Madhu Campbell

PseudoPod 998: The Story-Stealer’s Night Story-teller, Story-screamer Tell your tales into this night. The words of the poem rush into Durga’s foggy mind with unbidden clarity. She waits quietly at her school gate on the edge of the beach as...

“Story-teller, Story-screamer
Tell your tales into this night.”

The Story-Stealer’s Night
by Madhu Campbell

Narrator: Suna Dasi
Host: Kat Day
Audio: Graeme Dunlop

See show notes for C/Ws

pseudopod.org/2025/10/17/p...

This story is a PseudoPod original.

PseudoPod 995: Data Ghost When the station stats popped up on the screen, the Interface said, Anomalous. Deni batted at their ear and muttered, “No, no, quit it.” In the second cockpit seat, Winnie threw them a look. “What?”…

“When the station stats popped up on the screen, the Interface said, Anomalous.”

Data Ghost
by Martha Wells

Narrator: Rae Lundberg
Host: Alasdair Stuart
Audio: Chelsea Davis

This story originally appeared in Storyteller: A Tanith Lee Tribute Anthology

pseudopod.org/2025/09/26/p...

Extensive compositionality in the vocal system of bonobos Compositionality, the capacity to combine meaningful elements into larger meaningful structures, is a hallmark of human language. Compositionality can be trivial (the combination’s meaning is the sum ...

🚨New in @science.org🚨
With Simon Townsend (@nccrlanguage.bsky.social) and Martin Surbeck, we have investigated whether wild bonobos can combine calls in complex combinations, similar to how humans combine words into sentences 🧪
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

#ScienceResearch #AnimalCommunication

HAPPENING NOW: A giant LGBTQ Pride flag has been unfurled on the south lawn of the Utah State Capitol in protest of the flag bill banning “non-sanctioned flags from classrooms and government buildings.” #utpol

It may not be cool or hip in some circles, but we legitimately do need a massive amount of people to run for office.

Flood the school boards, councils, county seats, state legislatures, Congress, etc.

Big changes at the top happen when the ground shifts at the bottom. And that can start now.

I see authors sheepishly announcing books, or apologizing for good news.

Friends: we’re enduring an onslaught of censorship and bigotry. I am PROUD that you wrote anything. Please yell about what you're doing. Art is a fuel to keeps many of us going.

Two books on Mars. One with an astronaut, the other showing Mars.

We're not going to Mars on a Nazi timetable.

If you want to know why, read these two books.

There are more, but I'm assuming you're not a space geek.

Seriously, read, and think. You'll be fine.

Photograph of two copies of "Inventing the Renaissance" sitting on a table. One is flat on the table, the other standing on it. It's a gorgeous vivid orange, with Cellini's Perseus looming in black holding Medusa's severed head, with the title in white, the word "the" impaled by the sword. If you zoom in you can see the dust jacket has a gorgeous linen fiber paper texture. The sideways copy reveals the spine is very thick. But packed with history fun, I promise!

It exists!
Head of Zeus (the UK publisher) sent me a photo of it hot off the presses!
It has amazing textured paper!
It's so beautiful!
It's so orange!
It's so violent!
It's so
so
so
so fat! 😰
But it's a fast read! I swear! 🥺 Full of jokes & tales & passion & drama & giraffes &...

"I must not fear, fear is the mind-killer" is a very useful mantra to mentally loop especially if you set it to a techno beat

Five isopods on an old, lichen-covered log. Caption reads: Isopod culture.

An isopod in sunglasses skateboards down a log cut to look like a ramp. A crowd of isopods wearing sunglasses and caps cheer it on. Caption: isopod counterculture.

Isopod Culture

(I don't remember where I originally found this image, or who made it, but it brings me such ridiculous joy XD)

BREAKING: The biggest strike against Amazon in U.S. history is happening right now.

The Teamsters are picketing facilities across the country.

The union has organized workers at 10 Amazon locations AND they're putting up picket lines at hundreds of other Amazon sites nationwide.

targets, the District Court reasonably concluded that the balance of the equities tips toward preliminary relief pending full consideration of the merits. Its analysis of the last two preliminary injunction factors was not arbitrary or unreasonable. The court did not manifestly abuse its discretion, and its injunction was not overbroad. 156 Finally, both parties have submitted notices of supplemental authority, citing recent cases considering challenges to various laws regarding gender-affirming care. Without exception, the additional authority pertains to claims grounded in the equal protection clause or otherwise based on alleged unlawful discrimination. Some of the authorities also reference new developments in research and evidence that was not part of the record presented to the District Court in the preliminary injunction proceedings. Because, on the record here, the District Court's conclusions on Montana's express privacy protections are sufficient to uphold its preliminary injunction, we affirm on that basis. The parties will have the opportunity during the merits proceeding for full development of the record, where their experts may offer insight on any new research, and for briefing on the current case law relative to their claims. CONCLUSION 157 The District Court made no error of law and did not manifestly abuse its discretion. We affirm its grant of a preliminary injunction on the basis of Plaintiffs' right to privacy claim. The case will proceed to trial, at which point the District Court will finally resolve the disputed facts and issue a final determination on the constitutional issues presented. /S/ BETH BAKER 32 We Concur: /S/ MIKE McGRATH /S/ LAURIE MCKINNON /S/ INGRID GUSTAFSON /S/ DIRK M. SANDEFUR /S/ JAMES JEREMIAH SHEA

Incredible news! Montana’s Supreme Court just affirmed that the state’s gender affirming care ban is likely unconstitutional.

This makes the state the first state Supreme Court to rule that trans medical care is protected.

This applies REGARDLESS of what the US Supreme Court does.

Century-Scale Storage If you had to store something for 100 years, how would you do it?

Here it is, the longest piece of nonfiction I’ve ever written, CENTURY-SCALE STORAGE. The kind folks at @harvardlil.bsky.social let me investigate the present and future of digital storage, and how we steward and preserve our most treasured cultural objects lil.law.harvard.edu/century-scal...

Not Lost (Never Lost) - PSYCHOPOMP.COM A new story from award-winning author Premee Mohamed about traveling so far from home.

scientists just received a signal from Voyager I from 1 light day away:

www.camras.nl/en/blog/2024...

but we already know what Voyager I has been up to, right @premeemohamed.com ?

and you can too!

psychopomp.com/not-lost-nev...

Do not give this to a Republican led government my sweet god

Stop KOSA Sneak Attack

Reskeet this until it breaks. Then reskeet it again.

We need to flood Congress with phone calls TODAY to make sure they don't slip the dangerous and misguided Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA) into a must-pass year end bill.

This bill would make kids LESS safe and threatens LGBTQ ppl & human rights.

Photos of Nikki Giovanni, young in black and white and old in color

RIP Nikki. Say hi to my Mom.

i hope i die
warmed
by the life that i tried
to live
Nikki Giovanni, The Collected Poetry

i just emailed NYPD:

We shouldn’t accept that a CEO killer must get a national manhunt when cops don’t solve most murders at all. A migrant teenager was just murdered in NYC, cops just killed a guy here — the lives of these other people are worth just as much as that CEO.

My future is also fictional.

Yeremi Colino was 18. He was an immigrant. He was killed after being asked if he spoke English. The NYPD isn't investigating his murder or the attempted murder of the person with him as a hate crime, and there is no reward offered.

Thank you for raising this, Anil.

A screenshot of PayPal's terms of service. Big wall of legalese text, which I will be pasting in below. You don't need to read it, here's the important part: "The key update to the Privacy Statement explains how we will share information with merchants to personalize your shopping experience and recommend our services to you. Personal information we disclose includes, for example, products, preferences, sizes, and styles we think you’ll like. Information gathered about you after the effective date of our updated Privacy Statement, November 27, 2024, will be shared with participating stores where you shop." Here's the whole paragraph: We are updating our Privacy Statement to explain how, starting early Summer 2025, we will share information to help improve your shopping experience and make it more personalized for you. The key update to the Privacy Statement explains how we will share information with merchants to personalize your shopping experience and recommend our services to you. Personal information we disclose includes, for example, products, preferences, sizes, and styles we think you’ll like. Information gathered about you after the effective date of our updated Privacy Statement, November 27, 2024, will be shared with participating stores where you shop, unless you live in California, North Dakota, or Vermont. For PayPal customers in California, North Dakota, or Vermont, we’ll only share your information with those merchants if you tell us to do so. No matter where you live, you’ll always be able to exercise your right to opt out of this data sharing by updating your preference settings in your account under “Data and Privacy.”

In 2025 (less than 30 days away), PayPal will start selling your transaction history for targeted advertising.

I very highly recommend logging into your account and going to Settings > Data & Privacy > Personalized Shopping.

If you're reading this, turn that off RIGHT NOW before you forget.

List of unarmed African Americans killed by law enforcement officers in the United States - Wikipedia

Jordan Neely deserved better.

So did Eric Garner. So did Sandra Bland. So did George Floyd. So did Breonna Taylor. So did Philando Castille. So did Sonya Massey. So did Ahmaud Arbery. So did Trayvon Martin. So did...

My horror story, “Onitsha Main, Ochanja, the Twins, Nkpor, and the Shadows of Shoprite,” originally published this year by @frombeyondpress.bsky.social is now out and free to read at @pseudopod.org

This is a story of a market that goes missing.
pseudopod.org/2024/12/06/p...

Happy #SnowbirdSaturday! Let’s see your birds in the snow!
#birds #becurious 🪶

Anna's Hummingbird