Magic Johnson was the grand marshal of the Rose Parade today, and as someone who remembers his November 1991 HIV announcement: if you had told anybody that day that he would be alive and healthy 34+ years later, I don't think they would have believed you. Medicine and research—they work.

The destruction of knowledge and history is haphazard & breathtaking. NASA’s Largest Library Is Closing Amid Staff and Lab Cuts.

What if, and hear me out, media outlets published articles by the marginalized scholars coerced into early retirement by mistreatment at work instead of the scribblings of this extremely whiny man making six figures while teaching a couple classes a year.

He doesn't need to let the door hit him on the behind like this...but apparently we all need to be subjected to his whining about how public health measures cramped his sexist pig style.

How I'm walking out of 2025.

Someone said I did too much Black history and they wished I would do more Tennessee history. (Friends, about 80% of my "Black" history took place in Tennessee. The history of this state is Black, what do you want from me?).

Earlier this year, Republicans tried to eliminate the National Endowment for the Arts and the National Endowment for the Humanities in their 2026 budget, while proposing a 13% increase in defense spending. The Institute of Museum and Library Services just got their funding back through courts.

New, from me: The NYT reporter who specializes in profiles of beleaguered right-wingers on campus went to New College...and found out that things were going ok! So let me explain some pretty massive errors of omission: 🧵 donmoynihan.substack.com/p/the-nyt-re...

Oh yes. You don't even want to know the stuff European slave traders wrote. There's no subtext, it's just text.

Fantastic thread about Nashville history, German influence, the Civil War, Reconstruction, the KKK, and more. The more I learn about Tennessee legal and constitutional history in the 1800s the more fascinated I become.

THIS THIS THIS. ALL OF THIS THIS is why faculty resist technological strategies for teaching. There is no engaging with Edtech without this context

This reminded me why I had stopped watching Stewart years and years ago. When you make fun of maskers, you're saying their life, or the lives of those going through some *REAL SHIT* who they are protecting means nothing to you. At least it's an obvious red flag. #oneofthetwo

“You are not entitled to a response from us, or anyone, ever,” is what a US Education Department spokesperson wrote to one of our reporters, @megomatz.bsky.social, after she repeatedly tried to get comment from the department and its officials. My column on the condemnation of good journalism.

“They used [the paintings] . . . as though his work aligned with their values, i.e., promoting this segregationist vision of America,” said Daisy. “And so of course we were upset by this, because Norman Rockwell was really very clearly anti-segregationist.”

How I'm walking out of 2025.

At this point if you are caught citing something you haven't even looked at, because it doesn't exist, you don't need to be published. I'm not saying you have to read the whole thing, but at least take a look!

LOTS of American cities had foreign-language newspapers. Thanks in part to the Library of Congress & National Endowment for the Humanities, US newspapers have been actively collected, preserved, cataloged, & selectively digitized. Fabulous sources!

"They pulled her out of Clinton High and moved to Los Angeles at the urging of an uncle of hers who lived there. After finishing school, she began a long career as a pediatric nurse in California."

You know how we fought the Civil War to end chattel slavery in the 1860s and then OVER A CENTURY LATER there had to be a Civil Rights movement because America still hadn't got her shit together? And then people have the nerve to be like "what more do *they* want?" It's so disingenuous. Be real.

No context needed, but go read the thread they're replying to anyway.

Claude (Opus 4.5) has started citing Grokipedia in its results.

one of many reasons that the organized critique and refusal movement is overwhelmingly led by women (yes including women computer scientists, cognitive scientists, and engineers)

Historians - Apply now for the Peggy Renner Award for Teaching and Curricular Innovation which recognizes an historian who has developed a college or university course that engages students in exploring the links between contemporary issues and the past. 🗃️ wawh.org/renner-teach...

If you’re wondering why your friends in academia are a little on edge right now, it’s because an eighteen-year-old who hasn’t done the reading, doesn’t look at the assignment, and has does no critical thinking skills more complex than “because I think it’s in the Bible” can literally end your career

"Under this model, formerly colonized nations must ask permission to temporarily access their own heritage, accept conditions dictated by a British institution, and bear the financial and logistical burdens of care, while the museum retains ultimate control."

We are in the best of hands, y'all. 🔥📚🗝🎉

Can't get over how nice the Tennessee State Library and Archives are. I still think of it as "new" but it's been like 8 years since they moved into the Germantown location.

Such an understated point!All those process steps lead to discoveries you couldn't have known about to ask an LLM in the first place. Shortcuts at the early stages will be obvious in the final product.

Chain of Ideas: The Origins of Our Authoritarian Ideas By @ibramxk.bsky.social www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/778233...

I think bigotry has become a kind of loyalty ritual among young republicans, it’s how you show you’re one of them www.thecrimson.com/article/2025...

Anna's Archive is making moves. They just grabbed most of Spotify. 300TB of songs! annas-archive.org/blog/backing...

Did y'all know that Nashville had TWO German-language newspapers there for a while? Though relatively short-lived, I've found them to be pretty important when it comes to Tennessee's Black history.

gonna set a record for shortest UVa president. Board of Visitors did not have a quorum to approve the hiring. Not that doing illegal shit seems to be an issue anymore, but hard to see how this stands after Jan 2026 change of governor.

The vast majority of faculty, staff, students, & alum have called for the UVA pres search to be paused until Gov-elect Spanberger takes office. Incredible that anyone would even consider taking the position under these circumstances, so it's shocking that a current dean may be appointed tomorrow.

One secret historians know that American severely undervalue is that newspapers/letters from racial, cultural, linguistic, and religious minorities in this country are where all of our nation's dirt is buried. I'm going through the Tennessee Staatszeitung right now and hoo boy.

This proposal from @econmarshall.bsky.social, @higheredlabor.bsky.social and others to overhaul higher education is really compelling. Worth reading in full. marshallsteinbaum.org/wp-content/u...

Almost everyone I work with is white. But also, there aren't enough job openings for this to happen. And also, when you get 300 applicants for the one job that does exist, I guarantee no dean is writing 299 letters about why someone wasn't chosen. I'll take never happened for $500.

Oh hai, Mark newrepublic.com/article/2042...

Hi Ho, Hi Ho, back to YouTube we go!

WE CALLED IT. Professors have good pattern recognition.

You're going to want to mute Lolita on here for your own good. Thank me later

This is too real though. In grad school I quickly learned that once my Black friends left a party, I should leave too. Every time I didn't go with them, things turned.

Ordering a military to do illegal war crimes with one hand while firing, what is it, 20,000? veterans service staff with the other in order to distract from the release of evidence that points toward mutually incriminating powerful pedophiles in charge of the military is my least favorite timeline.

Bad look.

Chef's kiss

🚨 PhD Opportunity on the Economics of AI 🚨 I'm recruiting a fully funded 3.5-year PhD student to study how generative AI is transforming UK labour markets! This position is a unique collaboration between King's College London and the AI Security Institute.

Just really awesome how our financial elite just spent the last several decades admonishing people for pursing the humanities and creative fields, and are now suddenly pedaling the idea that "there are no good ideas anymore" after spending the last 5 years laying off everybody with a brain

MIT professor, Nuno Loureiro was shot and killed in his Brookline home. He was the director of MIT’s Plasma Science and Fusion Center and a professor of nuclear science and engineering and physics. boston.com/news/crime/2...

Pauline Copes Johnson, a descendant of Harriet Tubman, has died at 98. She spent a lifetime guarding that legacy from the small city where Tubman spent her final years www.kolumnmagazine.com/2025/12/11/t...