I love these and I share many of these opinions (so do I fit into this same niche?)

We visited the Klamath right when the dam came down (was incredibly moving to report gastropod.com/bringing-sal...), this story is both so exciting-fish made it past additional barriers to reach headwaters in just 1yr!-& depressing, w/ $millions for restoration now not showing up. Still, good news!

I don't mind cold but I don't love Boston winter- it's so long, I love being outside & I love green, it's not the ideal time for either (unless you ski, I don't). So fall always feels a bit foreboding. But I have to say, Boston falls are so fking gorgeous and perfect that it almost compensates.

Everything's falling apart so I just decided to play hooky for one afternoon next week and got a single ticket to the final week of Hamilton here. Will I cry, a lot, even more than I did the first time I saw it? Probably. T said I'm going to come home that evening emotionally wrecked.

I know in the scope and scale of what's been lost in our country are immeasurable and heartbreaking, but I can't stop thinking about the loss of the entire East Wing of the White House. I've been there! It's part of our national history! It's a building with deep historic significance!

This is the greatest video - whenever T and I see audo ads on tv we always yell at the screen - where are all the other cars? Car commercials make it seem like it's just you, your shiny new car, and nothing else to hinder you from destroying the beautiful natural landscape you're tearing up.

NEW: We just secured a court order temporarily stopping the Trump Administration from demanding that states turn over personal, sensitive information about SNAP recipients to fuel their cruel immigration policies. We'll keep fighting this in court as the case continues.

I don't know how many Gastropod folks are on here, but we're looking for questions for our upcoming Ask Gastropod ep! Do you have a question that you haven't been able to figure out, a food science and/or history conundrum that's left you perplexed? We're here for you - email [email protected]!

Conversation at my bfast table: "I made myself a whole breakfast but I really just want to eat the kale." T: "You always just want to eat kale." "People who think kale is punishment aren't using enough olive oil."

Done. Not much I can do from here at the moment, but I can do this.

Everything is depressing so instead I'll talk about rain- we've had a couple of years of drought in NE and so as we've started to fill our little urban plot with native plants we wanted help watering- thus our new rain barrel. Which brings me such joy! Plus my secret joy abt the barrel:

It was a super interesting conversation from a fascinating book - listen to Gastropod and then go read the whole thing!

I recently spoke to a writer (doesn't cover science) who insisted that something was settled science in humans based on one mouse study - it wasn't appropriate timing, but I wish I could have sent them to TON! The tool below can help any & all journalists incorporate science & understand why/how!

The news gets more and more alarming, but thanks to our governor (and all the wonderful scientists and public health officials and policy makers) my spouse and I just walked around the corner to CVS, without an appointment, and got our covid and flu vaccines today.

I'm going to tag my cousin @mgraber1.bsky.social who is a literal international expert/scholar in constitutional law. Mark, @kendrawrites.com is a brilliant journalist - can you help her out?

I just typed to some friends 'the depth of the delusion is so demoralizing and depressing.' Alliteration unintended, but I think that's my general state of being.

I'm just going to put this out in the universe - I'm mentoring a truly delightful 1st gen college-bound senior who's had some tough times but is super smart with limitless passion and curiosity. Her *dream* school is Northeastern. Do I know anyone who knows anyone in admissions she can talk to?

I don't think Lucy's on here (and I miss seeing her posts on the bird site), but as a fellow child of the DC area — I'm no longer a local, though Lucy moved back — I agree with this list. Especially calling the airport "Reagan." www.mcsweeneys.net/articles/cri...

It's an odd reaction, but Billy Bragg's "There is power in a union" literally always makes me cry. (Yes, it's on right now.)

Any of my Somerville folks see this article abt Newton? @benforward3.bsky.social? heatmap.news/energy/newto...

I'm reading a news newsletter and it's talking about the relationship between T and Bibi and calls Huckabee 'arguably the most staunchly pro-Israel high-ranking...' and I wish there were another word for these people who love Jews bc we'll eventually, in their theology, be dead Jews. Pro-rapture?

Anyone have any recommendations about tomato hornworms? I didn't even know they existed until I figured out why the upper leaves were being defoliated and then I saw one and IT IS HUGE and the image is now BURNED onto my brain.

‪@actfortransit.bsky.social‬ I live in Somerville, Ma, grew up in Rockville-was just telling a friend (who'd been in Silver Spring) that after yrs riding a bike, now adding ebike, I feel like ebikes are the future of transport for everyone. I amended that- maybe not in 'burbs, bc of say Norbeck Rd

But it's bikes that are the problem and need to be tightly regulated and ticketed.

I love people in my replies sticking up for journalists. (I truly love it! I'm a journalist! Please, love us and support us!) My point still stands: headlines, v short news briefs, not equipped to deal with our current situation.

I had to drive my mom to the airport at 5am and I caught some NPR news (I love NPR, I support NPR, I can't listen to much NPR these days). It just hammered home to me how ill equipped news desks are for the current situation. There was like a 1-2min news read that was like reading a press release -

We received a mean email about how someone tried to listen to the show a few times but couldn't bc of my co-host 'affect.' I know, I know, I shouldn't engage, but I wrote back an email I was proud of, would be ok if it were screen shot. Explained she's 100% Brit, been in US for more than 20yrs...

One of my personal joys in life is going to the local farmers' market, but I know that not everyone has time/opportunity, and I love that there are new(ish) CSA models like this amazing one -https://www.bostonglobe.com/2025/07/15/lifestyle/family-dinner-local-food-delivery-csa/

BREAKING: 1 in 4 nursing homes say they will be forced to close if Republicans pass Trump’s Big Beautiful Bill. No grandma should be kicked out of her nursing home so that Mark Zuckerberg can buy another Hawaiian island.

This should be like THE headline EVERYWHERE. Pain for thee but none for me. (in addition to the fact that the bill IS CREATING A POLICE STATE)

If anyone has solar panels and is producing more than they use (in Mass we don't get paid back for that overage, we just bank it), I found out that you can apply that overage to anyone else in the Eversource system. 1/

We've been planting as many native species as we can to support native bees - love to see them buzzing around! - but I knew nothing about this amazing, critical, inexpensive threatened-by-T's-cuts native bee research lab www.washingtonpost.com/climate-envi...

The Armenian genocide meta movie Ararat (movie abt making a movie abt the Armenian genocide). Not a bad movie, but poor guy - movie theater full mostly of Armenians plus this Jew.

If Joe Biden did not know that Russia was ejected from the G8 in 2014 precisely because it invaded Crimea, & that Justin Trudeau was not PM at the time, we would be having a National Conversation™️ about how Democrats can continue supporting a senile president who is a huge national security danger.

From Rabbi @marisaelana.bsky.social: May Iranians, who mostly hate their leaders, be safe. May Palestinians, who mostly hate their leaders, be safe. May Israelis, who mostly hate their leaders, be safe. May all the war-mongering authoritarians be deposed & may they [yet] experience real justice..

A thousand times yes! And it's a bazillion times better for us/the planet than driving. (I'm a Bostonian/Somervillain, but I was struck by a NYC fact-that I double-checked-that more people take the NYC subway *every day* than fly, anywhere in the US, every day. )

I imagine I'm not alone in thinking that this California move (which I can't imagine it'll hold, but still) could start serious rumblings about the breaking apart of the union?

Fascinating to hear this exchange and the phrase “we cannot produce bananas in America” after listening to @cagraber.bsky.social +Nicola Twilley on the history of bananas (go listen!). If so, space-time would rupture as the US invades itself, installs a puppet gvt, and unleashes crop-wiping diseases

Want to know more about bananas, where they're grown and why, and why they cost what they do? We've got a couple of recent episodes for you! Part 1: gastropod.com/going-banana...

Please, if anyone who follows me lives in Somerville in the area that can vote tomorrow (june 4) re: somernova, please vote yes. Is it perfect? of course not. Is it what we need, and likely the best outcome we can get? I def think so, & a lot of very smart people/elected officials/local orgs agree.

My friend Claire wrote this beautiful piece about death and hope and love and rebuilding after loss from terrorism. www.jta.org/2025/05/27/i...

Loved this profile of MBTA-wrangler extraordinaire Phil Eng - so nice to read a positive story about someone great at his job who's working hard and making things better www.bostonglobe.com/2025/05/28/m...

And in unrelated news on (attempts at) native gardening, it appears that there has been some whistlepig (groundhog) procreation in my neighborhood. I had hoped that perhaps Walter would live out his 2-3yr lifespan and then retire from this world, leaving no progeny behind.

I know I was a little flippant with my re-skeet about the news of the COVID booster being limited to those over 65 or otherwise at risk of serious disease, but truly I am fucking furious. This is a lifesaving/long-term-disease preventing vaccine. All of us should have access to boosters.

I suspect that many of us who are not yet 65 will find that we're at very high risk for...something...that our doctor agrees that we're at high risk for

We are attempting to create a native plant (small urban) habitat, we've bought a bunch shrubs and also grasses and flowers. Trying oh so hard to keep rabbits from eating everything (trying to focus on plants they won't eat). But now we're also in a war with one huge local groundhog.

I'm in MexCity for work, it's intense & stressful, work travel is so not like fun vacation - it's full on exhausting. BUT I ate at Rosetta tonight. So for a brief moment in this overwhelming week, amidst all the shit at home I'm still extraordinarily alarmed/upset about: a little bubble of bliss.

I have a close friend who works at a local university. (Am keeping this purposefully vague, there are a lot of unis here.) He runs a program that a lot of foreign students participate in. One of them, European, a few years ago got stopped by the cops for attempting to swim in some nearby water. 1/

We interviewed Kevin Hall for our recent ep on nutrition science history, he was brilliant. His research is fascinating, his approach open/curious, his work meticulously designed. He's open to being wrong, explains limitations. We finished the call wishing he ran HHS. www.nytimes.com/2025/04/16/w...

I've been posting about all the horrors, but last night I saw this phenomenon right at home in Somerville: a full rainbow, a double full-rainbow, and literally the most brilliant rainbow (you could see the difference between blue, violet, and indigo!)