Not sure if it’s a testament or condemnation of my culinary skills that my six-year-old’s favorite dish that I make is uotmil (oatmeal) 😂

I recently became acquainted with "Osanaetoki Bankokubanashi" 童絵解万国噺, a Japanese illustrated history of America from 1861. The retelling of the revolutionary era is quite something. Here, for instance, is John Adams wielding a sword in mortal combat with a gigantic serpent.

This year's rising seniors have never experienced a year of college without generative AI. It's AI's senior year, too. And AI is ubiquitous: Over 90 percent of college students now use it in some way. I wrote about how AI already changed college forever. (Gift link)

A great read on UChicago, arguing we’re seeing the result of decades of mismanagement: “The university’s trustees and leaders view it preeminently as a tax-free technology incubator, and its debt load is so great that it is abandoning ideals it once held dear in order to sustain that goal.”

I’m delighted to be featured in the SSRC’s latest issue of Frontiers in Social and Behavioral Science. Working on my article made me rethink of opium not as a social “vice” but as a resource for managing epidemic risk, explaining its prevalence on the high seas and the Chinese coolie trade.

Historians don’t always get to visit the places they write about, but I’m so glad I did!

The academic’s mid-summer crisis is a mid-life crisis in miniature: You realize summer is half gone, & not only that: you see that the longest & least burdened days came early, & they are well past. You compare all you thought you’d do against the days remaining & grieve for what never will be

RIP Diogo 🥺 You were always one of my favorites.

In “The Opiated Ocean,” @suyh.bsky.social analyzes the regulation of opium in 19th century Chinese trade, arguing its widespread provision among the indentured workers was a means to stave off seaborne epidemics to preserve profitability of contract labor. #AHR 🗃️

I’m delighted to share that my article, “The Opiated Ocean” is out today in the #AHR: doi.org/10.1093/ahr/.... For those curious, here’s how the article came about🧵 (1/5)

Always an Onion article.

My firstborn daughter graduated kindergarten today. Where has all the time gone 😭

BREAKING - A 3-judge panel of the US Court of International Trade has just INVALIDATED Trump's tariffs. Says Trump CANNOT use the International Emergency Economic Powers Act of 1977 to unilaterally impose tariffs; that power belongs to Congress. MORE TK storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...

I’m pleased to share that “The Opiated Ocean” will appear in this June’s #AHR issue as the opening article. For those interested in drug, labor and commodity history—stay tuned!

In #AHAPerspectives, get a sneak peek of the June issue of the American Historical Review, including articles on opium, terminology for slavery, and counterrevolution, a forum on the concept of "Big Asia," and contributions on searchability and using archival databases in the classroom. 🗃️

ELF final: stoppable force meets moveable object

Today's front page.

An alarmist take, but mostly correct. Over the last two years, I have seen how robots have not only eaten my students’ homework, but the concept of homework itself. The only check left is convincing my students that outsourcing one’s thinking is a bad idea. Some will agree; most will not.

So many final papers missing this semester. But my students can’t help it if Biden keeps eating their homework!!!

personally would like to see every store show what part of the price increase is due to tariffs bc if these tariffs ever come down, i need to see that price go right back down

WE DID IT #YNWA

You will never get a new, revolutionary, truly good sentence or work of art by seeking out the perfect middle of all known beliefs. It's why AI is flawed as a creative machine, and why governing to polls is futile. We want new, beautiful, surprising things, politically, artistically, and otherwise.

Nothing is more emblematic of the Trump Administration's approach to trade policy than this. Two weeks after "Liberation Day", with a trade war on China raging, they are only now ordering an investigation of what rare earths the US imports, from whom, and why. www.whitehouse.gov/presidential...

The dingo ate my panel

feminism in 2025: literally blasting women into space

This is also what destroyed the Embargo of 1807. Jefferson had also campaigned against a strong federal government (aka “deep state”), but without a strong government, who is there to enforce customs?

“Freedom is a fragile thing and it's never more than one generation away from extinction. It is not ours by way of inheritance; it must be fought for and defended constantly by each generation, for it comes only once to a people.” -Ronald Reagan, radical leftist

Me waking up to financial markets tomorrow

all taxes, no representation

New @budgetlab.bsky.social report about today's tariff announcement: • The April 2nd policy alone is the equivalent of an 11.5pp increase in the effective tariff rate. When combined with other US tariffs in 2025, we're at 22 1/2%, the highest rate since 1909. 1/7

So who’s ready for Black Thursday tomorrow

I used to wonder how Jack Bauer pulled a 24 hour shift without taking a piss even once. Then I met Cory Booker.

I may be tired and a little hoarse, but as I said again and again on the Senate floor, this is a moment where we cannot afford to be silent, when we must speak up.

starting every lecture now with the Ballad of Ambrose and Gunnel.

make Marbury v. Madison great again

1/🧵 Following up on our study featured in NYT today, this figure provides a macro-level view: Dem vote shares rise with turnout parity (left) but fall with party-level ideological moderation (right). This suggests mobilizing base voters > persuading swing voters by moving to the center.

new saddest six word story just dropped

recessions and their causes, a history: 1929: Black Thursday 1973: OPEC oil embargo 2008: subprime CDOs 2020: COVID-19 2025: let’s go Brandon

Trump’s Sec of Agriculture Brooke Rollins says the solution to high egg prices for Americans is to get some chickens and raise them in your backyard.

from pax americana to pox americana

Looking at some survey data here. Trump/Elon cutting off all cancer cure research is the issue that freaks voters out more than any other, also the one they've heard the least about. Important for voters to hear more about this.

When will the plain folk come to learn The cure was worse than the disease?

live scenes from the Trump-Zelensky meeting

stop woke, go broke

Today I had scrambled eggs for breakfast using FARM FRESH eggs and now I know what it feels like to be a billionaire in this economy

Yeah Mark Twain got it wrong. History doesn’t rhyme, it just repeats.

Mathematics Professor here is just brilliant!

Fresh comms from the White House today. Turns out 1776 was too woke for #MAGA