Thom Dunn
Boing Boing
Boston, MA, United States
Contact Thom
Discover and connect with journalists and influencers around the world, save time on email research, monitor the news, and more.
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Past articles by Thom:
Sci-fi magazines are getting inundated with AI fiction submissions
About a month ago, I wrote a piece about Infinite Odyssey, an AI-generated sci-fi magazine. Say what you will about AI-generated content in general (and I’ll probably agree with you, though t… → Read More
David Graeber's posthumous new book explores how pirates created liberalism
Acclaimed “Anarchist Anthropologist” David Graeber passed away in 2020, leaving behind an incredible legacy of scathingly insightful examinations of economics and human culture. In addi… → Read More
Listen to this AI-generated Christmas album from folk-punk singer Evan Greer
Folk-punk singer and Fight for the Future activist Evan Greer had a fun idea for spreading holiday cheer: an EP of Christmas songs, with lyrics written by ChatGPT, using prompts like “Christm… → Read More
The "Holy Spirit Board" is Ouija for Jesus
Ouija Boards have historically been a source of absurd Satanic panic for certain sects of White Christian Nationalists in America. As one recent article on Christianity.com warns: Many advertisemen… → Read More
Station Eleven author does an interview just to fix her marital status on Wikipedia
Emily St. John Mandel is the acclaimed author of books like Station Eleven and the more recent Sea of Tranquility. And, like most authors, she has no control over what happens on her own Wikipedia … → Read More
Elon Musk compared Twitter Files to a government Truth & Reconciliation Commission
After six installations of mostly-uninteresting “Twitter Files” released as clumsily-connected Tweet threads, Bari Weiss and Co. have finally started compiling their findings into some … → Read More
The Lovecraftian horror of Lobster Mickey Mouse has been unearthed once more
Many, many years ago (circa 2003), a terrible creature roamed the Earth in the parts that are now known as Boston’s Fanueil Hall. This horrifying beast, known colloquially as “Lobsta Mi… → Read More
"History Listen" is a new podcast about rock n' roll, narrated by St. Vincent
A little over a year again, I began working on my first podcast for Double Elvis Productions — a combination true crime thriller and history lesson covering the early days and development of the So… → Read More
Bipedal robot drummer already better at it than most humans
Back in August, the Chinese cybernetics company Xiamoi announced plans to build a bipedal humanoid drummer. Initially, it seemed like a strange choice — of all the things you could do with an andro… → Read More
The world's oldest narrative art has been discovered. It's a picture of a guy jerking off to horny leopards
In a recently-published paper in the academic journal Antiquity, a group of researchers from Istanbul University led by Eylem Özdoğan claim to have unearthed a piece of ancient art containing the o… → Read More
LA Animal Control issues first ever license for pet unicorn ownership
Last month, a young girl named Madeline write a letter to the LA County Department of Animal Care and Control requesting formal government permission to keep a unicorn in her backyard. Presumably, … → Read More
30,000 Steps is a hilariously heartfelt page-turner about opioid deaths
Back in 2015, writer Jess Keefe had convinced her younger brother Matt to move in with her. They were both going through breakups, and for about six months, they kept each other afloat in their Bos… → Read More
This perfume smells like eau de Room 237
Have you ever wonder what the haunted room in The Shining smelled like? Have you ever longed to breathe the succulent scent of a sexy old ghost woman rotting naked in a bathtub? Now’s your ch… → Read More
More shady legal trouble over the rights to American classic To Kill a Mockingbird
Many Americans read To Kill a Mockingbird in school. It’s a great book. It was also, curiously, the only book that author Harper Lee published — at least until shortly after her death, when a… → Read More
New journalism startup loses Climate editor over Chevron sponsorship
Semafor is a recently-launched news website from Ben Smith, former editor-in-chief at Buzzfeed News and a New York Times media columnist, and Justin B. Smith, former Bloomberg LP CEO. With such hig… → Read More
Metallica denies crypto connection, but still can't explain their drum sounds
Metallica dropped a new single last week — “Lux Æterna,” the lead-off to their upcoming full-length album 72 Seasons, due out next year. Along with the album, the band also plans to tou… → Read More
Is "Goblin Mode" really the Word of the Year, or are we being gaslighted?
Every year, the publisher behind the Oxford English Dictionary picks a “Word of the Year” — something new that’s gained notable prominence and frequency, with the potential to hol… → Read More
Legendary "Hulk" comic book writer Peter David raising money for hospital bills
Peter David, aka PAD, is workhorse of a writer. As a comic book creator, he’s best known for scripting long, iconic runs on books like Incredible Hulk, X-Factor, Young Justice, and both Spide… → Read More
How Woody Guthrie's second wife changed modern dance and mental healthcare
About a Girl is a podcast about women from history who have largely overshadowed by the more famous musicians in their life. I had the privilege of scripting the latest episode, which tells the sto… → Read More
The dystopian cheeriness of Singapore's useless, gaslighting AI therapist chatbot
In August 2022, the Ministries of Health and Education in Singapore launched a free online AI mental health chatbot service called Mindline at Work. The main idea was to ease the stress for overwhe… → Read More