by Isaac Cubillos | Feb 24, 2026 | Journal
I spent this past week cleaning a sailboat. Not one that will ever touch water, but one that carries itself like it could. Four feet long. Five feet tall. A tall mast reaching toward the ceiling. White paneled sails. Long overhangs. A hull that looks fast even sitting...
by Isaac Cubillos | Feb 5, 2026 | Journal
Not “media acquaintances.” Friends. Collegues. People whose voices I recognize in copy, whose bylines I’ve followed for years, whose texts came in late at night after a brutal edit or a long flight back from somewhere dangerous. So let’s dispense with the idea that...
by Isaac Cubillos | Feb 2, 2026 | Journal
From the depths, the Claw reached forth — and we who answered became Crustafarians. Somewhere on the internet—and of course it’s on the internet—a group of AI agents has founded a religion. Not a metaphor. Not a joke. Not a think-piece headline doing backflips for...
by Isaac Cubillos | Jan 28, 2026 | Journal
Lyrics by Isaac Cubillos Music by Suno.com Verse 1Streetlight humming in the falling snowMinneapolis holding its breath tonightSomebody’s shoes by the hospital doorCoffee burned, but the clock still ticksThey say it happened quickThey always say it that way...
by Isaac Cubillos | Jan 24, 2026 | Journal
I didn’t put the story on A-2 of the local paper I worked at by accident. It was a Canadian soldier, killed in Afghanistan. A young man. I put it where readers would see it — because Canadians are our neighbors for half the year. When the snowbirds are in town, they...
by Isaac Cubillos | Jan 1, 2026 | Journal
A New Year’s look at how journalism changed, who paid the price, and what readers should watch next. I started in newspapers in 1987, at a daily in California, back when journalism was a physical activity. My first assignment was writing obituaries, which is about as...
