Ada Palmer

A pelican in flight looking at the camera, with a morning glow sky behind them

What? 🪶

Some professors at the University of St. Thomas are doing a research project on the effects of the ICE occupation on Twin Cities parents. They're looking for parents who are US citizens, who live in the Twin Cities metro area, and who have kids ages 5-10.

stthomas.az1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_...

Not many Youtube videos are worth 2 hours of your time - this one definitely is.

A headline reading “Camel pageant thrown into chaos after 20 competitors disqualified for using hump-plumping injectables”

Yes everything is terrible but let’s not lose sight of the fact that someone has written the Headline to End All Headlines.

Good, Fast, Cheap Venn diagram

The only way to survive in comics, at least as I see it, is absolutely to embody the middle of this Venn diagram, you know… where it says “this doesn’t exist”

I can't compete with this.

Banger. Writing SF/F taught me more academic skills than academia itself

I've been pitching Palmer's excellent Inventing the Renaissance to friends as, essentially, "Baby's First Historiography."

This essay does an unsurprisingly spectacular job of more clearly articulating that pitch.

Spring skies over the majestic and historic York Minster at lunchtime today #medievalsky

<bump>

So because of snowstorm this talk is now TOMORROW Tuesday 3/10. See you there? #medievalsky

An absolute banger of an article, and how we as a society come to envision history in all its variable possibilities.

Cover of The Caretakers: War Graves Gardeners and the Secret Battle to Rescue Allied Airmen in World War II by Caitlin Galante DeAngelis sepia cover with black and white images of gardeners' mugshots and a cemetery decorated with flowers

Happy birthday to my book, which is out today in the US!

rowman.com/ISBN/9781633...

Fascinating. Especially, for me, the Gutenberg bookselling bit (from 58m approx). I was an info science researcher just before the turn of the century, which was maybe what Dr Palmer calls the 'Venice Hub' moment for web bookselling, but I'd not thought of it that way. I saw it as new.
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Why All Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers Are Historians SFF authors are the front-line practitioners who put the fruits of history’s craft into daily practice, sharing it in doses the public can consume, combining, treating, administering, customizing, …

Why All Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers Are Historians

We loved this essay from @adapalmer.bsky.social

YouTube video by Dwarkesh Patel How cosplaying Ancient Rome led to the Renaissance – Ada Palmer

New interview with me & Dwarkesh Patel. Deliberately misleading start quote there, but I think it’s to draw people in. youtu.be/PAIhVfGbREA?...

South Africa reports 16% drop in rhino poaching for 2025 | Africanews South Africa has announced a significant 16% national decline in rhino poaching for 2025, crediting intensified anti-trafficking efforts and integrated strategies, even as certain regions faced…

South Africa recorded a 16% national decline in rhino poaching in 2025, with 352 rhinos killed compared to 420 in 2024, reflecting continued reductions in illegal hunting driven by enforcement and anti-trafficking efforts. Africa News buff.ly/d0i7iet
#ShareGoodNewsToo

hellloooooo spring! #boston

holy shit

i had to know why someone gave this nearby island one star and i'm not disappointed by what i found

In a hotel room, a brick wall that has obviously had a huge hole repaired

Pretty sure the Kool-Aid man stayed in this hotel room once

With alt text

ELIZA's creator was so alarmed by the fact that people mistook the chatbot for a sentient being that he wrote an entire book about why this implementation of computer technology was a huge problem and it is a staggering achievement

Has #HATM done the obscure 2008 Conclave movie, the one about the 1450s papal election starring Brian Blessed?

Happy International Women’s Day! As the youngest woman to ever serve on the NC Supreme Court (and only 10th woman ever), I honor the women who came before me and commit to ensuring there are many more after me. #persist #iwd2026

I became a historian because of sf/f: LEST DARKNESS FALL. Then, when I couldn't make a living at it, I poured what I'd learned back into sf/f. The river of branching and intersecting streams...

Exactly! I became a historian for the same reasons. Mostly Bester & Gene Wolfe in my case.

Absolute bangers:
"Most people today get our ideas about how history works and changes primarily by consuming SFF and historical fiction. We in the SFF genre are not only historians, we are the most influential historians practicing today."

There are tremendous mutual aid projects here and in your communities that make amazing impact. Focus on those too.

Good stuff for historians and sf writers (or both, I know there are more of us out there!) on how change happens and why what we all do matters.