Kaya Oakes
@kayaoakes.bsky.social
Writer of nonfiction, Oakland kid, faculty in writing at UC Berkeley. Book #6, Not So Sorry, is available now. Ask me why breast cancer sucks. Missives: kayaoakes.substack.com
This is all Rod Dreher's fault.
November 19, 2025 at 7:48 PM
This is all Rod Dreher's fault.
"However unnatural it might feel, I have to continue to take pills and undergo radiation and make myself sick to make myself better. I can’t diet, detox or exercise my way out of cancer." www.nytimes.com/2025/11/11/o...
Opinion | Cancer Patients Like Me Are Casualties of MAHA’s Hypocrisy
www.nytimes.com
November 12, 2025 at 9:37 PM
"However unnatural it might feel, I have to continue to take pills and undergo radiation and make myself sick to make myself better. I can’t diet, detox or exercise my way out of cancer." www.nytimes.com/2025/11/11/o...
Like most people these days my emotional bandwidth toggles between despair and numbness so thanks Kim Davis whose total humiliation brought a smile to my face this morning.
November 10, 2025 at 4:38 PM
Like most people these days my emotional bandwidth toggles between despair and numbness so thanks Kim Davis whose total humiliation brought a smile to my face this morning.
Visited an Episcopal church and they did communion kneeling at an altar rail. What pre Vatican II liturgical shenanigans are you all up to?
November 9, 2025 at 9:23 PM
Visited an Episcopal church and they did communion kneeling at an altar rail. What pre Vatican II liturgical shenanigans are you all up to?
I've gotten a half dozen variations of this email from a "person" who has "read" one of my books and wants to offer "real readers" who can mass review it on Amazon for a fee. The cruelest thing about this is that the AI that wrote this sounds like it actually liked my books.
November 8, 2025 at 8:34 PM
I've gotten a half dozen variations of this email from a "person" who has "read" one of my books and wants to offer "real readers" who can mass review it on Amazon for a fee. The cruelest thing about this is that the AI that wrote this sounds like it actually liked my books.
Yay Mamdami and all but TBH the last thing New Yorkers need is yet another reason to never shut up about living in New York being their whole personality, the smug superiority, I can't stand it. Like Californians ever do that because we live in the most beautiful place ON EARTH.
November 6, 2025 at 3:49 PM
Yay Mamdami and all but TBH the last thing New Yorkers need is yet another reason to never shut up about living in New York being their whole personality, the smug superiority, I can't stand it. Like Californians ever do that because we live in the most beautiful place ON EARTH.
I just can't believe the media lied to us like this!
November 4, 2025 at 3:09 PM
I just can't believe the media lied to us like this!
My students are writing essays on music, the brain, and algorithms, so our in class activities today included listening to Baby Shark. Fireable offense?
October 28, 2025 at 10:44 PM
My students are writing essays on music, the brain, and algorithms, so our in class activities today included listening to Baby Shark. Fireable offense?
My people! Maith thú! Sláinte!
www.reuters.com/world/left-w...
www.reuters.com/world/left-w...
Independent left-wing politician Connolly wins Irish presidency in landslide
Catherine Connolly, a veteran lawmaker on the far left of the Irish political spectrum, was elected president by a landslide margin on Saturday in a stinging rebuke to the recently re-elected centre-right coalition.
www.reuters.com
October 25, 2025 at 7:13 PM
My people! Maith thú! Sláinte!
www.reuters.com/world/left-w...
www.reuters.com/world/left-w...
Was getting sick of Duolingo constantly threatening to stab me in the neck if I didn't practice and telling me I'm a pathetic loser if I'm too busy to use the app. Turns out you can just set your profile to private and it stops doing those things.
October 15, 2025 at 9:15 PM
Was getting sick of Duolingo constantly threatening to stab me in the neck if I didn't practice and telling me I'm a pathetic loser if I'm too busy to use the app. Turns out you can just set your profile to private and it stops doing those things.
Hangover of ten+ years of religion reporting: whenever I see a headline about a guy who believes slavery wasn't bad I shout "Doug Wilson" like I'm on Jeopardy, except it sucks and there's no prize.
October 11, 2025 at 7:13 PM
Hangover of ten+ years of religion reporting: whenever I see a headline about a guy who believes slavery wasn't bad I shout "Doug Wilson" like I'm on Jeopardy, except it sucks and there's no prize.
UC Berkeley has its 71st Nobel Laureate, this year in Physics. But did you know we have Nobel Laureate bicycle parking, and that David Card, 2021 Nobel in Economics, apparently actually uses it? news.berkeley.edu/2016/06/16/n...
New Berkeley parking spot — for bikes — honors Nobel Peace Prize work - Berkeley News
Covet those Nobel Laureate parking spaces? You can park in Berkeley's newest one, a tribute to faculty whose research contributed to the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize. And it's open to all cyclists.
news.berkeley.edu
October 7, 2025 at 9:58 PM
UC Berkeley has its 71st Nobel Laureate, this year in Physics. But did you know we have Nobel Laureate bicycle parking, and that David Card, 2021 Nobel in Economics, apparently actually uses it? news.berkeley.edu/2016/06/16/n...
For @ncronline.bsky.social, I reviewed @philipchristman.bsky.social's new book, which gave me the opportunity to dunk.
"When you choose a politics, you can choose one that covets power or one that sees power as something to be shared. It really is that simple."
www.ncronline.org/culture/new-...
"When you choose a politics, you can choose one that covets power or one that sees power as something to be shared. It really is that simple."
www.ncronline.org/culture/new-...
New book calls for a politics that mirrors Jesus' Beatitudes
In Why Christians Should Be Leftists, Phil Christman argues that Jesus' teachings "[lay] out an ethic that would make it next to impossible for any human being to successfully hang onto power forever....
www.ncronline.org
October 4, 2025 at 6:16 PM
For @ncronline.bsky.social, I reviewed @philipchristman.bsky.social's new book, which gave me the opportunity to dunk.
"When you choose a politics, you can choose one that covets power or one that sees power as something to be shared. It really is that simple."
www.ncronline.org/culture/new-...
"When you choose a politics, you can choose one that covets power or one that sees power as something to be shared. It really is that simple."
www.ncronline.org/culture/new-...
Now that the @oaklandballers.bsky.social season is over I need to adopt an MLB team to root for. HELL NO DODGERS OR YANKEES. My MLB team must be scrappy and from an underrated city. So who do I pick?
October 4, 2025 at 4:19 PM
Now that the @oaklandballers.bsky.social season is over I need to adopt an MLB team to root for. HELL NO DODGERS OR YANKEES. My MLB team must be scrappy and from an underrated city. So who do I pick?
Maybe you don't need to write a book? I have, six times over, and it was mostly not worth the effort. kayaoakes.substack.com/p/maybe-you-...
Maybe you don't need to write a book
Or, at least, you don't need to feel like you failed if yours doesn't sell
kayaoakes.substack.com
September 27, 2025 at 10:41 PM
Maybe you don't need to write a book? I have, six times over, and it was mostly not worth the effort. kayaoakes.substack.com/p/maybe-you-...
UC Berkeley's homoerotic football statue has entered the chat.
September 25, 2025 at 10:06 PM
UC Berkeley's homoerotic football statue has entered the chat.
Reposted by Kaya Oakes
💚 💛 Ballers fam, @MayorBarbaraLee just announced that we're going to keep the party going! 🎉 See you there! 🍾
September 23, 2025 at 9:48 PM
💚 💛 Ballers fam, @MayorBarbaraLee just announced that we're going to keep the party going! 🎉 See you there! 🍾
This game was electric! My voice is hoarse from hollering. Thanks for an amazing season.
September 22, 2025 at 5:27 AM
This game was electric! My voice is hoarse from hollering. Thanks for an amazing season.
Reposted by Kaya Oakes
OAKLAND WE DID IT!!!! 🏆
September 22, 2025 at 4:45 AM
OAKLAND WE DID IT!!!! 🏆
I reactivated just to share this post I wrote about something very important: Extremely Specific Petty Grievances. kayaoakes.substack.com/p/extremely-...
Extremely specific petty grievances
You know you have them
kayaoakes.substack.com
September 14, 2025 at 9:30 PM
I reactivated just to share this post I wrote about something very important: Extremely Specific Petty Grievances. kayaoakes.substack.com/p/extremely-...
It's okay not to have a take.
September 12, 2025 at 3:23 PM
It's okay not to have a take.
gonna get some money
gonna get some money
probably more than I ever made in royalties
take that ai
www.anthropiccopyrightsettlement.com
gonna get some money
probably more than I ever made in royalties
take that ai
www.anthropiccopyrightsettlement.com
Home | Bartz, et al. v. Anthropic PBC
www.anthropiccopyrightsettlement.com
September 9, 2025 at 9:21 PM
gonna get some money
gonna get some money
probably more than I ever made in royalties
take that ai
www.anthropiccopyrightsettlement.com
gonna get some money
probably more than I ever made in royalties
take that ai
www.anthropiccopyrightsettlement.com
Just a note of appreciation for whoever decided to play Journey's "Lights" at the @oaklandballers.bsky.social game last night when the lights went out. Well played. Well played indeed.
September 6, 2025 at 7:09 PM
Just a note of appreciation for whoever decided to play Journey's "Lights" at the @oaklandballers.bsky.social game last night when the lights went out. Well played. Well played indeed.
Reposted by Kaya Oakes
If you've been thinking of reading Elizabeth Gilbert's new memoir, please read this first, by @kayaoakes.bsky.social.
And even if you don't care one bit about Gilbert, this is an excellent, helpful read about cancer, love, ego, and so much else.
open.substack.com/pub/kayaoake...
And even if you don't care one bit about Gilbert, this is an excellent, helpful read about cancer, love, ego, and so much else.
open.substack.com/pub/kayaoake...
Not your inspiration porn
Elizabeth Gilbert and the problem of cancer
open.substack.com
September 6, 2025 at 12:26 PM
If you've been thinking of reading Elizabeth Gilbert's new memoir, please read this first, by @kayaoakes.bsky.social.
And even if you don't care one bit about Gilbert, this is an excellent, helpful read about cancer, love, ego, and so much else.
open.substack.com/pub/kayaoake...
And even if you don't care one bit about Gilbert, this is an excellent, helpful read about cancer, love, ego, and so much else.
open.substack.com/pub/kayaoake...
Reposted by Kaya Oakes
What does a writer “who lives every day with cancer looming in the background like one of those giant Halloween skeletons” think about what’s she’s seen of the latest Elizabeth Gilbert memoir and the discourse around it?
You should really read @kayaoakes.bsky.social, and not just to find that out.
You should really read @kayaoakes.bsky.social, and not just to find that out.
Not your inspiration porn
Elizabeth Gilbert and the problem of cancer
kayaoakes.substack.com
September 4, 2025 at 3:51 AM
What does a writer “who lives every day with cancer looming in the background like one of those giant Halloween skeletons” think about what’s she’s seen of the latest Elizabeth Gilbert memoir and the discourse around it?
You should really read @kayaoakes.bsky.social, and not just to find that out.
You should really read @kayaoakes.bsky.social, and not just to find that out.