This is one of those books that changed how I see and understand culture and history. I learned a huge amount from @juliaioffe.bsky.social's telling of these stories, and I greatly appreciated her writing voice which is both rigorous and imbued with distinctive and compelling energy.

"Beneath its humdrum requests, every email said more or less the same thing: Can you explain how reading certain things can turn a person into a socialist—and, possibly, a terrorist-sympathizing antisemite? It’s a storied gambit of the right at its most grimly predictable" lithub.com/maybe-dont-t...

Insane mast year Water oak covering Atlanta with the cutest acorns ever

Thinking only of Rosalind Franklin today, and what was stolen from her (and so many other female scientists alongside her).

Media coverage of James Watson's death rightly notes his white supremacy (and misogyny, notably his refusal to credit Dr. Rosalind Franklin with her role in the elucidation of the structure of DNA). His were not an isolated set of beliefs, though. thread...

The man who ended USAID is the world's first trillionaire

Eastern Forest playing cards are back in stock! Each card a different species, each suit a different sense. Art by Ellen Litwiller, micropoems on natural history by me. All my proceeds to enviro ed and conservation. Celebrating human play and forest biodiversity 💚 www.artofplay.com/products/eas...

Those with sharp eyes might detect a subtle difference in NYT play last month of an event in one city, w 100,000+ attendees, versus play this morning of some 2500+ events w many millions of attendees, in all 50 states. See if you can spot it! /s Then you can find today's story on p A23

Timeline cleanser 🐈

Today I am mostly thinking about the popular inter-war literary genre 'animal stories written by fascists'. Join me.

This had me on "ribbit."

Big night #birdcast

'When authoritarians seize power, it is crucial to recognize courageous defenders of freedom who rise and resist,' the Norwegian Nobel Committee said as it announced Maria Corina Machado as the winner of the 2025 Nobel Peace Prize

Lost Science: all the brilliant discoveries now no longer possible, at least under this regime. Deeply sad but vitally important coverage from @carlzimmer.com and colleagues @nytimes.com Curiosity, wonder, and the desire to improve the world through knowledge will not be snuffed out.

Join me and Nick Dangerfield, founder of Oda oda.co Saturday morning. Oda makes paper sculptures/speakers that bring live sound of regenerating Costa Rican forests to our ears. The project provides funding for forest stewardship. We'll be talking about the joys and brokenness of sound in our worlds

Somehow, somehow the knowledge of where to go and when to leave is encoded in the genes of the green darner dragonfly. I found this one, a male judging from his neon blue abdomen, sitting on the concrete outside a store in a strip mall in Atlanta. He likely hatched in a pond in Quebec or NY 🧵...

End-of-summer fruitfulness in the SE US...muscadines. A more complex flavor than table grapes, more tannic, with layers of cardamom and warm hay. Aroma stronger than taste. Thicker skins to give a good bite, with stout seeds. What's the gastronomic signal of seasonal transition where you are?

Just 3 weeks to submit your opposition to opening roadless areas...

🚨Journalism job alert🚨 We're hiring an investigative reporter to join my team at @wired.com. We're looking for someone who has both traditional and non-traditional reporting skills (coding/data work/OSINT, etc). Fit the bill? Come work with me! condenast.wd5.myworkdayjobs.com/CondeCareers...

Some wonderful sounds here, along with excellent context and reflection...

Coming in March 2026: Flowers! When flowers appeared, nothing was ever the same. They are the world’s great collaborators and creators. Writing this book transformed how I see life’s history and future. Cooperation, beauty, and illusion transform the world. Can't wait to share these stories

The Guardian US is hiring a senior science investigative reporter: workforus.theguardian.com/jobs/795/

Death, impermanence, and cake The afterlife of trees

A new short video from our Beneath the Bodhi Tree production. This clip explores impermanence and features excerpts from our interview with @dghaskell.bsky.social, @joanhalifax.bsky.social, and Anam Thubten. It also includes archive footage from our Precious Guru production. vimeo.com/1084457498

Yup

Flowers are great illusionists. Here's one example. Others are more extreme, like orchids that mimic female wasps, conning males into trysts that are fruitless for the insect but very helpful for the flower. Illusion is a theme that runs through my book, How Flowers Made our World, out next March.

Little update on Facebook's decision to shut my account.

Today's the day when the US government officially throws in the towel on the climate fight. Which means the rest of us have to pick up the slack www.politico.com/news/2025/06...

The secret to long life? Sink roots into a volcano. So says a 3000+ yr-old chestnut on Mt Etna. The soil here is the dark color of cinders blasted from the hot underskin of the Earth. A recent wound. A recent gift. Mineral rich. Too well drained for nasty diseases. Encircled by hazels and vineyards.

Heads up! Proposed subject heading changes at LC. Deadline for public comments is TODAY. #libraries

Delighted to send the manuscript for my next book to my editor. How flowers made our world...

Science has a nasty E coli infection, apparently. Time to boost the microbiome of the peer-reviewed literature... www.nature.com/articles/d41...

Meet the California Couple Who Uses More Water Than Every Home in Los Angeles Combined How megafarmers Lynda and Stewart Resnick built their billion-dollar empire.

Meanwhile over on Meta

Obstinate denial is a good winter strategy, sometimes. Rosemary, Salvia rosmarinus, putting out the blooms like it is springtime. The humblebees that would normally be paying their respects at the floral altars are fast asleep in their underground burrows in the leaf litter.

Happy solstice (Sundown, bus window light)

Petitioned to bar polio and hepatitis B vaccine. Plus, a "pause" for tetanus, diphtheria, polio and hepatitis A vaccines. Don't believe their BS about free choice. They're fighting to ban, just as they are for reproductive choice and marriage equality. www.nytimes.com/2024/12/13/h...

A contrarian plant. When all else goes dormant, the cranefly orchid pops up. The plant's name refers to the twisted flower which looks like a wounded cranefly. The flowers are pollinated by moths who get rewarded for visiting the flower by having a pollen sack glued to one of their eyes. Nice. 1/2

Biden is basically the Halley's comet of Red State America

I'm currently reading @ferrisjabr.bsky.social's Becoming Earth and it's brilliant. Packed with eye-opening stories about how life made the Earth as we know it, each tale beautifully told

A marvelous book:

"If we had a keen vision and feeling of all ordinary human life, it would be like hearing the grass grow and the squirrel's heart beat, and we should die of that roar that lies on the other side of silence." Mary Ann Evans (George Eliot), Middlemarch

Seismic air guns...ocean hell www.theguardian.com/environment/...

Are you interested in MS programs in ecology or evolution and want to be paid for it? Check out these fully funded programs (stipend + tuition is provided). It's been a looong time since I updated the list, so as always, check with the program for the latest info. docs.google.com/spreadsheets...

Cut faster, doc... Another circle of hell added by the American insurance industry. Via @authorwinifred.bsky.social

“Don’t feed the trolls” also extends to bad opinion pieces in papers of record. They run them bc people react to them the most. If we stop linking to bad columns and instead post thinkers we find valuable (& generate convo around it), incentives change. It’s not easy and takes constant practice!

A very very old tradition. Gingko leaf fall day. They all come down together in the space of a few hours. Ginkgoes have been doing this for about 240 million autumns now. I feel lucky to experience a few of them.

It's book giving season! I'll mail you a customized bookplate to include with gifts. Now out in paperback: 🦜🎵🐸🎻Sounds Wild and Broken 🌴🌳🌲🍁The Songs of Trees 💚🔎🍄🦌The Forest Unseen 👃🌿 Thirteen Ways to Smell a Tree. Published in UK; Blackwell’s ships free to US. dghaskell.com/custom-bookp...

I was deeply disappointed by the lack of nature/science/climate/enviro on many major end-of-year book lists—so I decided to make my own! Introducing: ✨🎁📚 The 2024 Holiday Gift Guide to Nature & Science Books ✨🎁📚 Please share: Let's make this go viral in time for Black Friday / holiday shopping!

Cannas are deliciously unconventional. They even faked out Linnaeus, who failed to realize that a bunch of male stamens had transformed themselves into petal-like banners. Pollen comes from the edge of a single stamen.The stigma is like a blade. One last day of bloom before the frost gets them