this is not true, and this guy doesn't speak for me! nymag.com/intelligence...

Grantland. How I miss that web site.

Reporters: So we hear that Americans are recently returning to religion, especially young people. That true? Reputable Pollsters: Nope. Reporters: Well, our vibes say yeah. So we’re just gonna do 100 articles and podcasts about how Americans are returning to religion.

This semester I taught a new course, "Culture and Social Policy." The idea was to identify the symbolic assumptions that drive policy discussions in the US, trace their historical roots, then see how they work in multiple policy domains.

I taught about parking minimums this semester and the students were astonished and enraged by the degree to which laws require filling space this way. By the end of the discussion they were all ready to either grab their pitchforks or apply for their local zoning boards.

this is also one of my hobbyhorses. you want a better caliber of lawmaker? you want to reduce the odds of corruption? pay them more. a lot more.

Top 15 TV shows ever, gut instincts only: The Wire The Americans Deadwood Boardwalk Empire Breaking Bad The Night Of Wolf Hall Rome True Detective (season 1) Downton Abbey Les Miserables (BBC version) Homeland Parks and Rec Planet Earth The Day of the Jackal (2025 version)

a reminder that a lot of the things people find unpleasant about cities - along with the noise and dirtiness - are largely a product of filling them with cars. get rid of the cars and the pleasantness of the environment improves dramatically

New study @sfjournal.bsky.social: Initial work on my theory of "rulling class religion," which I'll developfurther at @russellsagefdn.bsky.social next year. Using 3 data sets, we link Christian nationalism with endorsing economic inequality BUT only among higher earners. 1/3 doi.org/10.1093/sf/s...

This story captures a lot of what's so great about my alma mater. www.nytimes.com/2026/04/17/d...

I'm not going to provide details, so don't ask. Nevertheless: No, it is not OK to have one hallucinated cite. No, you can't delete that and expect me to take the rest of your work seriously. No, absolutely not. It should never ever happen.

A pleasure to contribute to this piece in Newsweek on the jump in religiosity among young men: www.newsweek.com/gen-z-mens-v...

i'll read any article of any length. i'll read any book. but i will not watch a youtube explainer or monologue that is longer than three minutes. write it down buddy

BREAKING: Following the American threat of an “Avignon Papacy,” Robert Kennedy has begun a Diet of Worms

Neoliberal Consensus: College should be about ROI Humanists: Um, no NC: Sorry yes Humanists: Ok your premise is flawed but also humanists have really strong ROI data and have for decades. NC: We're pivoting to AI www.startribune.com/what-should-...

So many things are awful these days, much of academic life included. Which makes it really worth saying that today, I get to spend the morning carefully reading a rich, rewarding text, and the afternoon discussing it with bright, passionate, highly motivated students. This job can still be great.

friend, this is Marcus Junius Brutus CAESAR has declared himself DICTATOR FOR LIFE and MUST BE STOPPED can you rush a donation of ten denarii today to show that you STAND WITH THE REPUBLIC?

Sociological theory thread! Jason Furman is in the NYT today arguing that we get Adam Smith wrong, and if we got him right, our capitalist system would work better. I agree with Furman on the premise, but I think he also gets Smith wrong. www.nytimes.com/2026/03/09/o...

Sociological theory thread! Jason Furman is in the NYT today arguing that we get Adam Smith wrong, and if we got him right, our capitalist system would work better. I agree with Furman on the premise, but I think he also gets Smith wrong. www.nytimes.com/2026/03/09/o...

Come you masters of war…

In order for kids to walk to school and bus stops safely tomorrow the sidewalks and street corners need to be cleared. Let’s all do our part to clear them so kids don’t walk in the street! And please slow down while driving. The snow banks make it hard to see kids trying to cross!

“Everyone thinks universities have to do what donors want because they pay the bills. But that gets it backward, and not just at Hopkins.” I highly recommend reading this piece. www.publicbooks.org/the-misuses-...

Fabulous thread. Reading : writing :: proper fueling : athletic endurance

If you ever wanted to know how to define Christian nationalism, I got you. This business with @jamestalarico.bsky.social and @colbertlateshow.bsky.social has got people wondering. kettering.org/five-element...

It's also still impossible to safely travel on foot from Chandler to May on Park, on either side of the road. Nearly three weeks after the storm, the city still hasn't enforced the law. I'm sure there are dozens of other examples. It's outrageous.

Ahem.

The admin can't achieve its aims absent compliance from Congressional Republicans, federal judges, GOP-led state gov'ts, and media, corporate, and civil society institutions. The weaker he appears, the more incentive/permission they have to stop complying in first small, then hopefully larger ways.

Five classes from college (that I still think about at least weekly): - Liberation Theologies (religious studies) - Politics of Suburbanization (poli sci) - The World of Bede (history) - Religion in American Culture (religious studies) - Class, Power, and Inequality (sociology)

Another proud Carleton alum here. Our alma mater shows other schools how things should be done in so many ways (from incredible teaching and curriculum to kickass outdoor broomball), and here's maybe the most important of all.

With apologies for the self-promotion, if you're interested in learning about how faith leaders built the network that this clergy and religious resistance grew out of, I have just the book for you! uncpress.org/978146967316...

With apologies for the self-promotion, if you're interested in learning about how faith leaders built the network that this clergy and religious resistance grew out of, I have just the book for you! uncpress.org/978146967316...

Call me Ishmael.

This is a great idea. If you're teaching a sociology class in the Twin Cities and you need a guest lecture, hit me up. Theory, urban soc, social movements/political soc, and religion are my teaching strengths, but I can do other things too if needed.

exceptional article, I think this gets at the heart of why Minneapolis is such a target for the Trump admin even above & beyond other liberal American cities

I am calling for a complete and total boycott of the Mercator projection in all news stories about Greenland until every member of the American public has seen this

Sociologists: I'm looking for an undergrad-friendly reading that introduces and applies Alexander and Smith's cultural semiotics in an engaging way. Any suggestions?

Worcester folks- if you see that today ICE acted with impunity and lied about, I hope you also see that in May on Eureka St that the same thing happened. Renee Nicole Good was fighting for her neighbors just as @etelhaxhiaj.bsky.social was. We pray for the dead and fight like hell for the living.

"The bourgeoisie apotheosized the sword; the sword rules it ... it imposed a state of siege; a state of siege is imposed upon it." - Marx, 18th Brumaire

"I refuse." This is it. There's no reason we should accept a narrative of an already settled future which marginalizes humans and individual agency. No one wants this. No one asked for it.

For anyone worried AI will replace all of us. Courtesy of Gemini for the prompt “create an infographic of all the World Series winners since 1986” I dare you to find 10 things that are right.

If you need a good thing on the internet today, try this one. I've only replayed it about 30 times this morning. www.youtube.com/watch?v=B9Jj...

Convincing my students that we should be paying politicians more rather than less, drawing on Weber's Politics as a Vocation, is one of my favorite parts of every theory course I teach.

It was an honor to be part of a conversation on Shifting Terrain covering how capitalism and Christianity are linked, resistance to Christian Nationalism, and more. Also ft. @profsamperry.bsky.social & @msjeannelewis.bsky.social. Listen below! nam10.safelinks.protection.outlook.com?url=https%3A...

Chatbots — LLMs — do not know facts and are not designed to be able to accurately answer factual questions. They are designed to find and mimic patterns of words, probabilistically. When they’re “right” it’s because correct things are often written down, so those patterns are frequent. That’s all.

Many social movements in American history have emerged from religious groups and religious ideals. "Social Movements and Religion in American History," an ARDA college-level learning module, examines the history of movements in the United States by using religion as a lens.

Facts and empirics cannot pierce today's conservative information world. As I explain here, it's part of a broader division between fundamentally secular-modernist thinking on the left and mythic-religious thinking on the right. DM for a copy if you need. journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10....

It’s miller park like its staples center. I don’t acknowledge the name change and neither should u

Totally, completely flabbergasted. #MacFellow hub.jhu.edu/2025/10/08/h...

This NYT podcast on the cratering of coding jobs is an advertisement for a liberal arts education. Don't train for today's jobs b/c they might not be there tomorrow. Develop enduring critical thinking skills that allow you to adapt to an evolving world www.nytimes.com/2025/09/29/p...