Joshua Max Feldman

📣 NEW SUBSTACK ALERT 🚨 🎉 Introducing The Wondering Jew What does it mean to be Jewish in America today? This is the question of the hour, for so many of us. And that's what this newsletter is all about. jmaxfeldman.substack.com/p/wondering #Judaism

@kl3dger @INArteCarloDoss When you accept a Cabinet-level positions you have to divest but you can do so tax free, so a guy like Bessent gets paid tens of millions of dollars to do this.

@INArteCarloDoss x.com/kl3dger/status…

What a fucking moron Bessent proved to be… there is a point where even he should stop sucking up and recover some lost dignity

@kl3dger Also Big Short sequel, but it's all about TACO traders.

I hope this Iranian episode is included in a revised and expanded edition of The Art of the Deal.

@MichaelSalfino I'm a longtime Knicks fan, can you help me understand the defensive success they've had over the last ~20 games? Not sure how to account for it, but it seems like it's a big enough sample that it's real.

The #Knicks are third in offensive rating and eighth in defensive rating and fifth in net rating but they stink? Sometimes I think they stink! Bridges WS/48 of .151 is elite. Towns defensive rating 109 vs Robinson 107.

James Van Der Beek’s final message to the world is one of the most powerful things I have ever heard. Stop whatever you are doing and listen to this! 🥺

Reporter Jana Shortal from @kare11 in Minneapolis recounts how agents mistreated her after the Alex Pretti murder. She was intentionally sprayed with chemicals while wearing her press badge and standing in a designated safe zone, revealing a serious lapse in training and judgment among the officers involved. #DemsUnited

Before his debut novel "Escape!" arrives on bookshelves tomorrow, I spoke with @stephenfishbach about how #Survivor severe gastrointestinal distress kicked off his 10-year journey of writing a reality TV story. And how many people (including myself!) inspired the tale: parade.com/tv/survivor-st…

@rockmarooned Thank you for being on this hill. She deserves way more respect and recognition than she gets.

I hunger and thirst for more Amanda Seyfried recognition decider.com/2026/01/22/ama…

@kl3dger @TrungTPhan !!! One gambling consultant tells The Economist that “By the time a customer places his first bet, [sportsbooks] are 80-90% certain they know the lifetime value of the account.”

@TrungTPhan @jmaxfeldman

The Economist has a great piece on strategy sportsbetting apps use to throttle smart bettors: ▫️Skilled players are “sharps” and given “stake restrictions” if they play too well (bets are capped). ▫️Rest of players called “Square”. ▫️In 2025, 4.3% of active UK accounts had a “stake factor” below the maximum bet allowance of 100%. ▫️Sportsbook will take bets with a profit margin as low as 4.5%. ▫️If they are able to do good “player-profiling” and keep the “sharps” from playing, the profit margin can reach 10-20%. ▫️As important as keeping out “sharps” is hooking “whales”, the deep-pocketed players that are willing to keep playing (and losing) large sums. ▫️Some “whales” are actually “sharps” in disguise, though. They’ll lose a bunch of bets to lull the sportsbook then put down a massive bet when they have an edge. ▫️While there is a risk of a “whale” being a “sharp”, the value of a real “whale” is so high that sportsbook will take the risk ▫️“In March 2024 PointsBet, raised its share of online sports-gambling revenue in New Jersey from 11% to 24% after wooing a single cash-spouting customer away from DraftKings.” (I can confirm that this wasn’t me). ▫️How sportsbook profile players: > Playing on Mobile is a good sign (where majority of people play) > Playing on PCs is a bad sign (it’s easier to compare odds and run models) > E-wallets are a red flag (sportsbooks prefer debit direct deposit that can attach a player to a single account; e-wallet is more anonymized and players can move cash between sportsbook more quickly to shop for the best odds) > Women bettors are a red flag (most bettors are men and “sharps” often use women to place bets) ▫️First wagers are a major tells (typical bettors go after top leagues — NFL, NBA, EPL — and do so near the start of the game). ▫️Popular bets for “squares”: who will win, scoring margins and how star player will perform (also, they love multi-leg parlays). ▫️“Sharps” go after less popular leagues and place bets as soon as odds are published, when they are most mispriced. They also go after less popular bets such as “pts in Q3” or stats from a random player (“Sharps” rarely do parlays and don’t withdrawal winnings often). ▫️One gambling consultant tells The Economist that “By the time a customer places his first bet, [sportsbooks] are 80-90% certain they know the lifetime value of the account.” ▫️”Sportsbooks look at a player’s ‘closing-line value’ — a measure that compares the odds at which he bets with those available right before a match begins. If it is consistently ahead of the market over his first ten wagers, he is highly likely to beat the book in the long run.” ▫️Sportsbook mathematically monitor players and creates a new risk score every 6-8 hours (risk score = estimate of probability that customers will wind up unprofitable). ▫️E-wallet users, women and bets over $100 are flagged. These suspicious bettors are given 30% of maximum bet (and proven sharps only allowed 1%). ▫️High-skilled players will often get a “beard” to bet on their behalf. Most sportsbooks ban this practice but it is widespread. ▫️Safest “beards” are close friends and relatives because you can mostly rely on them to pay out any winnings. The “beards” try to look like degens (playing at 3am, bet non-stop and doing ridiculous parlays) before placing a winning bet. ▫️The most effective strategy for “sharps” is “whale-flipping”. Find a losing gambler, then ask to put a (likely) large winning bet amongst their pool of guaranteed losers. ▫️Once “sharps” max out the people they can use as “beards”, they tap professional networks called “movers”. These “movers” employ a bunch of “mules” who can put down bets on the behalf of the network. Low-end movers charge 10-20% while high-end movers charge 50% of winnings. *** Lots other great details here: economist.com/christmas-spec…

@kl3dger open.spotify.com/album/2UizRzM5…

Happy birthday to Hans Bethe (born 1906), a German‑born Jewish physicist who won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1967 for his work on stellar nuclear processes, expanding our understanding of the inner workings of stars. #Judaism

If you're interested in writing about Jewish life, culture, texts, ritual, tradition, humor, and food, give The Wondering Jew a look. Here's my Month One FAQ: jmaxfeldman.substack.com/p/a-month-one-… #judaism

The Wondering Jew is one of the fastest growing Substacks in the category. More importantly, I've met and had conversations with so many people who want to talk about Judaism, engage with Judaism, participate more fully in #Judaism.

One month ago, when I launched my Substack, The Wondering Jew, I had a hypothesis. A thread. #judaism

To learn how the sages make sense of this, and how it all connects to the Talmud trending on X last week, check out The Wondering Jew: jmaxfeldman.substack.com/p/do-good-deed…

But the rabbis notice that these mitzvot don't always lengthen life. They offer the scenario in which a father tells his son to climb a ladder and chase away a mother bird. The son does this (double-life-lengthening mitzvot!) but the ladder breaks and the boy dies. #Judaism

Are mitzvot rewarded? If we do something good, can we expect any sort of reward? Let's see what they say in the Talmud. A thread. #Judaism