New epsiode / newsletter alert and this one will rile you up. Should we just give up on careers and work satisfaction already? 🤯 www.broadhistory.com/all-work-is-...

🎙️ Just published a new episode of Broad History: "All work is sh*t" or the anti Girl Boss feminism of the 1970s. Have a listen:

THREAD: Cherise Doyley was in her 12th hour of contractions at the hospital when a tablet was brought to her bedside. On the screen was a Zoom call with a judge and several lawyers and doctors. She was in court, a nurse told her. The reason? For failing to agree to a C-section.

“Hope is not a feeling you sit with while the world burns. Hope is action.” Mikhael Simmonds at #story26. Gonna sit with this one a while.

Finally back at #story26. Let’s go!

Not my culture but years ago, I stole Thanksgiving as my autumn holiday. I increasingly feel the need to also borrow Norooz. It makes so much sense to start the year at the spring equinox and mark new beginnings in tune with nature. Thinking about dear Iranian friends a lot today.

Just imagine the dating pool there…

How I wept when I learned that the *expenses* alone for one of Joseph Kessel’s stories (the French journo I read as a child who made me wanna do this) ran into the hundreds of Ks. He once had to cross a lake, so he bought a whole boat and left it behind.

The weird thing about weight loss is being back in the body I hated in my 20s but this time I absolutely love it.

These are the same dudes who give you “man in the arena” bs when they are criticised. They literally do not see the value of reflection. Ps: if you’re gonna call up history in your arguments, try not to be off by thousands of years.

How many movie stars at the #Oscars tonight will know the woman to whom they owe much of their industry? She ran two of the world's biggest film studios and directed more than 600 films. You've heard of Lumière, Méliès, Gaumont or Pathé. Why not of Alice Guy? www.broadhistory.com/the-greatest...

Today’s feature in The Londoner is a heart wrenching important read about some of what refugees go through before and after they get here. And some people still feel they can pile it on with violence and racism 😒 www.the-londoner.co.uk/three-brothe...

Shit, Claude just made me laugh out loud. We are screwed. (It also helped me build an amazing, pick-your-own-adventure membership/donation page of the kind I struggled in vain to build 5 years ago and 2 months ago.) 👀 www.broadhistory.com/membership/

The great thing about indie software supporting indie journalists is you can ask for a new feature and then it gets built and shipped in 24 hours 😎 Check out my link in bio, it’s got everything you need.

Ooops, I think we accidentally shipped a free link in bio that actually converts... @trustfnd.com is all about collaborative growth, but our built-in link in bio works great solo: Journalist @isabelleroughol.com got a third of her subscribers through it after going viral on Instagram.

Can anyone explain to me what the Blue Labour justification for this is? Who out there will vote Labour because Mahmood prevented a Sudanese Chevening Scholar? And to be honest, why won’t the PM simply overrule her?

The phrase, written by George Sand on the eve of her niece's wedding, is devastating. It's true though at a time when girls' experience education is essentially vocational training for being agreeable brides. www.broadhistory.com/we-raise-the...

The only IWD event I want to go to is a rage room

She was one of the most famous authors of her day. Today, good luck finding her in a bookstore. My new episode is an exploration of the life of George Sand and why women fall out of the literary canon, with the excellent @fionasampson.bsky.social www.broadhistory.com/ep-02-george...

🎙️ Just published a new episode of Broad History: George Sand outsold Victor Hugo. Then we forgot about her. (with Fiona Sampson). Have a listen:

I can’t believe no one at Monocle watched succession

I say this but today on the guardian podcast, a Brit expat describes Dubai as “the best parts of Europe and the best parts of America combined” and I have to restrain myself 🤬

My cat welcomes me home from a trip like the kids in those videos where a military dad on tour suddenly shows up at their school

There’s a variation of hating on immigrants that is slightly more acceptable in progressive circles — hating on your own country’s expatriates. It’s born from the same impulse, of thinking people can only love and have reason to be in a single country and that migrating is selfish and sinister. 1/

Not sharing numbers or names but this is a real-life platform cost projection I just did for a real-life middlingly successful indie media. Red = Substack. Green = Beehiiv. Blue = Ghost. The question is, are all those network effects worth 5x-ing your cost?

Are we sure we’re talking about Khamenei here?

Just received my graduation invitation and learned I have to pay £35 each for my parents to see me graduate. That feels yuckier than spending £10k on my degree.

Sorry to be one of those people but I started working more systematically with Claude and my god it got good. If you tried working with chatgpt or gemini before as I have and thought "this never actually works", try again. This might as well be a different tech.

Turns out when we assume things in history, we end up with cake on our faces. If you don't feel like reading my latest piece, here's a quick vid of me explaining it and playing to the youtube gods. www.youtube.com/shorts/fn0Hp...

Turns out when we assume things in history, we end up with cake on our faces. If you don't feel like reading my latest piece, here's a quick vid of me explaining it and playing to the youtube gods. www.youtube.com/shorts/fn0Hp...

It started with a seemingly innocuous assumption, an easily made logical leap: For a rather long time, archeologists who found burial sites with weapons or hunting gear inside would label the remains as male. Fresh new piece: www.broadhistory.com/weve-been-ve...

I stumped the AI with my opening move. It’s refusing to play its turn. Is there a badge for that @nytgames.bsky.social ?

Patting myself on the back a bit. With thanks to Mike Berlin, Kate Redford, @julialaite.bsky.social, @brodiewaddell.bsky.social, @bbkhistorical.bsky.social and all my classmates. This was quite fun, would do again.

really reassuring continuing to receive home office emails about your immigration status 2+ years after becoming a British citizen

Imagine having to refer to your own brother by his full government name

When the NYT asked "Did women ruin the workplace?" (puh-lease 🙄) they hit on one of my history pet peeves: WHEREVER DID WE GET THE IDEA THAT WOMEN DIDN'T USE TO WORK? (Sorry for shouting, I feel strongly about this.) Here are some 18th century business cards of, yes, shudder, women.

@petergeoghegan.bsky.social’s reporting on Labour Together’s attempts to discredit journalists continuing to make waves. In @thetimes.com’s podcast today, appreciate the credit at the top of the show, classy 🙏

"Humanity is the richest it's ever been, and still most of us cannot afford to raise a family on a single income. Why would we think the past was any different?" www.broadhistory.com/the-housewif...

Was gonna paint my kitchen today. Wrote this instead. www.broadhistory.com/the-housewif...

I'm confused how this is new bc I always understood it to be an international rule that you must enter the country of which you are a citizen on that country's passport. You're not technically a visitor or an immigrant, no other visa or visa waiver rule apply to you. 1/2

X thinks my interview with a feminist historian is adult content 🙄 (This is the full convo if you're curious: www.youtube.com/watch?v=WKmx...)

🎙️ Just published a new episode of Broad History: The long history of women in work, with Victoria Bateman. Have a listen:

I know nobody goes to Bridgerton for historical accuracy but housemaids fretting about infection and cleaning a wound with alcohol half a century before germ theory irks me.

Will future historians read the Epstein files and think that was us? Should we take this opportunity to telegraph a Not All Men disclaimer to future researchers? www.broadhistory.com/one-day-the-...

"The letter 'p' signifies all at once women's most grab-able anatomy, women themselves, hatred, contempt, and the partially realised shame of men just aware enough that they dare not spell the word fully. Was language ever that devastatingly efficient?" www.broadhistory.com/one-day-the-...

My brother may never forgive this…

You know how much a sponsor would pay to put their logo everywhere your story is shared on the Internet?

It's small things like this that drive me insane about Substack: when you share an article, it doesn't show the publisher's domain, but a Substack subdomain instead. They watermark the image with their own logo too. You don't just pay your 10%, you're giving them free ad inventory too.

The utter moral vacuum of a world where people think algos are the arbiter of what’s right open.substack.com/pub/londonce...

“customer data will drive our decisions” really rallies the troops