Danielle Kurtzleben

The oyster-shucking, baseball-playing, hands-working-with men have arrived on the 2026 political scene, and I have thoughts. daniellekurtzleben.substack.com/p/when-authe...

I do not know how to fix it, but I cannot say enough how much we in the news need to figure out how to handle the “flood the zone with shit” strategy.

A thing I really need people to keep in mind: 15% tariffs are high, historically speaking. 10% tariffs are high. The average effective tariff rate before this term was just over 2%. Anything double-digits is high!

It’s easy to call anything a distraction but in reality the zone is flooded. There is just a crazy amount going on. Any one of these things (Epstein, DC, immigration, universities, tariffs) would in any other time be a weeks or months long news cycle.

Which brings me to my hot take: I have come around to thinking Breaking Bad was a failure. Walter White is supposed to be a monster but you made him read as cool enough that misguided people see him as admirable. An amoral show that ages phenomenally poorly.

Tbh I think this works the way podcasts do. How many people finish a Rogan 3 hour slog? I’d bet not a majority. Doesn’t mean he’s cutting it short. He’s gathered a lot of listeners with that crazy length! If we all thought this way every damn pod you love would be 15 minutes long. It would suck.

ROUGH MEN. [bangs on the masculinity sign] People. You NEED ROUGH MEN SO YOU CAN SLEEP.

A read for your evening commute: Part 1 of how I got into journalism (part 2, I promise, will be more about how you can too) Anyway, go follow your dreams, because the world is terrifying and you deserve to live with as little regret as possible. daniellekurtzleben.substack.com/p/how-i-got-...

Update: this post prompted a many-years-ago ex-boyfriend to email me, which is proof of the power of my lore. You should definitely read and share.

Oh.......oh my God.

Today: I get annoyingly inspirational and tell you to follow your dreams and go be a journalist (or whatever else you want). open.substack.com/pub/danielle...

My bad news is that the following things in fact do make life better: 1) exercising early in the morning 2) staying hydrated 3) not drinking too much 4) gratitude journaling (I know) My good news is that these things also work: 1) retail therapy 2) drugs 3) screaming 4) aging

I think maybe once a week about this dude folk singer I saw once like 10 years ago, who toured with his wife (also a singer), and who wrote a fun jokey song about his wife's PMS. Said song was called "Ragtime Blues." I just

A reminder that after the tariff decision, the president accused Supreme Court justices of being under foreign influence. Think about this.