Daughter Kelly on a trail near her home in Colorado with her youngest, Saul, and her guitar on her back during an end-of-school-year day trip for her Saplings outdoor learning group (kindergarten to eighth grade). Just look at the joy, strength, and agency in this photo. Her passion is immense. ✨

Keeping up with the news is an act of resistance.

Pope Leo on the proliferation of AI: "So-called artificial intelligences do not undergo experiences, do not possess a body, do not feel joy or pain, do not mature through relationships and do not know from within what love, work, friendship or responsibility mean." www.ncronline.org/vatican/pope...

Artificial Intelligence is not necessary or good for the creative process. We humans already know how to create. Season 5, Episode 6 of "Hacks" has a lot to say about AI. Brava to Jean Smart and Hannah Einbinder. www.instagram.com/reel/DYS1XYM...

"Yes, they took one of the bravest voices we had off the air. But Stephen Colbert spent the last ten months proving something incredibly important: you can take away someone’s platform and still fail to take away their voice." open.substack.com/pub/heatherd...

It is up to the next generation now. Maybe it always was. open.substack.com/pub/robertre...

The United States government just agreed to pay $1.8 billion to the United States president, approved by the president's own personal lawyer who represented him when he was convicted of 34 criminal counts. This is the biggest scandal in all of American political history.

Another big loss for the Portland arts community. Love to all who knew Brian, who love @cherylstrayed.bsky.social, and who miss Steve Arndt. 💚 nancytownsley.substack.com/p/under-the-...

🎯

So proud of my friend @lmelina.bsky.social and excited for her upcoming (and already award-winning) novel! loismelina.wordpress.com/2026/05/16/t...

They seem nice.

Feeling overwhelmed with all of this. LISTEN. Another Louisiana resident (Marshawn is the only name we have) testifies against the state’s racial gerrymander, speaking truth to power up and down the hearing room and predicts how this story will end. Speak your truth, fight and believe.

Well, this is super cool in a not-expected-but-thoroughly-appreciated kind of way. On a whim a month ago, I sent @agawande.bsky.social a card via snail mail inviting him to join me at a book event after my new novel comes out next year, and today he emailed me this response. Very kind of him!

Even worse, people repeat this kind of stupid stuff on SM.

Excited to participate in this event Friday morning at U of O in Eugene, Oregon. Our panel is called "First Things First: The Role of Regional Journalism in Civic Participation." I'm reading Margaret Sullivan's book GHOSTING THE NEWS: LOCAL JOURNALISM AND THE CRISIS OF AMERICAN DEMOCRACY to prepare.

If I grow up I want to write this well www.nytimes.com/2026/04/27/b...

Almost time for this important House Oversight field hearing on the Epstein Files with a critical focus on the survivors who continue to demand justice and accountability.

This novel from my friend @lmelina.bsky.social is going to be fabulous! And she won the @wapress.bsky.social 2026 Book Award in Fiction! Congratulations, Lois. 🧡

I wasn't nearly as close to my mom as I was to my dad. Culturally, this phenomenon might seem out of whack, but IRL it's probably pretty common. I miss the Mother's Day cards dad used to send in the mail. 🩷

Two whole years without you, Dad. I miss you every day. 💚 open.substack.com/pub/nancytow...

Congrats to Julie K. Brown! She was awarded a #Pulitzer Prize special citation today for her groundbreaking reporting in 2017 & 2018 for the Miami Herald exposing Jeffrey Epstein's systematic abuse of young women and the justice system & powerful network of associates that protected him for years.

Rude for Iran to be firing missiles after 37 truth social posts about how they’ve been defeated. It’s like they didn’t even read them.

Which is the backwards country now, United States?

I see Owlanis as a baby cousin to Artemus in my new novel.

Please watch. It's excellent and convicting. I learned a lot.

"I wish multi-generational families lived together, that our culture cared more about caregiving, that our lives were measured by the sacrifices we make for love." The Good Question: Maybe there's something we can do to care for our elders that's better than this. open.substack.com/pub/heidilas...

i was among a number of people who spent 2hours today sitting with two teenage girls as they spoke with breathtaking lucidity about their anguish at the loss of their father. at so many moments i yearned to try to offer some comforting words, but i held back, because they understood their own pain.

The face of someone who’s devoted their life to service, science and space exploration needing to listen to some draft-dodging, out-of-shape bozo brag that he easily could’ve been an astronaut.

Illuminating the long-verboten theme of family disaffection and challenging the expectation that it always result in reconciliation, NO CONTACT: WRITERS ON ESTRANGEMENT is out this week from @jennybartoy.bsky.social and @catapultbooks.bsky.social. Bonus: @cherylstrayed.bsky.social is a contributor.

A President with his lowest approval ratings ever attends an annual high profile dinner he has boycotted for years where an assassination attempt happens. He is prepared to deliver press comments 30 minutes after the shooting where he speaks of uniting the country. Hmmmm....

Anyway. I’m glad nobody was hurt and I’m sure the journalists who attended the WHCD will not center themselves and their personal experiences and instead remain focused on holding the powerful accountable and informing the people about their government.

"Our tribalism protects their impunity." Important if you want to understand why the Epstein elite seem to be getting away with their crimes. open.substack.com/pub/anandwri...

Though I sniff and sneeze and my eyes water too, I wish to be partial to peonies and to kiss every asphodel. Such a wondrous poem to read first thing on this clear blue-sky morning! open.substack.com/pub/unleashl...

Hope isn’t blind optimism — it arises in the face of uncertainty. If you look at our history, we’ve gone through some rough patches. But we tend to come out on the other side of them stronger than before.

Excellent point on the redistricting drama. Republicans gerrymander, Democrats punch back, and the media talks about how Dems are *so mean* for sticking up for themselves.

For the record: The Washington Post can go fuck itself. Support pro-democracy media that doesn't have its head stuck up Donald Trump's ass. bit.ly/4qmEiFz

Happy Earth Day! 🌎 Today my journalist novel 📚 has been in the world for a whole year! Eliza asks that you celebrate SUNSHINE GIRL with a cupcake, a party hat 🥳 and a trip to your favorite local bookseller (or two or three) on Independent Bookstore Day this Saturday, April 25!

Trump called every reporter in the observable universe, who all dutifully repeated his updates about Iran, and all those updates have fallen apart in fewer than 36 hours. How long will legacy media keep doing this?

Hip-hip-hooray to a small, gutsy indie press in New York! In a let's-do-this-thing-again mutual appreciation and trust pact, Heliotrope Books and publisher Naomi Rosenblatt have said yes to my second novel. I’m stoked to announce that CARSON McCLINTOCK IS NOT DEAD YET is forthcoming in May 2027!

Morning musings on life, death, self-determination, book publishing, and Harry Truman. (Also @agawande.bsky.social). open.substack.com/pub/nancytow...

"I’m moved by Pope Leo’s consistent message of peace, and his stalwart courage in standing up to Donald Trump’s abusive rhetoric and lunatic behavior." @sulliview.bsky.social

A great way to start a Saturday morning. 😅

Congrats on “opening” a strait that was open six weeks ago, and all it cost was at least 13 dead service members, thousands of dead Iranian civilians, tens of billions in taxpayer dollars, our loss in global standing, and the Iranian regime’s increase in power. Phenomenal work.

seeing these pics from the deserted JD Vance event last night, I'm glad to say this man finally understands what it's really like to be an author on a book tour

Right? "Stay in your own lane, Holy Father." Sure, dude. Sure.

Hillary Clinton was right about everything. Kamala Harris was right about everything. Both would’ve been incredible Presidents and I remain proud AF to have cast my vote for them.

The victory of the opposition in Hungary yesterday, like the Polish election in 2023, is a victory for democracy, not just in Europe but around the world.

This is how Bruce Springsteen opened his concert in Los Angeles last night. 🔥🔥 Footage from @margaret_nagle on Threads.

Thanks to Melania, some big Streisand Effect energy going on now putting the Epstein Files smack-dab back in the center of the news