Thank you to the Bluesky community who have carefully read & engaged with this piece. I’d also urge you to listen to the Professor Simon Baron-Cohen interview that I embedded. I can only include last 3 mins here but he gives precise chronology..including how he was cleared of plagiarism

Carole Cadwalladr@carolecadwalla.bsky.social · 2d ago

NEW: It was a digital lynching. And the media is never going to hold itself to account for the role it played in Jason Arday’s death. But there are things we can do. This is a practical guide based on my own experience. broligarchy.substack.com/p/a-digital-...

"Flailing regimes dehumanize minorities to distract from their failures. When the economy collapses or a war goes badly, they find a tiny group of people, make them the enemy within, and rally the country against them. ... This will not stop with trans people. It never has."

Bill Kristol@billkristolbulwark.bsky.social · 2d ago

A remarkable essay. www.theatlantic.com/magazine/202...

Greetings, Psst, most academics aren't making much money from their book publications. They can't use their royalties. This means we are not popping our collars and purchasing prosecco or NA prosecco. The few scholars who are making bank are not publishing with university/academic presses.

I am SO very excited about this one, having heard Chloe talk about its process and purpose. Simultaneously important stories to tell, and caring ethics to navigate. Congratulations @chloeireton.bsky.social , can’t wait to throw champagne over this! 🍾

UCL History@uclhistory.bsky.social · 2w ago

🎉 Congratulations to Dr Chloe Ireton on the forthcoming publication of Plotting for Freedom this November! 📚 A powerful new contribution to the history of slavery, resistance and the Atlantic world. Congratulations, Chloe! 👏 shorturl.at/TsSpH

"...history has the potential to change a people’s future by changing its self-understanding." History is exceptionally powerful, which is why its expert work is degraded, distorted, accepted only as tourism. Always the authoritarian political instrument of choice. www.nytimes.com/2026/08/03/o...

Opinion | Trump's Smithsonian Attacks Are Attacks on America’s Future (Gift Article)

This is how we decide who we are and who we want to be.

nytimes.com

This essay gets at something that I struggled with in later seasons of The Bear: food as "experience" feels exhausting in a lot of ways, and disingenuous, and ultimately like a colossal upsell. The initial seasons were focused so much more on the food itself and for me the show lost itself.

I Am Completely Exhausted by Restaurant 'Experiences'

Restaurants keep trying to lure diners with tableside spectacles, and it's starting to get ridiculous.

weareravenous.com

Apparently DEI was the only thing standing between us and death lettuce

Reuters@reuters.com · 2w ago

Michigan reports two deaths in ongoing cyclosporiasis outbreak reut.rs/4w4bd4E

I wrote about Ravenous preparing to commission freelance (yayy!!!) and realizing that means having to plan for AI scams (boooooo) www.weareravenous.com/ai-freelance...

AI Is Fucking Over Freelancers

Watching what AI is doing to the process of commissioning freelance work is making us depressed and angry.

weareravenous.com

The unremembered history of segregated swimming pools and amusement parks www.khq.com/national/the... #recreationalsegregation #blackplay

The forgotten history of segregated swimming pools and amusement parks

Municipal swimming pools flourished in the 20th century. But too often, their success was based on the exclusion of African Americans.

khq.com

A new historical highway marker will honor Wilmington native George Lawrence Mabson, recognized as North Carolina’s first African American lawyer. www.wwaytv3.com/historical-m...

Historical marker to honor North Carolina’s first African American lawyer in Wilmington - WWAYTV3

A new historical highway marker will honor Wilmington native George Lawrence Mabson, recognized as North Carolina’s first African American lawyer.

wwaytv3.com

And as Publishing Confidential's Kathleen Schmidt points out, so many of these cases involve feeding content to Pangram, which only serves that company's valuation, and that company often gets things wrong. Who ultimately pays?

Tamara J. Walker@tamaraw.bsky.social · 2w ago

So many interesting things about this story (which I first read about on the Publishing Confidential Substack, h/t to @leahredmondchang.bsky.social): but the main one is that so many authors (+ some more than others) are going to be presumed guilty until proven innocent when it comes to AI writing.

So many interesting things about this story (which I first read about on the Publishing Confidential Substack, h/t to @leahredmondchang.bsky.social): but the main one is that so many authors (+ some more than others) are going to be presumed guilty until proven innocent when it comes to AI writing.

$2m crime novel deal collapses amid questions over AI use

Agents withdraw Jerry Falade’s hotly anticipated debut after saying they can no longer authenticate ‘how the manuscript evolved’

theguardian.com

Neil Gorsuch has a seat on the supreme court only because Mitch McConnell abandoned all pretense to civility 10 years ago

Josh Gerstein@joshgerstein.bsky.social · 3w ago

JUST IN: Justice Neil Gorsuch tells @RonaldReagan civility conference US democracy is 'very fragile' & 'facing some tough times.' 'We are all in it together, and if we don't stay all in it together, it will crumble,' Gorsuch says, urging students to study history 'warts and all'

Love everything about this! Are you an @aaup.org advocacy chapter or at-large member? Then you are part of @local6741.bsky.social. Want to know the incredible stuff we did at the @aft.org convention last week? Check out this recap 🧵

United Academics@local6741.bsky.social · 4w ago

We rolled deep at the @aft.org convention this year. We got our resolution on pre-contract unionism passed unanimously. We built relationships with our amazing union siblings. And now we more ready than ever to go back to our campuses and communities and build power through organizing! 🧵

Government-promoted anti-intellectualism is a common feature of fascist states, with “intellectualism” coded as feminine and/or Jewish/leftist.

NPR@npr.org · last mo.

If an undergraduate program's graduates don't earn more than workers who never went to college, that program could be cut off from federal student loans. But is a degree just about making more money?

Instead of another article on AI consciousness, you should read this very good book. www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/646644...

A World Appears by Michael Pollan: 9781984881991 | PenguinRandomHouse.com: Books

The Instant New York Times Bestseller "Pollan’s real genius—the word is not too strong—remains intact. That is his uncanny ability to scent the direction in which the culture is headed....

penguinrandomhouse.com

The Guardian@theguardian.com · last mo.

Could AI be conscious?

“The change happened overnight Tuesday into Wednesday, hours after the city hosted MLB All-Star game events near the site, allowing the government to switch out the displays and shut down the television screens while avoiding public scrutiny during the takedown.” www.inquirer.com/news/philade...

Slavery exhibits at the President’s House have been swapped for the Trump administration’s version

The change at the President's House happened overnight, allowing the government to switch out the displays and shut down the television screens while avoiding public scrutiny during the takedown.

inquirer.com

The NYT piece on Greenidge skips the elephant in the room: her real argument wasn't about the Grimke sisters as founding feminist heroines — it was against that hagiography, told instead through their Black nephews. That's the intervention the article never engages. www.nytimes.com/2026/07/10/b...

🤣🤣

Kateration@kateration.bsky.social · 2mo ago

Someone has been projecting images all over D.C. “It’s swampier than ever.” The Kennedy Center one is pretty hilarious. 😂😂😂

the key critiques of Third World feminism

Alex Gil@elotroalex.bsky.social · 2mo ago

Absolutely brilliant interview with @durba.bsky.social. This book paints an original picture of our world and our knowledge production, one we didn't know we needed, but now we do! www.publicbooks.org/seize-the-me...

#juneteenth Family history is political history is American history. Also one of the best books ever.

Smart simple actions, recommended by one of my favorite newsletter writers 20 Small Acts of Media Literacy We Can Practice Every Day open.substack.com/pub/cardcata...

20 Small Acts of Media Literacy We Can Practice Every Day

From checking the date to tracing the source: building a sharper eye for information.

open.substack.com

This reminds me of a really great passage from Barnes' interview in the NYT this week:

Rebecca Brenner Graham@theotherrbg.bsky.social · 5mo ago

I have two events in DC this week! 🌸 (1/2) @liveright.bsky.social @peoplesbooktakoma.com peoplesbooktakoma.com/event/darkol...

I have two events in DC this week! 🌸 (1/2) @liveright.bsky.social @peoplesbooktakoma.com peoplesbooktakoma.com/event/darkol...

Rhae Lynn Barnes for Darkology: Blackface and the American Way of Entertainment

A groundbreaking history, decades in the making, that chronicles how blackface dominated American society culturally, financially, and racially for nearly two centuries. Never before has the distur…

peoplesbooktakoma.com

As someone who's been taunted by people making monkey noises in Argentina, I find this to be a deeply satisfying turn of events. But also fascinating for multiple reasons including the framing of Brazil as the only one of the two countries that "suffered from the issue of slavery."

When Racism Is a Crime: Brazil Puts a Tourist on Trial for Word and Gesture

nytimes.com

On the BBC @historyextra.bsky.social podcast, historian of Mexico Paul Gillingham discusses the life and work of Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz. open.spotify.com/episode/37Vj...

Juana Inés de la Cruz: life of the week

open.spotify.com

The 2026 Holberg Prize is awarded to Australian-British scholar Lyndal Roper of the University of Oxford for her ground-breaking research into early modern European history. holbergprize.org/laureates/ho...

I wrote about falling out of the habit of shopping at Target. www.startribune.com/national-tar...

Perry: Why I no longer shop at Target — and am not going back (yet)

Though some have called for the boycott's end, the retailer's stance on ICE, Pride and DEI have us unwilling to come back, contributing columnist David M. Perry writes.

startribune.com

I am down to the final 9 pages of this and am dragging it out because I don't want it to end! It's meticulously crafted: told across 20 years and 5 gatherings, from the vantage points of 5 friends. Will I ever read another novel as good? (I always ask this, the answer is always yes, but still!)

So Old, So Young: A Novel

A Novel

bookshop.org

Eligibility: 'Historians who have previously published at least one scholarly monograph on vast early America and are interested in honing their writerly voices for their next project.'

Tamara J. Walker@tamaraw.bsky.social · 6mo ago

#skystorians! If you work on vast early America and want to develop your writerly and storytelling chops in community with other historians, please consider applying to the inaugural Craft Intensive sponsored by @oieahc.bsky.social (led by myself and Scott Heerman). For more details, visit: