Brown University cut a deal with the Trump administration in July, adopting a slate of anti-DEI policies—and agreeing to send student data to the government—in exchange for funding. I talked to students, faculty, and alumni who argue it was a capitulation and expressed fear. At @flaminghydra.com

TODAY: @davidrussellmoore.bsky.social on Brown University's capitulation to the Trump intimidation campaign. "What I’m noticing is a pervasive feeling of uncertainty and fear around being able to talk about experiences as a trans student." flaminghydra.com/r/e2c91e77?m...

The Sheila Divine is my favorite band of all time. What about Weezer, The Smiths, R.E.M., Deftones, Elliott Smith, Jason Molina, or any number of 90s emo bands? Yes that is true those are also my favorite bands, but The Sheila Divine is nevertheless my favorite band of all time. @flaminghydra.com

TODAY: @lukeoneil47.bsky.social in conversation with Aaron Perrino of the great indie band The Sheila Divine. “I’ve never given in. Even though I should! I just continue to blow up my life every few years. Trying to stay true to being an artist.” flaminghydra.com/r/0c56bc16?m...

Despite everything, people are still throwing extremely cool parties that hardly anyone knows about these photos are superb (as ever from @todseelie.bsky.social)

Underground in the literal or figurative sense? Yes. flaminghydra.com/issue-566/

I went a little bit jazz mode flaminghydra.com/notes-on-not...

Flaming Hydra posts at Bluesky only, because it offers healthy options for human journalists and readers: no-algorithm, follow-only feeds, plus Galactic Block. We can't be hijacked or smothered here. Bluesky is great for @flaminghydra.com and independent journalism flaminghydra.com

HELP THE FLAMING HYDRA WITH YOUR BRAIN

Read Nathan Munn's awesome interview with @charlieangus104.bsky.social at @flaminghydra.com flaminghydra.com/canadas-charlie-angus-defends-democracy/ [now with link!]

TODAY: @ezeger16.bsky.social reads the liner notes. “In another era, the scribes commissioned to write these texts were free to say almost anything they wished, to rhapsodize or historicize or produce a full-blown polemic on the politics of an album.” flaminghydra.com/r/437f7ceb?m...

It’s giving

Yikes who would crawl all the way down there and would they put a hole in their favorite backpack doing it smh

TODAY: @todseelie.bsky.social on the most underground party in the world. “Why would you need a piano in the catacombs, you might ask?” flaminghydra.com/r/b76c192a?m...

my latest piece for @flaminghydra.com is a response to Ryan Coogler's apparent affection for the Coca-Cola Freestyle machine, which i find an affront to the higher ideal of soda that tastes like itself

A very personal review of Stoner for @flaminghydra.com flaminghydra.com/issue-565/

TODAY: @lindseyadler.bsky.social on “Stoner.” “The life depicted here is one part resilience, another part resignation.” flaminghydra.com/r/bcbcc04b?m...

why did no one tell me @flaminghydra.com has the paid full-text RSS feed option, i would have subscribed forever and ever ago

“No one goes to Pilates thinking ‘I’m going to be a fascist today’”

TODAY: @brianhioe.bsky.social on the chilling history of the island of Kinmen. "Our hostel owner pointed to a nearby bomb shelter that had been turned into a memorial after the people there were killed—their remains were kept in the place where they died." flaminghydra.com/r/8ecc731c?m...

🔥 @katewagner.wehwalt.net's new work at @flaminghydra.com left me speechless which is uh rare for me you must read it flaminghydra.com/issue-563/

TODAY: @katewagner.wehwalt.net on lithium. “All I know is that when I woke up that day a remarkable and tender calm settled over me, the way sunlight finds its path in a room without furniture” flaminghydra.com/down-to-earth/

I wrote about the miracle of lithium for @flaminghydra.com flaminghydra.com/down-to-earth/

This is one of the best things Hydra has done. @mkupperman.bsky.social is such a king

Read as thou wilt! This article in the latest @flaminghydra.com by @ilanaslightly.bsky.social is exactly the analysis I needed right now. Let's revisit the radical, nuanced, and hot sexual politics of @jacquelinecarey.bsky.social's superlative Kushiel novels. flaminghydra.com/issue-562/#r...

For @flaminghydra.com, I wrote about my enduring love of Kushiel's Dart and its sequels, @jacquelinecarey.bsky.social's genius, and how readers figure out our own desires and boundaries through works of fiction. flaminghydra.com/read-as-thou...

these books are so amazingly constructed and weird and beautiful and epic and fucking great they are not without issues but my god you could do far far worse

TODAY: @littlewow.online on the Pilates tsunami. “Over the past few years there has been a noticeable and depressing homogenization of workout culture with an increased emphasis on thinness over strength.” flaminghydra.com/r/511eea61?m...

This is so good, includes a cool story about a real trip to the MAD offices

once again the answer to everything you’re mad at in a think piece is to subscribe to worker-owned media outlets, like: @flaminghydra.com @defector.com @weareravenous.com @aftermath.site @gourmetlives.bsky.social @404media.co

A splendid finale for MAD WEEK at @flaminghydra.com from @tomtomorrow.bsky.social, including never-before-seen photographs of William M. Gaines being a supremely nice guy to a fledgling cartoonist flaminghydra.com/issue-561/

this month for flaming hydra i wrote about how writing a novel is an exercise in kayfabe flaminghydra.com/kayfabe-theo...

TODAY: @tomtomorrow.bsky.social with a personal history of MAD magazine and a youth spent “reading back issues and plugging nickels into a mid-1970s photocopier to make poor-quality, barely-legible Xerox copies of my favorite pieces.” flaminghydra.com/r/1eaa49bd?m...

Also ecstatic to see @elongreen.bsky.social (in combat!) in his @flaminghydra.com debut

got something fun and a bit different going up on @flaminghydra.com tomorrow. (a written piece, not a comic!)

TODAY: MAD MAGAZINE week continues! @sarahweinman.com on the saga of parody master Frank Jacobs. “This is the story of how one very upset songwriter, a magazine already used to fending off lawsuits, and an infamous appeals court judge collided.” flaminghydra.com/spoken-in-je...

"I wanted to better understand what sort of experiences could make a man like Al Jaffee[.]"

People of Bluesky, it is MAD Magazine Week over at @flaminghydra.com and I am pleased as punch that my contribution, which runs tonight, is on the singular genius that was Frank Jacobs -- and how that genius got him into hot water that changed American legal history: flaminghydra.com/spoken-in-je...

TODAY: MAD MAGAZINE WEEK continues with Misha Angrist on a truly great parody romance. “At the end, as Wallet strolls pensively through New York in his hideous blazer, he wonders what kind of a tear-jerker movie could make death look so beautiful.” flaminghydra.com/r/376d26a2?m...

FLAME-BROILED JOURNALISM - flaminghydra.com#/portal/signup

DAY TWO OF ***MAD MAGAZINE WEEK*** AT FLAMING HYDRA! NO FREE RIDES!!! SUBSCRIBE TO READ!!! THREE BUCKS A MONTH—CHEAP! flaminghydra.com/mad-magazine...

Today in MAD WEEK at @flaminghydra.com: I attempt a snappy answer to the stupid question of Al Jaffee, the man behind the MAD Fold-In.

TODAY: MAD MAGAZINE WEEK continues with @zachrabiroff.com and a disquisition on Al Jaffee, the inventor of the fold-in. "Dissociation, tragedy, and absurdity were powerful forces in Jaffee’s development, forming the foundation of his life’s work." flaminghydra.com/al-jaffee-un...

Flaming Hydra is a collective of writers and artists (including me) who just want to get paid for our work. It's entirely independent. So the paywall is actually our way of reminding folks to chip in a bit to help people survive as writers. :)

mad week at @flaminghydra.com is extremely my shit

Not yet. But every buck people send to journalist-owned outlets is a real step toward building quality sustainable human media (thank you for supporting!!) If philanthropists want to help journalism they should send money anonymously, there are links here flaminghydra.com/donate/

MAD MAGAZINE WEEK

I loved MAD so much

made it back from the motherland; you’ll be able to read all about my Transylvanian odyssey in @flaminghydra.com soon! 🦇

If @flaminghydra.com nation wants a little more historical context to the usual gang of idiots, I checked out the first ever MAD museum exhibition. fushlugginer pastrami sandwiches all around. www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture...