Lisa Yoder

ChatGPT Is a Fictional Character What makes OpenAI’s chatbot so dangerous? It’s a character without an author.

when chatgpt was new, ted chiang famously compared it to a blurry jpeg of everything on the internet. I wrote for @theatlantic.com about how that, these days, it’s more like a fictional character that people treat as real. ☠️ (gift link)

WPSU lives another day. Penn State board approves transfer to WHYY WPSU-TV and radio will become part of Philadelphia-based WHYY, under a plan Penn State trustees unanimously approved Monday, a month after the board's finance committee rejected a similar proposal but...

a speck of good news! radio.wpsu.org/2025-10-13/w...

Dress You Up in My Love - Longreads Doree Shafrir reflects on how Halloween changed for her after struggling with infertility.

I think of this essay this time every year, a very specific kind of haunting. "I never thought, when I started doing IVF treatments, that a byproduct of those treatments would be that I would actively start to hate Halloween." longreads.com/2018/10/31/d...

go look at the moon

An orange bowl of Halloween candy sits on a gray stoop step. It's filled with copies of Octavia Butler's Parable of the Sower and has a note taped to it that says "one copy per child thx"

i misspelled "gap" so my brain is already plenty rotted

we out here

most annoying symptom of my first cold of the season is forgetting all grid and flexbox tailwind classes

Hell yeah, it's central PA lit:

"She exhaled a big sigh. 'But the truth is, every place is like Buckle if you live in it long enough.'"

truly dreading this conversation

Black Pill: How I Witnessed the Darkest Corners of the Internet Come to Life, Poison Society, and Capture American Politics Black Pill: How I Witnessed the Darkest Corners of the Internet Come to Life, Poison Society, and Capture American Politics [Reeve, Elle] on Amazon.com. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. Black Pill: How I Witnessed the Darkest Corners of the Internet Come to Life, Poison Society, and Capture American Politics

This is a book everyone should read, ASAP.

THIS IS ACTUALLY REALLY AWFUL NEWS

Last night's anxiety dream contained bee disease and death, and a replacement queen that was somehow loose in my bedroom.

Literally begging you to post about Just Some Stuff. We will see the news I absolutely promise. Twenty people will repost the same exact thing about the news. Only you can post about a turtle you saw

Forget "I had a college class I forgot to go to/write papers for all semester" dreams. I am now having "I have entire bee hives I forgot about all season and they were demolished by really big sheep" dreams. Love this for me.

omg WHEN will i get a letter like this? truly cannot wait.

Amused by how delightful it is to have a gaggle of little kids pounding on your door demanding to know where the rest of your family is. These kids are a hoot.

I could learn world trade or try to map the ocean

There is only one thing more cringe than “God Bless our First Lady. She, of course, is wiser than all of us” and it is “I am the U.S. Energy Secretary and I talk to ChatGPT about how to cure cancer.”

libraries are just the coolest

it's kind of startling to me to even need to ask this question, i cannot believe how much time has passed since we lived there. llama tooth + union transfer used to be our regular combo.

Philly friends, where would you go for dinner before a show at The Met (with an agreeable infant in tow)?

Rules for “Infertility: The Board Game” PLAYERS: Infertility can be played alone, in a couple, or with a friend who promised that if you were still single at forty, they’d hook you up. OB...

"The goal is to strategically bankrupt yourself physically, financially, and emotionally in order to become a parent. Average playing time is anywhere between two and ten years, but can last even longer, depending on your willingness to be mistaken for grandparents."

sam altman keeps chewing through my insulation to build his nest. sick of this

maybe this just happens to adult farm kids who don't make it home to do sweet corn too many years in a row

is there a name for the very specific August Feeling? like sort of nostalgic and wistful, but there's more to it than that

Looking to speak to people who grew up in Landsdale, PA in the 90s/aughts. Message me on Signal if that’s you.

Apparently wisteria can cause a skin rash similar to poison ivy. Wish I knew this before I crawled out my window in shorts and a tank top to rip it off the gutter.

Please tell me your cool dandelion facts, thoughts, and memories.