Byrd Pinkerton

2025, or, How I Learned To Stop Worrying And Love The Voice Memo

@byrdest.bsky.social was right, y’all

Real-life zombies

Maybe you need a break from *flaps hands distractedly,* perhaps w/some diverting zombie science? Have a listen as @byrdest.bsky.social & I talk about Rise of the Zombie Bugs on @vox.com's Unexplainable podcast, we spent some quality time with the "fly-destroyer" zombifying fungus & now you can too 🧪

glad you enjoyed it! thanks for these kind words.

The CFPB wanted medical debt to be left off credit reports. That's changed under Trump Under the Biden administration, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau finalized a rule barring medical debt from appearing on credit reports. Now, the agency is siding with the credit industry groups suing to have the rule vacated.

Under the Biden administration, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau finalized a rule barring medical debt from appearing on credit reports. Now, the agency is siding with the credit industry groups suing to have the rule vacated.

Diseases are spreading. The CDC isn't warning the public like it was months ago Some of the CDC's main channels for communicating urgent health information to the public have gone silent.

Some of the CDC's main channels for communicating urgent health information to the public have gone silent.

At the edge of the ocean, a dazzling ecosystem is changing fast California researchers grapple with losing a landscape they love in real time.

“I struggle with it. I feel like marine systems especially are pretty complicated to think about restoring. What do you actually do out here? How do you protect things? … But you can’t stop doing it, because then you’ve kind of lost everything.”

www.vox.com/down-to-eart...

Measles is back — and more dangerous than you think. Here’s what you can do to protect yourself. The troubling ripple effects of more measles outbreaks, explained.

You really, really don't want to get measles.

@dylanlscott.bsky.social's latest for @vox.com: www.vox.com/health/40470...

omg dara

it is a lovely lovely time to ride insanely hard for williams racing

lol

What we do—and don’t—know about the mysterious illness in the DRC The unidentified ailment has sickened 1,300 people and led to more than 50 deaths. Regardless of the cause, experts say containing the outbreak will be challenging.

I wrote about the outbreak of ??? in Congo for Nat Geo (and my fave editor ever, the great @bresnick.bsky.social) www.nationalgeographic.com/health/artic...

The 2% of the planet representing the conterminous United States was quite chilly in January. The rest of the world, not so much! berkeleyearth.org/ja...

After delay, CDC releases data signaling bird flu spread undetected in cows and people After going quiet on bird flu, CDC scientists have published a report on its spread among veterinarians. The findings suggest a need for better surveillance.

After going quiet on bird flu, CDC scientists have published a report on its spread among veterinarians. The findings suggest a need for better surveillance.

'Unprecedented': White House moves to control science funding worry researchers If the Trump administration continues targeting DEI in science and seeking to slash funding, American science will look fundamentally different.

If the Trump administration continues targeting DEI in science and seeking to slash funding, American science will look fundamentally different.

Trump administration purges websites across federal health agencies Research and basic information on subjects ranging from tuberculosis surveillance to adolescent health disappeared from federal health agency websites.

BREAKING NEWS: Research and basic information on subjects ranging from tuberculosis surveillance to adolescent health disappeared from federal health agency websites.

'All the hydrants up here are dead.' Radio traffic recounts LA firefighters losing water NPR transcribed 2,000 hours of radio communications from the LA fires. It shows hydrants going dry and first responders fighting the fires despite scarce resources.

NPR transcribed 2,000 hours of radio communications from the LA fires. It shows hydrants going dry and first responders fighting the fires despite scarce resources.

This is a perfect sentence:

"All we’ve gotten in the past decade is example after example of how little these people know about anything other than making apps that destroy something you previously loved, by hollowing it out into a subscription service that no longer works and everyone hates."

Fascinating piece. The research and the writing are gems.

keren will make you laugh so hard you won’t realize she also made you learn and i am so sad i won’t get to learn with her at work anymore

I just got laid off from @vox.com along with 11 other talented and delightful people.

I'm leaving with a deep bench of sources and a million ideas. Editors assigning work on public health, health misinfo, corporate ints/religion in healthcare, please reach out!

Gonna go have cookies for lunch now

Been hanging out with the fab Unexplainable team @vox.com for a bit. Listen to me be amazed by secret twins from @byrdest.bsky.social 🫂, animal transplant organs from Mandy Nguyen 🫁, and 1-way tickets to Mars from @nhassenfeld.bsky.social 🚀! Link in thread. Oh, PS: Send me science stories/ideas! 🔬

A big insurer backed off its plan to pay less for anesthesia. That’s bad. What the fight between Anthem and anesthesiologists was really about.

oops. turns out that blue cross blue shield not paying for anesthesia after a certain time limit was NOT a terrible thing?!?

"Anthem’s policy would have cost anesthesiologists, not their enrollees."

www.vox.com/policy/39003...

Donate to Stand with the Vox Media Union and Thrillist Union, organized by Ashok Selvam On Thursday, December 5, nearly 40 members of the Vox Media Union, Thr… Ashok Selvam needs your support for Stand with the Vox Media Union and Thrillist Union

We are overwhelmed by and grateful for the support we've received from everyone in the aftermath of Vox Media's awful end-of-year layoffs.

If you have some spare cash, please donate. All funds will go directly to those who lost their jobs last week.

www.gofundme.com/f/stand-with...

“Naturally, we want answers on who needs our help most. But outsourcing our choices about charitable giving to empirical guides does not cut through the numbness. It may sit, conveniently, alongside it. It can even short circuit the painful process of paying attention.”

bsky.app/profile/emma...

wowwwwwww

Devang! Plant clocks?!?!

it is the 60th anniversary of the verrazzano narrows bridge

it is also the 60th anniversary of the mayor of new york city deciding to say this WILD thing about staten island which—to be clear—was very much already a part of new york city at the time

www.bostonmagazine.com/news/2023/11...

America, before and after vaccines

www.vox.com/future-perfe...

Why is horror so fun? Unexplainable · Episode

"why is horror so fun?" asks woman starting yet another account on yet another social media platform

anyway, here is a fun episode about why we like to spook ourselves out. it is not about social media at all.

open.spotify.com/episode/1K26...