October 2026

I’ve been finding my footing with this newsletter. It’s an incomplete mix of what I’ve written and read since June. I’ll start, sheepishly, with a personal milestone: the first time seeing my own name in a print magazine, or as they say in the biz, my first byline— WIRED This summer, WIRED magazine sent me to ICANN86 in Spain to learn about top-level domains and the people who make them. The story was published online earlier this month. At 4,000 words, it’s the best approximation yet of what my book will be like—interviews with primary sources, thoroughly researched and fact checked, real narrative nonfiction with characters and scenes. The work of reporting and writing the story was stimulating and challenging. I met many kind, fascinating people in the domain world, and the WIRED folks (editors, fact checkers, etc.) were terrific to work with. I hope you enjoy reading, and if you do, consider forwarding to a friend. (Oh, and I promise it has nothing to do with cat-camgirls, despite…