Cat McGinn
@acatinatree.bsky.social
Wordsmith, music obsessive, stranger in a strange land. I think & write about media, AI, tech and the human impact. Curator @UnmadeMedia.
Storyteller | Showrunner | Strategist
Mama, feminist, shamanic womancrafter, surf kook. she/her
Storyteller | Showrunner | Strategist
Mama, feminist, shamanic womancrafter, surf kook. she/her
Your daily reminder that if billionaires truly wanted everyone to have universal basic income, we’d already have it.
What they want would be better characterised as universal basic serfdom.
What they want would be better characterised as universal basic serfdom.
August 13, 2025 at 12:36 AM
Your daily reminder that if billionaires truly wanted everyone to have universal basic income, we’d already have it.
What they want would be better characterised as universal basic serfdom.
What they want would be better characterised as universal basic serfdom.
My absolute disinterest in new Gabaldon spin-off Blood of my Blood reveals that I’m less an Outlander fan, and more a Sam Heughan in a ginger wig fan. Do I need to renounce my Scottishness now?
August 13, 2025 at 12:33 AM
My absolute disinterest in new Gabaldon spin-off Blood of my Blood reveals that I’m less an Outlander fan, and more a Sam Heughan in a ginger wig fan. Do I need to renounce my Scottishness now?
Has Anyone Really Been Far Even as Decided to Use Even Go Want to do Look More Like?
August 7, 2025 at 5:11 AM
Has Anyone Really Been Far Even as Decided to Use Even Go Want to do Look More Like?
My new personal KPI for any future piece of writing is how many men DM me to explain that they’re not the problem.
I’ve started a new Substack (because the world needs more people writing about AI on Substack…): first post, mostly satirical:
l1m1nal.substack.com/p/ai-is-my-b...
l1m1nal.substack.com/p/ai-is-my-b...
AI is my boyfriend*
PartnerOS: anticipatory care, zero sulkware
l1m1nal.substack.com
August 6, 2025 at 4:34 AM
My new personal KPI for any future piece of writing is how many men DM me to explain that they’re not the problem.
Any recommendations for films you can watch with a seven and eleven year old without wanting to claw your own face off?
August 1, 2025 at 5:39 AM
Any recommendations for films you can watch with a seven and eleven year old without wanting to claw your own face off?
At the risk of being all old man shouts at cloud about this, when did we collectively decide headphones weren’t mandatory for watching videos on the train, and could we please reconsider?
July 29, 2025 at 5:55 AM
At the risk of being all old man shouts at cloud about this, when did we collectively decide headphones weren’t mandatory for watching videos on the train, and could we please reconsider?
I’ve started a new Substack (because the world needs more people writing about AI on Substack…): first post, mostly satirical:
l1m1nal.substack.com/p/ai-is-my-b...
l1m1nal.substack.com/p/ai-is-my-b...
AI is my boyfriend*
PartnerOS: anticipatory care, zero sulkware
l1m1nal.substack.com
July 29, 2025 at 12:57 AM
I’ve started a new Substack (because the world needs more people writing about AI on Substack…): first post, mostly satirical:
l1m1nal.substack.com/p/ai-is-my-b...
l1m1nal.substack.com/p/ai-is-my-b...
I love how Sam Altman’s relationship to AI accountability is basically “a big boy did it and ran away.”
www.cnn.com/2025/07/22/t...
www.cnn.com/2025/07/22/t...
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman warns of an AI ‘fraud crisis’ | CNN Business
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman says the world may be on the precipice of a “fraud crisis” because of how artificial intelligence could enable bad actors to impersonate other people.
www.cnn.com
July 22, 2025 at 10:55 PM
I love how Sam Altman’s relationship to AI accountability is basically “a big boy did it and ran away.”
www.cnn.com/2025/07/22/t...
www.cnn.com/2025/07/22/t...
“I picked my head up and I loved the world that I knew wouldn’t always be mine.”
A beautiful essay:
The Poet Who Advocated Radical Tenderness www.nytimes.com/2025/07/20/o...
A beautiful essay:
The Poet Who Advocated Radical Tenderness www.nytimes.com/2025/07/20/o...
Opinion | The Poet Who Advocated Radical Tenderness
www.nytimes.com
July 22, 2025 at 3:56 AM
“I picked my head up and I loved the world that I knew wouldn’t always be mine.”
A beautiful essay:
The Poet Who Advocated Radical Tenderness www.nytimes.com/2025/07/20/o...
A beautiful essay:
The Poet Who Advocated Radical Tenderness www.nytimes.com/2025/07/20/o...
Reposted by Cat McGinn
Reposted by Cat McGinn
From Lorena Allam - "Here’s some Indigenous truth-telling: structural police racism had a hand in the death of Kumanjayi Walker"
www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
Here’s some Indigenous truth-telling: structural police racism had a hand in the death of Kumanjayi Walker | Lorena Allam
After the inquest into the Aboriginal teenager’s death, the coroner found constable Zachary Rolfe operated in a system that failed on a number of occasions to ‘rein him in’
www.theguardian.com
July 7, 2025 at 10:46 PM
From Lorena Allam - "Here’s some Indigenous truth-telling: structural police racism had a hand in the death of Kumanjayi Walker"
www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
“And how should we behave during this Apocalypse?
We should be unusually kind to one another, certainly. But we should also stop being so serious. Jokes help a lot. And get a dog, if you don’t already have one.”
- Kurt Vonnegut, Armageddon in Retrospect
We should be unusually kind to one another, certainly. But we should also stop being so serious. Jokes help a lot. And get a dog, if you don’t already have one.”
- Kurt Vonnegut, Armageddon in Retrospect
July 7, 2025 at 7:04 AM
“And how should we behave during this Apocalypse?
We should be unusually kind to one another, certainly. But we should also stop being so serious. Jokes help a lot. And get a dog, if you don’t already have one.”
- Kurt Vonnegut, Armageddon in Retrospect
We should be unusually kind to one another, certainly. But we should also stop being so serious. Jokes help a lot. And get a dog, if you don’t already have one.”
- Kurt Vonnegut, Armageddon in Retrospect
A (brief) moment of school holiday crafting calm. Monty cares not a jot that he’s being immortalised through the medium of collage.
How absurdly, disproportionately fortunate we are, and what an obscenity that all children don’t have this basic safety.
How absurdly, disproportionately fortunate we are, and what an obscenity that all children don’t have this basic safety.
July 5, 2025 at 11:39 PM
A (brief) moment of school holiday crafting calm. Monty cares not a jot that he’s being immortalised through the medium of collage.
How absurdly, disproportionately fortunate we are, and what an obscenity that all children don’t have this basic safety.
How absurdly, disproportionately fortunate we are, and what an obscenity that all children don’t have this basic safety.
This is a great thread. Thank you for the opportunity to learn and the amazing storytelling @swingingstorm.bsky.social
(Think I need “AND THEN THE FUCKING BRITISH SHOWED UP” on a t-shirt, as a British person living on stolen land.)
(Think I need “AND THEN THE FUCKING BRITISH SHOWED UP” on a t-shirt, as a British person living on stolen land.)
My mom and stepdad are from the same diaspora group as Zohran Mamdani’s dad (same like “my stepdad was kicked out of the same town and knows some of his classmates”) and apparently the New York Times doesn’t understand how diaspora works, so I am going to tell you a little about my mom’s people!
July 4, 2025 at 11:17 PM
This is a great thread. Thank you for the opportunity to learn and the amazing storytelling @swingingstorm.bsky.social
(Think I need “AND THEN THE FUCKING BRITISH SHOWED UP” on a t-shirt, as a British person living on stolen land.)
(Think I need “AND THEN THE FUCKING BRITISH SHOWED UP” on a t-shirt, as a British person living on stolen land.)
Haven’t been here in a hot minute but now @firebirdasusual.bsky.social is here, the vibes are guaranteed to improve. Genocides and polycrises notwithstanding, how’s everyone?
July 4, 2025 at 10:34 PM
Haven’t been here in a hot minute but now @firebirdasusual.bsky.social is here, the vibes are guaranteed to improve. Genocides and polycrises notwithstanding, how’s everyone?
Crackpot theory du jour: genAI was invented at the behest of scumbag billionaires with serious misdeeds and skeletons in closets to give them plausible deniability when evidence of their crimes get leaked.
March 14, 2025 at 12:42 AM
Crackpot theory du jour: genAI was invented at the behest of scumbag billionaires with serious misdeeds and skeletons in closets to give them plausible deniability when evidence of their crimes get leaked.
This cause is close to my heart - please sign: www.megaphone.org.au/petitions/ta...
Take The Stand
Survivors of rape and sexual assault participate in the criminal justice system of their own free will. The system would collapse in regards to sexual crimes, without their voluntary involvement. Many...
www.megaphone.org.au
February 23, 2025 at 8:14 AM
This cause is close to my heart - please sign: www.megaphone.org.au/petitions/ta...
Did Pantone just ship literal shit and hope no one would notice? Truly we are living in a simulation.
January 28, 2025 at 10:39 PM
Did Pantone just ship literal shit and hope no one would notice? Truly we are living in a simulation.
I really didn’t expect “are Nazis bad?” to be the polarising topic of 2025.
Can someone please do a hard reset for the year please, before things get any worse?
Can someone please do a hard reset for the year please, before things get any worse?
January 23, 2025 at 6:27 AM
I really didn’t expect “are Nazis bad?” to be the polarising topic of 2025.
Can someone please do a hard reset for the year please, before things get any worse?
Can someone please do a hard reset for the year please, before things get any worse?
At my local independent cinema to watch We Live In Time, in part because a scheduled cry is in order.
January 21, 2025 at 6:34 AM
At my local independent cinema to watch We Live In Time, in part because a scheduled cry is in order.
I like my cars like I like my (wo)men: well travelled and filthy.
Just back from an awfully big adventure in Kosciuszko national park, the lands of the Wiradjuri, Wolgalu, Ngunnawal and Monaro Ngarigo people.
Extraordinary beauty in wild country. Hiking, swimming, stargazing.
HNY friends.
Just back from an awfully big adventure in Kosciuszko national park, the lands of the Wiradjuri, Wolgalu, Ngunnawal and Monaro Ngarigo people.
Extraordinary beauty in wild country. Hiking, swimming, stargazing.
HNY friends.
January 9, 2025 at 8:38 AM
I like my cars like I like my (wo)men: well travelled and filthy.
Just back from an awfully big adventure in Kosciuszko national park, the lands of the Wiradjuri, Wolgalu, Ngunnawal and Monaro Ngarigo people.
Extraordinary beauty in wild country. Hiking, swimming, stargazing.
HNY friends.
Just back from an awfully big adventure in Kosciuszko national park, the lands of the Wiradjuri, Wolgalu, Ngunnawal and Monaro Ngarigo people.
Extraordinary beauty in wild country. Hiking, swimming, stargazing.
HNY friends.
Reposted by Cat McGinn
If you are in greater LA and have N95 masks or better, please consider distributing some to the unhoused. The air quality is horrific and only sixty hotel vouchers have been available so far.
January 9, 2025 at 5:30 AM
If you are in greater LA and have N95 masks or better, please consider distributing some to the unhoused. The air quality is horrific and only sixty hotel vouchers have been available so far.
I used to despise emojis. Thought they were a lazy and trivial form of communication. Now, so often, so very often, the atrocities of the world leave me levelled and wordless;
left only with this
💔
left only with this
💔
December 18, 2024 at 11:56 AM
I used to despise emojis. Thought they were a lazy and trivial form of communication. Now, so often, so very often, the atrocities of the world leave me levelled and wordless;
left only with this
💔
left only with this
💔
Just risked life and limb by clambering onto my roof to get rid of piles of leaves and flammable debris ahead of next week’s heatwave & likely bushfires. It turns out I will chance death rather than do my overdue tax return. So maybe only one thing is inevitable, Mr Franklin.
December 15, 2024 at 3:23 AM
Just risked life and limb by clambering onto my roof to get rid of piles of leaves and flammable debris ahead of next week’s heatwave & likely bushfires. It turns out I will chance death rather than do my overdue tax return. So maybe only one thing is inevitable, Mr Franklin.
Listening to the audiobook of Yuval Noah Harari’s Nexus, published earlier this year. There have been references to “Aborigines.” Harari, with his meticulous research habits, should surely know better. And pretty appalling that Penguin’s editors, in 2024, are letting that term go to print.
December 14, 2024 at 7:46 AM
Listening to the audiobook of Yuval Noah Harari’s Nexus, published earlier this year. There have been references to “Aborigines.” Harari, with his meticulous research habits, should surely know better. And pretty appalling that Penguin’s editors, in 2024, are letting that term go to print.