Jess Phoenix, Your Volcano Friend™️
LightNews LightNews
banner
volcanojess.com
Jess Phoenix, Your Volcano Friend™️
@volcanojess.com
9.7K followers 490 following 940 posts
That volcanologist you saw on TV. Ran for Congress, wrote MS. ADVENTURE, did the world's longest horse race. Host of CATASTROPHE! & THIS IS SCIENCE. Mohawk-haver, punk rock devotee, WFR, super into protecting democracy.
Posts Replies Media Videos
volcanojess.com
Apparently I made the front page of my friend's Reddit for an unfortunately evergreen tweet. Same as it ever was, unless WE change it, folks.
A tweet from the Jess Phoenix Twitter account that reads: "They want us to work hard every day to run their system, but they won't uphold the bargain by funding public schools, public healthcare, public childcare, public retirement...or anything "public" at all. If you get desperate & act out of line, go to prison...for their profits."
November 25, 2025 at 8:09 PM
volcanojess.com
Cool, time for COVID again. Went to a horse show last week. Been fully vaccinated every time a new vx is available & hadn't had a chance to get the latest one this go around.

4 days of feeling like ass so far, plus being able to think only marginally.

GET YOUR COVID VACCINE IF YOU CAN, PEOPLE.
A Covid antigen test showing a positive result.
November 6, 2025 at 5:33 PM
volcanojess.com
If you love baseball like I do, then you know you just witnessed the greatest World Series of our lifetimes.

Hats off to a phenomenal series, Toronto. You all were spectacular.

And now...

¡Vamos, Doyers!

I LOVE LA.
A profile view of Yoshinobu Yamamoto with the quote "Losing isn't an option" attributed to him.
November 2, 2025 at 4:51 AM
volcanojess.com
Seismic data showing vertical ground motion during the 15th inning of last night's ALDS game between the @mariners.com and the @tigers.bsky.social.

Yes, the place was really rockin'...and that's a geologic fact.
October 11, 2025 at 6:06 PM
volcanojess.com
Drop an old pic you still love.
September 22, 2025 at 9:38 PM
volcanojess.com
🗣️ Psst...coming soon to a podcast platform near you! 🌋⚒️🌏

Field Day wth Jess Phoenix, a new podcast featuring tales of exploration & science from the ends of the earth.
A yellow field notebook with the logo for Field Day with Jess Phoenix at the top. The text reads "A new podcast featuring tales of exploration and science from the ends of the earth. September 2025."
August 1, 2025 at 1:23 AM
volcanojess.com
My contribution to the discourse was: "Caught in a Bad Romance? Challenges Facing Women Geoscientists in the 21st Century." 2016. Geological Society of America Annual Meeting - Denver, Colorado, USA
A screenshot of a post from Michael McCullough that reads "Stop using pop culture references as the first half of the title of your journal article." A response below from Spirit, PhD, LPC, NCC, CPCS reads, "Who Gon Check Me, Boo: A Phenomenological Study of Entitled Gate Keeping of Scholarly Contributions."
June 27, 2025 at 12:42 AM
volcanojess.com
These folks left 6 garbage bags full of alcohol containers all over the house. They didn't clean anything for the month they had the place. They broke our custom kid/pet-safe pool cover. They broke our saltillo tile STAIRS, for crying out loud. You have to TRY to fuck things up this much.
June 25, 2025 at 12:10 AM
volcanojess.com
They also destroyed a brand new dining room set. It had one small scratch from being moved (it's heavy), and that was minimal with furniture touch-up pen. Now the table and chairs look like this.

Again, none of this was there beforehand and it definitely isn't normal wear and tear.
June 25, 2025 at 12:10 AM
volcanojess.com
They literally HUNG CURTAINS on windows that didn't have curtains. They tried to replaster and in one case, painted over with a shade of red that obviously didn't match. The walls are smooth & painted in semi-gloss. 🤦

I was not born yesterday, unfortunately for them.
June 25, 2025 at 12:10 AM
volcanojess.com
We also wear hard hats to work near actively erupting volcanic vents, and head protection can be helpful with other forms of projectiles, too. Home Depot carries hard hats! Who would've thought?
A redhead in a yellow hard hat, sunglasses, respirator, and orange safety vest stands in front of an SUV and a cloud of volcanic gases.
June 9, 2025 at 3:13 AM
volcanojess.com
🌋 Important volcanology tip: the respirators we use for protection from acid gases on volcanoes are effective against inhaling tear gas, and available at your local Home Depot. 💪
Photo of a redhead with a bandana and respirator on standing on a slope in front of an opaque gas cloud pointing at a sign overhead that says "Awas berbahaya gas beracun" and "Beware toxic gas."
June 9, 2025 at 2:41 AM
volcanojess.com
Thinking of my cousin Joey who died 11 years ago today due to a drug overdose. RFK Jr & Trump are cutting $1 BILLION from SAMSA, which played a massive role in reducing overdose deaths by 27% last year. Yes, you read that right: they're defunding what is actually saving lives.

Miss you, Joey. 💔
A bald white man with tattoos flexes his triceps while wearing a white tank top. He is in a basement with workout equipment.
May 16, 2025 at 5:19 AM
volcanojess.com
AI is killing higher ed. How many people here have seen its destruction of critical thinking skills evidenced in young employees or interns?
Screenshot of text from Intelligencer article that reads: It isn’t as if cheating is new. But now, as one student put it, “the ceiling has been blown off.” Who could resist a tool that makes every assignment easier with seemingly no consequences? After spending the better part of the past two years grading AI-generated papers, Troy Jollimore, a poet, philosopher, and Cal State Chico ethics professor, has concerns. “Massive numbers of students are going to emerge from university with degrees, and into the workforce, who are essentially illiterate,” he said. “Both in the literal sense and in the sense of being historically illiterate and having no knowledge of their own culture, much less anyone else’s.” That future may arrive sooner than expected when you consider what a short window college really is. Already, roughly half of all undergrads have never experienced college without easy access to generative AI. “We’re talking about an entire generation of learning perhaps significantly undermined here,” said Green, the Santa Clara tech ethicist. “It’s short-circuiting the learning process..."
May 14, 2025 at 7:59 PM
volcanojess.com
And also this:
May 1, 2025 at 5:46 AM
volcanojess.com
This is where I mention Terry Tempest-Williams' Refuge, and also suggest you grab a copy of my book Ms. Adventure.
Jess Phoenix holds a paperback copy of Ms. Adventure. She is in a bookstore.
April 22, 2025 at 11:37 PM
volcanojess.com
I suppose Voodoo being cute yesterday makes up for it a little, right?
A reddish-brown horse with two diamond-shaped white markings on his face lies propped up on his breastbone in deep sand. His legs are tucked up underneath his body, and he is giving the camera a quizzical look.
April 17, 2025 at 6:38 PM
volcanojess.com
Running a farm is being excited when you have a little money and then your well booster pump dies and oh, by the way you also need a new pressure tank to go with the new booster pump.

Farewell, $7400. We hardly knew ye. 🥲

Pic of the old booster pump that gave up the ghost.
A cylindrical blue Flint & Walking booster pump with a background of leaves and dirt.
April 17, 2025 at 6:31 PM
volcanojess.com
That's a lot of red, y'all. Are we great yet?
A screenshot showing 10 stock prices. All are down, and the corresponding numbers are framed in red, indicating losses.
April 3, 2025 at 3:57 PM
volcanojess.com
WISCONSIN: 👀
A Milwaukee Journal Sentinel graphic showing Susan Crawford ahead of Brad Schimel in the WI State Supreme Court election 56% to 44%.
April 2, 2025 at 2:03 AM
volcanojess.com
Almost everything is terrible, but our pony who had cancer is now cancer-free after treatment and back in work! Yay for Midnight Storm, a.k.a. Stormy! She is a 6yo formerly wild Morgan pony, and she is the cutest. So glad I could get her the care she needed to be healthy. 💙
A small, shiny dark brown pony with a poofy forelock poses for the camera with a smiling white person in the saddle. It's a lovely sunny day. A view from in the saddle of the dark brown pony. Beyond her neck, tousled mane, and ears, a dirt path with farm buildings, grass, and trees are visible.
March 22, 2025 at 5:34 AM
volcanojess.com
"Honest to God, I've never seen anything like it," is a hell of a statement from Steven Levitsky, the Harvard political scientist who literally wrote the books on Democratic backsliding and authoritarianism.

www.nytimes.com/2025/03/20/w...
A screenshot of an excerpt from a NY Times article titled, "This Is Worse’: Trump’s Judicial Defiance Veers Beyond the Autocrat Playbook." The text of the excerpt is, "President Trump’s intensifying conflict with the federal courts is unusually aggressive compared with similar disputes in other countries, according to scholars. Unlike leaders who subverted or restructured the courts, Mr. Trump is acting as if judges were already too weak to constrain his power. “Honest to god, I’ve never seen anything like it,” said Steven Levitsky, a Harvard political scientist and coauthor of “How Democracies Die” and “Competitive Authoritarianism.” “We look at these comparative cases in the 21st century, like Hungary and Poland and Turkey. And in a lot of respects, this is worse,” he said. “These first two months have been much more aggressively authoritarian than almost any other comparable case I know of democratic backsliding.”
March 20, 2025 at 9:38 PM
volcanojess.com
I am a scientist.

Elon Musk hates science.

#ScienceWillNotBeSilent
A picture of a redhead wearing a rappelling helmet with GoPro mounted on top, blue safety sunglasses, and smiling at the camera. In the background is a very tall cliff face with a pool of dark blue water at the bottom. The text reads, "I am a scientist. Here I am rappelling into the world's third-largest sinkhole to collect data. Elon Musk hates science. Why else would someone kill scientific research?"
March 17, 2025 at 3:15 AM
volcanojess.com
Nope. Fortunately the opening narrowed quite a bit, so it wasn't super hard to stay in a good spot. The visuals were still pretty great, though.
March 14, 2025 at 6:55 PM
volcanojess.com
Just a reminder that somewhere, a group of scientists is conducting research about our planet that will change our understanding of our home world forever.

That doesn't mean we always look sane doing it, but we're out there working to advance #science for everyone.
A group of 4 scientists with hiking backpacks on poses with arms and legs akimbo over a dark grey basalt rock amidst a sea of basalt. There is a basalt cliff behind them. A redheaded scientist smiles up from inside a volcanic vent. The basalt on the walls of the vent is oxidized a reddish color. The vent has no visible bottom.
March 14, 2025 at 6:35 PM