Screenshot of the article highlighting this section: Satya Nadella spoke to BBC News shortly before he and other tech leaders, including OpenAl's Sam Altman and Nvidia's Jensen Huang, were due to attend the Royal state banquet on Wednesday. He said he would use Microsoft's Al tool, Copilot, to help him decide what to weal "I was very surprised that there was a very different dress protocol, which I'm really not sure that I'm ready for," he said.
A cultural insights agency that charges $9,000/year for newsletters
wait, mate, so you are CEO of a company that helps people scale synthetic email spam and yet you still bother to use your real face in these videos? where is the 10x'd productivity, bruv? avatar is the future man; don't waste your time in these busy streets! Al your video process! more slop for all! democratize slop!
A spiral bound notebook page that reads: "My right hand is tired. Why? I wrote this entire article by hand before editing it in Google Docs. Why write an entire article by hand?! Because it's about the future of handwriting!"
Screenshot of the homepage of ESC KEY .CO, which reads: "Too online? JD Shadel's weekly newsletter, ESC KEY .CO, is a unicycle for the mind!" [Subscribe]
a big crowd of people stand in the courtyard at Somerset House in London, the author is in the middle of the crowd
Reddit post that reads: “My mom had to take a new photo for her badge at work. Left is the actual photo she took, right is the badge photo they gave her.” Left is a photo of a real person. Right is essentially an AI avatar.
Screenshot of a headline and summary of an article on the NYT website: THE GREAT READ Is That Bob Dylan in the Mirror? In his autobiographical novel, Sam Sussman grows up wondering if his affinity for the great singer-songwriter goes beyond a striking resemblance. 7 MIN READ
Screenshot of Vogue's newly announced head of editorial content, who has 62 connections
Screenshot of Grindr messages read “hi, how y d,” meaning how are you doing. To which I replied “hey not bad just been watching some lectures hbu”
Sunset at Telegraph Hill Park in south London
Screenshot of an email from Substack saying that a "person" from my contacts list is on Substack and I should follow them.
Early internet GIF of an owl and a black cat with sparkly eyes and necklaces in front of books of magic, against a black sparkly background.
Screenshot of the Mr & Mrs Smith editorial feature, with a pull quote adjacent to a photo of JD Shadel, who sits on a couch in a funky hotel lobby. The quote from JD reads: Even when it’s been illegal for us to be ourselves in the past, we create countercultural spaces where we find joy and safety together.
A sunny day in East London, looking out from a bridge in Victoria Park at the house boats along Regents Canal
Screenshots of Grindr messages: How was your broadway market coffee the other day? Also lol I was fed a LinkedIn post by you this morning
Grindr ad that reads: Pokémon Go Evolve with your Pokémon!
Telegraph headline that reads: “'We earn £345k, but soaring private school fees mean we can't go on five holidays”
Namasenda crouches in a dark, patterned outfit and striking black shoes shaped like human hands, against a white background
Assorted instant photographs taken at the ESC KEY .CO x Clean Creatives event at Somerset House
My Grindr bio lists what book I’m currently reading — “The AI Con” by Emily M. Bender and Alex Hanna — and poses the question, “What are you currently reading?!”
on a dramatically lit checkered surface, one of the checks opens up surreally like a box or door to reveal a red space and an illuminated black "esc" key from a keyboard