ESC KEY .CO

BTS @ ESC — 21 min read How early internet GIFs became part of the visual language of ESC KEY .CO Last year, I sent an extra enthusiastic, very earnest voice note to my celestial twin (i.e., we have the same sun, moon and rising signs) with news of a nerdy career highlight: “The Internet Archive blog just interviewed me! They are writing about my portfolio website! Eeek!” She replied: “I have absolutely no idea what that means! But I’m excited for you!” And to be fair, there is absolutely no...

Last week’s letter to young writers about the death of freelance journalism struck quite a chord, and not only among freelancers. In fact, I was not expecting the response it’s gotten in my inbox, by far the most “replied to” long-form piece mailed to readers of ESC KEY .CO. What follows is a companion guide to the state of media: part industry analysis, part personal reckoning, part refusal to pretend everything is fine.

Paywall Satire This non-binary bisexual stopped wearing their Apple Watch. You won't believe what happened. I first began using an Apple Watch to track my sleep. My watch told me I wasn't sleeping enough. It also alerted me that my heart rate was elevated when I would run to catch a train. Then I stopped wearing it. What happened next? I went to Wikimedia.org.

It is essential for young writers to know that becoming a successful freelancer has long meant learning how to persist in a world that seems hostile to you succeeding, even in arguably trivial ways. For instance, imagine one’s bladder wants to burst open. Imagine one is straining all of one’s pelvic floor muscles. Imagine one has had three coffees and nervously drank the jug of tap water on the table; one badly has to go — and one must go now! But there’s a problem: One is in a cafe.

The thing is: There’s a “Groundhog Day” conversation I keep having this year with fellow journalists, freelance and staff alike, at major lifestyle publications. Higher-ups have less appetite for stories that might be deemed “controversial” — stories that challenge far-right authoritarian narratives, that hold power to account for “cowardcore” retreats from performative DEI and disingenuous environmental targets.

🍴 Nom nom nom! Welcome to Power Lunch, a series of speculative lunches with creative minds navigating achievement and reinvention in our very weird era. Is a Power Lunch a case study? Knowledge exchange? Restaurant rec?! Nothing’s off the table. Are there countless examples of racism, transphobia, biphobia, you name it on “Sex and the City,” the HBO romantic dramedy that aired from 1998 to 2004?

Paywall Satire This newsletter writer is taking a unique approach to monetization: "Pay me to NOT email you" Getting too many newsletters? You're not alone. But rather than giving you a good reason to add another to your inbox, this newsletter writer lets you pay them and not receive any of their newsletters. Is this the future of media? This is not the future of media, but if you want to pay ESC KEY .CO and not receive any newsletters, you can do that for $11.99/month. How?

BTS @ ESC I spent 72 hours rereading every newsletter I wrote: You won't believe what happened next Correction: I have actually been sick in bed for three days *not* reading, writing or even thinking about newsletters. Hence, I am publishing, gulps, a Best of ESC KEY .CO listicle, optimized for pity shares on social media — or something like that. 24 Oct 2025 — 11 min read I first used this GIF as the lead image for an article published on February 16, 2025.

The thing is: This June was the hottest on record in England. Perhaps not that hot by global standards, but in this temperate island country, any time thermometers record 30 degrees Celsius, or about 86 degrees Fahrenheit, you can expect U.K. news outlets to run headlines announcing the hundreds “expected to die,” which the heat is “set to kill.” We were not built for the looming climate. Nor, for that matter, was Richard Edelman.

👢 Stomp stomp! Welcome to Power Walks, a series exploring changing places from a pedestrian's point of view. These reporter's notes aren't exactly travel guides or photo essays, but they're also kind of both?! Log off, lace up, let's roll. There are problems in Portland, Oregon right now that have nothing to do with Portland, Oregon. One problem involves too many trigger-happy troops with too much pepper spray.