My fellow academics: let’s offer a stranger some kindness today by accepting a peer review invitation. #academicsky

Policy-based evidence-making

Reflecting on how sad it is that people will needlessly suffer from this new influencer/regulator/grifter health ecosystem. Like, my family has lost friends to this: refusing Covid vaccines and cancer treatments based on bad advice about risks and cures. And not “lost” socially. They died. 🛟 🩺

(For even better insights on the food security measure, follow Parke! 👇)

Every time I teach "Beyond the Food Desert," we spend a whole week on food insecurity. Why? #academicsky 🥗 🛟

Great piece from @sarah-todd.bsky.social in @statnews.com. Nutrition has been a long-neglected, and practical part of medical education. Will be an important space to watch. 🛟 🥗 🩺

Lots more time to watch ads tbh

Just gonna go ahead and say, I find the SNAP score very surprising. We thought it would be about $10 billion smaller, not a little larger. And the work requirements part is unchanged when it MUST be smaller, and state share got higher EVEN in 2028 and 2029. Have reached out but find this surprising.

SNAP cuts don’t just mean less food for families. They mean fewer sales for grocers, fewer dollars for farmers, and fewer dollars in local economies. #SNAPmatters

The impacts of SNAP cuts are far-reaching. Read our analysis to learn about the ripple effects of these harmful cuts: projectbread.org/news/in-an-a...

If you’ve ever driven or been in a car in Boston, you can appreciate how slow and inconvenient it is. But to pin that on bike lanes? Wild. (Agree this survey ? is a poor indicator but still suggests something about issue framing for the race)

Hard to imagine a greater challenge to healthy eating than poverty. And we are making the depth of that poverty even worse with safety net cuts. @kffhealthnews.org 🥗 🛟

Curious how many AI-assisted bot accounts are just humming along online getting prepped for their Real Work in the midterms

Important new work on EITC and healthy food purchasing. More evidence on how less complicated/restrictive safety net programs can be helpful for diet and health. Gets us out of a “people are just doing poverty wrong” mentality and more toward addressing root causes. #academicsky 🛟 🥗

Glad this is getting some coverage. We’re definitely hearing more of this from our students.

England’s two tier system deepens social care inequalities. @andersb-m.bsky.social and colleagues examine how increasing reliance on out-of-pocket payments for adult social care has created a quality divide www.bmj.com/content/390/...

Let's talk for a sec about the fact that the right wing group on the UVA Board that orchestrated the ouster of President Ryan (due to his support for DEI) is called "The Jefferson Council." Invoking Jefferson to oppose diversity & inclusion is historically resonant. www.nytimes.com/2025/07/14/u...

This was my favorite dissertation paper. Hours and hours and hours and hours of data collection, analysis, interpretation, and writing, writing, writing. LAME. #academicsky

Attn: colleges and universities #academicsky #edusky

A whole lot of organizations and politicians do not understand just how minimal their 'reach' truly is on X. It's not what Twitter was. You are shouting at bots and right-wingers. Nobody else sees what you do there. Daily users are down, time on site is down, and the algorithm is hostile to you.

Sadly, they won’t be able to keep up. And critically, the economic stimulus that SNAP provides to communities? Also gone.

With a huge unfunded mandate for #SNAP food benefits one step closer to becoming law, don't lose sight of the painful tradeoffs states will be facing: Do they raise taxes? Cut state funding for other vital services? Slash the number of eligible low-income people receiving food assistance?

Planners have limited understanding of accessibility/disability, limited experience engaging with people with disabilities, and limited educational training. Importantly, planners were eager to learn more to enhance their practice. www.liverpooluniversitypress.co.uk/doi/full/10....

Sure another UVA grad has already said this but Jefferson left specific instructions for his epitaph ("& not a word more"): "Here was buried Thomas Jefferson Author of the Declaration of American Independance of the Statute of Virginia for religious freedom & Father of the University of Virginia."

How AI chatbots are delivering health lies to 'millions' www.9news.com.au/national/ai-... "In total, 88 per cent of all responses were false." "The disinformation included claims about vaccines causing autism, cancer-curing diets, HIV being airborne and 5G causing infertility."

It’s good to see so many folks coming to the defense of #SNAP. Re-sharing this @nejm.org piece that puts it in a global context. SNAP is a critical, yet very prescriptive approach to poverty alleviation. Important to remember when you hear proposals to make SNAP even more restrictive. 🥗 🛟

Few things are as lazy and annoying as a local news helicopter buzzing your downtown

New working paper alert! Posted at @equitablegrowth.bsky.social, it investigates the economic geography of social transfer programs and financial income--with implications for the Medicaid and SNAP cuts proposed in the reconciliation bill 👀 equitablegrowth.org/working-pape...

Might I suggest that Uber/Lyft are making the passenger + driver experience markedly more terrible to grease the skids for driverless? Or just a funny coincidence!!

8 million older adults, caregivers, and parents in every state would be at risk of losing food assistance under a Senate proposal that expands #SNAP's harsh work requirements. See how your state could be impacted under the Senate Ag proposal: www.cbpp.org/research/foo...

I yearn for an American version of Private Eye

This week chaotic federal immigration sweeps occurred in fields across CA-including Ventura, Kern & Tulare counties. You may have seen videos of agents chasing farm workers thru the field. Workers are terrorized. Your gift can help us fight back. ufw.org/immigrationr... #WeFeedYou

Equality Diversity Inclusivity: good for science. Via @chrischirp.bsky.social #academicsky 🧪 www.thelancet.com/journals/lan...

This is exhausting. I cannot keep up with this stuff and suspect no academic can. There’s no universal opt-out from AI when it comes to our written work. Could a podcast be a “fun” way to engage with my paper? Maybe. Sure. Fine. But freaking ask me first. #academicsky

Literally every professor who’s assigned a paper this year

I understand economic argument for int'l students, but it bothers me that even w "they subsidize US students" it reinforces separateness of us/them or implies extractive relationship. But US Higher Ed is world leader because it is truly international not because it is subsidized by intl students

Policy-based evidence-making

I’m mostly aware of conspiracy theories because they are shoved in between the photos of friends’ babies and dogs. It wasn’t always and doesn’t have to be this way 😞

The bill House Republicans passed last week would be the deepest cut to #SNAP in history. Our new paper explains the 4 ways this bill would take food assistance away from low-income people, including families with kids, seniors, and people with disabilities. Link below ⤵️

Often come back to a talk by @jlynch13.bsky.social on how social policy is a mechanism for “containing inequality”… How much, for whom, under which conditions. Our tolerance for inequality reflects something about society, values, ethics.

“Someone just searched for you on Google in your city… it was your landlord.”

Still thinking about this post. The broader point, which should resonate way beyond the specific issue of "peer review," is that human disagreement is not friction and waste. It's a load-bearing, functional part of social and intellectual systems.

Not a driver, but count me as enraged anyway 🙋‍♂️ The Boston street network might be one of the worst places to allow this private tech experiment. Given our insane traffic gridlock, I could also see why folks might be tempted by a shiny tech solution…

Policy-based evidence making

Filing under “someone’s making money” Any fringe idea can be mainstreamed, lucratively, via capitalism.

The Trump administration is unlawfully seeking to destroy higher education in the United States. It now demands that we sacrifice our international students in the process. Universities cannot acquiesce to such extortion.

Most #FoodAsMedicine folks I work with would also find this ad concerning. Still, it’s part of a broader MAHA vibe we can’t ignore. It’s tailor-made for social media content, ads, and influencers. It also sets up a real trap for health disparities work. Note the latent blame here. 🛟 🥗

Ditto for SNAP It’s a critical part of the food economy, especially in neighborhoods where average income is low.

60% of American households can’t afford a minimal quality of life. Meanwhile, the 19 richest households saw their wealth increase by $1 trillion in 2024 — the biggest one-year increase ever. Our problem isn't a lack of resources. Our problem is ever-expanding inequality.

What do SNAP participants do with their benefits? SPEND them! Most likely at a retailer near you! Good reminder from @eater.bsky.social about the many layers of impact from SNAP. 🥗