Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Sarah Pickman

@sarahmpicks.bsky.social

2K followers 1.2K following 280 posts

Historian of exploration, extreme environments, material culture + outdoor gear. Hist. sci & med PhD, editor at Endeavour, History of Anthropology Review, and Global Maritime History. I unpack packing. She/her. www.sarahmpickman.com

Posts Media Videos Starter Packs

Pinned

Sarah Pickman @sarahmpicks.bsky.social · Nov 18

I have a bunch of new followers (yay!) so I’m going to do some shameless promotion and tell you that I’m Associate Editor at the history and philosophy of science journal Endeavour. I would love to hear your pitches! www.sciencedirect.com/journal/ende...

Endeavour | Journal | ScienceDirect.com by ElsevierScienceDirect

Read the latest articles of Endeavour at ScienceDirect.com, Elsevier’s leading platform of peer-reviewed scholarly literature

www.sciencedirect.com

1 7 47

Reposted by Sarah Pickman

NightMar on Hicks Street, Part 4: The Rabbit’s Revenge @histoftech.bsky.social · 1d

You can actually feel how cold the day was just by looking at this image. The size of the muffs alone!

Jeff Nichols @backwardsriver.bsky.social · 1d

Women enrolled in the College of Science, University of Chicago, 1908

4 6 41

Reposted by Sarah Pickman

Vanessa is the name of the Doctor! @hpsvanessa.bsky.social · 1d

Throwing this into the #skystorians feed - chance to win what is sure to be an excellent book.

Conor Heffernan @physcstudy.bsky.social · 1d

To mark the release of my new book, When Fitness Went Global: The Rise of Physical Culture in the Nineteenth Century (Bloomsbury, 2025), I’m giving away a copy.

To enter:
💪 Repost
🌍 Comment with your favorite strength tradition

I’ll pick a winner next week.

#StrengthHeritage #SportHistory

1 3 7

Reposted by Sarah Pickman

Jonathan Edward Durham @thisone0verhere.bsky.social · 2d

When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child. But when I became grown, I put away childish things. Then when I became a bit more grown, I rebought those same childish things from a vintage reseller and kinda don’t know how to feel about it

22 88 660

Reposted by Sarah Pickman

Sarah Rose @thesarahrose.bsky.social · 3d

Kushner property loses anchor tenant

Rebecca Baird-Remba @thecitywanderer.bsky.social · 3d

REI soho closing is pretty bad for anyone who loves buying outdoor gear in the five boroughs. I know their c-suite is retrenching and cost cutting but I think folding up their NYC presence entirely is a huge mistake www.bicycleretailer.com/industry-new...

REI to close three stores, including NYC SoHo location

SEATTLE (BRAIN) — A week after announcing a strategic plan to employees that would involve difficult decisions to grow sales, REI Co-op said it will close three stores next year, including the New Yor...

www.bicycleretailer.com

3 10

Reposted by Sarah Pickman

Mother Jones @motherjones.com · 5d

"We’re operationalizing our old corridors—taking ancient trade routes our elders told us about and articulating them in a modern context."

Indigenous nations plan tariff-free trade corridor across US-Canada border.

From our friends at @nationalobserver.com:

Indigenous Nations Plan Tariff-Free Trade Corridor Across US-Canada border

“We’re not begging for crumbs anymore. We’re demanding what’s rightly ours."

www.motherjones.com

27 380 1.1K

Reposted by Sarah Pickman

Andrew Couts @couts.bsky.social · 8d

NEW: ICE is planning to hire a team of nearly 30 people to surveil social media 24/7, build dossiers on people, and flag them for arrest and deportation. @dell.bsky.social has the scoop: www.wired.com/story/ice-so...

ICE Wants to Build Out a 24/7 Social Media Surveillance Team

Documents show ICE plans to hire dozens of contractors to scan X, Facebook, TikTok, and other platforms to target people for deportation.

www.wired.com

790 4.9K 6.5K

Reposted by Sarah Pickman

Electronic Frontier Foundation @eff.org · 8d

ICE is buying a location tracking tool that harvests data from hundreds of millions of phones a day. Protect your location data by updating a few settings on your phone 🧵 (1/4): www.404media.co/ice-to-buy-...

ICE to Buy Tool that Tracks Locations of Hundreds of Millions of Phones Every Day

Documents show that ICE has gone back on its decision to not use location data remotely harvested from peoples' phones. The database is updated every day with billions of pieces of location data.

www.404media.co

40 1.4K 1.8K

Reposted by Sarah Pickman

Chicago Tribune @chicagotribune.com · 8d

From the Editorial Board:

Neuroscientists have found that when people read, their brains don’t just process words — they simulate the story world.
By contrast, social media rarely demands such deep simulation.

Editorial: A society that stops reading stops thinking

Daily reading for pleasure in the U.S. has fallen more than 40% over the past 20 years — roughly 3% per year, according to researchers at the University of Florida and University College London.

trib.al

4 69 150

Reposted by Sarah Pickman

Dr Laura Sangha @lsangha.bsky.social · 9d

'Born in New Zealand’s Bay of Plenty region in 1873, Papakura grew up during a time of significant change for Māori, including the rapid loss of land, language and Indigenous knowledge as the grip of colonisation tightened.'

www.theguardian.com/world/2025/o...

Nearly 100 years after her death, Oxford’s first female Indigenous scholar honoured

Mākereti Papakura died weeks before handing in her thesis at Oxford university documenting the life and customs of her tribe, work that is still used by Māori today

www.theguardian.com

14 35

Reposted by Sarah Pickman

Jens Notroff @jensnotroff.com · 9d

#Archaeology is about people.

People like the #Gravettian hunter who, 30,000 years ago in southern Moravia, lost or dropped his pouch containing a well-used tool kit of stone blades and points, (including partially broken pieces he could've let go a lot earlier):

🏺 archaeology.org/news/2025/09...

News - Personal Toolkit of Ice Age Hunter Recovered - Archaeology Magazine

MORAVIA, CZECH REPUBLIC—Thousands of years ago, an Ice Age hunter set down a small pouch […]

archaeology.org

3 17 68

Sarah Pickman @sarahmpicks.bsky.social · 9d

Yeah that makes sense now that I think about it and the people I know who have taught at NYU. He may even have been adjuncting at CUNY at the same time, we just don’t know! (I’m from the same hometown as Larson btw-he’s one of our local heroes)

1 3

Sarah Pickman @sarahmpicks.bsky.social · 9d

It definitely seems like he’s an adjunct. Explains why he has to live in an unheated loft with his friend who makes mediocre video art

1 2

Reposted by Sarah Pickman

Michael Hobbes @michaelhobbes.bsky.social · 9d

We're getting a wave of articles that are like, "gee willikers it sure seems like the people who complained about 'cancel culture' for years really like canceling people."

Yes! This was extremely obvious at the time and a lot of us pointed it out!

The Washington Post @washingtonpost.com · 9d

Some say canceling is an act of redress. Others blame it on a mob.

“People have used the word ‘cancel’ so loosely,” Ernest Owens author of “The Case for Cancel Culture,” said, “that everyone’s calling everything a cancellation.”

How cancel culture came for everyone

Few issues in recent years have united the American right as much as their professed hatred of cancel culture. That’s changing.

www.washingtonpost.com

51 710 4.6K

Sarah Pickman @sarahmpicks.bsky.social · 9d

I mean, David Graeber got fired from Yale for similar and then got hired at Goldsmith’s. Then again, I don’t know how Collin’s scholarship compares to Graeber’s. I have not read his work

1 1

Reposted by Sarah Pickman

Encyclopaedia Britannica @britannica.com · 11d

(solemnly) You've had mail.

120 2.9K 6.9K

Reposted by Sarah Pickman

Tressie McMillan Cottom @tressiemcphd.bsky.social · 10d

People think they’re taking down a rich intellectual sinecure but they’re mostly terrorizing committed public servants who make $58,000 a year after 15 years of experience at a school that has to budget creatively so students can access textbooks.

Emily Farris @emayfarris.bsky.social · 10d

This new column by @tressiemcphd.bsky.social makes me think about when I recently had to talk to the police for yet another safety plan, I tried to “lighten” the mood by saying that we all knew this wasn’t my first rodeo. www.nytimes.com/2025/10/01/o...

For at least the past 15 years, my colleagues in academia have grappled with angry letters to university officials for doing their jobs. They have weathered campaigns for their firing. They have contended with an internet army obsessed with doxxing them, their parents, their kids. I’ve been contacted by the F.B.I. more than once in my career. Not because I hold any important state secrets or know a biker gang but because one of my colleagues has lived with so much sustained harassment from right-wing “activists” that it has become a matter of federal concern. Watch lists (one of which was constructed by Kirk’s organization) do not distinguish between public intellectuals at wealthy enclaves and hoi polloi who teach popular classes at cash-strapped schools. In either case, an army of trained provocateurs stands ready to destroy their lives to prove their bona fides as conservative activists.

4 320 1K

Reposted by Sarah Pickman

NPR @npr.org · 10d

Today marks the first day in public media’s history without federal funding. And we’re not going anywhere.

Listeners like you keep our mission alive. Protect one of the last places where America comes together to hear itself.

Stand with us today. Donate at this link: n.pr/46wamAj

690 9.7K 31K

Reposted by Sarah Pickman

rahaeli @rahaeli.bsky.social · 11d

Hey remember when the CDC dropped 6 of the 8 foodborne illnesses from the nationwide monitoring system in July and one of them was listeria? Mentioning for no particular reason www.nbcnews.com/health/healt...

12 3.5K 5.5K

Reposted by Sarah Pickman

jamelle @jamellebouie.net · 11d

the president of the united states wants to use the american military to kill american citizens on american soil. that's the whole story!

680 16K 50K

Reposted by Sarah Pickman

Aisha Harris @aishaharris.bsky.social · 12d

Could not come at a more dire time, tbh.

Reading: still fundamental, no matter what the anti-intellectuals may say!

Mychal Threets @mychal3ts.bsky.social · 12d

🎶 Take a look, it's in a book 🎶

🥹 After nearly 20 years... Reading Rainbow is returning to motivate, help, and encourage kids to become avid readers with new episodes, new friends, new projects, and of course... new books! Make sure to follow the rainbow 📚🌈

#FollowTheRainbow

12 76

Reposted by Sarah Pickman

jamelle @jamellebouie.net · 12d

yeah they're just murdering random people on these boats

Michael Paarlberg @mpaarlberg.bsky.social · 12d

I think the Trump admin assumed no one would try to find out who the people on the boats they blew up really were

160 4.7K 15K

Sarah Pickman @sarahmpicks.bsky.social · 15d

There will be dinner after at the most unremarkable Italian restaurant you’ve ever been to. Someone will ask you a question that demonstrates they slept through your talk

1 5

Reposted by Sarah Pickman

Don Moynihan @donmoyn.bsky.social · 15d

There is no problem in American that they cannot blame on trans people or immigrants. Your government is shutting down? That's trans. Political violence? Trans. Just an obvious pattern of demonization. www.wired.com/story/herita...

6 61 260

Sarah Pickman @sarahmpicks.bsky.social · 15d

It also feels so offbase for these publishers that think they are going to hook in so many fans this way! Maybe that’s how it works for the Dramione folks but not over here

1 4

Sarah Pickman @sarahmpicks.bsky.social · 15d

I’m a romance girlie but seriously wtf is going on??? What did they put in the water?

1 5