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What I learned from talking to yet another AI genius every week for six years
I’ve had front-row seats watching AI shake up the life sciences and manufacturing across Europe and the US. While talking with visionary tech heads, they clarified that to understand the chaos, I also needed to speak with academics, entrepreneurs, regulators, funders and – most importantly – the end users. Yes, innovation is all about people…
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How I roll as a writer in the AI tsunami
I don’t believe that AI is making me irrelevant as a writer. In some ways, it’s helping me become a better one. As a long-lapsed carpenter, I still appreciate what a quality power tool can bring to the worksite. But with GenAI, it’s been more love-hate – like a chainsaw: handy until it turns on you. While… read more
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12 things AI tech experts wish you knew
I’ve had the pleasure of talking with hundreds of people working in data science and AI. Luckily, since they spend most of their time fiddling with data, they are a patient lot. It’s been one long masterclass. More often than not, I ask the question, ‘What do you wish everyone knew that would make your… read more
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Dutch Biking – Survival Guide For Beginners
I was editor and co-writer of a bike book published by the esteemed SNOR and designed by Studio Boot. Specially formulated as a crash course in surviving Dutch bike traffic, it features ‘Top 10 Rules!’, DOs & DON’Ts!’, ‘How to swear back at locals!’ and all the cultural weirdness around these most democratic of iron… read more
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Quotable quotes from past interviews
I’ve interviewed many people: artists, scientists, musicians, billionaires, chefs, AI pioneers, sexperts, vibration analysts (unrelated to previous profession), entrepreneurs, cosmonauts, and specialists of-all-kinds. Here are some random quotations from interviews that reassured me that I was onto a story… read more
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AI’s Nobel Prize victory lap: Is Time Magazine next?
AI casually swept two Nobel Prizes this year – not bad for a bunch of zeros… and ones. But is it enough to make Time’s ‘Person of the Year’? Or will the on-the-ball Yuval Noah Harari intervene? Read all about it in this edition of ‘Manufacturing – The News.’
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Hannover Messe 2025: A Euro-Canadian love fest – with robots
Read all aboot it: Canadians were in full force at the world’s biggest manufacturing trade show, while Trump was teasing out his tariff threats. People were confused, but at least they could be confused together.
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25 times Medical Data + Pizza: how carbs are transforming healthcare
“Covering 5 years, the Medical Data + Pizza event series has followed a compelling timeline, encompassing the period when AI came of age, and became sexy. We spoke with AI professor and co-founder Mark Hoogendoorn about the challenging task of bringing AI to the bedside – in Amsterdam and across Europe – and about the… read more
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Safely born during the pandemic: Covid Love
Covid Love is a short comedy by Dutch director and fellow cosmonaut René Nuijens. I contributed some one-liners. If you identify the correct one-liners, you can take me out for dinner! Be a winner! read more
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Seeking truth amid a disinfodemic (and why scientists need better storytelling skills)
Welcome to 2020, where we’re fighting both a viral pandemic and a “disinfodemic”. And yes, social media companies say they “deplatform” obviously false theories. But there’s a loophole: if you wrap your bleach-gargling cure in a larger QAnon narrative about Satan-worshipping pedophiles, you might still get listed. read more
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Introducing Zoku: a new hotel concept for the global nomad
I worked on the initial branding, website texts, and signage for Zoku Amsterdam, a new hotel concept for the global nomad. It is now also in Paris, Vienna, and Copenhagen. read more
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Should AI be more like oil or O2?
Who should own the data used for healthcare applications? Is data really ‘the new oil,’ a resource controlled by the few? Or should data be considered a universal human right, like oxygen? After all, we own our kidneys until death, so why not our data? Is there a donor model we can adopt? read more
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RNW Media: Engaging the youth (and the funders)
The iconic Radio Netherlands Worldwide became a media NGO after significant funding cuts. How do you make a corporate website that appeals to both donors and the young people it aims to engage? read more
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‘Ringo Rocket Star and his Song for Yuri Gagarin’
Our short movie ‘Ringo Rocket Star and his Song for Yuri Gagarin’ has won 28 awards worldwide. Check out what the cosmic fuss is about. read more
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ABC Holland
My first ABC book! It covers 26-plus things that visitors find delightfully eccentric about the Netherlands – such as bitter balls, wooden shoes, drugs, herring and Hazes. read more
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Grease architecture
Another dream fulfilled: writing about my favorite kitchen tool for legendary Dutch architecture magazine Forum. read more
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Book of Denim, Volume Two
After googling ‘sex’ everyday for four years, it was time to cleanse the palate. So I immersed myself in a whole new and alien supply chain: textiles. read more
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Obscure weekend guide to Amsterdam
I visit a nun. I visit a parrot. I cruise through primordial soup. I get all esoteric. I play a pianola. I indulge in a bit of bio-hacking. read more
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Dogmatic about being non-dogmatic
These are the best goddam bitterballen in the world. Yes, it’s good to be passionate – to really believe in something. But you’re setting yourself up for a fall. read more
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Why I haven’t updated my dated website for so long
I’ve been too busy embracing traditional family values. Check out the gif! read more
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The Hague: Attracting young professionals to the city of peace & justice
All over the world, people lose sleep wondering: ‘What’s it like to live in The Hague?’ ‘What’s really behind all that freedom, peace and endless beach?’ ‘Are all Hagenesen really so pleasantly eccentric?’ Here’s your chance to find out! read more
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Lost Gravity: It’s a rollercoaster out there, people
“Can I get make-up over here? I think I just anti-gravitied my pants!” read more
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Love Matters (aka: My life in sexwork)
Until recently, they called me Dr Africa Love. Sure, the title was usually spoken with a mocking tone… read more
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What I learned from googling ‘sex’ everyday for four years
I learned very many things thanks to my weekly column ‘Sex in the Press’. And as the column inches towards its 200th edition, I still feel that I have very much more to learn. read more
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World’s longest fart joke
Welcome to the fourth dimension. Time. Now take a deep breath. And release… read more
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Dark, stormy and drunk
My contribution to the ‘picture and caption’ issue of Dark&Stormy, the inspired ‘zine from graphic designers/writers Bart de Baets and Rustan Söderling. read more
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NEE: Not ready to be the new yes
As you read this, it may just seem like more of my smart-ass malarky. But alas, it’s all freakishly true. Irony dies the second you say NOOOOO!!!!!!! read more
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Yuri on the phone
Our award-winning film ‘Yuri on the Phone’ starring Serbian film diva Rada Đuričin and directed by Rene Nuijens is now online! Watch it now! read more
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Romancing the thread: the story of Dyneema®
Between 2015 and 2020, I was copywriter for DSM Dyneema. As world’s strongest lightest fiber, Dyneema® is behind many iconic images: tethering satellites in outer space, upturning the stranded cruise ship Costa Concordia in Italy, placing the crown on the Freedom Tower in NYC, and as structure for The Ocean Clean-Up. read more
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Dutch design: Mucus in the air
I wrote a piece for the ‘City Hotels’ exhibition at Amsterdam’s architecture centre Arcam. It was about Andaz Amsterdam from Dutch design icon Marcel Wanders. I also managed to slip in references to being a doorman, eel-pulling, lion shit and being snotty about fringes… read more
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Joep van Lieshout: one man and his baggage
The Dutch artist and designer Joep van Lieshout – founder of Atelier van Lieshout – brought the world fully-realized ‘Free States’, slave camps and rectum bars. Now he’s just come out with a line of unisex handbags… read more
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Kaliningrad: A deeper shade of gray
“Even when suppressed, history has a way of bubbling up to the surface. In Kaliningrad, that gray blob of dislocated Russia in the heart of the EU, local creatives have turned this bubbling into an arts scene. For visitors, the city-formerly-known-as-Königsberg provides a surreal, and economical, crash course in Teutonic Knights, WWII, the Cold War… read more
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Hospitality, Moscow-style
I’ve had recurring dreams about showing my parents around the world city of Moscow. I would be taking them to major sights or exposing them via friends to that majorly psychotic brand of Slavic hospitality. But alas, such a trip never happened. (I did take them to former-Yugoslavia once. It was a mixed success…) read more
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How to be a dictator and sell cola at the same time
Do you want to lord over your friends, parents and – why not? – the whole freaking world? Learn now how you can become a dictator and sell cola at the same time! In seven easy lessons! read more
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CODE’s ‘edit and reconstruct’ issue
I was managing editor for the spring/summer issue of CODE magazine. I also wrote a travel feature about grey – but mighty and magical – Kaliningrad. I also had the honour of interviewing Magnum Force of Street Style (and cover boy) Nick Wooster and the Dutch artist/designer Joep van Lieshout. read more
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The First Yugoslavian Cosmonaut
Road to Gagarin presents the short film ‘The First Yugoslavian Cosmonaut’ on the 51st anniversary of human space flight. On 12 April 1961, the Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin (1934-68) yelled ‘Off we go!’ as he was blasted off from a dusty steppe in Kazakhstan to become the first human in space. This historical event made… read more
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For what it’s worth
I got to preach about the meaning of value to the future business elite of the Netherlands. Nice work when you can get it. Read it in the fall/winter issue of Nyenrode Now. Or here… read more
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‘Black Peter’ may or may not be racism… But St. Nick is definitely Satan
I am glad the debate has evolved and there is now more of a rainbow of Petes. But I still think everyone can agree that St. Nick is just like Santa: Satan. read more
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The Hole Report (or at least part of it)
‘Is a hole a container?’, ‘How do we talk about something that does not exist?’ and ‘If you buy a donut, are you also buying the hole?’ read more
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NYC through the stomach
Reviews of some NYC’s most iconic eating establishments: Veselka, Momofuku Ssam Bar, Georgian Bread, etcetera. Thank you to my food-obsessed host! read more
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CODE’s ‘Survival Kit’
CODE magazine’s ‘Survival Kit’ issue has features on the survival tactics of sideshow circus freaks, new agers, off-grid pioneers, emerging tech gurus, urban warfare clothing designers and the brave and delightfully eccentric characters who fish off the decaying piers of Brooklyn. read more
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There’s an eel riot goin’ down
People can say I’m full of brown trout, but I believe the mighty and mysterious eel should become Amsterdam’s official spirit animal. My rationale begins with the popular 19th-century sport called ‘palingtrekken’ [‘eel pulling’]. read more
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The fine art of Yuri Gagarin
The booklet ‘Yuri Gagarin, 50 years of Human Space Flight’, part of our on-going Road to Gagarin project, won the first prize in the BLURB Photography Now Competition, in the category Fine Art. read more
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Dragan Klaic (1950-2011), RIP
Very sad news. The cultural analyst and theatre scholar Dragan Klaic has passed away at age 61. I knew him as a host with the most. He was also perhaps the most freakishly productive person I ever met. Yet he always had time to answer any silly questions that this Canadian boy had about ‘Europe’. read more
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De Jeugd van Tegenwoordig on their favorite Amsterdam songs
I interviewed the Dutch-language gibberish-hop collective for The Guardian on their favorite Amsterdam music. André! Johnny! Manke! Van Halen! Themselves! … And all compiled on Mixcloud! read more
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Mladic found
While Yuri Gagarin was my heroic rocket into Russia, General Ratko Mladic was my runaway genocidal horse cart into Serbia. I would never compare the two men. I’m just saying it’s sometimes handy to have a focus when entering new territory. read more
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At the movies: Amsterdam chase scenes
Why are so many Hollywood films filming chase scenes in Amsterdam’s canals? Because it actually fits into a long filmic tradition that began with Hitchcock… read more
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Yuri Gagarin, human (50 years human space flight)
Our Road to Gagarin project was originally inspired by what we came to call ‘cosmonautic kitsch’ and the JFK-level of conspiracy theories around Gagarin, the myth. But recently we got to meet people who knew him. Here are some extended excerpts from these meetings with remarkable people. read more
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Yuri Gagarin in Cuba (50 years of human space flight)
The first human in space, Yuri Gagarin (1934-68), was our rocket into Russia. But it was usually a wintery Russia. So it was a refreshing change when last month he had us blast us off to a warmer place: Cuba. It was also a bit of a different planet… read more
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Talkin’ Craft
A Q&A with Crafting Temptress and Country Cleave Queen Katie Holder about her Cosy Craft Corner. The evening is a fun and honest way of exchanging needles – and talkin’ crap! read more
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Ed van der Elsken: Hunting in Amsterdam
Photographer/film-maker Ed van der Elsken (1925-1990) used Amsterdam as his ‘hunting ground’. And what he shot on the streets of Amsterdam back in his day, is very different from what can be shot today: it was more chaotic, and definitely less UNESCO-acclaimed… read more
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The words and insights of the redeemer Johan Cruiff
Johan Cruijff was not only the Netherlands’ most acclaimed footballer but also a philosopher king with a gift for freestyle language – his initials are JC for a reason. As he said, ‘If I wanted you to understand it, I would have explained it better.’ read more
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Feeling Amsterpeckish… Fine gnome-like dining in an orange mushroom
A large orange mushroom has popped up on Mercatorplein. It’s Cafe Zurich and it’s meant to bring more glam to the gentrifying De Baarsjes neighbourhood. Many locals already call it ‘Cafe Plop’, a reference to a deeply odd children’s TV show… read more
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Bad Buzz/Lost in the Space Age
I made a concept album with The Anacondas. The starting point is the anger we all share over the fact that the shiny space age we were all promised never arrived. Where are our jetpacks?!? And now Bad Buzz is pissed… read more
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A Messe of Books (aka why there are so many cat memes on the internet)
I just returned from a few days at the biggest book fair on the planet. I got lost in the mass that is Frankfurt’s Buchmesse with its 300,000 visitors and 7500 stands belonging to publishers, printers and distributors from 111 countries. As examples: there was one publisher from Haiti, two from Albania, 16 from Iran,… read more
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Cabbages, magic windmills and plastic surgery
How well does the medieval painting ‘The Baker of Eeklo’ stand the test of time? We witness bakers slicing the heads off clients, adding special flours and oils, and re-baking their faces to specification… Sound familiar? read more
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Poster mag Unfold Amsterdam hits the streets
Unfold Amsterdam has officially hit the streets. Every two weeks, Amsterdammers will be able to pick up this free English-language poster/mag highlighting the work of local artists/designers and covering the best of what’s going down around town. read more
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Baantjer: Amsterdam as chill murder capital
BEST. COPSHOW. EVER. Baantjer is set in a gloriously scenic Amsterdam where it rarely rains and its inhabitants – a rich interactive tapestry of cops, penose, squatpunks, Suri-Vlaamse hipsters, Yugo mafia types, e-clubbers, admen, real estate speculators, prostitutes and fishmongers – all run the risk of being murdered at any moment. read more
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Wanted… new narratives for Europe.
I wrote a report on Europe’s search for a shared identity. It’s trickier than just ‘blaming the other’. ‘Never again’ was a very good reason for coming together after WWII and the holocaust. But unfortunately, it just doesn’t resonate as it used to. And what do Sweden and Spain really have in common?… read more
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Atlas Obscura: Talking with the founders about the weird and the wonderful
What a mission statement: to be the place to look for “miniature cities, glass flowers, books bound in human skin, gigantic flaming holes in the ground, phallological museums, bone churches, balancing pagodas, or homes built entirely out of paper.” read more
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Some thoughts on orange
Despite advertising’s Golden Rule, ‘Never Use Orange’, everything currently being sold in the Netherlands is now orange, from condoms to contact lenses… read more
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Squatting declared illegal in the Netherlands
It seems like a good time to republish my Amsterdam squatting timeline: from ±1000 AD to the present… It starts with homo squatus and peaks with absurdist activists. read more
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Conducting an Interview
For me, the image of a conductor was formed by my 200-kilogram school band teacher who would throw chunks of rum cake at the head of whoever hit a bad note. She was very scary. Otto Tausk was different. read more
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A ‘real’ Van Gogh highlights a fake Vermeer
The story of art forger Hans van Meergeren has flummoxed Hollywood for decades. How do you make the ultimate biopic? Yes, he scammed the Nazis. Unfortunately, he was still a dick. read more
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Routes Award winners: Borka Pavicevic and Stefan Kaegi
I got to interview two inspiring people for their work in theater, championing the voices of the “other”. One was already a hero: the founder of the Centre for Cultural Decontamination. read more
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Creative anatomy with Dr Frederik Ruysch
Dr Frederik Ruysch (1638-1731) is regarded as one of the greatest anatomists and preservers of body parts of all time. However, his artistic compulsion also led him to construct moralistic panoramas of bone and tissue. read more
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City in Lights. Red Lights.
Visiting London’s National Gallery triggers memories of playing host to visitors wanting to visit Amsterdam’s Red Light District… read more
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Geoff Berner Interview (part 1?)
I talk with my whisky rabbi drinking buddy Geoff Berner, who is touring the Netherlands with his kickass klezmer trio, about Babel’s Odessa, the power of Yiddish and how curling is making a comeback in Canada. read more
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On Wall and Currywurst
My Globe & Mail feature on the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall is also a tribute to the 60th anniversary of the mighty currywurst. And yes, these stories are related. read more
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Magritte & Tintin in Brussels
My piece about the new museums in Belgium dedicated to surrealist Rene Magritte and Tintin-creator Herge has been published in today’s Globe&Mail. Read it here before rushing out to buy a bowler hat of your own. read more
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Ai ai ai Amsterdam
I Amsterdam is the established city slogan and logo. But are there better ones? Sure, the 1960s ‘Get in touch with the Dutch’ campaign was misguided. But surely… read more
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A B-actor looks back
I’ve been filmed flying as an overly-tanned Dracula. I’ve delivered bulletgrams for Mr Chang. But mostly, I got beaten up in low-budget kung fu flicks. And now, I plan to revive my B-acting career with Croatian Sci-Fi. But will the typecasting never end? read more
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Howie Krishna says Amsterdam still rules!
The Supperclub’s host-with-the-most goes by many names, such as Howie Krishna, and The Safe Sex Pope. He also offers the best seasonal message possible: stop whining and ‘go to the light and be happy!’ read more
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Belgrade, a Lonely Planet
What are the chances of getting Belgrade on the EasyJet circuit any time soon? Serbian rock star and media pundit Vladimir Jeric of Darkwood Dub gives us a tour of the White City and all its shades of grey. read more
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Are Archives Sexy and Dynamic?
Amsterdam’s new city archive on Vijzelstraat is one of the largest in the world and is now open for business. Can you feel the excitement? Well, some folks can—especially when all the numbers and details transform into hardcore stories. read more
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A Jungle of Monkeys
Kunststad, the country’s largest broedplaats for the arts, is officially opened at NDSM-werf. It’s also meant to be a place where art and commerce can meet and cuddle. But will it ever evolve into something more than a torrid affair? read more
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Sawnic Revolution
An emerging musical saw scene is setting the city’s teeth on edge. We chat with two of them. ‘I do imagine Scandinavia when I play it—that it was invented by some lumberjacks who just got bored, drunk and stumbled across the sound.’ read more
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Strangerrrrr than Fiction
The documentary Cat Dancers is a deeply odd trip into the world of Ron Holiday, complete with wild cats, love triangles, spandex and—ultimately—tragedy. And most strange of all perhaps, it’s not exploitative. read more
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Sitting Down with Cinema Savant Hans Beerekamp
The Netherlands’ best-known film critic weighs in on the responsibilities of the trade, the Dutch film mafia and the local film climate. ‘If you go to the Dutch film festival, you can really observe the behaviour of rats in a small, overcrowded cage with too little food…’ read more
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Cocaine is Watching You
The documentary Dutch Cocaine Factory is a secret history in lines and layers captured on tape. ‘I call it pro-paranoia,’ says film-maker Jeanette Groenendaal over a cup of tea in her first-floor apartment, which offers an excellent view of the long history of cocaine in Amsterdam. read more
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Fifteen Years of Jokes and Beers
A couple of weeks ago we reached out to the Hells Angels for some advice about trademarks and brand-building. This week we’re reaching out to another club. An improv comedy club that’s celebrating its 15th anniversary… read more
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Live to be 100
‘Just feel good,’ says octogenarian poet, writer and inspired wild child Simon Vinkenoog when asked what the key is to living a long and healthy life. ‘Oh, and try breathing.’ We both inhale, then exhale. I feel better already. read more
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Rutu Modan and Ben Katchor, comic book artists
Interviews with two prominent graphic novelists: ‘Genius Grant ‘ winner Ben Katchor on being a New Yorker in New York, and pioneer Rutu Modan on the burgeoning art of Israeli comics. read more
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Peckerhead in Bosnia
Thanks to ‘The Professor’, my first visit to Sarajevo and Mostar proved to be a crash course in the events and aftermath of the still-fresh war. Plus, we almost crashed several times as he insisted on blasting Serb partisan songs in Croat sections, and Croat hit parade in Muslim sections. read more
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Flying High with Mira
Lady MacBeth of the Balkans versus Boy Peckerhead from Suburbia… I sat behind Mira Markovic flying back to Belgrade after she visited her jailed husband Slobodan Milosevic in the Hague. It was very surreal. And boy, did I fail as a journalist… read more
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Power lunch
Is this General (ret.) I’m mix-grilling with a war criminal? Or just deeply conflicted? Later, a knowledgeable person erased any sense of “ish” from war criminal-ish. At the same time, this knowledgeable person suggested that the General (ret.) was too much of a drunk to deal with the logistics of genocide. read more
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Arkantecture: A Field Guide to Serbian Gangster Kitsch
The house belonging to Zeljko Raznatovic, the warlord and gangster known as Arkan, is the perfect starting point for an architectural tour that takes in Sci-Fi gas stations, glass-floored tv stations, mobster-built theme parks and hastily constructed refugee housing. read more
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Return to Sarajevo
Four years after my first visit to Sarajevo, a Dutch-funded project to connect survivors of the Balkans wars by video launches in the former war-torn capital. Some things have changed, some not so much… read more
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A Fellow Citizen in Space
Andre Kuipers is the first Amsterdammer in space. Will it pump some life back into the city’s sagging reputation as ‘magical centre of the universe’? read more
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Music for Imaginary Films
I wrote the liner notes and poster copy for this amazing project: the album ‘Music for Imaginary Films’ by Arling & Cameron. read more
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Under the Influence of Cassavetes
What would life be like living in a John Cassavetes film? Well there’s one advantage: you’d almost always have a strong drink in your hand. But alas, there’s a catch: you will eventually get drunk. Stupid drunk. read more
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AmsterSlang: What can we learn?
A book about the history of Amsterdam street talk can teach you plenty. For one, the locals are snobbish pragmatists with a big heart and a surreal soul. read more
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We can all agree on Bruce Lee
In 2005, a life-size bronze statue of Chinese-American martial arts star Bruce Lee was unveiled in the Bosnian city of Mostar. It was meant to unify a city fractured by the wars in former Yugoslavia. One of the organisers stated: ‘We will always be Muslims, Serbs or Croats. But one thing we all have in… read more
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East Side Story: the socialist musical
‘Jean-Luc Godard once said the history of film was the history of boys photographing girls. But Stalin had another fantasy—boys photographing tractors.’ Welcome to the dream factorski! read more
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Hotel Lloyd: a beautiful chaos
A building that was once a claustrophobic hell-hole has been reinvented as a hotel and ‘cultural embassy’ brimming over with Dutch design. read more
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Amateurism, the fresh maker
Professional architects, landscape architects and urban designers go ‘amateur’. Can it save our city from being scrubbed to death? Two new experts take us to the streets to look for inspirational amateurism in our own backyard. read more
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Death of a FEBO Man
A FEBO visit puts an eerie edge on any late Friday night. Just witness the religious quieting of a loud, beer-fuelled crowd as they stand in line, ready to slot some change into a futuristic glowing wall and magically receive the crunchy sacrament of grease… And now, the man who made ‘pulling a diagonal’ an… read more
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Talking Belly to Belly with Glutton and Van Dam.
In one corner: Johannes van Dam, Het Parool’s food critic, who puts fear into the hearts of the city’s restaurateurs. In the other corner: Amsterdam Weekly’s Undercover Glutton. We have brought them together to discuss their mutual passion for food. And indeed, it turned out that they have much in common besides diabetes. read more
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The Road to Gagarin
Here is a digital version of an exhibition photographer Rene Nuijens and I made for the European Space Agency, which then went on to be exhibited in Yuri’s hometown of Gagarin, Russia, and have a version of it published in McSweeney’s Quarterly, Volume 12. read more
