Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Josh Wallaert @jwlrt.bsky.social · 15h

The first and only MacArthur fellow identified as a cartographer* is Potawatomi mapmaker Margaret Wickens Pearce. See her atlas of Land-Grab Universities @highcountrynews.org + all her work at www.studio1to1.net

(*a handful of geographers have been previously awarded, including some who make maps)

Expropriated Indigenous land is the foundation of the land-grant university system.

www.landgrabu.org

Reposted by Josh Wallaert

Marthine Satris @msatris.bsky.social · 16h

This essay on place making in a pluralist city, valuing memory and identity and acknowledging fracture, but also moving toward a collective rebuilding and repair, is vital reading. It's about Homs in Syria, but no city can design its way out of history: placesjournal.org/article/mapp...

Memory Maps of Homs, Syria

A mapping workshop with refugees from Homs, Syria, illuminates the complexity of rebuilding after war.

placesjournal.org

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Reposted by Josh Wallaert

Prisonculture @prisonculture.bsky.social · 18h

Local cops are not on the side of Democratic politicians or under their actual control. People refuse to understand this too even though we've been making this point for decades.

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Places Journal @placesjournal.bsky.social · 1d

A mapping workshop with refugees from Homs, Syria, asked participants to draw their neighborhoods from memory, bridging gaps between houses to generate a shared image of a city destroyed by war. To rebuild justly, residents will need to understand this pluralist city as others have lived within it.

Memory Maps of Homs, Syria

A mapping workshop with refugees from Homs, Syria, illuminates the complexity of rebuilding after war.

placesjournal.org

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Josh Wallaert @jwlrt.bsky.social · 12d

"Newsom has yet to publicly acknowledge what’s now California’s seventh and largest ICE detention facility."

ICE began shipping immigrants to this tiny California town. Chaos has reigned ever since

ICE began sending immigrants to a new California detention center in small town in August. Since then, it has been inundated with activists, desperate families and utter confusion.

www.sfchronicle.com

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Josh Wallaert @jwlrt.bsky.social · 16d

"The energy of San Francisco is always directed outward, never to return. It would be too much for a city to keep."

❤️ Rod Roland's review (history, memoir) of skateboarding in the new @sfreviewofwhatever.bsky.social

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depths of wikipedia @depthsofwikipedia.bsky.social · 16d

imagine if a family of beavers randomly showed up right now and finished whatever thing you've been putting off

In early 2025, beaver activity in the Brdy Protected Landscape Area, Czech Republic, contributed to the restoration of a wetland ecosystem. A family of beavers constructed a series of dams that coincidentally accomplished environmental goals of the Czech government, which had delayed its proposed project since 2018 for bureaucratic and financial reasons. The beaver-built dams saved the Czech government approximately US$1.2 million,

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the Mountain Goats @themountaingoats.bsky.social · Aug 29

they think they can just erase trans joy and trans freedom. they can't. they can make things a lot harder and more painful. but that joy and that freedom is not theirs to take and it is incumbent on all good people to say so.

PinkNews @pinknews.bsky.social · Aug 27

US government orders 46 states to destroy trans education materials
https://www.thepinknews.com/2025/08/27/trans-education-us-state-directive/?utm_content=1756312804&utm_medium=social&utm_source=bluesky

US government orders states to destroy trans education materials

The US government has ordered 46 states and territories to destroy education materials referencing trans people.

www.thepinknews.com

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Josh Wallaert @jwlrt.bsky.social · Jul 31

Another strong review for this "roving, inveterately curious" book. 👏👏👏

How America Became Hostile to Shade

A roving history makes the case for shade’s centrality to public health, climate adaptation, and even a more robust and inclusive public sphere.

newrepublic.com

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Reposted by Josh Wallaert

Sam Bloch @samkbloch.bsky.social · Jul 28

San Francisco and Bay Area folks: This is tomorrow!

Join me and @emmettfitzgerald.bsky.social of @99pi.org for a shady conversation at the Commonwealth Club.

Commonwealth Club World Affairs @cwclub.bsky.social · Jul 28

Catch all of the speakers, topics, community and ideas at @cwclub.bsky.social this week.

Details & tickets: commonwealthclulb.org/events

@valinasr.bsky.social @jwassers.bsky.social @samkbloch.bsky.social

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Reposted by Josh Wallaert

Places Journal @placesjournal.bsky.social · Jul 22

OUT TODAY: “Shade: The Promise of a Forgotten Natural Resource” by @samkbloch.bsky.social.

The book, published by Random House, expands on an article Bloch wrote for Places in 2019, which has since become a definitive account of the value of shade as a civic resource and a mandate for urban design.

A New Book on Shade by Sam Bloch

This week marks the release of <em>Shade: The Promise of a Forgotten Natural Resource</em>, a new book by Sam Bloch that expands on an article published in <em>Places</em> in 2019.

placesjournal.org

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Reposted by Josh Wallaert

stop romanticizing palm trees @lisaskwon.bsky.social · Jul 21

the great darkening has arrived. read my convo with Sam Bloch about his new book Shade: The Promise of a Forgotten Natural Resource for @lareviewofbooks.bsky.social and let us all get shade-pilled 🚫🌴

lareviewofbooks.org/article/its-...

It’s Only Getting Hotter | Los Angeles Review of Books

Lisa Kwon talks with Sam Bloch about his new book “Shade: The Promise of a Forgotten Natural Resource.”

lareviewofbooks.org

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Reposted by Josh Wallaert

Bonnie Honig @bonniehonig.bsky.social · Jul 4

Loved reading this rich (Detroit-centered), insightful story: it has a shout out to my book, Public Things, & puts it into a conversation that is rich & important: “We ultimately lose so much more than an acre-or 500 or 5 million-when public lands are devalued and reduced to financial assets” /1

Private Worlds

Today's billionaires and technofascists threaten to rob the American people of things we are supposed to hold in common.

placesjournal.org

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Reposted by Josh Wallaert

Places Journal @placesjournal.bsky.social · Jun 30

"We might cheer the retreat of seasteaders and space colonists from civil society, if not for the fact that the wealth used to construct their private worlds belongs to us."

From @timothyaschuler.bsky.social: the technofascists ruling our new gilded age threaten to rob us of what we hold in common.

Private Worlds

Today's billionaires and technofascists threaten to rob the American people of things we are supposed to hold in common.

placesjournal.org

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Reposted by Josh Wallaert

Benjamin Schneider @benschneider.bsky.social · Jun 24

For the past year, I’ve been reporting on Biden's most ambitious freeway fix for @placesjournal.bsky.social.

It’s a complex project in Portland, OR that ties racial justice to a freeway expansion and a visionary 'restorative redevelopment.'

Can it survive Trump?

placesjournal.org/article/reth...

The Big Deal Breaks Down

In Portland, Oregon, a federal program has tied freeway expansion to affordable housing and racial justice under the logic of “Reconnecting Communities.” Will public works started by Biden survive the...

placesjournal.org

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Reposted by Josh Wallaert

ryan cooper @ryanlcooper.com · Jun 20

turns out climate change will cost dramatically more than economists predicted, and the cost of addressing it is actually negative. oops! prospect.org/environment/...

Climate Change Will Bankrupt the Country

Climate-fueled disasters cost America almost a trillion dollars over the last year, far more than economists predicted.

prospect.org

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Reposted by Josh Wallaert

Oakland Review of Books @oaklandreviewofbooks.org · Jun 20

"there is a lost history — lost because it doesn’t have a place in institutional archives — in which the residents of West Oakland at one point set up their own government parallel to the City of Oakland": placesjournal.org/article/arch...

Archiving Oakland

Histories of grassroots organizing and collective action rarely have a place in official archives. How can communities better preserve their narratives of political and social movements?

placesjournal.org

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Reposted by Josh Wallaert

Places Journal @placesjournal.bsky.social · Jun 17

"To rethink the Interstates is to rethink the United States."

—Reinhold Martin

Places Journal @placesjournal.bsky.social · Jun 17

The Interstate Highway System created a polity defined by circulation and auto-centric consumerism. Can the U.S. rethink the governing logic of our vast highway network — the largest public works in the nation’s history — for a century in which decarbonization & democratization are defining goals?

Highways and Horizons

The Interstate Highway System created a national polity defined by circulation. To rethink the Interstates would be to rethink the United States.

placesjournal.org

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Reposted by Josh Wallaert

Rogue Climate @rogueclimate.org · May 22

👀"What are the risks? How sustainable are the jobs? How exactly is it “green”? Who will profit, and who will pay?"

If you haven't heard much about the proposed $2.3 billion dollar Pacific Coast Intermodal Port in Coos Bay, this article is a must-read: www.ridgelinemagazine.com/coast/the-fa...

The False Solution in Coos Bay — Ridgeline Magazine

The South Coast of Oregon is proposed to be the home of a new industrial container shipping port facility and rail line, and this could mean big changes for the rural coast—with impacts starting in Co...

www.ridgelinemagazine.com

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Reposted by Josh Wallaert

Shannon Mattern @shannonmattern.bsky.social · May 21

[1/5] We're launching a new thing @ the Metro NY Library Council: The Cross-Reference Coalition is an experimental school tracing exuberantly🤗 interdisciplinary links btw NYC's libraries + archives; connecting its knwldg workers, grad students, artists + designers; and creating an open publicatio

METROCrossReferenceCoalition_Students

The Cross-Reference Coalition An Experimental School

docs.google.com

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Reposted by Josh Wallaert

Ben Goldfarb @bengoldfarb.bsky.social · May 7

For @defector.com, I wrote about the impoverishment of "Abundance," a book with no interest in conservation and whose disciples are in desperate need of a land ethic.

Defector @defector.com · May 7

"This is a vision of America’s future that has hardly a word to say about forests, oceans, fresh water, ecosystems, or wild animals—about anything that isn’t made by and for humans." defector.com/an-abundance...

An Abundance Of Concrete | Defector

Reliable sources tell me that you’re not supposed to judge a book by its cover. Until you actually read the thing, though, it’s the only data you have to go on. So here’s what I first noticed about Ab...

defector.com

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Josh Wallaert @jwlrt.bsky.social · May 6

👏👏👏

Alexandra Lange @langealexandra.bsky.social · May 5

My heart is still beating so fast.

Thank you @pulitzerprizes.bsky.social

Thank you @bloomberg.com and especially the CityLab team @kristoncapps.bsky.social @nicflatow.bsky.social and David Dudley

Stories here! www.bloomberg.com/features/des...

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Places Journal @placesjournal.bsky.social · Apr 26

Matthew Kenyatta, on geographies of Black genius; Tiya Miles, on the interior life of Sacagawea; Timothy A. Schuler, on the links between landscape & infectious disease; four local writers, on what burned, and what didn’t, in the Altadena wildfire.

Our latest newsletter: mailchi.mp/placesjourna...

A collage featuring inventors working on a large camera, overlaid with schematic drawings.

Sacagawea’s gravestone, with a mountain in the distance.

Portraits of meatpacking workers in PPE.

A burned out car with the words “NOT EV” spray painted on the hood. A destroyed home is in the background.

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Philip Bump @pbump.com · Apr 21

There was a mystery I read as a kid in which the handedness of a criminal was determined by sideburn length (one is more likely to be cut shorter depending on the hand holding the razor). Stuck with me for years in the way things learned as a kid tend to do and now I finally have reason to share.

David_j_roth @davidjroth.bsky.social · Apr 21

There's some remarkable "I'm not mad" vocal work being done here, but I think it's high time Secretary Hegseth sits in front of Congress and explains why he has one really long sideburn and one normal-sized one. America demands answers.

The Tennessee Holler @thetnholler.bsky.social · Apr 21

As former Trump Pentagon senior officials describe “total chaos” on his watch, Hegseth hilariously blames the media (again)

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Josh Wallaert @jwlrt.bsky.social · Apr 6

I've been thinking of this sentence all day! Thank you for the words. I love your sketchy-cozy clouds.

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