Super fun interview with @asteriskmag.bsky.social in which we talk about "Raised to Obey" (@princetonupress.bsky.social) but also: - is "indoctrination for democracy" desirable? - is low education quality driven by "low state capacity"? and more! asteriskmag.com/issues/10/wh...

"The primary purpose behind the creation of primary education systems was to convert unruly children into obedient citizens who would respect the state and its laws." asteriskmag.com/issues/10/wh...

Monday's Most Read # 1 - Traffic Fatalities Are a Choice link.theoverheadwire.com/uw8ka @asteriskmag.bsky.social

Research scandals make headlines, but that AI materials science paper is still just the tip of the iceberg @ryancbriggs.net walks through the gauntlet of issues in the research published in even our most reputable peer-reviewed journals asteriskmag.com/issues/10/ca...

I think the current state of social science research is pretty bad and I wrote something for @asteriskmag.bsky.social about it. asteriskmag.com/issues/10/ca...

Some very depressing forecasts on the impact of USAID cuts in the recent @asteriskmag.bsky.social special edition: asteriskmag.substack.com/p/forecast-...

For the past month, @asteriskmag.bsky.social has been working with a group of forecasters for a series on the mortality impacts of the Trump Administration's USAID cuts 5 forecasts, transparent and probabilistic, on PEPFAR, malaria, TB, nutrition, and WASH asteriskmag.substack.com/p/forecast-s...

California High Speed Rail has had real issues, many of them common to other transportation infrastructure projects, but one of its biggest obstacles has been insufficient funding. Read this deep dive for more of the story: asteriskmag.com/issues/10/re...

Rare analysis of CAHSR that contextualizes its difficulty/cost in @asteriskmag.bsky.social. Abundance dems should fight to accelerate, not abandon, this project. Complaints about how gov fails at building belies fact that we have *barely even tried*. Funding at less than $1B/year in $4T CA economy!

We hereby declare an end to the "boondoggle" meme asteriskmag.com/issues/10/re...

Our board president (Bob Fischer) recently published an article in @asteriskmag.bsky.social on the topic of invertebrate sentience. Check it out: asteriskmag.com/issues/09/th...

@asteriskmag.bsky.social is where the adults are talking about adult stuff asteriskmag.com/issues/09/ab...

We could — if we tried — potentially raise Mars's temperature by 30°C well within this century asteriskmag.com/issues/09/gr...

We're officially sold out! You can still buy tickets for the livestream starting at 6PM PDT. Donation-based, $1 minimum. Link below! Excited to see everyone in person!

"What appears to be a deep aversive reaction to sounds that most people don’t like can seem — I speak from personal experience here — like you’re hard to tolerate." @jakee.bsky.social @asteriskmag.bsky.social

Have been reading Longreads well over a decade! A real privilege to be featured

We raised the attendance cap on this from 80 to 100 after high demand! Will sell-out! Donation-based! Very important topic! Very interesting questions! Very cool people! I will ask about panpsychism! Can't wait to meet you there!!!

We're nearly sold out in-person for this event! Grab your tickets now! www.eventbrite.com/e/where-huma...

SUCH a good article about misophonia from @jakee.bsky.social. It's so hard for me to articulate my relationship with stimuli such as chewing and repetitive sounds, it's not just that I don't like them it's the uncontrollable full-body aversive reaction. Glad to see more serious research on this.

Absolute pleasure to speak with Kati Devaney for this issue. We covered a lot of territory: the deep-end of meditation, the neuroscience of cessation, the concept of "weird," and whether enlightenment is in the Overton window yet asteriskmag.com/issues/09/th...

DOGE wants to cut 'low-impact' science. But important innovations—like mRNA vaccines, PCR, and the internet—once looked pointless, too. Kill the research pipeline, kill future advances. @lgilbert.co and I write about this in @asteriskmag.bsky.social: asteriskmag.com/issues/09/a... /3

Thrilled to announce that @asteriskmag.bsky.social and I will be hosting a conversation between Rob Long and Kati Devaney on where two tracks in consciousness research — AI and meditation — collide If you're local to the Bay, would love to see you there! www.eventbrite.com/e/where-huma...

There are 3 things one should never discuss in polite company: money, politics, and shrimp. asteriskmag.com/issues/09/ye...

Some economists believe that all growth in living standards comes from scientific research and development. asteriskmag.com/issues/09/a-... @asteriskmag.bsky.social

🦗🧠 A growing number of studies are exploring the extent to which #insects can experience pain, feelings & more. This mounting evidence calls for us to question our assumptions about insect #sentience. A thought piece in @asteriskmag.bsky.social digs deeper. https://bit.ly/4kacSke

Forecasting & global health friends! @asteriskmag.bsky.social is working on a mini-series forecasting the impacts of USAID/other funding cuts over the next year

Basic research, even when it appears weird — from levitating frogs to the sex lives of beetles to fishing in geysers for bacteria — is a government investment with extremely high ROI asteriskmag.com/issues/09/a-...

This article by @adammarblestone.bsky.social brilliantly illustrates how Lean and other proof assistants are enabling new forms of mathematical collaboration and verification in our AI-driven world. We're grateful for Adam's valuable guidance as a board member of the Lean FRO! #LeanLang #LeanProver

Proofs can be definitively verified as correct or incorrect. This makes them an ideal testing ground for developing more reliable AI reasoning capabilities - and may change how we do math forever asteriskmag.com/issues/09/au...

Really enjoyed being interviewed for this feature on misophonia and misophonia research in @asteriskmag.bsky.social! asteriskmag.com/issues/09/th...

my latest - about trying to understand my own misophonia, and why it's taken so long for science to catch up

"It’s a teenage rite of passage to explode into rage at your parents. While the usual outburst is sparked by some combination of hormones, insecurity, and authority issues, for me it was a popping sound in my father’s jaw." asteriskmag.com/issues/09/th...

Frustratingly, I once again hear folks in the econ-adjacent, 'aid reform' camp going soft on PEPFAR -- ready to jetisson billions in life-saving HIV aid to get peanuts for innovation, incubator funds and the like. PEPFAR works. We're winning the war on AIDS. Hold the line.

In the wake of the turmoil around PEPFAR funding, we're re-reading @justsand.bsky.social's piece on how economists got Africa's AIDS epidemic wrong - and why it's so important that it continues asteriskmag.com/issues/05/pe...

2/ Meta has announced that they’re removing third-party fact checkers and implementing Community Notes. What, exactly, are Community Notes? @asteriskmag.bsky.social recently published an in-depth interview with the team behind Community Notes: asteriskmag.com/issues/08/th....

"Wherever we start, insect sentience is on the table. That’s a reason to give these animals the benefit of the doubt. We don’t know enough not to." asteriskmag.com/issues/09/th...

"The clock is the ultimate artifact of a culture that evolved to convince donors from the tech community to underwrite spectacular ideas with no obvious payoff." Alec Nevala-Lee, @asteriskmag.bsky.social #longreads https://longreads.com/2025/01/27/chimes-at-midnight/

We asked @annierau.bsky.social of @depthsofwikipedia.bsky.social everything she knows about the thousands of people who help make (and re-make, and re-re-make) the 7th most visited website on the planet asteriskmag.com/issues/08/th...

"I consumed it like a psychoactive pill, one that made me slightly insane but alert to other kinds of insanities. I found it to be frequently insightful, sometimes obvious, often annoying and rather pompous, regularly helpful, and ... unexpectedly vulnerable." asteriskmag.com/issues/08/ra...

I got frustrated with the GLP-1 discourse and wrote up some hasty thoughts jakeeaton.substack.com/p/the-glp-1-...

"handsomely designed" - The New Yorker WINNER of the 2023 AIGA Year in Design Award For the next week, get 15% off and free shipping on single print copies of Asterisk with code BLACKFRIDAY15 store.asteriskmag.com

I still think that social media and phones are doing bad things to our mental health, but I appreciate Claude's contrarian take on what's been happening in the past ten years with loneliness: housing is expensive, and it's hard to make friends when you live with mom and dad

Making "friends" with Claude < Reading Claude Fischer on friendship < Sending this article to all of your friends asteriskmag.com/issues/08/th...

FHI offered Tom Ough exclusive interview access for this extensively reported and wide-ranging piece There's a lot here that's never been previously published. I'm proud to bring it to you from Asterisk asteriskmag.com/issues/08/lo...

Existential risk, astronomical waste, paperclip maximizers, the simulation hypothesis, synthetic pandemics, effective altruism, info hazards - and more How should we look back on the most forward-looking research center of its time? asteriskmag.com/issues/08/lo...

For @asteriskmag.bsky.social, I wrote about the academic history of psychedelics and mystical experience: how a 30-question scale predicts the benefits of psychedelic therapy, whether the subjective effects it measures are necessary, and why I wanted to know. asteriskmag.com/issues/04/my...

"Until recently we didn’t have any randomized controlled trials that directly tested how well colonoscopies work. We finally just got one and the results were — how can I describe them? Confusing? Ambiguous? Frenzy-inducing?" @dynomight.net on the NordICC trial. asteriskmag.com/issues/04/yo...