Complexly was always public media and now a nonprofit to match! Congratulations!

It gives me hope that so many folks are standing up in MSP for their communities, and also that so many of their families and kids are seeing the example they are setting for how to respond to authoritarianism. They are inoculating and teaching a whole generation.

As clergy pray, arrests begin

Letter from the Editor: A Consequential Year tradeoffs.org/2026/01/15/l...

On my way to the Supreme Court where I'll be proud to support 15-year-old Becky Pepper-Jackson, West Virginia's only transgender athlete, as she opposes the state's effort to ban her from playing as herself. Win or lose, Becky and her family are heroes for standing up for what's right

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Podcasting has suffered a series of blows the last few years—but this year’s standout programs reminded us that the listening experience isn’t going anywhere. Benjamin Cannon shares the best podcasts of 2025:

Anyone who tells you otherwise has never actually listened to a trans kid, a trans adult, a trans kid’s family or any of the caring, loving medical professionals who’ve seen lives transformed and supported by gender-affirming care.

Treatment for trans kids cannot wait for adulthood. Adolescent changes in the body are permanent and irreversible. The pain of dysmorphia kills. No medical professional treats kids casually, no family seeks treatment casually. Treatment is safe, effective and is a conservative course of action.

any politician that can't name all the players in at least three of the lineups of Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers should be barred from holding office

If you are a cat owner and you don’t feel compelled to take a 5 minute cat petting break every time you cross paths, you’re a fake fan

Come for the incredible reporting, stay for the “I think I felt like shitting my pants or something”: www.youtube.com/watch?v=xfWy...

If you think you know why US newspapers died, this feature documentary now streaming for free on PBS might surprise you. It wasn't the Internet. Newspapers were specifically targeted by vulture capitalists. I composed the score for the film, which features electric cello & Crowfoot guitars.

"His car is blaring Hilary Duff." - KELSEY MCKINNEY, Sexy Mushrooms with Avery Trufelman, Normal Gossip #NormalGossip #HilaryDuff #HappyBirthdayHilaryDuff #KelseyMckinney

1. Bluesky doesn’t downrank links 2. You can choose your own algorithm from among thousands 3. The whole app is open source This keeps it a free and open platform by design, leading to better click-throughs and traffic to your site. We 💙 the open web.

There’s a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for people to build on the rubble of what’s being destroyed before our eyes. Private corporations bending over to forcefeed everyone government-approved speech is evil and amoral, but more than anything this creates boring, inauthentic, unwatchable shit.

Becoming increasingly clear we’re gonna have to build a parallel infrastructure for all the media we really love. The reason all of this is happening under the color of law is hyperconsolidation, dissent being traded straight up for merger approval, or fear of harassment.

"NPR is taking this very seriously. We'll be working with other news organizations to push back. We're big fans of the 1st Amendment and transparency and we want the American public to understand what's being done in their name."

Data showing the specific movement of tens of thousands of smartphones in Ireland is available to purchase from companies working in the digital marketing and advertising industries, an undercover Prime Time investigation has found. www.rte.ie/news/primeti... #spéirghorm

We cooperated with RTE PrimeTime over the last year on this very significant story about RTB data exposing the movements of Irish people, including military and political personnel. Link to this morning's preview piece is here --> www.rte.ie/news/primeti...

When you find out about Libro.fm, an alternative to Amazon-owned Audible that’s 100% employee owned, a Certified B Corporation, and shares profits with 4,000+ independent bookshops 😍

Excited to announce that Season 2 of Altered States begins next week! This season we're examining the spiritual side of psychedelics, and how that side has been interacting with the more science-oriented side of psychedelics. In other words: This is gonna be good. open.spotify.com/episode/1Lq1...

There are simple, effective techniques you can take in your every day life, right now, to protect yourself from the nearly-universal surveillance that so many of us live under. Here's a set of resources from @eff.org that you can start with. ssd.eff.org

More broadly, listening to communities with experience enduring widespread surveillance is always a best practice; there is nearly always a deep historical reason for folk knowledge that is passed down. It is also almost always useful to complicate one's digital footprint when risk is present.

"They already have all your data anyway" is never a useful reason to not try to reduce data exposure, nor is "other platforms do worse". It also matters if data are being gathered for, say, participating in a neutral/generic platform vs. for a specific event or purpose targeted by authorities.

People are talking past each other in a really ugly way about data sharing, and as someone who has both written terms of service for large-scale digital platforms, and built infrastructure for gathering data for campaigns, it's important to understand the context of threats people are speaking to…

Nearly all – 99% – of coffee consumed in the United States is imported, according to the National Coffee Association. Trump’s tariffs have caused a 21% spike in coffee. www.cnn.com/2025/09/12/f...

"Y'all, librarians are the best!" - HANS BUETOW, Rescuing Public Datasets the U.S. Gov't Deletes, Never Post #NeverPost #LibrariesRememberDay #HansBuetow

The World’s Marco Werman speaks with Edgardo Ochoa, a dive specialist and director of the dive program at Conservation International, about the removal of the largest individual piece of “ghost gear” ever from the ocean.

The newsroom is working on something great 👀👂

We're looking for a journalist with development chops (or a developer with journalism chops) to join our news apps team and build new web-based interactive stories, databases, and experiences. It's a remote role; candidates must be eligible to work in the US. job-boards.greenhouse.io/propublica/j...

Pretty sure an "involuntary resignation" means fired.

oh

Everyone is building the same tools and inventing the same processes over and over and over. Open source, open protocols, open processes can save us from so many headaches.

Attention chumps: If you, despite all our dire warnings, decided to put your newsletter on Substack, the untrustworthy asses who run the company just did what we all knew they would, and made it impossible to take your subscribers with you if you want to leave. support.substack.com/hc/en-us/art...

After the demise of CPB, Rebuild Local News Founder @stevenwaldman.bsky.social says the industry has an opportunity to build more creative models for public support. Read more at @columjournreview.bsky.social: www.cjr.org/analysis/wha...

I was on @kalwradio.bsky.social today to discuss how publicly funding public media is a racial justice issue. The full episode is dedicated to understanding CPB’s closure and well worth a listen. The last 15 mins is my interview with @angiecoiro.bsky.social www.kalw.org/show/your-ca...

"Without warning, Will Smith goes from laughing at Chris Rock's joke to climbing up onto the stage!" - RACHELLE HAMPTON, Reverse Heist with Jonquilyn Hill, Normal Gossip #NormalGossip #NationalTellAJokeDay #RachelleHampton

On The World 🌎 today: 🌐 @shirinj.bsky.social: Documenting life in Gaza 🌐 @joshuacoe.bsky.social: Poverty declines in Mexico 🌐 The vinyl-collecting scene in Dubai Tune in 📻 bit.ly/3xyRRfD

Delighted to have interviewed with WBUR's Meghna Chakrabarti "On Point." First half discusses the historical intricacies of the US public media ecosystem. Second half I tried to detail how the GOP rescission bill was designed to attack democratic media.

Check out my #DEFCON33 talk about the Signalgate, full of unbelievable incompetence from the highest levels of the Trump administration www.youtube.com/watch?v=KFYy...

Here's my list (but you should reply to Abby with yours, and also go follow her): 🧵

Corporation for Public Broadcasting calls it a day after US Senate panel includes no CPB funding for next fiscal year - will all but close on Sept 30 Official statement mailchi.mp/cpb/corporat...

Well played MSP. All this and more for the Prince:

The Substack app apparently push alert promoted a Nazi newsletter to several users. Users have complained about it on Substack Notes but the company hasn’t responded. Generally push alert promos are for content a user is likely to interact with

Get the fuck off Substack already.

Public media has been defunded. Your support keeps journalists on the ground, lifts unheard voices, and connects communities. Help us plan for what’s next. Make a monthly gift today. Stand with public media: n.pr/458sOhq

I just wanted to say, I’m probably more proud of this Ted talk than just about anything I’ve ever done so I’m gonna be absolutely useless for the next couple of weeks as I promote the shit out of this because I want you to watch it because it matters in the moment we are in youtu.be/dVG8W-0p6vg

PBS News is not going anywhere. We will continue our work without fear or favor, as we have for nearly five decades on the air. We are profoundly grateful to Viewers Like You for your loyalty and unwavering support.