I’ll omit the depressing-for-a-writer comments that others have made on this excellent article. Instead, I’ll say that it’s disastrous for readers.

I spent the summer reporting this essay on why it seems harder than ever to sell a book right now—especially if it isn't a debut and comes with the dreaded "sales track." I'm grateful to the writers, agents, editors, publishers & experts who spoke to me for this piece: thewalrus.ca/the-publishi...

I also think it’s very relevant that myself and @reluctantlyjoe.bsky.social — the two writers who went on the record here — are very openly queer, writing very openly queer work. So… there is that.

Tune in next week to hear about amazing HIV work that has saved countless lives but continues to be threatened. Help us #SaveAIDSResearch . I’ll be presenting with @reluctantlyjoe.bsky.social on mpox which affects many of the same communities as HIV and whose global funding is also under attack

hey dude, I noticed you attempting to carve a small space for joy in the face of overwhelming sadness. kind of problematic considering all the horrors

I won a journalism award with @xtramagazine.com and all I can think about are these fucking Teflon pans. reluctantlyjoe.substack.com/p/i-won-a-jo... (Thank you @tmziniuk.bsky.social for being the best gay editor there is!)

Good news: I no longer have to keep a secret!! Because, good news: @reluctantlyjoe.bsky.social and Nico Lang have won awards for their work @xtramagazine.com!! xtramagazine.com/inside-xtra/...

Made it to Friday, aka Fri-yay, but at what cost?

Cuomo: New York *does* have an affordability problem! My nephew’s first cousin by marriage can’t even afford Uber Black anymore!

If you're seeing this, post an old photo of yourself that you still love.

So grateful to see this book still in the world!

New Substack writing on the box of former selves I go through every time I move, and what my next home may bring. reluctantlyjoe.substack.com/p/pennies-an...

lmao someone on twitter has spotted an interesting discrepancy in eric adams' 'get ready with me' social media content

internalizing american notions of race and ethnic division as timeless truths about the world is a shortcut to smoothing out your brain

if anyone at the NYT wants to talk about this rufo/mamdani/columbia leak clusterfuck, i’m marisakabas.04 on signal

it actually seems like a newsworthy scandal that a white nationalist hacker stole decades of private student data from Columbia University and handed that data over to a trustee for a competitor institution. But on the other hand, the New York Times is worried about being "scooped" by neo-Nazis.

“As I have argued with colleagues in The Lancet, access to primary health care is the cornerstone for preventing disease outbreaks and responding to health crises.” thebulletin.org/2025/07/fewe...

apropos of something I read recently: just because the words are good and the craft is good doesn't mean the thoughts are good. you have to sit with the thoughts even more than with the words and the craft. that's "the work."

This is hateful and ugly and you don’t know what tf you’re talking about. First, nearly 5 mil Texans voted for Harris, way more than the 450k who voted for her in Maine. Second, it’s harder to vote in Texas than it is in any other state bc it isn’t a red state but a voter suppression state.

@benryanwriter.bsky.social Didn't waste much time getting this up on your personal website! Perhaps you could throw a cite out to the Guardian reporter who has named your very secret source in a March 2025 article?

Wait WTF hahaha Benjamin Ryan subscribes to Cremieux!? So much makes sense now.

NYT updated the story, bang-up job all around

so let me get this straight—the NYT accepted hacked information given to them by a substack white supremacist to be used against a mayoral candidate?

Not to do TOO much Mamdani discourse this morning, but one of the reasons American racial categories are what they are is the idea that "African" is a single, coherent, and consistent racial identity. That belief is downstream of slavery ideology, and has no real salience for actual reality.

NYT responds to criticism of its Mamdani story, likening the concerns about their source to “Wikileaks or Edward Snowden” (lol)

Can’t believe the sex-negative weirdo from mpox times who pivoted to being an anti-trans guy “just asking questions” also has white supremacist sources digging up dirt on a brown Muslim progressive. Ahhhhhhhhhhh.

🚨BREAKING: Zohran Mamdani jaywalked in 2013! Must credit the New York Times and Twitter account @ReichWing1488 🚨

This is indeed a perfect time to support @theoffingmag.bsky.social. Patrons who give at the $10 level will receive a copy of our 10th anniversary anthology featuring work by @iamlisako.bsky.social @reluctantlyjoe.bsky.social @natalielima09.bsky.social and so many others! www.patreon.com/c/theoffing

Sorry but if he’s from America, he’s not really a Pope, he’s just a sparkling Pontiff.

Dogs, clones, and grief oh my this essay by @reluctantlyjoe.bsky.social has it all! orionmagazine.org/article/barb...

May 23rd join me & the incrediblly brilliant @reluctantlyjoe.bsky.social for the IN THEORY, DARLING book launch! www.bgsqd.com/event/in-the...

One of the best explanations I’ve seen of the stakes of the disregard of data laws intended to prevent wholesale surveillance of the US public by its govt. The DOGE one-two punch is to disregard or dissolve the data regulations that protect us and then use AI to consolidate info about each of us.

Happy St Patrick's Day! ☘️🇮🇪 Here's the cheery first verse of The Second Coming by W.B. Yeats, to fit the mood of the world... 😊

This may be the biggest free speech crisis in living memory. The president now bragging about detaining a lawful permanent resident and smearing him as 'pro Hamas', no outlining any specific crimes he is accused of or charged with. This is what a fascist takeover looks like.

Back in 2017 alongside @niais.bsky.social and @reluctantlyjoe.bsky.social, I wrote a statement aimed at scientists. 🧪 “We cannot do business as usual anymore, regardless of how much we love our research or how important it feels.” You can read it here: web.archive.org/web/20180713...

Scientists who are actively against fascism because fascism is bad, not just because sometimes it hurts scientists, are my people

STRUCTURAL VIROLOGY at its finest: atomic resolution structures within the context of a virion! Can't wait to share this with my protein biochem students, who just had a lecture on X-ray crystallography and single particle EM.

This is what AIDS deaths look like. They never went away, not even here in the US, but too many have forgotten. 500,000 deaths like this at the stroke of a pen.

It is a genocide.

"anti-straight bias"

"Personal liberties and free markets!"

Also for this Sunday's @bostonglobe.com Books section, I spoke with @sarahjones.bsky.social about her important new book, DISPOSABLE, and how COVID exposed just how deadly this country is to people who aren't rich. www.bostonglobe.com/2025/02/21/a...

I escaped poverty because I am a scientist. And I am a scientist because of the National Science Foundation. A 🧵:

“Let them suffer the consequences of their actions.” I see this so much in my mentions, often from anonymous accounts who could be bots or ops for all I know, but whatever they are, they are trying to normalize a false bifurcation. If “they” are suffering, so are people you consider to be “us.”

Shostakovich's Fifth Symphony was ironic patriotism such that it could trick philistines into thinking it was in support of Stalin's empire when it was really pointing out the sad and violent futility of it, in this essay, I will...

A little James Schuyler Valentine this morning.

My latest from inside NIH as well as universities that get its funding. I think it is important to say clearly what moves like this will actually do to people.

Ending PEPFAR *is* a global genocide on the scale of Nazi Germany or the Belgians in colonial Congo. HIV in fact stems from Belgian colonialism in the Congo. 10 million or more will die.

Excellent 🧵 on this evening's NIH announcement of a dramatic reduction in indirect rates for research institutions, which amounts to a generational restructuring of the US research and development ecosystem. These cuts are effective immediately, not just for new grants but for existing ones.

1. Today the NIH director issued a new directive slashing overhead rates to 15%. I want to provide some context on what that means and why it matters. grants.nih.gov/grants/guide...