I was last at San Diego Comic-Con in 2017. For that and for previous visits, I covered the con like a journalist. I think I was trying to be of use to others, since relatively few people get to attend. In 2026, I don’t have the energy for that — indeed, I’m only getting this post
It is always a slightly strange feeling to be a nominee. Sitting in the hotel ballroom, as your category approaches and then arrives, there is a rise in nervous energy. If your book wins, you will need to take the stage, deep-breath your nerves down, remember to thank all the people you want to thank.
The moment you have been waiting for! Or possibly not. But here are my picks for the best music of 2025 — some of which may have changed by the time you are reading this. And my shifting list is one reason I’m only getting around to posting this on New Year’s Eve. Another reason for
Crockett Johnson would turn 119 today, and Harold (of purple crayon fame) turns 70 this fall. What does it mean to celebrate Johnson or Harold today? As I argue in “Turn off AI. Pick up a crayon,” it means to celebrate human creativity. In this piece, I suggest that Harold and the Purple Crayon is
Back in April, US Defense Secretary Pete “Signal” Hegseth ordered 381 books removed from the US Naval Academy’s Nimitz Library. These included works read by young people—Maya Angelou’s I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings and Angie Thomas’ The Hate U Give—and scholarship on books for young people, such as Robin Bernstein’s Racial Innocence and
AI is everywhere. This is a guide for students — my students, your students — and anyone who would like to resist the lure of AI. The more you know about large-language model (LLM) AI, the more reasons you discover to avoid using it — or, at least, to limit your use. So. Here are 9 ways
How are the good people of Manhattan, Kansas fighting the regime? Well, in many ways, but one is via Indivisible MHK — the local chapter of Indivisible, the national pro-democracy organization founded by Ezra Levin and Leah Greenberg. To find out what, precisely, we are up to, follow us on social media (BlueSky, Facebook, Instagram, Substack,
A version of this appeared on Substack – both mine and Indivisible MHK’s — this past Wednesday. I am tired. Very tired. The regime is setting fires faster than we can put them out. This, as we know, is by design. They seek to overwhelm. They want surrender. But why should we give them what they
On Saturday, Kansans held a virtual Town Hall with one of our missing Senators — Jerry Moran. Since he refused to meet us, we had an empty chair with his photograph taped to it. Over the course of 2.5 hours, 32 people from many walks of life expressed our concerns — about the ongoing coup, the
I’ve made another anti-fascist educational video. Below, full text and a list of main sources for the video — which I talk more about at the end of the video. So, language matters. You hear of people being fired because of DEI, of programs being shut because of DEI, of grants revoked because of DEI.
