Shefali S. Kulkarni
shefalikulkarni.bsky.social
Shefali S. Kulkarni
@shefalikulkarni.bsky.social
- Editor of Digital Storytelling and Training at NYT
- Fluent in GIFs
- Passionate about making our newsrooms look more like the real world
"At a coffee shop in Hillsboro, Ore., deputies and local police in Washington Co. responded in Oct. to multiple 911 calls that reported 10 armed men wearing masks who approached a car filled with high school students with weapons drawn in a crowded drive-through lane" www.nytimes.com/2026/02/13/u...
Beyond the Big Cities, ICE Is Rattling Small-Town and Exurban America
www.nytimes.com
February 13, 2026 at 7:46 PM
Reposted by Shefali S. Kulkarni
Allegations against those shot at by federal immigration agents have often failed to withstand scrutiny.

www.nytimes.com/2026/02/10/u...
February 11, 2026 at 6:17 PM
Reposted by Shefali S. Kulkarni
Benito is a threat b/c he makes art so alluring and enjoyable you want to understand everything about it and then you end up learning about sugar and slavery and colonialism and the Taínos and Hawaii and then you probably have some thoughts of your own, and that's why art is powerful and dangerous
February 9, 2026 at 1:38 AM
Reposted by Shefali S. Kulkarni
Martin Weil, one of hundreds of journalists being let go at The Washington Post, has worked on local news there since 1965.
He Was Laid Off at The Washington Post After Working There 60 Years
Martin Weil, one of hundreds being let go at The Post, has worked on local news there since 1965, witnessing the paper’s rise and now retrenchment.
nyti.ms
February 5, 2026 at 1:55 PM
Reposted by Shefali S. Kulkarni
"The Post is all of our “we”—the journalists fighting for it, the ones competing against it, those of us in the diaspora, and especially the community that counts on it and the nation that turns to it." Thank you @ashleyrparker.bsky.social www.theatlantic.com/politics/202...
The Murder of The Washington Post
Today’s layoffs are the latest attempt to kill what makes the paper special.
www.theatlantic.com
February 4, 2026 at 3:23 PM
"The trauma has affected each child differently...One of her 4-year-old twins screamed at the sight of someone holding spray-on deodorant, mistaking it for pepper spray...The baby requires nasal drops to fight the effects of the chemicals that inflamed his sinuses."
www.nytimes.com/2026/02/04/u...
A Winter of Anguish for Minneapolis Children
www.nytimes.com
February 4, 2026 at 3:22 PM
Let's live like Walden.

Paying homage to the long-dead Transcendentalist, some people are building full-scale replicas of Henry David Thoreau’s Walden cabin.

www.nytimes.com/2026/02/03/r... (by @doriechevlen.bsky.social)
They Went to the Woods Because They Wished to Live Deliberately
www.nytimes.com
February 4, 2026 at 3:01 PM
When he's not competing as a champion show dog, Nick, a Tibetan spaniel, is a therapy dog at a senior living center in Washington.
www.nytimes.com/2026/02/01/s...
Yes, Some Westminster Dogs Still Have Day Jobs
www.nytimes.com
February 2, 2026 at 4:39 PM
Fear of ICE is keeping pregnant immigrants in Minnesota from critical care 19thnews.org/2026/01/ice-... (via @19thnews.org)
Fear of ICE is keeping pregnant immigrants in Minnesota from critical care
Health care providers in Minnesota said pregnant patients are having more complications linked to stress. But fear of immigration agents is keeping them from prenatal care.
19thnews.org
January 31, 2026 at 4:33 PM
Reposted by Shefali S. Kulkarni
NEW: The @wired.com Security desk put together a comprehensive guide to filming ICE—with tips for reducing risk at the forefront. No paywall, but please consider subscribing to help find these kinds of resources. And stay safe out there. www.wired.com/story/how-to...

www.wired.com/v2/offers/wi...
How to Film ICE
Filming federal agents in public is legal, but avoiding a dangerous—even deadly—confrontation isn’t guaranteed. Here’s how to record ICE and CBP agents as safely as possible and have an impact.
www.wired.com
January 31, 2026 at 10:55 AM
New policies limiting the teaching of race and gender issues led administrators and professors to change hundreds of courses. School leaders say the rules could hurt A&M’s reputation.
www.nytimes.com/2026/01/30/u...
Texas A&M Ends Women’s Studies and Overhauls Classes Over Race and Gender
www.nytimes.com
January 30, 2026 at 8:47 PM
Reposted by Shefali S. Kulkarni
Boys’ reading struggles are not inevitable, research suggests, and addressing the deficit could improve outcomes in school and beyond.

www.nytimes.com/2026/01/30/u...
Why Boys Are Behind in Reading at Every Age
www.nytimes.com
January 30, 2026 at 2:25 PM
This reads like an episode of Brooklyn 99:

Mark Anderson, who had been working at a pizzeria, was charged with impersonating an F.B.I. agent. He was trying to free Luigi Mangione from jail and was found to be carrying a pizza cutter along with a barbecue fork.
www.nytimes.com/2026/01/29/n...
Pizza Cutter and a Fork: A Bizarre Bid to Break Mangione Out of Jail
www.nytimes.com
January 29, 2026 at 9:52 PM
Follow live updates from Minnesota here: www.nytimes.com/live/2026/01...

(Video: The Trump administration is planning to move Gregory Bovino, a Border Patrol official whose tactics in major American cities have drawn controversy, out of Minneapolis.) www.nytimes.com/video/us/100...
Video: Border Patrol Official Gregory Bovino Is Set to Leave Minnesota
The Trump administration is planning to move Gregory Bovino, the Border Patrol official leading an aggressive immigration crackdown, out of Minneapolis, officials said. Some protesters in the city exp...
www.nytimes.com
January 27, 2026 at 5:05 PM
Reposted by Shefali S. Kulkarni
Protests continued in Minneapolis after federal agents on Saturday fatally shot Alex Pretti, a 37-year-old man who was the second person to be killed in the city during demonstrations against the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown. Follow live updates. trib.al/NIyNYZi
January 26, 2026 at 12:19 AM
Bland colors, AI summaries, and declining literacy rates have lots of us worried that we’re losing our intelligence to the modern world. Can we get it back?

podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/t...

(Via @vox.com’s Today Explained podcast)
Battling brain rot
Podcast Episode · Today, Explained · 01/25/2026 · 31m
podcasts.apple.com
January 25, 2026 at 4:40 PM
When the Eaton Fire destroyed Pasadena Rosebud Academy, its executive director focused on keeping her students engaged and her community intact, even without a campus.

A year later, enrollment actually increased.

19thnews.org/2026/01/eato... (via @19thnews.org by @nadrakn.bsky.social)
She lost her school to a wildfire. What she saved was more important.
When the Eaton Fire destroyed Pasadena Rosebud Academy, its executive director focused on keeping her students engaged and her community intact, even without a campus.
19thnews.org
January 23, 2026 at 3:39 PM
The five-year-old, Liam Conejo Ramos, and his father, Adrian Alexander Conejo Arias, were taken to Dilley, Texas, outside of San Antonio, where they are being held at an immigration detention center, according to Marc Prokosch, a lawyer working with the family. www.nytimes.com/2026/01/22/u...
Detention of 5-Year-Old by Federal Agents Incenses Minneapolis
www.nytimes.com
January 22, 2026 at 9:35 PM
The Met Opera announced on Tuesday that it would lay off workers, cut the salaries of its top-paid executives and postpone a new production from its coming season
www.nytimes.com/2026/01/20/a...
Despite Drastic Financial Steps, Met Opera Turns to Layoffs and Cuts
www.nytimes.com
January 20, 2026 at 8:16 PM
Reposted by Shefali S. Kulkarni
I went to Minneapolis last week. What I saw was horrifying and inspiring in equal measure. Gift link to my latest column: www.nytimes.com/2026/01/19/o...
Opinion | In Minneapolis, I Glimpsed a Civil War
www.nytimes.com
January 19, 2026 at 12:56 PM
The rise of Rupert Murdoch and his media empire. (Via @vox.com’s Today Explained)

podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/t...
The making of the Fox News empire
Podcast Episode · Today, Explained · 01/19/2026 · 26m
podcasts.apple.com
January 20, 2026 at 1:36 AM
Claudette Colvin's refused to give up her bus seat in 1955, but her defiance was overshadowed later when Rosa Parks took a similar stand. Local civil rights leaders thought Colvin was too dark-skinned and too poor to win over Montgomery’s Black middle class.
www.nytimes.com/2026/01/13/u...
Claudette Colvin, Who Refused to Give Her Bus Seat to a White Woman, Dies at 86
www.nytimes.com
January 14, 2026 at 3:41 PM
Reposted by Shefali S. Kulkarni
“I knew it was going to start here,” said a local resident, who gave the name Aaron D., fighting back tears. “This neighborhood is deeply integrated, it’s deeply diverse.” www.wweek.com/news/city/20...
Federal Agents Wound Two People in Portland Shooting
The couple, a man and a woman, were found by police near Northeast 146th Avenue and Burnside Street, and were transported to local hospitals.
www.wweek.com
January 9, 2026 at 12:24 AM
The Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which funded NPR, PBS and hundreds of local radio and TV stations across the United States for more than a half-century, said that its board of directors voted to dissolve CPB because Congress cut off its federal money.
www.nytimes.com/2026/01/05/b...
Corporation for Public Broadcasting Votes to Shut Down
www.nytimes.com
January 5, 2026 at 9:37 PM
My reaction to literally all of 2026 so far:
January 5, 2026 at 5:02 PM