Journalist, author of Ace. Currently editing Asterisk.
Joined May 2011
- Tweets356
- Following624
- Followers13.2K
- Likes10.1K
Angela Chen retweeted
honestly I love this
your obligations as a citizen do not even if you become the pope
Pope Leo cast a mail-in ballot in the midterms, making him the first leader of the Catholic Church to vote in the U.S.
“The Holy Father expresses his belief in the right and the duty of citizens to participate in democratic processes,” the Vatican said. wapo.st/3W40lrk
Angela Chen retweeted
Rumors that chili maker Lao Gan Ma laid off 500+ workers due to AI have gone viral in China.
Beneath Beijing’s positive messaging, many ordinary Chinese people are worried about AI and jobs.
Lao Gan Ma recently touted a new AI-powered chili inspection system that uses high-speed industrial cameras that significantly outperform manual inspection.
A stat about the company using this AI system to reduce human inspectors from 600 to 48 went viral on Chinese social media. The iconic, family-run company pushed back.
But if you look at the data, the company has reduced headcount from 2,912 to 740 in the past few years while earning record revenues.
Original story: m.jiemian.com/article/152425…
Why don't we live in an Art Nouveau world? @etiennefd on ornament, brutalism, whether architecture is all ugly now, and why it's fine that we only have one Sagrada Familia asteriskmag.com/issues/16/wh…
Angela Chen retweeted
New! I sat down (remotely) with @GovAndyBeshear to talk about his views on local + national child care policy, and his approach to spending on new programs more broadly.
As the 2028 primary starts to take shape, Beshear is signaling he'd prioritize pre-K for 4-year-olds
Angela Chen retweeted
Trailer for my podcast series on transformative meditation experiences is up.
The rise of mindfulness told the story of how meditation soothes the mind. Pivot Points tells the story of how meditation begins to transform it.
Supported by @wakingup. More: pivotpoints.xyz
Angela Chen retweeted
A few thoughts on Fielder and Oppenheim and Malcolm, for @nytopinion - nytimes.com/2026/10/23/opini…
"This summer, AI-themed variety shows have become the most popular category on short-form video platforms."
Crazy that idol show and dating show for AI characters are actually a thing in China now. According to the data of one such show, 92% of the audience are women and most ppl are between 18 and 23.
Fans are drawn to characters whose personalities reflect their own, often through zodiac signs or MBTI types. AI tools let them create outfits, performances, and stories for their AI idols. Fans also said that interactions with accounts run by production teams make those AI characters feel close and real.
According to one fan quoted in the article: “If you think of her as virtual, of course she’ll feel distant. But if you think of her as someone who exists, someone who can talk to you every day—and you can imagine what clothes to put her in, how to dress her up, what styles she could try—over time, it starts to feel different.”
My husband's paper in @Nature is out! He started it when I was two jobs back & himself has now left computational chemistry (for CBRN work). Ah, academic timelines. The paper shows a strange behavior that may explain why top battery designs work: in the right solvents, positive charges don't repel, they cluster together. nature.com/articles/s41586-0…
An important detail about a pivotal scene in the Elizabeth Holmes documentary, from @statnews
"If she was going to die by suicide—a phrase I hate for how it removes her agency from the most important decision she ever made—then it should have been better." @thekibosch on her mother and an enormously tricky topic: MAID for mental illness.
I've done a bit of personal writing over the years. Today I published by far the most difficult essay I've written. On @STATNews, I share the story of my mother, Regina Bosch. She was brilliant--three Ivy degrees--and funny and charismatic. She was also seriously mentally ill.
ALT A woman laughs while leaning against a man's shoulder
"One story OpenAI tells employees to illustrate the risk: To seduce a U.S. diplomat in Russia, a foreign espionage operation first sent a blond woman to his hotel room with Champagne. When he declined, the spies sent a redheaded woman, and then next a young man. The implication for OpenAI employees was this could happen to them."
OPENAI to EMPLOYEES: If someone is trying to seduce you, first consider — could they be a spy???
OpenAI is warning its employees about honeypot spies and strangers with children in playgrounds ... a very fun one with @georgia_wells and @MeghanBobrowsky:
wsj.com/tech/ai/ai-companies…
Angela Chen retweeted
Global call center employment seems to now be dropping even in LMICs (data from @RevelioLabs via @a16z)
Call center jobs grew ~4% annually for 15 years
Now they’re shrinking 4% annually
Charts of the Week: a16z.news/p/this-week-in-cha…
Angela Chen retweeted
The day before @HelenBranswell died: “On Monday afternoon, from the hospital, she shared in STAT’s Slack new data about uptake of the maternal RSV vaccine.” From @statnews obit on the undisputed lioness of global public health reporting 💔 statnews.com/2026/10/13/hele…
I am forever a Rachel fan and have been waiting for over a year to be able to pre-order this book. There's been a lot of agency talk, but this is different—it's about both personal and collective agency and how to thread the needle between bootstrap individualism and "policy will save us" helplessness. Very excited for this!
While co-editing a piece that references Marilyn Monroe, @clarabcollier casually mentions that she has "spent a lot of time" in the bedroom where Monroe died and, in fact, ruined her friend's fourth birthday party by hiding in there: "My parents couldn't find me and almost called the cops." Incredible.
Really cool area of research: brain scans for babies (sometimes even in utero!) to learn more about when they develop consciousness nytimes.com/2026/10/05/scien…
Another incredible feature from Sarah, featuring: neurological mysteries, lawsuits, mitochondria, cross-continent collaborations, genetic reveals, and more.
Earlier this year, I heard about several kids who died after anesthesia—and others who suffered catastrophic brain damage. I wrote about one mother, and her quest to figure out what happened to her son.
theatlantic.com/magazine/202…
