Inbox reduced to zero. All authors have what they need. All projects transmitted. All covers in progress. All copy sorted. All meetings organized. So send me some proposals! Working on a book in film/media studies, Asian studies, history, literature, sf studies, anthro, or pedagogy? I'm here!

In our new article, Shuohong Lyu introduces the concept of "artificial intelligence hegemony": when AI systems become the organisers of the conditions of meaning-making, credibility, and intellectual labour. Read more on our website! 🔗 digitalorientalist.com/2026/05/08/a...

This has a cover now - out on Halloween I'm a narrative voice on the round-table on teaching religion in American Studies. www.barnesandnoble.com/w/teaching-a...

Abhidharma? Lists. Chan/Zen: Mysticism.

For the first time in over a month I had about an hour yesterday to do a little research - in this case some reading to complement archival work I've started. This quote from an early edition of Our Bodies Ourselves, on disrupting sexual shame, got to me (from Adams 2019 Peitho): 1/4

Two of us have new books out: Matthew's Antifascist Dad: Urgent Conversations with Young People in Chaotic Times and Derek's Well Enough: Finding Health Despite the Wellness Industry. Julian interviews his co-hosts about them. www.conspirituality.net/episodes/306-antifascist-wellness

Can Ohio join? @bberwyn.bsky.social @insideclimatenews.org : bit.ly/4930ui3 Gas & oil has captured Ohio. It and lawmakers push us toward data centers dependent on natural gas fracked from public lands-- and contaminated air and drinking water. @sherrodbrownoh.bsky.social @amyactonoh.bsky.social

Overshooting 1.5°C looks likely—but it’s not game over. The key is limiting how far (and how long) we exceed it, then bringing temperatures back down with rapid cuts + carbon removal. Every fraction of a degree still matters. 👉 www.scientificamerican.com/article/why-... #ClimateChange 🌍🌐🧪

Thinking a lot about this passage in @theradr.bsky.social’s brilliant, essential ON REPENTANCE AND REPAIR: Making Amends in an Unapologetic World. I wish more people realized/cared that true repentance benefits the person doing the work, and society as a whole.

Sal Khan is spinning up an alternative post-secondary credential in concert with the largest tech companies in the world. Anyone who cares about human-centered education should wish it nothing but failure. Thankfully, Khan has practice at that. www.insidehighered.com/opinion/colu...

ICYMI: The New Horizons in Engaged Buddhism interview with Mushim Ikeda is now available on video on our YouTube channel and website. Also as a podcast on our Substack. Above links on our LinkTree in bio. You can find the podcast on Buzzsprout too: www.buzzsprout.com/2541204/epis...

Since people might be thinking about topics and texts for teaching next year, I thought I'd post the bit of the preface of my recent book 'Epistemic Injustice: An Introduction' about who it's for and how to use it. (Alt-text is spread over this image and the one in the next post)

This is the core reason I assign only in-person essay writing (on paper) in my intro courses now. It's not the students, it's me. I became distrustful of everything they submitted, which is awful, and I could not read essays under that condition.

This is a verified GoFundMe for librarian Luanne James from the Rutherford County Library Alliance. gofund.me/f7704eb98 Read what happened to this hero: www.newschannel5.com/news/rutherf...

Important 🧵 on "AI":

This de-professionalizes teaching while still demanding that the "guides" do the social-emotional work of teachers. I assume the "guides" are also the ones in charge of the rest of the day's "hands-on workshops focused on life skills, teamwork and project-based learning." Also what teachers do.

Despite repeated pledges that the department does not enforce immigration violations, recent filings from lawsuit reveal Pima County Sheriff's deputies have picked up and turned over Spanish-speaking men w/out suspicion of any crime. For @lookoutnews.bsky.social www.lookoutnews.org/scoop-pima-c...

This early photograph from Tourane (today’s Da Nang) shows three Buddhist monks at the Marble Mountains temple complex. It is a rare colonial-era view of the full hierarchy of Vietnamese Buddhist monastic dress, from a novice’s plain robe to the ceremonial vestments of a senior abbot.🧵 🗃️ 📜 #Vietnam

I've been fortunate enough to meet many formidably smart, fully committed, & thoroughly decent people who, for years, have strived to try to avert dangerous climate change. They failed. Saying that does not lessen my gratitude to them, 1/11 www.technosphere.earth/yes-we-can-n...

The three stages of how LLM's turn original writing into generic, boring and dangerous writing: 1) metaphorical cleansing; 2) lexical flattening; 3) structural collapse, which leaves "behind a syntactically perfect but intellectually void shell."

How Measurement Changes Can Exaggerate the Growth of Religious "Nones" free for all to read: https://sociologicalscience.com/download/volume-13/february/SocSci_v13_89to108.pdf

Today, February 10, 2026, marks the official publication day of “Ocean, As Much As Rain – Stories, Lyrical Prose, and Poems from Tibet” by Tsering Woeser, published by @dukepress.bsky.social, edited and translated by Fiona Sze-Lorrain with Dechen Pemba.

Bring back earnestness and sincerity.

Higashi Honganji Temple, the world’s second largest wooden building. Absolutely magnificent. The interiors are stunning. (Sorry, we were not allowed to take photos inside). It is a Shin Buddhist temple. 🕉️ #Japan #Buddhism #travel #life #explore #Kyoto

Beauty is in the eye of the treeholder

My late & beloved philosophy teacher Dominic Balestra (Doc B as we called him) of Fordham once said "philosophy is about making distinctions." That short phrase has helped me be a clearer thinker ever since.

Today on #HoPWaG, we look at the variety of presentations (and names) of Confucius in the "Zhuangzi." What do these portrayal's tell us about Daoist attitudes towards Confucianism? www.historyofphilosophy.net/zhuangzi-con... #podcast #philosophy #philsky #confucisus #daoism #zhuangzi

We're going to win because their side has no good art and they know it.

I cut this out of the Cleveland Plain Dealer as a kid in the 90s and now it lives in my 8 Year olds bedroom.

my deepest conviction is that this is a correct intuition and expresses an ultimate truth. I can’t say it in the language of Religious Studies scholarship because authoritarian and liberatory manifestations of religions are all equally real and have to be treated as such. But it’s what I believe

If you haven’t seen Rebecca Solnit's Meditations in an Emergency, you might want to! www.meditationsinanemergency.com

It changed my entire understanding of peace activists. You can't unilaterally "make peace" with someone who hates you. But you can refuse to make war on them. That's all that you can do. The humility and solid truth of her statement has always stayed with me.

Another quarter means another list of forthcoming critical tech books! Plus, I also discuss my own reading habits in 2025 and some of the books I most enjoyed out of the 21 I read this past year.

Some time back, @prisonculture.bsky.social posted on here something like: you could do worse than organize yourself around seeking ways to reduce suffering for others. It struck me, b/c that is the heart of my own religious & intellectual life, as a Buddhist teacher & scholar of Buddhist studies...

Went to the weekly rally in town. Maybe 50 ppl standing in the rain with "Abolish ICE" & like signs. Lots more verbal reactions from MAGA guys in trucks: "You are wasting your time" (which...ok?) & "America first! God Bless DJT!" They are less complacent. We are mad & not scared & they know it.

Growing up, this was one of those news events that my father insisted we all watch and talk about together. I remember him saying, "The day people get sick of eating shit eventually arrives."

"The media has largely let [tech companies] set the terms of the debate, right down to the terminology used in any discussion of these systems." From @nannainie.bsky.social & me in @techpolicypress.bsky.social on how to spot and resist anthropomorphizing language about so-called "AI".

Editorial in the National Catholic Reporter: "The vice president's comments justifying the death of Renee Good are a moral stain on the collective witness of our Catholic faith. His repeated attempts to blame Good for her own death are fundamentally incompatible with the Gospel."

"mitigate"

I am honored to write about and sad that we have lost the incomparable Robert H. N. Ho--a rare example of someone who used his privilege to the greatest possible benefit of others. tricycle.org/article/robe...

Antidotes to Fear of Death – a lifeline of a poem from astronomer Rebecca Elson, who would have been 66 today but died the age I am www.themarginalian.org/2020/04/10/a...

“Human beings are the only species known to mistake their worldview for the world.”

Great essay about design and democracy.

How to fix breakdowns in communication www.themarginalian.org/2025/11/11/c...

Accurate. I haven't heard *one single* pitch for "AI" in education that isn't one of these three: 1) It's inevitable so hop on board; 2) Employers want to know prospectives can use it; 3) We must stop it from hurting our students by training them in it. None promise better educational outcomes.

The 3 Buddhist steps to repairing any relationship – immortal wisdom on love from the great Zen teacher and peace activist Thich Nhat Hanh www.themarginalian.org/2021/10/10/t...