Arwen Mohun
@arwenmohun.bsky.social
Award winning historian: risk, material culture, animals, Americans in the world, history of the senses are all on my beat. Music-making, horses, nature, and teaching all add meaning to my life.
This is very enlightening. Musk's grandfather played a leading role in the Technocracy movement (cult might be a better word). Musk is apparently just playing out a family script, including giving his kids numbers instead of names. Technocratic thinking run amok.
“Musk has long presented himself to the world as a futurist,” Jill Lepore, a professor of history and law, writes. Yet “few figures in public life are more shackled to the past.”
Opinion | The Rise and Fall of Elon Musk
His belief that liberal democracy has failed and that technologists should lead can be traced to the unusual life of his grandfather.
www.nytimes.com
April 10, 2025 at 12:19 PM
This is very enlightening. Musk's grandfather played a leading role in the Technocracy movement (cult might be a better word). Musk is apparently just playing out a family script, including giving his kids numbers instead of names. Technocratic thinking run amok.
Reposted by Arwen Mohun
Excellent & disturbing Jill Lepore piece about the family origins of Musk’s ideas: www.nytimes.com/2025/04/04/o...
Opinion | The Rise and Fall of Elon Musk
His belief that liberal democracy has failed and that technologists should lead can be traced to the unusual life of his grandfather.
www.nytimes.com
April 4, 2025 at 11:01 AM
Excellent & disturbing Jill Lepore piece about the family origins of Musk’s ideas: www.nytimes.com/2025/04/04/o...
Put on my risk expert hat for this interview: www.vox.com/even-better/...
Plane crashes, pandemics, toxic spatulas. How do we live with so much risk?
The world feels more menacing, even if it isn’t.
www.vox.com
April 4, 2025 at 4:01 PM
Put on my risk expert hat for this interview: www.vox.com/even-better/...
Speaking of penguins: youtu.be/xdjEXNX1nSA highly recommended. The penguin deserves an Oscar.
THE PENGUIN LESSONS | Official Trailer (2025)
YouTube video by Sony Pictures Classics
youtu.be
April 4, 2025 at 3:59 PM
Speaking of penguins: youtu.be/xdjEXNX1nSA highly recommended. The penguin deserves an Oscar.
Reposted by Arwen Mohun
I have tariffed
the penguins
that are on
Heard Island
and which
you were probably
assuming
did not export goods
forgive me
they were taking advantage of us
so cunning
and so cold
the penguins
that are on
Heard Island
and which
you were probably
assuming
did not export goods
forgive me
they were taking advantage of us
so cunning
and so cold
April 3, 2025 at 7:45 PM
I have tariffed
the penguins
that are on
Heard Island
and which
you were probably
assuming
did not export goods
forgive me
they were taking advantage of us
so cunning
and so cold
the penguins
that are on
Heard Island
and which
you were probably
assuming
did not export goods
forgive me
they were taking advantage of us
so cunning
and so cold
Visited the #AtlantaAquarium and lucked into a private tour of whale shark feeding. Reminded me of this moving book about why aquariums now emphasize conservation over spectacle (and why Atlanta doesn't have Orcas). 💙📚 #booksky
March 20, 2025 at 4:18 PM
Visited the #AtlantaAquarium and lucked into a private tour of whale shark feeding. Reminded me of this moving book about why aquariums now emphasize conservation over spectacle (and why Atlanta doesn't have Orcas). 💙📚 #booksky
Today's theme: books as tools for coping with this terrible historical moment. 💙📚 #booksky #umpteenbooks
March 20, 2025 at 4:11 PM
Today's theme: books as tools for coping with this terrible historical moment. 💙📚 #booksky #umpteenbooks
One of my favorite horse novels: I don't share Smiley's enthusiasm for thoroughbred racing but she makes a convincing case that she knows what both people and horses are thinking. 💙📚 #umpteenbooks #booksky 🐎
March 11, 2025 at 2:02 PM
One of my favorite horse novels: I don't share Smiley's enthusiasm for thoroughbred racing but she makes a convincing case that she knows what both people and horses are thinking. 💙📚 #umpteenbooks #booksky 🐎
Spring is coming and I have horses on the brain.This one's chock a block full of interesting facts and stories. 💙📚 🐎 #umpteenbooks #booksky
March 10, 2025 at 7:02 PM
Spring is coming and I have horses on the brain.This one's chock a block full of interesting facts and stories. 💙📚 🐎 #umpteenbooks #booksky
You-know-who's confusion about transgenic mice reminds me of Stuart Little, E.B. White's charming story. Perhaps the first transgenic mouse? 💙📚 #umpteenbooks #booksky
March 8, 2025 at 10:57 PM
You-know-who's confusion about transgenic mice reminds me of Stuart Little, E.B. White's charming story. Perhaps the first transgenic mouse? 💙📚 #umpteenbooks #booksky
Reposted by Arwen Mohun
At @standupforscience.bsky.social and the signs are statistically significantly excellent
March 7, 2025 at 6:51 PM
At @standupforscience.bsky.social and the signs are statistically significantly excellent
My first podcast interview about American Imperialist: available on the New Books Network newbooksnetwork.com/american-imp...
💙📚 #booksky
💙📚 #booksky
Arwen P. Mohun, "American Imperialist: Cruelty and Consequence in the Scramble for Africa" (Chicago UP, 2023) - New Books Network
newbooksnetwork.com
March 6, 2025 at 4:36 PM
My first podcast interview about American Imperialist: available on the New Books Network newbooksnetwork.com/american-imp...
💙📚 #booksky
💙📚 #booksky
Empires: past, present, and aspirational are on my mind. Maya Jasanoff's biography of Joseph Conrad insightfully connects past and present through the life of one man. 💙📚 #umpteenbooks #booksky
March 5, 2025 at 3:12 PM
Empires: past, present, and aspirational are on my mind. Maya Jasanoff's biography of Joseph Conrad insightfully connects past and present through the life of one man. 💙📚 #umpteenbooks #booksky
Speaking of parrots, here's another favorite animal book (with a historical perspective). De Waal had a front seat view of behavioralism's detrimental impacts, particularly on primate research. 💙📚 #booksky #umpteenbooks
March 2, 2025 at 5:37 PM
Speaking of parrots, here's another favorite animal book (with a historical perspective). De Waal had a front seat view of behavioralism's detrimental impacts, particularly on primate research. 💙📚 #booksky #umpteenbooks
Wish I lived closer. I'd bring Kaos, our grand old lady sun conure.
March 2, 2025 at 5:29 PM
Wish I lived closer. I'd bring Kaos, our grand old lady sun conure.
Archimedes, Merlin's owl companion says "there is no owl" when he closes his eyes and wants to be left alone--a catch phrase in the house I grew up in (and still relevant). 💙📚 #booksky #umpteenbooks #humananimalbooks
March 1, 2025 at 1:48 PM
Archimedes, Merlin's owl companion says "there is no owl" when he closes his eyes and wants to be left alone--a catch phrase in the house I grew up in (and still relevant). 💙📚 #booksky #umpteenbooks #humananimalbooks
How about a very different humans and animals book? 💙📚 #booksky #umpteenbooks
March 1, 2025 at 1:41 PM
How about a very different humans and animals book? 💙📚 #booksky #umpteenbooks
A few favorite animals in human history books, starting with our closest relatives, primates. What are your favorites? 💙📚 #booksky #umpteenbooks
February 28, 2025 at 1:36 PM
A few favorite animals in human history books, starting with our closest relatives, primates. What are your favorites? 💙📚 #booksky #umpteenbooks
Listening to @theresthistory.bsky.social guys on Leopold II in the Congo Free State. Glad that I'm not the only one noticing parallels between Leopold and Donald Trump. My book about American complicity with Leopold might have come out a year too early, but seems very relevant now. 💙📚 #booksky
February 27, 2025 at 1:36 PM
Listening to @theresthistory.bsky.social guys on Leopold II in the Congo Free State. Glad that I'm not the only one noticing parallels between Leopold and Donald Trump. My book about American complicity with Leopold might have come out a year too early, but seems very relevant now. 💙📚 #booksky
This series haunted my visit to Singapore. What if there were trapdoors to heaven and hell all over that squeaky clean city? 💙📚 #umpteenbooks #booksky
February 26, 2025 at 3:22 PM
This series haunted my visit to Singapore. What if there were trapdoors to heaven and hell all over that squeaky clean city? 💙📚 #umpteenbooks #booksky
Winter's Tale makes me think of other books that use an element of magic or magic realism to make familiar places strange. This series is addictive 💙📚 #umpteenbooks #booksky
February 26, 2025 at 3:15 PM
Winter's Tale makes me think of other books that use an element of magic or magic realism to make familiar places strange. This series is addictive 💙📚 #umpteenbooks #booksky
A different kind of winter book: 💙📚 #umpteenbooks #booksky
February 26, 2025 at 1:56 AM
A different kind of winter book: 💙📚 #umpteenbooks #booksky
Another favorite winter book #umpteenbooks #booksky 💙📚
February 24, 2025 at 4:20 PM
Another favorite winter book #umpteenbooks #booksky 💙📚
Trying again with winter themed books for the book challenge 💙📚 #booksky #umpteenbooks
February 23, 2025 at 4:44 PM
Trying again with winter themed books for the book challenge 💙📚 #booksky #umpteenbooks