I wish we still had Toni Morrison. I love this speech, but it hits different today. www.c-span.org/clip/public-...

Georgia Fort, an independent journalist and vice president of the Minnesota NABJ chapter, was also arrested by federal agents this morning I was sent this video of agents at her door:

Holy moly this chart: Cumulative US measles cases

Finally. A comprehensive look at the “neo-Nazi .. ethnic cleansing” content coming out of “the offices of the White House .. using official government accounts ..” @nytimes.com www.nytimes.com/2026/01/27/u...

344 unlawful detention petitions filed in Minnesota since Dec. 1st -- 288 of them just since Jan 1. The filings dwarf everything that came before. During Trump’s first term: avg 5.5 cases per month; Biden presidency: avg 1.5 cases per month www.startribune.com/wrongful-det...

Another argument for high-speed rail in the US. www.theguardian.com/environment/...

I'm so impressed by these projects.

Fascinating post from @ashendruk.com on how we don't "linger" as much. www.not-ship.com/we-dont-ling...

Hello budding data journalists. The @NBCNews.com Data / Graphics team is looking for a summer 2026 intern, full-time, $30 / hour, working at 30 Rock in NYC. The application deadline is Friday Dec. 5 at 11:59 p.m. ET. Details and link to application form below: gist.github.com/freejoe76/56...

Your morning read. How billionaires took over American politics: The concentration of wealth among the richest Americans is unlike anything in history — and so is billionaires’ influence in politics. wapo.st/48nkqMN

Right-wing YouTubers use political identity to make big money. Lefty shows do less of it. A really great data analysis: www.bloomberg.com/graphics/202...

The ninth annual Pudding Cup is live! Submit your non-commercial data/visual stories. Winners receive $1,500. pudding.cool/pudding-cup/

A behind-the-scenes look at how I did this piece: buttondown.com/charthead/ar...

How much does Congress talk about democracy? How often do they worry that democracy is eroding? @alv9n.com's latest project analyzes every congressional speech in the last 145 years. pudding.cool/2025/11/demo...

My latest piece for @puddingviz.bsky.social: In pursuit of democracy pudding.cool/2025/11/demo...

top tier data viz defector.com/name-a-28-ye...

On Wednesday, the GOP-controlled House Appropriations Committee voted 34-28 along party lines to advance a funding bill that calls for excluding people living in the states without legal status from #2030Census results that the 14th Amendment says must include “whole number of persons in each state”

Wu's lopsided victory came despite being outmatched in fund-raising. Kraft spent roughly $260 for every vote earned in the prelim. www.bostonglobe.com/2025/09/10/m... via @daigofuji.bsky.social

This is chilling.

Remember, if you encounter what seems like an implausible survey finding, ask: 1. Were survey respondents selected randomly or was this an opt-in poll? 2. Could the results, especially for young adults, be driven by bogus respondents? Keep this post in mind: www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/... 🧪

Our desire to be serious and be taken seriously sometimes gets in the way of something even more important. Scarry understood the power of using fun to explain things that are complicated. This is how we can learn from that today. simonrogers.net/2025/09/01/h...

I'm completely obsessed with this art treatment. www.washingtonpost.com/sports/inter...

On the left: Nate Cavanagh, a 28-year-old DOGE staffer and college dropout. On the right: Mohammad Halimi, a 53-year-old exiled Afghan scholar. This is the story of how DOGE targeted Halimi on social media. Then the Taliban took his family. 🧵

Great. www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...

The Parable of the Good Samaritan, if it ended halfway through.

"We need a government-wide changelog." - yes. strong cosign and thanks @flowingdata.com for the shoutout to my lil Census tracker flowingdata.com/2025/08/20/t...

An incompetent, egotistical, uncurious administration. www.propublica.org/article/rfk-...

Do you want a bullhorn? Or do you want a whisper? Miriam Tinberg is a great follow for smart, empathetic, and grounded conversations on the internet and we’re lucky to have her on our team. Stay tuned for more!

The horizontal cuts are bad. Onion fonts are good. pudding.cool/2025/08/onio...

A cruel, irresponsible, undemocratic, incompetent administration. projects.propublica.org/venezuelan-i...

We followed 260 migrants in Costa Rica—weekly—for 3 months. Findings: • Stressors like economic precarity and family separation predicted spikes in psychological distress • Distress quickly somatized: headaches, digestive issues, sleep disturbances • Effects were immediate and reversible

Just had a chill thinking about a PHP cron job that still might be running from my time at the Boston Globe... in 2012.

No respect for democracy, in maps www.theguardian.com/us-news/ng-i...

Such a classic Matt Daniels project

Texas Republicans have unveiled a more extreme new gerrymander that targets 5 Dems by diluting Latino & Black voting power. Trump won 30 of 38 seats by >10 points & 27 seats by >15 points. All GOP seats likely stay safe, & none that Trump won by <20 got bluer davesredistricting.org/join/b82658a...

📄 RESEARCH: Justification, tone, and willingness to compromise can make a real difference in the quality of a conversation. Adjusting these factors can help foster healthy democratic interactions in online debate, but not necessarily change minds. www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

As many parts of the US brace for a sweltering week, our latest uncovers a critical and often overlooked intersection of climate change and correctional policy: The dangerous heat crisis within US prisons www.reuters.com/graphics/USA...

Just did a much-needed migration off Substack and to Buttondown: buttondown.com/charthead It was genuinely WAY easier and smoother than I expected using this guide: docs.buttondown.com/substack

If empathy is your goal, it's not useful to put people on a stage to perform diametrically opposed identities.

This piece is stunning. www.reuters.com/graphics/USA...

“I was threatened with being referred to the FBI... They also threatened to stain my record so I would never get a job again. They also threatened with an extended detention if I didn’t give them the passwords to the student information or to my district files."

Arrests spiked after Stephen Miller and Kristi Noem ordered ICE to meet an arrest quota so they can get to 1 million a year. www.theguardian.com/us-news/ng-i...

🚨 come work with me !!! 🚨 we are looking for someone who can help tell our story and fund our amazing reporting

Complete this sentence: "..then the rabbit said ‘I must go to the river.’ Upon arriving..." OK now read this fantastic data story. pudding.cool/2025/07/kids...

New case study up on my redesigned website! Full process of building a custom #datavisualization tool: brainstorming and prototyping to refining the UX through cross-functional teamwork and creative problem-solving! Inspired by @alv9n.com's great project walkthroughs!

Most people think that talking to a stranger would suck. But when thousands did it in this experiment, they got happier. Watch this wildly inventive data visualization and storytelling by @alv9n.com pudding.cool/2025/06/hell...

Trump announced that the U.S. had bombed Iran while this week's Economist / YouGov Poll was in the field — which let us look at shifting views in real time. After Trump's announcement, Democrats became less supportive of bombing Iran, and Republicans much more supportive:

Slides for my #IRE25 presentation on using LLMs to extract data from documents: go.umd.edu/ire25-ai