Lauren Beukes
@laurenbeukes.com
Novelist, scriptwriter, imaginative futurist, recovering journalist. Winner of the Arthur C Clarke and the University of Johannesburg Prize. Author of The Shining Girls (now on Apple TV), Zoo City and Bridge.
Reposted by Lauren Beukes
A good summary of many of the lies told by people like Wes Streeting and the rest of the political far right about puberty blockers.
www.thepinknews.com/2025/11/26/p...
www.thepinknews.com/2025/11/26/p...
Six lies transphobes tell about puberty blockers - debunked
Ahead of the NHS PATHWAYs puberty blockers trial, PinkNews debunks six lies commonly told about puberty blockers.
www.thepinknews.com
November 26, 2025 at 11:10 AM
A good summary of many of the lies told by people like Wes Streeting and the rest of the political far right about puberty blockers.
www.thepinknews.com/2025/11/26/p...
www.thepinknews.com/2025/11/26/p...
Reposted by Lauren Beukes
Lately I keep expecting myself to somehow bootstrap myself into feeling better. But as always, we can't personal choice our way out of systemic problems.
November 26, 2025 at 7:50 AM
Lately I keep expecting myself to somehow bootstrap myself into feeling better. But as always, we can't personal choice our way out of systemic problems.
Reposted by Lauren Beukes
OpenAI says they aren't liable for the suicide of a user their chat bot urged to kill himself because suicide is a violation of the TOS
Additionally, OpenAI argues its not liable because Raine, by using ChatGPT for self-harm, broke its terms of service
November 26, 2025 at 4:43 AM
OpenAI says they aren't liable for the suicide of a user their chat bot urged to kill himself because suicide is a violation of the TOS
Reposted by Lauren Beukes
I once asked a bookseller at a large indie store how many people would have to buy a book for it to get the attention of the store buyer and cause an additional order and they said: Three.
I see some book piracy discourse, and, to make a positive argument in favor of buying books, your marginal ability to influence what books get published and support the careers of writers you like is massive compared to most other forms of media.
November 25, 2025 at 11:07 PM
I once asked a bookseller at a large indie store how many people would have to buy a book for it to get the attention of the store buyer and cause an additional order and they said: Three.
Reposted by Lauren Beukes
I'm so excited to see we've raised over 5k so far on the #Creatives4Sudan auction. Can you help us get to £10k? I'm offering a personalised original Loki drawing, and I really will go all out to make it as funny as possible. app.galabid.com/creatives4su... #KidLitUK #KeepEyesOnSudan
Sorry, GalaBid took too long to load. Please check your internet speed or try again.
app.galabid.com
November 25, 2025 at 12:30 PM
I'm so excited to see we've raised over 5k so far on the #Creatives4Sudan auction. Can you help us get to £10k? I'm offering a personalised original Loki drawing, and I really will go all out to make it as funny as possible. app.galabid.com/creatives4su... #KidLitUK #KeepEyesOnSudan
A little late, but I read my SF military horror story "Unaccounted" for WAYO FM's Halloween fundraiser on Jessica Bisko's Bedtime Stories show. Lightly edited because the loooong tally of equipment, weapons and meds that *are* accounted for didn't work for audio www.mixcloud.com/wayoradio/be...
Bedtime Stories - Fundraiser Special
Bedtime Stories presents Lauren Beukes! Guest reader and best selling author reading her short story 'Unaccounted'
www.mixcloud.com
November 24, 2025 at 8:45 PM
A little late, but I read my SF military horror story "Unaccounted" for WAYO FM's Halloween fundraiser on Jessica Bisko's Bedtime Stories show. Lightly edited because the loooong tally of equipment, weapons and meds that *are* accounted for didn't work for audio www.mixcloud.com/wayoradio/be...
Reposted by Lauren Beukes
Finally. My big 2800 word essay about One Battle After Another and its black women characters is live. www.vulture.com/article/blac...
Black Actresses Are Carrying One Battle After Another
Teyana Taylor, Chase Infiniti, and Regina Hall propel the film’s most conflicted ideas, for better and worse.
www.vulture.com
November 24, 2025 at 6:09 PM
Finally. My big 2800 word essay about One Battle After Another and its black women characters is live. www.vulture.com/article/blac...
Absolutely. I want to add that if you have had ANY work at all published in the UK, in magazines, journalism, fiction, you should join ALCS. I reliably get £500 - £4000 a year from them for licensing rights and the small time cost on my side of filling in a form listing eligible works. They're great
I’d suspect the numbers here are actually even lower than this. This report is only based on authors who shared details of their income with the Authors’ Licensing and Collecting Society (ALCS). That’s more likely to be the ones who write as part of their living.
A reminder that the median book deal for a debut author in the UK is £7000, paid over 12-18 months. (from 2022 Society of Authors report). Some of your favourite writers are struggling. societyofauthors.org/2022/12/06/a....
November 24, 2025 at 6:11 PM
Absolutely. I want to add that if you have had ANY work at all published in the UK, in magazines, journalism, fiction, you should join ALCS. I reliably get £500 - £4000 a year from them for licensing rights and the small time cost on my side of filling in a form listing eligible works. They're great
Reposted by Lauren Beukes
If you like an author's work, the best thing you can do is buy it. The second best thing you can do is ask your local library to buy it. Or, do both!
A reminder that the median book deal for a debut author in the UK is £7000, paid over 12-18 months. (from 2022 Society of Authors report). Some of your favourite writers are struggling. societyofauthors.org/2022/12/06/a....
A profession struggling to sustain itself - The Society of Authors
ALCS report on author incomes shows 60% drop in median incomes since 2006
societyofauthors.org
November 24, 2025 at 5:39 PM
If you like an author's work, the best thing you can do is buy it. The second best thing you can do is ask your local library to buy it. Or, do both!
A reminder that the median book deal for a debut author in the UK is £7000, paid over 12-18 months. (from 2022 Society of Authors report). Some of your favourite writers are struggling. societyofauthors.org/2022/12/06/a....
A profession struggling to sustain itself - The Society of Authors
ALCS report on author incomes shows 60% drop in median incomes since 2006
societyofauthors.org
November 24, 2025 at 5:34 PM
A reminder that the median book deal for a debut author in the UK is £7000, paid over 12-18 months. (from 2022 Society of Authors report). Some of your favourite writers are struggling. societyofauthors.org/2022/12/06/a....
This whole thread. The classic (problematic) anti-piracy ad of yore "you wouldn't steal a handbag" etc updated for now would be "You wouldn't act like an entitled asshole techbro billionaire and steal from artists trying to pay their rent / vet bills / buy groceries with a bullshit justification"
I posted a buy link here to "A Magical Inheritance" a few days ago, and 24 of you immediately went to Anna's Archives and fucking stole it from me.
Yes, stole it.
I do not get paid for your download there because YOU ARE STEALING FROM ME.
🖕
Yes, stole it.
I do not get paid for your download there because YOU ARE STEALING FROM ME.
🖕
November 24, 2025 at 5:17 PM
This whole thread. The classic (problematic) anti-piracy ad of yore "you wouldn't steal a handbag" etc updated for now would be "You wouldn't act like an entitled asshole techbro billionaire and steal from artists trying to pay their rent / vet bills / buy groceries with a bullshit justification"
Reposted by Lauren Beukes
excited for my friend Sophie's new Patreon on fashion advice. and when I say fashion I mean really practical stuff. here's a post on how to buy a nice wool jumper: www.patreon.com/posts/143335...
How to buy the best wool sweater for you | Wardrobe Strategy
Get more from Wardrobe Strategy on Patreon
www.patreon.com
November 24, 2025 at 10:38 AM
excited for my friend Sophie's new Patreon on fashion advice. and when I say fashion I mean really practical stuff. here's a post on how to buy a nice wool jumper: www.patreon.com/posts/143335...
Reposted by Lauren Beukes
a clinical trial is something you conduct to see if a drug is safe, not something you conduct to "build evidence" that a drug should be banned.
November 24, 2025 at 10:42 AM
a clinical trial is something you conduct to see if a drug is safe, not something you conduct to "build evidence" that a drug should be banned.
Reposted by Lauren Beukes
This thread.
“the only truly irreversible thing a trans child is likely to do is take their own life”
If I’d engaged more, read threads like this years ago, I’d have known Alice better and myself and seen the systems that harmed us both.
She’d have had a better chance.
Feeling fragile today.
“the only truly irreversible thing a trans child is likely to do is take their own life”
If I’d engaged more, read threads like this years ago, I’d have known Alice better and myself and seen the systems that harmed us both.
She’d have had a better chance.
Feeling fragile today.
The only truly irreversible thing a trans child is likely to do is take their own life. "What if they do something irreversible?" actually means "theyre not allowed to make a decision!"
You cant undo or reverse any decision you make, you can simply change your mind later and handle the consequences
You cant undo or reverse any decision you make, you can simply change your mind later and handle the consequences
November 23, 2025 at 8:03 AM
This thread.
“the only truly irreversible thing a trans child is likely to do is take their own life”
If I’d engaged more, read threads like this years ago, I’d have known Alice better and myself and seen the systems that harmed us both.
She’d have had a better chance.
Feeling fragile today.
“the only truly irreversible thing a trans child is likely to do is take their own life”
If I’d engaged more, read threads like this years ago, I’d have known Alice better and myself and seen the systems that harmed us both.
She’d have had a better chance.
Feeling fragile today.
Reposted by Lauren Beukes
One side effect of half the world being in the throes of a fascist takeover is that comments like "turkey sucks" that used to lead to a 4 hour slapfight and approximately 135 blocks are now met with "well thats just like your opinion man" and thats progress
November 22, 2025 at 4:36 PM
One side effect of half the world being in the throes of a fascist takeover is that comments like "turkey sucks" that used to lead to a 4 hour slapfight and approximately 135 blocks are now met with "well thats just like your opinion man" and thats progress
Reposted by Lauren Beukes
Our lives have become a non-stop series of assaults on our privacy by the technology we rely on.
Under the radar, Google has added features that allow Gmail to access all private messages and attachments for training its AI models.
Gmail can read your emails and attachments to train its AI, unless you opt out
A new Gmail update may allow Google to use your private messages and attachments for AI training. Here's how to turn it off.
www.malwarebytes.com
November 21, 2025 at 10:06 PM
Our lives have become a non-stop series of assaults on our privacy by the technology we rely on.
Reposted by Lauren Beukes
genuine appeal to feminists who are haven't realised it yet: trans women are on your side. TERFS aren't
No way I’m sharing Stock’s UnHerd article. But I am going to point to this bit which amply demonstrates the anti-trans=>anti-women’s rights pipeline. “Abortions should only be done for a highly restricted set of reasons. They should not be just nodded through for any reason a pregnant woman likes.”
November 21, 2025 at 12:34 PM
genuine appeal to feminists who are haven't realised it yet: trans women are on your side. TERFS aren't
Reposted by Lauren Beukes
I've written up the findings from our work with people and organisations who have used AI notetakers in meetings, identified 9 risks and a bunch of mitigation strategies. www.careful.industries/blog/2025-11...
Nine risks caused by AI notetakers — Careful Industries
AI transcription tools are not currently mature or reliable enough to be regarded as an always on, single-source of truth for meeting notes. Nine common risks, and six possible mitigations.
www.careful.industries
November 21, 2025 at 7:09 AM
I've written up the findings from our work with people and organisations who have used AI notetakers in meetings, identified 9 risks and a bunch of mitigation strategies. www.careful.industries/blog/2025-11...
Reposted by Lauren Beukes
I spoke with people role-playing ICE raids in video games to help educate people on their rights and what to do in real-life situations. Tonight, they're holding an event in Fortnite www.wired.com/story/activi...
November 21, 2025 at 10:16 PM
I spoke with people role-playing ICE raids in video games to help educate people on their rights and what to do in real-life situations. Tonight, they're holding an event in Fortnite www.wired.com/story/activi...
update on my sick cat: i thought we were going to have to put her down 2 weeks ago because she was a sad, stoned and suffering un-cat but palliative care vet took her off opiates and onto anti inflammatories and she’s back to her old self, cute and trilling and ridiculous and very her best cat self
November 20, 2025 at 5:46 PM
update on my sick cat: i thought we were going to have to put her down 2 weeks ago because she was a sad, stoned and suffering un-cat but palliative care vet took her off opiates and onto anti inflammatories and she’s back to her old self, cute and trilling and ridiculous and very her best cat self
Reposted by Lauren Beukes
And I love that they credit Plato with the idea that poetry is dangerous
Looks like LLMs are *very* vulnerable to attack via poetic allusion: "curated poetic prompts yielded high attack-success rates (ASR), with some providers exceeding 90% ..."
https://arxiv.org/html/2511.15304v1
https://arxiv.org/html/2511.15304v1
November 20, 2025 at 5:14 PM
And I love that they credit Plato with the idea that poetry is dangerous
Reposted by Lauren Beukes
We don't take these seriously enough. Boris Johnson killed an order of magnitude more people than 9/11.
The one thing the useless incompetent Boris Johnson clung on to for his failed premiership was the UK’s Covid response. Turns out he killed 20,000 people.
‘Too little, too late’: damning report condemns UK’s Covid response
Report on handling of pandemic contains stinging criticism of ‘toxic and chaotic’ culture inside Boris Johnson’s No 10
www.theguardian.com
November 20, 2025 at 4:49 PM
We don't take these seriously enough. Boris Johnson killed an order of magnitude more people than 9/11.
Reposted by Lauren Beukes
OpenAI Introduces 'ChatGPT for Teachers' to Further Destroy the Minds of Our Youth
OpenAI Introduces 'ChatGPT for Teachers' to Further Destroy the Minds of Our Youth
Soon we can have chatbots grade the work of chatbots.
gizmodo.com
November 19, 2025 at 9:56 PM
OpenAI Introduces 'ChatGPT for Teachers' to Further Destroy the Minds of Our Youth
Reposted by Lauren Beukes
Today is Trans Day Of Remembrance
#TransLivesMatter #TDoR #TDoR2025 #TransDayOfRemembrance #TransAwarenessWeek #SayTheirNames
*** Trigger warning for the following thread: Violence against trans people (especially TWOC) * * *
#TransLivesMatter #TDoR #TDoR2025 #TransDayOfRemembrance #TransAwarenessWeek #SayTheirNames
*** Trigger warning for the following thread: Violence against trans people (especially TWOC) * * *
November 20, 2025 at 6:58 AM
Today is Trans Day Of Remembrance
#TransLivesMatter #TDoR #TDoR2025 #TransDayOfRemembrance #TransAwarenessWeek #SayTheirNames
*** Trigger warning for the following thread: Violence against trans people (especially TWOC) * * *
#TransLivesMatter #TDoR #TDoR2025 #TransDayOfRemembrance #TransAwarenessWeek #SayTheirNames
*** Trigger warning for the following thread: Violence against trans people (especially TWOC) * * *
Reposted by Lauren Beukes
This is bonkers, at a certain point nobody will be allowed to use any toilets at all, it’s completely unworkable.
Anyone can be banned then. I've been mistaken for a man, a trans man and a trans woman before.
It's encumbent on all of us to make this as unworkable as possible.
It's encumbent on all of us to make this as unworkable as possible.
November 20, 2025 at 9:48 AM
This is bonkers, at a certain point nobody will be allowed to use any toilets at all, it’s completely unworkable.