Mitchell Thorson
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Mitchell Thorson
@mitchellthorson.com
750 followers 740 following 73 posts
Data visualization engineer. Otherwise reading books, riding bikes, listening to music, or talking a walk.

Brooklyn, NY
mitchellthorson.com
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Mitchell Thorson @mitchellthorson.com · Oct 28
Today @urbaninstitute.bsky.social launches a new data tool: The American Affordability Tracker. We're collecting data that tracks the rising costs of a secure lifestyle, and indicators of financial distress that are contributing to a growing crisis. See the data here: www.urban.org/data-tools/a...
📊
The image shows a line chart displaying state-level data for the average monthly price of rent. There is 1 line for each state, plus the District of Columbia and the national average. Ohio is highlighted, as it trends steadily upward across the chart. The image shows a US map of congressional districts. The map displays data for the average monthly cost of groceries. The image shows a line chart displaying state-level data for the student loan delinquency rate. There is 1 line for each state, plus the District of Columbia and the national average. New York is highlighted, as it trends downward from 2017 to 2024, before sharply rising again by 2025.
mitchellthorson.com
This is an important read. A really eye-opening account of the mechanics behind a campaign of biased coverage. Explains with precise examples how the Times’ “reporting” has been manipulated to present an anti-trans narrative.
transnews.network Trans News Network @transnews.network · 3d
In this in-depth interview Billie Jean Sweeney — a former editor at The New York Times — details how the paper shifted towards openly promoting anti-trans hatred, why this was directed from the very top, how some staff pushed back and the immense damage done by the NYT legitimizing bigotry.
'A directive from above': Former NYT editor lays out how the paper pushes anti-trans bigotry
In this in-depth interview, former New York Times editor Billie Jean Sweeney details how the paper shifted towards openly promoting anti-trans hatred, how some staff tried to stop it, how it's directe...
transnews.network
January 2, 2026 at 5:01 PM
mitchellthorson.com
Went on a bike camping trip with @718outdoors.bsky.social back in June and had an absolute blast. One of many cycling highlights from 2025!
Photo of a dark green bike loaded up with racks, bags and camping gear. The bike is on a wooden bridge with a reservoir and forest in the background. A sunny, grassy campground with several tents set up and bikes scattered around the clearing. A selfie of the author in motion on a bike. The subject is cycling alongside a road. Another cyclist appears in the background.
December 29, 2025 at 8:10 PM
Reposted by Mitchell Thorson
marklevinenyc.bsky.social
Year 1 data on congestion pricing in Manhattan…

* Vehicle traffic: -11%
* Foot traffic: +3.4%
* Storefront vacancy: -0.9%
* Pollution: -22%
* Revenue for mass transit: $548M

So YES this has been a huge success.
December 23, 2025 at 2:00 PM
mitchellthorson.com
New viz 📊 published today for @urbaninstitute.bsky.social:

Colleagues @wcurrangroome.bsky.social @andrewrumbach.bsky.social and team looked into the recent flooding in the Pacific Northwest and the challenges communities will face recovering, and we mapped the region.

www.urban.org/urban-wire/a...
A map of Northwest Washington State, United States. The title reads "The Washington Floods Have Affected Communities in Varied Geographic Areas". The map highlights five counties: Whatcom, Skagit, Snohomish, King, and Pierce. It shows several towns within these counties: Sumas, Burlington, Mount Vernon, Canyon Creek, Everett, Seattle, Kent, and Pacific. The map also highlights several of the region's rivers: Nooksack river, Skagit River, Snohomish River, Snoqualmie River, Green River, and White River. The maps shows the area that is predicted to see catastrophic flooding that includes Burlington, Mount Vernon, Canyon Creek and Everett. The map lists the following sources: Counties and places from US Census Bureau TIGER/Line files. Rivers from the Washington State Department of Ecology. Predicted catastrophic flooding areas from the National Weather Prediction Service's three-day flood hazard outlook on December 12, 2025.
December 18, 2025 at 7:25 PM
Reposted by Mitchell Thorson
jasonkoebler.bsky.social
404 Media is making a print zine! About the surveillance technologies used by ICE. 16 pages, riso printed. Shipping early January. Features reworked versions of our best reporting and a few new things. We're very excited! And hope to do more if people like it:

www.404media.co/404-media-is...
404 Media Is Making a Zine
We are publishing a risograph-printed zine about the surveillance technologies used by ICE.
www.404media.co
December 8, 2025 at 3:42 PM
Reposted by Mitchell Thorson
marisakabas.bsky.social
NEW — I put together a list of independent journalism subscriptions that would make great holiday gifts. From music to politics, astronomy to alcohol, tech to social justice, there’s something for [almost] everyone. Support indie media *and* surprise and delight your loved ones!

My guide:
Giving the gift of independent journalism: a guide
The Handbasket has subscription suggestions for almost everyone on your list.
www.thehandbasket.co
December 6, 2025 at 3:38 PM
mitchellthorson.com
Hey today is the last @bandcamp.com Friday of the year. If you just posted your Spotify Wrapped this week, maybe consider buying one or two of your top albums and supporting those artists directly?
December 5, 2025 at 3:07 PM
Reposted by Mitchell Thorson
brandon.insertcredit.com
Ah man, hitting that "overwhelmingly positive" on steam less than 2 weeks after launch feels pretty good
necrosoftgames.com Necrosoft Games @necrosoftgames.com · Dec 1
Yes!! We have overwhelmed them with positivity!!
A crop of the demonschool steam page noting that we have 521 reviews and an overwhelmingly positive rating 95% positive)
December 1, 2025 at 3:18 AM
mitchellthorson.com
NORCO is an awesome game. Highly recommend it. I played it a couple of years ago at this point and I still think about it often.
geographyofrobots.bsky.social geographyofrobots @geographyofrobots.bsky.social · Dec 1
NORCO's a Christmas game. 65% off on Steam through December 12th.
December 1, 2025 at 3:59 PM
Reposted by Mitchell Thorson
nathangrayson.bsky.social
demonschool credits all 145 people who touched the game over the course of its multi-year dev cycle AND explains what exactly they contributed. the rest of the games industry, which commonly omits people from credits entirely, should be taking notes
“We worked [on Hyper Gunsport] with a localization company that refused to give the names of the people that actually did the work; they just wanted to have their company name in there,” Sheffield said. “They say they do that because ‘It's the standard’ and ‘to avoid poaching’ or whatever, but I hate that and think it's total BS. … I've also seen a lot of folks complain about how they weren't credited on a game because they'd left the studio before the game they worked on was finished. And indeed, our lead 3D artist left two years ago. But he's still the first artist credited because he set the style and visual tone for a lot of the game. Not working on the game to the very end doesn't negate the work he did.” The more Sheffield thought about how to meet the needs of so many different types of contributors – and discussed the matter on social media – the more a comprehensive, detail-oriented approach to crediting started to make sense. “That had all been percolating in the back of my mind as we got close to finishing, and then it just sort of hit me as it came time for me to write the credits,” he said. “I discussed this approach with the team and everyone was fine with it, so we just went for it. We always want to credit everyone that touched the game, so even though the core team was 7 or 8 people at any given time, we credited around 145 people in Demonschool. Who cares if it's a lot of people? Who cares if it's long? They all did something and they deserve credit. And you basically can tell who the core team was by reading the descriptions. None of us are precious about that anyway.”
November 25, 2025 at 7:32 PM
mitchellthorson.com
This is a nice guide to music discovery sans algorithms, with shoutouts to @hearingthingsco.bsky.social, @afantano.bsky.social, @bandcamp.com, flowstate.fm, and other great sources of human-powered curation.

I think the internet works best when it facilitates humans sharing things with each other!
November 20, 2025 at 4:05 PM
mitchellthorson.com
Yo this game looks awesome
noclipvideo.bsky.social /noclip @noclipvideo.bsky.social · Nov 18
EXCLUSIVE PREVIEW: We sit down with Demonschool's @brandon.insertcredit.com to talk about the SEGA Saturn influences, economical battle system and football-like endzones of this exciting new Tactics RPG.

WATCH: youtu.be/EQnXp0koywc
EXCKUSIVE: Demonschool's Developer Details This Exciting New Tactics RPG - noclip_2
YouTube video by noclip_2
youtu.be
November 19, 2025 at 4:25 AM
Reposted by Mitchell Thorson
albertocairo.com
My new big visualization project is out: The Trans News Initiative, a collaboration between UM's School of Communication, the Trans Journalists Association, and Polygraph (The Pudding): transnewsinitiative.org Here's a piece about it in the Columbia Journalism Review: www.cjr.org/news/visuali...
Trans News Initiative
A database and analysis of news coverage affecting trans communities.
transnewsinitiative.org
November 18, 2025 at 5:56 PM
mitchellthorson.com
Really enjoying 'Winds Gate' by John Thayer this week. A gorgeous, contemplative album that draws from the landscape and geology of the Hudson Valley. Something that resonates very deeply for me.

auralcanyonmusic.bandcamp.com/album/winds-...
Winds Gate, by John Thayer
10 track album
auralcanyonmusic.bandcamp.com
November 18, 2025 at 4:37 PM
mitchellthorson.com
I spent a pretty big chunk of time this weekend trying to figure out how to make #atproto oauth work in a SvelteKit app. I got it working and I feel like I have experienced an important rite of passage.
A screenshot of a bare bones UI for logging in with an atproto/bluesky account. The input element is filled with the author's handle (mitchellthorson.com) and there is a blue "Login" button beside the input. The text above the input reads "Sign in with your AT Protocol account (Bluesky). A screenshot of a bare bones UI for logging out of an atproto/bluesky account. The interface reads "Logged in as did:plc:a7mseeffxfdg2fqblqh4hfzv" (which is the author's did). There is a gray "Logout" button below.
November 17, 2025 at 7:12 PM
mitchellthorson.com
The scale and sophistication of the modern data surveillance machine is terrifying. The way that so many large corporations are happy to feed this beast for their share of the spoils is not surprising but is clearly maximizing the harmful potential of these tools.
josephcox.bsky.social Joseph Cox @josephcox.bsky.social · Nov 17
New: this app lets ICE track vehicles and owners across the country. ICE uses phone to scan license plates, add to a database of billions of records. Thomson Reuters then enriches that with marriage, voter, other info. Can predict where a car will be in the future
www.404media.co/this-app-let...
This App Lets ICE Track Vehicles and Owners Across the Country
Material viewed by 404 Media shows data giant Thomson Reuters enriches license plate data with marriage, voter, and ownership records. The tool can predict where a car may be in the future.
www.404media.co
November 17, 2025 at 3:49 PM
mitchellthorson.com
Got an instance of multi-scrobbler up and running on my home server. Recent tunes now on my pds: pdsls.dev/at://did:plc...
November 15, 2025 at 10:45 PM
mitchellthorson.com
The more I use/think about atproto, the more I have been wondering this same thing. What happens if/when Bluesky can't or won't host most of the data for most atproto apps? Is it really possible to scale this up and keep things free for most people?
November 15, 2025 at 2:54 PM
mitchellthorson.com
I like the look of the little linux cube pc. I would like a little linux cube pc plugged into my tv for gaming/streaming.
November 14, 2025 at 5:22 PM
mitchellthorson.com
I've started mirroring some of my personal repositories on @tangled.org because it is simply very cool. Here's my personal website's SvelteKit codebase, atproto style: tangled.org/@mitchelltho...
tangled.org
November 12, 2025 at 8:53 PM
Reposted by Mitchell Thorson
yonahfreemark.com
The Bipartisan Infrastructure Law passed 4 years ago. In new research @urbaninstitute.bsky.social we study its effects.

US transport spending increased by 30%, but:
—Funding for non-highway projects flatlined
—Construction cost increases resulted in no actual increase in infrastructure
Federal Infrastructure Spending on Transportation, Four Years after the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act
The Bipartisan Infrastructure Law is up for reauthorization in 2026. New analysis shows that the act increased spending on transportation infrastructure, but…
www.urban.org
November 12, 2025 at 5:32 PM
Reposted by Mitchell Thorson
patrickstotz.bsky.social
What would happen if the Amazon rainforest collapsed?
Our look at deforestation and feedback loops.

Also, the perfect occasion to make use of our new MapLibre/Protomaps scroller component.
#maps #dataviz #ddj

www.spiegel.de/wissenschaft...
November 12, 2025 at 10:22 AM
mitchellthorson.com
Super interesting interview here. Great context for how the vision for atproto has come to life in the wake of real-world events and pressures as well as the guiding principles that have been foundational in that process.
ntnsndr.in Nathan Schneider @ntnsndr.in · Nov 10
The latest interview up at the Protocol Oral History Project is a @bsky.app hometown hero: Protocol Engineer @bnewbold.net. I'm so grateful for his time and care in sharing his experience building the foundation for not only this app but many more: protocol.ecologies.info/interviews/n...
Bryan Newbold: Protocol engineering
A protocol engineer at the social-media platform Bluesky describes building an open protocol around a fast-growing social media platform.
protocol.ecologies.info
November 12, 2025 at 2:01 PM
Reposted by Mitchell Thorson
jonkeegan.com
Very nice network diagram in here mapping the many connections between Silicon Valley VC firms, Trump administration, and top defense contractors.
network diagram showing the connections between Peter Thiel and companies, investors
November 10, 2025 at 7:21 PM
mitchellthorson.com
Not gonna lie, I am growing more excited and curious about the things that atproto makes possible by the day. Seeing the number of new ideas and experiments gaining traction right now is inspiring.
graze.social Graze Social @graze.social · Nov 6
On Tuesday night, you may have noticed something a little different on Bluesky. Here's a peek behind the scenes of how the election feed came together. Endlessly grateful for this collaboration with @wnyc.org/@gothamist.com & @bsky.app!
About The Other Night...
How Graze is defining the next era of a decentralized, open social attention economy.
graze.leaflet.pub
November 10, 2025 at 5:58 PM