Whitney Bauck
@whitneybauck.bsky.social
Award-winning freelance journalist reporting @ the Guardian, Grist, WaPo, Bloomberg, etc
Particularly interested in climate, ag, transit, grassroots movements and fungi
https://whitneybauck.substack.com/
Particularly interested in climate, ag, transit, grassroots movements and fungi
https://whitneybauck.substack.com/
Pinned
Whitney Bauck
@whitneybauck.bsky.social
· Sep 18
Such an honor to have my story on the Palestinian Heirloom Seed Library for @theguardian.com win a 2025 @coveringclimatenow.org award.
Such heartbreak that the horrors that prompted me to write the story are still ongoing.
I'm proud of many of my stories, but this one in particular means a lot.
Such heartbreak that the horrors that prompted me to write the story are still ongoing.
I'm proud of many of my stories, but this one in particular means a lot.
“Freelance journalism in 2025 is an incredibly difficult place to build a career. But, it turns out, it’s a decent enough arena for a scam.”
This whole story. Holy cow. thelocal.to/investigatin...
This whole story. Holy cow. thelocal.to/investigatin...
Investigating a Possible Scammer in Journalism’s AI Era | The Local
A suspicious pitch from a freelancer led editor Nicholas Hune-Brown to dig into their past work. By the end, four publications, including The Guardian and Dwell, had removed articles from their sites.
thelocal.to
November 25, 2025 at 4:47 PM
“Freelance journalism in 2025 is an incredibly difficult place to build a career. But, it turns out, it’s a decent enough arena for a scam.”
This whole story. Holy cow. thelocal.to/investigatin...
This whole story. Holy cow. thelocal.to/investigatin...
Races to watch! www.thecity.nyc/2025/11/24/a...
Union Members Take On Congressional Incumbents in Manhattan and The Bronx
The UAW is known locally for its left-leaning politics and justice-oriented members in academia and legal services. Now two of its rank-and-file members, Dalourny Nemorin and Darializa Avila Chevalier...
www.thecity.nyc
November 25, 2025 at 3:00 PM
Races to watch! www.thecity.nyc/2025/11/24/a...
"Not everyone is rising to the occasion because the times you live in do not immediately shape who you are and what you do... you rise to the level of your training and practice, not to the level of your imagined self." @prisonculture.bsky.social
prisonculture.substack.com/p/we-dont-kn...
prisonculture.substack.com/p/we-dont-kn...
We Don’t Know Where We Will End Up…
A Year Since the 2024 Election
prisonculture.substack.com
November 24, 2025 at 7:31 PM
"Not everyone is rising to the occasion because the times you live in do not immediately shape who you are and what you do... you rise to the level of your training and practice, not to the level of your imagined self." @prisonculture.bsky.social
prisonculture.substack.com/p/we-dont-kn...
prisonculture.substack.com/p/we-dont-kn...
Reposted by Whitney Bauck
Lumping them together as “AI” gives readers the impression that a single class of tool is discerning novel protein structures, teasing subtle patterns out of mountains of LHC data, writing a student’s History 101 paper, and arguing a ketamine-addled billionaire could post up Shaq in his prime. No.
November 22, 2025 at 5:10 PM
Lumping them together as “AI” gives readers the impression that a single class of tool is discerning novel protein structures, teasing subtle patterns out of mountains of LHC data, writing a student’s History 101 paper, and arguing a ketamine-addled billionaire could post up Shaq in his prime. No.
Reposted by Whitney Bauck
Machine learning (umbrella term, I know) is a useful, sometimes transformative tool in the hands of trained researchers who understand how to deploy it and critically assess the results.
A chatbot is not useful in the same ways (though underlying technologies may be, in other contexts).
A chatbot is not useful in the same ways (though underlying technologies may be, in other contexts).
November 22, 2025 at 5:01 PM
Machine learning (umbrella term, I know) is a useful, sometimes transformative tool in the hands of trained researchers who understand how to deploy it and critically assess the results.
A chatbot is not useful in the same ways (though underlying technologies may be, in other contexts).
A chatbot is not useful in the same ways (though underlying technologies may be, in other contexts).
Reposted by Whitney Bauck
Relying on ChatGPT to teach you about a topic leaves you with shallower knowledge than Googling and reading about it, according to new research that compared what more than 10,000 people knew after using one method or the other.
Shared by @gizmodo.com: buff.ly/yAAHtHq
Shared by @gizmodo.com: buff.ly/yAAHtHq
November 21, 2025 at 11:48 AM
Relying on ChatGPT to teach you about a topic leaves you with shallower knowledge than Googling and reading about it, according to new research that compared what more than 10,000 people knew after using one method or the other.
Shared by @gizmodo.com: buff.ly/yAAHtHq
Shared by @gizmodo.com: buff.ly/yAAHtHq
Reposted by Whitney Bauck
The people who make Shein's clothes labor for ten to twelve hours per day (in violation of China's labor laws), some up to seven days a week, and earn as little as 15 to 30 cents per t-shirt.
![Excerpt from a BBC article: ""We usually work, 10, 11 or 12 hours a day," says a 49-year-old woman from Jiangxi unwilling to give her name. "On Sundays we work around three hours less."
She is in an alleyway, where a dozen people are huddled around a row of bulletin boards.
They are reading the job ads on the board, while examining the stitching on a pair of chinos draped over it.
This is Shein's supply chain. The factories are contracted to make clothes on order - some small, some big. If the chinos are a hit, orders will ramp up and so must production. Factories then hire temporary workers to meet the demand their permanent staff cannot fulfil.
The migrant worker from Jiangxi is looking for a short-term contract - and the chinos are an option.
"We earn so little. The cost of living is now so high," she says, adding that she hopes to make enough to send back to her two children who are living with their grandparents.
"We get paid per piece," she explains. "It depends how difficult the item is. Something simple like a t-shirt is one-two yuan [less than a dollar] per piece and I can make around a dozen in an hour.""](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:ks3gpa6ftoyaq7hmf6c4qx4c/bafkreiber7g4o5pujmzmjjzsp5dkz7blfexburuwjispfpv6dki7akjb7a@jpeg)
November 20, 2025 at 12:07 AM
The people who make Shein's clothes labor for ten to twelve hours per day (in violation of China's labor laws), some up to seven days a week, and earn as little as 15 to 30 cents per t-shirt.
Reposted by Whitney Bauck
Hey authors! Check to see if Anthropic stole your book to train their slop generator on. You’re entitled to $1500 per stolen Work.
Look up your work, and if you’re in the database, file a claim
secure.anthropiccopyrightsettlement.com/lookup/
Look up your work, and if you’re in the database, file a claim
secure.anthropiccopyrightsettlement.com/lookup/
Submit a Claim
secure.anthropiccopyrightsettlement.com
November 18, 2025 at 7:39 AM
Hey authors! Check to see if Anthropic stole your book to train their slop generator on. You’re entitled to $1500 per stolen Work.
Look up your work, and if you’re in the database, file a claim
secure.anthropiccopyrightsettlement.com/lookup/
Look up your work, and if you’re in the database, file a claim
secure.anthropiccopyrightsettlement.com/lookup/
Reposted by Whitney Bauck
Hey folks. I have spent *days* reading and meticulously drafting comments on a very lengthy manuscript. Which I have just found includes an AI-faked quote. Attributed to ME.
Here is a thread of my feelings
Here is a thread of my feelings
a man in a blue shirt says " i am untethered and my rage knows no bounds ! "
ALT: a man in a blue shirt says " i am untethered and my rage knows no bounds ! "
media.tenor.com
November 16, 2025 at 6:02 PM
Hey folks. I have spent *days* reading and meticulously drafting comments on a very lengthy manuscript. Which I have just found includes an AI-faked quote. Attributed to ME.
Here is a thread of my feelings
Here is a thread of my feelings
Reposted by Whitney Bauck
NEW: In his first interview since his arrest for protesting outside the Chicago-area ICE facility, @revdrmichaelwoolf.bsky.social tells me he has "bruises all over my body."
Even so, he said, “the cruelty that goes on that facility … must be 100 times worse." religionnews.com/2025/11/15/a...
Even so, he said, “the cruelty that goes on that facility … must be 100 times worse." religionnews.com/2025/11/15/a...
November 15, 2025 at 7:52 PM
NEW: In his first interview since his arrest for protesting outside the Chicago-area ICE facility, @revdrmichaelwoolf.bsky.social tells me he has "bruises all over my body."
Even so, he said, “the cruelty that goes on that facility … must be 100 times worse." religionnews.com/2025/11/15/a...
Even so, he said, “the cruelty that goes on that facility … must be 100 times worse." religionnews.com/2025/11/15/a...
Reposted by Whitney Bauck
BREAKING: Colorado voters approved a ballot measure that would raise state income taxes on higher-earning households to fund free meals for all public school students.
Follow AP for live updates.
Follow AP for live updates.
Live updates: US voters head to the polls in first general election since Trump's return to power
One year after Donald Trump retook the presidency, 2025 Election Day includes closely watched races for New York City mayor, New Jersey governor and California's Proposition 50.
bit.ly
November 5, 2025 at 3:33 AM
BREAKING: Colorado voters approved a ballot measure that would raise state income taxes on higher-earning households to fund free meals for all public school students.
Follow AP for live updates.
Follow AP for live updates.
Reposted by Whitney Bauck
Mamdani cracks 1M votes, the first NYC mayor to do so since John Lindsay in 1969
November 5, 2025 at 3:21 AM
Mamdani cracks 1M votes, the first NYC mayor to do so since John Lindsay in 1969
Reposted by Whitney Bauck
Harold's Auto Center, Spring Hill, Florida, 1965
Unknown photographer, but I love it so much.
Unknown photographer, but I love it so much.
November 1, 2025 at 4:55 PM
Harold's Auto Center, Spring Hill, Florida, 1965
Unknown photographer, but I love it so much.
Unknown photographer, but I love it so much.
Reposted by Whitney Bauck
A good news story from the Lake Tahoe area, where Hope and her cub Bounce were going to be euthanized as nuisance bears, hemmed in by development and necessity. But the community wouldn't let it happen, keeping watch, & working hard to retrain the bears. Now they seem to be out of danger for awhile.
October 31, 2025 at 7:04 PM
A good news story from the Lake Tahoe area, where Hope and her cub Bounce were going to be euthanized as nuisance bears, hemmed in by development and necessity. But the community wouldn't let it happen, keeping watch, & working hard to retrain the bears. Now they seem to be out of danger for awhile.
Can’t imagine anything spookier than throwing away your vote in the NY mayoral race. New Yorkers, let’s get to the polls!
October 31, 2025 at 6:39 PM
Can’t imagine anything spookier than throwing away your vote in the NY mayoral race. New Yorkers, let’s get to the polls!
Reposted by Whitney Bauck
Last chance to turn it off.
On Monday, November 3rd, Microsoft will start using your LinkedIn data for AI training. And remember, you're opted in by default.
To toggle it off 👉 Account - Settings & Privacy > Data privacy > Data for Generative AI Improvement.
On Monday, November 3rd, Microsoft will start using your LinkedIn data for AI training. And remember, you're opted in by default.
To toggle it off 👉 Account - Settings & Privacy > Data privacy > Data for Generative AI Improvement.
October 31, 2025 at 1:37 PM
Last chance to turn it off.
On Monday, November 3rd, Microsoft will start using your LinkedIn data for AI training. And remember, you're opted in by default.
To toggle it off 👉 Account - Settings & Privacy > Data privacy > Data for Generative AI Improvement.
On Monday, November 3rd, Microsoft will start using your LinkedIn data for AI training. And remember, you're opted in by default.
To toggle it off 👉 Account - Settings & Privacy > Data privacy > Data for Generative AI Improvement.
If you're completely oblivious to the world of hunting influencers and their political power, this is a fascinating read ryandbusse.substack.com/p/maga-is-a-...?
MAGA Is A Disaster For Hunters. Top Hunting Influencers Are Making It Far Worse
There are a few voting communities that are as tight-knit and culturally important as hunters and anglers.
ryandbusse.substack.com
October 31, 2025 at 3:09 PM
If you're completely oblivious to the world of hunting influencers and their political power, this is a fascinating read ryandbusse.substack.com/p/maga-is-a-...?
Reposted by Whitney Bauck
Illinois will effectively eliminate parking minimum requirements in ~all of Chicago and much of its suburbs thanks to the transit funding bill that passed last night.
Also contains parking reform! This is a preliminary map of Chicagoland based on the People Over Parking Act provision.
It would also apply downstate though!
It would also apply downstate though!
October 31, 2025 at 1:38 PM
Illinois will effectively eliminate parking minimum requirements in ~all of Chicago and much of its suburbs thanks to the transit funding bill that passed last night.
Reposted by Whitney Bauck
This is right -- and, to add my personal two cents of experience, independent work is more inefficient. In a well-staffed newsroom, you have story editors, writers, social strategists, fact-checkers, copy editors, and so on, each honed on their skill. On your own, you're on on your own.
Patron-Supported Journalism Can’t Be the Future of News
Writing about the failure of patron-supported journalism is itself a kind of...
talkingpointsmemo.com
October 29, 2025 at 5:37 PM
This is right -- and, to add my personal two cents of experience, independent work is more inefficient. In a well-staffed newsroom, you have story editors, writers, social strategists, fact-checkers, copy editors, and so on, each honed on their skill. On your own, you're on on your own.
Reposted by Whitney Bauck
I am interested in starting to hear from care workers on SNAP about your concerns. I'm @motherjones.com's disability reporter. Please be in touch. My email is [email protected] and my Signal is juliametraux.49. Reposts are appreciated.
October 27, 2025 at 9:01 PM
I am interested in starting to hear from care workers on SNAP about your concerns. I'm @motherjones.com's disability reporter. Please be in touch. My email is [email protected] and my Signal is juliametraux.49. Reposts are appreciated.
Reposted by Whitney Bauck
A stat we don't talk about enough: Newspapers have lost 77% of their jobs over the last 20 year, more than any of the 532 other industries tracked by the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
October 27, 2025 at 11:54 PM
A stat we don't talk about enough: Newspapers have lost 77% of their jobs over the last 20 year, more than any of the 532 other industries tracked by the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Reposted by Whitney Bauck
Serendipitous timeline juxtaposition
October 27, 2025 at 4:40 PM
Serendipitous timeline juxtaposition
New Yorkers: What are the best explainer(s) you've seen on props 1-6?
(From media orgs, advocacy groups, whomever. Just curious to see who people think has explained these props and what's at stake in them well for lay people)
(From media orgs, advocacy groups, whomever. Just curious to see who people think has explained these props and what's at stake in them well for lay people)
October 27, 2025 at 4:21 PM
New Yorkers: What are the best explainer(s) you've seen on props 1-6?
(From media orgs, advocacy groups, whomever. Just curious to see who people think has explained these props and what's at stake in them well for lay people)
(From media orgs, advocacy groups, whomever. Just curious to see who people think has explained these props and what's at stake in them well for lay people)
Reposted by Whitney Bauck
It's hard to overstate how fully engaged Chicago and the surrounding suburbs are in this ICE madness. There are neighborhood watch alerts, spontaneous crowds gathering outside schools at pick up & drop off plus madly blowing whistles and honking car horns, this city is fighting back and hard.
October 25, 2025 at 2:14 PM
It's hard to overstate how fully engaged Chicago and the surrounding suburbs are in this ICE madness. There are neighborhood watch alerts, spontaneous crowds gathering outside schools at pick up & drop off plus madly blowing whistles and honking car horns, this city is fighting back and hard.
Reposted by Whitney Bauck
One of the biggest rights of nature developments this year will happen in November.
That's when Ecuadorians will decide whether to allow their Trump-allied president to rewrite the constitution, potentially gutting the charter's protection for nature's rights
insideclimatenews.org/news/2310202...
That's when Ecuadorians will decide whether to allow their Trump-allied president to rewrite the constitution, potentially gutting the charter's protection for nature's rights
insideclimatenews.org/news/2310202...
Ecuadorians to Vote on Constitutional Rewrite, Possibly Gutting Rights of Nature - Inside Climate News
Ecuadorians will go to the polls on Nov. 16 to decide whether to allow right-wing President Daniel Noboa to rewrite the 2008 constitution. Lawyer César Rodríguez-Garavito explains what that could mean...
insideclimatenews.org
October 24, 2025 at 3:26 PM
One of the biggest rights of nature developments this year will happen in November.
That's when Ecuadorians will decide whether to allow their Trump-allied president to rewrite the constitution, potentially gutting the charter's protection for nature's rights
insideclimatenews.org/news/2310202...
That's when Ecuadorians will decide whether to allow their Trump-allied president to rewrite the constitution, potentially gutting the charter's protection for nature's rights
insideclimatenews.org/news/2310202...