Jessica Alice
@jessicaalice.bsky.social
920 followers 740 following 21 posts
Writer, poet and broadcaster Artistic Director | Byron Writers Festival, Byron Bay Chair | National Young Writers Festival
Posts Media Videos Starter Packs
Reposted by Jessica Alice
brenttoderian.bsky.social
For every €1 provided through a Basic Income For Artists pilot program in Ireland, the government got €1.46 back. So it’s being made permanent.

Over and over we see it. It saves public money to provide public housing. And it makes public money to provide basic income.

We can’t afford to NOT do it.
mikeachim.bsky.social
Damn. This is amazing. £325 per week, paid monthly, for 3 years - and the result was a profit for the Irish economy:
www.citizensinformation.ie/en/employmen...
Post from Threads user rodneyowl: "Ireland has declared the Basic Income for Artists scheme permanent. This will be officially announced in tomorrow’s budget. Details to follow. Congratulations to all who fought for it and the present and future artists of all sorts in Ireland. That includes me 👌We’re just comin to the end of a 3 year pilot scheme. It’s been a roaring success. For every €1 paid out to the 2000 participants, the government got €1.46 back. Can’t argue with that. Other countries are already taking note."
Reposted by Jessica Alice
milesklee.bsky.social
This is the biggest, toughest article I’ve done about so-called “AI psychosis.” It’s the story of a man who committed a horrific crime in his youth but served his time and against all odds found love and a new life—one that completely unraveled after he started talking to Google’s Gemini chatbot.
He Grew Obsessed With an AI Chatbot. Then He Vanished in the Ozarks
Jon Ganz committed a terrible crime in his youth, but he survived prison, fell in love, and started over. His new life unraveled in a way nobody could have predicted.
www.rollingstone.com
Reposted by Jessica Alice
jessielilley.bsky.social
Tonight on Spin Cycle, @roycerk2.bsky.social on the woeful climate discourse we must endure while the world burns. Plus news of the week. With @rachelwithers.bsky.social and @theshufflediary.bsky.social. Tune into @3rrrfm.bsky.social from 7pm. Then we are off to stare at walls for three weeks.
Photo of Royce Kurmelovs with copy: Spin Cycle, 7p Sep 25, 3RRR 102.7FM
Reposted by Jessica Alice
olufemiotaiwo.bsky.social
"Common decency stigmatizes people that do not participate in it—removes them from voluntary association. We indeed have to live with one another, but terms and conditions apply."

me on why Ezra Klein should be ashamed / why shame is Good Actually

www.bostonreview.net/articles/how...
How Can We Live Together? - Boston Review
Ezra Klein is wrong: shame is essential.
www.bostonreview.net
jessicaalice.bsky.social
incredible detail: ‘Even Geoffrey Hinton, a Nobel Prize-winning computer scientist known as a "Godfather of AI" recently conceded that his girlfriend had broken up with him using ChatGPT.’
Reposted by Jessica Alice
australiainstitute.org.au
As venues close and festivals cancel, our artists and arts sector is in desperate need of support.

We've just published a submission with 3 key ideas to save our arts industry.

• Culture passes
• Book bounty
• Remove tax on art prizes & grants

We've got five ideas for how to pay for it too. ⤵️
Investing in joy. How to save our declining arts sector - submission
Australian artists, writers, musicians and other creative industries helped the nation survive the COVID pandemic, yet they've been left to decline, according to a submission by The Australia Institut...
australiainstitute.org.au
Reposted by Jessica Alice
waltermarsh.bsky.social
Sydney book launch, Tues September 30 @ Gleebooks, in conversation with Helen Sullivan 🦋🍷

Tickos: gleebooks.com.au/event/walter...
Walter Marsh – The Butterfly Thief – Gleebooks.com.au
gleebooks.com.au
Reposted by Jessica Alice
crikey.com.au
Meanjin’s performance and sustainability were the focus of a review commissioned by MUP in February. The final recommendations of the report, which was never released publicly, did not include closing Meanjin.
Who killed Meanjin?
www.crikey.com.au
Reposted by Jessica Alice
cathywilcox.bsky.social
From “One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This” by Omar El Akkad.
Reposted by Jessica Alice
roycerk2.bsky.social
The Trump administration appears to be trying to make a global war on renewables. I spoke to @mkblyth.bsky.social for @drilledmedia.bsky.social about the strategy of carbon dominance, how this is shaping politics not just in the US but everywhere, and what that means for the future.
Trump Is Trying to Kill Renewables Everywhere
The US government is trying to strangle renewables to save fossil fuels. Trump wants other countries to do the same.
drilled.media
Reposted by Jessica Alice
byronwritersfest.bsky.social
The meaning and value of culture cannot be captured in market terms, and the cultural loss of Meanjin will far exceed what can be measured on a balance sheet. (2/4)
Reposted by Jessica Alice
byronwritersfest.bsky.social
Byron Writers Festival is deeply concerned by the shuttering of Meanjin, one of Australia's oldest, most revered and influential literary magazines, for 'financial' reasons. (1/4)
Meanjin logo with white text on black background
Reposted by Jessica Alice
damonyoung.com.au
What exactly happened to Meanjin? And why in this manner?

Some excellent observations (and questions) from @catrionamp.bsky.social over on @crikey.com.au: www.crikey.com.au/2025/09/08/m...
The decision to shut Meanjin shows a stunning lack of commitment to Christensen's vision of a vibrant local intellectual culture. To insist that it's just a rote financial decision belittles this history. And if it was just about the numbers, why wait until 2025? The horizon for literary funding has just brightened somewhat with the launch of Writing Australia. Does financial strife preclude closing the journal with some ceremony or even a little consultation with those who care about it?
Usually when a cultural organisation experiences financial hardship, there's a call for donations, or a series of negotiations with other parties, or a weary effort to restructure. Quarterly periodicals become biannual; print publications go online. Were there really no other options for Meanjin? Are financial considerations going to guide the editorial program of the heavily subsidised MUP going forward?
jessicaalice.bsky.social
“Literary journals have never been a commercial enterprise, they have been a cultural enterprise ... To talk about the ‘problem’ of Meanjin as being a commercial one is to disavow the purpose of a university.” @sophtree.bsky.social
jessicaalice.bsky.social
This is so deeply troubling.

For a university/publisher to cite 'viability' concerns over a cultural endeavour – the leading literary publication in the country, no less – and do so one month after the long-awaited launch of Writing Australia body raises many questions.
jessicaalice.bsky.social
“This was not a protest hijacked by the far-right, it was far-right from inception to execution.”
osmanfaruqi.bsky.social
It would be a massive mistake for progressive folk to convince themselves the March for Australia was a bust, or can safely be ridiculed.

It was an alarming escalation of far-right action, and we need to reckon with it.

More thoughts (un-paywalled) here:

www.lamestream.com.au/how-mainstre...
How mainstream media and politicians fuelled Australia's biggest far-right rally
Six takeaways from the March for Australia and why it should be a wake-up call.
www.lamestream.com.au
Reposted by Jessica Alice
3crmelbourne.bsky.social
Listen back
www.3cr.org.au/theblackblock to today’s show with Robbie Thorpe and guests #AlwaysWasAlwaysWillBe #communityradio
Reposted by Jessica Alice
jewishcouncilau.bsky.social
Statement:

The Jewish Council of Australia stands with First Nations people after the cowardly Nazi attack on Camp Sovereignty.

Our struggles against racism, fascism and the ongoing colonisation of this land are bound together.

Always was, always will be, Aboriginal land.
Reposted by Jessica Alice
incrediblemelk.bsky.social
They're here, everyone! This isn't like "sorry for those polluted US towns but we're built different"

We have RECENT LIVING MEMORY of awful bushfires & drought restrictions, yet just 1 of these proposed data centres' usage could supply 66k Melburnians with water for a YEAR

7 of them want permits
Reposted by Jessica Alice
davidnaimon.bsky.social
Well, at least they are redirecting literary grant money to "foster AI competency" (clearly lacking in this AI generated 2nd paragraph), support for the military (as all true literature should do), and disaster recovery (books as sandbags?)