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Reposted by Angela Chen

Anna North @annanorth.bsky.social · 1d

For @thecut.com, I wrote about the time I spent two weeks in the hospital waiting for my second kid to be born, and what happened to my mind while I was there

Quit Romanticizing Boredom

Everyone says “logging off” will solve our problems. After actually living it, I’m not so sure.

www.thecut.com

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Angela Chen @chengela.bsky.social · 3d

I read it on my honeymoon and it turned out to feel very thematically fitting!

Angela Chen @chengela.bsky.social · 3d

Also, this quote:

Angela Chen @chengela.bsky.social · 3d

Going through vacation photos, found this from the Franz Kafka Museum. Welcome, Franz.

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Angela Chen @chengela.bsky.social · 3d

I've had this on my "to-read" since @ruthgraham.bsky.social raved about it years and years ago (her review here: slate.com/culture/2017...). It's extraordinary, perfect mix of psychologically insightful plus dramatic plus existential.

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Reposted by Angela Chen

Nicole Chung @nicolechung.bsky.social · 6d

If you want to understand open adoption, it makes sense to start with birth parents—yet studies of them are few. 2+ yrs ago, I began talking w/ birth mothers to try to understand what living in an open adoption is like for them, and what rights or options they might have if challenges were to arise.

When Adoption Promises Are Broken

Many birth mothers hope to maintain contact with their child. But their agreements with adoptive parents can be fragile.

www.theatlantic.com

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Angela Chen @chengela.bsky.social · 6d

I have an essay in the latest
@kenyonreview.bsky.social. It circles questions I've been asking for almost ten years now: how should a medical diagnosis shape the past? When does biology require reconciliation? And what does it mean to be emotionally fair? kenyonreview.org/piece/disease-disposition/

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Angela Chen @chengela.bsky.social · 7d

IVF automation in Mexico City: "Over the past three years, babies have been conceived — and at least 20 of them have been born — through clinical trials that involve automation with little to no human intervention." www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2...

Robots are learning to make human babies. Twenty have already been born.

One in six people of reproductive age suffer from infertility. Start-ups are using AI-powered robots to increase IVF success rates and lower costs.

www.washingtonpost.com

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Reposted by Angela Chen

Matt Shipman (he/him) @shiplives.bsky.social · 15d

Seeing ice cream cones during their spawning runs really takes your breath away. They’ll only do this once in their entire lives.

MachinePix @machinepix.bsky.social · 15d

Ice cream cone manufacturing line.

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Angela Chen @chengela.bsky.social · Aug 29

It’s an honor, frankly, even if her cousin Jensen’s company is far more successful.

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Angela Chen @chengela.bsky.social · Aug 29

At an Italian restaurant in Westchester and the waiter says to me: “Has anyone told you you look like…”
I brace myself.
“…Lisa Su, the CEO of Advanced Micro Devices?”

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Angela Chen @chengela.bsky.social · Aug 29

welcome to the team! I'm very excited to meet and work together!

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Angela Chen @chengela.bsky.social · Aug 11

"Merging two of America’s most iconic snacks, was a deeply complex undertaking, requiring cloak-and-dagger tactics reminiscent of the Manhattan Project." www.wsj.com/arts-culture...

Oreos Combined With Reese’s? Inside the Manhattan Project of Snacks.

The combination of two of America’s favorite treats sounded simple. It wasn’t.

www.wsj.com

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Angela Chen @chengela.bsky.social · Aug 5

Perhaps everything is easier said than done, but I do believe that if I were the most notorious traitor in CIA history, I would have tried harder to cover my tracks. www.nytimes.com/2025/08/03/u...

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Angela Chen @chengela.bsky.social · Jul 30

Years ago, my dad gave me a hard drive and said, somewhat morbidly, "in case I die, I want you to have these family photos." I finally opened it and it's 80% photos of him at ping pong tournaments.

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Angela Chen @chengela.bsky.social · Jul 27

Truly, unintended consequences for everything.

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Reposted by Angela Chen

Sigal Samuel @sigalsamuel.bsky.social · Jun 5

AI systems could become conscious one day. What if they hate their lives?

Is it our duty to make sure they're happy? To make sure Claude is always enjoying spiritual bliss? What could that even mean for an AI?

My new piece:
www.vox.com/future-perfe...

AI systems could become conscious. What if they hate their lives?

How to not torture ChatGPT and Claude’s successors.

www.vox.com

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Angela Chen @chengela.bsky.social · Jun 4

I do like this Muriel Rukeyser poem, but have less sympathy each time I remember she wrote it in the 60s. "Various devices"? I'll show you various devices! www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/47657/...

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Angela Chen @chengela.bsky.social · May 20

sadly, I have to admit that I (currently planning a trip with my boyfriend) dearly wish AI could plan the trip instead

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Angela Chen @chengela.bsky.social · May 16

Earlier this year I read an advance copy of PORTALMANIA — out this week! — and I really loved it (so did Karen Russell & Mary Gaitskill). It's a collection of unsettling, complex, sometimes melancholy sci-fi stories about escape, possibilities and asexuality. www.simonandschuster.com/books/Portal...

Portalmania

If you could go anywhere, where would you go? And what happens to the people you leave behind?From the author of After World comes a genre-busting ...

www.simonandschuster.com

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Reposted by Angela Chen

Cooger & Dark’s Pandemonium Shadow Podcast @gonebabygone.bsky.social · May 8

“The pope will be from Chicago” sounds like an 1880s Republican’s dire prediction for if we don’t stop Irish immigration

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Reposted by Angela Chen

izzie ramirez @izzieramirez.bsky.social · Feb 28

For a long time, I thought ditching beef would mean missing out on some grand connection I'd gain at the table. For @vox.com, I wrote about reconnecting with Indigenous foodways, while also acknowledge the cultural pull of beef — as a Texan. www.vox.com/future-perfe...

I’m the daughter of a cattle rancher. Could I ever ditch beef?

Beef is tied to my cultural identity — because of its complicated, colonial history.

www.vox.com

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Angela Chen @chengela.bsky.social · Mar 3

There's a new push for employer-sponsored child care. Is this as good as it gets — or a mistake that repeats the problems of employer-sponsored health care? From @rachelmcohen.bsky.social www.vox.com/child-care/4...

This workplace benefit is helping parents — and boosting businesses. Could it backfire?

Most Americans have no access to employer-sponsored child care. That could soon change.

www.vox.com

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Angela Chen @chengela.bsky.social · Mar 3

I grew up in Silicon Valley and first heard this phrase at 16. I am, shall we say, amused to see it recounted here as still the reasoning du jour. From an @nybooks.com piece reviewing new books on sexual ethics: www.nybooks.com/articles/202...

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Angela Chen @chengela.bsky.social · Jan 26

thanks so much for reading, and I'm glad the book was helpful. it's funny—I have never really re-read the book since I turned it in, so when people quote it, I think "huh, that line IS pretty good!"

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