Laura Helmuth

Here's how to donate to @theopennotebook.bsky.social and get your donation doubled through the end of the year (2/2) bsky.app/profile/theo...

This is one of the many projects that makes @theopennotebook.bsky.social a worthy cause. Any reporters can make their stories stronger by including relevant science & scholarship. This how-to explains how to add important evidence to any story. (1/2)

Whatcha making?

YES to charts and family trees!

Ooh good idea!

Yesssss!

I enjoy books that start with maps.

Photo of the entrance to an outdoor classroom at a nature center

Sign at an outdoor classroom for a nature center: “Think outside. No box required.”

I can't scream loudly enough that the people leading HHS right now are liars. RFK Jr. Marty Makary. Vinay Prasad. They are liars. And the lies they are telling are the lies eugenicists like themselves tell.

What are we making with leftovers today? I'm working on turkey & wild rice soup.

My Boss Prides Himself on Being Welcoming. His “Jokes” Tell a Different Story. He can't keep doing this.

This week in work drama: a boss who tells bigoted jokes (grrrr), managing impostor syndrome, and how to evaluate a job offer for more salary but possibly more stress. slate.com/advice/2025/...

This Thanksgiving, everyone in Florida should be thankful for alligators • Florida Phoenix The Pilgrims were idiots. If they had just taken a sharp left at Plymouth Rock and sailed southward for another 500 miles, they could have spent that first winter luxuriating at a hotel in St. Augusti...

Column: On this most #Florida of holidays, we should all be thankful for alligators. We saved them & now they may save us. My latest for @floridaphoenix.com also features shout-outs to the Pilgrims, @carlhiaasen.com and Dave Barry. floridaphoenix.com/2025/11/27/t...

Comic. Panels up to the 10-year point are grayed out. New panels since the Ten Years comic, which chronicles the first ten years of PERSON 1's journey with cancer: (1) [two people in bed] PERSON 1 (woman): One more chapter? PERSON 2 (man): Don’t we both have to get up early? PERSON 1: Nnnnnggggh PERSON 2: Sure, good point. (2) [many people wearing masks, walking while looking at graphs on their phones] (3) [birds landing on people] PERSON 2 in beanie and scarf: Hah! They like *my* seeds best. PERSON 1 in scarf holding phone with a bird sitting on it: Wait, how do I take a picture of this one? (4) [two people rowing boats with tree landscape] (5) [Person 1 carries overflowing stack of things to Person 2 in bed] PERSON 1: I brought you honey lemon tea, more pillows, a cinnamon roll, Tylenol, another blanket, a– PERSON 2: It was just Appendicitis, I’m really– PERSON 1: *It is my turn to take care of you and I am going to do it right!* (6) [Two people in car] (7) [still in car) PERSON 1: Oh my god. PERSON 2: Oh my god. (8) [car driving] PERSON 1: Pull over! PERSON 2: I am! (9) [both people get out of car] (10) [Large colored panel of aurora borealis over water with both people looking on] (11) [Person 1 sits against tree while Person 2 lies on the ground] PERSON 1: Fifteen years. No sign of the cancer. (12) I *am* having some weird symptoms. Joint pain. Fatigue. I think I’m losing my close-up vision. PERSON 2: Yeah. Me too. (13) PERSON 2: I think we’re getting old. (14) PERSON 1: I guess that’s okay. PERSON 2: It’s all I wanted.

Fifteen Years

xkcd.com/3172/

Has anybody else gotten a flip phone just so it'll fit in your pocket? I need to replace an ancient iPhone mini and the new models are huge.

Donate to @theopennotebook.bsky.social now and we'll match it. This ridiculously generous project helps science writers (and any writers, really) improve their reporting, interviewing, writing, editing, pitching, teaching, planning, analyzing, diversifying, researching, and everythinging skills.

Add thanks to an apology, to a compliment, to condolences.
Anyway, happy Thanksgiving week, and thank you for making Bluesky such an entertaining and connecting place, even (or especially) when times are terrible. lastwordonnothing.com/2025/11/24/h...

Some of the advice: schedule time to thank people. Thank people for their intent (as you perceived it). Thank people for their impact. Thank people to manipulate them (in a good way)

Sorry to get all earnest for a minute, but here are some ideas about how to say thank you more often and more meaningfully. lastwordonnothing.com/2025/11/24/h...

America putting most of its eggs in the generative AI basket, China going hard into green tech. When history looks back on this period, someone is going to look awfully stupid.

Scorching Saturdays: The Rising Heat Threat Inside Football Stadiums - Inside Climate News Excessive heat and more frequent medical incidents in Southern college football stadiums could be a warning sign for universities across the country.

Smart analysis of rising heat in football stadiums.
One of the biggest challenges for anybody who covers climate change is finding fresh stories that can get people in denial to pay attention. insideclimatenews.org/news/1611202...

i know we've all laughed about the worm and the affair but this is a profoundly dangerous person who should be expelled from the government.

It's somehow comforting that most tech problems can still be solved by turning it off and on again

SO important

Yes, sure, the U.S. should use the metric system...but not for climate reporting! Warnings about the dangers of "2 degrees" (meaning C) sound much less ominous than 4 degrees F.

I hope Jeff Bezos reads the paper he bought and is trying to destroy. This survey shows that people think billionaires are bad for society, skew elections, and are greedy & selfish & hoard wealth

The most important thing an editor does is invisible: good editors stop bad things* from happening.
*fraud and rushed-reporting mistakes
*embarrassing memoirs
*AI slop (although even good editors can get fooled)
*biased language or assumptions (ableism, racism, sexism)
*so much more

My First Work Party at My New Job Couldn’t Have Gone Worse. I’m Worried About My Lingering Reputation. Everyone will be watching me at the holiday party.

For @slate.com Plus: A new hire drank too much at their first work party and is ashamed and anxious about the upcoming holiday party. My advice: Forgive yourself, and do not go to the party full of shame and anxiety, because shame and anxiety would love another drink, please, and make it a double

Here's their column calling for him to resign or be prevented from teaching (they should go ahead, take the credit) www.thecrimson.com/article/2025...

Thanks to staff of the Harvard Crimson for demonstrating the importance of local, community journalism (and for running a wiser, more informative, and more righteous editorial department than the Washington Post's). www.thecrimson.com/thread/2025/...

Every Year, I’ve Donated a Major Prize for My Company’s Holiday Raffle. That Stops Now. I don’t even want to show up after what my former colleagues did.

Few things are more frustrating at work than a boss who plays "guess what I'm thinking." In the second question in my advice column, someone gets vague assignments & critical, vague feedback. Here's what they can try (while looking for another job): slate.com/advice/2025/... on @slate.com