Zeb Larson
@zeblarson.bsky.social
Freelance writer with a PhD in history. Ex-academic; studied the anti-apartheid movement. Emeritus adjunct. Became a software engineer in 2020. Words in Teen Vogue, Smithsonian, Jacobin, BBC.
He/Him
zeb-larson.com
He/Him
zeb-larson.com
Pinned
We Need More Leftist Crime Fiction
Critics of crime fiction dismiss the genre as hopelessly reactionary, but its history tells a different story. From hard-boiled American detective novels to the explosion of Scandi-noir, crime fiction...
jacobin.com
I've been dying to write this for a long time. I love crime fiction and detective fiction; it's how I prefer to relax. I reject the idea that it has to be conservative or reactionary, and Jacobin was kind enough to let me write this essay extolling why we can't surrender this terrain.
Reposted by Zeb Larson
Trump’s White House UFC fight is an elevation of brutality.
Fascism has appeal because its energies exist within all of us. We all have the capacity for hate and violence. What makes liberal democracy unique is how it asks us to transcend our basest selves.
www.liberalcurrents.com/merry-christ...
Fascism has appeal because its energies exist within all of us. We all have the capacity for hate and violence. What makes liberal democracy unique is how it asks us to transcend our basest selves.
www.liberalcurrents.com/merry-christ...
Merry Christmas, I Don’t Want To Fight: Trump’s White House UFC Event and The Politics of Violence
Trump is seeking to elevate America’s most violent professional sport to an emblem of national identity.
www.liberalcurrents.com
December 24, 2025 at 10:06 AM
Trump’s White House UFC fight is an elevation of brutality.
Fascism has appeal because its energies exist within all of us. We all have the capacity for hate and violence. What makes liberal democracy unique is how it asks us to transcend our basest selves.
www.liberalcurrents.com/merry-christ...
Fascism has appeal because its energies exist within all of us. We all have the capacity for hate and violence. What makes liberal democracy unique is how it asks us to transcend our basest selves.
www.liberalcurrents.com/merry-christ...
A special end-of-year/end-of-season episode of the podcast I’ve been working on, and with a very good friend of mine: Prexy Nesbitt. Prexy’s been a labor organizer, teacher, and activist for decades; he was also heavily active in the anti-apartheid movement.
Special End-of-Season Episode! “Resistant Communiqués: Bringing Liberation Activism Home By Working Abroad with Prexy Nesbitt”
Resistant Communiqués Podcast, S1, E7
resistantcommpod.substack.com
December 28, 2025 at 8:50 PM
A special end-of-year/end-of-season episode of the podcast I’ve been working on, and with a very good friend of mine: Prexy Nesbitt. Prexy’s been a labor organizer, teacher, and activist for decades; he was also heavily active in the anti-apartheid movement.
Reposted by Zeb Larson
A lot of writers have busted their butts all year to publish great fiction, non-fiction, poetry, and journalism.
Consider sharing their work today. Consider what you send people's attention to.
Consider sharing their work today. Consider what you send people's attention to.
December 28, 2025 at 4:58 PM
A lot of writers have busted their butts all year to publish great fiction, non-fiction, poetry, and journalism.
Consider sharing their work today. Consider what you send people's attention to.
Consider sharing their work today. Consider what you send people's attention to.
Reposted by Zeb Larson
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has stated that the 1918 flu pandemic was caused by a lab virus from vaccine research, a defective influenza vaccine. Let’s analyze what a lie this is. First, in 1918, 107 years ago, virology was in its infancy
December 27, 2025 at 11:42 PM
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has stated that the 1918 flu pandemic was caused by a lab virus from vaccine research, a defective influenza vaccine. Let’s analyze what a lie this is. First, in 1918, 107 years ago, virology was in its infancy
Reposted by Zeb Larson
Waking up to complicate “don’t network, just make friends!” discourse:
There’s folks in the field who like/respect my work who are not my friends (or even friendly)
There’s also folks who’re friends/friendly who don’t like (are unaware of, have no use for, are baffled by, misunderstand) my work.
There’s folks in the field who like/respect my work who are not my friends (or even friendly)
There’s also folks who’re friends/friendly who don’t like (are unaware of, have no use for, are baffled by, misunderstand) my work.
December 28, 2025 at 1:34 PM
Waking up to complicate “don’t network, just make friends!” discourse:
There’s folks in the field who like/respect my work who are not my friends (or even friendly)
There’s also folks who’re friends/friendly who don’t like (are unaware of, have no use for, are baffled by, misunderstand) my work.
There’s folks in the field who like/respect my work who are not my friends (or even friendly)
There’s also folks who’re friends/friendly who don’t like (are unaware of, have no use for, are baffled by, misunderstand) my work.
“Free speech champion/warrior/absolutist” has become a red flag on par with “heterodox thinker” or “gender critical”.
“it is illegal for you not to like me”
This is the logical and inevitable conclusion of the last decade of elite media "free speech" discourse.
December 28, 2025 at 12:44 PM
“Free speech champion/warrior/absolutist” has become a red flag on par with “heterodox thinker” or “gender critical”.
This is actually also how you start to fix academic life fwiw. But yes, even just for writing you need to work with people and not affirmation bots. You need people to understand subtext, to ask useful questions back, and to sometimes just tell you it needs work.
I mean this in the kindest way: this could be solved by creating meaningful connections with your peers/colleagues. I have a writing group and a thinking group and plenty of people to text or call with questions, and it doesn’t require draining the earth of resources or stealing work.
If you use it as a dialogic thinking space where you externalities thought and use it to hold, reshape, question, extent, perturb your thinking. Just like a good teacher or mentor could, except you need to set and guide the interaction style.
December 28, 2025 at 12:23 AM
This is actually also how you start to fix academic life fwiw. But yes, even just for writing you need to work with people and not affirmation bots. You need people to understand subtext, to ask useful questions back, and to sometimes just tell you it needs work.
Post a perfect album from the 90s that isn’t Nirvana, Pearl Jam, Soundgarden, or Alice in Chains
December 28, 2025 at 12:20 AM
Post a perfect album from the 90s that isn’t Nirvana, Pearl Jam, Soundgarden, or Alice in Chains
Reposted by Zeb Larson
If I’ve developed a personal philosophy in the past few years, it’s that nostalgia poisons interpersonal relations, expectations for the future, and even our politics. I devoted most of my life to thinking about the past and I’m begging people to find a way to leave it there.
December 27, 2025 at 9:20 PM
If I’ve developed a personal philosophy in the past few years, it’s that nostalgia poisons interpersonal relations, expectations for the future, and even our politics. I devoted most of my life to thinking about the past and I’m begging people to find a way to leave it there.
Reposted by Zeb Larson
Right?? It's my job to find this stuff, and I have NO hope of even pretence at an overview. And I love that. I've always hated totalising and canonising critics, and now the illusion is busted wide open. We need whole new understandings of discernment. Here's fifty from me....
Joe Muggs on Instagram: "fifty albums I love from 2025 in no particular order
Tunng – Love You All Over Again
Kokoroko – Tuff Times Never Last
KiF – Still Out
Sherelle – With a Vengeance
The B...
32 likes, 2 comments - joemuggs on December 23, 2025: "fifty albums I love from 2025 in no particular order
Tunng – Love You All Over Again
Kokoroko – Tuff Times Never Last
KiF – Still Out
Shere...
www.instagram.com
December 27, 2025 at 10:35 PM
Right?? It's my job to find this stuff, and I have NO hope of even pretence at an overview. And I love that. I've always hated totalising and canonising critics, and now the illusion is busted wide open. We need whole new understandings of discernment. Here's fifty from me....
Reposted by Zeb Larson
cataclysmic cuts in transit service across trimet and the entire state of oregon are underway thanks to the failure of the 2025 legislature, and the republican repeal of the band aid transportation funding bill.
2025 was brutal for US transit. Agencies faced budget deficits, flat ridership, and open hostility from the White House.
I wrote a series of stories outlining ways to help transit endure.
Lesson #1: Whatever you do, don’t cut service. Riders will leave – permanently.
Here are a few others 🧵
I wrote a series of stories outlining ways to help transit endure.
Lesson #1: Whatever you do, don’t cut service. Riders will leave – permanently.
Here are a few others 🧵
The Last Thing US Transit Agencies Should Do Now
Rising costs and widening deficits as pandemic aid runs out are challenging bus and train operators in many cities. But cutting service needs to be a last resort.
www.bloomberg.com
December 27, 2025 at 10:12 PM
cataclysmic cuts in transit service across trimet and the entire state of oregon are underway thanks to the failure of the 2025 legislature, and the republican repeal of the band aid transportation funding bill.
Reposted by Zeb Larson
good place to bookmark “saudade” and the beautiful aspects of remembrance we feel and express through art. I’d argue this is a superior concept to nostalgia because it is also a state of grief that acknowledges the past is gone and not coming back
December 27, 2025 at 9:51 PM
good place to bookmark “saudade” and the beautiful aspects of remembrance we feel and express through art. I’d argue this is a superior concept to nostalgia because it is also a state of grief that acknowledges the past is gone and not coming back
I even see this with culture: so many goddamned people complain about "music today" when there's been an incredible explosion in how easy it is to find and access good music FROM ANY TIME PERIOD. There's so much good music being made right now! Don't confine yourself to shit from your teenage years!
If I’ve developed a personal philosophy in the past few years, it’s that nostalgia poisons interpersonal relations, expectations for the future, and even our politics. I devoted most of my life to thinking about the past and I’m begging people to find a way to leave it there.
December 27, 2025 at 9:42 PM
I even see this with culture: so many goddamned people complain about "music today" when there's been an incredible explosion in how easy it is to find and access good music FROM ANY TIME PERIOD. There's so much good music being made right now! Don't confine yourself to shit from your teenage years!
Reposted by Zeb Larson
Nostalgia for the past combined with cynicism about the future is an especially deadly combination!
If I’ve developed a personal philosophy in the past few years, it’s that nostalgia poisons interpersonal relations, expectations for the future, and even our politics. I devoted most of my life to thinking about the past and I’m begging people to find a way to leave it there.
December 27, 2025 at 9:21 PM
Nostalgia for the past combined with cynicism about the future is an especially deadly combination!
If I’ve developed a personal philosophy in the past few years, it’s that nostalgia poisons interpersonal relations, expectations for the future, and even our politics. I devoted most of my life to thinking about the past and I’m begging people to find a way to leave it there.
December 27, 2025 at 9:20 PM
If I’ve developed a personal philosophy in the past few years, it’s that nostalgia poisons interpersonal relations, expectations for the future, and even our politics. I devoted most of my life to thinking about the past and I’m begging people to find a way to leave it there.
Reposted by Zeb Larson
“Then they shouldn’t have voted for this!”
Bitch, Asheville is a blue college town and the county has gone blue for decades. I am so sick of this “if I pretend disasters only happen to red areas, it means I’m safe because I’m properly on the left!” No. You’re not safe. That’s why we save everybody.
Bitch, Asheville is a blue college town and the county has gone blue for decades. I am so sick of this “if I pretend disasters only happen to red areas, it means I’m safe because I’m properly on the left!” No. You’re not safe. That’s why we save everybody.
Hundreds of residents signed up for FEMA buyouts after Hurricane Helene. Not one has been approved.
Hundreds of residents signed up for FEMA buyouts after Helene. Not one has been approved.
More than a year after applying for a federal buyout, many North Carolina homeowners have heard almost nothing definitive.
www.washingtonpost.com
December 27, 2025 at 9:05 PM
“Then they shouldn’t have voted for this!”
Bitch, Asheville is a blue college town and the county has gone blue for decades. I am so sick of this “if I pretend disasters only happen to red areas, it means I’m safe because I’m properly on the left!” No. You’re not safe. That’s why we save everybody.
Bitch, Asheville is a blue college town and the county has gone blue for decades. I am so sick of this “if I pretend disasters only happen to red areas, it means I’m safe because I’m properly on the left!” No. You’re not safe. That’s why we save everybody.
Reposted by Zeb Larson
Matt Taibbi made his name writing about his own sexual abuse of women and girls, so of course he has no problem with Epstein
I went and checked what Matt Taibbi is up to these days and it's some truly breathtaking meditations on just how much of a pedophile Jeffrey Epstein was. "JEFFREY EPSTEIN IS THE NEW RUSSIAGATE" is galaxy brain stuff
December 27, 2025 at 8:04 PM
Matt Taibbi made his name writing about his own sexual abuse of women and girls, so of course he has no problem with Epstein
Get to know your follows
10 random things you like
Cubanos
Earl Hines’ big band
Detective novels
Coffee with chicory in it
Slice of life anime
Making people laugh
Gummi colas
Indigenous art from the Southwest
Star Trek
Book stores
10 random things you like
Cubanos
Earl Hines’ big band
Detective novels
Coffee with chicory in it
Slice of life anime
Making people laugh
Gummi colas
Indigenous art from the Southwest
Star Trek
Book stores
Get to know your follows
10 random things you like
LOTR
Walking through cities in the pre-dawn quiet
The chord progression for Dylan's "Blind Willie McTell"
Warm sourdough bread w/ butter
Venture Bros
Terry Pratchett books
The peace at the end of a full day
Smell of lemon blossoms
DS9
My son's art
10 random things you like
LOTR
Walking through cities in the pre-dawn quiet
The chord progression for Dylan's "Blind Willie McTell"
Warm sourdough bread w/ butter
Venture Bros
Terry Pratchett books
The peace at the end of a full day
Smell of lemon blossoms
DS9
My son's art
Get to know your follows
10 random things you like
My dog Floyd
Your dog
Eminem
Cheese
Black coffee
Big bear hugs
Tears of laughter
Comfortable silence
Incense & peppermints
Doodling & thoughts on paper
10 random things you like
My dog Floyd
Your dog
Eminem
Cheese
Black coffee
Big bear hugs
Tears of laughter
Comfortable silence
Incense & peppermints
Doodling & thoughts on paper
December 27, 2025 at 1:55 AM
Get to know your follows
10 random things you like
Cubanos
Earl Hines’ big band
Detective novels
Coffee with chicory in it
Slice of life anime
Making people laugh
Gummi colas
Indigenous art from the Southwest
Star Trek
Book stores
10 random things you like
Cubanos
Earl Hines’ big band
Detective novels
Coffee with chicory in it
Slice of life anime
Making people laugh
Gummi colas
Indigenous art from the Southwest
Star Trek
Book stores
Reposted by Zeb Larson
it's just maddening to watch Missouri's politics be completely dominated by republicans, who have zero ideas — the only option is to try to make the state into a rich people playground, and that is NEVER GOING TO WORK — this is MISSOURI — RICH PEOPLE DON'T WANT TO LIVE HERE
December 26, 2025 at 3:08 PM
it's just maddening to watch Missouri's politics be completely dominated by republicans, who have zero ideas — the only option is to try to make the state into a rich people playground, and that is NEVER GOING TO WORK — this is MISSOURI — RICH PEOPLE DON'T WANT TO LIVE HERE
David Baszucki right now
December 27, 2025 at 12:41 AM
David Baszucki right now
The thing about Oregon politics is that the state shares the same fervor for low-tax bullshit as their very red neighbors. They like the sound of nice things, but definitely don't want to have to pay for them.
Cutting property taxes for Oregonians affected by wildfires. Canceling planned freeway tolls. Pausing local new taxes in the Portland area. We have to keep going to make life more affordable for Oregonians.
December 26, 2025 at 5:57 PM
The thing about Oregon politics is that the state shares the same fervor for low-tax bullshit as their very red neighbors. They like the sound of nice things, but definitely don't want to have to pay for them.
Reposted by Zeb Larson
All of us who write & publish hope that your work finds audiences. & all of us who write & publish public scholarship believe, whatever our specific subjects & disciplines might be, that we have something to contribute to our collective conversations. I've felt that so acutely throughout 2025. +
December 22, 2025 at 7:08 PM
All of us who write & publish hope that your work finds audiences. & all of us who write & publish public scholarship believe, whatever our specific subjects & disciplines might be, that we have something to contribute to our collective conversations. I've felt that so acutely throughout 2025. +
Does anybody else think the depiction of Fuller in Home Alone is both really mean-spirited and also just weird? Bedwetting is hugely embarrassing for children; kids who do it don’t joke about it. Even as a kid I didn’t think it was funny, but as an adult it’s bizarre and cruel.
December 24, 2025 at 7:37 PM
Does anybody else think the depiction of Fuller in Home Alone is both really mean-spirited and also just weird? Bedwetting is hugely embarrassing for children; kids who do it don’t joke about it. Even as a kid I didn’t think it was funny, but as an adult it’s bizarre and cruel.
Scam to steal some state money?A rebranding of sluggishly progressing schizophrenia? Why not both.
Shamp’s Senate Bill 1070 would direct the #Arizona Dept of Health Services to conduct or support research to “advance the understanding of Trump Derangement Syndrome, including its origins, manifestations and long-term effects on individuals, communities and public discourse.”
Arizona lawmaker wants state to study ‘Trump Derangement Syndrome’
What, your heart isn't bursting with love for the commander in chief? Are you feeling OK?
www.phoenixnewtimes.com
December 24, 2025 at 12:48 PM
Scam to steal some state money?A rebranding of sluggishly progressing schizophrenia? Why not both.
Reposted by Zeb Larson
the thing with hiring wholly unqualified people who know it is they let you do whatever because staying in the post they know they don't deserve is the only goal, it's not an accident
Literally any other attorney general before Bondi would have fought tooth and nail and then resigned over this alone. Letting White House staff take over making public statements in the name of DOJ is in and of itself completely insane.
Sounds legit
December 24, 2025 at 11:43 AM
the thing with hiring wholly unqualified people who know it is they let you do whatever because staying in the post they know they don't deserve is the only goal, it's not an accident