Reposted by Rachel KNicole Bedera @nbedera.bsky.social · 13hIf you’re feeling like everything I’m saying is making it really hard to know how to interpret reporting numbers without a ton of context, then you’ve gotten the right takeaway. 2617
Rachel K @xrkulik.bsky.social · 02/10/2026closing out the week with: - my first solo-authored R&R !! - a $3000 grant from Rackham graduate school for archival research - patio writing to finish a draft of another solo authored paper to circulate to mentors for comment 000
Rachel K @xrkulik.bsky.social · 30/09/2026this is also at LEAST my third complete rewrite of the introduction. 010
Rachel K @xrkulik.bsky.social · 29/09/2026it's a "skim dozens of papers to write a single paragraph" type of day 100
Rachel K @xrkulik.bsky.social · 29/09/2026I've had the empirics for this paper written for literal months but it's fighting me so. hard. on structure. 110
Rachel K @xrkulik.bsky.social · 28/09/2026I currently (somehow) have THREE regularly scheduled competeing seminars on Wednesday around lunchtime 000
Reposted by Rachel KMichael Shepherd @mshepruralpolitics.bsky.social · 24/09/2026Super interesting survey by @kff.org that is consistent with the findings of my book Rural Pain, Republican Gain. Rural voters are frustrated with healthcare and economic outcomes. But rural Republicans (the vast majority of rural people) still trust Republicans more than Dems on these issues.press.uchicago.eduRural Pain, Republican GainAn eye-opening look at how Republican policies have affected health outcomes in rural communities and why poor, rural white voters are turning to the Republican Party—not despite this harm, but becaus... 2189
Reposted by Rachel KElizabeth (Bit) Meehan, PhD @elizabethbitmeehan.com · 26/08/2026(1) there's a generic "social science" call for the NSF GRFP (2) the SBE Directorate is NOT listed as one of the sponsoring organizations (3) POLITICAL SCIENCE IS NOT AN ELIGIBLE SOCIAL SCIENCE FIELD. (4) only 1st year grad students again www.nsf.gov/funding/init... 63626
Rachel K @xrkulik.bsky.social · 22/09/2026Man, that most recent Nicole Hannah jones article is a hard & important read 120
Rachel K @xrkulik.bsky.social · 22/09/2026Enjoyed Chicago, now stuck behind a broken switch on Amtrak… (The rail infrastructure in this country…) 000
Reposted by Rachel Kسارة @sarahelazab.bsky.social · 21/09/2026I’m still not over the “Alternative Cultures” section with Frantz Fanon and Angela Davis next to books on CBD and freemasonry. 001
Rachel K @xrkulik.bsky.social · 20/09/2026Appreciate a friend like @sarahelazab.bsky.social who’s as excited about wandering independent bookstores as me but… this one in Chicago is the strangest I’ve ever been to (and trust me, I’ve been to many) 000
Rachel K @xrkulik.bsky.social · 18/09/2026Waiting for the train to Chicago to meet up with @sarahelazab.bsky.social !!! Can’t wait to catch up with a dear friend in my favorite American city 110
Rachel K @xrkulik.bsky.social · 17/09/2026by high school i was smart enough to see straight through (and hate) hpmor so this is extra upsetting 000
Rachel K @xrkulik.bsky.social · 14/09/2026making some edits on a paper that will probably improve it in practice (at least for the intended audience) but frustrate me in principle 100
Rachel K @xrkulik.bsky.social · 10/09/2026I’m so glad I read all of the books leading up to Nightwatch before starting Nightwatch because wooooow is it good. Discworld!! 000
Reposted by Rachel KJesspooka Kant 🎃 @jessdkant.bsky.social · 09/09/2026Shout out to everyone who said it was just a temporary distraction and not a central organizing principle of modern fascism.advocate.comElon Musk’s PAC makes transgender people its multi-million-dollar midterm targetAmerica PAC is attacking Democrats in four competitive Senate races as the trillionaire prepares to spend at least $100 million helping Republicans. 6040281251
Rachel K @xrkulik.bsky.social · 09/09/2026i am fully braced to read this article. fullllyyyyy braced 110
Rachel K @xrkulik.bsky.social · 03/09/2026Pratchett is so so good at ragtag [complimentary] (Discworld is good at many things, but I have a soft spot for a ragtag cast of characters) 000
Rachel K @xrkulik.bsky.social · 02/09/2026I am at APSA! I’ll be presenting dissertation work about the politics of measuring maternal mortality on a wonderful panel about data politics, with @philiprocco.bsky.social, @jaeyeonkim.bsky.social, and Sarah James. Join us for what should be a great discussion on Friday at 10 am 042
Rachel K @xrkulik.bsky.social · 01/09/2026please save me from remote tech support for boomer parents (who I love very very much) 100
Reposted by Rachel KErika McEntarfer @erikamcentarfer.bsky.social · 01/09/2026This change grants Commerce political appointees veto power over data and research releases by scientists and statisticians at NOAA, NIST, Census, and BEA. 8287186
Rachel K @xrkulik.bsky.social · 29/08/20261.2 million deaths a year is complete nonsense, or requires an extremely misleading definition of "food-induced." Like, the US has about 3 million TOTAL deaths per year. He's classifying nearly half as food induced? 133
Rachel K @xrkulik.bsky.social · 27/08/2026"Lancaster County Coroner Steve Diamantoni said the cause of death was not from the measles. The newborn died shortly after birth from a laceration of the spleen, although measles antibodies were present in postmortem testing, he said in an interview." 100
Rachel K @xrkulik.bsky.social · 24/08/2026I'm really excited to present dissertation work at APSA for the first time, but it also seems really hard to present part of a dissertation monograph. Do I start with the framing and motivation for the book, or for the empirical case in the chapter? 010
Rachel K @xrkulik.bsky.social · 23/08/2026it's 1 am so we don't think the emergency plumber will come out to look at my parents' sump pump, which has been blaring for hours... hopefully we don't wake up to a flooded basement I guess? 000
Rachel K @xrkulik.bsky.social · 22/08/2026econjared.substack.com/p/the-govern... cool cool cooleconjared.substack.comThe Government Report That Made Me Stop Trusting Our Statistical AgenciesI’ve waved people off this degree of mistrust. I no longer can do so. 000
Rachel K @xrkulik.bsky.social · 21/08/2026gorgeous day for writing on a patio! Today: working on an R&R, APSA presentation, and emails/admin 020
Rachel K @xrkulik.bsky.social · 21/08/2026As a scholar of government data, fascinating “It all tends to be the same data,” said Gifford. “If some app tries to tell you it has a fancier forecast, you roll your eyes a bit, because it all mostly comes from governments.” 152
Rachel K @xrkulik.bsky.social · 20/08/2026Important reporting on officially sanctioned transphobia. (And continuing misinformation coming from HHS) 033
Rachel K @xrkulik.bsky.social · 20/08/2026I’ve been dissertating pretty frantically for over a month, so a book and a drink on a patio tonight is really lovely (Reading world building science about how goblins are fungus in Isabella Nagg and the Pot of Basil, but might have to switch to a book on kindle when it gets too dark!) 020
Reposted by Rachel KTressie McMillan Cottom @tressiemcphd.bsky.social · 01/08/2026I like this notetaking example. it is a good case of how gender works. Notetaking has never been about producing a transcript. It is a bureaucratic skill in the 20th c. organixarion because it is SENSEMAKING. Those women socialized to take notes? They have been doing men’s metacognition for them 232986736
Rachel K @xrkulik.bsky.social · 19/08/2026well this is horrifying. (and editorial choices were made) www.newyorker.com/magazine/202...newyorker.comThe Children a Scientist Took HomeCarleton Gajdusek won the Nobel Prize for his work on a disease in Papua New Guinea. But his biggest experiment was on the children he took back to the U.S. 000
Rachel K @xrkulik.bsky.social · 18/08/2026I was going to share a dissertation chapter today that needs a few more hours of writing, but a bee or wasp just stung my palm so I might have to be done for the day… (Ouch!) 010
Rachel K @xrkulik.bsky.social · 17/08/2026the Gates Foundation just funded IHME for another 10 years (over 540 *million*, the biggest philanthropic donation to the University of Washington in its history) and I have thoughts 100
Rachel K @xrkulik.bsky.social · 16/08/2026accent is genuinely not terrible, which is a real compliment! (tonal languages are *hard* if you don't grow up speaking them) Also just a really nice gesture, can we get more leftist politicians who know how to create good vibes instead of listening to the consultant class? 010
Rachel K @xrkulik.bsky.social · 12/08/2026on the edge of my seat for the second week running because of politics (a Hong loss would break my heart. I was so mad not to be in her Senate district when I lived in Madison) 110
Rachel K @xrkulik.bsky.social · 12/08/2026so does Darline Graham have *any* other qualifications than "Lindsay's sister" and "endorsed by Trump?" 110
Reposted by Rachel KEbony Elizabeth Thomas @ebonyteach.blacksky.app · 05/08/2026He's electable if we elect him. 663677
Rachel K @xrkulik.bsky.social · 05/08/2026good news from Missouri as I obsessively refresh MI results Kansas defeated its thinly veiled anti-abortion ballot measure too! 011
Rachel K @xrkulik.bsky.social · 05/08/2026ignoring the senate primary at the moment to drop in and say that local Ann Arbor politics (mostly around development) continue to baffle me 210
Rachel K @xrkulik.bsky.social · 05/08/2026How late am I staying up for this Michigan senate primary? 310