"The future is uncertain, and I know this is an unsettling time for many of us," [public health director in Lubbock, Texas] wrote. "Every day we show up and do our jobs is an act of resilience." đ
Best-selling author, journalist, podcaster, outdoor adventurer. My parties have dancing. Western Colorado. www.scientificamerican.com/uncertain
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"The future is uncertain, and I know this is an unsettling time for many of us," [public health director in Lubbock, Texas] wrote. "Every day we show up and do our jobs is an act of resilience." đ
Had a deep & fun (how often do you get both?) convo w/Rosemerry and @cragcrest.bsky.social on the Emerging Form pod. I'm a regular listener to these discussions with authors & creatives, & every episode provides insights...I hope I did the same for others! emergingform.substack.com/p/episode-14...
I wish we could make them care, sigh.
How do we get congress to see this?
Journalists Are Just as Fucked Up as Everyone Else. Admitting It Might Help Us Save Democracy. "In todayâs world, we have an obligation to do better. And to make the people in power sweat. Important @carakelly.bsky.social piece on why journalists must do better. thebarbedwire.com/2025/08/18/j...
1. The philosophy of science sometimes gets an unearned reputation as a purely academic exercise that offers little by way of concrete tools for advancing research. This is wrong. And today, as we grapple with how AI is changing the nature of scientific activity, it's desperately wrong.
Oh hey, here's that government waste DOGE was looking for... www.nytimes.com/2025/08/15/t...
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something tells me that there were no women involved in this decision.
Very excited about @juliabelluz.bsky.social âs Forthcoming book!
Infuriating to see so much of my work STOLEN. Not going to take this lying down.
I want this man's case with wall to wall coverage like its the OJ trial. I want this blasted 24/7, dramatic readings of charges, sandwich trajectory models, critiques on his sprinting formation, I want it all. Do this for me, mainstream media, and I will try to forgive you.
NEW â Factcheck: Trumpâs climate report includes more than 100 false or misleading claims | @ayeshatandon.carbonbrief.org @leohickman.carbonbrief.org @ceciliakeating.carbonbrief.org @rtmcswee.carbonbrief.org @tomoprater.carbonbrief.org Read here: buff.ly/AvcB7Aw
This piece by @tonyhotran.bsky.social about returning to Vietnam with his refugee parents is so damn good. slate.com/life/2025/08...
This reminds me of the @theonion.com classic: "Area Man Passionate Defender Of What He Imagines Constitution To Be" theonion.com/area-man-pas...
timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine...
www.nybooks.com/articles/202...
Congrats @emilysohn.bsky.social ! casw.org/news/emily-s...
Also, this is another good reason to subscribe to @defector.com !
Great reporting here by @evaholland.bsky.social and extra kudos for doing it as a freelancer, which poses extra challenges. Also, this story is infuriating.
âCertainty can be dangerous when it blinds us to possibility.â What Iâve learned in the four years since that terrible event. www.templeton.org/news/what-li...
Hard to believe that these stats are correct. Putting a number on something doesnât make it true. They looked at the ways that people were using their AI assistant, but you canât use that to say what people who didnât use the AI do. It doesnât extrapolate. www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/int...
Whether people would leave Twitter after it became a Nazi bar was really a test and most people failed.
Is there an app yet to clear/block/delete AI from all the tools that keep trying to push it on me?
"Institutional science writers are in a unique position to characterize and respond to policies that threaten the publicâs interest as it relates to science." must-read from @shiplives.bsky.social and Abigail Eisenstadt. scicomm.plos.org/2025/07/21/r...
Only men...
What a timely piece, about resilience and what the hell it is, by the ever lovely @annfinkbeiner.bsky.social www.lastwordonnothing.com/2025/07/18/r...
Not really an overstatement to say that the test of a free society is whether or not comedians can make fun of the country's leader on TV without repurcussions.
No wonder Congress just decided to defund public media. Gotta keep news like this from their constituents.
This bill to rescind $9 billion in congressionally approved spending, includes catastrophic cuts to funding for public media, which will our rural radio station especially hard. www.kvnf.org/protect-my-p...
"Data manipulation by the US Government, particularly when hidden, is a crisisâit makes crucial datasets untrustworthy and unusable." www.thelancet.com/journals/lan...
This was such a fun conversation. Jennie's process is so unique and interesting.
So excited to see Starre's book out in the world!
wait, what??? This is really something.
If you were too young in 2003 here is what Bush told the American people: 1) The Iraq War wonât cost a lot of money 3) We wonât need a lot of troops 4) Weâll bring peace and freedom to Iraq 5) Weâll find WMDs 6) Weâll be welcomed as liberators 7) It will be easy 8) It wonât take long All lies.
War is not the answer. Only love can conquer hate.
Saw this headline and thought, ah, he takes NONE! slate.com/technology/2...
Victor Cohn Prize entries due June 30. Please note that self-nominations are fine (but recommendation letters are required). casw.org/awards-fello...
"Foolâs gold" www.science.org/doi/10.1126/... "the past four decades, the White House has exerted increasing political control over the scientific work of federal agencies... " "institutionalizes a 'doubt science' approach to shaping policy. Political apparatchiks are now granted broad license"
The budget bill currently in the Senate would put 258 million acres of public land up for sale, including recreation areas, wilderness study areas, critical wildlife habitat and more. www.wilderness.org/articles/med...
I donât understand how thinking became a chore to outsource rather than the actual thing itself. If you donât enjoy or at least embrace the process, why are you even doing it?
I refuse to give the NYT my eyeballs, so I can't speak to the specifics of this article. But any historians attempting to use AI for either writing or research should be run out of the field. AI is inherently unable to do anything we need it to do to understand and communicate history.
The maps show that the public land for sale would include lots of prime recreation spaces, including my local ski areas. wilderness.maps.arcgis.com/apps/instant...
Senate version of budget requires selling off more than 3.3 million acres of public land. âthe Senateâs bill puts any multiple-use Forest Service or BLM land on the table, including places vital for outdoor recreation. There are virtually no safeguards on what land can be sold or for what purpose.â
Oh look, here's @adambecker.bsky.social pointing out the broligarchyâs stupidity in @rollingstone.com www.rollingstone.com/culture/cult...
People say America has fallen from grace. Sarah says we never had it, we have to make it up our own selves. www.lastwordonnothing.com/2025/06/16/g...
I shared about REEFS OF TIME and how the book came together on this week's Emerging Form! đđThanks for having me on the podcast, @cragcrest.bsky.social! Listen where you get your podcasts or at: emergingform.substack.com/p/episode-14... @princetonupress.bsky.social
Science should not be exempt from criticism, and it's the job of journalists to ask hard questions. How do we do that without playing into the hands of the merchants of doubt? That's the question I struggle with.
Thanks, I agree this is good advice. But I have also started to wonder if it matters. I wrote multiple stories about this in the first trump admin, and what good did it do? fivethirtyeight.com/features/the...
Very curious what âȘ@jbakcoleman.bsky.social⏠and âȘ@lewan.bsky.social⏠have in mind here. As someone who writes a lot about replicability and uncertainty in science, I have thought about this a lot, and am still looking for good answers.
"Bak-Coleman âŹand others say the reformers should have seen that their claims and concerns could be weaponized by antiscience movements, and done more to prevent that." I often write about sci reform & I'm genuinely curious, how do you "prevent that"? www.science.org/content/arti...
This @betsymason.bsky.social post about the benefits of making tiny friends was just what I needed today. www.lastwordonnothing.com/2025/06/11/t...
Happy book birthday to @lisasgardiner.bsky.social! So excited to see REEFS OF TIME bookshop.org/p/books/reef... out in the world. On this weekâs episode of EMERGING FORM, out this Thursday, we talk to Lisa about her beautiful book. emergingform.substack.com
I recently joined a delightful group blog by a bunch of science and science-adjacent writers called "Last Word on Nothing." Lately it's been taken over by bird lovers, with @cragcrest.bsky.social testifying for bird feeder cams (1/2) www.lastwordonnothing.com/2025/05/30/h...
Nominations are open for the Victor Cohn Prize for Excellence in Medical Science Reporting. This is a career award that honors work done over the past 5 yrs. Self-nominations are fine, but letters of rec required. Hit me w/questions. casw.org/awards-fello...
not the main issue here but i'd really appreciate it if democratic politicians spoke out in support of big-city life and culture with the same energy and reverence that all politicians have for small towns los angeles is "real america" and so are all the other big cities the president hates
"âI struggle for adjectives to adequately describe the horror that this administration has visited on the world,â Schwartz added. âIt keeps me up at night.â @annamaria.bsky.social⏠on fallout from US aid withdrawal: Death, Sexual Violence and Human Trafficking www.propublica.org/article/trum...
It was never about efficiency. New report: SPECIAL INTERESTS OVER THE PUBLIC INTEREST: ELON MUSKâS 130 DAYS IN THE TRUMP ADMINISTRATION www.warren.senate.gov/imo/media/do...
I am furiously, flamingly, incandescently, *supernova-levels* of angry right now. Trump is trying to kill NASA science. And hoo boy, do I have something to say about it. badastronomy.beehiiv.com/p/trump-thre... đ đ§Ș
My spouse thought that no one really talks like this, and so now Iâm going to have to make him read @adambecker.bsky.socialâs new book.
Perhaps more evidence that AI has stolen my lifeâs work to output its slop. I wonât apologize for my prolific use of em dashes â they're the best punctuation mark (yes, I will die on this hill).
"Working with the Kennedy and his administration in any format or even praising them for saying one thing that happens to be correct is a form of sane washing.â @drjengunter.bsky.social⏠on MAHAâs Trojan horse strategy vajenda.substack.com/p/hijacking-...
Podcast roundup! First of all, I was lucky enough to be on @cragcrest.bsky.social's brilliant podcast Emerging Form. I don't get to talk about craft nearly as much as I'd like, and having this conversation with Christie and Rosemerry was a treat.
We have NASA's proposed budget for FY26, and it is brutal to science. Earth science would be cut by more than half. Astrophysics (like JWST, Hubble) by nearly two-thirds. Full details at www.nasa.gov/fy-2026-budg...
I have become a bird spy, and I blame @bengoldfarb.bsky.social. www.lastwordonnothing.com/2025/05/30/h...
"My treasured memories...are all subsidized by a massive Fish Industrial Complexâone that has taken a toll on all sorts of insects, invertebrates, frogs, and salamanders.â Alex Brown @longreads.com on the invisible levers that make our wilderness experience what it is. longreads.com/2025/05/29/f...
Yes you have, hahaha. www.scientificamerican.com/podcast/scie...
When the illusion that a single, selectively reportedâand maybe even misreportedâstudy is king in social media timelines and political soundbites, itâs more essential than ever to champion best practice in research methods, including their reporting and interpretation. www.bmj.com/content/389/...
Our commentary on the potential implications of the recent Executive Order.
This government decides what you can know or share. But with the funding cuts, there wonât be much science left to publish anyway. www.washingtonpost.com/health/2025/...
I forgot about this great story by @cragcrest.bsky.social from 2017. The story, and my comment, are as relevant today as they were then.
www.mcsweeneys.net/articles/a-c... "It..comes as a shock that such accomplished intellectuals ..could be judgy about a machine that runs the entirety of human imagination through a shredder and glues together what comes out."
This seems like a good time to share this again. Trump's new EO to undermine science is just like Trump's previous efforts-- using the language of transparency and open science to tear down inconvenient science. fivethirtyeight.com/features/the...
We are about to learn about all the ways that our government workers make our daily lives possible.
There's still beauty in the world. This Lazuli bunting has been visiting my feeder the last few days. Big thanks to @bengoldfarb.bsky.social⏠for convincing me I needed this birdcam.
Congrats! Can't wait for this.
Bhattacharya said researching health effects of redlining...is a âcompletely legitimate kind of studyâ...Yet he said structural racism cannot be studied, it's ânot a scientific hypothesis.â Audience member pointed out that redlining is a form of structural racism. đ€Šââïž www.science.org/content/arti...
Delighted to hear @amymaxmen.bsky.social on my radio this morning, distressed by the story. Excellent work in Mississippi getting undercut. The underlying message: killing anything DEI is the opposite of efficiency for ending HIV and so much more www.npr.org/2025/05/14/n...
Great essay, and Lizzie's book looks really interesting!
Hey look, we have another new person of Last Word On Nothing! @laurahelmuth.bsky.social And she's wondering... what should we call those big societal problems that we solved and then forgot about? www.lastwordonnothing.com/2025/05/14/w...
"Shame on all of us if we let these ignorant purveyors of cruelty reduce this beautiful thing weâve built over these hundreds of years to a hollow, braying, anti-version of itself." George Saunders on the firing of the librarian of Congress www.nytimes.com/2025/05/13/o...
We have a new person of Last Word On Nothing, and her first post will make you fall in love with jumping spiders (trust me, they're cute!) Welcome to LWON, Betsy Mason! www.lastwordonnothing.com/2025/05/12/t... www.lastwordonnothing.com/2025/05/12/n...
I'm super excited about the Climate News Task Force, led by our @sciencewriting.bsky.social ED Meaghan Parker and @floodlightnews.org ED Emily Holden. There's never been a more important time to support climate journalism www.editorandpublisher.com/stories/clim...
Congrats!
Embrace uncertainty! Big thanks to Kristan Uhlenbrock for inviting me on the Laws of Notion podcast from the Institute for Science&Policy @denvermuseumns.bsky.social to talk about uncertainty and science plus my @sciam.bsky.social podcast, Uncertain institute.dmns.org/perspectives...
Are you a creative person who feels stuck or lost or despairing because you just did a bunch of work that you're now throwing out? Take heart! This is normal. National Book Award winner Andrea Barrett explains why today on Emerging Form. It will lift you up! emergingform.substack.com/p/episode-13...
Looking forward to seeing my science writer peeps in Chicago for ScienceWriters2025! HUGE thanks to all the people who worked their butts off to make this happen (after our original host pulled out). casw.org/news/science...
Today at LWON, I wrote about hope, fruit blossoms, more hope, and especially @rboyle31.bsky.social 's kick-ass acceptance speech for her much-deserved LA Times Book Prize. A better world is possible, can we please gather together and make it so, already? www.lastwordonnothing.com/2025/04/30/s...
This Last Word On Nothing post from Helen Fields was just what I needed this morning. "My fellow humans, you are doing some really stressful stuff and making it look easy. I appreciate you. Hang in there." www.lastwordonnothing.com/2025/04/28/w...
So the US is just disappearing people now. Terrifying. www.nytimes.com/2025/04/22/u...
Governed by Alex Jones & Co. Graphic design and misinformation are their passion
This is not a small change. The "airbourne fraction", share of our CO2 emissions that stay in the atmosphere, had a huge increase in 2024. Since the budget components add to zero, this means something unexpected happened elsewhere in the carbon budget. 2/
"People experiencing homelessness can sleep in their cars in this wealthy ski town in Colorado, but only if they have a job."
It's podcast/dogwalk season again! (Meaning it is once again warm enough to use headphones/devices outdoors.) Kicking things off: @cragcrest.bsky.social's Emerging Form interview with Alex Hutchinson about his new book, The Explorer's Gene.
Expect it, but do NOT accept it.
Log of Everyday Resistance, by @sarahmgilman.bsky.social www.lastwordonnothing.com/2025/04/11/l...
This is CHILLING, the secretary of the Interior is saying we don't need to worry about extinction anymore! Just call Colossal! They made dire wolves so they can take care of the wolf, or bear or whatever! Go get your trophies, we can clone more! www.washingtonpost.com/climate-envi...
Must-read: "Dire Wolves Arenât an Amazing Scientific Breakthrough.Theyâre a Disturbing Symbol of Where Weâre Heading"by @restingdinoface.bsky.social slate.com/technology/2... "To say Colossal is the future of conservation is to task the offensively wealthy with deciding the future of life on Earth."
This is why it's a good idea to have science journalists write science stories and why science journalists must be journalists and not transcriptionists or advocates.