Nice summary and conversation about the MIT Media Lab study on Ai, students, cognitive-offloading, and learning. #Ai #Pedagogy #HigherEd #Learning

I worked with Jeffrey a bit back when we were grad student teaching consultants at UC Berkeley’s GSR Teaching and Resource Center. Even then, he stood out as a brilliant instructor—his views on teaching struck me as unorthodox and incredibly creative,

Here’s a fascinating, data-driven look at AI and water usage (at the link below). The key point: www.tiktok.com/t/ZP8SWYrpw/

The descriptions of mid-level DHS staff during the trial alone make this worth listening to. #HigherEd #HigherEdUnderAttack #WhoseAfraidOfHigherEd open.spotify.com/episode/0PhV...

A powerful letter to students from an anonymous Texas A&M professor (h/t Michael Yarbrough): "This follows years in which faculty have been lampooned in partisan media and by state officials as “woke” activists, supposedly more concerned with ideology than with research and education.

Affirmative action is often framed on the Right as “undermining meritocracy,” when in fact it was introduced precisely because the existing system was anything but meritocratic.

A defining feature of the elite coalition that sustained the US innovation ecosystem was a shared vision of wealth-through-knowledge-dominance. Performative, superficial investments in science were the domain of countries where elites were wealthy primarily through cheap labor (Mexico).

Quick Thoughts over on TikTok creates great data-driven explanations. #HighlyRecommend #DataDriven www.tiktok.com/t/ZP8SVyqTx/

Check out Michael’s whole thread.

Learn practical equitable pedagogy practices thanks to Dr. Michel Estefan. @mestefan.bsky.social alsolano.substack.com/p/equitable-...

I agree with the student author here. Last quarter I experimented with banning laptops in class. The result? Noticeably better engagement, richer discussions, and a classroom vibe that felt more like a community than a silent co-working space. Turns out, closing the lid can actually open things up.

Inspired by Paul Novosad’s post, here are a few more: 1. You don’t take lecture notes to have notes.

Inequality is a tricky subject. Here are 7 different ways to think about it. Also, R = the rich, P = the poor, arrows refer to increases/decreases in wealth. Two arrows mean faster increase/decrease

@ucsandiego.bsky.social #sociology #gradstudent #research today.ucsd.edu/story/gen-z-...

Interesting paper. Here’s how I would reframe part of the argument:

If you have an MD and a PhD in health policy, I’m okay with you telling me vaccines are good for public health. If you’re a politician looking for soundbites, hard pass. www.washingtonpost.com/health/2025/...

Nothing gives you a boost like someone catching a glimpse of a picture of you in your twenties and blurting out, “No way! That’s you?!” 👴🏼 #GlowDown

😲 #wow “By 2022, Manzanilla López and his team had amassed more than 50,000 Pleistocene bones from just 3700 hectares.

Here’s one thing that keeps me up at night. This administration has shown politicians—including those in the Democratic party—that the presidency can be stretched far beyond what many thought possible.

#MustRead interview from 2024 with Mabel Berezin, Distinguished Professor of Sociology at Cornell. Her warning wasn’t about Trump alone—it was about the people around him: smart, organized, and armed with a plan (think Project 2025).

“On June 23, Judge Rita Lin found that the termination of grants by three agencies — the National Science Foundation, the National Endowment of the Humanities and the Environmental Protection Agency — violated the law.

“When the Soviet Union was collapsing, they stopped publishing life tables because of rapidly declining life expectancy between 1974 and 1986. In fact, that’s one of the indicators the CIA used to gauge the level of internal rot and infrastructural decline in the Soviet Union.

#wow 🫡

When government agents mask their faces, they erase the last fragile thread of accountability. The official rationale is fear of being doxxed—as if the disclosure of a name were more terrifying than the state’s power to detain, deport, or destroy lives.

The Big Beautiful Bill boosted ICE’s budget so much that it’s now BIGGER THAN THE MILITARY BUDGET OF EVERY COUNTRY ON EARTH-EXCEPT THE US AND CHINA. Yeah, you read that right. Let that sink in.

Cool sociology of gender job at UC Davis! You really can’t do better than a UC. #UC✊ recruit.ucdavis.edu/JPF07293

Going to the KidzBop concert tonight with my kids. It’s hard enough just owning a #DadBod—having to make it dance is outright cruel and unusual punishment. 🕺Ni lo Latino me ayuda con esto!

Every election cycle, the same fight breaks out: who’s more electable, progressives or moderates? The left insists liberals ignore evidence of progressive wins (and point to cases like Mamdani). Liberals basically do the same, just in favor of moderates.

“Republican and Democratic voters share common ground when it comes to the University of California: Both sides express widespread support for UC, its research, medical centers and ability to elevate the lives of students, a statewide poll shows.” via LA Times

Why is praise for Trump from his loyalists so mind-bogglingly over the top? To many, the idea of lauding a convicted felon who thrives on fear-mongering as the best candidate for the Nobel peace prize seems so absurd that it defies explanation.

Ya’ll, it’s mostly those smash burgers and all that Netflix binging. www.washingtonpost.com/climate-envi...

“A student who cuts and pastes a history paper is enrolled in a cutting and pasting class, not a history class. If the student’s preferred working methods reduce mental effort, we have to reintroduce that effort somehow.”

A political strategist might suggest that this is a good idea even if you knew it was destined to fail because it would further tie up the Fed govt in legal proceedings and deplete their resources. What do they call it? #FloodTheZone #WhatGoesAroundCanComeAround @governor.ca.gov

Have you heard of “soft secession”? One of the quirks about exercising power is that you end up teaching your opponents what’s possible. Trump’s presidency—especially his willingness to bend (or ignore) federal norms—seems to have given Democratic governors a new idea:

My daughter got me hooked on this. Total #banger. #SorryNotSorryForMyPopMusicTastes

After the Trump administration announced government acquisitions of stakes in Intel and U.S. Steel, Newsom’s press office trolled Trump by calling him a “socialist.”

In the last two decades, a debate about civility emerged in the U.S. On one side, liberals, moderates, and conservatives made a pragmatist argument that building bridges across difference was impossible without civility. open.spotify.com/episode/3Oa4...

Some fun readings of the movie Jaws from various Marxist perspectives toward the end of this podcast. open.spotify.com/episode/7Mw1...

🤌

You know you’re old when fashion trends you swore you’d never be caught dead in when you were young are suddenly cool. #1980s #Mullets #AviatorSunglasses #BaggyJeans

Here’s your historical insight of the day: After the Civil War, racism in the South shifted from legalized discrimination to illegal forms of vigilantism and violence.

“A Trump official is concocting mortgage fraud claims to target opposition. It's a classic authoritarian trick. Now they are doing it to Lisa Cook, the first Black female member of the Federal Reserve, to push her to resign.” open.substack.com/pub/donmoyni...