Tracy King
@tracyking.bsky.social
Author, producer, scicomms, animation. Royal Institution writer-in-residence. Books: Learning To Think (Penguin) The Cost of Trust (Harper Collins) Tim Minchin's Storm (Orion)
PS I’ve noticed that if you complain about enshittification of any kind on this platform you immediately get condescending reply guys saying “well, you shouldn’t be doing XYZ” or “simply move all your work to ZYX”, as if we should be obediently dancing around this shit rather than calling it out
At some point soon someone will invent a manly branded version of Frubes for gymbros. A protein yoghurt in a tube that you squeeze directly into your mouth.
Ah, Tracy as a low income author of non-fiction pop science books a shot in the head feels a bit extreme to deal with my sorrows, but if I could have been in one your named cities a photo would have lovely. I still live in hope of a sales boost but not posthumously.
Tracy King@tracyking.bsky.social · 2d agoBack when I had Twitter I used to offer free headshots for low-income authors, not sure I have much reach here but the offer is still there. London or Birmingham (although I’m in Glasgow and Edinburgh at the end of Aug and can fit in a session. Will have lights so can be indoors).
Not everyone, of course, and I do know several people in publishing with working class backgrounds, but this is overall a true thing.
Tracy King@tracyking.bsky.social · 2d agoPublishing is a nightmare if you’re low income. They just assume everyone went to private school or has a spouse in banking.
Back when I had Twitter I used to offer free headshots for low-income authors, not sure I have much reach here but the offer is still there. London or Birmingham (although I’m in Glasgow and Edinburgh at the end of Aug and can fit in a session. Will have lights so can be indoors).
I’ve never seen the original context for this all-timer of a tweet and honestly it’s incredible on multiple levels
Alistair Coleman@alistaircoleman.bsky.social · 3d agoWorth posting in context as it is bang on topic.
Young couple in the supermarket just now having the following loud discussion. Her: we’re not getting a doughnut maker Him: we are, I’m going to order it Her: we’re not! Where’s it going to go?! Him: *desperately* the spare room?
Without downloading new pics what’s it like dating you
Robert Ramsay@robertramsay.org · 3d agowithout downloading new pics what's it like dating you?
never thought short form video would be able to capture a type of humor i can only describe as “the far side-esque” but this comes close.
Idea: headphones for your nose. A device which cancels out the horrid smells in this train carriage and constantly replaces them with gentle wafts of the scents of my choice.
airbnb I’m staying at unintentionally created the toughest punk album cover of 2027
VERY happy to meet what Americans call a bodega cat but here is simply a Birmingham corner shop cat. It wanted to sell me fine water but had no sidequest.
Take a Break (one of the bigger magazines) is replacing all of its short story writers with AI. Easy to dismiss a throwaway lifestyle magazine but this is a canary in a very dangerous coalmine.
The world is run by the most depressing people who have ever lived.
Veerender Singh Jubbal@veerenderjubbal.bsky.social · 5d ago
This does in fact help, although what it helps I do not know. But it helps.
@Julianshea.bsky.social@julianshea.bsky.social · 5d agoYou can get personalised stickers made through the My Panini app. Not that this helps much.
I would pivot my socials to inspiring self-help posts but all my wisdom is things like “writers write, not much else I can tell you”, or “educated thick people get further than uneducated clever people”.
Several! Middle school, the maths teacher absolutely everyone fancied was eventually done for noncing. Ditto a (semi-famous) singing teacher who offered to coach me when I was 9. Swerved both of them, sorry to the girls who couldn’t.
Marie Le Conte@youngvulgarian.marieleconte.com · 5d agohello from Britain where I'm in the pub with a group of friends and I would say we're now on minute 20 of them sharing stories about the nonce teachers they had at school
Excellent example of just how lunatic that thing is
Joseph Cox@josephcox.bsky.social · 5d agoNew from 404 Media: Google Earth has introduced an AI feature that lets anyone fabricate completely bullshit satellite images. In our own tests, we added a “bomb blast and crater” to an area of Los Angeles. This is a misinformation time bomb, will 100% be abused www.404media.co/google-earth...
I recently scoured most of London for a decent, traditional mint choc chip and they were all garbage. Got one in the Midlands, no trouble. The same is true of chip shop chips mind you.
YouGov@yougov.co.uk · 5d agoYouGov's latest scoop: vanilla is Britain's favourite ice cream flavour Vanilla: 18% Mint choc chip: 14% Chocolate: 13% Strawberry: 5% Salted caramel: 5% Rum and raisin: 5% Pistachio: 4% Coffee: 3% Raspberry ripple: 3% yougov.com/en-gb/articl...
Talking of mentoring, my former mentee and now full-time colleague recently wrote this superb piece on the demographics of car meets and boy racers. unherd.com/2026/07/the-...
The fast and furious world of boy racers
unherd.com
How much knowledge and mentoring opportunities are going to be lost because people like Hank Green are using AI when they’re “overcommitted” instead of training the next generation
