Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Drew Broussard @drewsof.bsky.social · 2h

the man who stopped (that version of) world war three!!

1 1

Drew Broussard @drewsof.bsky.social · 5h

omg YES!!! you're the best!!!

1

Drew Broussard @drewsof.bsky.social · 6h

😬

1

Drew Broussard @drewsof.bsky.social · 6h

👀

seems very Oulipo.... but also yikes.....

1 1

Drew Broussard @drewsof.bsky.social · 6h

(the important logistics: ideally record it in the style of a voicemail with a hello and a goodbye! ideally under 3 minutes! don't be an asshole, don't be a cop! DM me for an email, or find another way to float it to me thru the ether!)

3

Drew Broussard @drewsof.bsky.social · 6h

do you have a pet peeve, interesting tidbit, passionate defense of / jeremiad against a book-ish topic? we happen to have a bit of room in this week's Lit Hub Podcast — send me a voice note by tomorrow afternoon and it might end up in the show! (also you'll have my gratitude forever!)

4 2 6

Drew Broussard @drewsof.bsky.social · 7h

We had like 50 people at last night's reading series event at Rough Draft, which we only started in March and have done zero advertising for beyond IG posts... so yeah, it seems like the vibes are good for the future of reading? Maybe?

Electric Literature @electricliterature.com · 7h

“People show up solo, hoping to meet someone, and the readings are the icebreakers.”

Readings Might Be Turning Into America’s New Favorite Pastime - Electric Literature

Many people arrive looking to meet someone and enjoy a shared cultural experience

buff.ly

7

Reposted by Drew Broussard

Gretchen Felker-Martin 🍉 @scumbelievable.bsky.social · 8h

hey admiral, we stopped on planet X-14938-J7 in response to a federation emergency beacon broadcast and -- yeah, yeah, it was our ship we found crashed. yep. yeah. no the bodies of the crew were us. yeah Twilight Zone bullshit, that's what we figured. we'll take off and nuke it.

10 46 270

Drew Broussard @drewsof.bsky.social · 8h

HEATHER CHRISTIAN GOT A MACARTHUR!!!!!!!!!!

www.npr.org/2025/10/08/n...

Thinkers, dreamers, doers: Here's who made the 2025 MacArthur Fellow list

A cartographer, a composer, a neurobiologist, and a novelist are among the recipients of this year's "Genius Grants." Each Fellow will receive a no-strings attached award of $800,000.

www.npr.org

1 4

Reposted by Drew Broussard

Maria Bustillos @mariabustillos.com · 1d

So @ftrain.bsky.social came and sorted out how to fix AI on the latest @flaminghydra.com podcast. Whew! we should have asked him on sooner

AND @sirosenbaum.bsky.social breaks down the worst anti-trans amicus brief you ever heard of in your life, you won't believe it

flaminghydra.com/issue-418/

Base meddling / Machine learning

S.I. Rosenbaum on a wretched amicus brief; Paul Ford and Maria Bustillos sort out the AI thing

flaminghydra.com

1 7 6

Reposted by Drew Broussard

qntm @qntm.org · 1d

THERE IS NO ANTIMEMETICS DIVISION made it onto the American Booksellers Association's Indie Next List for November 2025, which is legitimately pretty major!

The November 2025 Indie Next List Preview

Here are the 25 Indie Next List and 6 Now in Paperback picks on the November 2025 Indie Next List flier.

www.bookweb.org

15 83

Reposted by Drew Broussard

Micah @rincewind.run · 1d

it’s not just us! the English, with a literal king, fought a civil war over him trying to do this shit!

It's all too Realia @mxmetaphor.bsky.social · 1d

Literally why the English civil war happened.

Literally.

And the founding fathers specifically hated the mere idea of the executive doing that.

Literal basic US legal history.

Micah @rincewind.run · 1d

I am not a constitutional scholar but I am pretty sure “the president my personally levy taxes and choose what they fund” is not in fact what the founders intended

3 38 350

Reposted by Drew Broussard

the Mountain Goats @themountaingoats.bsky.social · 1d

every subject known to man. harness racing. gemology. the history of shoes. you name it you will get an album about it. no, you won't get *checks notes* "Television You Can Feel" but what you will get is albums. one every day. come on, now

22 17 450

Reposted by Drew Broussard

the Mountain Goats @themountaingoats.bsky.social · 1d

I understand that they gave somebody 150 million to be the new boss of CBS. I just want to say, if these people are ever looking to do more novel things with their money, for 150 million dollars I will write an album every day for a year. I'll do it, too. try me

27 140 1.7K

Reposted by Drew Broussard

Sara Nović @novicsara.bsky.social · 1d

Will probably never get over the fact that a few powerful white dudes had such limited tolerance for occasional pangs of discomfort brought on by the occasional social consequences of their constantly saying and doing racist stuff, that they decided to end democracy. Absolutely wild.

8 39

Drew Broussard @drewsof.bsky.social · 1d

oh cool! having been alive and politically conscious for the last two major bubbles, I'm really excited to watch this one play out as though nothing has changed!

Techmeme @techmeme.com · 1d

JPMorgan Chase reports that $1.2T of debt is now tied to AI-related companies, making it the largest segment in the investment-grade market (Caleb Mutua/Bloomberg)

Main Link | Techmeme Permalink

1 3

Reposted by Drew Broussard

Alexandra Rowland @alexandrarowland.bsky.social · 2d

There's a lot of received wisdom about what motivates readers to preorder, but I've been wondering if cold hard data can back that up -- so I'm doing SCIENCE!

Got ~20 minutes to do a survey on your preorder habits (or non-habits)? forms.gle/RhfegAyrAWcM...
Please signal boost for sample size! 📖✨

Reader Survey: What Drives Preorders?

Hello, and thank you for taking the time to participate in this survey! As an author, I've heard a lot of “received wisdom” about how preorders work for readers, what motivates someone to preorder, an...

forms.gle

7 32 32

Reposted by Drew Broussard

alix e. harrow @alixeharrow.bsky.social · 1d

unspeakably pumped for this. HENCH is the smartest, pulpiest, slickest post-superhero satire you'll ever read

Natalie Zed 🍁 @nataliezed.bsky.social · 1d

Getting to show you all this cover and announce that VILLAIN is officially coming out in May of next year is such a joy and a relief i don't even know how to express it.
www.harpercollins.com/products/vil...

the cover for a book entitled Villain by Natalie Zina Walschots. the cover is a bright magenta with dark blue and teal lettering for the title, and the author's name is in yellow. there is an image of the silhouette of a woman carrying a cane, surrounded by the silhouettes of five superheroes.

2 5 40

Drew Broussard @drewsof.bsky.social · 1d

among many things, can you fathom being one of the banner-waving leaders of the "I'm leaving old journalism for the NEW journalism of Substack" movement and then... taking a legacy media job?! and you want people to TRUST you?!? the grift is so fucking obvious it hurts!

2

Reposted by Drew Broussard

Sam J Miller @sentencebender.bsky.social · 1d

A new small press? iN tHiS eCoN0mY / p01i+icAL m0M3nt?!?

YES. We need new homes for new stories. Even now. Especially now.

I love and trust the people behind Homeward Books, and I hope you will join me in backing them.

www.kickstarter.com/projects/hom...

Homeward Books: The home for books without a home

Splendor over mediocrity. Stories for the hot bath & the cold plunge. Defying the constraints of genre & delving deep into your heart.

www.kickstarter.com

5 18

Reposted by Drew Broussard

Suzan the chalant goth @sillysyntax.bsky.social · 1d

That's what the site told me!

A Bookshop free standard shipping pop up ad for Oct 7+8

4 11

Reposted by Drew Broussard

james folta @jamesfolta.com · 1d

Wrote about a inspired and bizarre Doom II mod paying homage to House of Leaves for @literaryhub.bsky.social

The House of Leaves-inspired game MyHouse.wad is just as trippy as you’d think.

This demon shooting video game mod might be your new favorite book. MyHouse.wad is a 2023 mod—short for modification, in this case a series of custom levels—for 1994’s Doom II, the second in …

lithub.com

1 2 8

Reposted by Drew Broussard

Soraya Nadia McDonald @sorayanadiamcdonald.com · 1d

🙌🏽

Litbowl @litbowl.bsky.social · 2d

What a lovely message from @bookshop.org. Glad to see them growing and growing. We CAN claim back what has been taken from us by these monstrous corporations, and it starts with things like this. Grab some books these next couple days!

2 6 31

Reposted by Drew Broussard

Bookshop.org @bookshop.org · 1d

Can’t decide what to buy on Prime Day?

Try: absolutely nothing, and then go support indie bookstores instead 📚

62 2.7K 7.6K

Reposted by Drew Broussard

Oliver Darkshire @deathbybadger.bsky.social · 1d

unfortunately there is no way to be so crystal clear that someone can't wilfully misinterpret you, the moment you put pen to paper to say "weekends are great" you almost guarantee that someone is going to come at you 10 years later screaming "you said paprika vampires are real so I killed my uncle"

Paul Haine @paulhaine.bsky.social · 1d

Kemi Badenoch claiming Terry Pratchett as her favourite author is wild

4 20 150