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1. The conventional explanation for food deserts—that these places are too poor or too rural to generate enough spending on groceries, or too Black to overcome racist corporate redlining — fail to grapple with a key fact: food deserts didn’t used to exist. My new piece in The Atlantic.
The Mystery of Food Deserts
They didn’t materialize around the country for no reason. Something happened.
www.theatlantic.com
December 1, 2024 at 2:06 PM
1. The conventional explanation for food deserts—that these places are too poor or too rural to generate enough spending on groceries, or too Black to overcome racist corporate redlining — fail to grapple with a key fact: food deserts didn’t used to exist. My new piece in The Atlantic.
the thing about government grocery stores is that food deserts are a real thing and people need food
July 29, 2026 at 5:49 PM
the thing about government grocery stores is that food deserts are a real thing and people need food
Etymology of the day: in the expression ‘just deserts’, ‘deserts’ is an old past participle of the French ‘deservir’, meaning ‘deserve’. To get your just deserts is to get what you deserve.
‘Desert’ in this sense is obsolete, which is why lexicographers see ‘just desserts’ popping up everywhere.
‘Desert’ in this sense is obsolete, which is why lexicographers see ‘just desserts’ popping up everywhere.
March 24, 2025 at 5:18 PM
Etymology of the day: in the expression ‘just deserts’, ‘deserts’ is an old past participle of the French ‘deservir’, meaning ‘deserve’. To get your just deserts is to get what you deserve.
‘Desert’ in this sense is obsolete, which is why lexicographers see ‘just desserts’ popping up everywhere.
‘Desert’ in this sense is obsolete, which is why lexicographers see ‘just desserts’ popping up everywhere.
News deserts 👇🏻
🧵 Imagine living in a county without reporters—no one covering school board meetings, local clinics, even zoning decisions.
That’s reality for over 1,000 U.S. counties. Ohio now has just 7.9 local journalists per 100k residents down from ~40 in 2002.
ohiocapitaljournal.com/2025/07/14/w...
That’s reality for over 1,000 U.S. counties. Ohio now has just 7.9 local journalists per 100k residents down from ~40 in 2002.
ohiocapitaljournal.com/2025/07/14/w...
We knew local journalism was shrinking in Ohio and elsewhere. It's worse than we thought • Ohio Capital Journal
It's hardly news that local news coverage in Ohio's cities and towns isn't what it once was. A new analysis shows that it's been devastated in most small towns, suburbs and cities in the United States...
ohiocapitaljournal.com
July 14, 2025 at 6:21 PM
News deserts 👇🏻
Yeah maybe we’ll be able to terraform the deserts on Mars some day just like we did with the deserts on Earth
April 21, 2025 at 6:25 PM
Yeah maybe we’ll be able to terraform the deserts on Mars some day just like we did with the deserts on Earth
A new report by the National Women's Law Center shows the alarming overlap of abortion deserts, broadband deserts, and pregnancy care deserts, at a time shows abortion seekers, esp in abortion-banned states, rely on internet access to order medication abortion online:
Internet & Abortion 'Deserts' Are Converging, Denying Rural Women Access to Care
A new study explores the overlap of abortion deserts, broadband deserts, and pregnancy deserts—and the data is alarming.
www.jezebel.com
April 17, 2025 at 9:59 PM
A new report by the National Women's Law Center shows the alarming overlap of abortion deserts, broadband deserts, and pregnancy care deserts, at a time shows abortion seekers, esp in abortion-banned states, rely on internet access to order medication abortion online:
Our deserts sure are neat
Waxing gibbous almost full moon (or Harvest Moon) this evening above Fonts Point. Note the people in front of the moon (Photo: Sicco Rood).
September 28, 2026 at 2:38 AM
Our deserts sure are neat
High deserts of California
April 5, 2025 at 11:19 PM
High deserts of California
"Deserts make me happy for some reason," (2020)
🎨
🎨
December 7, 2025 at 3:42 AM
"Deserts make me happy for some reason," (2020)
🎨
🎨
Some turn deserts into cities. Russians turn cities into deserts.
May 8, 2025 at 8:28 PM
Some turn deserts into cities. Russians turn cities into deserts.
Why is Missouri’s population declining? 30% of our schools run a 4-day week. We are dead last in starting teacher pay and state worker pay. 40% of our counties are maternity deserts. 50% of our counties are childcare deserts. Children can legally open carry guns.
22 years of a GOP supermajority.
22 years of a GOP supermajority.
December 24, 2024 at 3:51 PM
Why is Missouri’s population declining? 30% of our schools run a 4-day week. We are dead last in starting teacher pay and state worker pay. 40% of our counties are maternity deserts. 50% of our counties are childcare deserts. Children can legally open carry guns.
22 years of a GOP supermajority.
22 years of a GOP supermajority.
The phrase ‘just deserts’ has only one S.
It has nothing to do with desserts 🧁or deserts 🏜️.
The word ‘desert’ is spelled like🏜️ and pronounced like🧁.
It's related to ‘deserve’ and means “reward or punishment deserved or earned by one’s qualities or acts.”
It has nothing to do with desserts 🧁or deserts 🏜️.
The word ‘desert’ is spelled like🏜️ and pronounced like🧁.
It's related to ‘deserve’ and means “reward or punishment deserved or earned by one’s qualities or acts.”
April 25, 2025 at 5:42 PM
The phrase ‘just deserts’ has only one S.
It has nothing to do with desserts 🧁or deserts 🏜️.
The word ‘desert’ is spelled like🏜️ and pronounced like🧁.
It's related to ‘deserve’ and means “reward or punishment deserved or earned by one’s qualities or acts.”
It has nothing to do with desserts 🧁or deserts 🏜️.
The word ‘desert’ is spelled like🏜️ and pronounced like🧁.
It's related to ‘deserve’ and means “reward or punishment deserved or earned by one’s qualities or acts.”
Europeans, please don’t go wandering into vast and pitiless deserts without adequate preparation
I will always reup this tragic tale as a warning. www.otherhand.org/home-page/se...
The Hunt for the Death Valley Germans
This is the tale of what for me was a rather remarkable adventure. It was assembled on the basis of my personal recollection and experience, emails, GPS logs and some official documents. It represen...
www.otherhand.org
July 11, 2025 at 8:49 PM
Europeans, please don’t go wandering into vast and pitiless deserts without adequate preparation
Valentines Day Deserts~
Gift for GluttonyBeast
Gift for GluttonyBeast
February 2, 2025 at 12:44 AM
Valentines Day Deserts~
Gift for GluttonyBeast
Gift for GluttonyBeast
News deserts may also explain the 90 million who didn't vote at all.
"In those counties I’m talking about — 'news desert' counties — Trump won 91% of them by an average of 54 points ... those counties could be going more conservative because there’s no local media to counteract the foghorn blasts of rightwing propaganda."
How Democrats can win the messaging war
"Liberals trust the mainstream media — foolishly, I think. The trust is not deserved," Ryan Cooper tells us.
www.publicnotice.co
December 24, 2024 at 11:27 PM
News deserts may also explain the 90 million who didn't vote at all.
Long after the battle ends...
(deserts of kharak my beloved)
(deserts of kharak my beloved)
September 27, 2025 at 12:38 AM
Long after the battle ends...
(deserts of kharak my beloved)
(deserts of kharak my beloved)
We now have massive swaths of rural America deemed news deserts.
While Trump’s national popular-vote margin was just under 1.5%, his margin in news deserts was massive. Trump won 91% of news desert counties by an average of 54 percentage points.
My god...
jesspiper.substack.com/p/news-deserts
While Trump’s national popular-vote margin was just under 1.5%, his margin in news deserts was massive. Trump won 91% of news desert counties by an average of 54 percentage points.
My god...
jesspiper.substack.com/p/news-deserts
News Deserts
Don't confuse them with new desserts...one is sweet and the other is contributing to political polarization.
jesspiper.substack.com
March 27, 2025 at 6:44 PM
We now have massive swaths of rural America deemed news deserts.
While Trump’s national popular-vote margin was just under 1.5%, his margin in news deserts was massive. Trump won 91% of news desert counties by an average of 54 percentage points.
My god...
jesspiper.substack.com/p/news-deserts
While Trump’s national popular-vote margin was just under 1.5%, his margin in news deserts was massive. Trump won 91% of news desert counties by an average of 54 percentage points.
My god...
jesspiper.substack.com/p/news-deserts
Democrats should start funding papers in news deserts
At an invitation-only gathering in Italy, white supremacists mapped out strategies to target rural America while local press coverage vanishes www.confrontthehate.com/p/white-nati...
August 20, 2026 at 3:01 AM
Democrats should start funding papers in news deserts
September 27, 2025 at 4:53 PM
New: Trump won the popular vote narrowly. But in news deserts—counties where there are no local news sources or reporters —he won in a landslide. Latest by me and @volk_maps for Medill School’s Local News Initiative. localnewsinitiative.northwestern.edu/posts/2024/1...
In news deserts, Trump won in a landslide
localnewsinitiative.northwestern.edu
December 5, 2024 at 7:02 PM
New: Trump won the popular vote narrowly. But in news deserts—counties where there are no local news sources or reporters —he won in a landslide. Latest by me and @volk_maps for Medill School’s Local News Initiative. localnewsinitiative.northwestern.edu/posts/2024/1...