⭐Job Alert!⭐ Know someone doing great research on how public policy affects democracy's processes, performance, or robustness? Maybe you do? 🤩 The Ford School of Public Policy at UMICH is searching at the senior level in democracy policy. Apps due 9/13. Deets here: careers.umich.edu/job_detail/2...

@jennabednar.bsky.social, professor & founding faculty director of UMich Votes recently spoke with @michiganadvance.com about how she helped transform student voting at U-M, cutting Election Day wait times from 6 hours in 2022 to 20 minutes in 2024. Read: https://myumi.ch/WDQXW

If you’re in need of a good dose of humility, go out birding during warbler migration season with people who really know what they’re doing.

Are you a fellow fan of democracy, and believe in a democratic future? Can you tell a good short story to help people to see it? Then this cool fiction contest is for you. protopianprize.com/democratic-f...

Want a deep dive into ocean health? Watch nasonline.swoogo.com/nas163_sympo... on acidification, O2 depletion, Sargossum spread, coral death/recovery, and seabed mining. It's depressing but the scientists are outstanding and committed, working across disciplines to understand this complex system.

Michigan has two open statewide elections this fall. The US Senate Dem primary (August) is a 3-way dead heat, and the gubernatorial race will also be a 3-way competition with Detroit mayor Duggan running as an independent. Much to watch!

States Newsroom@statesnewsroom.com · 4mo ago

Tensions in the Democratic primary for Michigan’s open U.S. Senate seat were on full display during the Michigan Democratic Party’s spring convention in Detroit over the weekend. via @michiganadvance.com

SFI External Professor Mark Newman (University of Michigan) has been awarded the 2026 SIAM John von Neumann Prize, for his contributions to the theoretical and algorithmic foundations of network science and their application to real-world systems.

Mark Newman Awarded 2026 SIAM John von Neumann Prize

SFI External Professor Mark Newman (University of Michigan) has been awarded the 2026 John von Neumann Prize from the Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics for his contributions to the theore...

santafe.edu

I don’t know who needs to hear Jesse Jackson leading the kids on Sesame Street in this beautiful call-and-response reminding them that every child is somebody, but here it is

"Regimes that rely on repression face a challenge: The more force they deploy, the more they risk exposing their own brutality to politically persuadable observers. Overreach doesn’t just project strength; it also undermines legitimacy." @owasow.bsky.social www.nytimes.com/2026/01/28/o...

Opinion | We’re Seeing the Weakness of a Strong State

nytimes.com

If you need some hope today — and don’t we all? — read @adambonica.bsky.social . As a bonus, you’ll also find an agenda and a source of resolve to make it happen. open.substack.com/pub/data4dem...

The Wall Looks Permanent Until It Falls

On the optimism of preparation in a time of democratic decay.

open.substack.com

Here is a poem Renee Good, under her earlier name Renee Macklin, wrote, "On Learning to Dissect Fetal Pigs." It won a prize. It's really good. "it’s the ruler by which i reduce all things now; hard-edged & splintering from knowledge." poets.org/2020-on-lear...

2020 Academy of American Poets Prize

On Learning to Dissect Fetal Pigs by Renée Nicole Macklin

poets.org

Applications open for SFI’s 2026 UCR program. Are you fascinated by transdisciplinary questions that transcend or combine disciplines? UCR is a fully funded, 10-week summer research experience for undergraduates curious about complexity science. Apply by Jan 14, 2026 santafe.edu/ucr

From interim President Mahoney's letter: "We seek no special treatment.... the integrity of science ... depends on merit-based assessment." Yay UVa.

The Washington Post@washingtonpost.com · 10mo ago

The University of Virginia said it would not sign the Trump administration’s proposed offer of priority access for federal funding, the fifth university to turn down the “Compact for Academic Excellence in Higher Education.”

My department is hiring an assistant professor of environmental behavioral sciences. The research area is open but we are particularly interested in people with research on collective action or computational social sciences. Happy to answer questions about the Doerr School or the department.

If you think the attack on the Fed's Lisa Cook has nothing to do with you, you're wrong — any one of us may be next paulkrugman.substack.com/p/we-are-all...

We Are All Lisa Cook

Nobody is safe from weaponized government

paulkrugman.substack.com

⭐ Book rec to understand Trump's Epstein August: www.harpercollins.com/products/the.... There's no better guide to the evangelicals’ embrace of Trump. This is no outsider’s ethnography; he is a pastor’s son trying to understand how the church he loves has chosen earthly power over the Gospel.

The Kingdom, the Power, and the Glory

Instant New York Times Bestseller One of Barack Obama's Favorite Books of the Year An Economist and Air Mail Best Book of the Year \"Brave and abso...

harpercollins.com

The launch of an important new public resource. The Anti-Corruption Tracker: Mapping the Erosion of Oversight and Accountability www.justsecurity.org/117267/anti-... The Tracker is a living document that will be continually updated. A screenshot below gives you a sense of the Chart and its data.

"Fear is the tool of a tyrant."

Benjamin Wittes@benjaminwittes.lawfaremedia.org · last yr.

Maurene Comey's goodbye note to SDNY colleagues:

Cutting the CPB devastates rural public radio. On a recent roadtrip w @scottepage.bsky.social we listened only to public radio. It was incredibly...local: hog sales, new biz, swaps, & in western KS, a book club of Verghese's Covenant of Water. We lose more than emergency alerts. We lose community.

Special Issue Captures Vibrant Moment in #ComplexityEconomics Editorial team: @jennabednar.bsky.social @sfiscience.bsky.social @maria-drc.bsky.social @doynefarmer.bsky.social @francoislafond.bsky.social +J.Kaszowska-Mojsa, P.Mealy, M.Pangallo & A.Pichler #EconSky www.inet.ox.ac.uk/news/vibrant...

Special Issue Captures Vibrant Moment in Complexity Economics

An edition of the Journal of Economic Behavior co-edited by INET Oxford shows how complexity economics can answer the policy questions of the day

inet.ox.ac.uk

Over 1K rejected kings in Brighton, MI, a red town of 8k in the midst of a deep red county. The vibe: highly patriotic, pro people power, pro freedom. A rousing collective pledge of allegiance. Pro constitution signs on fishing poles and marshmallow sticks.

Melissa Hortman, who was assassinated last night, was the Speaker of the Minnesota House in the 2023-2024 session, when Democrats ran the state government. That means she had a leading role in shepherding the many landmark reforms that Dems adopted in that period—an important legacy. Brief 🧵.

Can federalism hold? Here's a decent review of recent federalization of national guard troops. Last time done over a gov's wishes was 60 years ago, to protect protesters. BTW the president's order can include all states, not just CA. Where are the R governors? D govs? Pritzker? wapo.st/3ZXocaZ

When have presidents called in the National Guard to quell domestic unrest?

The National Guard was also called during the 1992 L.A. riots and the unrest that followed Martin Luther King Jr.’s assassination in 1968. Trump’s order was unlike any other.

wapo.st

this @adambonica.bsky.social piece deserves to be read beside the yeoman work that @donmoyn.bsky.social and @pamherd.bsky.social have been doing. The dismantling of administrative expertise is one of those stories that is so big that pro journalists with beats find it hard to focus on or explain .

How to Dismantle a Democracy, One Job Posting at a Time

OPM’s new hiring memo imports the authoritarian playbook—quietly, bureaucratically, and by design.

data4democracy.substack.com

DeVos family creates a 501c4, headed by Ronna McDaniel, to promote R candidates in Michigan. Open seats in 2026 for gov, AG, SOS, and US Senate.

Billionaire DeVos family backs new effort to make Michigan a Republican stronghold

The political organization will be led by former Republican National Committee Chair Ronna McDaniel.

mlive.com

On the flight to Amsterdam a rowdy group of septuagenarian women from New Orleans kept saying 86 this trash, 86 this movie, 86 this wine, it’s terrible. It’s true, they killed me.

A lot has changed in the world, so my colleagues and I at the @fordschool are opening up a special emergency admissions cycle for folks who want to start a Masters of Public Policy this fall. Deets are here: fordschool.umich.edu/masters-prog... I hope to see you in class in September!

Master's programs

Become the leader you've always wanted to be and work to create meaningful change in public policy and affairs that impact our communities and the world.

fordschool.umich.edu

Is it just me, or is <checks notes> military.com significantly more clear-eyed about this than most news sources? www.military.com/daily-news/2...

HAPPENING NOW: Following the Supreme Court's decision requiring the government to "facilitate" the release of Abrego Garcia, a hearing before Judge Paula Xinis is about to begin. I'm in Greenbelt, Maryland for @lawfare.bsky.social Follow along for updates

Consumer confidence is in free fall, across all segments of the population. www.sca.isr.umich.edu/files/featur...