Field Letter

Essays by Adam Reilly  ·  Sunday mornings

This week's issue · No. 47 · Climate

A line of high-voltage transmission towers stretching across a flat western landscape at dusk.

Photograph: American Public Power Association / Unsplash

May 17, 2026 · 11 min read

The Grid Doesn't Know It's Thursday

What a humid week in Sacramento taught me about why we keep mis-pricing the climate transition.

By Adam Reilly

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A glowing tablet propped on a kitchen counter beside a half-empty coffee cup, blurred light in the background.

No. 45 · Technology · May 3, 2026

I Turned Off the Second Screen

After six weeks without a tablet on the kitchen counter, the strangest thing I noticed was the silence.

8 min read

Aerial view of a suburban street partially submerged in floodwater, rooftops barely visible above brown water.

No. 44 · Climate · April 26, 2026

The Actuaries Saw It First

Inside the reinsurance industry’s decade-long, mostly silent capitulation to a warmer planet.

12 min read

A residential street of two- and three-story buildings under a clear sky, mature trees lining the sidewalk.

No. 43 · Urban planning · April 19, 2026

In Defense of Boring Zoning

The most consequential climate policy in California is also the least photogenic. That is the point.

10 min read

Abstract representation of a neural network rendered as a glowing lattice of green and blue nodes.

No. 42 · Technology · April 12, 2026

The AI in the Room

I spent four months trying to use a coding assistant to do my actual job. Here is what I will and will not let it touch.

9 min read

The interior of a quiet train station at night, long-exposure light trails from a departing train along the platform.

No. 41 · Urban planning · April 5, 2026

The Quiet Comeback of the Night Train

A trip from Zurich to Amsterdam, eight hours of darkness, and the surprisingly hopeful economics of European night rail.

8 min read