Freddy Tran Nager
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professorfreddy.bsky.social
Freddy Tran Nager
@professorfreddy.bsky.social
1.1K followers 56 following 1.9K posts
Marketing & Media Professor @USC | Creative Strategy Consultant | Writer | Raging Moderate | Los Angeleno | Cat Herder

Site: https://www.AtomicTango.com
LinkedIn: https://www.FreddyNager.com
USC: https://annenberg.usc.edu/faculty/freddy-tran-nager
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professorfreddy.bsky.social
On the last day of class, a student gave me this keychain of her cat's head. I hung it on the pin board next to my desk, so it's watching over me as I grade. Ah, I get it now.

#Caturday #Teaching
December 6, 2025 at 4:11 PM
professorfreddy.bsky.social
I don't know who originally posted this, but it's accurate, very accurate.
Image of a CD drive labeled "Works, but makes Sad Noises." Someone added the headline, "Got my performance review."
December 6, 2025 at 1:32 AM
professorfreddy.bsky.social
If you're a flan fan like I am, but know that a good flan is hard to find, make a plan to hit Trader Joe's when you can...

(NOT a paid endorsement.)

#food #desserts
December 5, 2025 at 11:24 PM
professorfreddy.bsky.social
Attn: all ye who love #books. Indie bookstore @powells.bsky.social of Portland, Oregon is having a 20% off sale sitewide:

www.powells.com

(This is not a paid endorsement, and I have no relation with them other than being a frequent customer.)

#BookSky
November 28, 2025 at 1:35 AM
professorfreddy.bsky.social
The LA Times is sadly a newspaper in serious decline. There is a tiny story nearly 2/3 down the front page. Given the number of Hong Kong immigrants and relatives in LA, that's just completely out of touch.
November 27, 2025 at 5:40 PM
professorfreddy.bsky.social
NY Times has several front-page stories on the HK fire:
November 27, 2025 at 5:30 PM
professorfreddy.bsky.social
On the premiere night for "Stranger Things" 5, Zoom decided to pull an upside down.
November 27, 2025 at 4:55 AM
professorfreddy.bsky.social
Love the opening to your story! I hope more people read your whole article and not just your post here.
November 26, 2025 at 4:32 PM
professorfreddy.bsky.social
OK, I know that this is a joke by a comedian, but it's not a terrible idea. That is, until the interviewer has heard the same excuse 100 times.

#humor #jobinterview
November 26, 2025 at 12:13 AM
professorfreddy.bsky.social
Batuman's main character says this about Dostoevsky. I'd say it's an ironic and self-deprecating reference to her own book.
Quote from Elif Batuman's "The Idiot": "He invents these supposedly complicated problems and then gets so worked up about them—like, it's hell, it's intolerable humiliation, it's the mathematically highest point of abasement. But to me, none of those things seem particularly hellish or humiliating or complicated. When I can't get worked up myself, I feel embarrassed. And tired."
November 24, 2025 at 4:39 PM
professorfreddy.bsky.social
I love #cats but... let's make that a no. Hard no.
Scary women's sweater with a giant protruding cat face and matching leggings.
November 21, 2025 at 9:10 PM
professorfreddy.bsky.social
Woohoo, Bluesky is more popular than Truth Social!
Translation: being ignored > being lied to.
(chart via @pewresearch.org)
Chart showing social media usage by U.S. adults. 4% of US adults have ever used Bluesky, 3% have ever used Truth Social.
November 20, 2025 at 11:50 PM
professorfreddy.bsky.social
I found a stick for you to use...

(source: www.wsj.com/lifestyle/th...)
November 18, 2025 at 12:52 AM
professorfreddy.bsky.social
Love this: @bookshop.org & @beaconpress.bsky.social have a featured list of #books called "Give The Gift Of Resistance":

bookshop.org/lists/give-t... #BookSky #RESIST!
November 17, 2025 at 4:32 PM
professorfreddy.bsky.social
Call me old fashioned: I prefer my politicians smart and my appliances dumb.

Smartify Everything by @marketoonist.bsky.social
marketoonist.com/2025/11/smar...

#tech #technology
November 17, 2025 at 3:45 PM
professorfreddy.bsky.social
I used Consensus.app to look up a widely stated claim that "20-30 year old males today spend less time outside than prison inmates.” Here's what it told me:

#research
There are currently no peer-reviewed studies directly supporting the specific claim that "20-30 year old males today spend less time outside than prison inmates." This statement is often cited in media and popular science discussions, but it does not appear to be substantiated by published academic research. If you are seeking evidence for this claim, you may need to reference reports or surveys on outdoor activity among young adults and compare them to documented prison yard time, but a direct comparative study is not available in the academic literature.
November 17, 2025 at 4:19 AM
professorfreddy.bsky.social
The newest version of Zoom provides direct access to The Beast. (I can't wait to say, "Satan, you're on mute.")

#tech #technology
Zoom update to version 6.6.6.
November 16, 2025 at 10:55 PM
professorfreddy.bsky.social
It's taken a few years, but USC finally called my number...
Duo Mobile notice summons 007
November 10, 2025 at 3:37 AM
professorfreddy.bsky.social
One of my most popular articles evaluated this very early meme:

The Right Brain vs Left Brain test … do you see the dancer turning clockwise or anti-clockwise?

atomictango.com/marketing/il... #socialmedia
November 9, 2025 at 6:38 PM
professorfreddy.bsky.social
Reading Elif Batuman's Harvard-inspired novel "The Idiot" (bookshop.org/a/115667/978...). This passage made me LOL and reminded me of courses I took in Asian history, where the profs ignored the pageantry of history and taught rice distribution in Tokugawa Japan.

#books #BookSky #HigherEd
Excerpt from The Idiot: "It was hard to decide on a literature class. Everything the professors said seemed to be somehow beside the point. You wanted to know why Anna had to die, and instead they told you that nineteenth-century Russian landowners felt conflicted about whether they were really a part of Europe. The implication was that it was somehow naive to want to talk about anything interesting, or to think that you would ever know anything important."
November 8, 2025 at 6:38 PM
professorfreddy.bsky.social
Isn't hosting the #Olympics supposed to boost the local economy, not exploit the natives? How much did Delta Airlines spend to sponsor a volunteer program?

#labor #exploitation #LosAngeles
LA28 Instagram posts encourages people to join the LA28 volunteer crew?
November 7, 2025 at 5:14 PM
professorfreddy.bsky.social
Former CIA analyst @fsnepp.bsky.social shares his perspective on how voters perceive economies; e.g., rating Biden's sound economy as bad. I found his insight on boredom intriguing. Hopeful note: it won't take much for these same voters to turn on Trump.

snepp.substack.com/p/even-a-mid... #RESIST
Boredom. When charts and numbers blur together, we tune out. That disengagement can matter as much as bad news itself. Boredom breeds indifference, indifference invites distortion, and distortion makes healthy economies look sick. In a democracy, inattentiveness is its own recession.
October 29, 2025 at 11:47 PM
professorfreddy.bsky.social
Sorry. We're hosting it in L.A.
October 28, 2025 at 8:46 PM
professorfreddy.bsky.social
Gee, thanks, Bill!

Oh, wait, you're talking about the #Dodgers and their epic #WorldSeries game. Oh, that was pretty cool, too. Freddie!!!

Story: www.latimes.com/sports/dodge...
LA Times sportswriter Bill Plaschke: "Freddie, meet Freddie. It was excruciating. It was exhausting. It was ecstatic. It was Fred-die, Fred-die, Fred-die, forever."
October 28, 2025 at 3:42 PM
professorfreddy.bsky.social
This morning's trending topics read like the meandering inebriated laments of a #Seattle #sports fan.

#Broetry
Trending topics, Sunday morning: NBA Tip-Off, Arsenal, June Lockhart, Liverpool, Mariners, Mariners
October 26, 2025 at 4:15 PM