Editorial Lead @carbonplanorg. Previously @FiveThirtyEight, @nytmag, @boingboing, etc. Nieman Fellow '15. A mom, allegedly. My opinions, not CarbonPlan's.
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Jan 18 • 6 tweets • 1 min read
Am I nuts or has the U.S. become much more of a scam-based economy in the last decade? Between
"investor university" grifts, drop shipping grifts, mlms ... even jobs that didn't used to be grifts now feel VERY grifty (real estate for example).
The scam economy is so exhausting. It's damn near ruined the Internet at this point. But it exists in the real world, too, and feels like it's gotten much larger. Like the whole damn country suddenly started taking "Rich Dad; Poor Dad" as serious life advice.
Nov 8, 2023 • 4 tweets • 1 min read
Categories of suggested Minnesota flag designs:
- LOONS
- Hey, did you know we have connections to Norway?
- Would make a nice credit union logo
- Shitposting
- Hey, did you know we are located in the North?
- Clearly the product of 5 minutes Wikipediaing state symbols
So far, my favorite individual entries are best summed up as:
"Norway, but make it gayer"
"Taunting Virginia about the battle flag"
"Trans loons kissing over a honey crisp apple"
And this one ....
Nov 8, 2023 • 6 tweets • 2 min read
Tian Tian, the male panda leaving DC today, is a son of Pan Pan -- the panda whose ability to really not care about having sex in public changed the course of captive panda breeding forever. Pan Pan died in 2016. But his genetic legacy lives on ...
I got obsessed with Pan Pan's story several years ago, because it inverts so much of the usual narrative we tell about pandas ("they have to be forced to survive!") and because it is so simultaneously beautiful and sad.
Every election I require a reminder of how the ranked choice voting system works. It would probably be more helpful if I did this before voting. But hey. Here’s some things I had to look up after I voted:
No, you don’t have to vote in every rank slot. You can just put down your first choice and leave the rest blank. If you vote for the same person in every ranking slot, it counts like you put that person first and left the others blank. vote.minneapolismn.gov/ranked-choice-…
Oct 12, 2023 • 5 tweets • 1 min read
Relatedly, this site was also never remotely representative of "the public" discourse. Social scientists would use it for research because the API was easily accessible. But its user base was TINY compared to, like, Facebook and also way more demographically niche.
Twitter was always appearing to punch above its actual weight because some of the niche audiences it appealed to most were national journalists, politicians and talking heads.
Sep 3, 2023 • 5 tweets • 2 min read
I now have two cats: Dr. Veronica Waffles and Hercules Mulligan Peanutbutter, Esq.
The children had naming rights, y'all.
Here’s Herkie: a massive ball of fluff the same age as Dr. Waffles (5 months) but nearly twice as large.
Aug 22, 2023 • 4 tweets • 1 min read
Very much agree. Everyone knows that Missouri north of I-70 is Midwest and Missourah south of I-70 is vehemently not.
Also Midwest ... Kansas up until you hit the line of longitude running through, what, Alma? After that you're solidly Plains. A bunch of the center square states are going to have similar issues.
Jul 13, 2023 • 4 tweets • 1 min read
My northwoods children stepped out of the car into a honestly pretty nice Kansas summer day and absolutely wilted tf to the pavement. “What is happening? Why is it so hot? Mom? The air is thick?” Their continued confusion about the plains continues to amuse me.
Past highlights from this series include: “Mom, where are all the trees?” And “What do you mean this city doesn’t have multiple lakes? What’s a reservoir?”
Jun 23, 2023 • 9 tweets • 2 min read
Me: I'm so happy I don't have to come up with a sub story!
Also me: So obviously this is a story about the limits of our knowledge on carbon fiber. What don't we know abt this wildly important miracle material, how can we learn, and why it matters to all of us.
Here's what I'm learning about my news burnout from this situation. 1) The face punch of THIS IS URGENT is part of what is making my brain go "nope" because ideas just appear when I ignore for a couple days. 2) The pressure to have some kind of political angle is contributing.
Apr 25, 2023 • 8 tweets • 7 min read
It has been an amazing run at @FiveThirtyEight but I was laid off today. I have deeply loved working on this team. My editors and coworkers past and present have been amazing and I have done so much work at this site that I am incredibly proud of. Anybody need a science writer?
I will get to the part where I post my best work so you can decide you want to hire me, but first I just want to send out a few thank yous. @ChadwickMatlin first off. Along with @blytheterrell. The two of you made me the writer I am today and I could not ask for better editors.
Feb 7, 2023 • 4 tweets • 1 min read
I’ve not seen this movie or read the book. It didn’t seem very interesting to me. I will say, though, that this piece on what the hot, crushing weight of meritocracy does to people who weren’t born with the “ocracy” part already in hand feels very “there but for the grace of god”
Sometimes, I feel like I am not doing enough. Like I’m failing my gifts. I’m not working hard enough. My kids don’t have every advantage. And I see very clearly how that could drive you crazy if you let it (and are immersed in a culture that validates that voice in your head).
Feb 6, 2023 • 5 tweets • 2 min read
It’s been a long weekend and I decided I absolutely had to have my Grammy’s “egg twist loaves”* at 6:30 pm. So now we are almost done with second rise and will have fresh bread at breakfast I guess.
* “Egg twist loaves” is Gentile midwestern Grammy cookbook language for “challah”.
Aug 16, 2022 • 20 tweets • 4 min read
So, I've mentioned on here that I really love the Rose In China tiktok account, which features a Ugandan woman, her Chinese husband, and their son living in rural China and wholesomely making traditional Chinese food on a wood-fired wok. But ...
I've also mentioned that there's some weirdness to this account that makes it feel very staged. High production values contrasted with super-rural, barely have electricity, setting. Obvious reality show style set-ups with the neighbors. Etc.
Jun 18, 2022 • 29 tweets • 3 min read
I’m not sure what I expected from the man who decided to hide Darth Vader’s son with Vader’s step brother and using Vader’s own surname, but wandering around the galaxy dressed as a Jedi seems like not the best disguise.
“No one will know I’m a cowboy.”
/Puts on 10 gallon hat. Mounts horse.
Jun 16, 2022 • 5 tweets • 1 min read
I really need someone who covers social media to bring me the definitive deep dive on the Chinese "country lifestyle" TikTok industry. Especially accounts that feature named characters filmed in rural villages by third parties with high production values.
I need to know what is up with Rose from Uganda, and with those accounts following Mongolian families out on the prairie that sometimes have crossover events with each other.
Jun 6, 2022 • 6 tweets • 2 min read
Suicide is the most common way people die from gun violence in America. Mass shootings are one of the least common. But these two forms of violence heavily overlap and preventing one could help prevent the other. fivethirtyeight.com/features/suici…
I first wrote about connections between suicide and mass shootings in 2019 as part of a story that examined public opinion on Red Flag Laws. Since then, the research examining links between the two has just gotten stronger. fivethirtyeight.com/features/suici…
May 27, 2022 • 16 tweets • 3 min read
I've had a couple of people recently ask me about how I talk to my kids about scary news. Obviously, the place to start is with Mr. Rogers. But barring that, here's a couple of things I've learned in recent years:
1) Make it about their feelings and questions, not mine.
I've got grown ups I process shit with and break down with. With the girls, I start with where they are at. Let them do most of the talking. I'll say sometimes, hey I might cry a little here, but this about them.
May 25, 2022 • 4 tweets • 1 min read
Just as a fragile, cracked bone can be a symptom of cancer — researchers are finding evidence that suicides and mass shootings can often be different expressions of the same problem. “Many of these mass shootings are angry suicides,” says James Densley. fivethirtyeight.com/features/can-w…
This is another older piece of mine, but as I'm reading back through old reporting I'm remembering how often this idea of "mass shootings as angry suicides" has come up the research. This is what I mean by the mental health connections being complex.
May 25, 2022 • 4 tweets • 1 min read
I think this gets to longstanding miscommunication over what scientists mean by "mental illness" and what public colloquially means by it. Diagnosed or diagnosable illness vs. impulsive anger/substance abuse/domestic violence/etc ... i.e., behavior/choices that seem "crazy"
One problem is that the colloquial use of "crazy" then comes back to become a burden on the backs of people who actually have diagnosable mental illness. Another problem is a lot of mental illness in this country is untreated and undiagnosed.
May 4, 2022 • 4 tweets • 1 min read
A reminder that one power we all have is to ignore elected officials who post intentionally provocative insults of the American electorate for clout. I could make a case that such trolling is no longer even newsworthy. Why be scammed into a Streisand effect?
These kinds of social media posts are meant to a) get back pats from supporters b) whip up the media into rubbernecking coverage c) make non-supporters big mad for lulz.
As a member of the media, I don't know why we keep playing along with this game.
May 2, 2022 • 5 tweets • 3 min read
The @HumaneSociety and @CenterForBioDiv are trying to get the hippo covered by US Endangered Species Act. It's part of a plan to reduce demand because ... The US is the #1 importer of hippo parts in the world. fivethirtyeight.com/features/ameri…
Seriously. We typically import more hippo parts -- like, as in "body parts" -- than any other nation. Skin, mostly. Even the experts I talked to were a little confused about what we're doing with all that hippo skin, but a lot is probably going to exotic leather boots.
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