Sara Grady
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saramgrady.bsky.social
Sara Grady
@saramgrady.bsky.social
Media psychologist, studying narratives & entertainment and why people spend time on them. Pop culture junkie, absolute nerd + social scientist
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Had an absolutely wonderful time chatting with @andyluttrell.bsky.social about tv, movies, sports, games (and of course brains) and what it’s all about.

A very casual hang if you’re new to this, but some really insightful questions get at the heart of why researching entertainment even matters
Ep 110! The wonderful @saramgrady.bsky.social shares her perspective on the function of entertainment and why it's worth studying carefully.

Apple: podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/1...
Spotify: open.spotify.com/episode/0oxX...
Web: opinionsciencepodcast.com/episode/valu...
Reposted by Sara Grady
A bad thing is unfolding at NIH this week: It looks like the Trump administration is trying to replace key civil servant scientific leaders, the Institute Directors, with political hires. These directors control the NIH budget, tens of billions.

A bit of a video explainer here: 1/ 🧪
November 13, 2025 at 10:31 PM
Reposted by Sara Grady
New: Google has chosen a side in Trump's mass deportation campaign. Google is hosting a CBP facial recognition app to hunt immigrants; no indication Google will remove. At same time Google takes down apps for reporting ICE sightings

“Big tech has made their choice”

www.404media.co/google-has-c...
Google Has Chosen a Side in Trump's Mass Deportation Effort
Google is hosting a CBP app that uses facial recognition to identify immigrants, while simultaneously removing apps that report the location of ICE officials because Google sees ICE as a vulnerable gr...
www.404media.co
November 13, 2025 at 2:11 PM
Reposted by Sara Grady
📬 Pub alert

Do effects of digital disconnection interventions translate to well-being benefits in *daily life*?

Our new ESM study concludes: yes but no... kinda 👽🔋
@klingelhoefer.bsky.social @adrianmeier.bsky.social

Out now in Communication Research
doi.org/10.1177/0093...
November 11, 2025 at 3:51 PM
Reposted by Sara Grady
As I mentioned at my talk today for the @stanfordaaup.bsky.social teach-in, over 4,500 federal grants have been terminated at over 600 institutions. Those grants are valued at~$8B, with ~$3.5B being stolen from universities when those grants were terminated. The type of grants terminated varies +
November 7, 2025 at 9:18 PM
Reposted by Sara Grady
This morning federal agents arrested two hard working immigrants on my street because they didn’t have their papers on them, and tried to arrest my neighbor because his green card was in his house rather than on his person.

We are now a “show me your papers” state, and it is outrageous. Get angry.
October 28, 2025 at 3:41 PM
Reposted by Sara Grady
A message to Wall Street and the tech industry? "Lina Khan to co-chair NYC mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani’s transition team" techcrunch.com/2025/11/05/l...
Lina Khan to co-chair NYC mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani's transition team | TechCrunch
Khan's appointment sends a message to the tech industry, whose most powerful players have already been critical of Mamdani, a Democratic socialist.
techcrunch.com
November 5, 2025 at 7:04 PM
Reposted by Sara Grady
I eyeballed it. Okay, turns out it's nearly *half* of Senators got fewer votes than Mamdani.
November 5, 2025 at 6:16 AM
Reposted by Sara Grady
Canada makes pitch for US researchers to relocate with $1.7bn in new funding. My story for @science.org 🧪
www.science.org/content/arti...
Canada’s new budget aims to lure U.S. researchers to relocate
Spending plan also calls for smaller research spending cut than feared
www.science.org
November 5, 2025 at 6:19 PM
This is a really helpful bird’s eye for #healthcomm #scicomm interested folks
November 4, 2025 at 8:44 PM
Reposted by Sara Grady
Our meta-analysis of 60 studies which was published in @mediapsychmep.bsky.social was covered by @spspnews.bsky.social
Representation in Media Can Deepen or Undo Prejudice | SPSP spsp.org/news/charact...
@stewartcoles.bsky.social @rcgd-isr.bsky.social
Representation in Media Can Deepen or Undo Prejudice | SPSP
From headlines to hit shows, media portrayals shape how people see others outside their own group.
spsp.org
November 4, 2025 at 12:49 AM
Had an absolutely wonderful time chatting with @andyluttrell.bsky.social about tv, movies, sports, games (and of course brains) and what it’s all about.

A very casual hang if you’re new to this, but some really insightful questions get at the heart of why researching entertainment even matters
Ep 110! The wonderful @saramgrady.bsky.social shares her perspective on the function of entertainment and why it's worth studying carefully.

Apple: podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/1...
Spotify: open.spotify.com/episode/0oxX...
Web: opinionsciencepodcast.com/episode/valu...
November 4, 2025 at 8:38 PM
Possibly the best week in my wonderful Communication & Pop Culture class: analyzing how and why their favorite songs became trendy, from audio cues to normative aesthetic structures to business practices and memeification. I feel a playlist coming on...
October 30, 2025 at 6:04 PM
Reposted by Sara Grady
We are hiring! We are looking for two post-docs in our interdisciplinary research group “SCEPTIC” at the University of Oldenburg, 4+years, on the dynamics and drivers of (dis)trust in digital environments, more info below 👇
October 20, 2025 at 4:03 PM
Reposted by Sara Grady
An OpenAI executive said GPT-5 found solutions to 10 "previously unsolved" math problems when in reality all it did was find online references to places where people had already solved them

techcrunch.com/2025/10/19/o...
OpenAI’s ‘embarrassing’ math | TechCrunch
No, GPT-5 did not solve a bunch of previously unsolved math problems.
techcrunch.com
October 20, 2025 at 4:14 PM
Reposted by Sara Grady
Here's a gift link to the New York Times' coverage of the initial Tea Party rallies in April 2009 which inspired the media to treat it like a massive movement.

Check out how tiny the crowds were:

Philly: 200
DC: "several hundred"
Boston: 500
Austin: 1,000
Houston: 2,000
Tax Day Is Met With Tea Parties (Published 2009)
www.nytimes.com
October 20, 2025 at 12:55 PM
Have international students in your sphere? ICE wants to limit grad student visas to 4 years (and limiting their timelines in a variety of other ways), then they get kicked out. Commenting is open until Sept 29 (and you can comment anonymously). www.regulations.gov/document/ICE...
Regulations.gov
www.regulations.gov
September 24, 2025 at 3:27 PM
Reposted by Sara Grady
Job alert: I'm hiring a postdoc for my lab at CU Boulder starting Fall 2026!

We study person perception, stereotyping & prejudice, and intervention science using behavioral & neuroimaging methods.

Link: jobs.colorado.edu/jobs/JobDeta...

Review starts Nov 1 and continues until filled.
Postdoctoral Associate
jobs.colorado.edu
August 28, 2025 at 4:51 PM
Reposted by Sara Grady
It is as if our government has decided that there is no crime in the country worth pursuing other than immigration enforcement.
New numbers show ICE is devouring US law enforcement: 1 in 5 US marshals, 1 in 5 FBI agents, half of all DEA agents, and over two-thirds of all ATF agents are now assigned to ICE enforcement. These are agencies with critical jobs they're now NOT doing.

www.doomsdayscenario.co/p/ice-is-eat...
ICE is Eating the Soul of America
Four things that show ICE increasingly considers itself outside the law
www.doomsdayscenario.co
September 9, 2025 at 8:56 PM
Communication always be happening on multiple levels
Yesterday, HSI and MPD set up a checkpoint on Rhode Island Ave in DC. Neighbors stood on either end, holding signs saying “LA MIGRA ADELATE.”

As HSI and MPD started to pack it up, residents told them, “we don’t think you’re good Americans” and “fuck you guys, go home.”
August 28, 2025 at 9:11 PM
Reposted by Sara Grady
If RFK Jr. will not resign, he must be impeached and removed, for the sake of the nation's health and safety.
Three senior CDC leaders who resigned told The Post they were asked to participate in an unscientific vaccine recommendation process that they believe could harm the health of Americans.
CDC leaders who resigned said RFK Jr. undermined vaccine science, risking lives
As the CDC reels from the firing of its director, HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. told Fox News the agency is “in trouble and we need to fix it.”
www.washingtonpost.com
August 28, 2025 at 8:33 PM
Science and health and risk communication coming to the front, a CDC infectious disease director’s resignation letter is chock full of 🔥 after the Covid vaccine announcement x.com/dr_demetre/s...
August 28, 2025 at 2:37 PM
Reposted by Sara Grady
There’s a thin line between staying as informed as you should and making yourself anxious in a way that is completely unproductive and every single day the news is trying very hard to push you over into the latter
August 21, 2025 at 12:47 PM