"I never gave my life meaning by demeaning you"

Welcome to the fourth issue of the Mostly Invisible newsletter. This is a monthly email to share some timely thoughts and what I've worked on in the last month. I do hope that you enjoy it.

For a long time, I’ve been fascinated by the way the American landscape acts as an unedited archive of our history, choices, and collective trajectory. We often look at history through the lens of dates and political figures, but the truest, most honest record of the American story is frequently etched right into the earth beneath us.

I’m incredibly excited to finally share the framework for a major new project I’ve been quietly developing: Broken Ground.

Broken Ground is a long-form, multi-volume exploration into the profound interplay between American land, history, and cultural myth. It is an attempt to map out how our collective ambitions have scarred, reshaped, and rebuilt the terrain - and how the landscape, in turn, stubbornly dictates our trajectory. It’s a project driven by a desire to understand the deeper structural layers of our world, moving past superficial landmarks to read the actual bedrock of our society.

To understand a canvas as massive and complex as the American landscape, you have to look closer. You have to find the concentrated cross-sections where these giant forces collide.

I’ve found the ideal starting point for this exploration in a single, extraordinary corridor: California Route 46. This 115-mile stretch will serve as the inaugural volume of Broken Ground.

Running from the Central Coast near Cambria, climbing through the Paso Robles wine country, and cutting deep into the heart of the Central Valley, Route 46 is a physical timeline. Over the coming months, I’ll be using this specific geography as a lens to explore themes that resonate far beyond California:

• The Geology: Crossing the San Andreas Fault, where tectonic activity physically breaks the earth, mirroring the shifting cultural faults above it.

• The Infrastructure & Resources: The complex networks of water management and agribusiness that have entirely engineered the natural ecosystem of the Valley - a microcosm of our national obsession with conquering nature.

• The Mythos: The cultural weight of the road, from the romanticized allure of the West to the tragic, enduring mythology surrounding the site of James Dean’s fatal crash near Cholame.

To do this justice, I need to inhabit the space. In July, I’ll be returning to this landscape where I’ve already spent so much time, basing myself out of a tiny cabin on an almond farm just outside of Paso Robles. It feels essential to slow down, to step off the highway and exist at the intersection of these forces, armed with a camera, a notebook, and a sharp curiosity.

Because a story this textured requires more than standard text, I am building Broken Ground as a dedicated, multimedia e-zine. Each volume will be a modular publication experience where visual evidence, data, and prose carry equal weight. Expect a blend of regional maps, data visualizations, historical context, and documentary landscape photography captured directly on the ground this summer.

Broken Ground is a labor of intense curiosity - a commitment to reading the American landscape with the rigor it deserves. I can't wait to take you along this first 115-mile stretch and show you the layers hidden right in plain sight.

Stay tuned for the launch of Volume 1 later this year.

Here is a numerical breakdown of all the things I wrote this month, in order of what I believe to be their quality.

1. Wait until evening, Mostly Invisible. Some more thoughts on AI and how we might consider it in the future. This is my favorite piece I've written for Mostly Invisible so far.

The Arcade in Cleveland, Ohio. Taken from the Euclid Avenue side, facing northwest towards Superior on August 11, 2025.

Best,

BK