Ryann Liebenthal
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ryannliebenthal.bsky.social
Ryann Liebenthal
@ryannliebenthal.bsky.social
450 followers 930 following 570 posts
Spent the past 5 years raising two boys and writing a book about student debt, called BURDENED. You can learn more about the latter here: ryannliebenthal.com
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ryannliebenthal.bsky.social
I don’t know why, but this one really gets me.
10:354 Done ous-chaja-f79791.netlify.app On Mon, May 16, 2016 at 3:56 PM, jeffrey E. wrote: how are you On Mon, May 16, 2016 at 2:35 PM, Gerald Barton < Jeffrey, wrote: I am certainly glad that you have thick skin and care little about what the press says. I am sorry that you have to appear tolerant against intolerance. From all appearances, you fulfill the challenge of Kipling when he said: "If you can talk with crowds and keep your Virtue, Or walk with Kings - nor lose the common touch, If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you, If all men count with you, but none too Cnuch." In spite of outward appearances, I know very few know how you really feel and I can only hope that that feeling is shown best in the naming of your airplane.
November 13, 2025 at 6:54 AM
ryannliebenthal.bsky.social
He looks suspiciously like a young Jean-Pierre Léaud…
Picture of Jean-Pierre Léaud from what looks to be the Baisers Volés era. Copied from https://www.adrianmartinfilmcritic.com/images/essays/leaud.jpg
November 9, 2025 at 8:32 PM
ryannliebenthal.bsky.social
Man, Cuomo must be so relieved to have finally clinched the endorsement of a guy despised by 70% of New Yorkers.
NYT article hed and dek: Live Updates: Trump Endorses Cuomo for N.Y.C. Mayor in Race’s Final Stretch The president called Zohran Mamdani, the Democratic front-runner, incapable of leading the city and said a vote for the Republican nominee, Curtis Sliwa, would be wasted.
November 3, 2025 at 11:02 PM
ryannliebenthal.bsky.social
Where they always have been.

www.idahostatesman.com/news/politic...
Democratic support has remained strongest in central Boise and in the North and East Ends, where the Democratic candidate has regularly received over 50% of the vote since at least Barack Obama’s 2012 campaign. Support for Democrats was highest in the North End in 2020, with Joe Biden hitting a high of nearly 88%. Support flagged for Kamala Harris in the same area, receiving nearly 83% this year. Voters between Meridian and Boise have consistently been the most split between Democratic and Republican presidents. In one neighborhood near Summerwind Elementary School, residents in 2020 voted for Trump by a 0.11% margin.
October 19, 2025 at 7:26 AM
ryannliebenthal.bsky.social
dril meme from 2014: the wise man bowed his head solemnly and spoke: "theres actually zero difference between good & bad things. you imbecile. you fucking moron"
September 20, 2025 at 5:07 AM
ryannliebenthal.bsky.social
if only people(’s roommates) were allowed to live as they are
2yo Reddit post in r/exchristian: “What’s your experience with spiritual abuse?” Responses: > was told i was possessed by a demon and then within 30 mins kicked outta the house because i started laughing and wouldn’t go to the bishop for a blessing. later found out they just didn’t like me and were looking for a way to get me out of the house, wasn’t even 18 at the time. >> OP: That whole “you’re possessed by a demon” thing seems to be a go-to response for Christian parents whose children won’t fall in line. It’s incredibly abusive - kids have been killed over that lie. I’m sorry you were on the receiving end, but glad you’re no longer under their roof. >>> yeah, always my recommendation to people nowadays. if you have to deal with wacky evangelism, simply leave because you won’t be able to help them and they will continue to hurt you.
September 15, 2025 at 11:19 PM
ryannliebenthal.bsky.social
www.nytimes.com/1954/05/09/a...
Picture of the first page of an article by Joost A. M. Meerloo, M.D., in the May 9, 1954 edition of the New York Times. The hed and subhed read: Pavlov's Dogs and Communist Brainwashers Through a monstrous misuse of famous psychological techniques the totalitarians seek to enslave the human mind.
September 9, 2025 at 8:39 PM
ryannliebenthal.bsky.social
This Jewish Currents remembrance of Awdah Hathaleen, a beloved Palestinian man murdered last month in his West Bank village, is absolutely gutting.

The ongoing Israeli genocide is not limited to Gaza. Under official sanction, settlers feel free to murder their Palestinian neighbors in cold blood. 💔
On the night before he was killed, Palestinian schoolteacher, activist, and father of three Awdah Hathaleen addressed solidarity activists from around the world in a webinar that we hosted to strengthen support for the Palestinian struggle in the Masafer Yatta region of the West Bank. Awdah was from the Palestinian Bedouin hamlet of Umm al-Khair, where he had been born in 1994, just under 50 years after his family was expelled from the Naqab desert during the Nakba, and a decade after the encroaching Israeli settlement of Carmel was established as part of a strategic corridor of illegal developments designed to systematically expel Masafer Yatta’s rural communities. Awdah played a central role in efforts to counter settler attacks, land expropriation, and state violence throughout the region, all of which have intensified over the last years, especially since October 7th. [THE FOLLOWING PASSAGE IS HIGHLIGHTED:] “Here in Umm al-Khair, every day, something is going to happen. We don’t know when, we don’t know why, we don’t know what. But something will happen,” Awdah shared on the last night of his life. “I want to be safe. I want to tell my family: ‘Nothing is going to happen tomorrow.’”
August 21, 2025 at 6:30 PM
ryannliebenthal.bsky.social
Are you familiar with her brother Lenny Liebenthal?
An orange tabby on a bad, wearing glasses and looking mildly annoyed An orange tabby in a large blue plastic bag, with his head sticking out of one of the handles An orange tabby looking sophisticated inside a cardboard box, with one paw placed on the edge, like in a gouache portrait. An orange tabby on a bed, lying on top of an open laptop, shooting a gives-no-fucks glare at the photographer
August 9, 2025 at 8:47 PM
ryannliebenthal.bsky.social
In retrospect, these red-flag passages from EXPECTING BETTER should have been tip-offs about the (un-)soundness of her judgment:
Excerpt from EXPECTING BETTER in which Emily Oster’s husband, Jesse, sounds like a selfish prick: “When Jesse and I decided we should have a baby, I convinced him that we had to move out of our third-floor walk-up. Too many steps with a stroller, I declared. He agreed, as long as I was willing to do the house shopping. “I got around to it sometime in February, in Chicago, and I trekked in the snow to fifteen or sixteen seemingly identical houses.” Excerpt from EXPECTING BETTER in which Jesse decides he’s too lazy to protect his developing child from even the risk of toxoplasmosis (or, at a BARE MINIMUM, to spare his pregnant partner having to bend over daily to pick up cat shit!): “When I was pregnant with Penelope, I had a cat—Captain Mittens. She wasn't the nicest cat, but I brought her into the marriage and I was responsible for taking care of her. Which included cleaning the litter box. When I got pregnant I received a large number of e-mails (from my mother, my friend Nancy, etc.) with dire warnings about the cat: ‘Do not clean the litter box!’ sometimes with multiple exclamation points. “My doctor was kind of dismissive about this concern. She told me that if I didn’t want the chore anymore, I could tell Jesse that it was dangerous, but in her view it was fine. I did briefly decide to foist it on Jesse, but he wasn’t buying. He’d do anything to protect his baby, but, as he constantly reminds me, the Captain isn’t *his* cat. He wanted to know why, exactly, it was a problem for me to do this.” Excerpts (Google preview won’t show me the pages) of a passage from EXPECTING BETTER in which Jesse questions why Oster woke him up to tell him she was pregnant and just generally displays himself to be an immature asshole: "[I woke?] Jesse up immediately. He was happy, but groggy. He wondered why I hadn't let him sleep until his alarm went off at 7. Was there anything we needed to do right now? No? Then why get him up? He put a pillow over his head and fell [asleep]" […] “…(Jesse had decided to sleep in after being so rudely awakened)." […] "…Jesse would constantly question the restrictions. ‘What’s the big deal?’ he would say, waving a wasabi-coated piece of raw fish in front of me. ‘You eat this stuff normally and it doesn't make you sick; why avoid it now…’” God I hate this guy: “‘Thanks, this is helpful,’ Jesse wrote (we were doing this over e-mail; you would be surprised how much better that is for complicated analyses). ‘But I don’t have enough information. If the noninvasive testing goes well, what will the remaining risk be? And how risky is the CVS or amniocentesis (and, for that matter, …” [cut off by Google].
July 31, 2025 at 7:08 PM
ryannliebenthal.bsky.social
feeling better and better about the breakup email I wrote her when I unsubscribed to her newsletter 3.5 years ago (while newly pregnant w/ kid no. 2 and desperately awaiting vaccine authorization for kid no. 1.).
Email to Emily Oster, dated Jan. 8, 2022, 11:27 a.m.: Dear Dr. Oster, Apologies for this critical email, but I felt compelled to share with you the reason I have decided to unsubscribe from your newsletter. I’ve become increasingly disappointed in the mounting and unabated arrogance you’ve demonstrated over the very murky COVID schools/work/activity question. You consistently project a confidence that is simply not matched by the data you marshal for it. I have been a fan of your first two books, which helped me manage the anxiety of pregnancy and early motherhood, and which I have recommended to and purchased for others. But to be honest, I’m now wondering if your conclusions in the books are drawn from similarly inadequate data reserves (the irony!), and if I was naive to think I could allow someone else to cut through that difficult information-analysis process for me. In short, I think you may be doing real harm right now, the extent of which we may not know for some time. I hope I’m wrong, but I fear I’m not. Response email from Oster, dated Jan. 8, 2022, 11:44 a.m.: Ryann, Thanks so much for letting me know and I'm sorry to see you go. On the topic of schools, which is really the primary area that I have been active policy-wise, I do feel strongly that the benefits to opening greatly outweigh the harms. This is based to some extent on the data we have collected, but much more significantly on a large and growing literature from other scholars. However, I understand the sensitivity of this topic and agree probably it is best if you do not continue to read the newsletter. Very best wishes, Emily
July 31, 2025 at 6:32 PM
ryannliebenthal.bsky.social
Not of primary concern, but who the hell copyedits that rag?
July 7, 2025 at 2:36 AM
ryannliebenthal.bsky.social
Dai-dai-yeinu, dai-dai-yeinu, dai-dai-yeinu, dayeinu dayeinu dayeinu
Instagram post by Shai Davidai (shaidavidai): We got through Pharaoh, we’ll get through this.
June 25, 2025 at 10:47 PM
ryannliebenthal.bsky.social
Chicago’s opinion below.

My own personal take is that hyphenating such national/ethnic designations suggests a subtle minimization of Americanness (by modifying it), whereas keeping them open indicates a distinct identity that is no less American than any other.
8: Names, Terms, and Titles of Works 8.40: COMPOUND NATIONALITIES Chapter Contents / Ethnic, Socioeconomic, and Other Groups Whether terms such as African American, Italian American, Chinese American, and others expressing a dual national or regional heritage should be spelled open or hyphenated has been the subject of some debate. But since the hyphen does not aid comprehension in such terms as those mentioned above, Chicago advises omitting it unless a particular author or publisher prefers otherwise. See also the table at 7.96, section 2, under proper nouns and adjectives relating to geography or nationality.
June 25, 2025 at 5:02 PM
ryannliebenthal.bsky.social
TFW you’re an orchestrator of content improvement lifecycles.
The Manager of Content will report to General Assembly’s Director of Learning Design and will standardize the decision framework to modularize content, develop the content incubation process, and orchestrate the content improvement lifecycles needed to strategically create or update content to meet our expected business needs and outcomes. They will become an expert of all content offerings, and diligently uphold the learning experience and design standards determined by the full learning team. This role will support full-time, matrixed, and contracted contributors dedicated to learning experience design, contextualized development, flexible capacity, and content strategy. This role is preferred to be U.S.-based with flexibility to be 100% remote.
June 24, 2025 at 4:21 PM
ryannliebenthal.bsky.social
I didn’t tell you anything—I asked a question.

Anyway, it’s not comprehensive (yeah, I go to protests and call my electeds and sometimes volunteer, rah rah rah), but if you don’t think this is worthwhile, then you can go fuck yourself.
Screenshot of a Bluesky profile page: @ryannliebenthal.bsky.social Spent the past 5 years raising two boys and writing a book about student debt, called BURDENED. You can learn more about the latter here: ryannliebenthal.com
June 13, 2025 at 5:15 AM
ryannliebenthal.bsky.social
My spouse showed me this quote of hers; I think about it almost every day.

www.the-tls.co.uk/regular-feat...
Q: If you could make a change to anything you’ve written over the years, what would it be? Ursula K. Le Guin: In The Dispossessed, I would mention the communal pickle barrels at street corners in the big towns, restocked by whoever in the community has made or kept more pickles than they need. I knew about the free pickles all along, but never could fit them into the book.
April 17, 2025 at 4:15 AM
ryannliebenthal.bsky.social
You’re actually not too far off: en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Basque_...
Wikipedia: “The largest concentration of Basque Americans is in the Boise, Idaho, area, where approximately 15,000 Basque Americans live.[22] Boise is home of the Basque Museum and Cultural Center[23] and hosts a large Basque festival known as Jaialdi every five years. They also host a number of other Basque festivals, including the San Inazio Festival each summer[24] and there are many Basque restaurants located in Boise.[25] A large majority of the Boise Basque community traces its ancestry to Bizkaia (Vizcaya in Spanish, Biscay in English) in northern Spain.[26]”
April 11, 2025 at 5:54 PM
ryannliebenthal.bsky.social
this is the Mormonest-ass shit I’ve ever seen
Wikipedia page for “Jared and Jerusha Hess”
April 10, 2025 at 1:50 AM
ryannliebenthal.bsky.social
Also, this is literally the *worst* advice possible.
“In two separate cases, school officials suggested in writing that a student take out private loans to pay off an outstanding balance.”
April 9, 2025 at 5:42 PM
ryannliebenthal.bsky.social
Here’s a key distinction: mountains.
Sawtooth Mountians: https://www.allsunvalley.com/sawtooth_recreation_area/sawtooth_mountains.php White Cloud Mountains: https://www.pewtrusts.org/en/research-and-analysis/articles/2015/08/12/boulder-white-clouds-win-idaho-gem-protected-as-wilderness?amp=1 Sun Valley: https://visitsunvalley.com/winter/15-things-you-must-do-in-sun-valley-idaho-this-winter/ Grand Targhee: https://localfreshies.com/grand-targhee-mountain-biking-the-quiet-version-of-whistler/
April 6, 2025 at 4:57 AM
ryannliebenthal.bsky.social
Here’s the correct one (courtesy my mom).
Lots of people in front of the Idaho state capitol in Boise.
April 6, 2025 at 4:41 AM
ryannliebenthal.bsky.social
They seem to think working a mass factory line is synonymous with handbuilding an artisan Shaker cabinet.

The reality is going to come as as a bit of a…um, surprise.
Excerpt from page 347 of E. P. Thompson’s “The Making of the English Working Class”: “A Minister of unidentified affiliations […] related the story of a boy whom he had recently interred who had been found standing asleep with his arms full of wool and had been beaten awake. This day he had worked seventeen hours; he was carried home by his father, was unable to eat his supper, awoke at 4 a.m. the next morning and asked his brothers if they could see the lights of the mill as he was afraid of being late, and then died.”
April 5, 2025 at 6:02 PM
ryannliebenthal.bsky.social
Movie poster cover: Once Unbelievable Now Unthinkable The Chilling Classic Returns Frank Sinatra Laurence Harvey Janet Leigh The Manchurian Candidate Also Starring [?-illegible] Angela Lansbury | Henry Silva | James Gregory
March 24, 2025 at 6:34 AM
ryannliebenthal.bsky.social
You can rest easy.
A search for “muffing” on bluesky.com returns no results.
March 20, 2025 at 4:05 AM