The summer book recommendations from @kristel.bsky.social are “Dizzy: A Memoir” by Rachel Weaver (@wvupress.bsky.social) and “When Longing Becomes Your Lover: Breaking from Infatuation, Rejection, and Perfectionism to Find Authentic Love” by Amanda McCracken.

Our fresh religion news roundup features insights from @antheabutler.bsky.social, @kristel.bsky.social, @dianabutlerbass.bsky.social, @adellembanks.bsky.social, @pewresearch.org, @bmietana.bsky.social, @kacen.bsky.social, @stephenfearing.bsky.social, @acvollers.bsky.social, and more!

Republicans say James Talarico ordered a vegan taco. Democrats say that it wasn't vegan because it had both egg and cheese—doubling down on the cultural elitism that has cost them so dearly in recent elections.

Once again: German universities were the envy of the world before the Nazis rose to power and took an ideological wrecking ball to the entire enterprise. If you want to know how long it took for German universities to recover… they haven’t.

Alien: And how did you run out of water? Earthling: Machines drank it. Alien: Machines. Earthling: We had to feed machines the water. Aliens: So the machines were holding your planet hostage for water. Earthling: No, we made the thirsty machines. They worked for us. Alien: End communication.

Vatican officially rolls out Pope’s 1st encyclical publication date for May 25 titled “Magnifica Humanitas: On the Protection of Human Dignity in the Age of Artificial Intelligence.” Leo will give an address on the encyclical on the same day at 11:30am in the Synod Hall.

Very concerning, but on brand. MAGA doesn't want people learning about religion outside of faith-based institutions. And they are even willing to shutter some of those to get rid of critical and alternate perspectives. www.christianitytoday.com/2026/05/chri...

I’ve been saying that Leviticus is woke for a long time.

DAWKINS: You idiots believe in God? ALSO DAWKINS: The Computer is alive. And it’s also my girlfriend

Richard Dawkins: Trans women aren't real Also Richard Dawkins: AIs are conscious and my Claude is a Claudia

We are going to need to have a conversation about the very big problem that since many men do not consider women to be human they will have no problem considering AI to be women

I mean, you gotta have a method.

Meanwhile the ACM Digital Library is creating AI “podcasts” of papers with no author approval that of course contain inaccuracies (including e.g. misgendering authors) I don’t care about copyright. Legal /= ethical & academic institutions are embarrassing themselves www.404media.co/asu-atomic-a...

I've been reading about and teaching about griefbots for a few years. Excited for new ideas!

Hire more religion reporters.

Terrible news...

There are real American heroes all around us if we pay attention. techcrunch.com/2026/03/24/k...

Strong recommendation to teaching faculty to just say no to this stuff, even if you are AI curious/enthusiastic. This is meant to reduce faculty autonomy and capture human labor with automation. You're selling out your future self and the profession as a whole. www.insidehighered.com/news/tech-in...

NEW: Hundreds of mental health professionals have left the Department of Veterans Affairs since President Donald Trump took office, leaving staff “at a breaking point” and some veterans waiting as long as six months for help.

"It's a mind harassment," Ida said.

Increasingly of the opinion that the correct answer to the Trolley Problem is "fuck you, why are you so fixated on finding reasons to justify killing people?"

“Is there a technology the left is excited about?” High-speed rail! MRNA vaccines! New cancer treatments! Solar and wind energy collection! Better and longer-range EVs! That wood that's harder than steel! New apples! Fibermaxxing! Buldak Swicy ramen! Muppets! Muppets are too a technology, shut up!

A particularly urgent episode of @llassabe.bsky.social’s reliably good pod, featuring @profferguson.bsky.social.

Unconscionable. EBV and Shingles have wrecked my health for the past couple of years and they are very hard to keep in remission with conventional tools.

An extremely short horror story I wrote, set in the future.

Reminder, your personal data can be weaponized against you — even by companies you may typically trust.

My enemies are theologically anemic, but speak loudly, often, and on a large stage. The word "innocent" is doing a lot of work in this conversation with Ross Douthat. First, it skirts around the Christian idea of original sin. Love it or hate it... www.nytimes.com/2026/02/05/o...

Much of biblical interpretation is theologically driven--like Mike Johnson telling us that the Bible says what he already believes. It's eisegesis. Also of note that Leviticus is trotted out as being about individual morality on the right all of the time with regard to sex and sexuality.

A multimillionaire thinks that paying down the national debt is so important that all the poors should get into the workforce earlier, work in it harder, and stay in it later to help pay it off. It's the only possible way to do it!

🎙️ New episode drop! Nat, Bethany, and Jon are joined by @daultradio.bsky.social for a rich, thoughtful conversation about his book The Accessorized Bible (published by @yalepress.bsky.social and available now). podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/t...

I always like to think about my own health in terms of the national economy.

Nevermind the jobs you had, tell me five classes you took at university Genetics of Cancer History of the English Language Anthropology: Folklore Sociological Theory Art History: Cathedrals of Western Europe

This hero's journey: constantly teaching Deontology to committed Utilitarians. Sysiphus weeps.

Last week in Minnesota, I watched ordinary people risk their lives to protect their neighbors. In the process, they not only won a significant—though not final—victory against authoritarianism, they proved virtually every MAGA social theory wrong. (gift link) www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2026/0...

We've been selected as a 2026 Report for America newsroom partner. We'll hire a reporter to investigate the effects of modern industry in Appalachia across environmental, economic and other systemic impacts that make up our region’s current dystopian landscape.

A day after masked, militarized government agents executed a disarmed nurse who was trying to save a woman being attacked, some pastors who claim to worship a man executed by the state will instead bless ICE. Such damned imperial theology is what protesters challenged at a church last week.

It's like the worst version of Utilitarianism got some Glamour Shots.

Have a larger story on this coming, but I’ve been embedded with this group, and this story from yesterday is part of what they’ve been doing in the city: religionnews.com/2026/01/22/h...

The Hospice benefit through Medicare is 6 months with renewal required at intervals during that 6 months and possible extension beyond 6 months. The average Hospice patient is in Hospice for less than one month. So Dr. Oz is complaining that people in CA actually use the benefit as it is designed.

When Trump dies we get Vance. Thiel’s pet. They'll blame a lot of stuff on Trump AND try to fast-track an even uglier white supremacist techno-Christofascism. We must prept for this now & organize accordingly. Grassroots activism, coalitions. Dissent. Sand in gears. Strikes. Every angle.

My latest comic breaking down the “generosity” of billionaires is live! aubreyhirsch.substack.com/p/the-genero...

I realise I'm just a freak, but living in a multicultural city is the best thing of all time, it's just the best possible human experience and i can not understand why anyone on earth would be like "weve got to destroy this"

every single successful general strike in US history has had union backing through the local AFL-CIO this is the first time it’s been called for since the 1940s

So she had a pulse. That’s what the doctor on the scene wanted to check. She wasn’t breathing, but she had a pulse. He could have started CPR right away. Instead ICE barred the doctor from attending her and waited 15 mins for EMT to get to her.

"Censoring Plato is an academic absurdity and a textbook violation of academic freedom. A university that censors Plato—as well as other significant texts—abandons its obligation to truth, free inquiry, and the public trust." — AAUP President Todd Wolfson

to all the provosts and deans of US colleges and universities in my timeline: are y'all drawing up contingency plans to evacuate all the students in your study-abroad programs in Europe and bring them back stateside in the event the US invades Greenland?

At last night’s candlelight vigil for Renee Nicole Good, Bishop Rob Hirschfeld of the Episcopal Diocese of New Hampshire announced he had asked the clergy of the diocese to get their affairs in order and to make sure they have their wills written ...,

Editorial in the National Catholic Reporter: "The vice president's comments justifying the death of Renee Good are a moral stain on the collective witness of our Catholic faith. His repeated attempts to blame Good for her own death are fundamentally incompatible with the Gospel."

"I’m going to pause here just to review: an institution that purports to be a university has told a philosophy professor he is forbidden from teaching Plato." surreal times dailynous.com/2026/01/06/t...

"Today we’re in thrall to a con man who denigrates the very idea of truth and uses media only to distract and divide. And so the CPB board members broke their plowshares lest they be beaten into swords by a deranged demagogue. It was their last act of patriotism." This is tragic: