How to make things feel good again! My latest story: www.theguardian.com/wellness/202...

Unfazed to hear there’ll be a rapture on a random Tuesday

“There was a whole array of women’s magazines that glorified housewives” in Nazi Germany, says Claudia Koonz, professor emerita of history at Duke University. “It would be the equivalent of social media today.” www.theguardian.com/us-news/ng-i...

Fascism may betray women, but it still relies on their support.

As authoritarian regimes often rely on a women’s movement to keep society operational on a household level, framing regressive policies in more alluring terms. Today, that role is being taken up by the digital womanosphere.

National instability only amplifies the message that a woman’s rightful place is home with her children. “If there’s chaos,” Koonz says, “then the women who are keeping the home front stable have even more responsibility: ‘There’s chaos out there, but my family is going to have traditional values.’”

My new essay on how women end up laundering the failures of fascism here! www.theguardian.com/us-news/ng-i...

‘The womanosphere trades in individualistic strategies for rebelling against the perceived liberal status quo, reinforcing age-old gender hierarchies.’ Great article by @foxpack.bsky.social My book also explores how the current romanticising of women’s unpaid labour has sinister undertones.

“We are living through fascism and the primary way we connect with and inform and organize w/ each other is under lethal attack.

No one is coming to protect the internet for us, and people won’t even have a clue how catastrophic this can become until it’s over” @kattenbarge.bsky.social

🎙️ ON AIR:

We're speaking with @katewoodsome.substack.com.web.brid.gy and @theguardian.com's @foxpack.bsky.social about the strange tension of moving through everyday life against a backdrop of unsettling change and what it does to us.

❓How are you navigating this cognitive dissonance?

📻 Listen:

🧠 FRI at 10AM:

Journalist @katewoodsome.substack.com.web.brid.gy and @theguardian.com's @foxpack.bsky.social join to talk about the strange tension of moving through everyday life against a backdrop of unsettling change and what it does to us.

❓How are you navigating this cognitive dissonance?

Wrote a little something about sacrifice, community, propane and propane accessories. tinyurl.com/mr3e5c3u

I hate to be the bearer of bad news but it’s possible that our worlds drain of colour over time tinyurl.com/4k6dee58

Hi Dr. Gunter - I’m looking into online harassment of science communicators for the Guardian, would you be willing to chat? I’m at [email protected] :)

Senior cohousing is a way to alleviate both the care crisis and the loneliness epidemic - plus it helps make our later years more fun. My story: www.theguardian.com/wellness/202...

Calculators are standard tools; why not bots? “I always say that the spirit of etiquette is about putting others at ease,” she says. “If the end result is something that is nice for the other person and that shows consideration or care, then they don’t need to see how the sausage is made.”

But not everyone draws the same line when it comes to how much AI involvement is tolerable or what constitutes deceit by omission.

Disclosing the role of AI could defeat the purpose of these writings, which is to build trust and express care. Nonetheless, one person anonymously told me that he used ChatGPT while writing his father of the bride speech; another wished OpenAI had been around when he had written his vows.

AI is becoming the invisible infrastructure of personal communications, too – punching up text messages, birthday cards and obituaries, even though we associate such compositions with “from the heart” authenticity.

Using AI to write to friends?
I consider the implications in this new guardian piece
www.theguardian.com/wellness/ng-...

Toss your kitchen sponge and avoid bagged lettuce; I spoke to microbiologists for the guardian: www.theguardian.com/wellness/202...

Pls enjoy the wholesome trio of Don, Drew & I discussing my guardian article about aging men and hegemonic masculinity
podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/n...

Thanks for reposting my piece!

"Witnessing large-scale systems slowly unravel in real time can be profoundly surreal and frightening. The hypernormalization framework offers a way to understand what we’re feeling and why."