I'm a Gallup pollster. You can contact them at [email protected] to let them know what you think of this.

guess I have to break out this oldie today

A few days ago, I wrote up some thoughts on generative AI and the work of historians: “At best, we’re talking about software that’s very good at making sentences seem sentence-shaped.”

Invoking wealthy class solidarity to excuse sex crimes against children is sorta the Epstein Class in a nutshell

Pretty excited about a refresh of Religious Ecologies that we have coming soon. Here’s a tiny sneak preview, as a treat.

“Email correspondence obtained by ProPublica shows that government officials were alerted to the presence of PFAS in pants used by wildland firefighters as early as 2021.” Via @abestreep.bsky.social

Win a free copy of my book.

• A doc sued for prescribing a debunked autism therapy • A man who says vaccines are “poisoning children” • A woman boosting autism "treatments" using stem cells from rabbits This is not a QAnon conference line-up, it is the people now guiding US autism research www.wired.com/story/rfk-jr...

“I am not going to tell you my name, not yet at any rate. For one thing it would take a long while: my name is growing all the time, and I've lived a very long, long time; so my name is like a story. Real names tell you the story of things they belong to in my language, in the Old Entish as you..."

Bad Bunny’s performance began in the plantation, featured broken electric poles, and ended by centering a hemispheric understanding of “América”—among many other things—and some Anglo journalists are like “his performance wasn’t political.” This is why we need to be telling our stories.

I want to say a bit more about our initiative to hire scholars to 3yr Research Associate positions. None of us know what the twinning of humanities research support and employment will look like in another 5(?) years. But we do know that we need it. As a matter of social and cultural health. 1/

Currently reading: Bad Mexicans: Race, Empire, and Revolution in the Borderlands by Kelly Lytle Hernández 📚

“I am not going to tell you my name, not yet at any rate. For one thing it would take a long while: my name is growing all the time, and I've lived a very long, long time; so my name is like a story. Real names tell you the story of things they belong to in my language, in the Old Entish as you..."

Scene by scene thread. It’s like halfway done !

King George, 1782:

If you were to run down a list of all the things distinctive about the United States in contrast to Old World Europe, most of it is stuff we instead have in common with Latin America. That's not some woke novelty, it's a deeply embedded centuries-old aspect of our culture and national identity.

The Sermon on the Mount, by Beryl Lewis, before 1965, 📸 by @ScottStrazzante

bad bunny already has more yards than the patriots

no one can watch these commercials and conclude america is having a good time rn

As a one time resident of the Bay Area, I find the Golden Gate imagery humorous. I guess the 101 cutting through Santa Clara doesn’t evoke “California.”

Many folks are reflecting on Prince’s extraordinary halftime performance, the best ever. What you may not know is that it was a profound, nuanced statement and a powerful reclaiming of a proud musical tradition. Some background: anildash.com/2021/02/05/h...

No Kings includes Draft Kings

I react the same way to domains, Emma.

ah, that Claude commercial was a throw-down

some real Valtteri Bottas energy

Currently reading: Rightful Heritage: Franklin D. Roosevelt and the Land of America by Douglas Brinkley 📚

Finished reading: What We Can Know by Ian McEwan 📚

20% of the students at Justice Page Middle School in SW Minneapolis are attending remotely b/c they're terrified to leave their homes. Their families can't work & rent is past due. Parents at Justice Page are trying to raise 100k to cover the needs of 50+ families — can we raise 10k of it? ⬇️⬇️⬇️

I vibe-coded a script to use the Claude API to transcribe historical documents. It seems to do a decently good job capturing what I want (the transcription, but also people, places, dates, and organizations).

Playing the grinch at the 250th. washingtonmonthly.com/2026/02/05/p...

Sent out two writing pitches today. Fingers crossed.

Hey there! If you are — or know of any great companies that are — hiring in the engineering/AI/product space … Would you say hi? I’d appreciate it!

Washington Post is shuttering its book section, part of the ongoing war against literacy & knowledge. We at Current Affairs want to pick up the slack by expanding book reviews. Writers: pitch us anytime! And if you subscribe/donate we'll use the funding to commission book coverage.

Finished reading: The Unsettling of America by Wendell Berry 📚

don't worry, i'm sure once they've finished intentionally crippling our ability to discover and tell each other what they're doing, they'll be satisfied and will stop there

It’s been a good couple of years for western synthesis: Elliott West’s Continental Reckonings, Paul’s book below, and @mkn.bsky.social’s forthcoming book.

Currently reading: What We Can Know by Ian McEwan 📚

This is who runs this account

If any book review editors want a review essay putting these three books in conversation (once @mkn.bsky.social’s comes out), hit me up.

It’s been a good couple of years for western synthesis: Elliott West’s Continental Reckonings, Paul’s book below, and @mkn.bsky.social’s forthcoming book.

Finished reading: The Undiscovered Country by Paul Andrew Hutton 📚

exasperation “chickens, amirite? —9yo

Finished reading: Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtry 📚

Thousands of people filled the streets of downtown Minneapolis in protest of federal immigration enforcement for the second consecutive Friday. 📷️: Aaron Lavinsky

Lovely essay on RSS: “Every interface is an argument about how you should feel.”

recorded a Windows 95 full disk defrag to soothe your timeline.

I wrote this song on Saturday, recorded it yesterday and released it to you today in response to the state terror being visited on the city of Minneapolis. It’s dedicated to the people of Minneapolis, our innocent immigrant neighbors and in memory of Alex Pretti and Renee Good. Stay free

Important words from the Bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Minnesota, where I served as a priest before moving to Texas. ⚓️

I called yesterday and will call again today. If you’re new to it, 5calls.org has got your back.

down with tiktok, long live text based microblogging for aging millennials