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Maddie Bender

@maddiebender.bsky.social
207 followers 109 following 14 posts

your friendly local public radio producer (based in Honolulu) | science journalist and co-founder @sequencermag.bsky.social Bylines in NYT, SciAm, Slate, Smithsonian Mag, The Daily Beast, VICE, and others. maddiebender.com

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Reposted by Maddie Bender
Places Journal @placesjournal.bsky.social · 16/06/2025
On Hawai'i Public Radio: @hiokinai.bsky.social, author of "In Pieces," an essay published in Places as part of "An Unfinished Atlas," speaks with @maddiebender.bsky.social about the kuleana land her family inherited on O'ahu, and the frictions + fictions of land ownership and belonging in Hawai'i.
hawaiipublicradio.org
Hawaiian family in the diaspora hangs on to Oʻahu land they unknowingly inherited
Hiʻilei Hobart spoke with The Conversation's Maddie Bender about her journey receiving a bill for kuleana land that she and her siblings unknowingly inherited.
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Dan Samorodnitsky @dsamorod.bsky.social · 08/04/2025
BIG NEWS: @maxlevy.bsky.social's essay for @sequencermag.bsky.social, "I tried to train my color vision. Here's what happened." was selected by editors @jaimealyse.bsky.social and @susanorlean.bsky.social for inclusion in The Best American Science and Nature Writing 2025.
The cover of The Best American Science and Nature writing, with an abstract green patternA screenshot of the essay "I tried to train my color vision. Here's what happened."
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Shi En Kim @goesbykim.bsky.social · 03/04/2025
Thank you to my editor @shaun505.bsky.social who didn't bat an eyelash when I filed a 2k-word draft though the assigned word count was 1k. In my defense, who doesn't want to read about the funniest, sweetest, smartest, and most adorable mules and horses? My latest for @highcountrynews.bsky.social:
hcn.org
The horses and mules that moved mountains and hearts - High Country News
U.S. Forest Service stock animals are indispensable to trail work on public lands in the West. Trump’s radical upheaval is accelerating the death of a dying art.
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Sequencer Magazine @sequencermag.bsky.social · 07/04/2025
Our newest newsletter hits inboxes TOMORROW MORNING! It's overflowing with exciting updates, so be sure to subscribe at www.sequencermag.com today so you don't miss it.
Sick tattoo of *the cool S* and edited to say Subscribe 2day please
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Maddie Bender @maddiebender.bsky.social · 04/04/2025
*sung to the tune of Your Body is a Wonderland* 🎵 Your body is a wind instrument www.sequencermag.com/body-mod-lin...
sequencermag.com
Body Modifiers Break the Science of Language
Rewriting the phonetic alphabet in the wake of new bodies and new biotechnology.
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Max G. Levy @maxlevy.bsky.social · 13/03/2025
I came across an article about school closures from 1958 in an old LIFE Mag. Was struck by the POVs of white students on integration. This was less than 70 years ago
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Maddie Bender @maddiebender.bsky.social · 04/03/2025
The Trump administration has fired thousands of probationary federal employees. I told the story of one — a plant restoration specialist with Fish and Wildlife who runs a beginner birdwatching program. He was fired on Valentine's Day. www.hawaiipublicradio.org/the-conversa...
hawaiipublicradio.org
In Hakalau Forest on Hawaiʻi Island, these birders of a feather flock together
We first reported the story of Eric-Preston Hamren. He was two months shy of permanent status at the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service — he got the bad news on Valentine's Day. HPR met him back in Decemb...
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Maddie Bender @maddiebender.bsky.social · 25/02/2025
On our homepage @sequencermag.bsky.social, we've got a stellar Q&A with @carlzimmer.com about aerobiology and his new book, AIR-BORNE www.sequencermag.com/carl-zimmer-...
sequencermag.com
Carl Zimmer is an airhead. He think you should be one too.
In his new book Air-Borne, the prolific science journalist traces investigations into aerobiology, from famous scientists like Louis Pasteur to the husband-and-wife duo who discovered how bacteria spr...
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Sequencer Magazine @sequencermag.bsky.social · 25/02/2025
NEW: @carlzimmer.com talks with @dsamorod.bsky.social about his new book AIR-BORNE: THE HIDDEN HISTORY OF THE LIFE WE BREATHE, out today. They discussed COVID-19, biological warfare, and the crucial contributions sneeze powder has made to science. www.sequencermag.com/carl-zimmer-...
sequencermag.com
Carl Zimmer is an airhead. He think you should be one too.
In his new book Air-Borne, the prolific science journalist traces investigations into aerobiology, from famous scientists like Louis Pasteur to the husband-and-wife duo who discovered how bacteria spr...
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Maddie Bender @maddiebender.bsky.social · 25/02/2025
We're going through stellar applications rn, but please amplify in your #scicomm circles!!! I am lucky be part of a team with co-founders/rats-in-crime @maxlevy.bsky.social @goesbykim.bsky.social @dsamorod.bsky.social who are walking the damn walk when it comes to training emerging science writers
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Maddie Bender @maddiebender.bsky.social · 12/02/2025
A huge legal hurdle for a $4 billion wildfire settlement in Hawai'i was cleared this week. I wrote about what that means for Maui fire survivors, and why some are now worried about a state-wide insurance crisis: www.hawaiipublicradio.org/the-conversa...
hawaiipublicradio.org
What comes next for survivors, insurers and HECO in $4B Maui wildfire settlement?
A major roadblock to the $4 billion global settlement for the Maui wildfires has been cleared. A lawyer representing victims says it could mean that survivors receive their first settlement payments b...
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Sequencer Magazine @sequencermag.bsky.social · 07/02/2025
OUT NOW: @maxlevy.bsky.social on preparing for the *inevitable* next pandemic locally, at work, and scientifically. We're honored to co-publish this with our friends at @thesicktimes.bsky.social who have really led the way on COVID/LC reporting www.sequencermag.com/inevitable-p...
sequencermag.com
We Won’t Avoid the Next Pandemic. But We Can Still Prepare.
As the factors that drive outbreaks snowball and Trump dismantles public health institutions, preparedness can come from the ground up.
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betsy ladyzhets 😷 @betsyladyzhets.bsky.social · 07/02/2025
Today @thesicktimes.bsky.social & @sequencermag.bsky.social! Great piece by @maxlevy.bsky.social about the drivers of pandemics and how we can better prepare for the next one, even when federal institutions seem to go backward. thesicktimes.org/2025/02/07/w...
thesicktimes.org
We won’t avoid the next pandemic. But we can still prepare. - The Sick Times
When a pandemic begins, so does the blame game. Early days of COVID-19 pointed fingers at wild meat markets and debunked lab leak conspiracies, and that crystallized a long-running narrative that outb...
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Dan Samorodnitsky @dsamorod.bsky.social · 07/02/2025
We won't avoid the next pandemic, but we can prepare. Yet another @maxlevy.bsky.social and @sequencermag.bsky.social banger , in partnership with @thesicktimes.bsky.social thesicktimes.org/2025/02/07/w...
thesicktimes.org
We won’t avoid the next pandemic. But we can still prepare. - The Sick Times
When a pandemic begins, so does the blame game. Early days of COVID-19 pointed fingers at wild meat markets and debunked lab leak conspiracies, and that crystallized a long-running narrative that outb...
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Joe Spring @joespring.bsky.social · 28/01/2025
Cool backstory here on how a student's efforts led to the designation of state snails in Hawaii. Ace science journalist @maddiebender.bsky.social reports. www.smithsonianmag.com/science-natu...
smithsonianmag.com
How a Hawaiian High School Student Inspired Nine New State Animals
Researchers hope the designation of several species of land snails, or kāhuli, will lead to conservation
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Dan Samorodnitsky @dsamorod.bsky.social · 21/01/2025
Kind of like my Dairy Queens, Ranked, article, it's always the dumbest most asinine articles I write that generate the most controversy
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Max G. Levy @maxlevy.bsky.social · 21/01/2025
Enormous thanks to @caulfieldtim.bsky.social @drandrealove.bsky.social for chatting & to the lovely conference attendees Thanks to my wonderful team @maddiebender.bsky.social @dsamorod.bsky.social @goesbykim.bsky.social. If you like the story, please sub free or support our independent work.
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Sequencer Magazine @sequencermag.bsky.social · 25/12/2024
Merry Christmas our dear little sequins. This is Sequencer's first holiday season and we just wanted to say thanks for your support and recap a few cool stories. First, @maxlevy.bsky.social and @seamus.bsky.social talk about the best chocolate in the world www.sequencermag.com/nobody-is-ma...
sequencermag.com
Nobody is making chocolate like this
What happens when you turn cacao into a microbiology experiment? Some damn good chocolate.
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Sequencer Magazine @sequencermag.bsky.social · 12/12/2024
Please subscribe to the Sequencer newsletter, where you'll get thought-provoking writing about waking up covered in blood and what that has to do with science sent directly to your inbox www.sequencermag.com
A screenshot of text that reads: 

    These are morning matters, pictures you dream as the final wave heaves you up on the sand to the bright fight and drying air. You remember pressure, and a curved sleep you rested against, soft, like a scallop in its shell. But the air hardens your skin; you stand; you leave the lighted shore to explore some dim headland, and soon you're lost in the leafy interior, intent, remembering nothing.

That new article for Sequencer, which I’ll write about more below, I hope embodies this spirit a bit. We are waking now, covered in blood, which I know will one day wash away. I want to explore the dim headland, lost, remembering nothing. Only intent on the search for new knowledge, away from the everyday, from explanations, towards letting the cosmos wash over you.

As always, please reach out if you have thoughts, questions, comments, or concerns. I'm at dan@sequencermag.com.
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Maddie Bender @maddiebender.bsky.social · 24/12/2024
this was a joy to edit, @maxlevy.bsky.social is a genius, etc etc. i've said it all before but read his latest!!!
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Reposted by Maddie Bender
Sequencer Magazine @sequencermag.bsky.social · 28/11/2024
Hat, hat, salmon hat, salmon hat, hat made of salmon, hat made of a salmon which is a fish, after 37 years www.sequencermag.com/salmon-hats-...
sequencermag.com
Salmon hats are back, baby!
We've waited 37 years for this moment.
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Sequencer Magazine @sequencermag.bsky.social · 28/11/2024
@dieworkwear.bsky.social what do you think
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Max G. Levy @maxlevy.bsky.social · 28/11/2024
And @maddiebender.bsky.social needs you to know that salmon hat is so back www.sequencermag.com/salmon-hats-... "No easy way to hold a salmon stash. Therefore, overhead storage for a salmon carry-on."
sequencermag.com
Salmon hats are back, baby!
We've waited 37 years for this moment.
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Maddie Bender @maddiebender.bsky.social · 28/11/2024
Happy turkey day, salmon hats are back in style (me for @sequencermag.bsky.social) www.sequencermag.com/salmon-hats-...
sequencermag.com
Salmon hats are back, baby!
We've waited 37 years for this moment.
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