If I were an action hero, this is what I’d say to the bad guy before the kill shot.

Yes. Using a computer now feels like this at all times.

Weekly Wanderings: May 31, 2026 Don’t Try This at Home My book club is discussing Kiran Desai’s third novel, The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny, tomorrow night. The book is nearly 700 pages long—so when did I start reading it? Friday morning. 🙄 The past few days have been a throwback to graduate…

For those who are going to the American Political History Conference in DC next week, I'm on two sessions on 6/5. The first is a roundtable on @oscarwinberg.bsky.social's Archie Bunker for President, and the second is on public history in the age of Trump.

We are writing a book! globalreports.columbia.edu/books/our-he... Drops October 2026 with @abduwelia.bsky.social Reporting this book was such an adventure. This is a story I never thought I’d have access to, and I’m thrilled to share it w readers who watch either the Syria and/or China space.

LOLOL "What stood out most was ꜱᴛʀᴜᴄᴛᴜʀᴀʟ ʙᴀᴄᴋ-ᴇɴᴅ ꜱʜɪᴘᴘɪɴɢ ᴛʀᴀᴄᴋɪɴɢ, which feels like the kind of nuance that naturally sparks layered and honest conversation in our group."

This is always me.

One week from today!

Submit a proposal for the October 9-11 Mid-Atlantic Region AAS conference at Lehigh University in Bethlehem, PA! MARAAS is accepting proposals for papers, panels, and roundtables until July 1. More info: https://maraas.org/conference/call-for-papers/

Read the May 2026 issue of the Journal of Asian Studies now! This issue includes a forum on "Reforging an Arena: Bengal, Burma, and Northeast India at the Margins of Empire," research articles, and more than 30 book reviews. https://bit.ly/JAS85-2

Watch me open the front door, throw a hoagie as far as I possibly can, and slam the door shut as he runs to hunt it down.

Cristopher Sánchez!!! 41 2/3 consecutive scoreless innings thru the fourth That’s the longest streak by a Phillies pitcher since the mound was moved to its current distance (1893) Passed 1911 Grover Alexander! (41 IP) h/t @EliasSports

After improving on its once-notorious mining safety record, China has been backsliding of late. At @wpr.bsky.social, Mary Gallagher traces this regression to officials who prioritize production and satisfying higher ups over safety.

Do not let the White House convince you that they are dictating what happens for the 250th. They're doing a bunch of stuff, but it's all fleeting spectacle. There is genuine, thoughtful, history-focused programming happening all over the United States. Get offline and go find it.

Love to celebrate 250 years of American democracy with gladiator fights and chariot races and putting the leader's face on coins. Very good, democratic stuff.

There are two seasons in Michigan: Winter, and our annual 4th Avenue construction.

Just over here thinking about the number of editors who told me 15 years ago that my idea for a book about the UFC and the direction of American culture was stupid and no one would read it.

Let me also add two things: 1. Having a UFC fight for the 250th is more offensive to me because it's practically *all* we're getting. We've slashed money from museums to shovel it at Trump's pet projects. 2. I'm a 250th expert, you should invite me to come talk about this.

Weekly Wanderings: May 26, 2026 Thanks for joining me this week. Recommendations China Stories Chang Che, “Mistranslations at the Trump-Xi summit” Chen Yiru, “Before WeChat, There Were Qiaopi Writers” Rachel Cheung, Noah Berman, Savannah Billman, and Tom Mitchell, “Assessing the Summit” J. Michael…

updating your committee on your dissertation progress

"Anthropic is the clean coal of AI. And clean coal doesn't exist" - Karen Hao speaking at Hay yesterday.

Pope Leo is 🔥: "So-called artificial intelligences do not undergo experiences, do not possess a body, do not feel joy or pain, do not mature through relationships...nor do they have a moral conscience... a form of statistical adaptation...does not imply inner growth."

I'm just one person trying to compete in a busy algorithm but still hoping to remind you that 1000 Words of Summer starts this coming Saturday, May 30. Our ninth year of writing 1000 Words a day alongside thousands of other people for two weeks straight. 1000wordsofsummer.substack.com/about

the world needs more guinea pig cartographers

Yeah, but it looks super weird when I get up, leave a staff meeting, and run around the building

She made history for decades. Now she has a degree in it. Congratulations to Billie Jean King on earning her BA in history from from Cal State LA, 65 years after first enrolling.

"Beyond facilitating academic integrity violations, AI threatens universities in a way that is much deeper. To put it bluntly, AI is demoralizing. That’s how I’ve experienced it, at least." A tough read on a tough year for @rorytruex.bsky.social.

Index is hiring! We are looking for a senior editor to join our editorial team. Are you a journalist passionate about freedom of expression? Learn more and apply ⬇️ www.indexoncensorship.org/2026/05/inde...

A very interesting piece by @emilyzfeng.bsky.social on how Uyghurs became the biggest group of foreign fighters in Syria fighting against the Assad regime. For now, at least, they are making a new home in the country.

I'm very happy to have been invited to speak on this special panel at the American Political History Conference 2026 in Washington, DC two weeks from now—grad students, please join us! I promise that my remarks about alternative career paths will be optimistic and encouraging.

I absolutely thought that 100% of processing/convenience fees for free timed entry tickets to National Parks went back to the Park Service. I didn't realize that Booz Allen Hamilton is profiting from every transaction. Blech.

Oh my god, I have been sitting here laughing to myself for about 15 minutes. My ribs hurt from laughing, ahahaha!!! www.youtube.com/shorts/zxvj7...

The Soviet Winnie-the-Pooh is a wonderful thing. And its version of Pooh himself is one of the great animated characters. The artists didn't take from Disney's version. They aimed for an "absolutely new bear" -- and they pulled it off. We explore: animationobsessive.substack.com/p/the-absolu...

The days—WEEKS—of my life spent reading Television Without Pity recaps.

This was translated by a friend of mine, and I can confirm, you want this book.

Today in 1868, Darwin wrote to a friend, "It drives me mad & I know it does you too, that one has no time for reading anything beyond what must be read: my room is encumbered with unread books." 📚🧪

NYT: "no one has ever thought of teaching ranching at university" Every ag school: um, would you like to meet our cows NYT: "No, not like that. More romantic. More dilletante. Ugh, we're not /farmers/."

No. No no no no no. Long academic chapters are the bane of my existence—I read in bits and pieces of time, and I hate having to stop halfway through and then pick up again later. Give me short, snappy chapters!

Only 20,000 available? There are going to be *fights* over this giveaway (even if the bobblehead does NOT look like Noah Wyle).

Are you a historian of medicine? A U.S. historian? An AmWest historian? Are you interested in possibly using my forthcoming book, Doctoring the West: Women Physicians & the Politics & Practice of Medicine in one of your courses? Can you let me know which course so I can fill out this marketing form?

this would go so hard as an album cover

Today, Uyghur scholar #RahileDawut spends her 60th birthday behind bars. She disappeared in 2017 and was held in secret for five years. It is now believed she is serving a life sentence for her academic work. We join calls for her immediate release.

academics trying to normalize acceptance of AI hallucinated citations in their field: do you seriously expect me to show my work and check my work me, baffled, a naïf, a fool: yes that’s why it’s called *your* *work*

Guys I am writing the thing that I have wanted to write for honest to God a decade and I only just now finally figured out how to make it work. The moral: let your half-baked gooey ideas continue baking. For a long time if necessary.

Yáng Shuāng-zǐ and Lin King have won this year’s International Booker Prize with TAIWAN TRAVELOGUE! Congratulations to both author and translator! This marks our second International Booker win in a row, following the success of Deepa Bhasthi’s translation of Banu Mushtaq’s HEART LAMP in 2025.

Not that this should be a prerequisite for survival, but I DON’T KNOW GUYS SEEMS LIKE CHINA MIGHT BE IMPORTANT MAYBE WE SHOULD KNOW STUFF ABOUT IT

I translated this incredible book by Gonglao 工劳, out this fall with @versobooks.bsky.social

#CFP At the Crossroads: Dunhuang and Its Global Connections (Singapore, January 8-10, 2027), due July 15. Conference seeks to advance new scholarship on Dunhuang as a dynamic node of religious, artistic, and intellectual exchange across Asia and beyond. #silkroad ari.nus.edu.sg/events/dunhu...

If you're thinking of presenting at the 2026 Midwest Conference on Asian Affairs, it's time to finalize your proposal! All submissions are due by May 31 for the October 2-4 conference at University of Wisconsin-La Crosse. https://www.uwlax.edu/gel/ppd/mcaa/