In Ryan Ridge's New Bad News, the frenetic, fractured, and far-out worlds of fading celebrities, festival promoters, underemployed adjuncts, and overly aware chatbots collide. From champagne baths in "Babe Ruth's Bachelor Pad," to a to a clashing of realities with a Terminator statue in "The Wax Museum," to a chatbot-generated series of answers in "22nd Century Man," these are bright, flashing neon stories that lead readers from Hollywood to Kentucky and back. Ridge proves himself a master negotiator of wit and social commentary, and these Calvino-esque short-shorts are the New Bad News this century's been waiting for.