peter smith
@peterandreysmith.com
reporter. stories in the nyt, wired, stat, businessweek, undark, wnyc radiolab, and elsewhere. available for assignments
peterandreysmith.com
peterandreysmith.com
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peter smith
@peterandreysmith.com
· Jul 22
friends, following cutbacks at undark, I’m actively looking for steady work—staff positions, freelance assignments, radio collaborations, research gigs— hmu!
Reposted by peter smith
When you call 911, you expect help will arrive. But when Michael Hunter sought help for his wife, Rachel, it never came. www.bangordailynews.com/2026/09/08/p...
Maine knew for years its ambulance system was collapsing. Then a woman died.
Maine was warned years ago that its emergency medical services are “at the edge of a cliff.” But little has changed since then.
www.bangordailynews.com
September 8, 2026 at 12:52 PM
When you call 911, you expect help will arrive. But when Michael Hunter sought help for his wife, Rachel, it never came. www.bangordailynews.com/2026/09/08/p...
error 404: rule 707 not found www.bloomberg.com/features/202...
September 9, 2026 at 12:17 PM
error 404: rule 707 not found www.bloomberg.com/features/202...
circumnavigated the quabbin reservoir earlier this year and there was not a drop to drink bostonglobe.com/2026/08/31/s...
September 1, 2026 at 2:58 PM
circumnavigated the quabbin reservoir earlier this year and there was not a drop to drink bostonglobe.com/2026/08/31/s...
seems the systems of justice are just not equipped for [gestures at all of this]
August 28, 2026 at 1:16 PM
seems the systems of justice are just not equipped for [gestures at all of this]
Reposted by peter smith
Interesting article but too voyeuristic for me. Deals with issues not focused on in Collectors of Lost Souls, for various reasons. Nice to be quoted but an article so dependent on my book might at least have named it...
@newyorker.com @hopkinspress.bsky.social @mxmcadam.bsky.social #STS #histsci
@newyorker.com @hopkinspress.bsky.social @mxmcadam.bsky.social #STS #histsci
The Scientist Who Lived with Dozens of Children from the Pacific Islands
Carleton Gajdusek won the Nobel for his work on a disease in Papua New Guinea. But his biggest experiment was on the children he took back to the U.S.
www.newyorker.com
August 18, 2026 at 12:38 AM
Interesting article but too voyeuristic for me. Deals with issues not focused on in Collectors of Lost Souls, for various reasons. Nice to be quoted but an article so dependent on my book might at least have named it...
@newyorker.com @hopkinspress.bsky.social @mxmcadam.bsky.social #STS #histsci
@newyorker.com @hopkinspress.bsky.social @mxmcadam.bsky.social #STS #histsci
remembering that two old guys named mike and larry identified mangione, not a search of surveillance cam footage
August 19, 2026 at 6:19 PM
remembering that two old guys named mike and larry identified mangione, not a search of surveillance cam footage
who was it that once said there are only three kinds of liars: the common liar, the damned liar, and the expert witness
August 17, 2026 at 5:56 PM
who was it that once said there are only three kinds of liars: the common liar, the damned liar, and the expert witness
a while ago, a fact-checker told me she believed ALPRs “just capture license plate information” which may reflect a common assumption but seems fundamentally at odds with how ALPRs function and how we should conceive of spyware
August 10, 2026 at 6:56 PM
a while ago, a fact-checker told me she believed ALPRs “just capture license plate information” which may reflect a common assumption but seems fundamentally at odds with how ALPRs function and how we should conceive of spyware
Reposted by peter smith
This year, five Pulitzer winners and three finalists disclosed AI use to the judges. That's the most since the disclosure requirement was added in 2024.
I asked several of the reporters behind these stories how they brought LLMs and other AI tools into their work.
www.niemanlab.org/2026/08/a-re...
I asked several of the reporters behind these stories how they brought LLMs and other AI tools into their work.
www.niemanlab.org/2026/08/a-re...
A record-breaking eight Pulitzer awardees disclosed AI use this year
Five winners and three finalists detailed their AI adoption to the judging committee.
www.niemanlab.org
August 3, 2026 at 7:47 PM
This year, five Pulitzer winners and three finalists disclosed AI use to the judges. That's the most since the disclosure requirement was added in 2024.
I asked several of the reporters behind these stories how they brought LLMs and other AI tools into their work.
www.niemanlab.org/2026/08/a-re...
I asked several of the reporters behind these stories how they brought LLMs and other AI tools into their work.
www.niemanlab.org/2026/08/a-re...
Reposted by peter smith
I believe this 100%. The moral injury of the period, the grief from not just the too and so many deaths but the kinds of lives we had before, the laying bare of disposability, the non covid deaths it sped, the institutional strain, the collective fear and distrust, the prioritization of work anyway
One of my Crank Theories of Everything, at least of Everything in the Recent Past, is that we are dealing (badly) with COVID trauma we’d mostly prefer to pretend never happened.
July 31, 2026 at 1:53 PM
I believe this 100%. The moral injury of the period, the grief from not just the too and so many deaths but the kinds of lives we had before, the laying bare of disposability, the non covid deaths it sped, the institutional strain, the collective fear and distrust, the prioritization of work anyway
friends, following cutbacks at undark, I’m actively looking for steady work—staff positions, freelance assignments, radio collaborations, research gigs— hmu!
July 22, 2026 at 3:00 PM
friends, following cutbacks at undark, I’m actively looking for steady work—staff positions, freelance assignments, radio collaborations, research gigs— hmu!
a while ago, I looked up the origins of the slogan “Keep Maine Green” and found this list
July 15, 2026 at 2:05 PM
a while ago, I looked up the origins of the slogan “Keep Maine Green” and found this list
Reposted by peter smith
The @pressherald.com makes the hard decision to publish the photo of the Biddeford man fatally shot by ICE, to reflect the reality of ICE operations in local communities. www.pressherald.com/2026/07/13/i...
ICE agent kills man in Biddeford, spurring protests
Joan Sebastian Guerrero, 26, was not the target of the warrant agents were trying to execute, federal officials said.
www.pressherald.com
July 14, 2026 at 2:02 PM
The @pressherald.com makes the hard decision to publish the photo of the Biddeford man fatally shot by ICE, to reflect the reality of ICE operations in local communities. www.pressherald.com/2026/07/13/i...
“Americans have a heritage of nearly unrestricted roaming, and the Founders might very well be aghast to see that modern-day America is so closed off, so unneighborly, and, in many ways, so unfree.” – Ken Ilgunas
July 2, 2026 at 2:19 PM
“Americans have a heritage of nearly unrestricted roaming, and the Founders might very well be aghast to see that modern-day America is so closed off, so unneighborly, and, in many ways, so unfree.” – Ken Ilgunas
great to see the new yorker cover alpha-gal, which is something I reported on [checks notes] in 2014 for [checks again] the new yorker dot com www.newyorker.com/tech/annals-...
July 1, 2026 at 12:28 PM
great to see the new yorker cover alpha-gal, which is something I reported on [checks notes] in 2014 for [checks again] the new yorker dot com www.newyorker.com/tech/annals-...
“Springer Nature is nevertheless still selling the empty PDF for $39.95.”
Why have papers by one of history’s most famous physicists been retracted?
Springer Nature has removed two studies by Max Planck. A bot may be to blame
www.science.org
June 26, 2026 at 12:06 PM
“Springer Nature is nevertheless still selling the empty PDF for $39.95.”
will the reflecting swamp eclipse lake 226 as one of the most indelible image in all of limnology www.iisd.org/ela/lakes/la...
June 22, 2026 at 6:48 PM
will the reflecting swamp eclipse lake 226 as one of the most indelible image in all of limnology www.iisd.org/ela/lakes/la...
cadaver dogs supposedly indicate. excavators find nothing. an old story but what’s this a local news report that critically questions whether such “evidence” is prejudicial www.kivitv.com/news/the-pow...
The power of the nose! Cadaver dogs have incredible abilities but they're not infallible
Cadaver dogs smelled a body in the yard of Stacey Wondra but excavation found nothing. Was it buried and moved? How much weight should courts put on such circumstantial evidence?
www.kivitv.com
June 18, 2026 at 2:23 PM
cadaver dogs supposedly indicate. excavators find nothing. an old story but what’s this a local news report that critically questions whether such “evidence” is prejudicial www.kivitv.com/news/the-pow...
friends, skies above: what nonfiction story do you wish you could go back and re-experience the thrill of reading for the first time?
June 11, 2026 at 5:33 PM
friends, skies above: what nonfiction story do you wish you could go back and re-experience the thrill of reading for the first time?
TIL despite the recent precipitation anomolies, caving in roadways, maine needs nearly a foot of rain in the next two months to end the drought
June 11, 2026 at 4:19 PM
TIL despite the recent precipitation anomolies, caving in roadways, maine needs nearly a foot of rain in the next two months to end the drought
a powerful warm is when the weather is just fine in newfoundland
May 20, 2026 at 12:59 PM
a powerful warm is when the weather is just fine in newfoundland
Reposted by peter smith
His public defender is asking the court to sanction prosecutors for not informing her about the warrantless surveillance. www.bangordailynews.com/2026/05/14/m...
Maine police watched a suspect through a neighbor’s camera for 3 years without a warrant
Until last week, Willie Banks’ attorney believed the camera just happened to catch the shooting. Then she learned there was more to the story.
www.bangordailynews.com
May 14, 2026 at 11:46 AM
His public defender is asking the court to sanction prosecutors for not informing her about the warrantless surveillance. www.bangordailynews.com/2026/05/14/m...
would any editors out there like me to read and review this book?
Markets of Pain: Opium, Capitalism, and the Global History of Painkillers
Abstract. Markets of Pain: Opium, Capitalism, and the Global History of Painkillers examines the global history of licit opium production from the nineteen
academic.oup.com
May 14, 2026 at 1:54 PM
would any editors out there like me to read and review this book?
Reposted by peter smith
How are AI images and videos changing the world we live in? How can we even still tell what is real and what is not?
In an effort to find out, I visited Hany Farid, „sort of the dean of digital forensics“, for a couple of days in Berkeley. It was eye-opening.
My story in @science.org 🧪
In an effort to find out, I visited Hany Farid, „sort of the dean of digital forensics“, for a couple of days in Berkeley. It was eye-opening.
My story in @science.org 🧪
Deepfakes are everywhere. The godfather of digital forensics is fighting back
Hany Farid, who's spent his career building tools to detect fake images, is facing his biggest challenge yet: AI
www.science.org
May 1, 2026 at 11:24 AM
How are AI images and videos changing the world we live in? How can we even still tell what is real and what is not?
In an effort to find out, I visited Hany Farid, „sort of the dean of digital forensics“, for a couple of days in Berkeley. It was eye-opening.
My story in @science.org 🧪
In an effort to find out, I visited Hany Farid, „sort of the dean of digital forensics“, for a couple of days in Berkeley. It was eye-opening.
My story in @science.org 🧪
one of the most direct opening lines in any genomics article ever archives.newyorker.com/newyorker/20...
April 30, 2026 at 6:57 PM
one of the most direct opening lines in any genomics article ever archives.newyorker.com/newyorker/20...