There is an escape room located right across from the Oakland city jail and honestly, that’s some genius level marketing.

Just paid $80 for a tank of gas. I went through cancer for this?

kinda feel like “woe to those who are weak on crime” wasn’t in the beatitudes.

If you've got a friend going through cancer, as well meaning as you might be, cooking for them without first asking what they can actually eat is a mistake. A lot of food tastes like shit and sawdust during chemo. Send along a gift card instead. Or just say hello. Source: I went through chemo.

Berkeley gonna Berkeley

Since November I've visited a dozen or so churches of varying denominations, trying to find one that doesn't smother newcomers but doesn't completely ignore us either. This... has not happened. substack.com/home/post/p-...

Honestly I'm more insulted being called "prof" than being called dumb or dangerous. I'm a senior lecturer!

A question i've been thinking about a lot lately, and couldn't think of a better person than kaya to tackle it: what would repentance look like for trump supporters?

The only thing more Oakland than Alyssa Liu mouthing "that's what I'm fucking talking about" at the camera would be skating a routine to Mac Dre and ghostriding the whip in the Olympic Village parking lot.

Thanks @tylerhuckabee.bsky.social and @sojo.net for asking me to write about how the MAGA movement might learn something about repentance during Lent. sojo.net/articles/opi...

This essay from last year seemed to be helpful to quite a few people, so, here it is again. kayaoakes.substack.com/p/against-am...

"The age of gilded journalism was mostly smoke and mirrors, a magic show with no one behind the curtain." @kayaoakes.bsky.social recommends books on the ghosts of media past: www.commonwealmagazine.org/ghosts-media...

Thanks to the editors at @commonweal.bsky.social for asking me to be part of this year's Christmas Critics edition. This essay wound up being a Gen X anthem about the death of the gilded age of journalism. www.commonwealmagazine.org/ghosts-media...

UC Berkeley has its 71st Nobel Laureate, this year in Physics. But did you know we have Nobel Laureate bicycle parking, and that David Card, 2021 Nobel in Economics, apparently actually uses it? news.berkeley.edu/2016/06/16/n...

For @ncronline.bsky.social, I reviewed @philipchristman.bsky.social's new book, which gave me the opportunity to dunk. "When you choose a politics, you can choose one that covets power or one that sees power as something to be shared. It really is that simple." www.ncronline.org/culture/new-...

💚 💛 Ballers fam, @MayorBarbaraLee just announced that we're going to keep the party going! 🎉 See you there! 🍾

OAKLAND WE DID IT!!!! 🏆

If you've been thinking of reading Elizabeth Gilbert's new memoir, please read this first, by @kayaoakes.bsky.social. And even if you don't care one bit about Gilbert, this is an excellent, helpful read about cancer, love, ego, and so much else. open.substack.com/pub/kayaoake...

What does a writer “who lives every day with cancer looming in the background like one of those giant Halloween skeletons” think about what’s she’s seen of the latest Elizabeth Gilbert memoir and the discourse around it? You should really read @kayaoakes.bsky.social, and not just to find that out.

This piece by @kayaoakes.bsky.social is really good. I recommend reading it. kayaoakes.substack.com/p/not-your-i...?

UC Berkeley asks us to provide headshots for the department website and I hate the way I look in photos, so this year I uploaded this instead.

It's true: my post cancer treatment, mid career shift that absolutely nobody predicted is that I decided to write about sports. Once, anyway! Go Ballers.

Still alive! Still writing! I have an essay in this month's issue of @commonweal.bsky.social as part of a symposium on Christian Smith's new book and religious obsolescence. Thanks to the editors for asking me to pitch in.

Someone somewhere referred to Bluesky as "Rachel Maddow's comment section" and, well, that is very accurate.

I'm back -- maybe just temporarily? -- because @sojo.net asked me to write about Pope Francis, and I wanted to share it with you. sojo.net/articles/opi...

Join me on Feb 12 for 𝐁𝐥𝐚𝐜𝐤 𝐂𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐭𝐫𝐲 𝐁𝐞𝐟𝐨𝐫𝐞 𝐁𝐞𝐲𝐨𝐧𝐜𝐞́: 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐒𝐞𝐜𝐫𝐞𝐭 𝐇𝐢𝐬𝐭𝐨𝐫𝐲 𝐨𝐟 𝐀𝐟𝐫𝐢𝐜𝐚𝐧-𝐀𝐦𝐞𝐫𝐢𝐜𝐚𝐧𝐬 𝐢𝐧 𝐂𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐭𝐫𝐲 𝐌𝐮𝐬𝐢𝐜, a humorous, highly immersive, and historically accurate talk that uncovers the African-American roots of Country, Folk, and Americana music. Learn more: www.facebook.com/events/40597...

Google spent billions of dollars on this shit.

Mandatory reading: @kayaoakes.bsky.social and on Substack: open.substack.com/pub/kayaoake...

we are entering a golden age of people being so open-minded their brains leak out

I have questions

Tell an artist/writer/podcaster/maker that what they’re doing matters to you. They want to hear it. Making shit is lonely work most of the time and it helps to know that the circuit is being completed somewhere.

A huge barred owl flew down a Virginia family’s chimney, knocked over the star on top of their Christmas tree, and perched himself on top www.wusa9.com/article/life...

The most effective editing move is still the one I stole from George Saunders: read your draft over and over and over again, out loud, until you have to fix the bad parts because you will literally die if you have to read them more time

Paying NYU prices and leaving there dumb as hell is definitely a decision

Periodic editor's reminder to use "TK" for your placeholder copy, because it's easier to catch at a glance than whatever your gentile social media producer might use instead

Hey everyebodye Ich came up wyth a new slogan: Funde the fuckinge humanityes

Oh hi, Bluesky! I'll be leading 4 Sacred Writes public scholarship trainings for scholars of religion, gender, and sexuality, online in 2025, apply now for the January intensive!

Nobody wants a student essay as a product; we want students to learn to compose their thoughts in written form as a process. I mean, would you have a machine run your laps or play your scales for you? In which case we would not say you had run or played.

This was a great conversation. Thanks @therevealer.bsky.social for having me.

Alright we had a bunch of followers on the other website and we know we've got more listeners out there. Help us get the word out! Are you into Christianity and socialism? Cool interviews with weird theologians? Occasional content about medieval bones? Have we got a show for you!

We are working to welcome as many newcomers as we can in the next couple of months in anticipation of the new administration putting significant restrictions on refugee arrivals. Your generosity this Giving Tuesday makes it possible for us to do this with care. cwsnorcal.org/donate/

My little book on the limits of forgiveness is in UC Berkeley’s holiday gift guide alongside Judith Butler, john powell and many others with towering intellects so my holiday gift is imposter syndrome. news.berkeley.edu/2024/12/03/h...

Holy crap WaPo assigned me a review of Gore’s book, which I wrote in good faith and with an open mind, and was edited in good faith with minimal interference by the assigning editor…and then an executive editor at WaPo turned around and trashed it on another site??

We remember those we lost. We commit to building a better world for those still here. We proclaim that the inherent goodness of transgender people. We interrupt any actions or ideologies which diminish our worth. #TDOR #TDOR2024

Māori MPs briefly suspended the Aotearoa parliament’s attempts to reinterpret their founding treaty in the most bad ass use of the Haka I’ve ever seen.

Wake up, babe, new investigative reporting role model just dropped.

! Get @kayaoakes.bsky.social new book!

I haven’t been here much lately but I know @theradr.bsky.social is, so here’s a shoutout from Not So Sorry, which arrives on July 30.