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Joe Fassler

@joefassler.bsky.social
1.7K followers 453 following 33 posts

Program Director, Johns Hopkins MA in Science Writing. Author of The Sky Was Ours and Light the Dark. joefassler.net

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Reposted by Joe Fassler
Siri Carpenter @siricarpenter.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
Hear more about @ferrisjabr.bsky.social's contribution to The Best Science Stories and How They Work tomorrow (Tuesday) night during this event at @jhuartssciences.bsky.social! It's free and open to the public. advanced.jhu.edu/event/author...
advanced.jhu.edu
Author Talks Presents: Siri Carpenter & Ferris Jabr
Join us for a discussion and Q&A with Siri Carpenter and Ferris Jabr on the new anthology, The Best Science Stories and How They Work.
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Reposted by Joe Fassler
The Atlantic @theatlantic.com · 06/09/2026
Wendell Berry, a writer and farmer, died this week at age 92. Joe Fassler writes about the simple, clarifying idea that informed his life:
bit.ly
Why Wendell Berry Didn’t Worry About the Future
His life as a writer and farmer was informed by a simple, clarifying idea: Forget tomorrow, and work toward what is good today.
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Reposted by Joe Fassler
Ben Wurgaft @benwurgaft.bsky.social · 05/09/2026
at the excellent @defector.com, @sabs.bsky.social reflects on the complicity of tech journalists in driving hype cycles - in this case around space exploration and mars colonization: defector.com/lets-remembe...
defector.com
Let's Remember Some Publications That Said We Would Get To Mars By 2026 | Defector
Good science journalism is by its nature suspicious of grand or outlandish claims. Good science journalism does not take press releases at face value, but rather investigates the evidence behind those...
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Reposted by Joe Fassler
Ashley Braun @ashleybraun.bsky.social · 09/07/2026
Our next story following up on @joefassler.bsky.social’s reporting that Colorado gave these same oil companies a $1 billion pass on financial assurance for oil and gas cleanup
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Reposted by Joe Fassler
Ashley Braun @ashleybraun.bsky.social · 02/06/2026
Major new investigation reported by @joefassler.bsky.social (and edited by me) into Colorado's celebrated oil cleanup reforms. The regulator had the chance to incentivize the three largest oil companies to clean up their thousands of dead and dirty drill sites. It quietly gave them a $1 billion pass
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Joe Fassler @joefassler.bsky.social · 12/05/2026
I'm interviewing NASA communicators at an event tonight as part of my role at Johns Hopkins — will have other space- and science-related events and stories to share in the future.
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Joe Fassler @joefassler.bsky.social · 12/05/2026
Tonight at 8 ET, I'll speak with three with science writers who helped to craft the message behind the Artemis II mission. We'll delve into the behind-the-scenes challenges of communications work at NASA + the joy of sharing Artemis w/ the world. 🔭🧪 Link here: www.eventbrite.com/e/jhu-alumni...
eventbrite.com
JHU Alumni Impacts on the Artemis II Mission
Hear from three MA in Science Writing alumnae who contributed to the out-of-this-world mission to the moon!
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Joe Fassler @joefassler.bsky.social · 12/05/2026
Hi Dani, could you please add me? I'm a journalist and I direct the MA in Science Writing Program at Johns Hopkins. advanced.jhu.edu/directory/jo...
advanced.jhu.edu
Joe Fassler
At Johns Hopkins, Joe Fassler is the Program Director and a senior lecturer for the MA in Science Writing Program. Learn more here.
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Joe Fassler @joefassler.bsky.social · 12/05/2026
yes
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Joe Fassler @joefassler.bsky.social · 12/05/2026
@bot.astronomy.blue signup
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Reposted by Joe Fassler
Ashley Braun @ashleybraun.bsky.social · 09/02/2026
Maybe you've heard about Energy Sec. Chris Wright and the DOE declaring "energy emergencies" to keep coal plants open? Now the EPA's using the Clean Air Act to do something similar in Colorado, with implications beyond. @joefassler.bsky.social for @desmog.com 👉 www.desmog.com/2026/02/09/t...
desmog.com
Trump’s EPA Just Used the Clean Air Act to Prop up Coal Power
The Environmental Protection Agency threw out Colorado’s entire haze reduction plan, in what critics called ‘illegal’ and a possible warning to other states not to close fossil fuel plants.
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Reposted by Joe Fassler
Jenny Splitter @jennysplitter.bsky.social · 28/09/2025
Thanks to @joefassler.bsky.social and @environment.theguardian.com for covering Sentient’s media analysis — hope it sparks more reporting on emissions from food!
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Joe Fassler @joefassler.bsky.social · 25/09/2025
Trump admin officials, industry groups, and tech leaders cite an “AI arms race” with China to justify a massive fossil fuels expansion — calling it an urgent matter of national security. For @desmog.com, I spoke to experts who explained why that’s not true:
desmog.com
No, the U.S. Doesn’t Need Fossil Fuels to Win ‘an AI Arms Race’ Against China
These industry players and allies push a misleading narrative the Trump administration now parrots.
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Reposted by Joe Fassler
DeSmog @desmog.com · 13/06/2025
🚨 NEW 🚨 In Texas, the gold rush to build data centers for AI is spurring demand for over 100 new gas power plants. And it is a "rush": some gas plant air pollution permits were approved by the state in just 24 hours. Get the full story from @joefassler.bsky.social‬ 👇
buff.ly
In Texas, AI Gold Rush Helps Spur Demand for Over 100 New Gas Plants
State may be “rubber stamping” some air pollution permits, according to new report on the boom.
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Joe Fassler @joefassler.bsky.social · 03/06/2025
Didn’t go there for this one, but many of the groups involved also have Atlas Network ties.
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Joe Fassler @joefassler.bsky.social · 02/06/2025
There were enough covert Elon Musk cameos to warrant a separate piece dedicated just to him — esp. on how DOGE reset the narrative around Project 2025 goals in the election’s final months:
desmog.com
Elon Musk’s Government Legacy Was Enacting Project 2025. His Ties Go Back Years.
The billionaire rescued the right-wing plan to dismantle the government while at its most toxic moment. Enacting its vision at DOGE, Musk was Trump’s enabler and fall guy.
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Joe Fassler @joefassler.bsky.social · 02/06/2025
A few months back, I started in on what I thought would be a simple, straightforward piece: mapping out the Trump admin officials connected to Project 2025 groups. The ties turned out to go so deep, and be so numerous and surprising, that the piece only just ran today.
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Sam Bright @writesbright.bsky.social · 02/06/2025
Trump tried to deny any knowledge of Project 2025 - the radical plan to dismantle the federal government. Well it turns out that 70% of his Cabinet have ties to the groups behind the document.
desmog.com
MAPPED: 70 Percent of Trump’s Cabinet Tied to Project 2025 Groups
More than 50 high-level Trump administration officials have links to groups behind the Heritage Foundation-backed plan, a DeSmog analysis found.
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Joe Fassler @joefassler.bsky.social · 02/06/2025
Thanks, Adam!
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Ketan Joshi @ketanjoshi.co · 20/02/2025
Fantastic @desmog.bsky.social post detailing how solidly Musk is now positioned as one of the single greatest threats to climate action we have ever faced www.desmog.com/2025/02/20/e... @geoffdembicki.bsky.social @joefassler.bsky.social @adambarnett.bsky.social
desmog.com
Elon Musk’s Embrace of Far-Right Energizes Transatlantic Climate Denial
In December, a Chicago-based organization called the Heartland Institute, which for decades has attempted to undermine the scientific consensus on climate change, devoted an episode of its daily podca...
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Joe Fassler @joefassler.bsky.social · 18/12/2024
How big is the market for "weird meat"? We'll see. But Vow's journey is sure to be a fascinating and boundary-busting one. Thanks to @fastcompany.com and @thefern.org for being great partners on this piece. thefern.org/2024/12/the-...
thefern.org
Food and Environment Reporting Network | Independent. Investigative. Nonprofit.
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Joe Fassler @joefassler.bsky.social · 18/12/2024
It starts with the concession that this wildly new approach to making meat won't be very good at simulating the exact meat we eat today. What *can* it do well? Create things that are delicious and meat-like and exciting and strange. And — for now — VERY pricey.
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Joe Fassler @joefassler.bsky.social · 18/12/2024
I spent months talking to Vow's CEO George Peppou for this story. His strategy is completely at odds with the standard alt-protein playbook — which strives for low costs and realist mimicry. Peppou's willingness to embrace the *unreal* has charted a fascinating path forward for this tech.
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Joe Fassler @joefassler.bsky.social · 18/12/2024
The team of mad geniuses at Vow Foods envisions a very different future for cultivated meat. For now, they're not trying to compete with commodity animal ag. They're scaling expensive, bizarre products in the world's first genuine cell-meat factory — like $100/pound quail foie gras.
fastcompany.com
The strange future of lab-grown meat involves quail, crocodile, and woolly mammoth
Australian biotech startup Vow has created the first cell-meat factory and is focusing on 'weird meat' to achieve viable scale.
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DeSmog @desmog.com · 17/12/2024
Trump has been filling his cabinet with a long list of conservative partisans eager to stop climate action. Here’s background on 6 fracking billionaires & climate denial groups backing them. @joefassler.bsky.social reports: www.desmog.com/2024/12/16/6...
desmog.com
6 Fracking Billionaires and Climate Denial Groups Behind Trump’s Cabinet
Trump’s nominees are backed by major players in the world of climate obstruction – from Project 2025 and Koch network fixtures to oil-soaked Christian nationalists.
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Reposted by Joe Fassler
Geoff Dembicki @geoffdembicki.bsky.social · 16/12/2024
Many of Trump’s cabinet picks aren’t household names, but they’re backed by major players in the world of climate obstruction. @joefassler.bsky.social goes deep into the fracking billionaires and denier groups eagerly awaiting Trump's second administration. www.desmog.com/2024/12/16/6...
desmog.com
6 Fracking Billionaires and Climate Denial Groups Behind Trump’s Cabinet
Trump’s nominees are backed by major players in the world of climate obstruction – from Project 2025 and Koch network fixtures to oil-soaked Christian nationalists.
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Joe Fassler @joefassler.bsky.social · 25/04/2024
Thanks Benjamin!
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Joe Fassler @joefassler.bsky.social · 24/04/2024
Finally, an excerpt (with a gorgeous introduction from Kyle McCarthy): electricliterature.com/the-sky-was-...
electricliterature.com
A Madman on the Ground, A Visionary in Flight - Electric Literature
An excerpt from THE SKY WAS OURS by Joe Fassler, recommended by Kyle McCarthy
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Joe Fassler @joefassler.bsky.social · 24/04/2024
On why publishing a book is also a goodbye, and the strange emotions that follow: joefassler.substack.com/p/the-bitter...
joefassler.substack.com
The bittersweet pang of opening a box of finished books
It’s supposed to be an author’s happiest moment. For me, it felt more complicated.
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Joe Fassler @joefassler.bsky.social · 24/04/2024
Research for the book led me to the obscure history of human attempts at birdlike flight, a lost era of daring, incredibly dangerous experiments. I It's a saga strewn with broken necks — and tantalizing possibilities. On flight before the Wrights, for Lit Hub: lithub.com/crash-again-...
lithub.com
Crash Again, Crash Better: A Brief History of Failed Attempts at Human Flight
Years ago, for reasons I still don’t fully understand, I found myself writing about flight. It started as just a few paragraphs, a bit of spontaneous fiction jotted down in a notebook: a man stood …
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Joe Fassler @joefassler.bsky.social · 24/04/2024
thanks, Tamar!!
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Joe Fassler @joefassler.bsky.social · 24/04/2024
As I wrote I spent so much time thinking about other novels and stories that examine technology—brave, new, world-changing inventions—as their central subject. Electric Lit let me write about some of my favorites: electricliterature.com/7-books-abou...
electricliterature.com
7 Books About Fictional Technologies with World-Altering Consequences  - Electric Literature
In these warped versions of reality, tech is expanding the scope of what’s possible, at a cost
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Joe Fassler @joefassler.bsky.social · 24/04/2024
I wrote a novel! It lives. Some related writing, out this week, a thread:
The Sky Was Ours by Joe Fassler on a cloth surface
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Joe Fassler @joefassler.bsky.social · 09/02/2024
Nicely said Jeff. Yes, that’s the larger point: cultivated meat could be ready now, and we’d still have a lot of the very same problems to solve.
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Joe Fassler @joefassler.bsky.social · 09/02/2024
Yes to this! A necessary first step if we want to reduce meat consumption.
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Joe Fassler @joefassler.bsky.social · 09/02/2024
What happens beyond 20 or 30 years is uncertain, but the burden of proof is on the companies to show the tech can power a global supply chain. Or even a much smaller scale one. That hasn’t happened yet.
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Joe Fassler @joefassler.bsky.social · 09/02/2024
I hope the piece is more nuanced than “cell meat is dead.” The dream of cell meat as a near- to mid-term intervention—which was absolutely the original goal, and a worthy one!—is dead. A lot of the original assumptions were wrong. The promised thing will not occur the way it was promised.
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Joe Fassler @joefassler.bsky.social · 09/02/2024
If we start with the premise that CM is a generational project with an uncertain outcome—and my reporting strongly suggests this is the case—we could have a better conversation.
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Joe Fassler @joefassler.bsky.social · 09/02/2024
I agree! And nothing wrong with continuing to explore this option. Lots of brilliant folks involved + science often finds a way. But we shouldn’t be under the delusion that this industry can achieve impact any time soon. Once we acknowledge that’s not possible, we can get busy making other plans.
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Joe Fassler @joefassler.bsky.social · 09/02/2024
This is the comment I mean. If telling people to eat fewer Big Macs is pointless, what about telling people to eat, say, more expensive Big Macs that mix mushrooms with genetically modified beef cells? Nothing wrong with GMO. The point is that I’m not sure one is so much harder than the other.
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Joe Fassler @joefassler.bsky.social · 09/02/2024
And it comes with a lot of disadvantages the other options don’t have. Meanwhile, after 10 years and three billion dollars, no one can produce at any sort of remotely meaningful scale. And we don’t have a ton of time.
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Joe Fassler @joefassler.bsky.social · 09/02/2024
Once you accept that reality, it the question becomes: why cultivated meat? Why not plant-based meat? Or tofu? Or lentils? Why not reduced levels of more sustainable meat? I don’t see CM having big advantages over the other options, unless you indulge the fantasy that meat eaters will flock to it.
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Joe Fassler @joefassler.bsky.social · 09/02/2024
I guess I’d also say, @mikegrunwald.bsky.social, that your comments on twitter suggest a one-to-one substitution is possible. Cell meat will have real differences from conventional meat, they won’t be the same product soon or maybe ever. Either way, we’re going to have to convince people to change.
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Joe Fassler @joefassler.bsky.social · 09/02/2024
Thanks Tamar! I’m a big fan of both of you, and really welcome this discussion. Mike, if you read the piece you’ll see that small-scale costs are a totally misleading metric. The stats you’re quoting really tell us very little about the fundamental viability at larger scales. It’s a red herring.
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Joe Fassler @joefassler.bsky.social · 09/02/2024
A young, hungry industry raked in billions to try to grow slaughter-free meat in giant tanks. Could it fix our broken diets, repair a damaged planet, save us from ourselves? I wrestled with that question for a year. Here’s what I learned. www.nytimes.com/2024/02/09/o...
nytimes.com
Opinion | The Empty Promise of Endless Steak
Cultivated meat offered a delicious fantasy: that we can consume our way out of climate catastrophe.
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Tamar Haspel @tamarhaspel.bsky.social · 03/02/2024
It's not the how. It's the cow, all day long. @joefassler.bsky.social reports on a new study that assesses claims of cattle sequestering carbon as wildly overblown. www.desmog.com/2024/02/01/c...
desmog.com
Research Undermines Claims that Soil Carbon Can Offset Livestock Emissions
It's “a nail in the coffin” for the idea that the global ruminant sector can be climate positive at its current scale.
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Tamar Haspel @tamarhaspel.bsky.social · 23/10/2023
If you, like me, are new here, and looking for the food & science folks you enjoyed on twitter, here's a thread with some of them: @waiterich.bsky.social @gidmk.bsky.social @kendrawrites.bsky.social @marynmck.bsky.social @hels.bsky.social @sarahzhang.bsky.social @mikegrunwald.bsky.social
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