Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Brenden W. Rensink 📚🏃‍♂️⛰

@brendenwrensink.bsky.social

3.7K followers 1K following 670 posts

-Historian, American West, Borderlands, Environment, Indigenous Peoples -Professor @ BYU & Assoc. Director @byureddcenter.bsky.social -Podcast Host/Producer @WritingWestward.bsky.social -Editor IntermountainHistories.org -Books/Projects linktr.ee/BWRensink

Posts Media Videos Starter Packs

Pinned

Brenden W. Rensink 📚🏃‍♂️⛰ @brendenwrensink.bsky.social · Sep 16

Re-posting an intro for new contacts. I’m a North American West historian w/ pubs on borderlands, Indigenous peoples, genocide studies, religion, public history, etc. Environmental history for new book. I'm a history prof., run a research center, host a podcast, & more. Links: linktr.ee/bwrensink

Brenden W. Rensink | Twitter | Linktree

Professor of History & Associate Director @ BYU Redd Center

linktr.ee

1 19

Brenden W. Rensink 📚🏃‍♂️⛰ @brendenwrensink.bsky.social · 1d

Patty Limerick gave me the heads up on this letter to the editor she just sent in regarding the anti-Mormon chants at the BYU-CU game. Indeed, what a world this would be if everyone had better historical thinking skills and historical perspective.

www.dailycamera.com/2025/10/07/i...

Brenden W. Rensink 📚🏃‍♂️⛰ @brendenwrensink.bsky.social · 1d

Constitutional rights and democracy, good. Dictatorships and power-hungry autocrats, bad. There I said it. Look at me being so edgy and controversial. 😞

Brenden W. Rensink 📚🏃‍♂️⛰ @brendenwrensink.bsky.social · 4d

Not ok. What happened to the party that is supposedly the champion of the constitution and the rights it enshrines?

CNN @cnn.com · 4d

Adults and children alike were pulled from their Chicago apartments, crying and screaming, during a large overnight raid that has left tenants and neighbors shaken. https://cnn.it/4pPCXIt

37 people arrested and American kids separated from parents after ICE raid at Chicago apartments | CNN

Adults and children alike were pulled from their Chicago apartments, crying and screaming, during a large overnight raid that has left tenants and neighbors shaken.

www.cnn.com

1 1 3

Brenden W. Rensink 📚🏃‍♂️⛰ @brendenwrensink.bsky.social · 5d

www.intermountainhistories.org/tours/show/78

Tour | Fire in Intermountain National Parks and Monuments | Intermountain Histories

In 1963, the Advisory Board on Wildlife Management, chaired by A. Starker Leopold, published the Leopold report. It argued that controlling natural fires could be an effective forest management resour...

www.intermountainhistories.org

Brenden W. Rensink 📚🏃‍♂️⛰ @brendenwrensink.bsky.social · 5d

www.intermountainhistories.org/tours/show/77

Tour | Historic Roadside Attractions Along U.S. Highway 89 | Intermountain Histories

The U.S. Bureau of Public Roads established a numbered highway system between Utah and Arizona in 1925, formally establishing Highway 89. Otherwise known as the nation’s “most scenic road trip,” this ...

www.intermountainhistories.org

1 1

Brenden W. Rensink 📚🏃‍♂️⛰ @brendenwrensink.bsky.social · 5d

www.intermountainhistories.org/tours/show/76

Tour | Let’s Go for a Ride: Mountain Bike Trails on the Colorado Plateau | Intermountain Histories

When mountain bikes made their way out of Marin County, CA and into the rural west in the late 1970’s and early 1980’s, few could have predicted the impact the machines and their riders would have on ...

www.intermountainhistories.org

Brenden W. Rensink 📚🏃‍♂️⛰ @brendenwrensink.bsky.social · 5d

www.intermountainhistories.org/tours/show/75

Tour | Googie and Space-Age Architecture in the Intermountain West | Intermountain Histories

When driving though the area encompassed by the boundaries of the Intermountain West, along decrepit highways and down thoroughfares, you might notice an interesting genre of architecture. Old motels,...

www.intermountainhistories.org

Brenden W. Rensink 📚🏃‍♂️⛰ @brendenwrensink.bsky.social · 5d

www.intermountainhistories.org/tours/show/74

Tour | Prohibition in the Intermountain West | Intermountain Histories

This virtual tour explores Prohibition across the Intermountain West through five key sites. The Mint Bar in Sheridan, Wyoming, embodied cowboy defiance. Kemmerer, Wyoming’s immigrant-fueled mining so...

www.intermountainhistories.org

Brenden W. Rensink 📚🏃‍♂️⛰ @brendenwrensink.bsky.social · 5d

www.intermountainhistories.org/tours/show/73

Tour | Cruising the West: Boat Tourism on America’s Public Lakes | Intermountain Histories

Water has always been a scarce but integral part of the Intermountain West’s identity. Glacial lakes and reservoirs in places like Yellowstone, Glacier, and Lake Powell offer unique “experience-based”...

www.intermountainhistories.org

Brenden W. Rensink 📚🏃‍♂️⛰ @brendenwrensink.bsky.social · 5d

New on my Intermountain Histories project: 6 tours (35 stories!) on Boating, Prohibition, Googie Architecture, Mountain Biking, Roadside Attractions, & Wildfires from NAU Public History students of Prof. Michael Amundson. Publishing student research never gets old.
Tour links in the comments below ⬇️

Stories in

Intermountain Histories is a free website and mobile app that curates histories of the Intermountain West regions of Idaho, Wyoming, Montana, Nevada, Utah, Colorado, Arizona, and New Mexico. Explore...

www.intermountainhistories.org

1 1 2

Brenden W. Rensink 📚🏃‍♂️⛰ @brendenwrensink.bsky.social · 6d

Maybe some strategically applied temporary tattoos would help

Reposted by Brenden W. Rensink 📚🏃‍♂️⛰

Joseph Rezek @rezekjoe.bsky.social · 7d

“There is artificial intelligence, and then there’s actual intelligence.”

A+ no notes ⬇️⬇️⬇️

Merriam-Webster @merriam-webster.com · 7d

We are thrilled to announce that our NEW Large Language Model will be released on 11.18.25.

1 13 51

Brenden W. Rensink 📚🏃‍♂️⛰ @brendenwrensink.bsky.social · 7d

I really enjoyed this doing this interview with Ernesto. Just when you think you have a handle on a certain topic, you find out it is infinitely more complicated than you thought.

Writing Westward Podcast @writingwestward.bsky.social · 7d

🚨New Episode Alert🚨

We're celebrating Hispanic Heritage Month via a conversation with Prof. Ernesto Sagás (Colorado State University, Ethnic Studies) about his new book, "Latino Colorado: The Struggle for Equality in the Centennial State.

writingwestwardpodcast.podbean.com/e/079-ernest...

079 - Ernesto Sagas - Latino Colorado | Writing Westward Podcast

A conversation with Ernesto Sagas about their book Latino Colorado: The Struggle for Equality in the Centennial State (University Press of Colorado, 2025) Ernesto Sagás is Professor of Ethnic Studie...

writingwestwardpodcast.podbean.com

Brenden W. Rensink 📚🏃‍♂️⛰ @brendenwrensink.bsky.social · 9d

And the award for most inarticulate world leader in modern history goes to…

a woman is sitting in a chair in a courtroom wearing a black sweater and white collar .

ALT: a woman is sitting in a chair in a courtroom wearing a black sweater and white collar .

media.tenor.com

Brenden W. Rensink 📚🏃‍♂️⛰ @brendenwrensink.bsky.social · 9d

Today my FB memories feed again gave me just what I needed to face some heavy times. 10+years ago today my then 5-year old daughter watched The Empire Strikes Back & in response to the Darth Vader as Luke's father reveal screamed, "He is not Luke's dad! He is a bad guy! I will not like him ever!!!"😍

Brenden W. Rensink 📚🏃‍♂️⛰ @brendenwrensink.bsky.social · 12d

You don't have to be even remotely familiar with new scholarship on Wounded Knee to know that this move is not only absurdly misinformed but offensive to the very concepts of human dignity and justice that our nation's founding idealized & that we've been (haltingly) striving for ever since. Shame.

Karl Jacoby @karl-jacoby.bsky.social · 12d

Only an administration intent on committing war crimes in the present and future would stoop to calling Wounded Knee a "battle" rather than what it truly was: a massacre of over 250 Lakotas, mainly women, children, and the elderly. 1/

4 15

Brenden W. Rensink 📚🏃‍♂️⛰ @brendenwrensink.bsky.social · 13d

And maybe shame on the news crews setting up cameras to record these teenagers at their darkest hour. Let them grieve in peace.

Brenden W. Rensink 📚🏃‍♂️⛰ @brendenwrensink.bsky.social · 13d

Candle light vigil at the Jr. High, watching my son and a hundred of his teenage classmates be forced to grow up way faster than they should have to. Kids are connected to so many via school, family, & friend networks, that when one is lost the reverberations are broad & deep. Tragedy upon tragedy.

1 7

Brenden W. Rensink 📚🏃‍♂️⛰ @brendenwrensink.bsky.social · 14d

Gun control, now please. Actually, yesterday, please. Another gun fatality in Orem today, & this one much closer to home. Why do we live in a world where now BOTH of my teenage children personally know a kid whose life was ended this way. Curses upon our society for everyday we look the other way.

Brenden W. Rensink 📚🏃‍♂️⛰ @brendenwrensink.bsky.social · 14d

Dear Apple Cider and Apple Cider-flavored treats,

Many other have abandoned you for Pumpkin Spice, but know that I never will. I remain true to you, my original PacNW autumnal flavor love.

Eternally yours,
Me

Brenden W. Rensink 📚🏃‍♂️⛰ @brendenwrensink.bsky.social · 15d

Trying to scroll less. Social media algorithms feed content to create outrage (they've learned outrage = more consistent engagement). Also, sm is a HORRIBLE source for news/info. Scroll less. Use intentional processes to get news/info from trusted sources.

www.nationalgeographic.com/health/artic...

The surprising way doomscrolling rewires your brain

Experts say graphic images, nonstop outrage, and the 24/7 negative news cycle don’t just upset us—they alter our stress response and harm mental health.

www.nationalgeographic.com

Brenden W. Rensink 📚🏃‍♂️⛰ @brendenwrensink.bsky.social · 16d

Just when you think we were already in the dumbest timeline, a certain someone goes and opens their mouth and…

a close up of a man 's face with a beard and blue eyes making a funny face .

ALT: a close up of a man 's face with a beard and blue eyes making a funny face .

media.tenor.com

Brenden W. Rensink 📚🏃‍♂️⛰ @brendenwrensink.bsky.social · 16d

So long as you’ve kept EVERY Apple product box and obsolete adapter, dongle, or cord from 2011-present, you should be fine.

1 5

Brenden W. Rensink 📚🏃‍♂️⛰ @brendenwrensink.bsky.social · 16d

Not to be missed! Now, someone do a comparative project with the US-Canada border too!

Mary E. Mendoza @mmendoza.bsky.social · 18d

I’m pleased to announce that my forthcoming book, _Deadly Divide_, will be out in spring 2026 with @uncpress.bsky.social with the help of my fabulous editor Cate Hodorowicz (@catehodorowicz.bsky.social).

1 1 5

Brenden W. Rensink 📚🏃‍♂️⛰ @brendenwrensink.bsky.social · 20d

My teenage (drummer) son is developing his own musical tastes. Currently, Dr. Dog's "Fate" is his top LP (proud dad moment!). The upcoming LP by French band Totorro (who he LOVES playing along to) will be my 1st time watching him geek out over new tunes. I can't wait! www.youtube.com/watch?v=GXzp...

TOTORRO - New Music

YouTube video by TOTORRO