Robert Suits
@robertsuits.bsky.social
Asst Prof/Lecturer in environmental history at University College London. Researching climate, energy, capitalism, and labo(u)r; author of The Hobo: A History of America's First Climate Migrants (Princeton University Press, 2026). Also novelist, musician.
People are calling this an Onion story, and yes, but to me it's giving this
youtube.com/shorts/zkDk9...
youtube.com/shorts/zkDk9...
Marco Rubio ordered diplomats to return to using Times New Roman font in official communications, calling his predecessor's decision to adopt Calibri a “wasteful” diversity move
Rubio Stages Font Coup: Times New Roman Ousts Calibri
The secretary of state called it a "wasteful" diversity move, according to an internal department cable seen by Reuters.
www.huffpost.com
December 10, 2025 at 1:08 PM
People are calling this an Onion story, and yes, but to me it's giving this
youtube.com/shorts/zkDk9...
youtube.com/shorts/zkDk9...
When someone says the humanities/social sciences aren't valuable, just think about how we could've saved trillions of dollars if more people understood that language =/= thought.
December 10, 2025 at 1:06 PM
When someone says the humanities/social sciences aren't valuable, just think about how we could've saved trillions of dollars if more people understood that language =/= thought.
Reposted by Robert Suits
I thoroughly recommend reading all of Cory Doctorow's recent speech on AI skepticism, it's crammed with new arguments and interesting new ways of thinking about these problems pluralistic.net/2025/12/05/p...
Pluralistic: The Reverse-Centaur’s Guide to Criticizing AI (05 Dec 2025) – Pluralistic: Daily links from Cory Doctorow
pluralistic.net
December 7, 2025 at 10:21 PM
I thoroughly recommend reading all of Cory Doctorow's recent speech on AI skepticism, it's crammed with new arguments and interesting new ways of thinking about these problems pluralistic.net/2025/12/05/p...
Reposted by Robert Suits
Study after study shows campaign ads barely move the needle. So where does money’s real power come from? I ranked the five ways money corrupts politics—from least to most corrosive. What I’ve learned from 15 years of tracking political money:
Money Doesn't Buy Elections. It Does Something Worse.
Campaign ads barely move the needle. The real influence is hiding in plain sight.
open.substack.com
December 6, 2025 at 8:22 PM
Study after study shows campaign ads barely move the needle. So where does money’s real power come from? I ranked the five ways money corrupts politics—from least to most corrosive. What I’ve learned from 15 years of tracking political money:
This is real inside baseball, but the fact that the most popular/widely used long-term historical population estimates are on the very low end for the pre-contact Americas seems like a bad thing.
December 6, 2025 at 11:11 AM
This is real inside baseball, but the fact that the most popular/widely used long-term historical population estimates are on the very low end for the pre-contact Americas seems like a bad thing.
Obviously a lot of things go into car dependency, but I have to believe at least some of it is that the average automobile design makes it look like they have faces.
December 5, 2025 at 11:50 AM
Obviously a lot of things go into car dependency, but I have to believe at least some of it is that the average automobile design makes it look like they have faces.
Reposted by Robert Suits
Please come! Glasgow became an important thread in my book, almost a character in its own right. I can’t wait to give this talk!
On Thursday 11 December I'm hosting a talk by @dudleymarianna.bsky.social who will present her new book, Electric Wind: An Energy History of Modern Britain, to the Economic and Social History seminar series at Glasgow University.
Kicking off at 11am in 42 Bute Gardens, room 717. All welcome.
Kicking off at 11am in 42 Bute Gardens, room 717. All welcome.
December 4, 2025 at 4:14 PM
Please come! Glasgow became an important thread in my book, almost a character in its own right. I can’t wait to give this talk!
Reposted by Robert Suits
Folks in Great Britain, I'm curious about what it costs to run a 1-day or 2-day conference with invited speakers from across the island. No detailed costings - just a big ol' rough estimate.
December 4, 2025 at 4:37 PM
Folks in Great Britain, I'm curious about what it costs to run a 1-day or 2-day conference with invited speakers from across the island. No detailed costings - just a big ol' rough estimate.
Speaking of which...
December 4, 2025 at 2:46 PM
Speaking of which...
Reposted by Robert Suits
Took Electric Wind to meet some electric wind ⚡️ I’m out in Norway teaching on an energy humanities PhD course and we went to a wind farm today ☺️ @manchesterup.bsky.social
December 3, 2025 at 1:01 PM
Took Electric Wind to meet some electric wind ⚡️ I’m out in Norway teaching on an energy humanities PhD course and we went to a wind farm today ☺️ @manchesterup.bsky.social
Reposted by Robert Suits
A book from the 19th century that depicts the Rhine Valley by creating an impression of three-dimensionality and spatial distance.
@MasayukiTsuda2 #globalmuseum #books #travel #19thcentury
@MasayukiTsuda2 #globalmuseum #books #travel #19thcentury
December 2, 2025 at 7:02 PM
A book from the 19th century that depicts the Rhine Valley by creating an impression of three-dimensionality and spatial distance.
@MasayukiTsuda2 #globalmuseum #books #travel #19thcentury
@MasayukiTsuda2 #globalmuseum #books #travel #19thcentury
The way techbros talk about the Singularity is basically just Rapture discourse in disguise change my mind.
December 2, 2025 at 10:58 AM
The way techbros talk about the Singularity is basically just Rapture discourse in disguise change my mind.
Reposted by Robert Suits
I think if you are an academic emailing precariously employed postdocs asking them to be on advisory panels or to serve as external advisors you should offer to pay them for their time and say exactly how much too.
December 2, 2025 at 10:49 AM
I think if you are an academic emailing precariously employed postdocs asking them to be on advisory panels or to serve as external advisors you should offer to pay them for their time and say exactly how much too.
Yeah I'm fairly confident there is a policy for grade disputes at OU and it'd be wild if this was it.
Within just a few hours of getting this feedback, the student *emailed the fucking governor*. Her mom is all over Xitter posting like mad. I mean, are you new here? This coordinated RW attack is a pattern, and if you aren't paying attention to this context, I can't take you seriously. Do better.
December 1, 2025 at 6:34 PM
Yeah I'm fairly confident there is a policy for grade disputes at OU and it'd be wild if this was it.
I regret to inform you that I am going to start promoting my book on here. I do not regret to inform you that the press has given it a stunning cover.
The Hobo: A History of America's First Climate Migrants -- out next summer with Princeton University Press.
press.princeton.edu/books/hardco...
The Hobo: A History of America's First Climate Migrants -- out next summer with Princeton University Press.
press.princeton.edu/books/hardco...
The Hobo
A panoramic history of America’s first climate migrants
press.princeton.edu
November 28, 2025 at 10:33 PM
I regret to inform you that I am going to start promoting my book on here. I do not regret to inform you that the press has given it a stunning cover.
The Hobo: A History of America's First Climate Migrants -- out next summer with Princeton University Press.
press.princeton.edu/books/hardco...
The Hobo: A History of America's First Climate Migrants -- out next summer with Princeton University Press.
press.princeton.edu/books/hardco...
Reposted by Robert Suits
come on folks surely the spillover isn't the last word on this. I'll take pophist, or even non-pop sci at this point!
what're the hashtags I need for this? #Episky? 🧪
what're the hashtags I need for this? #Episky? 🧪
Has anyone written a good popsci book on zoonotic diseases post-covid?
November 24, 2025 at 10:54 AM
come on folks surely the spillover isn't the last word on this. I'll take pophist, or even non-pop sci at this point!
what're the hashtags I need for this? #Episky? 🧪
what're the hashtags I need for this? #Episky? 🧪
I've seen the claim that woo-woo switched from being a liberal trait to a conservative trait, but it seems like what actually happened -- very similar to "polarization" -- was woo-woo was virtually nowhere and then appeared almost entirely on one side.
Republicans increasingly oppose requiring healthy kids to get MMR vaccines to attend public schools
2016 19%
2019 20%
2023 42%
2025 47%
www.pewresearch.org/science/2025... 🧪
2016 19%
2019 20%
2023 42%
2025 47%
www.pewresearch.org/science/2025... 🧪
November 24, 2025 at 3:23 PM
I've seen the claim that woo-woo switched from being a liberal trait to a conservative trait, but it seems like what actually happened -- very similar to "polarization" -- was woo-woo was virtually nowhere and then appeared almost entirely on one side.
Reposted by Robert Suits
I'm looking for readings for well prepared first year university students on international socialism and/or anarchism before 1914. Please and thank you!
November 24, 2025 at 10:15 AM
I'm looking for readings for well prepared first year university students on international socialism and/or anarchism before 1914. Please and thank you!
Reposted by Robert Suits
We're attracted to simple big stories to explain complicate problems. In Scotland the idea of the energy transition is a key example.
When oil and gas workplaces close down and workers lose their jobs we're told it's down to the transition. Except usually it isn't. Here's why🧵
When oil and gas workplaces close down and workers lose their jobs we're told it's down to the transition. Except usually it isn't. Here's why🧵
November 20, 2025 at 6:02 PM
We're attracted to simple big stories to explain complicate problems. In Scotland the idea of the energy transition is a key example.
When oil and gas workplaces close down and workers lose their jobs we're told it's down to the transition. Except usually it isn't. Here's why🧵
When oil and gas workplaces close down and workers lose their jobs we're told it's down to the transition. Except usually it isn't. Here's why🧵
Reposted by Robert Suits
Hi all - I’m running the London Marathon this year for the Institute for Cancer Research. Those who know me know that this is a deeply personal cause to me. Please consider donating if you can!
2026tcslondonmarathon.enthuse.com/pf/emily-web...
2026tcslondonmarathon.enthuse.com/pf/emily-web...
Emily's page
This is a cause that is deeply personal to me - in more ways than one. I was 27 years old when, just days after I graduated from my PhD program, a routine medical scan uncovered a large tumor in my ap
2026tcslondonmarathon.enthuse.com
November 19, 2025 at 9:16 AM
Hi all - I’m running the London Marathon this year for the Institute for Cancer Research. Those who know me know that this is a deeply personal cause to me. Please consider donating if you can!
2026tcslondonmarathon.enthuse.com/pf/emily-web...
2026tcslondonmarathon.enthuse.com/pf/emily-web...
Reposted by Robert Suits
Remember: they used thousands of academic books too! If you’re a scholar, check for your books too. This isn’t just novelists and pop writers, it’s academic books too!
AI advocates have warned that if every author in the class action filed a claim, it would "financially ruin" the entire industry.
Authors celebrate “historic” settlement coming soon in Anthropic class action
Advocates fear such settlements will “financially ruin” the AI industry.
arstechnica.com
November 18, 2025 at 6:32 AM
Remember: they used thousands of academic books too! If you’re a scholar, check for your books too. This isn’t just novelists and pop writers, it’s academic books too!
Reposted by Robert Suits
Please consider donating to the Lancaster UCU Hardship Fund as we prepare to go on strike next week against the threat of compulsory redundancies at Lancaster University. #ukhe
www.peoplesfundraising.com/donation/lan...
www.peoplesfundraising.com/donation/lan...
November 18, 2025 at 6:42 PM
Please consider donating to the Lancaster UCU Hardship Fund as we prepare to go on strike next week against the threat of compulsory redundancies at Lancaster University. #ukhe
www.peoplesfundraising.com/donation/lan...
www.peoplesfundraising.com/donation/lan...
Reposted by Robert Suits
Best readings on historical disasters? Any time period, and though my eventual focus will be the US, glad to hear suggestions about other places, too.
November 14, 2025 at 10:39 PM
Best readings on historical disasters? Any time period, and though my eventual focus will be the US, glad to hear suggestions about other places, too.
Best readings on historical disasters? Any time period, and though my eventual focus will be the US, glad to hear suggestions about other places, too.
November 14, 2025 at 10:39 PM
Best readings on historical disasters? Any time period, and though my eventual focus will be the US, glad to hear suggestions about other places, too.
Reposted by Robert Suits
Please join us on Monday to hear more about
@kbruisch.bsky.social's new book 'Burning Swamps: Peat and the Forgotten Margins of Russia’s Fossil Economy'
@universitypress.cambridge.org.
Discussants: @eglerin.bsky.social and @robertsuits.bsky.social
🗓️ 17 November at 6.15pm
➡️ buff.ly/zYgWn4s
@kbruisch.bsky.social's new book 'Burning Swamps: Peat and the Forgotten Margins of Russia’s Fossil Economy'
@universitypress.cambridge.org.
Discussants: @eglerin.bsky.social and @robertsuits.bsky.social
🗓️ 17 November at 6.15pm
➡️ buff.ly/zYgWn4s
November 13, 2025 at 2:19 PM
Please join us on Monday to hear more about
@kbruisch.bsky.social's new book 'Burning Swamps: Peat and the Forgotten Margins of Russia’s Fossil Economy'
@universitypress.cambridge.org.
Discussants: @eglerin.bsky.social and @robertsuits.bsky.social
🗓️ 17 November at 6.15pm
➡️ buff.ly/zYgWn4s
@kbruisch.bsky.social's new book 'Burning Swamps: Peat and the Forgotten Margins of Russia’s Fossil Economy'
@universitypress.cambridge.org.
Discussants: @eglerin.bsky.social and @robertsuits.bsky.social
🗓️ 17 November at 6.15pm
➡️ buff.ly/zYgWn4s