I interviewed ferociously brilliant filmmaker Mira Nair, a.k.a Zohran Mamdani’s mother, about how her voice and vision have shaped a man who sees a better way forward for all of us. SPOILER ALERT: Love matters. www.harpersbazaar.com/culture/feat...

My friend @mirajacob.bsky.social takes us all to therapy and I can say I got a lot out of it: mailchi.mp/eed8f2d5e619...

THE MAN IN THE BANANA TREES is a finalist for the @penamerica.bsky.social / Robert W. Bingham Prize for Debut Short Story Collection. Thank you to the judges and congrats to all the other finalists and their awesome collections!

Eid Mubarak from me to you 🌙

Letting this piece of writing from Kaveh Akbar (via @mirajacob.bsky.social on IG) wash over and through me. What is your answer this weekend? www.thenation.com/article/acti...

If you accept that non-citizens have no right to due process, you are accepting that citizens have no right to due process. All the government has to do is claim that you are not a citizen; without due process you have no chance to prove the contrary.

Circling back on this…

Join us to celebrate 100 years of of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s masterpiece, The Great Gatsby. Authors and admirers @egangoonsquad.bsky.social, @mirajacob.bsky.social, @minjinlee.bsky.social, Wesley Morris, and Ernesto Quiñonez will take the stage. In-person and livestream tix available! bit.ly/4bH094Y

The second story on this Selected Shorts episode is performed by Rita Wolf. In “Death by Printer” by @mirajacob.bsky.social, technology both helps and hinders a widow as she copes with loss. You can listen to the story wherever you get your podcasts. bit.ly/41WMm5Z (Photo by Kevin Yatarola)

A great thread from @caseyparks.bsky.social on the hearing Judge Reyes is giving to a challenge to the trans soldiers ban.

one thing i keep thinking about is how there is simply no way to design a constitutional system that can resist authoritarian incursion if participants in that system do not actually care that much

I know it’s just Wordle but today’s taking me 4 tries makes me feel like I’ve failed South Asian.

Too many folks on the wrong end of this curve

"As soon as Trump was inaugurated, the department’s processing of disability rights complaints ground to a halt ... That has left students—including a 12-year-old boy with autism and epilepsy who’s been unwillingly assigned to remote schooling—without recourse"

A BOOK TOUR SO BIG IT’S BASICALLY A CLOWN CAR STUFFED WITH SUPERSTARS

What a disgrace. Bezos and the newspaper he has destroyed should be grateful that anyone thinks it’s still worthwhile to buy ad space from them. *This* is how democracy dies.

The geniuses at the Democratic Party settling on “maybe we were too woke” rather than “a cabal of billionaire pedophile Nazis are stealing your money and taking a sledgehammer to your future” is astonishing. Just one of those things

Letters went out to federal workers this morning stating they were fired due to poor performance. However, all employees had been rated as “exceptional” performers by their supervisors. Please keep these records and pursue wrongful termination claims. Let the lawsuits begin.

🚨🚨🚨STARTING AT NOON 🚨🚨🚨 70+ CFPB workers were fired last night in an email that didn’t even bother to mail merge [AppointmentDate] and [JobTitle]. Join us at 12p TODAY to rally for them! #saveCFPB

Government funding runs out on March 14. Republicans can’t pass a bill alone, so Democrats have real leverage here. We’re calling on Democrats to commit to withholding their votes and insist on an end to the Trump-Musk coup rampaging across the government.

DC folks: Elizabeth Warren, Indivisible, the CFPB union and others rallying outside the CFPB building tomorrow at 4:15

This is it. This is the take.

So You Bent the Knee and Were Banished Anyway: A Guide for Mainstream Media

Please know that if you reply to me with any variation on "calling doesn't matter"/"no one's listening"/"X action is pointless" I'm going to mute or block you. Not personal. Feel your feelings and I hope you find a way to take SOME action. I just don't have the spoons to deal with doomerism rn.

DC! I’m here with my BFF & have been out protesting since Weds. Our shouting muscles are primed at this point! Where are we going today?

Executive wants to frame the NIH indirects cut as $4B in savings. But given that NIH returns $2.5 on every $1 investment, this would actually cost US economy a net $6 BILLION (per year!). Not to mention the human costs of wrecking education and research sectors and the communities they serve.

While we were sleeping: A federal judge in New York issued an aggressive order against the DOGE goon squad at the Treasury Department barring them from any and all access to the Bureau of Fiscal Services and ordering them “to immediately destroy” anything they may have downloaded from the systems.

If you are a public servant, or know one, this may be useful. A new organization, the Public Service Alliance, is offering advice on privacy and cybersecurity, physical safety, access to legal counsel and more. thepublicservicealliance.com/introducing-...

Congressman @beyer.house.gov will be going to USAID today with colleagues to shine a light on what is happening there, I think others will join us. Figuring out details now and will share but flagging now for press and public in the area

Tomorrow (Friday) night we’re doing a reading to benefit victims of LA Fires featuring Jessamine Chan, Sloane Crosley, Eve Ewing, Isaac Fitzgerald and James Spooner! Come help us turn this bad week better! Tix start at $5: bit.ly/tuesday-fire-relief

If you are a visa holder/temp resident in the U.S., and your child was born here and doesn't have a passport, GET A PASSPORT FOR THEM IMMEDIATELY. Like, make the appointment this week. www.nytimes.com/2025/01/21/u...

This is going to good and a good cause so let's go. site.corsizio.com/event/6787ea... Lilliam

Flat on my back sick. Please tell me what to binge.

A gentle reminder that your attention is a form of currency. Spend it wisely.

Friends! Today was a clown car opening to even more clown cars! Come meet me at the (online) bar on Friday. 5 readers! New work! Stuff you’ve never seen before, but in the good way! All proceeds going to underserved Black families in Altadena. Tell the whole school! bit.ly/tuesday-fire...