Sign in

Brad Bolman

@brad.bolman.com
1.3K followers 600 following 457 posts

Historian @tulaneu.bsky.social Lab Dog is out: www.labdogbook.com Rotten Beauty is next: www.rottenbeauty.work Website: brad.bolman.com Newsletter: buttondown.com/bolman ~Views expressed may not reflect those of my employer~

PostsRepliesMedia
Brad Bolman @brad.bolman.com · 1h
Excited to see how this develops. The loss of old Twitter was, from my perspective, a pretty enormous loss for a certain kind of academic social interaction and I'm glad to see efforts to not just recapture but improve on it
060
Reposted by Brad Bolman
Kate Manne @katemanne.bsky.social · 20h
I wrote for @thecut.com about the Cornell case and what it says that, at my institution and many others like it, protesters are often punished more harshly than sexual assailants www.thecut.com/article/what...
thecut.com
What It Feels Like at Cornell Right Now
As a professor at the Ivy League school, Kate Manne has known many, many victims. There’s a palpable feeling on campus, she writes, that this is big.
521797593
Reposted by Brad Bolman
John M. Kinder @johnmkinder.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
My review of @brad.bolman.com's terrific (and terrifically disturbing) book on lab dogs in the JAH! A tough but powerful read -- check it out if you want to learn about the tortured history of beagles and science. Lab Dog: What Global Science Owes American Beagles academic.oup.com/jah/article-...
academic.oup.com
Lab Dog: What Global Science Owes American Beagles
In his provocative new book Lab Dog, Brad Bolman reveals a world rarely glimpsed by nonscientists: the kennels, breeding colonies, and laboratories—affilia
131
Brad Bolman @brad.bolman.com · 27/09/2026
I think a not-insignificant reason for this is the repeated confusion these folks make between “life is easy because I’m extremely rich by any reasonable standard” and “life is easy because I use AI tools a lot”
030
Reposted by Brad Bolman
Brian McNoldy @bmcnoldy.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
Amazingly, the hurricane drought continues with nothing in the foreseeable future. No hurricane season has gotten this far along without a hurricane in the past century, and during the more reliable satellite era (mid-1970s), the previous record latest first hurricane formation was September 11.
bmcnoldy.blogspot.com
September will end and still no hurricane this season
Updates and summaries on tropical Atlantic activity... including easterly waves, tropical storms, subtropical storms, and hurricanes.
23112
Reposted by Brad Bolman
Tressie McMillan Cottom @tressiemcphd.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
context. sentiment. inferences. People seriously cannot do these things anymore. That’s why they angrily demand you spell out every joke, every reference, super duper promise you mean something only this one prescribed way. They cannot do it for themselves or tolerate the any ambiguity.
213355823
Brad Bolman @brad.bolman.com · 24/09/2026
Really encourage people to read this piece in the latest New Yorker on Netanyahu and Qatargate www.newyorker.com/magazine/202...
newyorker.com
Israel’s Qatargate Scandal
Did Benjamin Netanyahu’s aides peddle influence to a foreign power?
000
Brad Bolman @brad.bolman.com · 24/09/2026
The state’s approach to wrongly convicted individuals down here (there are a lot!) is unconscionable
000
Reposted by Brad Bolman
Don Moynihan @donmoyn.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
Now everything is safe and nothing is funded. The labs are clean and the researchers are desperate. The fume hoods work perfectly and no one can afford to use them. We have replaced the danger of mouth-pipetting with the danger of a generation of scientists spending their most productive years writing grants that will not be funded. This is its own form of danger, just slower and less honest than the phenol.
18632
Brad Bolman @brad.bolman.com · 23/09/2026
Smiling Eugene Debs in black and white thinking about Americans a century later having a positive view of socialism
000
Reposted by Brad Bolman
Longreads @longreads.com · 22/09/2026
"Perhaps it’s easier for some to imagine relocating humanity to Mars than relocating sediment to save New Orleans." @brad.bolman.com for @pioneerwork.bsky.social: pioneerworks.org/broadcast/we...
pioneerworks.org
Where Cities and Oceans Meet | Broadcast
In New Orleans, water is coming. What should we do with the time we have left?
034
Brad Bolman @brad.bolman.com · 22/09/2026
Fire Amoeba Walk With Me
000
Brad Bolman @brad.bolman.com · 22/09/2026
Really good new essay on what makes China’s unique economic “machine” so essential to renewables in @the-breakdown.bsky.social www.break-down.org/the-machine/...
break-down.org
The Machine
Is China's green technology revolution a model—or a warning?
032
Reposted by Brad Bolman
William Turton @williamturton.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
In 2024 the former CEO of a defense contractor made a stunning confession to two FBI agents. He alleged that was the ringleader of a massive pay-to-play operation, bribing senators with campaign contributions in exchange for govt contracts. www.propublica.org/article/fbi-...
propublica.org
The FBI Anti-Corruption Squad Was Circling Susan Collins — Until Trump Got in the Way
After the FBI caught a defense contractor’s CEO making illegal campaign contributions, it sought to launch a sweeping political bribery probe involving Collins and others. Then the second Trump admini...
22774337
Reposted by Brad Bolman
Carl T. Bergstrom @carlbergstrom.com · 21/09/2026
As Alex notes in this thread, AI doesn't "democratize" science. Rather, it compels scientists to rely on anti-egalitarian means of directing their attention.
322363
Reposted by Brad Bolman
Bill McKibben @billmckibben.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
El Niño is breaking every existing record already, and it's got weeks to go before it's likely to hit a peak. We're going to see a warmer world than any humans before us this year billmckibben.substack.com/p/hold-my-wa...
billmckibben.substack.com
Hold my (warm) beer
It’s Existential Crises Week!
10347178
Reposted by Brad Bolman
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences @pnas.org · 13/03/2026
Between 39–51% of American Indian/Alaska Native peoples live on or within 10 miles of reservations, but 73% of deaths from police violence in this group occurred on or near reservations. The authors call for a public health response to these deaths. In PNAS: ow.ly/ziOi50YtsP8
Location of each police violence death against an Indigenous person recorded by the Mapping Police Violence project from 2013 through 2024 (red dots), showing American Indian/Alaska Native reservations (outlined in green) and a 10-mile buffer zone around each reservation (grey). 
CREDIT: Gabriel L. Schwartz
057
Brad Bolman @brad.bolman.com · 20/09/2026
I love this essay by Beatrice
000
Reposted by Brad Bolman
Ketan Joshi @ketanjoshi.co · 19/09/2026
If I end my innings with a tenth of Joe's record in fighting for climate action, I'll be totally satisfied. What a bloody legend, and what a wealth of stories from his extremely spirited and clever career to celebrate One small one from me: working w/ him on dodgy carbon offsets.........
414028
Reposted by Brad Bolman
Jason Leopold @jasonleopold.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
HUGE EXCLUSIVE from @bloomberg.com Inside the US ‘Kill Chain’ That Destroyed an Iranian School Pentagon investigators discovered that flawed intel, outdated imagery & overreliance on AI contributed to a missile strike that killed 123 children in Minab 🎁 www.bloomberg.com/graphics/202...
bloomberg.com
Inside the US ‘Kill Chain’ That Destroyed an Iranian School
Pentagon investigators have discovered that flawed intelligence, outdated imagery and an overreliance on AI contributed to a missile strike that killed 123 children in Minab.
11026681406
Brad Bolman @brad.bolman.com · 17/09/2026
www.chronicle.com/article/high...
010
Reposted by Brad Bolman
Mary Lewis @profmarylewis.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
Excellent oped in @theharvardcrimson.bsky.social by my @harvard.edu colleague Jill Lepore. www.thecrimson.com/article/2026...
But of course, the machine conversation is not free. It comes at the cost of our common life together as teachers, learners, and researchers, colleagues, mentors, and friends. Not to mention, supervising student researchers is our job.
825688
Brad Bolman @brad.bolman.com · 16/09/2026
I wrote about what it means, and feels like, to live in a disappearing place for PW Broadcast pioneerworks.org/broadcast/we...
pioneerworks.org
Where Cities and Oceans Meet | Broadcast
In New Orleans, water is coming. What should we do with the time we have left?
100
Brad Bolman @brad.bolman.com · 16/09/2026
We’re now on iOS 27 and you still cannot have multiple email signatures in Mail to easily switch between
010
Reposted by Brad Bolman
Christos Lynteris @visualplague.bsky.social · 15/09/2026
Really sad to hear of the death of the great cinematographer Patricio Guzmán whose documentaries illuminated the horrors of the Chilean dictatorship and the hopes of overcoming its legacy www.france24.com/es/cultura/2...
france24.com
Muere el documentalista Patricio Guzmán, narrador de la memoria de Chile
El documentalista chileno Patricio Guzmán falleció en la madrugada de este martes en un hospital de París debido a un paro cardiorrespiratorio a los 85 años, confirmó este martes 15 de septiembre la…
13720
Reposted by Brad Bolman
Jon Agar @jonagar.bsky.social · 15/09/2026
This is excellent. Nathan Ensmenger was one of the first historians to call attention to the hidden environmental consequences of computing, back when it was indeed obscure. Now (w/data centres) it is open and politically contested. But, he argues, we need to choose words and targets carefully..
352
Reposted by Brad Bolman
Jeff Berardelli @weatherprof.bsky.social · 13/09/2026
It’s astonishing to see this, even though we saw it coming months ago. White = 10°F + above normal in the El Niño regions. Its immense! In the air, a regional warming of 10° is no big deal. But in the ocean it’s immense! Think about how hard it is/ how long it takes to cool/ heat your pool. 1/
611524699
Reposted by Brad Bolman
Mar Hicks @histoftech.bsky.social · 11/09/2026
when you work at the BPAF but you’re beginning to realize there’s not going to be a successful IPO
241789536
Reposted by Brad Bolman
Alejandro Fábregas-Tejeda @alejandrofabregastejeda.com · 08/09/2026
Interesting 📰 @theguardian.com by @samanthsubramanian.bsky.social on non-neural cognition: www.theguardian.com/news/ng-inte... Confronted with this polarizing debate, @philosobio.bsky.social & I wrote a balanced take on basal #cognition from an #evobio lens 👇 link.springer.com/article/10.1... #HPS
theguardian.com
‘This is dangerous’: slime moulds and the bitter debate over the nature of intelligence
The long read: Scientists are battling over whether supposedly simple organisms should be considered ‘intelligent’. The outcome could reshape our understanding of the natural world – and our own place...
45023
Reposted by Brad Bolman
Benjamín Schultz-Figueroa @benjaminschultzfig.bsky.social · 08/09/2026
Wonderful new review of The Celluloid Specimen (@ucpress.bsky.social) from @brad.bolman.com over at @jcmsjournal.bsky.social. Brad is careful and judicious in his read of the book, as well as where it could be expanded. Really appreciated this final paragraph (though Ingagi's title is misspelled).
The Celluloid Specimen is a wide-ranging study that deftly weaves together
ideas and concepts from numerous fields, everything from the controversial
nature-fake Inagi to the urban rat dystopias of mid-century scientists.13 It
shows how cinema and media studies scholars can learn from historians of
biological science by paying attention to historically specific infrastructures
of knowledge, and it urges historians to proactively study the production,
circulation, and theorization of scientific media artifacts. The book provoc-
atively argues not only that animal studies scholars need to engage with
a corpus of film that has largely been ignored to the present—celluloid
specimens—but also that an overreliance on sweeping ontological claims
misses the contextual and localized ways that films reshape human/animal
relations. The Celluloid Specimen never loses sight of the political stakes of such
work in an era of capitalist violence and environmental destruction.
2153
Brad Bolman @brad.bolman.com · 05/09/2026
One day we will look back on this era and it will be incomprehensible that there were so many who supported or turned away from these atrocities www.theguardian.com/world/2026/s...
theguardian.com
‘Guilt by association’: why seven international aid workers were killed in Israeli airstrike
Exclusive: Guardian investigation reveals targeting of World Central Kitchen convoy was result of widely used military tactic
000
Brad Bolman @brad.bolman.com · 03/09/2026
A punishingly depressing piece, but still somehow a joy to read
052
Brad Bolman @brad.bolman.com · 01/09/2026
There's a very pretty and interesting new issue of Aperture guest edited by Hiroshi Sugimoto and I have a little essay on light and science in it
A magazine is opened to an article called "Light Years". On left side of the page is a reprinted photograph by Sugimoto shifting color from black to yellow from top to bottom
120
Reposted by Brad Bolman
W.E.D.em Boyz @leftistwonk.bsky.social · 27/08/2026
ICE has fallen out of the headlines but July marked the largest number of migrant detentions ever on record. Five migrants have died in ICE custody in the last two months. It's also currently impossible to legally migrate to this country, as 100% of visa applications have been paused.
4049192535
Brad Bolman @brad.bolman.com · 26/08/2026
Reposting this because having really good colleagues is important to me
010
Reposted by Brad Bolman
Brad Simpson @bradleyrsimpson.bsky.social · 26/08/2026
This is quite literally an extinction level event for graduate education in several fields in the United States.
301551529
Brad Bolman @brad.bolman.com · 26/08/2026
A really useful visual explainer
000
Reposted by Brad Bolman
ertruitt.bsky.social @ertruitt.bsky.social · 25/08/2026
🚨🚨🚨JOB ALERT: The HSS Department at Penn is hiring a tenure-track or tenured professor in the history of data/info science, computing, or AI. Please share widely! apply.interfolio.com/192132
apply.interfolio.com
Apply - Interfolio {{$ctrl.$state.data.pageTitle}} - Apply - Interfolio
02636
Reposted by Brad Bolman
amulya.bsky.social @amulya.bsky.social · 20/08/2026
My husband Drew wrote this at breakneck speed while moving cross-country and caring for an 8 month old, bc he felt it was necessary, ethically and politically, to correct the record. If you read Tyler Austin Harper's piece, I hope you'll read this.
10999314
Reposted by Brad Bolman
lauren @lauren.rotatingsandwiches.com · 19/08/2026
the fact that there's a 🫑 emoji and an 🧅 emoji but no celery emoji shows as a society we still have a long way to go until cajun cooking is normalized in this country
381816208
Brad Bolman @brad.bolman.com · 19/08/2026
This is an absolutely excellent rejoinder—and funny! Worth a read
075
Reposted by Brad Bolman
Madeleine Baker @madeleineebaker.bsky.social · 19/08/2026
Former Bates history and Africana professor Andrew Baker finds Tyler Austin Harper’s account of elite liberal racism familiar but argues he misunderstands the connection between anti-racism and campus labor politics. newsletter.thedriftmag.com/p/racism-and...
newsletter.thedriftmag.com
Racism and labor at Bates: the other side of the story
Andrew Baker responds to Tyler Austin Harper
0167
Brad Bolman @brad.bolman.com · 19/08/2026
It could not be clearer at this point that “anti-Trump moderate“ is not a meaningful electoral coalition www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026...
theguardian.com
Democratic socialist Angie Nixon clinches surprise primary win in Florida US Senate race
Nixon bested Alexander Vindman to win Democratic nomination and now faces Republican Ashley Moody in November
000
Reposted by Brad Bolman
Brian Merchant @bcmerchant.bsky.social · 18/08/2026
A wild story that sums up so much about this moment. Rare books bought up by a hyperscaler, driven across the country by truck, scanned and fed into the woodchipper by low wage workers so the rich can build and own systems that squeeze, surveil, and automate labor and control knowledge generation.
9488228
Reposted by Brad Bolman
Brad Bolman @brad.bolman.com · 17/08/2026
Tulane History is hiring a tenure-track assistant professor of History and Political Economy. It's a joint appointment with Tulane's Murphy Institute and we're excited to continue our department's growth. Please share widely! tulane-ibqejb.fa.ocs.oraclecloud.com/hcmUI/Candid...
tulane-ibqejb.fa.ocs.oraclecloud.com
Department of History and the Murphy Institute Assistant Professor (Tenure-track) in History and Political Economy
Short Position Description
114
Brad Bolman @brad.bolman.com · 17/08/2026
Tulane History is hiring a tenure-track assistant professor of History and Political Economy. It's a joint appointment with Tulane's Murphy Institute and we're excited to continue our department's growth. Please share widely! tulane-ibqejb.fa.ocs.oraclecloud.com/hcmUI/Candid...
tulane-ibqejb.fa.ocs.oraclecloud.com
Department of History and the Murphy Institute Assistant Professor (Tenure-track) in History and Political Economy
Short Position Description
114
Reposted by Brad Bolman
Bike Lane Uprising @bikelaneuprising.bsky.social · 17/08/2026
It’s a pretty telling signal to how dangerous a location is if the ghost bike of someone who was killed there also gets hit
212228
Reposted by Brad Bolman
Sammy Roth @sammyroth.bsky.social · 13/08/2026
With Russell Westbrook announcing his retirement today, reminder that he recently became a very public climate and clean air advocate. I caught up with him last month: www.climatecoloredgoggles.com/p/athletes-n...
climatecoloredgoggles.com
These athletes refuse to stay silent about global warming
Russell Westbrook is not down with climate hushing.
4476108
Reposted by Brad Bolman
John Palfrey @palfrey.org · 13/08/2026
A democracy tax in support of science | an op-ed in Science www.science.org/doi/10.1126/... @science.org
science.org
A democracy tax in support of science
Over the past 19 months, the devastating effects of federal cuts to science funding in the United States have become plain: Young researchers are leaving scientific fields. Labs are struggling to fund...
12210
Reposted by Brad Bolman
Jill Walker Rettberg @jilltxt.bsky.social · 14/08/2026
Dangerous referencing like this is endemic to heavily AI-assisted peer reviewed papers. Allowing the publication of LLM-generated scholarslop (to use @berrydm.bsky.social's term) is destroying science. It's an epistemic carcinogen, as @glenberman.bsky.social wrote. doi.org/10.1007/s001...
doi.org
Client Challenge
16014