I enjoyed speaking to Dr Jahnavi Phalkey about India’s place in the history of modern science, the ways in which that history has been constructed, & how the pursuit of nuclear physics became intertwined with a newly independent nation’s efforts to define its own identity. linktr.ee/thehpspodcast

Am pretty much done with the AHA. At a time when the discipline of history (&humanities broadly) is under attack by the right (not to mention university administrators), our professional association spent *our* valuable dues hiring a lobbying firm to attack its own members. Unfuckingbelievable.

Stacy Fahrenthold@sfahrenthold.bsky.social · 3d ago

The American Historical Association hired a lobbying firm to help silence member advocacy on Palestine. In this essay, Adam Rzepka covers @historians.org's relationship w/ Thorn Run Partners, its deep ethical conflicts, & the advocacy crisis AHA has thrust upon us. www.chronicle.com/article/a-sc...

Faculty should absolutely maintain a robust & frequent presence on campus. But this demand, by admins at Texas A&M-Victoria, for faculty to be present 5 days/week for 40 hours, is excessive & fundamentally misunderstands how academic/instructor work functions. www.insidehighered.com/news/faculty...

Faculty Quit as Texas University Orders Them Back to Campus

The new policy, announced in June, is a response to a Texas law restricting remote work for public university faculty. The Texas AAUP says it has prompted chaos and tears.

insidehighered.com

Obligatory

Instead of spending money on the tech that steals our work, makes our students dumber and serves no purpose at all, they could instead use it to hire more actual instructors.

David Roberts@volts.wtf · 4d ago

Wild that this shit is still going on -- university administrators just plowing money into AI, with no particular vision or goal, against the wishes of most professors & students, even as money is desperately needed for other things.

Just published, me discussing the life of first cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin on the @historyextra.bsky.social podcast. podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/y...

Yuri Gagarin: life of the week

Podcast Episode · HistoryExtra podcast · 10 August · 43min

podcasts.apple.com

'Chachu' is a fabulous 1st issue (of a 5 issue arc) by the young actor Iman Vellani. This is a noir thriller filtered through 'Taxi Driver' as seen through a Pakistani-Canadian immigrant experience: variety.com/2026/film/ma...

Two married professors and their son are being held in ICE detention, despite being legal permanent residents and having no criminal records. All, apparently, because their mom/MIL was a translator for the Iranian hostage takers in 1979, before they were even born. www.thenation.com/article/soci...

One Woman’s Message From the Hell of ICE Detention

My husband, son, and I have been locked up for months—despite being permanent residents with no criminal record. It is an unendurable, unending nightmare.

thenation.com

www.nytimes.com/2026/08/12/u...

Johanna Fernández, Historian of the Young Lords, Dies at 55

She wrote an award-winning book about the leftist collective, a Latino counterpart to the Black Panthers.

nytimes.com

I live a boring life, but I was once the guitarist for Lana Del Rey many years ago. Yeah, that's me on the right trying to figure out an A minor. And that's her on the left. #lanadelrey

It depends on the country. More here: gillianbrockell.com/tracking-all...

Tracking All of Trump’s Known Third-Country Removals

Trump's ICE has expelled an estimated 19,000 people to countries where they have no ties. This tracks who they're expelling, how they get there, where they're going, and what happens to them.

gillianbrockell.com

U.S. academia: "..widespread censorship of course content at...many public universities where MAGA politicians—not faculty and department heads—now determine what can and can’t be taught.. The campus free speech wars of a decade ago are now over. The right has won." newrepublic.com/article/2135...

The Campus Free Speech Wars Are Over. MAGA Won.

The right spent years trying to convince us that campus lefties were authoritarians in waiting. But then an actual authoritarian became president.

newrepublic.com

Every conscientious journalist covering the space program should use descriptors 'white supremacist' or 'fascist' every time when referring to E__ M__. Really puzzled at the free pass given by space enthusiasts/journalists. See @jamellebouie.net in NYTimes today: www.nytimes.com/2026/07/29/o...

Every conscientious journalist covering the space program should use descriptors 'white supremacist' or 'fascist' every time when referring to E__ M__. Really puzzled at the free pass given by space enthusiasts/journalists. See @jamellebouie.net in NYTimes today: www.nytimes.com/2026/07/29/o...

I wrote about the Nolan Odyssey for the LRB. I'll summarize some of my main points below, in case you don't feel like reading all that. www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...

Emily Wilson · An Uncomplicated Man

As they say at the awards shows, I was humbled to learn that Christopher Nolan has read at least the first line of my...

lrb.co.uk

For comics fans, the brilliant @denizcamp.bsky.social was just honored w/ Eisner Awards for best new series (Assorted Crisis Events) and best limited series (Absolute Martian Manhunter). His stories are beautiful acts of resistance against fascism, corporate greed, genocide, and ecocide.

Deniz Camp@denizcamp.bsky.social · last mo.

Thank you everyone. #eisnerawards

I’d like to make it clear for all the people following me what the sheer gravity of the news is. Without this facility we can’t ensure constant communication with spacecraft beyond Earth orbit. If this facility is off-line, the Artemis program cannot send a crew to the Moon.

Andy Scollick@andyscollick.bsky.social · last mo.

The Madrid Deep Space Communication Complex at Robledo de Chavela municipality in the Community of Madrid, Spain on fire. Burgohondo wildfire. 📷 via Infues Avila

I love that early modernists are always fighting with medievalists about who invented what. Barbara Newman weighs in on a new book: #medievalsky

Fifty years ago today = the Viking 1 lander touched down on Chryse Planitia, Mars. and added a new modality to "being there"

My son just now: “Bank of the Third Reich vs Refuge of the Third Reich”

Incredible achievement. The Chinese spacecraft Tianwen-2 has arrived in close proximity to the asteroid Kamo'oalewa, a 'quasi-satellite' of Earth. It will collect samples from this asteroid and return with them to Earth next year. Kamo'oalewa was once part of our Moon.

Andrew Jones@andrewjonesspace.bsky.social · 2mo ago

Tianwen-2 had arrived. Here's asteroid Kamo'oalewa seen from 20 km away www.xinhuanet.com/20260706/eb8...

This month is history books my friends & colleagues have written with good covers & you should want to read them. First, Lisa Kirschenbaum, the author of a gazillion really good works on the USSR. Why I'm unforgiving of ppl who occupy a research university position & have only published one book.

👇👇👇

NY Times on death of Abdul Ahad Momand, Only Afghan to Fly in Space (I'm briefly quoted in this). (gift link) www.nytimes.com/2026/06/29/w...

Abdul Ahad Momand, Only Afghan to Fly in Space, Is Dead

nytimes.com

From @kyamawebb.bsky.social over on Threads. Now I'm going to read every NY Post headline in a JK Simmons voice

Come be my colleague! American University's History Department is searching for a tenure-track assistant professor of science, tech and society. I am chair of the search and pleased to answer any questions either on here or email (grao at american) american.wd1.myworkdayjobs.com/AU/job/Main-...

An economist and a public policy scholar weigh in: "SpaceX is the New East India Company": www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/s...

SpaceX Is the New East India Company

Alessio Terzi & Stefano Marcuzzi consider lessons from the three-century era when corporate monopolies operated beyond the reach of sovereigns.

project-syndicate.org

Check out @pjharvey.net's new song "Voyager," sung from the perspective of NASA's Voyager 2 probe

PJ Harvey Shares Song From Perspective Of NASA's Voyager 2

With her new single, Polly Jean Harvey is going all Cosmos on us. It’s been three years since Harvey, one of our all-time great alt-rockers, released her most recent album I Inside The Old Year Dying....

stereogum.com

40 years ago, I bought 'Standing on a Beach' at a record store in Columbus, Ohio & was introduced to 'In Between Days,' still the greatest song by the Cure. That frenetic flurry of guitar-strum & drum rolls that introduces the song still--after 40 years--levitates me: www.youtube.com/watch?v=scif...

The Cure - In Between Days

YouTube video by TheCureVEVO

youtube.com

I don't know if 'Eric Hague' is a real person but I hope 'Eric' knows that he has brought me a few minutes of joy reading this. Also, chef's kiss to mention the triangle hand gesture.

McSweeney's@mcsweeneys.net · 2mo ago

"It can be an overwhelming experience when the external sound processor is first turned on. It's a lot for her brain to acclimate to. That's why I'm going to start off with 'Fabienk,' which is kind of a good gateway song if you’re just getting into these guys."