Beth Popp Berman
@epopppp.bsky.social
Professor @ a large Midwestern univ. Wrote a book about economists + policy, one about academic science + policy.
Temporarily on the "government is breaking" beat, but I'd rather be posting about public utility debates from 1906.
I support 🏳️⚧️ rights.
Temporarily on the "government is breaking" beat, but I'd rather be posting about public utility debates from 1906.
I support 🏳️⚧️ rights.
Reposted by Beth Popp Berman
Nearly every mechanism that made my career possible—Ford, NSF, Harvard BiGS—is gone or on the way to the chopping block.
This means NSF dissertation improvement grants in the social sciences are simply...not happening.
NEW from me - NSF cancels grant scheme for social science research.
Seems the NSF quietly archived ALL calls for DDRIG grants in the SBE directorate. This is a massive blow for PhD students wanting to do cutting-edge social science research. 🏺🧪
Seems the NSF quietly archived ALL calls for DDRIG grants in the SBE directorate. This is a massive blow for PhD students wanting to do cutting-edge social science research. 🏺🧪
November 27, 2025 at 1:33 PM
Nearly every mechanism that made my career possible—Ford, NSF, Harvard BiGS—is gone or on the way to the chopping block.
You’ve been kidnapped. The characters from the last TV show you watched are trying to rescue you. Who’s coming to save you?
November 27, 2025 at 1:37 PM
You’ve been kidnapped. The characters from the last TV show you watched are trying to rescue you. Who’s coming to save you?
Cool cool cool
The US is deregulating banks. Will the rest of the world follow?
New rules will boost lending and profits and entrench American dominance. But critics say they could lead to another crash
www.ft.com
November 27, 2025 at 1:23 PM
Cool cool cool
Reposted by Beth Popp Berman
Public man-made death: The dismantling of USAID “has already caused the deaths of six hundred thousand people, two-thirds of them children.”
That’s 1000+ excess dead children every day. Every day.
hsph.harvard.edu/news/usaid-s...
That’s 1000+ excess dead children every day. Every day.
hsph.harvard.edu/news/usaid-s...
USAID shutdown has led to hundreds of thousands of deaths | Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health
The Trump administration’s decision to shut down the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) has resulted in hundreds of thousands of deaths from infectious diseases and malnutrition, accord...
hsph.harvard.edu
November 27, 2025 at 12:44 PM
Public man-made death: The dismantling of USAID “has already caused the deaths of six hundred thousand people, two-thirds of them children.”
That’s 1000+ excess dead children every day. Every day.
hsph.harvard.edu/news/usaid-s...
That’s 1000+ excess dead children every day. Every day.
hsph.harvard.edu/news/usaid-s...
This means NSF dissertation improvement grants in the social sciences are simply...not happening.
NEW from me - NSF cancels grant scheme for social science research.
Seems the NSF quietly archived ALL calls for DDRIG grants in the SBE directorate. This is a massive blow for PhD students wanting to do cutting-edge social science research. 🏺🧪
Seems the NSF quietly archived ALL calls for DDRIG grants in the SBE directorate. This is a massive blow for PhD students wanting to do cutting-edge social science research. 🏺🧪
Today's biggest science news: Doomed comet explodes | Comet 3I/ATLAS course alteration | Dark matter detected?
Wednesday, Nov. 26, 2025: Your daily feed of the biggest discoveries and breakthroughs making headlines.
www.livescience.com
November 27, 2025 at 1:16 PM
This means NSF dissertation improvement grants in the social sciences are simply...not happening.
Reposted by Beth Popp Berman
I wrote a short piece on capitalism and the states-system for @phenomenalworld.bsky.social
www.phenomenalworld.org/analysis/bet...
www.phenomenalworld.org/analysis/bet...
November 24, 2025 at 2:11 PM
I wrote a short piece on capitalism and the states-system for @phenomenalworld.bsky.social
www.phenomenalworld.org/analysis/bet...
www.phenomenalworld.org/analysis/bet...
This just spontaneously happened, and makes me feel a little weird.
🛡️ @epopppp.bsky.social has been verified by @bsky.app Track verified accounts and trusted verifiers at bverified.vercel.app!
November 26, 2025 at 4:34 PM
This just spontaneously happened, and makes me feel a little weird.
I have arbitrarily decided that noon today is the cutoff for sending emails without being rude (not expecting responses).
Gotta go send some emails.
Gotta go send some emails.
November 26, 2025 at 2:37 PM
I have arbitrarily decided that noon today is the cutoff for sending emails without being rude (not expecting responses).
Gotta go send some emails.
Gotta go send some emails.
I keep running into Howard Odum the ecologist, and yes, he *is* the son of Howard Odum the sociologist.
![Screenshot of wikipedia text:
Biography
Odum was the third child of Howard W. Odum, an American sociologist, and his wife, Anna Louise (née Kranz) Odum (1888–1965). He was the younger brother of Eugene Odum. Their father "encouraged his sons to go into science and to develop new techniques to contribute to social progress". Howard learned his early scientific lessons about (a) birds from his brother, (b) fish and the philosophy of biology while working after school for marine zoologist Robert Coker, and (c) electrical circuits from The Boy Electrician (1929) by Alfred Powell Morgan.[1]](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:nrfdas42bjpfbva3sgqllwem/bafkreidyktymc5tsnfmjyltaqojnaqxcwd2bo7ffqwttxbyilkcph7ayzi@jpeg)
November 26, 2025 at 2:14 PM
I keep running into Howard Odum the ecologist, and yes, he *is* the son of Howard Odum the sociologist.
BRB inviting all my friends over for drinks and insurance forms.
Ain't No Party Like an Administrative Burden Party
You are cordially invited to Admin Night - bring your paperwork
donmoynihan.substack.com
November 26, 2025 at 2:02 PM
BRB inviting all my friends over for drinks and insurance forms.
Have to admit "asset managers discover Mollie Orshansky" was not on my 2025 bingo card.
Part 1: My Life Is a Lie
How a Broken Benchmark Quietly Broke America
www.yesigiveafig.com
November 26, 2025 at 1:52 PM
Have to admit "asset managers discover Mollie Orshansky" was not on my 2025 bingo card.
This is a pretty compelling analysis. Even if neo-royalism turns out not to be exactly the right way to think about things, the fundamental nature of the order is changing.
People scratching their heads about Thiel and Greenland but that is because stuck in an old model of international politics. This is neoroyalism rather than westphalia.
www.cambridge.org/core/journal...
www.cambridge.org/core/journal...
November 25, 2025 at 11:10 AM
This is a pretty compelling analysis. Even if neo-royalism turns out not to be exactly the right way to think about things, the fundamental nature of the order is changing.
Reposted by Beth Popp Berman
Congrats, Rand Paul, you’ve invented health insurance companies.
Rand Paul: "What is the Republican plan for healthcare? My plan would allow for people to buy their insurance through a collective. Basically to buy their insurance through Costco or Sam's Club or Amazon."
November 24, 2025 at 9:22 PM
Congrats, Rand Paul, you’ve invented health insurance companies.
Reposted by Beth Popp Berman
This work has been a long time in the making and I’m excited that we all now have a chance to dig into it.
Congrats to my pal @bhighsmith.bsky.social and the entire research team. This is important work!
Congrats to my pal @bhighsmith.bsky.social and the entire research team. This is important work!
🚨We analyzed 138 million geocoded property tax records to quantify how municipal boundaries spatially overlap onto economic segregation in every US metro area—creating disparities in localities’ ability to fund public goods. And we made an interactive map of our results! [1/16]
November 24, 2025 at 4:53 PM
This work has been a long time in the making and I’m excited that we all now have a chance to dig into it.
Congrats to my pal @bhighsmith.bsky.social and the entire research team. This is important work!
Congrats to my pal @bhighsmith.bsky.social and the entire research team. This is important work!
Reposted by Beth Popp Berman
I think Claude Code has achieved AGI
November 22, 2025 at 9:09 PM
I think Claude Code has achieved AGI
Reposted by Beth Popp Berman
"Given that the Big Ten is about to create 'a for-profit company using what are essentially public dollars,' [a Penn State trustee] argued, boards need to know more in order to be able to advise their institutions accordingly."
www.insidehighered.com/news/governa...
www.insidehighered.com/news/governa...
Secretive Big Ten Deal Riles Trustees
The Big Ten is weighing a $2.4 billion private equity deal. But multiple trustees at member institutions say they aren’t getting enough information and the proposal has been rushed.
www.insidehighered.com
November 22, 2025 at 7:43 PM
"Given that the Big Ten is about to create 'a for-profit company using what are essentially public dollars,' [a Penn State trustee] argued, boards need to know more in order to be able to advise their institutions accordingly."
www.insidehighered.com/news/governa...
www.insidehighered.com/news/governa...
What?!?
I closed social media for like three hours and the Pope threw a rave, MTG resigned, and Trump endorsed Mamdani before Chuck Schumer did? Now accepting bribes to close social media for all of next week
November 22, 2025 at 4:21 AM
What?!?
Reposted by Beth Popp Berman
When satire is actually pretty good advice. theonion.com/nation-s-par...
Nation’s Parents Release Annual Ranking Of Top 50 ‘Perfectly Good’ State Schools
The list includes dozens of totally fine schools where students can learn all the same things they’d learn at one of those expensive colleges on the East Coast.
theonion.com
November 21, 2025 at 6:45 PM
When satire is actually pretty good advice. theonion.com/nation-s-par...
My theory is that illiterate emails are a signal you're too powerful to have to care.
I'm starting to seriously question if these guys are literate in any meaningful sense of the word.
November 21, 2025 at 6:31 PM
My theory is that illiterate emails are a signal you're too powerful to have to care.
Reposted by Beth Popp Berman
omg they made Jeffrey Epstein Inbox Simulator '25 jmail.world
Jmail, logged in as [email protected]
You are logged into [email protected], Jeffrey Epstein's email. Sourced from the November 2025 House Oversight Committee data release.
jmail.world
November 21, 2025 at 5:11 PM
omg they made Jeffrey Epstein Inbox Simulator '25 jmail.world
Started watching Succession recently because I needed more morally depraved ultra-elite hijinks than I could get from news alone.
November 16, 2025 at 10:54 PM
Started watching Succession recently because I needed more morally depraved ultra-elite hijinks than I could get from news alone.
Really fun review of what sounds like a terrific book. And more practically useful than yet another liberal study of "what truly motivates Trump voters."
A Mole in MAGA’s Midst | Los Angeles Review of Books
Alexandre Lefebvre reads “Furious Minds: The Making of the MAGA New Right” by Laura K. Field.
lareviewofbooks.org
November 16, 2025 at 10:33 PM
Really fun review of what sounds like a terrific book. And more practically useful than yet another liberal study of "what truly motivates Trump voters."
so many kinds of abundance!
oh no, we're talking about extraterrestrial abundance again.
"Plus, there aren’t those pesky regulations that executives like to complain about..."
"Plus, there aren’t those pesky regulations that executives like to complain about..."
Now Tech Moguls Want to Build Data Centers in Outer Space
Energy constraints in the artificial-intelligence race are causing tech companies to think out of this world.
www.wsj.com
November 16, 2025 at 9:58 PM
so many kinds of abundance!
Reposted by Beth Popp Berman
one thing that I think we really don't think about is if Trump fucks up America's macro privileges or role in the international system and Americans are forced to end up dealing with a economic system that doesn't allow for the same old fiscal fixes as before
god I remember the fandom Russian zoomers on Twitter during the start of the war who were either "what can I do, I can't be held responsible" or "wow it's so mean that the West sanctioned us from our favourite fandoms"
I often have trouble explaining to people that the Russian youth is just as dumb and evil as the rest of the population
November 16, 2025 at 6:09 PM
one thing that I think we really don't think about is if Trump fucks up America's macro privileges or role in the international system and Americans are forced to end up dealing with a economic system that doesn't allow for the same old fiscal fixes as before
Apropos of nothing in particular
📣 New NBER Working Paper out today 📣
"The Consequences of Faculty Sexual Misconduct"
Sarah Cohodes & Katherine Leu
"The Consequences of Faculty Sexual Misconduct"
Sarah Cohodes & Katherine Leu
November 16, 2025 at 4:45 PM
Apropos of nothing in particular