Elizabeth Preston

Can Satire Save Democracy? w/ The Onion CEO Ben Collins Podcast Episode · The Sam Sanders Show · 10/03/2025 · 52m

Strongly recommend stepping away from your news feed, going for a walk, and listening to @samsanders.bsky.social interview @bencollins.bsky.social about the state of media and the world: podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/c...

Thanks for sharing, Jason! This was such a fun one. Giant bone-munching birds, scientists rappelling down cliffs, mysterious painted textiles from the Middle Ages...

sometimes I just look at instagram and think
"why is everyone so mad at crow's feet"

they are delicate little lines
around
the eyes

MW correctly reading the room

The nests in the study were from a part of Spain where the vultures are extinct now, so the nests weren't in use anymore!

It's an estimate--the actual date on the shoe, for example, was 674 years plus or minus 22.

Found: 650-year-old shoe, in vulture nest Many unexpected human artifacts have been preserved, for centuries, in vulture nests.

Scientists rappelled down cliffs to reach the nests of bearded vultures, which have a diet of bones and paint their feathers red with mud. Inside the nests were perfectly preserved human artifacts from the Middle Ages. By me, for Nat Geo: www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/arti... 🧪

How to Be a Crappy Correspondent It's the thought behind the message that counts (I hope)

This week I'm taking friendship advice from some very adorable marsupials that poop cubes: elizabethgpreston.substack.com/p/how-to-be-... 🧪

Oh how I yearn to go back in time, put on my Old Noby t-shirt, roll into a Willmart and stare near a lobster tank before going out the exik WHO IS WATCHING THIS MY GOD

Not mimicry per se, but if you're looking for general body horror, there are a lot of disturbing soldier termites out there (face is a glue nozzle, etc)

Meet ‘Mad Hatterpillar,’ the caterpillar that uses its old heads for defense | CNN Some caterpillars fend off attackers by emitting toxic chemicals or smells. One species stacks its molted heads atop each other to act as false targets for predators.

I think there's a whole category of caterpillars that mimic bird poop. And the classic caterpillar with the stack of heads on its head: edition.cnn.com/2020/08/09/w...

How to Be a Crappy Correspondent It's the thought behind the message that counts (I hope)

Advice for lonely humans from cube-pooping marsupials: elizabethgpreston.substack.com/p/how-to-be-... 🧪

GULP! I hope I am not so STIFF and SPOOKed that I can only speak in GRUNTs and BONK into things when I interview the legendary Mary Roach onstage about her new book REPLACEABLE YOU! See you there?? www.harvard.com/event/mary-r... @harvardbookstore.bsky.social 🧪

classic ’Missed Connection’

I also personally adore Jon Klassen's I Want My Hat Back (and sequels), not included here. And any Elephant and Piggie book, although maybe they had to limit how many times Mo Willems appeared on the list.

The 25 Greatest Picture Books of the Century There’s been a revolution in children’s storytelling—and it’s not just that the stories are more diverse.

Just interrupted my own doomscrolling to read Slate's list of the top 25 picture books from this century, and I recommend you do the same! slate.com/culture/2025... In my household, The Book with No Pictures and (the brilliant) Du Iz Tak? are both all-timers. Also Press Here (for littles).

Oh I love this:

My kids were at a playground birthday party this weekend that included a person in a Pikachu suit (big hit). After meeting Pikachu my 5-year-old came to me and tugged on my shirt. "Mommy?" (with concern) "I looked in the eyes and I didn't see any eyes"

Just got the first blurb for my book, and I suspect my favorite comment of all will be this slightly resentful note that came with it: "I did not really have time, but once I opened and started, could not put it down. So here you go"

Here's the deal folks. We haven't yet hit our fundraising goal. We have one more campaign planned for the year, but the long-term existence of this magazine hinges to a decent degree on readers signing up as recurring donors. If you value what we are making, it would mean a lot if you signed up

This is a feel-good story until you get to the part where 70% of other countries already do this on a national level. 🧪

"Health losses attributed to anthropogenic climate change," a brief communication in the journal Nature Climate Change. There's a map showing regions of the world, and pie charts of relevant studies as they apply to different health impacts like "heat-related deaths" and "maternal and child health"

🚨 NEW: Climate change is already causing 30,000 deaths per year - a global annual economic loss of $100-350B USD - but the true damage is probably 10x higher. Out TODAY in Nature Climate Change: the first systematic look at the science of "health impact attribution" 🔓 www.nature.com/articles/s41...

How to Watch Your Internet Diet Bee selective (for everyone's sake)

Hello, have you been on the internet too much lately? Here's some advice from nature about foraging wisely, to protect yourself and your loved ones: elizabethgpreston.substack.com/p/how-to-wat... 🧪

It is very safe for the eggs, unless you get hungry

How to Watch Your Internet Diet Bee selective (for everyone's sake)

Have you been bingeing on horrors lately? We might all take some wisdom from the worker bees: elizabethgpreston.substack.com/p/how-to-wat... 🧪

Often thinking about when I was a very pregnant teacher and my high school sophomores told me if we ever go into lockdown, I should move to the safest corner of the room right away and they would move the bookcase to barricade the door on their own. "You have the baby," they (babies) said.

(Debating whether to admit that I, a 40-year-old woman, not only relate strongly to this but know that the name of the movie's main character, Rumi, is misspelled in this piece)

Terms and Conditions for Occupying Your Flesh Prison Welcome, soft idiot. You’ve been issued a Human Body™, the most fragile, overpromised, poorly updated model in the known universe. It arrives prelo...

Wait this is actually beautiful. www.mcsweeneys.net/articles/ter... @mcsweeneys.net

No people on the planet will ever be AI. This is Orwellian bullshit. Zero people will ever be AI. This is no different from saying half the people in the country are television characters. Do not let anybody convince you that you don’t know the difference between a human being and a machine.

"Florida is the first state to take the courageous step toward decluttering itself of excess children." @petridishes.bsky.social doesn't miss: