Writer

Todd Ruffner-Schoenfeld

Editor in chief. A knack for the fine print, and likes it.

Todd Ruffner-Schoenfeld has spent his working life being handed things he did not yet understand. He started at the bottom, a developer in a bullpen, and worked his way up to running IT. The places were a strange assortment: consulting firms, accounting firms, a biotech startup, a tech startup in Silicon Valley and, of all places, Chiquita. Four small businesses of his own along the way. The work never really changed. Get into something unfamiliar, find out what is actually going on, and help someone make a hard decision with it. HeadLines Decoded is that job, pointed at the news.

Selected work

A woman walks away down a sunlit, tree-lined path.

Health 10,000 was an ad. Your legs are not. I stopped counting steps because the magic number kept moving. That was not science failing. It was a slogan getting… 5 Sep 2026

Colorful Disney Skyliner gondolas gliding over a still lake at dawn, mirrored in the water.

Disney We book the wire. Then we check if it is flying. Some guests treat Skyliner closure calendars like scripture. I used to think that was a lot. Then I heard myself… 5 Sep 2026

A full-armor Mandalorian cosplayer in beskar helmet and cape holding a blaster rifle at a convention.

Disney The kid lifted the mudhorn. I never got over it. The Mandalorian and Grogu landed on Disney+ September 2. I was waiting. Some of you think the whole run is… 4 Sep 2026

A combine unloads harvested corn into a grain cart in a field during harvest.

Business Diesel hit $5.85. The tractor does not get a vote. U.S. diesel set a record this week. One side calls the pain overblown; the other says working families cannot carry… 4 Sep 2026

Actor Mark Ruffalo, photographed at a 2017 Comic-Con panel.

Business I like Mark Ruffalo. So I read the whole thing before I made up my mind. The word "antisemite" got hung on a man I admire this week, over a post about a $111 billion merger.… 3 Sep 2026

An aircraft and its fresh white contrail over the deep blue North Atlantic seen from the International Space Station, with older spread-out contrails nearby.

They are changing the sky this winter, and it is the opposite of a chemtrail Atlantic flights are about to start dodging the thin, cold layers where a jet's white line turns into a heat-trapping… 2 Sep 2026

U.S. soldiers in M1A2 Abrams tanks during a NATO exercise at a training area in Poland, on the alliance's eastern flank.

Politics The warning and the doubt are both American Five days apart, the same U.S. government told NATO two opposite things: be ready for Russia, and do not worry… 2 Sep 2026

The cast and creators of HBO's Lanterns on stage at the San Diego Comic-Con 2026 panel, seated behind a Comic-Con backdrop.

Culture They brought Sinestro home for dinner My first take on HBO's Lanterns. It is dark and gritty, and odd in the way that makes me lean… 31 Aug 2026

Painted illustration of a rainy nighttime outdoor food-festival marketplace: glowing stalls, hanging lanterns and string lights, a few visitors under umbrellas, and an empty wet wooden table in the foreground.

Disney The corned beef shrank. The price did not. We walked Food and Wine on a quiet, rainy opening night. My plate at Flavors from Fire is still the… 30 Aug 2026

The aircraft carrier USS George Washington under way at sea

Politics Top Commanders Warned Against Extending the Iran War, the Post Says. The Pentagon Says It Never Happened. A newspaper says four of the military's most senior officers formally objected to keeping the war going. The Pentagon says… 30 Aug 2026