Breaking News in Turbulent Times, and other stories
Welcome to Ramin’s Space, the newsletter from science writer and editor Ramin Skibba. You can read more about the newsletter here. If you like it, please consider subscribing and sharing this post.
Last week, I co-organized with fellow leaders of the National Association of Science Writers a virtual roundtable, “Breaking News in Turbulent Times.” Our speakers included three excellent reporters and editors: Vittoria Elliott at WIRED, Alejandra Borunda at NPR, and Dave Levitan at Splinter. The event was not recorded, to respect concerns of the speakers.
Elliott and her colleagues have been breaking important stories about the so-called DOGE agency, including its incompetent staffers, its collaboration with Peter Thiel’s tech surveillance company Palantir, and its disastrous uses of AI tools. Levitan has also been covering Trump administration news and abuses, while Borunda and her team covered the Los Angeles fires and their aftermath, including ash and debris cleanup, and lingering effects of wildfire smoke. The common theme is honestly that journalists are exhausted right now, and they need support. It’s also important for journalists to protect themselves, both legally and their mental health (and their physical health too, while reporting on natural disasters).
I also recommend checking out our final roundtable, called “Covering Trans Health,” which will be next Tuesday, June 17, at 10 a.m. Pacific time / 1 p.m. Eastern. It’s free and open to everybody, and a recording will be available afterward to NASW members. Some journalists at the New York Times, Washington Post, and elsewhere haven’t consistently covered trans issues well, in my opinion. Critics point to misleading portrayals of people’s responses to gender-affirming care and detransition rates, for example. The speakers at this event, including Tre'vell Anderson (Trans Journalists Association), Tyler Santora (freelance), and Evan Urquart (Assigned Media), will surely discuss these issues and more.
Finally, I’ve also seen some misleading coverage of the anti-ICE protests in LA, Chicago, and other cities. The protests have mostly been peaceful, and by most accounts, it was the arrival of National Guard troops and Marines that escalated the situation, though the LAPD also played a role in suppressing protests, and one police officer shot an Australian reporter with a rubber bullet on live TV.
I’ve seen some good coverage too, including this take by Brian Merchant on the weaponization of Waymo, and Joseph Cox at 404 Media showed that the Border Patrol was flying Predator drones over the protests. (Trump and other US presidents have deployed such drones, built by San Diego’s General Atomics, for “targeted killings” in multiple Middle Eastern countries.) I also liked this take, “ICE’s War on Home,” by Anahid Nersessian in the London Review of Books. I hope police respond better to the nearly 2,000 No Kings protests planned for tomorrow, coinciding with President Trump’s military parade. Stay safe, everyone.
One more thing: I have a magazine feature and a news story being published soon that I’m looking forward to sharing with you all. Stay tuned for my next newsletter!
In other writing…
Selling Off Our Public Lands is a Bad Idea, a New York Times opinion piece by Michelle Nijhuis
The Debate That American Conservationists Should Be Having, a piece arguing for protecting ecosystems directly, by Emma Marris in The Atlantic
A Disaster Big Enough, about the state of climate policy today, by Jake Bittle in the new issue of The Drift. I also recommend An EPA Without Science, an essay by Jonathan Mingle in the New York Review of Books.
Is A River Alive?, a new book I’m curious to read, by Robert MacFarlane
An Oceanic Tempo, an essay by James Bradley in Aeon magazine, about marine life and our relationship with time
Poetry by Nasser Rabah in The Paris Review. I also recommend this commentary by Mosab Abu Toha in Lit Hub.
All That Blue, an essay about Mars and life, by student writer Serena Meloche, in the new issue of Guernica magazine
The Ethics of Listening to Whales, an Emergence magazine podcast episode with Rebecca Giggs, James Bridle, and others
What I’m reading: Snow, a novel by Orhan Pamuk, and Nothing More to Lose, poetry by Najwan Darwish
Looking back: Six years ago, I wrote this piece for OneZero magazine (R.I.P.) about invasive smartphone searches at the border. This is an even bigger problem today, as border agents use and possibly abuse their broad authority. If you’re a journalist, activist, or immigrant, you should definitely protect yourself while traveling and observe digital hygiene. (Here and here are some tips.)
More about me: I’m a science writer, editor, and journalist based in the Bay Area. I was WIRED magazine’s space writer until December 2023, and before that I worked as a freelance writer and an astrophysicist. You can find me at my website, raminskibba.net, and on Bluesky and Twitter. I’m also former president of the San Diego Science Writers Association (SANDSWA) and on the board of the National Association of Science Writers (NASW), though the opinions I express are mine alone. If someone has forwarded this email to you, you’re welcome to subscribe too.