The day has come! “The Nerd Reich” is now available at your favorite local bookstore. I’ll be on @msnowreports.bsky.social at approximately 10:30 am ET to talk about it. Tune in. And buy it! First week sales make a huge difference. If you keep reading, I keep fighting.

When I moved from anthropology into tech, people assumed I'd pursue UX research. I spent a year midway thru my content career investigating a pivot, but it wasn't for me. 1) I don't actually care about products 2) I was put off my the clear task of "keeping users on the platform" #altac #withaphd

There's a shift at the end of pregnancy when you're so uncomfortable and done that all you want is for the baby to arrive. Two truths: 1) I hate it when people compare writing projects to having a baby 2) After 5 months off with my kids and just being, I filled with ideas and need them to come out

Apologies to anyone who's tried to contact me in the last two weeks. End of summer. Kids going back to school verrrrry soon. It's been great, but it's time. Anyone else?

I regularly misspell my own name in emails. Consider this a reminder to always check that you've spelled the recipient's name right. One preschool parent thought (fairly) that my name was "Liv" for two years.

Some of us just want to help people and still believe words can do that.

Doing my monday morning socials and I have a proposal: a LinkedIn button where we can report users for posting pics and videos of their kids to boost their professional brand.

I'm planning a series of pop-up ethnographies. Think: those great Anthro 101 projects from undergrad, but for a professional anthropologist. Running list: Public library My incredibly bougie gym Sound bath Possibly a trip to Bucee's Some kind of eatery/cafe HMart food court What else??

I would love to see an anthropology or cultural history of YouTube. Has anyone done this yet? Remember when YT existed, but nobody knew what to do with it? It went like that for years. Then I guess the researchers there figured out how to get us hooked, YouTube Kids came, now AI, and here we are.

You know who's doing good marketing? PBS Kids. My youngest: "Mom, I wont watch YouTube anymore because you say it's garbage. But what about PBS Kids? It 'Helps Kids Learn and Grow.'" In related news, I'm convinced me growing up on a tv diet of soap operas and game shows > YouTube Kids.

What’s more likely: 1) One day, we all look back on big tech and see the clear parallels with big tobacco, pharma, oil/gas, food, and all the other evil bigs; or 2) These posts of mine come up in future job interviews, and not in a good way.

Now, we just have to teach the young people about Citizens United and help them connect the economic to the political dots.

Futurism@futurism.com · 3d ago

They're even more unpopular than data centers.

Back when I had finished my PhD and had a good-on-paper gig but didn’t love it, I very tentatively mapped out how to pursue writing full time. Or applied anthropology. Or, ideally, both. Nearly a decade later, I finally have the skills, emotional and intellectual space, and resources to try.

I'm an anthropologist. I'm also the child of an academic who fell from grace, and I grew up with the aftermath of that exclusion animating our home. I have no animosity toward academia, but the numbers and stories don't lie. Here's what Jason Arday's death stirred in me. #altac #academicsky

Chew You Up, Spit You Out

Notes on an academic scandal and its aftermath

substack.com

I've lurked in the tech worker message board, Blind, for years. It's loaded with sexist rants, xenophobia, you name it. A recent NYT article portrayed it as an anonymous lifeline for workers. Was I missing something? I put on my anthropologist hat to find out. #techlayoffs #layoffs #anthropology

TC or GTFO

An anthropology of online anonymity in an age of layoffs

theparticipantobserver.substack.com

Maybe I should write an anthropological analysis of #OffCampus and why women precisely my age love it at this particular moment in time.

I didn’t need more convincing that the researchers still working there are the modern equivalent of the researchers working for cigarette companies back when I was a young anthropologist. Convince me otherwise.

Susan Rinkunas@susanrinkunas.com · 2mo ago

"Meta helped kill the Kids Online Safety Act two years ago after reaching out to Speaker Johnson to raise free speech concerns...But the company dropped its opposition because it’s packaged w/ language preempting state AI laws and a bill that would require app store platforms to verify users’ ages"

I'm an anthropologist who left academia with no hard feelings. Do I believe in the discipline's power + potential? Absolutely. Do I think it does a good job of communicating its unique value? Absolutely not. Here's what I think about the "report" 🧵 1/6 #academicsky #anthropology #socialsciences

Trying to finish reading Isola by Allegra Goodman today. Astonishing story. I caught her talk at the @texasbookfest.bsky.social last year and had it on my list ever since. Recommended! #booksky

This is the best response I’ve seen yet to the recent “report” on the state of scholarship, with a focus here on anthropology. A master class in using lay language to convey complex topics and insights, and in turn demonstrate the value of a discipline to those on the outside. Brava.

Rosemary Joyce@rajoyce.bsky.social · 2mo ago

Anthropological research on subsistence is offered in the dangerous and authoritarian “report” on the humanities as a key example of supposed ideological weakening of scholarship. This critique begins to show how the key example cited actually proves the opposite. Let’s go into it in some depth 1/

Participant observation: A qualitative research method in which the researcher becomes immersed in daily life. Also: My new newsletter. Check it out. theparticipantobserver.substack.com/p/introducin... #writingcommunity #anthropology #withaphd #anthropology/archaeology

What’s a good #litmag for writing on the cultural study of food and regionalism?

Looking for suggestions of crossover academic writing. Think: current or former academics writing for general audiences. Journals, websites, books. Thanks! #academicwriting #creativenonfiction #booksky #nonfiction

When I was younger and wanted a career change, I had two go-to options: law school or breakfast cafe. Solidly in my 40s, I’m going all in on a fantasy career as a poet.

A few months ago, I rolled up my sleeves, gathered some courage, and submitted my first piece in years to nonfiction literary journals. Then last week, I got the nicest, most encouraging rejection from one of the biggest journals around. Lesson: some rejections are still wins. #writing #memoir

Stayed up too late reading “I Seek a Kind Person” by @julianborger.bsky.social, which has been on my list since I heard his @wbur.org interview last year. Incredible book and I just started. In related news, NYT Notable List for 2025 is on point. Working my way through it. #booksky

28 days in and 5 books down. Doubt I’ll hit all 100, but so far my reading rate correlates closely with national upheaval so who knows?

Just visited with Liam and his father at Dilley detention center. I demanded his release and told him how much his family, his school, and our country loves him and is praying for him.

I strongly suspect people wouldn’t be as concerned about the layoffs at Amazon if they had a clear idea of how much those folks get paid. Their layoff packages will be more than most people’s annual salaries by a mile.

Minneapolis has seen a stunning 1,646% spike in calls from families who can't pay rent because they're afraid to leave their homes to work. This is state violence manufacturing housing precarity in real time. People should not be facing eviction when their city is under occupation.

Hotline operators report flood of calls for rental assistance as residents hide during ICE surge

211 calls from Spanish-speakers have increased more than 1,600 percent and requests for rental assistance have more than tripled, according to Greater Twin Cities United Way. Local officials are pushi...

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