Literary Agent @janklownesbit Brooklyn by way of Kentucky
New York, NY
Joined April 2008
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melissa flashman retweeted
NEW from @nytimes: "More than 220 videos identified by the Wesleyan Media Project...used A.I.-generated fakery in ways large and small this midterm season."
“What we’re seeing with A.I. has surprised even us,” WMP co-director @efranklinfowler told NYT.
nytimes.com/2026/10/16/us/po…
melissa flashman retweeted
Somehow, in certain quarters, it has come to be seen as a personal failing to devote one’s life to improving the world around you. It isn’t “downwardly mobile” to choose, after college, to be a teacher, a city councilor or an artist. It’s just a different kind of ambition.
Great article about the DSA newyorker.com/magazine/2026/…
melissa flashman retweeted
A more useful observation is that rate hikes now have a large, direct fiscal price tag. This does not reduce "fiscal capacity" (which is about the ability to meet payment obligations of any size) but "fiscal space" (which is about inflation risk associated with making those payments). The right question: Is the stream of interest payments inflationary, given who receives the interest as income?
A trillion dollars in interest expense — in one year.
And a 100 basis-point rise across the yield curve would drive up 2027 interest costs by another $310 billion. “A snowballing of debt.”
@business
bloomberg.com/news/articles/…
melissa flashman retweeted
Humans need friction. So does the economy. Wrote about Musing Ourselves to Death & what a future where the internet transforms into a place for AI assistants to perfect commerce. Spoiler: We talked to some smart ppl & it would be chaotic! w/ @matteo_wong theatlantic.com/technology/2…
melissa flashman retweeted
I hasten to add that this was an epic policy failure. In the US, reliance on the Fed/QE/ZIRP together with a pivot to deficit reduction left us with a jobless "recovery" that paved the way for you-know-who.
melissa flashman retweeted
Inaugaration Day vs today. 8 charts that might matter when voters head to polls. Are you better off today?
melissa flashman retweeted
"Constant shifts in diesel prices, transportation costs and the tariff environment have emboldened business to feel justified in passing costs on to consumers, said Firrincieli, the sales manager from the logistics company."
melissa flashman retweeted
It's been around nine years since I first wrote The Socialist Manifesto. It was fun to go back through the text and consider the new moment we've found ourselves in. Thanks to @BasicBooks for putting out a new edition! hachettebookgroup.com/titles…
In the updated edition of THE SOCIALIST MANIFESTO, @jacobin founder and @thenation president Bhaskar Sunkara (@sunraysunray) offers an introduction to democratic socialism, and an argument for its power to drive positive change.
Out 10/6. Learn more: hachettebookgroup.com/titles…
melissa flashman retweeted
Excited to share that distributor made the MMT documentary Finding the Money free to watch worldwide.
FINDING THE MONEY explores Modern Monetary Theory (MMT), challenging conventional ideas about money, government spending, debt, and deficits.
Watch it free now on the Giant Pictures YouTube channel:
youtube.com/watch?v=x3TJFoQW…
melissa flashman retweeted
This is exactly right. Something we talk about all the time on the podcast is proxy issues in politics: political debates that appear to be about one thing, but are proxies for a deeper anger. Data centers are such a proxy: as Jon says, it’s anger at being force fed the future.
melissa flashman retweeted
And, of course, it’s “taxpayer money” when it’s something you’re against and “public money” or “federal dollars” when you’re for it. Them’s the rules.
melissa flashman retweeted
Me? With my claws and teeth I will will defend art and artists as essential to any version of a beautiful livable world.
a-rabbitsfoot.com/editorial/…
melissa flashman retweeted
Remember, it's "repression" if you reduce a subsidy that overwhelmingly benefits the rich (interest), but it's good old-fashioned deficit reduction when you repress subsidies for ACA Medicaid, SNAP, etc.
melissa flashman retweeted
In this era of artificial intelligence, it is becoming urgent to distinguish human art from what machines produce. There is an ontological difference, even before an aesthetic one, between art and what a machine can generate through statistical calculation based on millions of images created by others. Algorithms lack the spark of humanity. For this reason, the Church wishes to renew an alliance with artists and cultural institutions to safeguard our humanity.
Writers & anyone else submitting a book proposal to me: Pls avoid using AI to write OR edit. A proposal that trips up AI detectors at publishing houses is almost certainly going to get a pass. If you want to be strategic pls do the thinking and writing BEFORE going to agents.
melissa flashman retweeted
Calling all NYC artists — painters, filmmakers, poets, musicians and more! Did you know our city provides grants to support your work every year?
And this year, for the first time in nearly two decades, we're DOUBLING the amount — from $5,000 to up to $10,000 per artist!
Deadlines are approaching fast so don't wait. Go to nyc.gov/artistgrants to apply today!
melissa flashman retweeted
Thank you for including “OR edit.” We are seeing a lot of authors in our lit mag submission queue who let us know that the work was edited with AI but “is still their own.”They are mistaken that it’s their own thinking & these pieces are usually quite flat.
If you are a major expert you can hire a writer at any stage, no shame. Proposals are meant to document your original thinking so if you have the platform the right agent will work with you to get that thinking down in proposal form.