Reposted by Dan PemsteinProPublica @propublica.org · 26/09/2026Hey, ProPublica reporter Jake Pearson here. I’m taking over the account to tell you about my new story. For months, I posed as a problem gambler on DraftKings to test the company's "responsible gaming" safeguards. Spoiler alert: They made me a VIP — and I lost $10K. Here's how it all went down. 🧵 19595903526
Reposted by Dan PemsteinHigh Country News @highcountrynews.org · 26/09/2026Amid a record-breaking year of Western bear conflict, the historically tolerant Red Lodge community is grappling with opposing views on how to live with the species — and if a ‘fed bear’ really should be a ‘dead bear.’ buff.ly/wfv6lgybuff.lyAs bears ‘spin out’ in southern Montana, wildlife managers are at wit’s end - High Country NewsAmid a record-breaking year of Western bear conflict, the historically tolerant Red Lodge community is grappling with opposing views on how to live with the species — and if a 'fed bear' really… 3145
Reposted by Dan PemsteinDan Pemstein @danpemstein.com · 14/09/2026Fargo area folks, the Department of Political Science & Public Policy at NDSU is hosting a public lecture by @bcburden.bsky.social, about the 2026 US Election, on Oct 1, at 6pm, in Minard Hall (Room 230). Hope to see you there! 063
Dan Pemstein @danpemstein.com · 25/09/2026I have a back-burner project that examines whether or not the relationship between women's labor force participation and women's descriptive political representation is causal, focusing on the US. Short answer is: seems unlikely. Posting the working paper, to keep it half out of the file drawer. 131
Dan Pemstein @danpemstein.com · 25/09/2026My first grader got a polaroid camera for his birthday and wanted to repurpose a cloth-bound copy of A Christmas Carol as an album. Found a guy in Baltimore who hand binds blank books (and has exquisite penmanship). The book is beautiful, so wanted to give the store a plug: pencilrevolution.com 110
Reposted by Dan PemsteinJoyce Park @troutgirl.bsky.social · 22/11/2025I once knew a Federal bank examiner, and one time someone asked him why we had to KEEP inspecting banks over and over. He basically said every new batch of business school grads invents bank fraud from first principles. 6888822662
Reposted by Dan PemsteinAnthony DeBarros @anthonydb.bsky.social · 24/09/2026My @wsj.com colleagues put AI-related spending in context with America's earlier large infrastructure buildouts. It's massive. (Gift link.) www.wsj.com/economy/the-...wsj.comThe AI Build-Out Is Becoming the Biggest Economic Bet in U.S. HistoryData-center spending is greater than that for canals, railroads and grid combined—creating jobs and stock-market wealth, while boosting inflation and crowding out housing. 13216
Reposted by Dan PemsteinNanjala @nanjala.bsky.social · 15/09/2026Our new volume on Global Platform Governance is now available for pre-orders, gathering perspectives from academics and practitioners all over the world on key debates around regulating platforms so that folks are not just engaging what works for the US or the EU. www.bloomsbury.com/uk/global-pl...bloomsbury.comGlobal Platform GovernanceThis is a field-defining open access playbook for identifying and responding to the global regulatory challenges created by large digital platforms.Here Nanjala… 11715
Dan Pemstein @danpemstein.com · 16/09/2026I now have to file 2-3 separate reimbursement requests for every work trip, because my university's accounting office has interpreted the new IRS 60 day rule (honestly, just taking their word that this is even a thing) in the absolute worst possible way. 130
Reposted by Dan PemsteinOlivia Guest · Ολίβια Γκεστ @olivia.science · 15/09/2026I am so tired of how we have been saying this for more than a decade by this point 813340
Reposted by Dan PemsteinIan Campbell @iwcampbell.bsky.social · 15/09/2026NDSU’s punter might hold the record for kinds of cultural experience in a six year span 17895114
Dan Pemstein @danpemstein.com · 14/09/2026Fargo area folks, the Department of Political Science & Public Policy at NDSU is hosting a public lecture by @bcburden.bsky.social, about the 2026 US Election, on Oct 1, at 6pm, in Minard Hall (Room 230). Hope to see you there! 063
Reposted by Dan PemsteinPer Engzell @pengzell.bsky.social · 28/11/2025A thread of directed acyclic graphs (DAGs) that look like record covers... because that's EXACTLY what the world needs 1. Huey Lewis and the News: link.springer.com/chapter/10.1... 11319107
Dan Pemstein @danpemstein.com · 26/08/2026On top of everything, the GFRP stipend was $30k in 2024 (so ~$54k in current dollars). Now it is $37k. 000
Dan Pemstein @danpemstein.com · 11/07/2026But also, I didn't realize this until I moved to Fargo: www.smithsonianmag.com/smithsonian-...smithsonianmag.comWhy Don't We See Fireflies in the Western U.S.?You asked, we answered 010
Reposted by Dan PemsteinTim Longman 🏳️🌈 @timlongman.bsky.social · 08/07/2026The Department of Education has now officially submitted proposals to eliminate International Education and Fulbright Hays programs, which have funded thousands of students and scholars to study languages and conduct research abroad. I encourage you to make public comments and contact your reps.govinfo.govGovInfoOfficial Publications from the U.S. Government Publishing Office. 7145170
Dan Pemstein @danpemstein.com · 04/07/2026Beyond the disruption, it changes the equilibrium going forward, almost no matter what the next four years look like, because we all know it can be turned upside down on a dime. Eg, the political/institutional change necessary to make being an NSF rotator attractive again is massive. 150
Dan Pemstein @danpemstein.com · 11/06/2026I'm thoroughly jaded about this world cup, but the Mexican anthem at Azteca has me wobbling a bit. 020
Dan Pemstein @danpemstein.com · 10/06/2026Pretty delighted with how Fargo voted for mayor (bonus that he's an NSDU polisci grad): www.facebook.com/share/v/1DBC... 020
Reposted by Dan PemsteinSvend-Erik Skaaning @skaaning.bsky.social · 28/05/2026New book on democracy. #OpenAccess Seven Myths about Democracy by Jørgen Møller & Svend-Erik Skaaning, Routledge taylorfrancis.com/books/oa-mon.... Challenges (full or partial) misunderstandings about the meaning, trajectory, causes, and consequences of democracy.taylorfrancis.comSeven Myths about Democracy | Jørgen Møller, Svend-Erik Skaaning | TayThis timely book challenges seven widespread misconceptions about democracy that continue to shape public and academic debates about its past, present, and 23918
Reposted by Dan PemsteinPolitics & Gender @politicsgenderj.bsky.social · 26/05/2026📣 New #FirstView Notes from the Field 📝 In "USAID Bureau on Democracy, Human Rights, and Governance", @mlkrook.bsky.social interviews Julie Denham, Rebecca Gordon, and other members of the gender team at DRG. buff.ly/r1Kh24W #OpenAccess gendersky polisky 041
Reposted by Dan PemsteinJohn Muller @johnspacemuller.com · 24/05/2026Data visualization is my passion 823618
Reposted by Dan PemsteinAlex Hanna @alexhanna.bsky.social · 21/05/2026Matt Scherer on what I've been telling journalists for some time now: one of the biggest AI harms that we are staring down is the popping of the AI bubble, and the attentive harms we'll be seeing for working class folks. lpeproject.org/blog/the-rea... 55517
Reposted by Dan PemsteinJulia Azari @juliaazari.bsky.social · 04/05/2026My Callais take: we should view the politics behind this decision through the "colorblind" lens - a backlash frame palatable to normal people. open.substack.com/pub/goodpoli...open.substack.comColorblind politics have undermined civil rights for decades. Callais is just the latest.The Voting Rights Act acknowledged what needed to happen for American democracy to flourish. 14419
Reposted by Dan PemsteinDr. Damien P. Williams, dread portent down from a mountain cave @wolven.blacksky.app · 02/05/2026This is one of the most quietly revolutionary things any city can do to improve kids' lives & outcomes. If you genuinely care about kids having access to education or safe after school spaces & activities, then fund your libraries, staff your libraries, & make every public school ID a library card. 3352731747
Reposted by Dan PemsteinRightsCon @rightscon.org · 01/05/2026Following our April 29 announcement, we believe it's important to be transparent about the context that led to the decision. We want to explain, where we can, why this was made on such short notice, only days before we were set to host RightsCon. Read: www.rightscon.org/rc26-stateme...rightscon.orgA statement to our community about why RightsCon 2026 will not take place in ZambiaOur official statement to the digital rights community about why RightsCon 2026 will not take place in Zambia 04448
Reposted by Dan PemsteinXavier Marquez @marquezxavier.bsky.social · 21/04/2026New version of my R package {democracyData} available: github.com/xmarquez/dem...github.comGitHub - xmarquez/democracyData: Access and manipulate most standard scholarly measures of democracyAccess and manipulate most standard scholarly measures of democracy - xmarquez/democracyData 14523
Reposted by Dan PemsteinJohn Muller @johnspacemuller.com · 20/04/2026Harry Kane has put together a Ballon D'Or-caliber season while playing 771 games of online chess and improving his rapid rating by 280 points His Bayern teammate Michael Olise, second in the BDO odds, has played 854 games and improved by 344 points Their accounts have never played each other 1523
Dan Pemstein @danpemstein.com · 20/04/2026Very helpful. I'm still struggling with alt text on data visualizations for teaching. Sometimes the graph is there to explain something but often it is for practice drawing inferences from data. And then it feels like you need to exhaustively describe the figure, which quickly gets absurd. 000
Reposted by Dan PemsteinBethany Albertson @albertsonb2.bsky.social · 20/04/2026Gifting this article bc I learned things from it - it’s not good news. www.nytimes.com/2026/04/18/o...nytimes.comOpinion | Why the Stock Market Makes No Sense Right Now 2399
Reposted by Dan PemsteinSteven Rich @datab.ae · 20/04/2026i don’t ask for much but i’d really like ssx tricky to be available to play on any modern console pls and ty 172
Dan Pemstein @danpemstein.com · 14/04/2026My dad died a few weeks ago. He was a good dad and funny and interesting and lived a remarkable life. He was a journalist, and, as a result, his friends tend to write wonderfully. I want to share this delightful remembrance by his friend John Jeansonne:substack.comFarewell to a friendRon Pemstein was a journalism star 1102
Reposted by Dan PemsteinBecky Lomax @beckyjlomax.bsky.social · 11/04/2026Sunrise at a backcountry camp. Isle Royale National Park #new #blueskyartshow #nationalparks #sunrise #Saturdaysunrise 410311
Dan Pemstein @danpemstein.com · 11/04/2026Whenever someone complains about roundabouts I suggest that at least we don't follow 1970s Yugoslav traffic laws, and they look at me funny and generally find someone else to talk to. 040
Reposted by Dan PemsteinEthan Boldt @eboldtprof.bsky.social · 03/04/2026Contrary to our expectations, Trump's appointees were not distinct from the other judges of the D.D.C. However, we find that Biden's appointed judges in the district were consistently more lenient than those of other presidents (Trump, Obama, Bush II, Clinton, & Reagan) across multiple models. 111
Reposted by Dan PemsteinEthan Boldt @eboldtprof.bsky.social · 03/04/2026Our forthcoming article in PRQ explores partisan and individual presidential appointment effects on the sentencing of those who attacked the US Capitol on January 6. We find: There were no partisan differences between Republican and Democratic judges in length or probability of imprisonment. And... 143
Reposted by Dan PemsteinRachel Bachman, WSJ sports reporter @realbachscore.bsky.social · 29/03/2026After Claudia Goldin became the first woman to win a solo Nobel in economics, she got hundreds of invitations. She accepted three. One was advising WNBA players on a labor deal. She helped players land the biggest % raise in US sports history. www.wsj.com/economy/wnba...wsj.comWNBA Players Had an Ace Up Their Sleeve in Pay Negotiations: A Nobel LaureateHarvard economist Claudia Goldin helped WNBA players win a nearly 400% raise. Starting this season, players’ average salary will top $580,000. 7192472105
Reposted by Dan PemsteinKyle Marquardt @kailmarkvart.bsky.social · 25/03/2026Very interesting reflections on interpreting trends in V-Dem data for a specific country (Mongolia) from an expert on that country. 023
Reposted by Dan PemsteinV-Dem Institute @vdeminstitute.bsky.social · 04/03/2026💡 How does V-Dem assess the levels of democracy in a country? Watch the video or read the thread below to find out! 🧵1(7) #VDemMethodology #VDemData #Polisky #PolDataSky #SocialScienceData #PoliSciSky @vdemamlat.bsky.social @digitalsocietyproject.org 155
Reposted by Dan PemsteinV-Dem Institute @vdeminstitute.bsky.social · 05/03/2026📢 We are hiring: Combined Postdoc position at V-Dem Institute and GLD! Applications are open for a Postdoctoral Research Fellowship in Cross-National Survey Methodology in Political Science. Application: web103.reachmee.com/ext/I005/103... 🧵1(4) #Polisky #PoliSciSky #PoliticalScienceJobs #PostDoc 1924
Reposted by Dan PemsteinYana Gorokhovskaia @ygorokho.bsky.social · 19/03/2026📣Freedom in the World 2026 is now out! freedomhouse.org/report/freed... tl;dr: - Global freedom declined in 2025 & every year since 2005 - 20 yrs of backsliding has transformed the world: more autocrats, fewer democratizing states - Freedom deteriorated in the US last year & over the last 20freedomhouse.orgThe Growing Shadow of AutocracyGlobal freedom declined for the 20th consecutive year in 2025. But even in this especially challenging moment, there are reasons for optimism. 186
Reposted by Dan PemsteinBastian Herre @bastianherre.bsky.social · 18/03/2026However, with still largely free and fair elections, broad freedoms of expression and association, and a very strong civil society, the country has the potential to continue confronting the ongoing autocratization through voting, protesting, and broader organizing and advocacy. 1123
Reposted by Dan PemsteinKyle Marquardt @kailmarkvart.bsky.social · 18/03/2026A 🧵on how the @vdeminstitute.bsky.social accountability indices help us understand how democratic backsliding is occurring in the United States. tl;dr: in principle, vertical constraints on the president remain strong; in practice, horizontal and diagonal constraints have been greatly weakened. 12312
Reposted by Dan PemsteinJason Concepcion @netw3rk.bsky.social · 18/03/2026I will do anything, use any VPN, crawl through any shady pirate site, to not have to watch Alexi Lalas call the World Cup. 3793593
Reposted by Dan PemsteinJuraj Medzihorsky @medzihorsky.bsky.social · 17/03/2026Social scientists' AI takes on social media, a first pseudo-weberian sketch with four ideal types. 064
Reposted by Dan PemsteinDigital Society Project @digitalsocietyproject.org · 17/03/2026As usual, this year's V-Dem update includes an annual update to the original DSP expert survey. 011
Reposted by Dan Pemsteineric gonzalez juenke @egojunk.bsky.social · 17/03/2026Yes, particularly a decline. Takes 2 minutes. And always suggest 2-3 other reviewers. It speeds things up like you can’t imagine. 184
Reposted by Dan PemsteinV-Dem Institute @vdeminstitute.bsky.social · 17/03/2026V-Dem Dataset v16 is out! The dataset includes several hundred indicators along with five indices that measure a country’s overall degree of democracy, according to different definitions of democracy. V-Dem Steering Committee comments on the new data and U.S. ratings: v-dem.net/release-stat... 1(2) 12616