You can hear from Ariel tomorrow on KQED, too.

Have been searching for this dude I knew in middle school and it’s always wild to encounter someone with literally no internet presence. Among his entire family, they have one obituary, one stub of a LinkedIn profile, and then scammy sites purporting to show his home address.

One of the truly great podcasts

Looking at this chart ... I would not say that these recent years look at all exceptional relative to the years ... 2000-2018? In which I do not recall AI being a major factor.

The hype cycle on Sora was one of the most embarassing things I’ve ever seen in consumer tech.

In this case, it takes two to TACO.

Rarely tip people off to a show that's about to go live, but if you want to learn more about the heat that's about to hit the Bay (and whole west)... Here's the perfect opportunity.

I'll be live on KQED Forum from 9-10am PT on Mon, Mar 16 (yes, for the full hour!) to discuss what is likely to become a historic March heatwave across Western U.S. We'll be taking listener questions live; you can listen online as well as over the air. www.kqed.org/radio/s...

lots of great gatherings this week in Oakland, including the one I am hosting on Saturday! bsky.app/profile/msat...

Unrelated to anything else: someone was recently telling me about a Bay Area musician who incorporated whale song ... or performed near whales. That ring a bell for anyone?

@nilsgilman.bsky.social for the deviant globalization file www.theguardian.com/world/2026/m...

Have to be the auctioneer for a local public school’s benefit tonight… Never done it. A tiiiiiny bit worried? Any tips? Oh, have a martini? I got that one already. What else?

I gotta learn an instrument

Help me. I’ve become physically addicted to this song and need similar garage rock recorded by 4 teens in the 1960s to wean myself off of it. open.spotify.com/track/7n6FeT...

Yesssssss

If anyone has ever clicked this button, I would like to meet them. The freakiest of freaks.

It turns out that one of the most popular content types for humans right now is the micro-stereotype. It kind of doesn’t matter if it is deployed as iykyk pride, as comedy, or as object of ridicule. Such a strange, dehumanizing form!Maybe the spiritual opposite of a (good) novel?

“We are taking back your papers, you have no papers now” is even more chilling than “show us your papers”

This is fantastic. Not the point of the essay, BUT: The most interesting science is all in this complex realm, while the worst politics has harnessed itself to decades-old views of genetics that are also horrifically racist. Ugh.

Good boy

So important for people to understand… no one is immune from the effects of platforms, and that goes double for places where there is such an obvious thumb on the scales.

Man, I don’t know what anyone is arguing about on here today, but I wore the widest tie you’ve ever seen today.

PARADE! PARADE!!

This is so so good. Not the point of the piece, but it’s also an incredible answer to why college is so expensive, too.

Gotta say, this made me tear up a bit. Just beautiful skating and performance and flow. And the Oaklandness of it all… Fearless, loose, fun. Coming off the ice, elated, and drops “That’s what I’m fucking talking about!” right into the camera. 10/10 no notes youtu.be/VCrFaRsezGo?...

Honestly, journalism funders should have just handed them 10x this amount, but maybe it’s better to come from the community.

ICE/CBP’s practice of regularly grabbing citizens, LPRs, people in the wrong house etc has strong shades of the Buttle/Tuttle mixup that launches the plot of Brazil

Anyone know how muddy it is in Redwood Regional right now? I’m gonna run it regardless, but I definitely want to know how spattered I will be

I'm pretty proud of this poem I made out of the euphemisms that companies used to describe the ICE occupation in corporate communications. Also read the whole story: racketmn.com/corporate-co...

@brockwinstead.bsky.social think my newsletter is gonna be about KJ snd that album

This is easily some of the best journalism published by @oaklandreviewofbooks.org so far. Absolutely essential reading for anyone who lives in an American city, not just Oakland. www.oaklandreviewofbooks.org/unpaid-debts/

Join us next week to toast our newest issue ZYZZYVA 131! Ft. readings from contributors @tomasmmoniz.bsky.social + @mawsheinwin.bsky.social + Suzanne Rivecca. Thursday, 2/12, 6:30pm @ Local Economy, Oakland

Tag yourself I’m Mutant Sewer Rat King

Rahawa the GOAT!!!

As a parent, what other response can there be aside from: free the children?!

Sorry we can dance

If you want to learn more about Bad Bunny’s music and activism, have to recommend this new book P FKN R. It’s awesome. I learned so much: www.kqed.org/forum/201010...

I am in Japantown with four very hype 10-year-old girls for my daughter’s birthday. Wish me luck.

Just got in at the highest tier. They truly are doing things no one else is and it is glorious. LFG!

FEAR ME

The longer I've gone in journalism, the more I think I underestimated how important the institutional knowledge inside newspapers really was. Newspaper reporters and editors *knew the place* and their combined knowledge is irreplaceable.

If I had to hold up the most heavily fortified bank in America, I'd take a gang of poets. The attempt would probably end in disaster, but it would be beautiful. - Roberto Bolaño, "The Best Gang" (translated by Natasha Wimmer)

When I nuked my Twitter account a few years ago, I did not think there would ever be a replacement. I was mostly happy about that. But I realized this week that Bluesky has become that replacement. And I’m still conflicted.

Ashé Ashé Ashé. And so many others… Charlotta Bass survielled and harassed by the FBI for her reporting, A Philip Randolph and Chandler Owen arrested for writing an editorial that Black men should resist the draft. It is why I write that Black journalists are canaries in the coal mine in my book

YES (AFFIRMATIVE)

Still waiting for the paleo diet people to swear off all the columbian exchange ingredients their ancestors never had access to

This is fascinating! Are e-commerce (profit) expectations too high? www.phenomenalworld.org/analysis/the...

Anyone know the best hikes outside Tucson?

moral arc right to repair