People Update

This Week

Paige Bueckers broke the Dallas Wings' single-season scoring record in a heartbreaking last-second loss to Phoenix, and bodycam footage surfaced showing a Miami police officer aiming a taser at her during a teammate's arrest back in March. Malcolm Gladwell and Chuck Klosterman were both out in force ahead of new book releases, and Nate Silver's midterm forecast kept climbing for Democrats.

Updates

Jerry Saltz — Artist

Update: No major updates this week. He continues writing New York magazine's "How to Look at Art" column, with a review of the Whitney Museum's "Sixties Surreal" expected around the show's September 24 opening.

John Grisham — Author

Update: No major updates this week. Pre-launch buzz continues to build ahead of "The French Illusion," his new espionage thriller, arriving September 29 from Doubleday with a 1.5 million-copy first printing.

Michael Lewis — Author

Update: Appeared in a 90-minute live taping of Barry Ritholtz's "Masters in Business" podcast at the Landmark Theater in Port Washington, NY on September 21, covering his career from "Liar's Poker" through his upcoming book "Blockers" — about federal employees who resisted DOGE's cuts — plus stories from the Moneyball film set. "Blockers" publishes October 6.

Fredrik Backman — Author

Update: No major updates this week. A film adaptation of "Anxious People," starring Angelina Jolie and directed by Marc Forster, remains in the works.

Sally Rooney — Author

Update: A data center in Killala, Co. Mayo that Rooney had publicly opposed had its planning permission overturned on climate-policy grounds, the Irish Times reported September 17. Rooney had called much of data-center activity "pointless" advertising that "does not improve the overall quality of life for anyone."

Lee Child — Author

Update: No major updates this week. The next Reacher novel, "Chain Reaction" — written with brother Andrew Child and centered on a cybersecurity expert's murder — arrives October 20.

Mark Bowden — Author

Update: No major updates this week.

Chuck Klosterman — Author

Update: Pub week for "Rock*: A Mainstream Alternative History of Alternative Mainstream Music," out September 22. Klosterman discussed the book's fictional premise — a world where the Velvet Underground, not the Beatles, become the biggest band on Earth — on The Ringer's "The Watch" with Chris Ryan on September 17, plus a written interview around September 21. Reviews clustered around the release: the Wall Street Journal called him "an addictively engaging writer," and PopMatters likened the book's structure to Philip K. Dick's "The Man in the High Castle." He has an event at Boswell Book Company in Milwaukee on September 25.

Tana French — Author

Update: No major updates this week.

Ben Mezrich — Author

Update: No major updates this week, but he's in an active promotional window for "Checkmate," his book on the Carlsen–Niemann chess-cheating scandal — he's due at a JCC Greater Boston event in Newton, MA on September 24.

Malcolm Gladwell — Author

Update: A heavy press week ahead of his September 29 book, "The American Way of Killing," on America's gun-violence epidemic. Time magazine published an interview on September 22 in which he argued for more policing and voiced skepticism of assault-weapon bans, and he sat for a conversation with The Atlantic published September 17.

Colm Tóibín — Author

Update: No major updates this week. His new novella, "The Bridge," set in Franco-era Catalonia, was reviewed by the Irish Times and the Guardian in the days just before this window.

Thomas Friedman — Author

Update: Told Fox News he feels "torn" about the prospect of the Iranian regime falling if it politically strengthens Trump and Netanyahu, and continued a recent column thread arguing China is pulling ahead of the U.S. technologically — both tied to the run-up to Trump's planned state visit to China.

Paige Bueckers — Basketball

Update: The week's biggest story, across any profession. Bueckers scored 30 points in a heartbreaking 87-86 loss to the Phoenix Mercury on September 21 — decided by a Kahleah Copper buzzer-beater — while breaking the Dallas Wings' single-season scoring record (853 points) in the process; Dallas closed the regular season 26-17 and clinched its first playoff berth since 2023. Separately, bodycam footage released September 22 showed a Miami police officer pointing a taser at Bueckers' face during teammate Arike Ogunbowale's March arrest outside a nightclub, with an officer heard saying, "Do not put handcuffs on her. She's a champion."

Robert Sapolsky — Biologist / Author

Update: No major updates this week.

Patrick Collison — CEO

Update: No major updates this week.

Magnus Carlsen — Chess Player

Update: Gave an exclusive interview to Firstpost, published September 16, discussing Indian chess prodigy D Gukesh, the viral clip of him banging the table after a loss to Gukesh, and how fatherhood has changed his perspective. The interview came days after his team, the Alpine APL Pipers, lost the Global Chess League final to Ian Nepomniachtchi's Ganges Grandmasters.

Tyler Cowen — Economist / Podcaster

Update: A new episode of "Conversations with Tyler," published September 16, featured Annie Lowrey discussing her book "The Time Tax," on the hours Americans lose to bureaucracy. Marginal Revolution also linked to his appearance on James Pethokoukis's "Faster, Please!" podcast discussing AI risk, published just before the window.

Arnold Kling — Economist / Writer

Update: Posted two roundups on his "In My Tribe" Substack this week: an "AI and the Economy" links post on September 18 about AI's effect on knowledge work, and a "Political Psychology" links post around September 21 touching on the generational decline in approval of capitalism.

Pope Leo — Leader

Update: An active week ahead of his first international trip to France. His September 16 general audience continued a catechesis series on the Church and the modern world, and his September 20 Angelus appealed for aid to Somalia, saying divine mercy "overturns human calculations of merit and reward." The Vatican previewed his September 25–28 visit to Paris, Lourdes and Metz — expected to draw over a million people.

Gretchen McCulloch — Linguist / Author

Update: No major updates this week. She's set to join a panel on "How Language Is Made" at the Stratford Festival's Meighen Forum on September 27.

David Crystal — Linguist / Author

Update: No major interviews this week, but he's promoting his new book "A Word for All Seasons," tracing the origins of 100-plus seasonal English words and phrases — a related giveaway had entries close September 21.

Max Tegmark — Physicist / AI Safety Researcher

Update: Gave a public lecture, "A Better Path for AI," at Cambridge's Centre for the Study of Existential Risk on September 16, and told Fox Business that Washington's attitude toward AI risk has shifted "more in the last three months... than the previous decade," citing a Senate briefing and a conference featuring both Steve Bannon and Bernie Sanders. He was also named to Time's 2026 list of the 100 most influential people in AI.

Nate Silver — Podcaster

Update: His new show "Still Counting," with former FiveThirtyEight colleagues Galen Druke and Clare Malone, released an episode on September 16 on the shifting midterms and whether AI is about to "break politics." His FLIPR forecast kept climbing for Democrats over the week, putting their odds of winning the Senate at 65.3% by September 19, up from 58.6% a week earlier, on strong Texas, Ohio and Michigan polling.

Ethan Mollick — Professor / AI Researcher

Update: No major updates this week.

Scott Galloway — Professor / Podcaster

Update: Told CNN's Michael Smerconish on September 19 that AI companies need stronger regulation and accountability — "there's always a wizard behind the curtain." His Pivot co-host Kara Swisher joined him for a September 22 episode on the Paramount–Warner Bros. Discovery settlement and Amazon blocking Meta's AI assistant, and tickets went on sale September 17 for a Pivot live show at Denver's Buell Theatre in November.

Montana Fouts — Softball Player

Update: No major updates this week. Her AUSL season and a gold-medal run with Team USA at the International Cup both wrapped up earlier this year.

Jay Wright — Basketball Coach

Update: No major updates this week. He'll be inducted into the National Collegiate Basketball Hall of Fame on October 22 in Kansas City, as part of the 2026 class.

This Week

Paige Bueckers won her second world title of the year, helping Team USA beat France in Berlin to capture the 2026 FIBA World Cup, before returning to Dallas for the first playoff run of her pro career. Magnus Carlsen's team fell just short in the Global Chess League final, and Tyler Cowen made the rounds on three different podcasts to talk AI.

Updates

Jerry Saltz — Artist / Critic

Update: No major updates this week. He continues writing New York magazine's "How to Look at Art" column.

John Grisham — Author

Update: No major updates this week. His new espionage thriller, "The French Illusion," about a Paris honeymoon that turns into a kidnapping, arrives September 29 from Doubleday with a first printing of 1.5 million copies.

Michael Lewis — Author

Update: No major updates this week. His next book, "Blockers," an account of the early Trump-era Department of Government Efficiency told by the civil servants it targeted, publishes October 6, with a UK speaking tour to follow in November.

Fredrik Backman — Author

Update: No major updates this week. A film adaptation of "Anxious People" starring Angelina Jolie is reportedly in the works, though reports on its production timeline conflict.

Sally Rooney — Author

Update: No major updates this week.

Lee Child — Author

Update: No major updates this week. The next Reacher novel, "Chain Reaction," arrives October 20, and Child is due at the Queen's Reading Room Festival at Chatsworth on September 19.

Mark Bowden — Author

Update: No major updates this week.

Chuck Klosterman — Author

Update: No major updates this week, but he's in an active promotional window — his new book, "Rock*: A Mainstream Alternative History of Alternative Mainstream Music," publishes September 22, with an event at Boswell Book Company in Milwaukee set for September 25.

Tana French — Author

Update: No major updates this week.

Ben Mezrich — Author

Update: No major updates this week. He has a public event at the JCC Greater Boston on September 24 tied to "Checkmate," his book on the Carlsen–Niemann cheating scandal.

Malcolm Gladwell — Author

Update: No major updates this week. His new book, "The American Way of Killing: The Invention of an Epidemic," on U.S. gun violence, publishes September 29 from Little, Brown.

Colm Tóibín — Author

Update: No major updates this week.

Thomas Friedman — Author

Update: No major updates this week.

Paige Bueckers — Basketball

Update: The week's biggest story, across any profession. Bueckers helped Team USA beat France in Berlin on September 13 to win the 2026 FIBA Women's Basketball World Cup — the program's 12th world title. She averaged roughly 15 points, nearly 5 assists, 4 rebounds, 2 steals and 1.3 blocks a game across the tournament (44 points, 14 assists, 11 rebounds, 6 steals and 4 blocks in all) and made FIBA's Best Defensive Player shortlist. She has since rejoined the Dallas Wings for the first playoff run of her professional career.

Robert Sapolsky — Biologist / Author

Update: No major updates this week.

Patrick Collison — CEO

Update: No major updates this week.

Magnus Carlsen — Chess Player

Update: Carlsen's team, the Alpine APL Pipers, reached the Global Chess League final in Bengaluru on September 12 after both round-robin leaders lost their final matches, but fell to Ian Nepomniachtchi's Ganges Grandmasters in the title match on September 13 — Nepomniachtchi beat Carlsen head-to-head while the other boards drew.

Tyler Cowen — Economist / Podcaster

Update: A heavy podcast week. Cowen appeared on Prof G Markets (with Scott Galloway and Ed Elson) arguing he isn't worried about an AI bubble, on British Progress's "Pen Portrait" series discussing the internet and the fall of communism as the biggest changes of his lifetime, and on James Pethokoukis's Faster, Please! discussing AI risk and long-run growth. Marginal Revolution also posted on markets pricing in AGI news.

Arnold Kling — Economist / Writer

Update: In his "Economy and AI links" roundup on In My Tribe, Kling flagged economist Chad Syverson's writing on whether the GPT-driven productivity boom could carry negative employment effects.

Pope Leo — Leader

Update: An active week. He devoted his September 9 general audience to human dignity as "a gift and responsibility," used his September 13 Angelus to remember the victims of September 11 on its 25th anniversary and call for peace and forgiveness, and saw a report on a "Catholic moment" revival in France — adult baptisms up 28% year-over-year — ahead of his planned trip to Paris later in the month.

Gretchen McCulloch — Linguist / Author

Update: No major updates this week.

David Crystal — Linguist / Author

Update: No major updates this week.

Max Tegmark — Physicist / AI Safety Researcher

Update: No major updates this week.

Nate Silver — Podcaster

Update: Launched a new show, "Still Counting," a relaunch of the old FiveThirtyEight Politics podcast produced by Crooked Media, reuniting him with former colleagues Galen Druke and Clare Malone. He also updated his midterm forecast, FLIPR, putting Democrats' odds of taking the Senate at 58.6% as of September 14 — up from 50.6% a week earlier — on strong Texas, Ohio and Michigan polling.

Ethan Mollick — Professor / AI Researcher

Update: Featured in a Bloomberg piece on how he brings AI demos into his Wharton MBA classes and has built a syllabus requiring students to use AI on certain projects.

Scott Galloway — Professor / Podcaster

Update: Joined Kara Swisher on Pivot to discuss Trump's shifting account of his own history around the 25th anniversary of September 11, an AI warning, and Apple's first foldable iPhone. Prof G Markets also covered Canada's tariffs and U.S. debt this week.

Montana Fouts — Softball Player

Update: No major updates this week.

Jay Wright — Basketball Coach

Update: No major updates this week.