Tao Leigh Goffe | 道 | PhD

Happy (Lunar) New Year! @ Hasan Minhaj. Bring on the ☄️🐎 fire horse.

Like culture posts on this app simply don’t get the engagement and I think it’s because people feel it’s frivolous and actually it’s the thing we are fighting for, the freedom to make culture and cultural works

100+ Black-Owned Bookstores in the U.S. There are hundreds of Black-owned bookstores in the U.S. to explore! Check them out here, sorted by state.

This list was created by journalist Char Adams, the author of Black-Owned: The Revolutionary Life of the Black Bookstore.

bookriot.com/black-owned-...

💙📚 #booksky

Someone pouring a cup of chai

Iftar, Day 10

A plate of food.

Iftar, Day 9

Just got off the phone with President Trump. In our meeting earlier, I shared my concerns about Columbia student Elmina Aghayeva, who was detained by ICE this morning. He has just informed me that she will be released imminently

I was literally teaching Sara Ahmed’s work on how the whiteness of institutions is a result of a series of decisions about the allocation of resources, who to recruit, what to prioritize.

The values of an institution are most clearly indicated in their budgets.

Georgia Is Letting a Railroad Seize Land a Black Family Has Owned For 100 Years Descendants of enslaved people are fighting an attempt to use eminent domain to carve a spur through one of Georgia’s largest Black‑owned farms.

The families in the railroad’s path said they see this as another instance in a pattern of extraction that has defined this corner of Georgia since before the Civil War.
bit.ly/4qS3nIA

Age verification vendor Persona left frontend exposed, researchers say

To demonstrate the privacy implications, researchers took a closer look and found a publicly exposed Persona frontend on a US government-authorized server, with 2,456 accessible files. You read that right. According to researcher "Celeste" the exposed code, which has now been removed, sat at a US government-authorized endpoint that appears to have been isolated from its regular work environment. In those files, the researchers found details about the extensive surveillance Persona software performs on its users. Beyond checking their age, the software performs 269 distinct verification checks, runs facial recognition against watchlists and politically exposed persons, screens "adverse media" across 14 categories (including terrorism and espionage), and assigns risk and similarity scores. Persona collects —and can retain for up to three years —IP addresses, browser and device fingerprints, government ID numbers, phone numbers, names, faces, plus a battery of "selfie" analytics like suspicious-entity detection, pose repeat detection, and age inconsistency checks.

According to The Rage, Discord has stated it will not continue to use Persona for age verification. However, other platforms reported to use Persona include: • Roblox: Uses Persona's facial age estimation and ID verification as the core of its "age checks to chat" system. • OpenAl / ChatGPT: OpenAl's help center explains that if you need to verify being 18+, "Persona is a trusted third-party company we use to help verify age," and that Persona may ask for a live selfie and/or government ID. • Lime: The ride-sharing service deploys custom age verification flows with Persona to meet each region's unique requirements. We don't just report on threats - we help protect your social media Cybersecurity risks should never spread beyond a headline. Protect your social media accounts by using Malwarebytes Identity Thett Protection.

Persona, the age verification company used by Roblox & Discord was hacked.

And despite the company & platforms claiming Persona utilised “zero knowledge” methodologies to verify age, they are gathering user data.

Palantir is one of Persona’s main investors.

www.malwarebytes.com/blog/news/20...

Discord has announced that it's cutting ties with Persona, the AI software company backed by Peter Thiel used for age and identity verification.

Is anyone here on Spill? It really does feel like the opposite place to here…

The Epstein files document what many women researchers have long experienced but rarely seen laid bare so starkly: exclusion operating behind closed doors, shaping who gets funded, invited, mentored, and taken seriously. How many of these networks, norms, and gatekeepers remain in place?

For Your Consideration: On BAFTA and the Indifference of Antiblackness Let us consider the scene again: Delroy Lindo and Michael B. Jordan present an award at the BAFTA ceremony. As they read from the teleprompter, they hear John Davidson involuntarily scream out the n-...

“To not acknowledge the unique effect of a racial slur is a form of indifference to the suffering of others. The problem of being indifferent to the suffering of black folk while also imploring folks to have empathy for Davidson cannot be understated.” — @nubluesnick.bsky.social

You can tell they are cutting up

New and noteworthy non-fiction @mcnallyjackson.bsky.social! Thanks to my colleague for snapping this photo.

My new paperback - DARK LABORATORY on climate optimism told through island stories. 🏝️🏝️🏝️

me when the students have done the reading

Hey! Scholars! If you're using someone's work in your class, sometimes it's nice to email them and tell them, because then they might feel good about their research instead of entirely crushed by the academic humanities' ongoing descent into the grave

Rumor de la Tierra - Q GALERIA Inauguración: 21 de enero, 19h00Lugar: Q Galería (Diego de Robles y Pampite, junto a la entrada principal de la USFQ) Q Galería tiene el gusto de presentar la exposición Rumor de la Tierra: Ecuador | ...

Read more in Spanish about the exhibition, which just closed on February 11. qgaleria.com/rumor-de-la-...

So pleased that our art exhibition on disrupting orientalism RUMOR DE LA TIERRA / RUMBLINGS OF THE EARTH received so much love in Ecuador!

@cecilestudio.bsky.social and I can’t wait for our NYC debut coming this spring.

The Music of Caribbean Witness - WORT-FM 89.9 Tao Leigh Goffe–PhDJ, geologist, and bird watcher–joins host Ali Muldrow to talk about climate and racial justice and says, let’s promise not to betray the future.

🎙️PhDJ, geologist, and bird watcher @taoleighgoffe.bsky.social joins host @alimuldrow.bsky.social to talk about climate and racial justice and says, "let’s promise not to betray the future."

Listen here: www.wortfm.org/the-music-of...

4/4 - End Papers: A mini-book fest on capitalism and the climate crisis by Red Emma's Get tickets and support Red Emma's by becoming a member

Coming 4/4: End Papers—our mini-book fest on the climate crisis & capitalism, w/@triofrancos.bsky.social @alybatt.bsky.social @joobilly.bsky.social @taoleighgoffe.bsky.social @jmhattem.bsky.social @maximillianalvarez.bsky.social @robbieshilliam.bsky.social + more TBA

withfriends.co/event/275648...

I love radio. Hear me talk about my new book. The paperback edition comes out tomorrow!

When one mother was taken by ICE, another stepped in to donate breastmilk Moms in Minneapolis are donating diapers, food and time to help families who have been ripped apart by ICE.

A mother in Minneapolis was abducted by ICE and sent to a detention center in Texas, leaving behind a 16 year old and a 3-month old baby. The baby was breastfed and hadn't eaten in a over day. Then a superhero arrived with 350 oz of breastmilk, bottles & extra clothes. 19thnews.org/2026/02/minn...

Paperback Row. My book @nytimes.com #DarkLaboratory

2026 at my Lab - ecology, creative technology, racial justice. #DarkLaboratory

The overfunding of AI hurts us all, in very real ways

Free Liam.

Mmhm read Dark Laboratory by @taoleighgoffe.bsky.social

Rumor de la tierra.

Why do baby clothes have back pockets?