Byrd Pinkerton
@byrdest.bsky.social
i explain the unexplainable on vox.com/unexplainable
moderate to severe williams f1 racing fan
(she/her)
moderate to severe williams f1 racing fan
(she/her)
Reposted by Byrd Pinkerton
2025, or, How I Learned To Stop Worrying And Love The Voice Memo
@byrdest.bsky.social was right, y’all
@byrdest.bsky.social was right, y’all
September 26, 2025 at 1:10 PM
2025, or, How I Learned To Stop Worrying And Love The Voice Memo
@byrdest.bsky.social was right, y’all
@byrdest.bsky.social was right, y’all
Reposted by Byrd Pinkerton
Maybe you need a break from *flaps hands distractedly,* perhaps w/some diverting zombie science? Have a listen as @byrdest.bsky.social & I talk about Rise of the Zombie Bugs on @vox.com's Unexplainable podcast, we spent some quality time with the "fly-destroyer" zombifying fungus & now you can too 🧪
Real-life zombies
open.spotify.com
October 2, 2025 at 2:24 PM
Maybe you need a break from *flaps hands distractedly,* perhaps w/some diverting zombie science? Have a listen as @byrdest.bsky.social & I talk about Rise of the Zombie Bugs on @vox.com's Unexplainable podcast, we spent some quality time with the "fly-destroyer" zombifying fungus & now you can too 🧪
Reposted by Byrd Pinkerton
Under the Biden administration, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau finalized a rule barring medical debt from appearing on credit reports. Now, the agency is siding with the credit industry groups suing to have the rule vacated.
The CFPB wanted medical debt to be left off credit reports. That's changed under Trump
Under the Biden administration, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau finalized a rule barring medical debt from appearing on credit reports. Now, the agency is siding with the credit industry groups suing to have the rule vacated.
n.pr
June 1, 2025 at 11:10 AM
Under the Biden administration, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau finalized a rule barring medical debt from appearing on credit reports. Now, the agency is siding with the credit industry groups suing to have the rule vacated.
Reposted by Byrd Pinkerton
Some of the CDC's main channels for communicating urgent health information to the public have gone silent.
Diseases are spreading. The CDC isn't warning the public like it was months ago
Some of the CDC's main channels for communicating urgent health information to the public have gone silent.
www.npr.org
May 21, 2025 at 11:24 AM
Some of the CDC's main channels for communicating urgent health information to the public have gone silent.
“I struggle with it. I feel like marine systems especially are pretty complicated to think about restoring. What do you actually do out here? How do you protect things? … But you can’t stop doing it, because then you’ve kind of lost everything.”
www.vox.com/down-to-eart...
www.vox.com/down-to-eart...
At the edge of the ocean, a dazzling ecosystem is changing fast
California researchers grapple with losing a landscape they love in real time.
www.vox.com
April 23, 2025 at 2:06 PM
“I struggle with it. I feel like marine systems especially are pretty complicated to think about restoring. What do you actually do out here? How do you protect things? … But you can’t stop doing it, because then you’ve kind of lost everything.”
www.vox.com/down-to-eart...
www.vox.com/down-to-eart...
Reposted by Byrd Pinkerton
You really, really don't want to get measles.
@dylanlscott.bsky.social's latest for @vox.com: www.vox.com/health/40470...
@dylanlscott.bsky.social's latest for @vox.com: www.vox.com/health/40470...
Measles is back — and more dangerous than you think. Here’s what you can do to protect yourself.
The troubling ripple effects of more measles outbreaks, explained.
www.vox.com
March 19, 2025 at 5:16 PM
You really, really don't want to get measles.
@dylanlscott.bsky.social's latest for @vox.com: www.vox.com/health/40470...
@dylanlscott.bsky.social's latest for @vox.com: www.vox.com/health/40470...
it is a lovely lovely time to ride insanely hard for williams racing
March 14, 2025 at 2:17 AM
it is a lovely lovely time to ride insanely hard for williams racing
Reposted by Byrd Pinkerton
I wrote about the outbreak of ??? in Congo for Nat Geo (and my fave editor ever, the great @bresnick.bsky.social) www.nationalgeographic.com/health/artic...
What we do—and don’t—know about the mysterious illness in the DRC
The unidentified ailment has sickened 1,300 people and led to more than 50 deaths. Regardless of the cause, experts say containing the outbreak will be challenging.
www.nationalgeographic.com
March 4, 2025 at 10:35 PM
I wrote about the outbreak of ??? in Congo for Nat Geo (and my fave editor ever, the great @bresnick.bsky.social) www.nationalgeographic.com/health/artic...
Reposted by Byrd Pinkerton
The 2% of the planet representing the conterminous United States was quite chilly in January. The rest of the world, not so much! berkeleyearth.org/ja...
February 13, 2025 at 4:50 PM
The 2% of the planet representing the conterminous United States was quite chilly in January. The rest of the world, not so much! berkeleyearth.org/ja...
Reposted by Byrd Pinkerton
After going quiet on bird flu, CDC scientists have published a report on its spread among veterinarians. The findings suggest a need for better surveillance.
After delay, CDC releases data signaling bird flu spread undetected in cows and people
After going quiet on bird flu, CDC scientists have published a report on its spread among veterinarians. The findings suggest a need for better surveillance.
www.npr.org
February 13, 2025 at 6:16 PM
After going quiet on bird flu, CDC scientists have published a report on its spread among veterinarians. The findings suggest a need for better surveillance.
Reposted by Byrd Pinkerton
If the Trump administration continues targeting DEI in science and seeking to slash funding, American science will look fundamentally different.
'Unprecedented': White House moves to control science funding worry researchers
If the Trump administration continues targeting DEI in science and seeking to slash funding, American science will look fundamentally different.
www.npr.org
February 7, 2025 at 9:13 PM
If the Trump administration continues targeting DEI in science and seeking to slash funding, American science will look fundamentally different.
Reposted by Byrd Pinkerton
BREAKING NEWS: Research and basic information on subjects ranging from tuberculosis surveillance to adolescent health disappeared from federal health agency websites.
Trump administration purges websites across federal health agencies
Research and basic information on subjects ranging from tuberculosis surveillance to adolescent health disappeared from federal health agency websites.
www.npr.org
January 31, 2025 at 9:58 PM
BREAKING NEWS: Research and basic information on subjects ranging from tuberculosis surveillance to adolescent health disappeared from federal health agency websites.
Reposted by Byrd Pinkerton
NPR transcribed 2,000 hours of radio communications from the LA fires. It shows hydrants going dry and first responders fighting the fires despite scarce resources.
'All the hydrants up here are dead.' Radio traffic recounts LA firefighters losing water
NPR transcribed 2,000 hours of radio communications from the LA fires. It shows hydrants going dry and first responders fighting the fires despite scarce resources.
www.npr.org
January 18, 2025 at 10:19 PM
NPR transcribed 2,000 hours of radio communications from the LA fires. It shows hydrants going dry and first responders fighting the fires despite scarce resources.
Reposted by Byrd Pinkerton
This is a perfect sentence:
"All we’ve gotten in the past decade is example after example of how little these people know about anything other than making apps that destroy something you previously loved, by hollowing it out into a subscription service that no longer works and everyone hates."
"All we’ve gotten in the past decade is example after example of how little these people know about anything other than making apps that destroy something you previously loved, by hollowing it out into a subscription service that no longer works and everyone hates."
I wrote this on eternal life and ceaseless cringe. And how I've no interest in living forever if it's in a world ruled by the weird, brittle freaks we call tech CEOs.
www.irishexaminer.com/lifestyle-co...
www.irishexaminer.com/lifestyle-co...
Séamas O'Reilly: The world is an objectively worse place because of tech-bro oligarchs
As Zuckerberg pontificates about masculinity and traditional values, he does so in soundbites as lifeless as his former paeans to gender and racial equality
www.irishexaminer.com
January 18, 2025 at 1:37 PM
This is a perfect sentence:
"All we’ve gotten in the past decade is example after example of how little these people know about anything other than making apps that destroy something you previously loved, by hollowing it out into a subscription service that no longer works and everyone hates."
"All we’ve gotten in the past decade is example after example of how little these people know about anything other than making apps that destroy something you previously loved, by hollowing it out into a subscription service that no longer works and everyone hates."
Reposted by Byrd Pinkerton
Fascinating piece. The research and the writing are gems.
Latest labor of editing love: the amazing @giulianaviglione.bsky.social with a gripping tale about how the stress of industrial whaling wrote itself into whales' very bodies, for @biographic.bsky.social: www.biographic.com/how-whales-f...
How Whales Found Peace in War - bioGraphic
A forgotten museum collection reveals how a pause in industrial whaling during World War II changed whales at the molecular level.
www.biographic.com
January 15, 2025 at 3:28 AM
Fascinating piece. The research and the writing are gems.
keren will make you laugh so hard you won’t realize she also made you learn and i am so sad i won’t get to learn with her at work anymore
I just got laid off from @vox.com along with 11 other talented and delightful people.
I'm leaving with a deep bench of sources and a million ideas. Editors assigning work on public health, health misinfo, corporate ints/religion in healthcare, please reach out!
Gonna go have cookies for lunch now
I'm leaving with a deep bench of sources and a million ideas. Editors assigning work on public health, health misinfo, corporate ints/religion in healthcare, please reach out!
Gonna go have cookies for lunch now
January 12, 2025 at 10:40 PM
keren will make you laugh so hard you won’t realize she also made you learn and i am so sad i won’t get to learn with her at work anymore
Reposted by Byrd Pinkerton
I just got laid off from @vox.com along with 11 other talented and delightful people.
I'm leaving with a deep bench of sources and a million ideas. Editors assigning work on public health, health misinfo, corporate ints/religion in healthcare, please reach out!
Gonna go have cookies for lunch now
I'm leaving with a deep bench of sources and a million ideas. Editors assigning work on public health, health misinfo, corporate ints/religion in healthcare, please reach out!
Gonna go have cookies for lunch now
January 9, 2025 at 5:37 PM
I just got laid off from @vox.com along with 11 other talented and delightful people.
I'm leaving with a deep bench of sources and a million ideas. Editors assigning work on public health, health misinfo, corporate ints/religion in healthcare, please reach out!
Gonna go have cookies for lunch now
I'm leaving with a deep bench of sources and a million ideas. Editors assigning work on public health, health misinfo, corporate ints/religion in healthcare, please reach out!
Gonna go have cookies for lunch now
Reposted by Byrd Pinkerton
Been hanging out with the fab Unexplainable team @vox.com for a bit. Listen to me be amazed by secret twins from @byrdest.bsky.social 🫂, animal transplant organs from Mandy Nguyen 🫁, and 1-way tickets to Mars from @nhassenfeld.bsky.social 🚀! Link in thread. Oh, PS: Send me science stories/ideas! 🔬
December 18, 2024 at 4:59 PM
Been hanging out with the fab Unexplainable team @vox.com for a bit. Listen to me be amazed by secret twins from @byrdest.bsky.social 🫂, animal transplant organs from Mandy Nguyen 🫁, and 1-way tickets to Mars from @nhassenfeld.bsky.social 🚀! Link in thread. Oh, PS: Send me science stories/ideas! 🔬
oops. turns out that blue cross blue shield not paying for anesthesia after a certain time limit was NOT a terrible thing?!?
"Anthem’s policy would have cost anesthesiologists, not their enrollees."
www.vox.com/policy/39003...
"Anthem’s policy would have cost anesthesiologists, not their enrollees."
www.vox.com/policy/39003...
A big insurer backed off its plan to pay less for anesthesia. That’s bad.
What the fight between Anthem and anesthesiologists was really about.
www.vox.com
December 13, 2024 at 3:24 PM
oops. turns out that blue cross blue shield not paying for anesthesia after a certain time limit was NOT a terrible thing?!?
"Anthem’s policy would have cost anesthesiologists, not their enrollees."
www.vox.com/policy/39003...
"Anthem’s policy would have cost anesthesiologists, not their enrollees."
www.vox.com/policy/39003...
Reposted by Byrd Pinkerton
We are overwhelmed by and grateful for the support we've received from everyone in the aftermath of Vox Media's awful end-of-year layoffs.
If you have some spare cash, please donate. All funds will go directly to those who lost their jobs last week.
www.gofundme.com/f/stand-with...
If you have some spare cash, please donate. All funds will go directly to those who lost their jobs last week.
www.gofundme.com/f/stand-with...
Donate to Stand with the Vox Media Union and Thrillist Union, organized by Ashok Selvam
On Thursday, December 5, nearly 40 members of the Vox Media Union, Thr… Ashok Selvam needs your support for Stand with the Vox Media Union and Thrillist Union
www.gofundme.com
December 9, 2024 at 2:41 PM
We are overwhelmed by and grateful for the support we've received from everyone in the aftermath of Vox Media's awful end-of-year layoffs.
If you have some spare cash, please donate. All funds will go directly to those who lost their jobs last week.
www.gofundme.com/f/stand-with...
If you have some spare cash, please donate. All funds will go directly to those who lost their jobs last week.
www.gofundme.com/f/stand-with...
Reposted by Byrd Pinkerton
“Naturally, we want answers on who needs our help most. But outsourcing our choices about charitable giving to empirical guides does not cut through the numbness. It may sit, conveniently, alongside it. It can even short circuit the painful process of paying attention.”
bsky.app/profile/emma...
bsky.app/profile/emma...
I wrote an essay for @nytimes.com Ideas about how people decide where to give away money and how the tech industry's obsession with optimization filtered into so many parts of our culture. Here's a gift link www.nytimes.com/2024/12/07/b...
What if Charity Shouldn’t Be Optimized? (Gift Article)
The recent trend in philanthropy has been to look for the most bang for your buck. Maybe you don’t have to.
www.nytimes.com
December 7, 2024 at 4:50 PM
“Naturally, we want answers on who needs our help most. But outsourcing our choices about charitable giving to empirical guides does not cut through the numbness. It may sit, conveniently, alongside it. It can even short circuit the painful process of paying attention.”
bsky.app/profile/emma...
bsky.app/profile/emma...
it is the 60th anniversary of the verrazzano narrows bridge
it is also the 60th anniversary of the mayor of new york city deciding to say this WILD thing about staten island which—to be clear—was very much already a part of new york city at the time
it is also the 60th anniversary of the mayor of new york city deciding to say this WILD thing about staten island which—to be clear—was very much already a part of new york city at the time
November 22, 2024 at 3:37 AM
it is the 60th anniversary of the verrazzano narrows bridge
it is also the 60th anniversary of the mayor of new york city deciding to say this WILD thing about staten island which—to be clear—was very much already a part of new york city at the time
it is also the 60th anniversary of the mayor of new york city deciding to say this WILD thing about staten island which—to be clear—was very much already a part of new york city at the time
November 21, 2024 at 1:10 AM
Reposted by Byrd Pinkerton
November 19, 2024 at 7:32 PM