My ivory tower, tweed-clad, Ivy-educated self has just gotten another royalty check. This one can buy me: 4 sandwiches. 1 nice dinner (without wine, dessert, or appetizer). 3 pints of beer. (But not all three).

“The new smashing pumpkins” is now 30 years old.

We are thrilled to announce that our NEW Large Language Model will be released on 11.18.25.

There is no salvaging, no "other side" to Wounded Knee. It is an example of "we told our soldiers lies to frighten them / they did atrocity because of their fear / we gave them medals to convince everyone they acted rightly." Let's think about how that might play out today.

Thai Lawyers for human rights have kicked off their "Class of 2020" interview series in which they talk to young people from the 2020 protest movement about their reflections. This one is with a student from Bad Student, who now lives in Vancouver.

Find the kind of friend who will do a fascism to avoid talking about (his involvement in) your crimes.

I will look at your dog as you pass by where I’m sitting, maybe whisper “hey buddy”, get ready for a head scratch. I will not apologize for this.

Anything to keep from saying the name “Epstein.”

Twitter simply became useless to me. I use social media to get information on other projects and books and to promote my own writing. I don’t want parasocial or irrelevant stuff. I go to Twitter now and it’s either Nazi stuff or videos of horrible accidents. It has no more value.

entire press has gotten bullied into treating charlie kirk as if he was one of the most important americans alive and not a modestly popular podcaster

Water leaks in library, contingent faculty, hiring freezes, no research support. And a top-ranked football team.

it's true

When I lived along Jones Falls, we had osprey and water snakes, deer along the banks. Jones Falls is an urban gem.

The AI summary (I think Gemini) of my book, Mekong Dreaming, describes it as a novel of escape from Laos (“the land of death”) to Thailand (“the land of life”) to realize “the dream.” Absolutely bizarre. Like fully fever dream riffing on the title.

SPEAKER ANNOUNCEMENT 📢 Emma Kidwell - Writer 💚 Get a deeper understanding of the games media to #gamedev pipeline, the successes, and the deterioration 💙What new writers and narrative designers should do now to kickstart their career now that the pipeline no longer exists. #GDoCExpo2025

For those who missed this wonderful event and discussion, it's now available in YouTube form! www.youtube.com/live/blXnnwc... 🗃️

Americans are not exceptions. We can learn from how democracy, violence, and public demonization of political enemies led to the end of democracies elsewhere.

I use Huntington sometimes in class to highlight “when famous people are allowed to talk completely out of their ass”. Mongolia + Thailand China + Vietnam (For extra points his map of “the free world” is also a hoot, as most of the countries in there are dictatorships).

Opposition party member jailed for lese majeste.

Doctor (Doktor) I trust more than RFK Jr.

I’m also (not by any stretch equally) fed up with my fellow lefties who make the case that “universities (esp. Ivies) are elitist, USAID is imperialist, etc”. And? The alternative? The Thursday night Gramsci reading group you tried to set up still can’t agree on a time.

Same - such things for us are, like presentations and conference attending, outside of remunerated work. We pay for association and conference fees ourselves. But it seems like a dream to argue for this work to be funded, when we’re just hoping the job - the discipline - is still here.

Working with Emma over the past 2 years has been a pleasure. She’s extremely good at voice and character work, and I hope she snags a role that lets these strengths of hers flourish. I wholeheartedly recommend her for anything.

I was a Firaxis narrative designer/writer and lost my job today. Any help sharing leads on new opportunities would be great! Over 3.5 years, I contributed to Civilization VII and Marvel’s Midnight Suns, helping turn maps, mechanics, and chaos into memorable stories. See my work benreeves.carrd.co

Autumn light has begun, but the air is still warm.

One week ago, thousands of New Yorkers tried something new. They heard about it last minute. They didn’t know where it would take them or who they would meet. It was free, earnest, even educational. It was the #ZcavengerHunt and it was a thing of beauty.

Actually, Frankenstein is a doctor success at the Venice film festival

In Thailand another activist been convicted under Lèse-majesté 😠 Court sentenced “Baipor” to 6 years in prison, later reduced to 4 years, for sharing posts from the ‘ThaluWang’ page regarding the monarchy’s budget. Bail was granted pending appeal. #FreeOurFriends tlhr2014.com/archives/77893

Illegal cuts to international and area studies are destroying core competencies at US universities. This one is personal: it features my colleague Kathi, laid off from her Cornell outreach position which brought international studies to community colleges across central NY and the North Country

Coincidence? I don’t think so.

(Come and study with me in Sweden)

More or less universally a country seeking to limit foreigners studying in that country is a sign of a society, culture, great power in severe decline.

This is really a place where Americans have a lot to learn from other places. Capital is quite content - happy, even - with authoritarian regimes if they keep the markets stable and labor suppressed, so long as the rest of the int’l community allows it.

Not quite an interaction, but the afternoon summer light on the D train to Coney Island, golden and warm as we roll over Brooklyn. The Cyclone and Wonder Wheel ahead of us, but we’re already on a ride.

Great thread on how much of the “woke stereotype” is a manufactured straw man of the right. (I’d add the Sydney Sweeney jeans commercial, a controversy so manufactured that the right wing had to create deepfakes of Democratic lawmakers to find someone to get mad at)

In Thai culture it's customary to give bags of money to people that you want to bribe.

なんだ なんでも

I messed with ChatGPT-5 the other night to see what it was capable of. When I do this, I ask it to summarize my book. It came up with two anecdotes - one was real, the other was completely fake. I asked it where it got the latter, and it insisted it was in the book.

This, of course, applies to warm, fuzzy radical stories every bit as much as to jingoistic pap.

If you want to appreciate how old and deep the Thai-Cambodia conflict is, consider that the name of the city Siem Reap (សៀមរាប) literally translates as "Siam Lost," possibly in reference to a 16th century Khmer military victory.

While I’m not of the Chicago crowd (the Ivies are another crew), I do recognize that Chicago was arguably the top program in anthro, worldwide. This is a vital node in our discipline, and to see it fall to finance bros’ mistakes makes me very sad.

I had a lot of fun writing this essay and hope you'll enjoy reading it: "Against traplessness: Disconnection and entrapment in multispecies science fiction," published with Configurations. 🧵⬇️ (1/5) 🔗 doi.org/10.1353/con.... #Anthropocene #envhum #SF #STS

The story that inspired the most mail The New Yorker had ever received in response to a work of fiction—and caused some readers to cancel their subscriptions.

Samsara

If universities have to cut language programs and decide to keep a Jumbotron (or, in general, a football team)... I dont really know what we're doing.

The man is a hero. There will never be a sub. I hope they don’t put him through the grinder. I hope this doesn’t sound too hoagie.

Former DC resident here: Georgetown is where Lululemon is. It’s where suburban people come for a fancy lunch. It is where home prices are astronomical. It is the yuppiest of yuppie spaces in DC. It is, in other words, where the audience is for this theater.

Slightly diminish a band: The Living Kennedy