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Jeffrey Insko

@jeffreyinsko.bsky.social
2K followers 1.2K following 1.6K posts

Editor, the Norton Library Edition of Moby-Dick (out now!). Writing about oil, infrastructure, extraction, environment, Line 5. Loves every dog. Check out thecurrentowdm.substack.com

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Jeffrey Insko @jeffreyinsko.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
fun teaching a novel about an English major working in the oil industry-- @lydiakiesling.bsky.social amazing Mobility-- in a class for English majors that is mainly about oil.
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Jeffrey Insko @jeffreyinsko.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
Autumn asters
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Jeffrey Insko @jeffreyinsko.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
Today, Murphy did the unthinkable: he got hold of Small Sam and pretty much ripped his heart out. He is a very very bad dog.
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Jeffrey Insko @jeffreyinsko.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
Student in the infrastructure class today ended a presentation on Michigan's interurbans (electric passenger trains in the first couple decades of the 20th century), saying, "We need trains to remind us how to be human beings." Brought the house down.
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Jeffrey Insko @jeffreyinsko.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
Mondarrangement
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Jeffrey Insko @jeffreyinsko.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
email from my university today asking faculty to take time to promote and market an important event on campus because our Communications and Marketing division won't promote and market it "so budget can be directed toward a new branding launch."
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Jeffrey Insko @jeffreyinsko.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
it's prob been 30 years since I've read Denis Johnson but this is such a nice reminder of why I loved his prose so much back then.
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Jeffrey Insko @jeffreyinsko.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
We read “To a Locomotive in Winter” in the infrastructure class today. First student comment: “Whitman really wants to fuck that train, doesn’t he?”
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Jeffrey Insko @jeffreyinsko.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
Enjoyed this conversation with Gary, who has been a great reporter covering the Great Lakes for a long time.
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Jeffrey Insko @jeffreyinsko.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
up with old materialisms!
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Gary Wilson @garyglx5.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
Interview: Line 5 Activist Jeffrey Insko. The genesis of his anti-pipeline work, praise and criticism for MI Gov. Whitmer, corporate profits and a cautionary message for the public. garyglx5.substack.com/p/interview-...
garyglx5.substack.com
Interview: Line 5 Activist Jeffrey Insko
Insko reveals the genesis of his pipeline activism, he praises and criticizes Gov. Whitmer and explains why corporate profits are an issue. Plus, a cautionary message for the public
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Jeffrey Insko @jeffreyinsko.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
Chanterelle season means omelettes for dinner
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Jeffrey Insko @jeffreyinsko.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
just a reminder that Enbridge spilled more than a million gallons of natural gas liquids in Wisconsin and it didn't even make national news and then they restarted the line over the objection of state officials because fed regulators no longer do their job. Nbd. wisconsinexaminer.com/2026/09/15/l...
wisconsinexaminer.com
Line 5 reopens after spill despite DNR warning • Wisconsin Examiner
Enbridge Line 5 went back online Monday, three weeks after a spill released 1.3 million gallons of natural gas liquids.
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Jeffrey Insko @jeffreyinsko.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
I don't usually like to brag but I have always disliked Ed Sheeran and his stupid, lazy songs.
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Jeffrey Insko @jeffreyinsko.bsky.social · 14/09/2026
oh this is v exciting!!
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Jeffrey Insko @jeffreyinsko.bsky.social · 10/09/2026
hey great news everybody! my university is rolling out some new software something something to do something. and we are invited to learn how to use this new software to do whatever it does!
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Gary Wilson @garyglx5.bsky.social · 10/09/2026
A well-respected anti-pipeline advocate comments on Michigan Gov. Whitmer's late in her tenure action on thee Line 5 oil pipeline. A good read. @jeffreyinsko.bsky.social thecurrentowdm.substack.com/p/its-about-...
thecurrentowdm.substack.com
It’s About Time
Free at last.
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Jeffrey Insko @jeffreyinsko.bsky.social · 09/09/2026
I haven't seen Nolan's Odyssey, but I know lots of you have. I also know that my colleague Katie Hartsock is very smart and a fabulous poet and I pretty much trust whatever she says. This is what she says: fortnightlyreview.substack.com/p/simulacrim...
fortnightlyreview.substack.com
Simulacrimae Rerum: On Christopher Nolan’s Relentlessly Gloomy Odyssey
Katie Hartsock reviews Christopher Nolan’s recent film, The Odyssey
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Jeffrey Insko @jeffreyinsko.bsky.social · 09/09/2026
Another big win for the good guys-- and a good reminder that coalition building and citizen pressure works. We brought the Governor back to the cause. www.freep.com/story/news/l...
freep.com
Whitmer again calls for Line 5 pipeline shutdown in Straits of Mackinac
Construction of a proposed Enbridge pipeline tunnel under the Straits of Mackinac can't move forward until legal questions are resolved, EGLE Director Phil Roos said.
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Jeffrey Insko @jeffreyinsko.bsky.social · 08/09/2026
Today my students taught me about James Charles.
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Jeffrey Insko @jeffreyinsko.bsky.social · 04/09/2026
not on topic but I have to admit that this sentence made me laugh: "Comparative Literature and English professor Homi K. Bhabha, who is teaching one undergraduate course this fall..."
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Jeffrey Insko @jeffreyinsko.bsky.social · 04/09/2026
shit is so bad a pipeline can spill 1.3 million gallons of natural gas liquids-- making it one of the largest inland spills in North American history--and it only makes the local news. www.wpr.org/news/enbridg...
wpr.org
Enbridge temporarily halts work on Line 5 reroute after 1.3M gallon gas leak
Enbridge says it’s temporarily halting work on rerouting its Line 5 oil and gas pipeline following a gas leak in Iron County on Tuesday.
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Jeffrey Insko @jeffreyinsko.bsky.social · 02/09/2026
this is a great question
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Jeffrey Insko @jeffreyinsko.bsky.social · 02/09/2026
Seybold honored, motherfuckers!!!
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Jeffrey Insko @jeffreyinsko.bsky.social · 01/09/2026
A few people expressed interest in the syllabus for my Infrastructure course. It's here. Extraction syllabus coming tomorrow. drive.google.com/file/d/1O50R...
drive.google.com
ENG4900F26.pdf
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Jeffrey Insko @jeffreyinsko.bsky.social · 30/08/2026
by far the best photo on the internet today
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Jeffrey Insko @jeffreyinsko.bsky.social · 30/08/2026
whalespresso
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Jeffrey Insko @jeffreyinsko.bsky.social · 28/08/2026
🧵
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Jeffrey Insko @jeffreyinsko.bsky.social · 26/08/2026
Lit studies hive, here's a desperate Hail Mary question: ideas or success stories (Ikr, lol!) for recruiting students for an MA in lit program at a regional comprehensive uni? We're watching the bottom fall out as I know others are. What steps are you taking to avoid shutting the whole thing down?
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Jeffrey Insko @jeffreyinsko.bsky.social · 26/08/2026
I'm impressed that my amazing friend Dan didn't say "fucking idiot" here, but he does say "facepalm" which I think is sort of the same thing. Also, Dan's book is great and you should read it.
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Jeffrey Insko @jeffreyinsko.bsky.social · 25/08/2026
oh so there's an active NGL leak on Line 5 right now in Wisconsin along the reroute around the Bad River reservation. Just awful.
northernnewsnow.com
Multiple homes evacuated after natural gas liquids leak in Iron County
Enbridge leaders say they have isolated this section of the pipeline, and emergency response crews are on site.
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Jeffrey Insko @jeffreyinsko.bsky.social · 25/08/2026
I don't have a good anecdote or any special insight or anything but I will happily listen to Dolly for the rest of the day.
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Canadian History Ehx @cdnhistoryehx.bsky.social · 25/08/2026
Before Europeans arrived, these were some of the names for The Great Lakes: Superior: gichi-gami (great sea) Erie: erielhonan (long tail) Michigan: michigami (long body of water) Ontario: Ontarí'io\kanadario (great lake\beautiful water) Huron: karegnondi (fresh water sea)
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Jeffrey Insko @jeffreyinsko.bsky.social · 25/08/2026
these are the people in charge of things
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Gary Wilson @garyglx5.bsky.social · 24/08/2026
Following a massive oil pipeline rupture in 1969, California took action to protect its Pacific Coast. A lesson Michigan can't quite learn for its Straits of Mackinac and the leading candidate for governor in January offers little hope. garyglx5.substack.com
garyglx5.substack.com
Gary’s Great Lakes Notebook | Substack
A Substack focused on the Great Lakes, water and environmental justice issues. Click to read Gary’s Great Lakes Notebook, by Gary Wilson, a Substack publication. Launched a year ago.
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Dr SpookyGoth @ghostingdani.bsky.social · 23/08/2026
Douglass, for instance, cast literacy as the “pathway from slavery to freedom,” and Harper recounted how learning to read led a once-enslaved woman to feel “as independent / As a queen upon her throne.” Such work brings into focus just how intimately related linguistic facility and worldly power are.

While taking care to avoid collapsing the distinctions between the situations of these writers and our students, we ask our classes what this literature helps us notice about the world we live in. What pathways to freedom get foreclosed via the linguistic and cognitive atrophies that attend generative AI use? Can a regular user of, say, ChatGPT feel the independence of a queen?
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Jeffrey Insko @jeffreyinsko.bsky.social · 23/08/2026
Just to pile on as the semester begins: if your working conditions allow it, you can choose to go AI free. www.oakland.edu/cetl/teachin...
oakland.edu
4: Creating AI-Free Learning Spaces - Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning - Oakland University
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Oil & Water Don't Mix @owdm.bsky.social · 21/08/2026
Read this new piece on why the Line 5 tunnel isn't built "by now." We're curious what the comments section thinks caused the delay. (We already know who it wasn't.) If you’re going to reply with “BUILD” in the comments, we know you didn’t read it. #ShutDownLine5
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Jeffrey Insko @jeffreyinsko.bsky.social · 22/08/2026
Ok I wouldn’t ordinarily say this but this sort of thing but this is so gross. I currently serve as president of the Board of Directors of a national nonprofit that does serious good in the world on behalf of the public and I get paid exactly zero dollars for it.
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Jeffrey Insko @jeffreyinsko.bsky.social · 21/08/2026
I think Michael might be the worst movie I’ve ever seen. And I like bad movies.
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Jeffrey Insko @jeffreyinsko.bsky.social · 20/08/2026
Hey this was just like old times everybody! Thanks for all these fabulous suggestions. My students are in trouble.
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Jeffrey Insko @jeffreyinsko.bsky.social · 19/08/2026
Hey literary scholars! Remember fun syllabus queries on the other site back in the day? Can we try it here? The literature of extraction: a syllabus. Please and thank you.
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Jeffrey Insko @jeffreyinsko.bsky.social · 19/08/2026
“What the tunnel really means is locking in fossil fuel transport for another 100 years,” Insko said.
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Jeffrey Insko @jeffreyinsko.bsky.social · 18/08/2026
he says "thought leader" 8 times
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Jeffrey Insko @jeffreyinsko.bsky.social · 17/08/2026
sometimes when shit is this bad only Detroit style can help
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Jeffrey Insko @jeffreyinsko.bsky.social · 17/08/2026
I've said this before but I don't believe that Hakeem Jeffries is even real. Totally implausible.
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Jeffrey Insko @jeffreyinsko.bsky.social · 16/08/2026
Murphy, understandably, refuses to accept the arrival of a new semester.
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Jeffrey Insko @jeffreyinsko.bsky.social · 13/08/2026
yeah, this is really good
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Lake Michigan @lakemichigan13.bsky.social · 13/08/2026
Humans - is it worth it to have an oil and gas pipeline under me? No. Protect the Great Lakes for future generations. Stop Line5 🌊🌊 michiganadvance.com/2026/08/12/u...
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