I am one white person who needed to hear this - and am grateful for it. In case you're like me...

Good title and great quote: "Success requires leaning into the power of a shared social identity. ... Sometimes it means leaning into an “us vs. them” mentality, but more often it means building solidarity within a group while also expanding the sense of who “we” are." tinyurl.com/4ujerece

Social media has been implicated as a divisive global force — though scholars debate how much blame it really deserves. But a new review of 30 empirical studies finds it can also be used to reduce distrust and animosity across divides. scholarspace.manoa.hawaii.edu/server/api/c...

Another data point on why it's always a good idea to pause and wait for the full story. Headline last night: Man Shot in Chest in Midtown Manhattan, Police Looking for Suspect. Headline this morning... abc7ny.com/post/police-...

A reminder that Covid is not the only thing we should be testing - and staying home - for. 3,500 New Yorkers were hospitalized with the flu last week they counted - compared to 450 with Covid. And it doesn't look like we've hit the peak.

I don't know how I missed this special issue on "Connective Democracy" and social media. Some great work thinking about how social media divides - and can be designed to connect us even when we deeply disagree. journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10....

I'm not saying that the latest BEA report on GDP shouldn't be trusted. But I am surprised that no one is saying that, given what happened at BLS and the fact that even the most well intended bureaucrats respond to incentives, perhaps they shouldn't entirely be? www.reuters.com/world/us/for...

Great - actionable - research from @engagingnews.bsky.social

An interesting reflection on what we get right and wrong in predicting the impact of technology. A newly published 1960s story from Tolkien imagined the pollution from cars would destroy humanity. That didn't happen; humans & regulation reined in that risk... lareviewofbooks.org/article/isen...

New on the blog: a conversation with Sabhanaz Rashid Diya asks, whose values are baked into “prosocial” tech design? From content moderation to the limits of exporting the DSA, it looks at why global defaults keep failing the Global Majority. www.prosocialdesign.org/blog/prosoci...

Important research question - Can we change ranking algorithms for better societal outcomes? - independently tested in the field. So much to love about this study.

When people complain about NYC - its crime & homelessness, its smell - I try to explain what a country club it is compared to the New York I grew up in in the 70s. From now on I'm going to urge them to watch this. It's not out yet, but from the trailer it nails it. www.youtube.com/watch?v=VZ94...

For any who think about both online child safety and polarization in the U.S. This report from More in Common shows strong cross-partisan support for digital protections - and suggests that it's an issue that help bridge divides. moreincommonus.com/publication/...

Any chances Cuomo had of winning today have got to be shot by the ballot design. Only determined Cuomo voters are going to put the work in to find his name in a sea of independents and may be forgiven for getting confused when they they think he's running on the Protect Animals ticket w/ Silwa.

Food banks are prepping for a surge in demand. Good time to donate to your local one. Here's NYC's: give.foodbanknyc.org/campaign/675...

Another RCT showing that, yes, conversations across division make a difference. link.springer.com/article/10.1...

America's cowboys are beginning to catch on... “The National Cattlemen’s Beef Association and its members cannot stand behind the President while he undercuts the future of family farmers and ranchers by importing Argentinian beef in an attempt to influence prices." www.ncba.org/news-media/n...

Morning thoughts, as I contemplate the longevity of my laptop: If we think about the possibility of AI "taking over", don't we have to consider the reality that the chips & computer hardware its build on is subject to decay?...

Thoughtful piece from Fukuyama on the unique role the internet has played in the global rise of populism - after a decade, he admits, of discounting that role. www.persuasion.community/p/its-the-in...

Few surprises here: 7/10 of the safest states are Blue. 8/10 of the least safe state are Red - including Florida (47) and Texas (48) wallethub.com/edu/safest-s...

13% of Americans now think polarization is our most important problem, while 15% of Americans think our most important problem is either Republicans or Democrats. We're divided about why we're divided.

AI says it wants to be our friend. New Yorkers aren't having it.

Is this the most under-reported terrifying US security story ever? They've now discovered 300,000 SIM cards stashed across several otherwise empty apartments in and around NYC - enough to easily bring NYC communications to a halt - and they have no clue who's behind it. abc7ny.com/post/thwarte...

More Trump voters realizing immigrants aren't the problem, but the solution... “The whole thing is screwed up,” said John Painter, a three-time Trump voter who runs an organic dairy farm in Westfield. “We need people to do the jobs Americans are too spoiled to do.”

Years ago, when I lead a talk series in NYC had tons of conversations with folks with extremely strong political views. I remember thinking how - regardless of whether they were from the left or right - they all seemed eerily similar. Maybe this explains in part why. www.apa.org/pubs/journal...

@robgeorge.bsky.social, How is it this is not your tweet (or whatever these things are called)?

Folks are gonna say today's Bklyn shootings are evidence of spiking crime. Not NYPD Commish Tisch: "We have the lowest number of shooting incidents and shooting victims seven months into the year we’ve seen on record in the city of New York. Something like this is, of course, thank god, an anomaly.”

1,500 people were paired for 30 min conversations with strangers - across age, race, and politics - with no guidelines. People generally felt better after the conservation from before. Few blew out. Cool study. Cooler visualization. Very worth taking a stroll... pudding.cool/2025/06/hell...

Interesting dive into the thought processes of Brazilian journalists and their decisions to print - or not to print - when it comes polarizing stories. I suspect American journalists are not far off. academic.oup.com/poq/advance-...

My local station - WNYC - will be fine (its 3% loss in federal funding will be covered by New Yorkers in less than 24 hours, my guess is). So what's the best way for me to increase my support for public radio (i.e. find the stations most in need)?

I recently read an article about how surrogacy should be legal but better regulated. I have a feeling this case will make regulation come a little faster. apnews.com/article/cali...

An example of where GenAI gets it wrong. There's been so much written about the use of Ranked Choice Voting in the NYC *primaries*, GenAI's modeling imagines the general election uses RCV too. It does not.

3% of Americans are satisfied with the release of info on the Epstein files. I don't think I've seen 3% on any poll. Ever. You can usually count on inattention or error to get you to at least 7% (which is, btw, how many Republicans are satisfied). Astounding. www.cnn.com/2025/07/15/p...

Word on the street. Humanity is fighting back.

What's more New York than subway "showtime" dancers? How about a piece on how the new subway car designs are forcing them to adapt their routines? (With cool factoids about how much they earn and how they manage cops.) gothamist.com/news/nyc-sho...

Is it just me or does this article feel like it was written by ChatGPT (i.e. somewhat hallucinatory, telling us what we want to hear, and possibly leading us to paranoid delusions)? futurism.com/commitment-j...

I <3 Brad Lander, a true New Yorker. This is what NYC is about.

Of the many telling things from Mamdani's win yesterday is how much the Bronx and Brooklyn have diverged politically, with Brooklyn Dems (predictably) backing Mamdani over Cuomo 49% to 32%, but the Bronx swinging in the other direction, 34% to 53%. www.nytimes.com/interactive/...

GWB at least had the decency to take seven months to drag us into a senseless war. DJT took seven days.

"American politics has often been an arena for angry minds. In recent years we have seen angry minds at work mainly among extreme right-wingers, who have now demonstrated ... how much political leverage can be got out of the animosities and passions of a small minority." Remarkably 60 yrs old.

We are pleased to announce the launch of the new Civility Analyzer module in @Communalytic.org. The module offers researchers an accessible, data-driven approach to studying both prosocial and harmful behaviours across various social media platforms. socialmedialab.ca/2025/06/17/c...

Was yesterday a peak in political violence in recent decades? In addition to the targeted killings in Minnesota, by my count there may have been as many as three attacks against (peaceful) protesters: one shooting (SLC, Utah) and two motor vehicle attacks (SF & Culpeper, VA).

Just learned about Flouriship. Haven't tried it yet, but given one of its founders is the wonderful Xuan Zhao (not on Bsky), I am thrilled to see a great - and much needed - use of AI in action. www.myflourish.ai

Research 4 Impact has a new look and website. If you don't yet know them: it's one of the best efforts (I know of) to connect academics and practitioners to conduct collaborative research. Grateful for them - and to see them thrive. r4impact.org

More evidence we are not the only species with language. scitechdaily.com/new-research...

Another cool project from the Polarization Research Lab, this one rating the political slant of LLMs using Republican and Democrat (human) raters. TLDR: Google and Mistral for the win. Meta and OpenAI not so much. modelslant.com

This is surprising. I had assumed Trump's weakening approval pols came mostly from folks in the middle who swung for Trump but now have buyer's remorse - and that the MAGA base was still holding strong. But that looks like that's not the case: datawrapper.dwcdn.net/qFwHs/3/

Respect to our NJ neighbors for being the most internationally-traveled. Nearly 80% have passports. (!!) MA, CA & NY are in a close race for 2nd place at around 72%. www.axios.com/2025/05/06/t...

It's almost a truism that incivility on social media a) breeds incivility, b) chills engagement and c) increases inter-group animosity, but this might be the strongest experimental evidence that's reallythe case. osf.io/preprints/os...

Mods at a subReddit are (rightfully) not happy about how a study was conducted. It's a good time to remember that research ethics mean not just avoiding harm to individuals but to communities. citizensandtech.org/2022/03/trus...