saul badman
@saulelbein.bsky.social
Rooted cosmopolitan. Covers Texas, science and climate at The Hill. Co-publisher of Heat Death with @asherelbein.bsky.social.
And we could not have asked for a better managing editor
This year I also stepped over onto the other side of the fence, becoming a commissioning and managing editor for HEAT DEATH, my newsletter with @saulelbein.bsky.social! I had the distinct pleasure of working on pieces like @kellymerka.bsky.social's brilliant recontextualization of NOPE
Alien Minds
Was Nope’s antagonist really a monster?
heat-death.ghost.io
November 21, 2025 at 10:12 PM
And we could not have asked for a better managing editor
Austin weather right now is insane
November 16, 2025 at 9:34 PM
Austin weather right now is insane
Never not thinking about the out-of-work British mill workers who agitated *against* the UK intervening on the side of the South and getting their jobs back because they fucking hated slavery
November 14, 2025 at 4:51 AM
Never not thinking about the out-of-work British mill workers who agitated *against* the UK intervening on the side of the South and getting their jobs back because they fucking hated slavery
Reposted by saul badman
In 1862, @saulelbein.bsky.social writes, suffering textile workers streamed into a Manchester meeting hall. At stake: whether Britain should join the Civil War on the side of the Confederacy. Proponents of "kitchen table politics" can learn a lot from what happened next.
New, on Heat Death!
New, on Heat Death!
Lions at the Kitchen Table
Saul considers the Lancashire Cotton Famine, political mythmaking and the cynical trap of "affordability"
heat-death.ghost.io
November 13, 2025 at 4:01 PM
In 1862, @saulelbein.bsky.social writes, suffering textile workers streamed into a Manchester meeting hall. At stake: whether Britain should join the Civil War on the side of the Confederacy. Proponents of "kitchen table politics" can learn a lot from what happened next.
New, on Heat Death!
New, on Heat Death!
This is a really sobering read.
NEW for the Ten Four:
The Adelanto ICE Processing Center and its conditions inside are the subject of dozens of concerning stories, but rarely is there an opportunity to actually talk to those inside the facility. I was able to get inside (kind of).
latenfour.com/2025/11/06/i...
The Adelanto ICE Processing Center and its conditions inside are the subject of dozens of concerning stories, but rarely is there an opportunity to actually talk to those inside the facility. I was able to get inside (kind of).
latenfour.com/2025/11/06/i...
Inside Adelanto: A Visit To Adelanto ICE Processing Facility
ADELANTO — Visitors pass through layers of security and silence to see those inside. Many haven’t seen their loved ones since they were detained by immigration authorities in Southern Califor…
latenfour.com
November 7, 2025 at 3:35 AM
This is a really sobering read.
Come for the prophesized doom of the suburbs, but also come for the first published account of the time @asherelbein.bsky.social almost gave our mother a heart attack by means of a snapping turtle
heat-death.ghost.io/the-suburbs-...
heat-death.ghost.io/the-suburbs-...
The Suburbs Sprawl on a Grave of Wildfire
How the crusade against nature made — and perhaps doomed — American development.
heat-death.ghost.io
November 6, 2025 at 5:09 PM
Come for the prophesized doom of the suburbs, but also come for the first published account of the time @asherelbein.bsky.social almost gave our mother a heart attack by means of a snapping turtle
heat-death.ghost.io/the-suburbs-...
heat-death.ghost.io/the-suburbs-...
I've been covering forests and fire for more than a decade and until we were pitched this piece, the connection between the federal crusade against fire and the sterility of the suburbs had never occurred to me.
The Suburbs Sprawl on a Grave of Wildfire
How the crusade against nature made — and perhaps doomed — American development.
heat-death.ghost.io
November 6, 2025 at 5:08 PM
I've been covering forests and fire for more than a decade and until we were pitched this piece, the connection between the federal crusade against fire and the sterility of the suburbs had never occurred to me.
Sure sure but what if also he shaved his head
As a fellow 34-year-old bearded guy I’m already finding it psychologically comforting to have Zohran around. If one of us is still wearing Ludlow-style navy suits and occasionally dealing with Slightly Puffy Face from certain angles, then I don’t have to worry about it either
November 6, 2025 at 5:05 PM
Sure sure but what if also he shaved his head
Reposted by saul badman
Worth also thinking about this nonsense in the context of @saulelbein.bsky.social’s piece on antisemitism — people can will themselves to believe that we are always on the precipice of pogrom (one mayor away!) if that is a useful ideological notion for your politics.
bsky.app/profile/ashe...
bsky.app/profile/ashe...
Everyone from Bari Weiss to Mike Johnson has been out running their mouths about antisemitism. Andrew Cuomo's doing so tonight on live TV.
@saulelbein.bsky.social has a very important question: what the fuck are these guys talking about?
@saulelbein.bsky.social has a very important question: what the fuck are these guys talking about?
The Myths of Antisemitism
Is "Jew Hatred" really so eternal?
heat-death.ghost.io
November 3, 2025 at 9:27 PM
Worth also thinking about this nonsense in the context of @saulelbein.bsky.social’s piece on antisemitism — people can will themselves to believe that we are always on the precipice of pogrom (one mayor away!) if that is a useful ideological notion for your politics.
bsky.app/profile/ashe...
bsky.app/profile/ashe...
This really is the divide I’m pointing to, which is above all a divide within the Jewish community: Cuomo arguing that Jews need him to protect them from other non-Jews.
heat-death.ghost.io/the-myths-of...
heat-death.ghost.io/the-myths-of...
October 17, 2025 at 2:48 PM
This really is the divide I’m pointing to, which is above all a divide within the Jewish community: Cuomo arguing that Jews need him to protect them from other non-Jews.
heat-death.ghost.io/the-myths-of...
heat-death.ghost.io/the-myths-of...
If there’s any great lesson from the AI age it’s that liberal arts may have been the smarter thing to study than tech
If these billionaire buttheads had gotten a good liberal arts education, they’d have read “Ozymandias.“
Conservative-leaning tech investors are racing to build a new American colossus, and they want something much, much bigger than the Statue of Liberty. Meet the new monuments men of the tech right and their plans for statue-maxing:
www.bloomberg.com/news/feature...
www.bloomberg.com/news/feature...
October 17, 2025 at 2:32 PM
If there’s any great lesson from the AI age it’s that liberal arts may have been the smarter thing to study than tech
By which I mean: the specific kind of antisemitism we now face is a specific tic of post-19th C blood and soil nationalism. It is *new and contingent,* not timeless, and that has to inform the strategy for confronting it.
What if I were to tell you that “the oldest hatred” was about as old as the telephone
Everyone from Bari Weiss to Mike Johnson has been out running their mouths about antisemitism. Andrew Cuomo's doing so tonight on live TV.
@saulelbein.bsky.social has a very important question: what the fuck are these guys talking about?
@saulelbein.bsky.social has a very important question: what the fuck are these guys talking about?
October 17, 2025 at 12:18 PM
By which I mean: the specific kind of antisemitism we now face is a specific tic of post-19th C blood and soil nationalism. It is *new and contingent,* not timeless, and that has to inform the strategy for confronting it.
Reposted by saul badman
Connecting the dots here is not hard.
October 17, 2025 at 2:01 AM
Connecting the dots here is not hard.
Reposted by saul badman
This article was amazing. Highly recommend you read it
Everyone from Bari Weiss to Mike Johnson has been out running their mouths about antisemitism. Andrew Cuomo's doing so tonight on live TV.
@saulelbein.bsky.social has a very important question: what the fuck are these guys talking about?
@saulelbein.bsky.social has a very important question: what the fuck are these guys talking about?
The Myths of Antisemitism
Is "Jew Hatred" really so eternal?
heat-death.ghost.io
October 17, 2025 at 2:31 AM
This article was amazing. Highly recommend you read it
Reposted by saul badman
"Don’t say we didn’t know, A genocide in the name of all of us" (rhymes in Hebrew)
Recorded in Jerusalem, Israel 👇
Recorded in Jerusalem, Israel 👇
October 17, 2025 at 12:19 AM
"Don’t say we didn’t know, A genocide in the name of all of us" (rhymes in Hebrew)
Recorded in Jerusalem, Israel 👇
Recorded in Jerusalem, Israel 👇
October 17, 2025 at 1:53 AM
What if I were to tell you that “the oldest hatred” was about as old as the telephone
Everyone from Bari Weiss to Mike Johnson has been out running their mouths about antisemitism. Andrew Cuomo's doing so tonight on live TV.
@saulelbein.bsky.social has a very important question: what the fuck are these guys talking about?
@saulelbein.bsky.social has a very important question: what the fuck are these guys talking about?
The Myths of Antisemitism
Is "Jew Hatred" really so eternal?
heat-death.ghost.io
October 17, 2025 at 1:37 AM
What if I were to tell you that “the oldest hatred” was about as old as the telephone
Reposted by saul badman
Everyone from Bari Weiss to Mike Johnson has been out running their mouths about antisemitism. Andrew Cuomo's doing so tonight on live TV.
@saulelbein.bsky.social has a very important question: what the fuck are these guys talking about?
@saulelbein.bsky.social has a very important question: what the fuck are these guys talking about?
The Myths of Antisemitism
Is "Jew Hatred" really so eternal?
heat-death.ghost.io
October 17, 2025 at 12:34 AM
Everyone from Bari Weiss to Mike Johnson has been out running their mouths about antisemitism. Andrew Cuomo's doing so tonight on live TV.
@saulelbein.bsky.social has a very important question: what the fuck are these guys talking about?
@saulelbein.bsky.social has a very important question: what the fuck are these guys talking about?
A forgotten pogrom teaches us about how we’ve been thinking about antisemitism wrong:
heat-death.ghost.io/the-myths-of...
heat-death.ghost.io/the-myths-of...
October 16, 2025 at 5:37 PM
A forgotten pogrom teaches us about how we’ve been thinking about antisemitism wrong:
heat-death.ghost.io/the-myths-of...
heat-death.ghost.io/the-myths-of...
We need to start rethinking how we talk about "antisemtism," and whether the stories we tell about it -- or that the idea of it makes us tell -- are true.
New, on HEAT DEATH! @saulelbein.bsky.social examines the uses and abuses of "eternal hatred" as a mythic theme in Jewish history, why it resonated at a particular historical moment, and what we lose when we start actually believing it
The Myths of Antisemitism
Is "Jew Hatred" really so eternal?
heat-death.ghost.io
October 16, 2025 at 5:35 PM
We need to start rethinking how we talk about "antisemtism," and whether the stories we tell about it -- or that the idea of it makes us tell -- are true.
This is misguided because it falls into the fatal mistake of Trump’s oil people = Big Oil. That’s wrong. Exxon has a lot to answer for, but they were fine with the Paris Accords and ”net zero by 2050” as long as they still owned everything in 2050.
a lot of people want to read Trump and team's fossil fuel obsession as being about *money* but while there is of course a corruption element, it's primarily pure culture war stuff. even many of the big fossil fuel companies want to get into renewables because it's so obviously the future.
Coal production and employment in Wyoming has steadily been declining, much like the rest of the industry in the US.
Coal is a dead industry.
(Chart from here: www.uwyo.edu/cbea/wyoming... )
Coal is a dead industry.
(Chart from here: www.uwyo.edu/cbea/wyoming... )
October 14, 2025 at 2:28 AM
This is misguided because it falls into the fatal mistake of Trump’s oil people = Big Oil. That’s wrong. Exxon has a lot to answer for, but they were fine with the Paris Accords and ”net zero by 2050” as long as they still owned everything in 2050.
Reposted by saul badman
Solar as a bridge to natural gas plants is really insane lol
October 13, 2025 at 2:26 AM
Solar as a bridge to natural gas plants is really insane lol
Reposted by saul badman
New, on HEAT DEATH! Against the backdrop of a relentlessly changing climate, guest writer Israel Kolawole explores the strange history of a longstanding American dream: the ability to bring rain on demand.
When The Desert Blooms
Inside the long, desperate quest to make it rain.
heat-death.ghost.io
October 9, 2025 at 12:48 PM
New, on HEAT DEATH! Against the backdrop of a relentlessly changing climate, guest writer Israel Kolawole explores the strange history of a longstanding American dream: the ability to bring rain on demand.
Man this one wrecked me
October 9, 2025 at 4:02 AM
Man this one wrecked me
Up close I swear to god their breathing sounds like Darth Vader
Genuinely the most danger I think I've ever been in from an animal was when -- while exploring a patch of Teas forest for snakes -- a big feral hog broke cover from a hidden depression literally right under my feet
if you have ever come across a boar in the wild unarmed (or even improperly armed) you have known mortal fear, just saying.
October 8, 2025 at 6:55 PM
Up close I swear to god their breathing sounds like Darth Vader