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Emily L

@laskin.bsky.social
292 followers 150 following 711 posts

At the moment I'm a professional translator, somehow. Also I'm a former former academic and current high-level sage. All of my opinions belong to you. www.emilylaskin.com

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Emily L @laskin.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
Uh, one time I pissed someone off by saying that identity and personhood are inherently political categories and they said "do you and @isaacs.bsky.social just sit next to each other and post?" and we were like "lol yes!" Does this count? Also I think that person still follows me 👋
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Emily L @laskin.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
New translation of really good reporting. The sad story of phone scammers who drive elderly Russians to suicide. en.thenewtab.io/telephone-sc...
en.thenewtab.io
Russian Phone Scams: When Fraud Ends in Death | The New Tab
Russian retirees have lost savings, homes and, in some cases, their lives after encounters with phone scammers. Why are those behind the schemes rarely held responsible?
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менфэйліңдемꙮкратиядатұрамын @yaneuve.ren · 23/09/2026
so it turns out it's pretty hard to find maps of the pre-ww2 soviet borders with cities labeled thankfully, alphabet's living up to its mission statement of "to organize the world's information and make it universally accessible and useful" and produces _this_ if you ask image search for such
a shitty ai map of the pre-ww2 soviet union borders that has western ukraine labeled as belarus, the north caucasus labeled as "turkmenstan", omsk labeled as azerbaijan, the urals labeled as georgia, voronezh labeled as ukraine, kazakhstan labeled as both kazakhstan AND the USSR (but with the azerbaijani flag for the latter), belarus labeled as "arraire mountains" with the estonian flag, and _some deep shit_ going on in most of central asia

from https://www.instagram.com/reels/DbTNqFaOARI/
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Emily L @laskin.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
Omg! As a central Asianist I can say this is not the most accurate map but it is the best.
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Emily L @laskin.bsky.social · 02/09/2026
"I knew that being financially independent was a fluke and I was only adopting the identity of an employed person" how is The Daily Tism so accurate
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Emily L @laskin.bsky.social · 02/09/2026
New English-language exclusive on drone attacks and public sentiment in Russia en.thenewtab.io/drone-attack...
en.thenewtab.io
How drone attacks are changing everyday life in Russia
Fuel shortages, refinery fires and disrupted deliveries have made the war harder to ignore. A view from inside Russia on drone attacks and public mood
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Emily L @laskin.bsky.social · 27/08/2026
New translation! A literal fluff piece (with pretty photos) en.thenewtab.io/russia-popla...
en.thenewtab.io
Russia’s Poplar Fluff: Allergy and “Sex Change” Myths
Why did Soviet cities plant so many poplars? The New Tab debunks myths about fluff-sucking robots, allergies, tree sex, and a Stalingrad survivor
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Emily L @laskin.bsky.social · 29/07/2026
Я ищу новаторские русскоязычные репортажи о феминизме и гендере за последние несколько лет. Какие авторы и материалы стали знаковыми?
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Emily L @laskin.bsky.social · 29/07/2026
I'm looking for groundbreaking Russian-language reporting on feminism and gender from the past few years. What made a splash?
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Emily L @laskin.bsky.social · 21/07/2026
A pair of new translations — both reported pieces from freelancers still working in Russia — out today with @thedialmag.bsky.social www.thedial.world/articles/new...
thedial.world
Online in Russia — The Dial
Two reports from The New Tab, a magazine in exile.
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Emily L @laskin.bsky.social · 21/07/2026
Job for social science and humanities-leaning info science course PhDs job-boards.greenhouse.io/datasocietyr...
job-boards.greenhouse.io
Senior Researcher, AI Civics
Remote - NYC
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Waldo Jaquith @waldo.net · 13/07/2026
Hey, New Yorkers: Mayor Mamdani is recreating the city's digital service, after Mayor Adams destroyed it. They're hiring devs, designers, and product folks to work on-site in Brooklyn, starting now. You don't even have to be a city resident. Get on it!
nyc.gov
NYC PIT Crew
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Emily L @laskin.bsky.social · 10/07/2026
I have a mole in my networks! If it’s you, tell your guy he can’t muzzle me, but if he stops trying to damage me I’ll consider being polite.
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Emily L @laskin.bsky.social · 04/07/2026
I appreciate @acollierastro.bsky.social’s desire to not make anyone feel dumb, which is noble and the correct stance for an educator. But I am a former academic from basically the wordsiest of disciplines and I composed in LaTeX. Because Word is the literal worst. She is 100% right about this!
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Emily L @laskin.bsky.social · 02/07/2026
Ah, yeah it just links to the main English site. You can be forgiven for thinking the thing at the top is the article heading, but alas it is actually the disclaimer we’re legally required to post that Russia has declared us a “foreign agent”.
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Emily L @laskin.bsky.social · 02/07/2026
Another pub has the exclusive rights to the English version and it’s not coming out until fall.
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Emily L @laskin.bsky.social · 02/07/2026
Мой вклад в эту публикацию был совсем невелик, но это одна из лучших работ, над которыми мне когда-либо доводилось работать. Это действительно свежий взгляд как на проблемы, с которыми сталкиваются трансженщины в России, так и на российскую армию. thenewtab.io/trans-zhensh...
thenewtab.io
Транс-женщины и армия в России: история Оли, которую пытались забрать в военкомат
Почему транс-женщины в России рискуют попасть под призыв после запрета смены пола — и как одна девушка спасла другую от отправки в армию
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Emily L @laskin.bsky.social · 30/06/2026
I'm doing an experiment! Write to me at chat@emilylaskin.com if you want to get an email newsletter from me between 1 and, idk, 20 times a year.
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Emily L @laskin.bsky.social · 25/06/2026
I wrote about how much I hate ballot propositions and whatever the hell else you call direct democracy measures, because I'm a contrarian asshole but/and I care about political power. emilylaskin.com/2026/06/dire...
emilylaskin.com
Yes, I hate direct democracy
wordcel at large
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Emily L @laskin.bsky.social · 24/06/2026
New translation! Read about one of Russia's political prisoners, jailed for "distributing" a book that's available to the public in Russian libraries and for free on the Internet. en.thenewtab.io/grigory-skvo...
en.thenewtab.io
Why Russian Photographer Grigory Skvortsov Was Sentenced to 16 Years for Treason
Russian photographer and musician Grigory Skvortsov was sentenced to 16 years for treason after sharing publicly available materials on Soviet bunkers. This is the full story of the case, the archives...
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Emily L @laskin.bsky.social · 27/05/2026
My abusive co-parent is trying to fuck up my career because he’s sad that he’s a layabout failson. There’s really no point in saying this publicly but it is true, and I don’t keep his secrets for the sake of social politesse anymore. Call it praxis.
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Emily L @laskin.bsky.social · 14/05/2026
My child enjoys this activity and my last name derives from the Russian word for this animal 🤔
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Emily L @laskin.bsky.social · 11/05/2026
Oh yay, Sam, that's great! I'm happy to translate if you ever want to throw something my way.
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Emily L @laskin.bsky.social · 10/05/2026
Meanwhile, sloughing off my native accent to return to California, where most of my friends believe I am human
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Emily L @laskin.bsky.social · 10/05/2026
I would pay like $25 to bring my toddler to a viewing platform at a big construction site on weekends, someone should invent this business
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Emily L @laskin.bsky.social · 06/05/2026
On the other hand, my most tech-pilled, anti-wordcel take is that AI is killing college and that's fine because higher ed (note NOT all deep inquiry into and beyond the current bounds of human knowledge, just U.S. 2026 higher ed as such) needs to die.
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Emily L @laskin.bsky.social · 06/05/2026
doesn't it seem like the word "indefatigable" has one too many prefixes?
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karl rove knausgård @uhactually.bsky.social · 06/05/2026
Like, let me get this straight. Your problem is that they’re making a machine that degrades human culture and relentlessly affirms whatever you want to hear and your response is “we have to eliminate the idea of truthfulness because it’s politically useful to do so”?
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karl rove knausgård @uhactually.bsky.social · 06/05/2026
First of all, I understand if this is too “corny” for you, but I think we do actually live in a moment that is effectively post-truth and you will degrade yourself, your side, and your arguments if you give into this tendency. This is particularly true fighting against “AI” for obvious reasons.
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karl rove knausgård @uhactually.bsky.social · 06/05/2026
A sentiment I see a lot on here is some variety of “Why criticize the dumb shit people say against data centers when you agree with them that using AI for most of the things it’s being used for is very bad? Isn’t that just making a wedge?” I think there are a few good answers to this.
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Emily L @laskin.bsky.social · 05/05/2026
This is my most wordcel take, but there are actually people who understand how words work and how ideas propagate among human beings, and if they (we, let's not be overly modest) had a fraction of the wealth and power that crazed "founder mode" techbros do, the world would be safer in this moment.
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Emily L @laskin.bsky.social · 05/05/2026
It's Beltane! Days are still getting longer, but by a little bit less every day. They'll be getting longer and longer slower and slower until the summer solstice. Anyway, here's my music selection for this season. open.spotify.com/playlist/4qV...
open.spotify.com
Spotify – Web Player
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Emily L @laskin.bsky.social · 04/05/2026
what the fuck is up, virtue crew? (I’ve been on Twitter communing with the antisocial game theory nerds for 10 days, you all are nicer but they’re more fun.)
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Tal Lavin @swordsjew.bsky.social · 04/05/2026
look how fancy the ocellated turkey is. such a fancy lad
an extremely colorful and fancy turkey with a blue head and yellow bumps that look like an eyebrow. he is gesturing?
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Emily L @laskin.bsky.social · 28/04/2026
Hi science journalists and child development folks, I am looking for information on the impact of traffic, active vs. car commute, and commute times on toddlers. Point me in any direction!
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Emily L @laskin.bsky.social · 27/04/2026
Even though she became and MD and wound up living a sort of fancy life, she spoke English with an intense, unshakeable, working class Bronx accent that, if it hasn't died with her, is rapidly disappearing from the world. I'll miss her.
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Emily L @laskin.bsky.social · 27/04/2026
An hour or two before she died a nurse asked her who the US president is as a lucidity check and she responded "that fucking man." Then she ate chocolate ice cream. I think it's cool that she was herself until the very end.
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Emily L @laskin.bsky.social · 27/04/2026
Ah shit, my last remaining grandparent died. I've always written little tributes to my elderly relatives but my Guggi, my dad's mom, was so cool and unusual and in my life for such a long time that I find I don't know what to say.
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Emily L @laskin.bsky.social · 24/04/2026
It's findable on the broader internet but please do not look it up.
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Emily L @laskin.bsky.social · 24/04/2026
I just watched a bunch of footage of Ukrainian drones killing Russian soldiers so dejected and exhausted they made no attempt to even hide. I'm not on Russia's side but this war is so fucked. Just kids and old men butchering each other because Putin couldn't act weak for five seconds.
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Emily L @laskin.bsky.social · 24/04/2026
It's really truly nothing compared to children starving, but this bullshit cost me a job I loved and hastened the devolution of my former newsroom into an AI slop shop so uh, yeah that round went to the bastards.
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Emily L @laskin.bsky.social · 20/04/2026
Fair, it does suck, but I don't think calling out people who did something hard because the believed it was right is the move.
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Emily L @laskin.bsky.social · 20/04/2026
Not interested in relitigating this, but there were goals beyond elimination: slowing the spread, alleviating the terrible burden on the healthcare system. What are you arguing? That it was all a mistake? And what then, should we punish the people who stayed home?
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Emily L @laskin.bsky.social · 20/04/2026
What? Who gives a shit, it was clearly right thing to do based on the information everyone had at the time and people who believed they were acting in the public interest do deserve some credit for responsible, pro-social behavior.
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Emily L @laskin.bsky.social · 20/04/2026
I once had a conversation in an airport bar with a self-described "Texas oilman" who gleefully accused me of trying to make college kids into socialists, and I gleefully informed that I was indeed trying that and I hoped I was doing a good job. Perplexing, pleasant chat.
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Emily L @laskin.bsky.social · 20/04/2026
Like also we should build a society that requires the minimum of shitty, tortuous acts of self sacrifice from people. But there's gotta be a better way to talk about this than "you liked it because you have virtue or you hated it because you're bad."
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Emily L @laskin.bsky.social · 20/04/2026
I am basically a homebody and I was childless in 2020/21, so covid social isolation truly was easy mode for me. But it did suck for a lot of people and I don't quite know how to put this but I think we should cultivate more gratitude for people doing shitty hard things for the collective good.
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Emily L @laskin.bsky.social · 15/04/2026
A very confusing elevator panel
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Emily L @laskin.bsky.social · 15/04/2026
i can't be this catty on main but 😈
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