Episode 082 is here! Pannill, Miriam, and Harvey discuss Carla Neuss's Theatre Journal article on gender reveals, James Bundy's retirement from the David Geffen School of Drama at Yale, and the PBS stream of the free production of Twelfth Night in Central Park. Enjoy! soundcloud.com/ontappod/on-...

[Xzibit voice] Yo dawg I heard you like garages…

The President of the United States saying, in the Oval Office, "That's ok. You can just say yes. It's easier than explaining" (i.e. you can just call me a fascist), should still manage to shock us, whatever the context. What a horror.

More details about my rebuilt dream MTB, from the mechanic's website: bikesheaven.com/1995-special...

Mechanic [sliding out from under Optimus Prime]: I think I see what the issue is. This truck is also a big guy somehow

Pope Leo absolutely cooking

[palpatine voice] “unlimited toilet paper”

Trained at Logos, and rented an e-bike to hit up this taco truck for a breakfast burrito in my slightly bloody gi pants. Immediately fell into the Denver dirtbag lifestyle.

People will be mad at me for saying this, but I think we have to do it. Nothing is more important for the future of this country, and indeed humanity, than the app that makes you schizophrenic and helps you forget how to learn. The juice is worth the squeeze.

I said a thing.

Can’t believe Sliwa lost even after adopting the “every parade has a right to exist” platform.

Comrade Mayor!

most cursed liminal space

Cable news: better on mute!

Eminently reasonable proposed principles for professors’ use of AI, from a student refusinggenai.wordpress.com/2025/08/29/a...

I think being on this site *turns you Canadian.*

NyQuil’s new products suggest that it is trying to “innovate in the opioid space.”

Is the pope watching this??

It’s daylight savings. This game can go for an additional hour.

Same

Not a huge baseball guy but has anyone else noticed that Tyler Glasnow looks like Rob Moran’s character in Kingpin? photos1.blogger.com/blogger/2088...

My 1995 Stumpjumper M2 has been rebuilt. Only the frame, headset, and handlebar are from the old build. New (old stock) SID fork, Ritchey seat post, stem, and pedals, and a complete XTR m950 group set.

Stephen Miller's playing Civilization with cultural victories turned off apnews.com/article/wole...

by OpenAI’s own estimates, hundreds of thousands of ChatGPT users are showing signs of manic or psychotic crisis every week

“I am not interested, nor will I ever be interested. I'm 61, and I hope to be able to remain uninterested in using it at all until I croak. ... The other day, somebody wrote me an email, said, ‘What is your stance on AI?’ And my answer was very short. I said, ‘I'd rather die.’” 🫡

Backbone! You love to see it.

If you’re among the 1400+ recipients of the outreach email for the Tufts PhD program I just sent out, please know I thought of you personally when I hit send.

I strongly urge everyone to not just read this warning from @marcwatkins.bsky.social, but heed it, and be vocal and forceful pushing back against using AI to grade student writing. This must be anathema if we're going to have a world where learning means something. substack.com/inbox/post/1...

Respect

In this paper I will suggest that the straw man I have just constructed is a jerk, that we should hate it, and that the possibility of any glimmer of a livable human future depends upon all of us agreeing that it sucks.

*takes massive bong rip*

UVA Faculty Senate passed a resolution strongly opposing the Trump “Compact.” We, at least, remain committed to the historic values and mission of the university.

YES! THIS on GenAI! Please read this absolutely splendid piece of writing that had me cheering, a little bit weepy, and writing in the margins: "An extraordinary amount of money is spent by the AI industry to ensure that acquiescence is the only plausible response. But marketing is not destiny."

Episode 080 is here! We welcome Jacob Gallagher-Ross of University of Toronto and Caden Manson of Big Art Group to talk about "interface theatre." Shayoni, Miriam, and Pannill then take stock of the political attacks on higher education in recent months. www.ontappod.com/home/2025/9/...

NCCU is an HBCU. (Disclosure: my alma mater.) Intel ends relationship after U.S. takes stake in the company. This is the point. abovethelaw.com/2025/08/inte...

Brian Kilmeade endorses euthanizing homeless people: "Involuntary lethal injection, or something. Just kill them."

we are many, and our letters are many, so just repeating: I am a Jewish UC alum and wholeheartedly oppose this federal campaign and its institutional enablers! www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...

With students heading back to the classroom, a group of cognitive scientists and AI researchers has published one of the most forceful and evidence-backed calls yet to reject the "uncritical adoption of AI" in academia:

“Barron is President now.”

One of the things that drives me up the wall is when people say students “need to learn how to use AI” to succeed in the workplace. It is EXTREMELY EASY to use a chatbot. That’s the whole point of it! You do not need training to type in the box! What are you even TALKING about?? +

Pritzker: To the members of the press who are assembled here today and listening across the country, I am asking for your courage to tell it like it is. This is not a time to pretend here that there are two sides to this story.

I loved @vermontgmg.bsky.social's latest piece so much that I asked if I could republish it on The Handbasket and he so generously said yes. If you haven't read it yet, please do. It's essential:

The reason why fundraising text read like scams is because they are. The political fundraising system has imported the tactics of elder financial fraud. These tactics are designed to filter out skeptics and specifically target and exploit seniors. 95% of scam PAC donors are 65+, costing > $500m.

A massive attack on several humanities units (Arabic Studies, Judaic Studies, Holocaust Studies, Classics, Religion, German & Scandinavian, Russian/East European/Eurasian Studies) *and* tenure now unfolding at the University of Oregon (a blue state!). Closure of units and faculty layoffs threatened.

The Josh Kraft 2025 Democrat for Mayor campaign is now sending mailers to Newton.

teachers! excited to share a new website at this late date of Aug 15 to try to help us collectively prepare for back to school in the interpretative humanities classroom assaulted by the AI grift, so we don't have to go it alone. take a look, share, + most importantly: CONTRIBUTE against-a-i.com