Luke Jerod Kummer

Nearly 130 years after Ameer Ben Ali's murder conviction, I discovered in a box in Albany's state archives this brass key that finally granted him freedom. It and other findings led to my new historical @audible_com drama "Takers Mad" audible.com/pd/Takers-Mad-…

'Episodes' by @maraaltman & Kat Alexander is in 3rd place for @signalawards 'Most Inspirational Podcast'! Raw, real story of friendship & survival via @audible_com that'll make you laugh & cry. RT + VOTE 👇 bit.ly/VoteEpisodes #SignalAwards #ListenersChoice

@robinhanson Perhaps so, but ‘famous’ and ‘influential’ and ‘insightful’ and ‘consequential’ certainly are not all the same! Thanks so much for taking the time to chat for @keachhagey’s book, THE OPTIMIST. As the @Wired excerpt captures, what a wild time it is to be alive!

I'm mentioned in this story about much more famous and newsworthy folks. wired.com/story/book-exc…

@keachhagey @superwuster When was last time two books on same topic came out on same day like this? Sharp side-by-side analysis by Wu.

Honored that Tim Wu (@superwuster), author of several of my favorite books about technology, reviewed THE OPTIMIST for NYT. “The Optimist lets the reader see how thoroughly Altman outfoxed his patron, leveraging Musk’s paranoia into enormous sums of money while slowly making OpenAI his own . . . excellent and deeply reported.” —Tim Wu, New York Times Book Review nytimes.com/2025/05/19/boo…

Thanks, @LukeJKummer! I can't believe how lucky I am to get to work with someone of your talent. There is no one more dogged or creative.

THE OPTIMIST: Sam Altman, OpenAI & the Race to Invent the Future by @WSJ's @keachhagey lands 5/20. I was honored to help research as she wrote a modern epic & pried open the head of one of today's most consequential figures. Have a look—it's wild! a.co/d/fBWXfGO @wwnorton

Great chatting with @mcalderone @radhikajones and Claire Howorth of @VanityFair about Sam Altman and THE OPTIMIST, which comes out May 20.

Completely speechless that THE OPTIMIST is an Amazon Top Ten Editor’s Pick for May amazon.com/b/?_encoding=U…

Sam Altman did not just explore a run for California governor. He told people he was also considering running for president. Details in an excerpt from my forthcoming book, THE OPTIMIST, out today in Vanity Fair: vanityfair.com/news/story/exc…

Between a pandemic, moral panics and a trade war, it keeps getting easier to argue to young people that the past tends to repeat itself (or at least rhyme)

Less than a week before Sam Altman was fired from OpenAI, his mentor Peter Thiel gave him a warning over dinner: “the AI safety people” were going to “destroy” OpenAI. Altman, ever the optimist, shrugged it off.

In an excerpt from THE OPTIMIST, my forthcoming biography of Sam Altman, I explain how they lost trust and came to the decision that Altman had to go: wsj.com/tech/ai/the-re…

Excited to announce that I am publishing the first biography of Sam Altman, THE OPTIMIST: Sam Altman, OpenAI and the Race to Invent the Future (W.W. Norton), on May 20. You can preorder here: wwnorton.com/books/97813240…

Link: njrep.org/show/make-beli…

Catch “Make Believe” – a new play written by @JohnBiguenet and directed by @suzannebarabas – at @NJRep before it closes on 3/9! @EilisCahill and Quentin Chisholm are brilliant in this smart, nostalgic and beautifully staged trip to Hollywood’s golden era!

@RobMcKenzieAD Happy you took my critique in stride and continued forward—it’s a wonderful thing to see your book be born, and I can’t wait for people to absorb and interact with the neat story and ideas you created. Kudos!

@LukeJKummer Thank you so much Luke, your tough-but-fair feedback made a huge difference and pointed the way to a better path.

Congrats, @RobMcKenzieAD!

Danielle Sassoon = guts

Petr Kotik began @SEMEnsemble in NYC in 1970 to celebrate and expand new music and experimental works, leading to collaborations with the likes of John Cage, Muhal Richard Abrams, Pauline Oliveros and La Monte Young. At the hallowed halls of Willow Place last night I was mesmerized by scores from emerging composers Alon Nechushtan (@musicalonn), Brady Wolff (@TheBradyWolff), Judith Berkson (@JudithBerkson), Xu Zheng, Jesse Gelanik and Charlie Waters. What lucky ears!

If Gaza is prime waterfront real estate on the Mediterranean, then why isn’t everybody buying up property in Syria around Tartus now?