Samuel Workman | Lightnews

Sam Workman

@sam-workman.bsky.social

Professor & Director of the Institute for Policy Research and Public Affairs at West Virginia University 🍸cocktails 📜 policy 📊 data

📍Morgantown, West Virginia, Appalachia

🌎 https://www.linkedin.com/in/samuel-workman
🌎 https://samuelworkman.owlstown.net .. more

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Environmental science 41%

Political science 15%

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Sam Workman @sam-workman.bsky.social · 1d

This week's cocktail comes from Scotland. Its OLD and perfect for Argyle weather. But disrespect it, and like a muscular Scot, it'll throw you down a well. This is the Atholl Brose. 🍸🍹 #cocktails

Samuel Workman, Ph.D. - Atholl Brose

This is one of the world's oldest cocktails. It originates in the 1400s and gets its name from Earl Atholl, who used the mixture to quash a rebellion from th...

samuelworkman.owlstown.net

Sam Workman @sam-workman.bsky.social · 1h

I don't know about the veracity of any of these arguments. But, I do know that if Dems could lose 60-40, or even 70-30, instead of 80-20, the world would be a very different place. #rural

Democrats plan a new investment in winning rural voters, who've fled the party

Democrats are announcing a new investment to win over voters in rural areas — where the party has suffered deep losses in recent elections — by leaning on an economic message.

www.npr.org

Sam Workman @sam-workman.bsky.social · 1d

Working with @verasight.io, this will be the most comprehensive assessment of perceptions and perspectives on an important policy issue in the state. Our survey design allows us to reach more granular descriptions of residents' perceptions of energy policy than have been possible previously.

Sam Workman @sam-workman.bsky.social · 1d

I am excited to partner with the West Virginia Office of Energy on a project beginning soon to assess West Virginians' attitudes on investments in the energy sector, their connections to the state's leading industries, and their views on the mix of energy sources in the Mountain State.

Sam Workman @sam-workman.bsky.social · 1d

One of the central problems with opinion polling in West Virginia, and even more so with national polls about West Virginians, is that they represent a few folks from our larger cities. West Virginia is a hard place to poll for geographical and infrastructure reasons. Quick 🧵. 🏛️🌐🗺️

Reposted by Samuel Workman

Policy Studies Journal @psjeditor.bsky.social · 1d

Explore this PSJ article from our latest issue examining how local agendas evolve in response to national signals, population growth, and institutional change.

By Peter B. Mortensen & Brooke Nicole Shannon

Read more here: onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

#PSJ #PolicyStudiesJournal

Reposted by Samuel Workman

JA Westenberg @joanwestenberg.com · 1d

In every dystopian novel: the government bans books.

In reality: we gave up reading voluntarily.

Line chart showing US teen reading habits since 1985: daily readers fall sharply while those who "hardly ever" read rise to about 48% by 2024.

Sam Workman @sam-workman.bsky.social · 1d

Should also note that the engine for this 1% mobility has a lot more to do with networking than education (which is great no doubt).

Sam Workman @sam-workman.bsky.social · 3d

🧵 🛟

Helen Branswell 🇨🇦 @helenbranswell.bsky.social · 3d

1. #Flu 🧵: #CDC reports that #influenza activity has been "trending upward slowly" in the US over the past few weeks. This could change markedly after Thanksgiving, with all the cross country travel & intergenerational mingling. Right now only 2 places are reporting moderate activity, LA & PR.

Reposted by Samuel Workman

Helen Branswell 🇨🇦 @helenbranswell.bsky.social · 3d

Reposted by David Darmofal

Sam Workman @sam-workman.bsky.social · 5d

Interesting paper 🔌💡

Robert (Bob) Kubinec @rmkubinec.bsky.social · 5d

🚨 New draft 🚨

We built an LLM-enabled system to measure greenwashing scores in 1 million worldwide Facebook ads.

We found vast networks of Facebook pages sharing pro-fossil fuel messages & show that ads are targeted at left-leaning areas with fossil fuel investments.

Link: doi.org/10.48550/arX...

links of pages with connections to fossil fuel companies and similar types of climate change messaging

Reposted by Samuel Workman, Brian Keegan, Federica Genovese , and 1 more Samuel Workman, Brian Keegan, Federica Genovese, Matti Vuorre

Robert (Bob) Kubinec @rmkubinec.bsky.social · 5d

Sam Workman @sam-workman.bsky.social · 5d

Cosign. And let's be honest, this perpetual campaign that rewards great campaigns and terrible governors, is a large reason we are where we are.

Reposted by Samuel Workman

Shobita Parthasarathy @shobitap.org · 5d

🚨New report!🚨 Small modular reactors are seen as neat, carbon-free solutions to the problems of energy-hungry tech like AI. But our analysis @stpp-um.bsky.social argues it will have serious environmental, social, and justice impacts and offers 12 policy recommendations across the nuclear fuel cycle.

The Reactor Around the Corner: Understanding Advanced Nuclear Energy Futures

stpp.fordschool.umich.edu

Sam Workman @sam-workman.bsky.social · 5d

Behavioral lock-in. Abysmal.

Pew Research Center @pewresearch.org · 5d

A majority of U.S. adults (59%) say they don’t want to get an updated COVID-19 vaccine. This is roughly identical to the share who said in October 2024 that they probably wouldn’t get the updated vaccine.

A series of blue and green stacked horizontal bars on a chart showing that about 6 in 10 Americans say they don’t want to get an updated COVID-19 vaccine and opinions differ by age and political affiliation

Reposted by Samuel Workman, Alessandro Rigolon, Larry W. Hunter , and 1 more Samuel Workman, Alessandro Rigolon, Larry W. Hunter, Nathan P. Kalmoe

Pew Research Center @pewresearch.org · 5d

Reposted by Samuel Workman

Pew Research Center @pewresearch.org · 6d

44% of Americans say they have heard nothing at all about the CDC’s changes to COVID-19 vaccine recommendations (issued in early October). Among those who have heard at least a little, 63% say the changes have had no influence on their decision whether to get an updated vaccine.

A pie chart and a horizontal chart in grey, blue, and green showing that few Americans say that new CDC guidelines have influenced their decision on whether to get an updated COVID-19 vaccine

Sam Workman @sam-workman.bsky.social · 6d

It'll be interesting to see whether these turn out to be intraparty resistance or realizing there is a credible threat of retaliation in tit-for-tat.

Marc Elias @marcelias.bsky.social · 6d

The Indiana State Senate rejected President Donald Trump’s call for a special session to redraw the state’s congressional map ahead of the 2026 midterms. The move preserves Indiana’s current map and represents yet another rebuke of Trump’s national gerrymander push.

Indiana GOPers Defy Trump, Vote Against Gerrymander Session

Read more here.

www.democracydocket.com

Sam Workman @sam-workman.bsky.social · 6d

I agree. Also, I also think we underestimate the untold damage that the academy's collective allergy to structural discussions/arguments has done to the cause of good public policy. It's more than pundits.

Dave Weigel @daveweigel.bsky.social · 6d

I think a lot about Harris putting out a price gouging policy, and getting piled on by liberal economist pundits, whose criticism immediately got turned into Trump ads.

Reposted by Samuel Workman, Michael D. McDonald

Dave Weigel @daveweigel.bsky.social · 6d

I think a lot about Harris putting out a price gouging policy, and getting piled on by liberal economist pundits, whose criticism immediately got turned into Trump ads.

Reposted by Mark Edward Phillips, Samuel Workman

Ben Lee @bcgl.bsky.social · 6d

1/ Announcing GovScape – a public search system for 10 million U.S. government PDFs (70 million pages)! GovScape offers visual search, semantic text search, and keyword search. Explore below:

Website: www.govscape.net
ArXiv link: arxiv.org/abs/2511.11010

www.govscape.net

Reposted by Samuel Workman

West Virginia Watch @westvirginiawatch.com · 7d

David Richardson, the senior official performing the duties of the administrator at the Federal Emergency Management Agency, has resigned and moved to the “private sector,” a spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security said Monday, reports @jennifershutt.bsky.social.

Latest FEMA acting administrator steps down, with no permanent chief tapped by Trump • West Virginia Watch

David Richardson, the senior official performing the duties of the administrator at FEMA, has resigned and moved to the “private sector."

westvirginiawatch.com

Reposted by Samuel Workman, James Goodwin

David Roberts @volts.wtf · 7d

You are a random Dem running in 2026 -- say, for some House seat in some swing state. You're on local media. You're asked: "what are three reasons that energy prices are rising & what are three things you'd like to do to bring them down?" What's your answer?

Reposted by Samuel Workman

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences @pnas.org · 7d

A combined approach of aggressive clean air policies and climate action could allow China to achieve “triple control” of fine particles, ozone, and carbon dioxide by 2030, and provide a roadmap for developing countries. In PNAS: https://ow.ly/1TNG50XsWmm