Professor Amanda Sturgill

@drsturg

Truthmonger. I write books, teach students and make podcasts about you being smarter about misinformation. #WeAreAltGov #DetectingDeception

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Professor Amanda Sturgill@drsturg· 8d

This makes me sad - the Army bands did some fun and clever stuff with their socials. (And I know nothing about anything, but given that part of their mission is "to promote the Army and national interests, build public trust and confidence," this seems like an odd choice.)

Screenshot of Instagram text from US Army band account. Embedded text reads in compliance with the recently published army directive optimizing social media all US Army band Pershing's own social media accounts will be closed no later than August 7, 2026. Tuesday connected to Persian's own please join our email list parentheses we push out monthly email RE: concerts, workshops, ticketing, etc.) http://usarmyband.com/contact-us #join and the US Army bands concert schedule vacancy, announcements concert ticketing featured events and weather cancellations can be found on our website. Https://:us Armyband.com.

Professor Amanda Sturgill@drsturg· 9d

It's Sunday, so perhaps time for a longer read. Feeling a vague unease (or virulent repugnance) at the idea of Christian nationalism but not a solid understanding? This might help. It breaks down the theology, the goals, and the many inroads in politics. dorothyburtontx.substack.com/p/america-af...

Quote from article, shared in screenshot. "Cyrus didn't merely justify Donald Trump. Cyrus helped change the criteria by which many Christians evaluated political leadership. The old question was whether someone prossessed the character required to lead. The newer question become whether someone possessed the will required to fight."

Professor Amanda Sturgill@drsturg· 12d

Here's who qualifies (not my institution, btw). Really interesting mix of mostly US, with UK, some in Europe and Canada, and a few other places, but an odd assortment of schools. The arXiv and alike pre-print requirement...as I read it you have to have posted recent, non-peer-reviewed work.

Faculty and postdoctoral researchers in eligible scientific fields at eligible institutions may apply. Applicants must provide a paper posted on arXiv, bioRxiv, or ChemRxiv within the past three years that lists them as an author and a brief description of their intended research use.

Professor Amanda Sturgill@drsturg· 12d

I have a lot of questions, but I'll start with three. 1. Does this mean providing your data to train AI models? 2. What's considered a "qualifying" researcher? 3. What is a "select" institution?

Embedded text reads: Today, we’re introducing ChatGPT for Academic Researchers—a new program providing 100,000 scientists, mathematicians, and engineers with free access to our most advanced AI models.

We’re beginning with 10,000 accounts this summer and plan to expand to 100,000 researchers through 2027.

Participants will receive:

🔬 One year of free access to our most advanced models, including GPT‑5.6 Sol Pro
💻 Access across ChatGPT, ChatGPT Work, and Codex
📚 Expanded deep research, higher usage limits, and larger context windows
🧬 More than 75 life-science skills and research-focused connectors
🤝 The ability to invite up to four institutional collaborators
🎓 Training, hands-on support, and opportunities to learn from fellow researchers
🔒 Business-grade privacy and security, with data not used to train our models by default

Researchers are already using AI across the scientific workflow—from exploring proofs and testing hypotheses to analyzing complex datasets, reviewing literature, writing code, and preparing grant applications.

Our goal isn’t to decide which scientific questions deserve attention. It’s to put capable tools in researchers’ hands so they can pursue the questions they know best.

This program is part of our commitment of more than $250 million through 2027 to support external scientific research and discovery.

Applications are open today for qualifying researchers at selected academic institutions.

Professor Amanda Sturgill@drsturg· 14d

What does the government feel so broken right now? What do techniques outlined in a 1944 OSS sabotage manual have to do with it? Find out in this week's episode of UnSpun, here or where you pod. bit.ly/UnSpunPod

Cover art from OSS Simple Sabotage Field Manual. Words on a blue paper background.

Professor Amanda Sturgill@drsturg· 14d

Yes, the Post does require an email to see a story even with a GIFT LINK. If you are comfortable with that, you really should see the video in this piece. Provided the gunman stands immobile on top of a table, this should work great. wapo.st/4bboTU0

This is a screenshot of text from the article. Embedded text reads the programs. Continue a wave of spending on high-tech security on campuses – a multi billion dollar industry fueled by threat of school shootings. Nearly 400,000 students have experienced gun violence at school since a 1999 attack on Columbine high school in Colorado, according to a Washington Post tracker, which has recorded 435 shootings over that period.

Professor Amanda Sturgill@drsturg· 17d

I don't know the answer to this, but maybe one of you do...is there a similar mechanism for podcasts? The news commentary category (which is the entirety of news for some people) is very conservative. I've always wondered about that.

Screenshot of Apple Podcasts top in news commentary showing top shows are by Megyn Kelly, Tucker Carlson, Dan Bongino, Ben Shapiro, Glenn Beck and NY Magazine

Professor Amanda Sturgill@drsturg· 17d

And we wonder why classics departments are being shut down. bit.ly/4pAsRva <--Gift Link

Embedded text reads: But Greece is not as far from Africa as the North American continent is, and the modern construct of race, a pseudoscientific product of the Atlantic slave trade, woudl not be invented until thousands of years after Homer. Balck people are depicted in Greek art. Egypt, Libya and "Aehthiopia" are frequently depicted in ancient writings. As the Black classics scholar Frank Snowden Jr. wrote in the 1970s, at least one of the characters in The Odysses, Eurybates, is specifically describes as "black-skinned and woolly-haired." As teh Stanford classics professor Sarah Derhew notes in her book Untangling Blackness in Greek Antiquity, Black people are referenced in plays by Euripides, Sophocles and Aeschylus. "They also appear in the writings of Hesiod and Herodotus. One of the lost epic poems is The Aethiopos, in which Memnon, the Aethiopian king and an ally to Troy, plays a major role."

Professor Amanda Sturgill@drsturg· 21d

When people are ignorant, it is easier to manipulate them. New UnSpun podcast journal club episode this week is an article measuring how news broadcasts now have less news in them. Find it here or where you pod. bit.ly/UnSpunPod

Image of TV station test pattern, such as you might have seen when the station was not on the air. It's a black and white line art image of concentric circes with lines through them, the words WXEL Cleveland and "The World on View"

Professor Amanda Sturgill@drsturg· 21d

Just finished a blog post about research on how it affects learning when instructors use GenAi to make course materials. I'm required to have art, so I used Google Notebook to make this infographic from what I wrote. It's got a lot wrong with it, which proves a point. Blog-ception.

Graphic of information about research on instructor use of GenAI. It shows a scale balancing efficiency and alienating students. The second panel suggests an even balance between students who approve and don't approve, which is not what the article says. A section labeled "research-backed impacts and lessons" features two bar charts that show trends, but don't have numbers because they don't actually represent anything.

Professor Amanda Sturgill@drsturg· 25d

Quality news costs money, but disinformation is usually free. How paywalls hurt democracy in this week's UnSpun podcast. Here, or wherever you pod. bit.ly/UnSpunPod

Graphic of a mock-up paywall window that reads "Start subscribing today. Get unlimited access to the Metropolitan Times for just $4.99 a month. Already a subscriber? Click here to log in. your@email here. Let's go"

Professor Amanda Sturgill@drsturg· Jul 7

Can you use AI to check for misinformation? Mid-level managers decide and if they know it doesn't work well, anxiety makes them use it even more. UnSpun podcast journal club has the details. Here or where you pod. bit.ly/UnSpunPod

Manager looks at a dashboard on a computer.

Professor Amanda Sturgill@drsturg· Jul 5

#SundaySillies: Ready for the heat wave to be over edition.

Meme with words on a green background. Embedded text: Woo hoo! Just finished building a time machine. Still have a few problems, though. So far, i can only go forwards in time and only very slowly.

Professor Amanda Sturgill@drsturg· Jul 4

Professor Amanda Sturgill@drsturg· Jun 30

3/ Descendants of the group still live out there, and they are apparently more tolerant of visitors now. Also, Heaven's Gate still has an active website. I explain why in the episode.

Professor Amanda Sturgill@drsturg· Jun 30

What do Tulsi Gabbard, Waco, and UFOs have in common? They're all examples of how media struggles to cover secretive cults and new religious movements. Sometimes, they even change the story. Find out more in this week's UnSpun, here or where you pod. bit.ly/UnSpunPod

Image from sniper's nest outside the Branch Davidian compound outside of Waco, Texas. A long gun sits on top of sandbags, surrounded by a makeshift, wood-frame window. In the background is a large, flat building. A timestamp in the corner reads '93 4 19, representing the date.

Professor Amanda Sturgill@drsturg· Jun 28

Sunday Sillies: nature knows best edition.

Photo of walrus on top of couch with devices attached to keep couch afloat. Embedded text reads: irishexaminer.com. Wally the walrun to get 'floating couch' to stop him sinking boats. Step 1: become chunky Step 2: become ungovernable Step 3. ????? Step 4: Profit (free couch)

Professor Amanda Sturgill@drsturg· Jun 23

From my frame, the "Plot Twist" element seems exceedingly important, as it covers both the "central casting" method of staffing executive positions and the government by distraction we all fall for. Repeatedly. Anyway, read the whole review. Here's a GIFT LINK. www.nytimes.com/2026/06/18/b...

Screenshot of the headline that reads "NONFICTION. 'We Need Plot Twists': Behind the Scenes of Trump's Second Term. in "Regime Change," two New York Times journalists offer a riveting chronicle of the weird fusion of reality and show business in the White House.

Professor Amanda Sturgill@drsturg· Jun 22

"How beautiful the Emperor's new clothes are!" "What a splendid train!" "And they fit to perfection!" (Illustration by Robinson in Fairy Tales from Hans Christian Andersen)

Line art illustration of two women gossiping standing next to a parade route.

Professor Amanda Sturgill@drsturg· Jun 19

I grew up in an era of magazines that told you how to live your life with advice like drink 8 glasses of water/day for better skin and try kumquats! The fact that we are apparently down to "Go outside" makes me sad. This publication has 13 million subscribers. Do they assume they are all depressed?

Screenshot of a summer challenge that reads Week 1: Go outside; Week 2 Sleep better; Week 3 Hang out; Week 4 Get creative

Professor Amanda Sturgill@drsturg· Jun 18

Saw a news piece on how there are going to be new M & Ms free of artificial colors (meaning blue isn't included). Ok. Is blue dye in candy a giant health threat, or is it a cheap fix that will market well? Did the article cover this? No. At the same time, this. Great work, everyone

Photo of box of Nilla wafer cookies apparently dyed blue called Grogu Nilla Nummies, featuring the Grogu character from The Mandalorian and the cookies look like the character is making them levitate.

Professor Amanda Sturgill@drsturg· Jun 17

The state of local news. It's bad, and has consequences, according to this new report. localjournalistindex.com

Map of the US coded by the percentage above and below the national average of local journalists per 100,000. Largely, areas with low population such as the upper-midwest and desert southwest do well, as does New England, northern California and Miami.

Professor Amanda Sturgill@drsturg· Jun 16

When people don't believe the journalists understand them, they don't trust news anymore. Folk theories of media bias were addressed in a very good study I review in this week's UnSpun podcast journal club. Here, or where you pod. bit.ly/UnSpunPod

Female TV reporter speaking to a camera outside a government building. Photo modified from Wikimedia Common https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Exeter_-_TV_News_Group_at_Exeter_Crown_%26_County_Court_(geograph_1675029).jpg

Professor Amanda Sturgill@drsturg· Jun 13

People of different ideological biases will see the same neutral event differently just based on how they understand the world. I APPRECIATE those who bring different perspectives. (Quote posts are disabled, but you can find the writer's feed from the image or the Alt text)

Screenshot of a post by account @nikostratis.com which has embedded text that reads sorry I know it's fun to be conspiratorial about everything, but let me tell you from decades of experiencing labor. It's totally normal to put up a tarp for this kind of thing. Not everything has to be some grand, shady mystery. He has shared a post by another account. @amandacarpenter.bsky.app that shares a post from the Washington Association of black journalists showing a worker removing what looks like a giant P, seen through a crack in a white material shielding a job site.. Text in the post by Carpenter that Stratis shared reads. Here's your photo! How fitting that this ended with another shameful cover-up, though. Perfectly, perfectly Trumpian.

Professor Amanda Sturgill@drsturg· Jun 12

Three things associated with growing news bias: *New tech makes it cheaper to produce information *Fewer people own mainstream news *The audience gets more divided *Influencers call media "crooked" or biased Why it matters and what to do on this week's UnSpun Podcast. bit.ly/UnSpunPod

Screenshot of President Trump removing his microphone before angrily leaving a Meet the Press interview

Professor Amanda Sturgill@drsturg· Jun 10

This school did a quick trip by the gym

Seniors in caps and gowns playing with a large parachute in an elementary school gym

Professor Amanda Sturgill@drsturg· Jun 10

I mean...

Image of graduates wearing cap and gown walking down the hall of an elementary school, high-fiving the kids.

Professor Amanda Sturgill@drsturg· Jun 9

Today's UnSpun podcast is on media bias. Are politicians right when they yell about it, or is it all a ploy? The answer surprised me. Find it here or where you pod. bit.ly/UnSpunPod

Photograph of balance scale and weights.

Professor Amanda Sturgill@drsturg· Jun 8

2/ Boy is this one telling. Two things that are working for the president: a) Government by distraction b) Taking advantage of algorithm-driven profit incentives for the news **Note that Trump often got more headlines, even when Biden was in office**

Chart comparing NYT headline words about presidents over 25 years, with each president's mentioned highlighted in a fever chart. Trump got by far more headlines, and also got the most many times even when Biden was president.

Professor Amanda Sturgill@drsturg· Jun 7

Best description of AI slop I've seen. We deserve better. Gift Link: www.nytimes.com/interactive/...