It feels like 103 degrees in Michigan at 7 pm. Please check in on your older loved ones….

And with that email coming in at the end of the day, I bid you adieu until next week.

With the heat dome firmly parked over Michigan & beyond, my @umich.edu colleague and I put together a short video, complete with jazzy trombone, to remind everyone that older people and people with health conditions need to take special care! More info & links here: michmed.org/zdVKK #publichealth

Back on my bullsh

Do you take a prescription medicine? Are you in the path of the heat wave? Read this! #publichealth #medsky

A round of applause for inspirational teachers 🫶🏼👏🏼 #WritingCommunity #BookSky

Congrats to the winners of the @ellengalinsky.bsky.social Generative Researcher Award -- Sarah Flood, @melissamilkie.bsky.social, and @lsayer.bsky.social for their development, support, and use of time use data. Learn more about their exceptional work here: wfrn.org/ellen-galins...

Old enough to recognize this as a data center

Read more about how demographic change is reshaping the future of senior housing: myumi.ch/G71dJ

America’s senior housing shortage is becoming harder for families to ignore. ISR researcher @spattersearch.bsky.social is featured in a Bisnow article on America’s senior housing shortage. As demand rises and construction slows, families face long waits, limited options, and rising costs.

Note from my notebook (2017). Still true.

If you are encouraging AI use at your organization, be aware that women are judged more harshly than men for using AI. Make sure to evaluate quality of the AI work product instead of the qualities of the employee using AI. www.forbes.com/sites/michel...

If you emailed me in the past 3 weeks and haven't received a response, it's because I simply cannot keep up with the volume of email I receive now.

Heading to or through the Detroit airport? Check out the interactive medical & science trivia game that my colleagues and I worked on, which tests your knowledge while promoting the @umich.edu academic medical center.

"At the meeting of the Regents on June 21, 1946 (p. 418), approval was given to the establishment of the Social Science Surveys Project. The Board changed the name of this project to the Survey Research Center, to be administered under the direction of Dr. Rensis Likert": myumi.ch/J4Wm8

The answer is A. Financial hardship. It has been found that in the years leading up to an Alzheimer’s diagnosis, it is common for those with the disease to experience financial adversity myumi.ch/dAek7

No mincing of words on this issue: Given the skyrocketing demand for senior housing, the sector’s muted construction pipeline has left experts concerned. “The point is that we should have been doing this yesterday,” said Sarah Patterson. www.bisnow.com/national/new...

The most dangerous thing about AI is not that the machines might one day think. It is that we are being trained, by men with enormous financial gains riding on our acquiescence, to stop thinking for ourselves.

Contrast sensitivity is a critical but underused measure of vision, linked to falls and loss of independence in older adults. Using @nhats-nsoc.bsky.social, Shu Yu et al identify a threshold where older adults begin experiencing visual disability—a benchmark for interpreting measures. myumi.ch/NXM3G

UW-Madison Sociology is hiring! We're inviting applications for an assistant professor position in the fields of demography, soc of population, and health, to begin August 2027. Come join @uwsoc.bsky.social and the great @cdeuw.bsky.social! Apply here: jobs.wisc.edu/jobs/assista...

Since the launch of ChatGPT monthly submissions to arXiv have almost doubled to 30k & even if the rejection rate has also doubled since 2023, academia is looking at a fundamental crisis of dealing with AI-fueled texts...

Following #UM #aging scholars on Bluesky through this starter pack from the Michigan Center on the Demography of Aging (MiCDA):

More adults are struggling with laundry, groceries, and other household tasks, and fewer are getting help, with 5% more older adults reporting unmet need for help. NHATS data reveal a growing gap between need and support. Explore the trends at nhats.org/findings

New work from MiCDA @umisr.bsky.social @umichsph.bsky.social affiliate Grace Noppert in Journals of Gerontology Series A, “Widowhood, immune aging, and mortality in older Americans: evidence from the US Health and Retirement Study”: myumi.ch/G7WVM

Yesterday I spoke with WNPR on their Where We Live show about caregiving! Transcript to follow www.ctpublic.org/show/where-w...

DEFINITELY NOT HAUNTED. local redfin posting

In the days of horse-drawn carriages, horses’ hooves often DASHED mud onto passengers in wet weather. To block the mud, people installed wooden BOARDS up front. They called them ‘dashboards.’

The Independence Library has a little station where you can write down and shred your worries.

Thanks to this enjoyable collaboration, we know more about the forces that will drive increases in late-life care gaps by 2040. Contrary to the prevailing narrative, shifts in families are not driving these impending increases. Instead, population growth and aging are responsible. #NHATS #MiCDA

By Jim Benton

We have a hummingbird feeder that has yellow flowers and one that has red. This has become a natural experiment in the yard as I watch which ones go where. The little one that won't sit loves the yellow ones. The one with a long neck loves the red.

"Call me selfish, but I find myself far more concerned with the waste of my own time in these scenarios." This is how I feel about articles I've reviewed that I suspect are AI.

Will the concern on the political right about declining American fertility result in more pro-family economic policy to make childbearing more affordable? Nope. In my new study at @socprobsjournal.bsky.social, I document what I call the "natalism-neoliberalism" paradox. 1/4 doi.org/10.1093/socp...

Thrilled to share our new paper, "What Would Jesus Fund? Christian Nationalism and Americans' Views on Government Spending," just out in Socius! 🧵 journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...

Exciting new research using #NHATS by my colleagues at @um-src.bsky.social

Join the next PDHP Workshop-- a free, half-day learning opportunity on Causal Inference In Observational Studies, with U-M's Michael Elliott. RSVP to attend online or in person June 19 from 9 to 1: pdhp.isr.umich.edu/workshops.

"Both recently and long-term widowed persons are most likely to do ACP. Never-married persons are least likely to have living wills....Parents are more likely to have informal discussions whereas childless persons are more likely to have living wills."

Fellow academics/writers, I come bearing bad news: #AcademicSky #WritingSky #AcWri #AmWriting #GetYourManuscriptOut

As #PrideMonth begins, new data from our National Poll on #HealthyAging focus on two topics related to LGBTQ+ people & aging: 🔵Social connections with LGBTQ+ people by non-LGBTQ+ people age 50+ 🔵Health & social disparities for LGBTQ+ people age 50+ Learn more: michmed.org/eny2q

🔗 This is part of the "Your Tax Dollars At Work" series on federally funded research that sounded ridiculous but generated enormous returns. Full series archive: bioniclab.substack.com/notes #YourTaxDollarsAtWork

I’m not really sure what we are supposed to do in a world where people cannot read. But I’m hoping I’ll be dead before it really takes hold.

In addition to assessing mental health disorder prevalence rates, the surveys collect contextual data surrounding mental health, like the timing and sequencing of symptoms, physical health conditions, the use of mental health services and treatment, or, in many cases, the barriers to seeking care.

How long can parents take leave, and how can they share it? The new EPLP Dataset tracks parenting leave in 21 European countries, 1970-2024, with 33 variables on duration, benefits, flexibility, and incentives for sharing www.demographic-research.org/articles/vol... eplp-dataset.org

The World Mental Health surveys, spanning 35+ countries with WHO, are moving to ISR. Led by William Axinn and Stephanie Chardoul, the effort will expand access to validated data to inform mental health policy and care worldwide. @um-src.bsky.social

A PhD student at Stanford noticed her classmates were asking Al to write their breakup texts. So she ran a study. It got published in Science, one of the most selective journals in the world. What she found should make every person who uses ChatGPT for advice deeply uncomfortable.

Reviewers in two groups were given identical resumes for Emily Clarke and James Clarke and told they had used AI. Emily's was 2x as likely to raise doubts about competence. "She can't even write a CV herself." But James "just needed a bit of help." fortune.com/2026/05/10/i...

1. London Underground station flooding has reportedly been reduced by around 90% thanks to a group of engineers: beavers. After conservationists reintroduced a family of beavers into a nearby city park, the animals built dams and restored wetlands that now absorb and slow floodwater naturally.

Nonprofit community media could help preserve our democracy, but apparently it could also provide a refuge for some of our greatest political satirists…at least temporarily. Stephen Colbert did an entire hour on Monroe, Michigan community TV last night, joined by Jack White: youtu.be/jJTXB5uT_C4