Colin Ellard

New writing on substack. colinellard.substack.com/p/parallax-lov…

@MrsVonDoom I can't hear it over the din of my dropping stuff all over the kitchen floor

@MrsVonDoom Oops

Academic articles may pay nothing and take years to publish but at least they're read by virtually no one

Writing deadlines really make you appreciate the joys of tidying up the house

@MrsVonDoom Enjoying a brutally early coffee at some airport. Missing you and the child.

The hardest part of academia is deciding whether to spend your day failing to write or failing to read

The Toronto Blue Jays’ total attendance over 82 games in 2024 was 2.68M. Doug Ford wants you to believe twice as many people are going to go to a European day spa on the corpse of Ontario Place that taxpayers are paying billions for. At least come up with a better lie, man.

Retiring from academia to live out your wildest fantasies, like reading and writing occasionally

“That’s when they suspended the constitution. They said it would be temporary. There wasn’t any rioting in the streets. People stayed home, watching their televisions, looking for direction. There wasn’t even an enemy you could put a finger on.” - Margaret Atwood, Handmaids Tale

But seriously the suburbs are correlated with increased mental health issues even controlling for external factors. A 10-30% higher risk of depression than cities or rural areas.

I really think the physical & psychological isolation of suburbs is an underrated contributor to America's general meanness and political dysfunction. Suburbanites live in controlled environments isolated from any public. It's the bubbliest of bubbles.

Suburbs have long been idealized as the perfect place to raise children. But a growing body of evidence suggests that suburban upbringings may be incredibly harmful to children's physical, mental, and social development. Today, we explore why that is. youtu.be/RrsL2n9q6d0

Car-dependent suburban sprawl is the most publicly expensive, publicly subsidized, and publicly consequential form of human habitation in human history. #SuburbanSprawl #CarDependency

Pierre Poilievre: "All the socialist policies, in practice, take, redistribute from the working-class to the super wealthy, in practice." Literally describing capitalism but calling it socialism.

@mariebuzzart Thanks Marie. That review refers to my earlier book "You Are Here" that does indeed contain some entomology: dazzling tales of wayfinding ants! The word i might object to is mundane!

@WhereAmINow enjoying your writing ~ looked up your most recent book and spotted what may be a “bug” in a chosen review by NPR on your Amazon UK page? Unless there’s much about the insect environment in Places of the Heart, might they have meant ontological?

Academics will be like "finished is better than perfect" and then not finish

Academics: “one thing I love about this job is the freedom to make my own hours” Also academics:

‘Experiencing boredom in streetscapes is actually a matter of public health’ Neuroscientist Prof Colin Ellard at Humanise Symposium