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Alexis Ohanian shocks Washington with pro-immigration remarks

2026-04-22T16:47:31-04:00

Los Angeles Golf Club owner Alexis Ohanian looks on during the match against the Jupiter Links Golf Club at SoFi Center on March 24, 2026 in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida. | Image: TGL Golf via Getty Images

Hello and welcome to Regulator, a newsletter for Verge readers about tech politics, political tech, and how they're muddying the waters of Washington, DC. My birthday is this week, and if you're not a Verge subscriber but would like to wish me a happy birthday, you should subscribe here, because that would be the best gift of all. (Tips sent to tina.nguyen+tips@theverge.com would be a very good gift, too.)

Last night, I watched Alexis Ohanian, venture capitalist and cofounder of Reddit, stun a room of Washington insiders by criticizing the Trump administration's immigration policies. This happened in front of at least one senior administrat …

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The Stars My Destination is classic proto-cyberpunk

2026-04-20T10:56:42-04:00

Gully Foyle is my name… | Image: Brick Tower Press

This might feel like a somewhat obvious recommendation to some, but it flew under my radar until now. Alfred Bester's The Stars My Destination (originally published as Tiger! Tiger! in the UK) is a 1956 sci-fi novel that some have cited as a precursor to cyberpunk. It's a work I admit I have some conflicted feelings about, but one I think is well worth reading if you consider yourself a fan of sci-fi. It's also well worth seeking out a physical copy, something I wish I had known before I started reading it in the objectively inferior ebook form that can't capture the ergodic elements of the climax.

It's hard to explain the plot of The Stars …

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The future of local TV news has taken a Trumpian turn

2026-04-21T12:53:39-04:00

This is The Stepback, a weekly newsletter breaking down one essential story from the tech world. For more stories on Big Tech versus politics in Washington, DC, follow Tina Nguyen and read Regulator. The Stepback arrives in our subscribers' inboxes at 8AM ET. Opt in for The Stepback here.

How it started

A long time ago, in 2004, the Federal Communications Commission laid down a rule designed to prevent a monopoly: No one company could broadcast to more than 39 percent of all the TV households in the United States. But then Donald Trump returned to the White House in 2025. Brendan Carr became FCC chairman and immediately kicked off a deregu …

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Peloton, stay in your lane

2026-04-17T09:04:23-04:00

People keep trying to make Peloton more than what it is, when the product itself is enough.

This is Optimizer, a weekly newsletter sent every Friday from Verge senior reviewer Victoria Song that dissects and discusses the latest gizmos and potions that swear they're going to change your life. Opt in for Optimizer here.

The camera zooms in on two well-formed cheeks clad in white shorts. These buns of steel belong to one Hudson Williams, star of the steamy hockey romance Heated Rivalry. As the camera pans up, a bead of sweat drips down his chin toward his clavicle. Sweaty abs are shown. The music swells. Hollywood's mega-hunk of the moment is swaying his chiseled visage back and forth, semi-gyrating on… a Peloton treadmill. A $6,695 …

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How Netflix made us fall in love with K-dramas

2026-04-16T11:46:30-04:00

This is Lowpass by Janko Roettgers, a newsletter on the ever-evolving intersection of tech and entertainment, syndicated just for The Verge subscribers once a week.

What do you get if you take a bunch of ripped, shirtless male K-pop idols in boxing gloves and have them spar in the ring until they're sweating? For Netflix: another global hit.

The streamer's K-drama Bloodhounds, now in its second season, is currently tearing up its global viewing charts. Season 2 attracted 7.4 million views last week, making it the most-watched non-English TV show worldwide on the service, and the third-most-popular show overall.

Bloodhounds is no exception …

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Trump’s posting even more AI-generated Trump-Jesus fan art

2026-04-21T12:08:39-04:00

The version posted by @realdonaldtrump/Truth Social.

Hello and welcome to Regulator, a newsletter for Verge subscribers about Big Tech power plays in Washington and beyond. (And when I say beyond, I mean the great beyond, like Heaven, maybe.) If you've found your way to this newsletter from the wild, annual subscriptions are currently 50 percent off. That's $30 a year for access to an entire newsroom full of reporting about technology and how it's eating society alive - not just in politics!
(I will also accept confidential tips at tina.nguyen+tips@theverge.com.)

You can't spell "antichrist" without "AI"

Of all the things that would have fractured the religious right's alliance with Donald Tr …

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Room for the Moon is thrillingly weird experimental pop

2026-04-13T05:55:13-04:00

I mean, I guess it kinda looks like the moon? | Image: Kate NV / RVNG Intl.

For obvious reasons, I've had Moon on the mind all week. So I was trying to figure out what I should recommend this week that would thematically fit. Brian Eno's Apollo: Atmospheres and Soundtracks is incredible, and if you haven't listened to it, go do that now. But it also seemed a bit on the nose. Radiohead's A Moon Shaped Pool also came to mind. But it also felt a bit obvious. Then I remembered Kate NV's Room for the Moon, a record I had on repeat in 2020.

Russian artist Kate Shilonosova chases ideas across 11 tracks inspired by Russian and Japanese pop from the '70s and '80s, as well as children's movies. This obviously leads Room for …

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The AI code wars are heating up

2026-04-21T12:08:39-04:00

This is The Stepback, a weekly newsletter breaking down one essential story from the tech world. For more on the AI coding and vibe-coding booms, follow David Pierce. The Stepback arrives in our subscribers' inboxes at 8AM ET. Opt in for The Stepback here.

How it started

Writing code was a killer app for AI even before anyone was really talking about AI. In the spring of 2021, 18 months before the world knew the word "ChatGPT," Microsoft debuted the very first product of a partnership with a nonprofit called OpenAI: a tool called GitHub Copilot that watched developers as they wrote code and tried to autocomplete snippets and lines for them …

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Why your Whoop might tell you to up your testosterone

2026-04-21T12:08:40-04:00

Whoop is popular among congressional staffers.

Last week, our editor-in-chief Nilay Patel messaged me about his new Whoop band, which he'd gotten thanks to a generous yearlong offer from Chase. A few days later, he sent a cursed screenshot. The Whoop AI coach had recommended several ways in which he could dramatically improve his testosterone levels. Not because he was deficient, but because they were at "not sick" levels. Whoop optimizes for performance levels. …

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OpenAI made economic proposals — here’s what DC thinks of them

2026-04-13T12:40:49-04:00

Happy ceasefire day and welcome to Regulator, a newsletter for Verge subscribers about Big Tech's rocky journey through the world of politics. If you're not a subscriber yet, you can do so here, but my only request is that you sign up before Donald Trump decides to revisit his previous threats toward Iran and kickstart World War III.

I'm back after being waylaid last week by the deadly combo of a moderate cold and the beginning of pollen season. (Twenty-one percent of the District's acreage is taken up by public green space, and DC is consistently ranked the best city park system in America. Unfortunately, I am allergic to every tree and gr …

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