Truth telling in the Deep South can be tricky business, but actor Mason McCulley doesn’t hold back as he tells the story both in LA and his hometown, Birmingham, Alabama. I had a blast interviewing him for this profile. I hope you have a moment to read. www.salvationsouth.com/carole-cook-...

The Inheritance of Silence open.substack.com/pub/lanieris...

The latest on the proposed hyperscale data center in Bessemer, Alabama, right outside Birmingham. Once a thriving city steeped in the steel industry, the city now turns to AI infrastructure to solve its economic woes. insideclimatenews.org/news/0810202...

The Soul-Crushing Sameness of Today’s Dorm Décor open.substack.com/pub/lanieris...

As the climate warms, forests in New England and beyond will rely on genetic material from Alabama’s trees. Why? Alabama is a refugia—a global hotspot for biodiversity that weathered the last ice age and could help us survive the next environmental shift. insideclimatenews.org/news/2707202...

Fact-Checking Claims About a Proposed Hyperscale Data Center insideclimatenews.org/news/2507202...

Check out my latest essay, "Bad Wife," exploring my mother's life as a cautionary tale for modern day "Trad wives." open.substack.com/pub/lanieris...

I listen to a lot of podcasts, but this is the first time I was the guest! Thank you, Estelle Erasmus, for inviting me to engage in a lively conversation about writing and the writing life. estelleserasmus.com/144-coaching...

A newly discovered species is already imperiled in the shallow creeks outside Birmingham, AL, near the proposed hyperscale data center. Few people realize it, but Alabama is the biodiversity hotspot for freshwater aquatic species in North America. insideclimatenews.org/news/1606202...

Project Marvel, if realized, would consist of 18 buildings, each larger than the average Walmart Supercenter, that would house massive server farms for data storage and processing, located on about 700 acres of wooded land outside Birmingham, Alabama. insideclimatenews.org/news/1105202...

I had the pleasure last night of hearing Jared Sullivan speak at @thankyoubooks.bsky.social about his important book Valley So Low which follows a small Tennessee town's fight for justice after a deadly environmental disaster.

The New Right wants to trigger a Great Depression. They want to “address” it with an Old Deal that imposes tech-enabled feudalism. It’s an old and simple story. So simple it can be told with a 5th grade diorama project. The Dems better figure out how to tell this simple story in their SOTU response.

Listen at the 2 hour 47 minute and 22 seconds mark to hear me talk about Lilly Ledbetter for the @hugorifkind.bsky.social Show at Times Radio. #equalpay www.thetimes.com/radio/show/2...

Who knew that the word window is an old Norse word that means "wind eye."

I've always thought of writing as a spiritual practice and love what Sara Sherbill says on Marion Roach Smith's podcast Qwerty that writing is a prayer. @memoirteacher.bsky.social #memoir

It looks like the new Trump administration will rollback drinking water protections for forever chemicals. Watch the movie Dark Waters which dramatizes Robert Bilott’s case against Dupont after they contaminated a West Virginia town with unregulated forever chemicals and read his memoir Exposure.

Thank you @merikacoleman.bsky.social for standing up for women’s rights. www.al.com/news/2024/11...