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Kaya Oakes

@kayaoakes.bsky.social
1.3K followers 377 following 246 posts

Writer of nonfiction, Oakland kid, faculty in writing at UC Berkeley. Book #6, Not So Sorry, is available now. Ask me why breast cancer sucks. Missives: kayaoakes.substack.com

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Kaya Oakes @kayaoakes.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
The real heroes today? Student journalists. www.nytimes.com/2026/09/29/n...
nytimes.com
Students at Cornell Daily Sun Pursued Sexual Assault Case for Two Years
The student newspaper, The Cornell Daily Sun, covered the allegations of rape at a fraternity party since they were first made in 2024 and led the reporting on the case.
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Kaya Oakes @kayaoakes.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
Okay, the AI book club email nonsense has officially gone too far.
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Kaya Oakes @kayaoakes.bsky.social · 21/07/2026
For my fellow breast cancer patients and for anyone with a direct relative with BC, Rutgers is conducting a large study on cancer genetics and you can contribute via a spit test. Fast and easy. Tell a friend. join.rugcc.org/r?M3.ctkyzd
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Kaya Oakes @kayaoakes.bsky.social · 20/07/2026
In a pivot 0% of people who've read anything I've written expected, I'm now the Love Island correspondent for the @oaklandballers.bsky.social. No, really. At least this one time. dispatchesfromraimondi.com/stories/summ...
dispatchesfromraimondi.com
Summer Loving — Dispatches from Raimondi
What Love Island and the Ballers Have to Teach Us About Romance by Kaya Oakes
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Kaya Oakes @kayaoakes.bsky.social · 13/06/2026
Gosh I just went to Pride Night at the Oakland Ballers and absolutely not one player did this and they even had drag queen story hour during the game and I got a free backpack! P.S. Trade these guys to the Texas Rangers or something. www.sfgate.com/giants/artic...
sfgate.com
Multiple SF Giants pitchers appear to be protesting team's Pride Night
Multiple MLB players have begun protesting Pride Night celebrations on their hats.
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Kaya Oakes @kayaoakes.bsky.social · 08/05/2026
There is an escape room located right across from the Oakland city jail and honestly, that’s some genius level marketing.
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Kaya Oakes @kayaoakes.bsky.social · 10/03/2026
Berkeley gonna Berkeley
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Kaya Oakes @kayaoakes.bsky.social · 02/03/2026
Since November I've visited a dozen or so churches of varying denominations, trying to find one that doesn't smother newcomers but doesn't completely ignore us either. This... has not happened. substack.com/home/post/p-...
substack.com
A pilgrim and a stranger
On trying to find a church
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Kaya Oakes @kayaoakes.bsky.social · 24/02/2026
Honestly I'm more insulted being called "prof" than being called dumb or dangerous. I'm a senior lecturer!
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the babahuck @tylerhuckabee.bsky.social · 24/02/2026
A question i've been thinking about a lot lately, and couldn't think of a better person than kaya to tackle it: what would repentance look like for trump supporters?
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Kaya Oakes @kayaoakes.bsky.social · 20/02/2026
The only thing more Oakland than Alyssa Liu mouthing "that's what I'm fucking talking about" at the camera would be skating a routine to Mac Dre and ghostriding the whip in the Olympic Village parking lot.
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Kaya Oakes @kayaoakes.bsky.social · 18/02/2026
Thanks @tylerhuckabee.bsky.social and @sojo.net for asking me to write about how the MAGA movement might learn something about repentance during Lent. sojo.net/articles/opi...
sojo.net
What Lent Asks of Christians Rethinking Trump
Christians shouldn't shame people trying to leave Trump. But in the spirit of Lent, they should call them to repent.
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Kaya Oakes @kayaoakes.bsky.social · 29/12/2025
This essay from last year seemed to be helpful to quite a few people, so, here it is again. kayaoakes.substack.com/p/against-am...
What I am saying is not that it is okay to fail, but that failure is going to happen and that your life still matters and still has meaning whether you published 75 essays this year or zero. Ultimately, your Guggenheim and your New York Times best sellers and your Substack checkmark and your CV and your lists of publications and your social media followers will not go with you into the grave. They will not offer any comfort in the chemo chair or in the dialysis clinic or in the surgical suite.

What will matter is how you lived your life.
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Commonweal @commonwealmagazine.org · 17/12/2025
"The age of gilded journalism was mostly smoke and mirrors, a magic show with no one behind the curtain." @kayaoakes.bsky.social recommends books on the ghosts of media past: www.commonwealmagazine.org/ghosts-media...
commonwealmagazine.org
The Ghosts of Media Past
Three new books on the rise and fall of glossy magazines, alt weeklies, and gilded journalism.
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Kaya Oakes @kayaoakes.bsky.social · 30/11/2025
Thanks to the editors at @commonweal.bsky.social for asking me to be part of this year's Christmas Critics edition. This essay wound up being a Gen X anthem about the death of the gilded age of journalism. www.commonwealmagazine.org/ghosts-media...
commonwealmagazine.org
The Ghosts of Media Past
Three new books on the rise and fall of glossy magazines, alt weeklies, and gilded journalism.
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Kaya Oakes @kayaoakes.bsky.social · 07/10/2025
UC Berkeley has its 71st Nobel Laureate, this year in Physics. But did you know we have Nobel Laureate bicycle parking, and that David Card, 2021 Nobel in Economics, apparently actually uses it? news.berkeley.edu/2016/06/16/n...
news.berkeley.edu
New Berkeley parking spot — for bikes — honors Nobel Peace Prize work - Berkeley News
Covet those Nobel Laureate parking spaces? You can park in Berkeley's newest one, a tribute to faculty whose research contributed to the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize. And it's open to all cyclists.
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Kaya Oakes @kayaoakes.bsky.social · 04/10/2025
For @ncronline.bsky.social, I reviewed @philipchristman.bsky.social's new book, which gave me the opportunity to dunk. "When you choose a politics, you can choose one that covets power or one that sees power as something to be shared. It really is that simple." www.ncronline.org/culture/new-...
ncronline.org
New book calls for a politics that mirrors Jesus' Beatitudes
In Why Christians Should Be Leftists, Phil Christman argues that Jesus' teachings "[lay] out an ethic that would make it next to impossible for any human being to successfully hang onto power forever....
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Oakland Ballers @oaklandballers.bsky.social · 23/09/2025
💚 💛 Ballers fam, @MayorBarbaraLee just announced that we're going to keep the party going! 🎉 See you there! 🍾
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Oakland Ballers @oaklandballers.bsky.social · 22/09/2025
OAKLAND WE DID IT!!!! 🏆
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Rhonda Mawhood Lee @rhondamawhoodlee.bsky.social · 06/09/2025
If you've been thinking of reading Elizabeth Gilbert's new memoir, please read this first, by @kayaoakes.bsky.social. And even if you don't care one bit about Gilbert, this is an excellent, helpful read about cancer, love, ego, and so much else. open.substack.com/pub/kayaoake...
open.substack.com
Not your inspiration porn
Elizabeth Gilbert and the problem of cancer
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Ron Hogan @ronhogan.bsky.social · 04/09/2025
What does a writer “who lives every day with cancer looming in the background like one of those giant Halloween skeletons” think about what’s she’s seen of the latest Elizabeth Gilbert memoir and the discourse around it? You should really read @kayaoakes.bsky.social, and not just to find that out.
kayaoakes.substack.com
Not your inspiration porn
Elizabeth Gilbert and the problem of cancer
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Drew Kadel @drewkadel.bsky.social · 03/09/2025
This piece by @kayaoakes.bsky.social is really good. I recommend reading it. kayaoakes.substack.com/p/not-your-i...?
kayaoakes.substack.com
Not your inspiration porn
Elizabeth Gilbert and the problem of cancer
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Kaya Oakes @kayaoakes.bsky.social · 23/08/2025
UC Berkeley asks us to provide headshots for the department website and I hate the way I look in photos, so this year I uploaded this instead.
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Kaya Oakes @kayaoakes.bsky.social · 10/08/2025
It's true: my post cancer treatment, mid career shift that absolutely nobody predicted is that I decided to write about sports. Once, anyway! Go Ballers.
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Kaya Oakes @kayaoakes.bsky.social · 31/05/2025
Still alive! Still writing! I have an essay in this month's issue of @commonweal.bsky.social as part of a symposium on Christian Smith's new book and religious obsolescence. Thanks to the editors for asking me to pitch in.
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Kaya Oakes @kayaoakes.bsky.social · 26/05/2025
Someone somewhere referred to Bluesky as "Rachel Maddow's comment section" and, well, that is very accurate.
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whet moser @whetmoser.com · 20/04/2025
really good piece about Lazarus from Kaya Oakes open.substack.com/pub/kayaoake...
open.substack.com
Lazarus
When Easter is really about not knowing what's next
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Kaya Oakes @kayaoakes.bsky.social · 22/04/2025
I'm back -- maybe just temporarily? -- because @sojo.net asked me to write about Pope Francis, and I wanted to share it with you. sojo.net/articles/opi...
sojo.net
Francis: The Legacy of a Stalled Reformer
He welcomed the marginalized and reimagined the Church’s tone, but his vision was often interrupted in the corridors of power.
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Mark Montgomery French @mmfrench.bsky.social · 01/02/2025
Join me on Feb 12 for 𝐁𝐥𝐚𝐜𝐤 𝐂𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐭𝐫𝐲 𝐁𝐞𝐟𝐨𝐫𝐞 𝐁𝐞𝐲𝐨𝐧𝐜𝐞́: 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐒𝐞𝐜𝐫𝐞𝐭 𝐇𝐢𝐬𝐭𝐨𝐫𝐲 𝐨𝐟 𝐀𝐟𝐫𝐢𝐜𝐚𝐧-𝐀𝐦𝐞𝐫𝐢𝐜𝐚𝐧𝐬 𝐢𝐧 𝐂𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐭𝐫𝐲 𝐌𝐮𝐬𝐢𝐜, a humorous, highly immersive, and historically accurate talk that uncovers the African-American roots of Country, Folk, and Americana music. Learn more: www.facebook.com/events/40597...
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Eric Shmeric @ericdienstfrey.bsky.social · 31/01/2025
Google spent billions of dollars on this shit.
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Mark Pritchard 🏳️‍🌈 @markpritchard.bsky.social · 14/01/2025
Mandatory reading: @kayaoakes.bsky.social and on Substack: open.substack.com/pub/kayaoake...
open.substack.com
Through a glass, darkly
In the shadow world of cancer, what comes next?
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jamelle @jamellebouie.net · 31/12/2024
we are entering a golden age of people being so open-minded their brains leak out
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Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 31/12/2024
I have questions
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John Moe @johnmoe.bsky.social · 29/12/2024
Tell an artist/writer/podcaster/maker that what they’re doing matters to you. They want to hear it. Making shit is lonely work most of the time and it helps to know that the circuit is being completed somewhere.
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Phil Lewis @phillewis.bsky.social · 21/12/2024
A huge barred owl flew down a Virginia family’s chimney, knocked over the star on top of their Christmas tree, and perched himself on top www.wusa9.com/article/life...
An owl stares into the camera from atop a family’s Christmas tree An owl perched on top of a Christmas tree inside a Virginia home
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Amber Sparks @ambersparks.bsky.social · 18/12/2024
The most effective editing move is still the one I stole from George Saunders: read your draft over and over and over again, out loud, until you have to fix the bad parts because you will literally die if you have to read them more time
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Solomon @solomonrmissouri.com · 18/12/2024
Paying NYU prices and leaving there dumb as hell is definitely a decision
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Adam Weinstein @adamweinstein.bsky.social · 16/12/2024
Periodic editor's reminder to use "TK" for your placeholder copy, because it's easier to catch at a glance than whatever your gentile social media producer might use instead
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Chaucer Doth Tweet @levostregc.bsky.social · 17/12/2024
Hey everyebodye Ich came up wyth a new slogan: Funde the fuckinge humanityes
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Brook Wilensky-Lanford @brookwl.bsky.social · 10/12/2024
Oh hi, Bluesky! I'll be leading 4 Sacred Writes public scholarship trainings for scholars of religion, gender, and sexuality, online in 2025, apply now for the January intensive!
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Rebecca Solnit @rebeccasolnit.bsky.social · 13/12/2024
Nobody wants a student essay as a product; we want students to learn to compose their thoughts in written form as a process. I mean, would you have a machine run your laps or play your scales for you? In which case we would not say you had run or played.
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Kaya Oakes @kayaoakes.bsky.social · 10/12/2024
This was a great conversation. Thanks @therevealer.bsky.social for having me.
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The Magnificast @themagnificast.bsky.social · 08/12/2024
Alright we had a bunch of followers on the other website and we know we've got more listeners out there. Help us get the word out! Are you into Christianity and socialism? Cool interviews with weird theologians? Occasional content about medieval bones? Have we got a show for you!
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Jason Palmer @jpalmerdubs.bsky.social · 03/12/2024
We are working to welcome as many newcomers as we can in the next couple of months in anticipation of the new administration putting significant restrictions on refugee arrivals. Your generosity this Giving Tuesday makes it possible for us to do this with care. cwsnorcal.org/donate/
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Kaya Oakes @kayaoakes.bsky.social · 04/12/2024
My little book on the limits of forgiveness is in UC Berkeley’s holiday gift guide alongside Judith Butler, john powell and many others with towering intellects so my holiday gift is imposter syndrome. news.berkeley.edu/2024/12/03/h...
news.berkeley.edu
Holiday gift guide 2024: New books by UC Berkeley authors - Berkeley News
From an exploration on how to make sense in a world of nonsense to an examination of the American sitcom, the subjects of this year’s books are expansive — a reflection of our dynamic and diverse camp...
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Colin Dickey @colindickey.com · 24/11/2024
Holy crap WaPo assigned me a review of Gore’s book, which I wrote in good faith and with an open mind, and was edited in good faith with minimal interference by the assigning editor…and then an executive editor at WaPo turned around and trashed it on another site??
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Brian & Shannon | QueerTheology.com @queertheology.bsky.social · 20/11/2024
We remember those we lost. We commit to building a better world for those still here. We proclaim that the inherent goodness of transgender people. We interrupt any actions or ideologies which diminish our worth. #TDOR #TDOR2024
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ashley fairbanks @ziibiing.com · 14/11/2024
Māori MPs briefly suspended the Aotearoa parliament’s attempts to reinterpret their founding treaty in the most bad ass use of the Haka I’ve ever seen.
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Joshua Eaton @joshuaeaton.bsky.social · 13/11/2024
Wake up, babe, new investigative reporting role model just dropped.
Ralph Fiennes as Cardinal Lawrence in the 2024 movie “Conclave” stands with his hands clasped in front of him while wearing a purple velvet chasuble richly embroidered with gold and jewels, a scarlet zucchetto on his head. Other cardinals in similar dress can be seen behind him, slightly out of focus. Fiennes’ brow is furrowed, and he’s looking to his left.
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