I will be interviewing @andrewhartman.bsky.social about his new book MARX IN AMERICA @thenewschool.bsky.social on March 9! Free and open to the public - reg link below!

This looks like a neat event next Tuesday! Come see Natalia Mehlman Petrzela speak at 5:30 pm in Liberal Arts 120 on March 3.

Can’t wait!

RFK Jr.'s fitness ad with Kid Rock is a collision of MAHA and the manosphere www.ms.now/opinion/rfk-...

Loved coming on

OPINION by The New School Professor of History Natalia Mehlman Petrzela "This stunt is more than just a disgusting distraction; it signals the dark reality of what MAHA — Make America Healthy Again — now unapologetically embraces..." READ MORE: www.ms.now/opinion/rfk-...

My latest:

A special shout out to NYC bus drivers and postal workers, who don’t get a snow day. ❄️ thank you 🙏🏼

My latest:

I wrote about the RFK, Jr./Kid Rock video for @msnowreports.bsky.social www.ms.now/opinion/rfk-...

I wrote about the RFK, Jr./Kid Rock video for @msnowreports.bsky.social www.ms.now/opinion/rfk-...

I will be interviewing @andrewhartman.bsky.social about his new book MARX IN AMERICA @thenewschool.bsky.social on March 9! Free and open to the public - reg link below!

There was this tiny subgenre of fitness/gym-themed lightly erotic horror in the 1980s — one classic was called Aerobicide — and the whole RFK/Kid Rock workout/sauna/drink milk spot reminds me of nothing more

And finally, there is a third significant psychological impulse that Trumpism has going for it, and that is the appeal to "naturalism." Many people have deep suspicion of technologies they don't understand. RFK has weaponized this for Trump, as @nataliapetrzela.bsky.social and I noted:

Everyone is out and about as usual in NYC, but the extra narrow sidewalks due to the snowbanks (and uncollected trash tbh) mean that there is this sweet connection I experienced many times yesterday where otherwise random, rushed ppl make eye contact, smile, and gesture to the other to go first

Woohoo! Curious what does this mean in terms of my experience on the app?

Fascinating: colleges spending marketing money on selling higher ed *in general* rather than trying to attract students to their specific offerings. Smart. IMO, these should air during highly viewed college sports, engage coaches in this messaging hechingerreport.org/value-polici...

Fascinating: colleges spending marketing money on selling higher ed *in general* rather than trying to attract students to their specific offerings. Smart. IMO, these should air during highly viewed college sports, engage coaches in this messaging hechingerreport.org/value-polici...

One of my most chilling classroom memories is when I asked a full seminar room of (smart! engaged!) undergrads why none of them had voted in a recent election, and one sheepishly said that when everyone on campus seems to have the same politics, there's little motivation to engage

All the reporting is making it look like Mamdani decided snow days = zoom school. No. This is a stupid Covid-era policy that lets this day count as an instructional day for teachers and staff (and students, who will almost surely learn nothing!) gothamist.com/news/nyc-may...?

Really worth reading on why “viewpoint diversity” may not be the answer, but figuring out a way to cultivate intellectual ferment and rigorous inquiry should be a top priority on all campuses www.chronicle.com/article/four...

This kid and his father entered via CBP One app. It's just absurd and monumentally unfair for people who availed themselves of lawful channels when they existed by following government processes to suddenly get detained and deported to a third country. newrepublic.com/article/2056...

Trauma on so many levels here

Look at this: @inquirer.com has digitally preserved the interpretative signage removed by NPS, and used annotations to explain what specifically was flagged before removal. This keeps the content publicly accessible (for now) while doing newsworthy reporting www.inquirer.com/news/philade...

Really worth reading on why “viewpoint diversity” may not be the answer, but figuring out a way to cultivate intellectual ferment and rigorous inquiry should be a top priority on all campuses www.chronicle.com/article/four...

All the reporting is making it look like Mamdani decided snow days = zoom school. No. This is a stupid Covid-era policy that lets this day count as an instructional day for teachers and staff (and students, who will almost surely learn nothing!) gothamist.com/news/nyc-may...?

💯💯💯

For more on the fear of the "unnatural," please see this recent podcast episode I did with @nataliapetrzela.bsky.social

In perhaps the most vivid example of The Internet is Not Real Life, ALL my feeds are teeming with Heated Rivalry takes, but at the actual hockey rink where I am this weekend (and most), no one has even mentioned it. The 2 ppl I asked hadn’t heard of it!

Must read on UATX for anyone in higher education Reflects that core lesson of grad school: it is much easier to identify a problem and tear down your opponents than to build something original and better www.politico.com/news/magazin...

If there was an origin point of the "hot mom" expectation, it is with Debbie Drake, who promised a generation of women that just becoming wives didn't mean they should (or could!) give up on being "whistlebait"

The crisis is real, and this is part of our effort at new approaches to supporting scholars and advancing scholarship in the (vast!) early Americas. Sharing again and would appreciate your sharing, too. More info in the thread. 🧵⬇️

Not surprising. In over a decade of talking about my fitness culture research, the assumption went from “this is a woman’s topic” to audiences and questions being much more about teen boys and men

What a fantastic cap on an intense couple of days at #AHA26 #AHA2026 Excellent *conversation* re the importance of studying the histories of fashion, food, leisure, FUN as pathways into more fully understanding human experience and affect

For anyone else reading this, feeling helpless, and wondering what they can do: the synagogue has a donation form and I've donated with a note that it's for fire recovery immediate expenses. www.bethisraelms.org

The Vietnam War Era origins of parachute play in PE class What’s so interesting is SO much fitness culture comes out of the military - this came out of the antiwar movement

“It doesn’t help that a lot of the pastors & ministers who have grown large online followings often actually are soliciting donations & selling things, just not the same things that their AI impersonators are.” @kattenbarge.bsky.social Oh, what a fine mess we have gotten ourselves into! God anyone?

“Casting the AHA leadership as the villain, lumping it in with the Trump administration and right-wing zealots…is an example of counterproductive politics at its most absurd.” 🎯 @davidavrombell.bsky.social This dynamic is far too prevalent, and *so* damaging www.chronicle.com/article/acad...

I love that this pushback to screens on campus is both institution- and student-driven No laptops in seminar is a campus rule, but this no-smartphone challenge was taken up by students themselves www.nytimes.com/2026/01/03/s...

A lot of people are confused why RFK Junior and a lot of hippie-type people have become so Trumpy. But as @nataliapetrzela.bsky.social and I discussed, obsessively focusing on "what's natural" is actually a conservative opinion. Full video, transcript, & audio: plus.flux.community/p/robert-ken...

Just released a great discussion with @nataliapetrzela.bsky.social about RFK Junior and the danger of making "natural" the centerpiece of your worldview. Glenn Beck's AI George Washington makes an appearance as well!

Just sent off the final essay for the final volume of Jewish American Hidden Voices. Great way to end the year!

American wellness culture! Never not providing endless fodder for analysis… psyched to return to @matthew.flux.community podcast to discuss RFK, Jr.’s latest. Out today!

This is so tragic. RIP.

I don’t actually have a huge problem with this, but one key issue is that profs assign texts for many reasons, not all of which are that they endorse the text as ‘correct.’

Glad to see this pointed criticism of Ed Tech, its insidious effects on learning What I think is important, tho, is that its champions have not just been investors or efficiency-obsessed administrators, but lots ppl in ed too! Been hard to resist for a long time www.chronicle.com/article/the-...

Much of interest in this NYT look at New College today Beyond annoying, however, to cast reading The Odyssey (or any classical text) as evidence of a conservative ideological turn www.nytimes.com/2025/12/28/u...

Apparently TBD if Leavitt will take any parental leave My sense is that this will be used as “if she can do it” anecdata to cut back on family leave policies most rly need But also good to see working moms now so normalized that this can exist even in MAGA world?! www.nytimes.com/2025/12/26/u...

Pro tip: shovel the sidewalk for the old lady who lives next door.

"Conservatives wld never accept a left-wing govt using regulatory favoritism to pressure conservative media into softening their coverage of a Dem admin. They may delight in the new editorial direction of CBS, but they cannot defend the process that led to it." www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2025/1...