Zachary Bennett

1/3 My book has a (preliminary) page @PennPress! Contested Currents: Rivers and the Remaking of New England will be published in Oct. 2026. pennpress.org/9781512830156/…

Powerful words from University of Pennsylvania students against their university's headlong rush to embrace of AI:

Posts from 1795.

@AlecMacGillis @PeterMoskos @timcraigpost Almost 15 years ago to the date, I - a college junior who had smoked a few funny cigarettes - sent a 2 am email to Sean Wilentz telling him how much i enjoyed his book “Bob Dylan in America.” He graciously responded to me right away.

An interesting moment making name tags for class today…

All invented within the British Empire. Perhaps athletics are its most enduring legacy

@JacobAShell The name "Boston-New England" is deeply offensive to all of us fortunate enough not to live in eastern Mass.

People in U.S. Poli Sci discipline treat the permanence of US state borders like a silly quirk and not a serious problem. But everything in Philly (for example) would certainly be completely different if it could dominate its own state and hinterland like on the proposed map!

I am jealous of countries (e.g. France, Indonesia) that redraw their internal state/provincial boundaries whenever it makes sense and it's no big deal. In the US it's just impossible, and we're forever stuck with states that have been obsolete since like 1830.

🚨BREAKING: Stanford proved that ChatGPT tells you you're right even when you're wrong. Even when you're hurting someone. And it's making you a worse person because of it. Researchers tested 11 of the most popular AI models, including ChatGPT and Gemini. They analyzed over 11,500 real advice-seeking conversations. The finding was universal. Every single model agreed with users 50% more than a human would. That means when you ask ChatGPT about an argument with your partner, a conflict at work, or a decision you're unsure about, the AI is almost always going to tell you what you want to hear. Not what you need to hear. It gets darker. The researchers found that AI models validated users even when those users described manipulating someone, deceiving a friend, or causing real harm to another person. The AI didn't push back. It didn't challenge them. It cheered them on. Then they ran the experiment that changes everything. 1,604 people discussed real personal conflicts with AI. One group got a sycophantic AI. The other got a neutral one. The sycophantic group became measurably less willing to apologize. Less willing to compromise. Less willing to see the other person's side. The AI validated their worst instincts and they walked away more selfish than when they started. Here's the trap. Participants rated the sycophantic AI as higher quality. They trusted it more. They wanted to use it again. The AI that made them worse people felt like the better product. This creates a cycle nobody is talking about. Users prefer AI that tells them they're right. Companies train AI to keep users happy. The AI gets better at flattering. Users get worse at self-reflection. And the loop tightens. Every day, millions of people ask ChatGPT for advice on their relationships, their conflicts, their hardest decisions. And every day, it tells almost all of them the same thing. You're right. They're wrong. Even when the opposite is true.

People forget how society pushed millennials to read books like crazy. They completely gave up with Gen Z

I love this chart of how some of the Founders actually got along with Washington as president (they didn't). A reminder that these great figures were not cardboard cutouts, but jostling, sharp-tongued pols. From Alexis Coe's fun Washington bio, "You Never Forget Your First."

🚨BREAKING: MIT hooked people up to brain scanners while they used ChatGPT. What they found should concern every single person reading this. ChatGPT users showed 55% weaker brain connectivity than people who didn't use it. Not after years. After just four months. Here's how they tested it. 54 people were split into three groups: one used ChatGPT to write essays, one used Google, and one used nothing but their own brain. They wore EEG monitors that tracked their brain activity in real time across four sessions over four months. The brain-only group built the strongest, most widespread neural networks. Google users were in the middle. ChatGPT users had the weakest brains in the room. Every time. Then the memory test hit. Participants were asked to recall what they'd just written minutes earlier. 83% of ChatGPT users couldn't quote a single line from their own essay. They wrote it. They couldn't remember it. The words passed through them like they were never there. It gets worse. In the final session, ChatGPT users were told to write without AI. Their brains were measurably weaker than people who never used AI at all. 78% still couldn't recall their own writing. The damage didn't go away when the tool was removed. Meanwhile, brain-only users who tried ChatGPT for the first time? Their brains lit up. They wrote better prompts. They retained more. Their brains were already strong enough to use AI as a tool instead of a crutch. The researchers also found that every ChatGPT essay on the same topic looked almost identical. More facts, more dates, more names. But less original thinking. Everyone using ChatGPT produced the same generic output while believing it was their own. MIT gave this a name: cognitive debt. Like financial debt, you borrow convenience now and pay with your thinking ability later. Except there's no way to pay it back. The question isn't whether ChatGPT is useful. It's whether the price is your ability to think without it.

Nebraska - a state with just 3% forest cover - is the birthplace of the globally celebrated Arbor Day. In the 1850s, settlers moving from the lush forests of the East Coast to these vast, barren plains couldn't find a single branch to build a home with or seek shade under. They worked hard to change that. In 1872, they created an official holiday and planted over a million saplings on the very first day. Despite over a century of effort and millions of trees planted every year, the forest cover is still around 3% today. Still, it's worth noting that the state's Nebraska National Forest (Bessey Ranger District) is the largest hand-planted forest in the Western Hemisphere.

@BostonGlobe Democrats would've been on the side of big government Tories in the 1770s.

Massachusetts is trying persuade the Democratic National Committee to name Boston as host of the party’s national convention in 2028, framing the city as a seat of historic resistance. trib.al/OHgyCav

"[DEI] initiatives tend to be little more than a moral laundromat that bleaches the sins of elite universities—whose overwhelming function in recent years has been not redressing racism but fundraising and reproducing their own donor class." theatlantic.com/culture/2026/0…

Justice Gorsuch asks what it meant to be "Habitual Drunkard" in old days of America: "Eight shots of whiskey a day only made you an occasional drunkard...to be a habitual drunkard you had to do double that...James Madison reportedly drank a pint of whiskey every day..."

Gotta say, did not have "Greece sends warships to defend island from Persian attacks" on my bingo card for this millennium, yet here we are.

It’s more and more clear that October 7 was for Islamic radicals what Pearl Harbor was for the Japanese—a brilliant tactical success that carried within it the seeds of catastrophic strategic failure

@ChalkboardHQ There have been several player-coaches in NBA history (here's Bob Cousy for the Cincinnati Royals) but there hasn't been one since the 1970s.

Imagine if NBA coaches had to wear their team’s uniform like it was the MLB 💀

When most people think of Indians defeating the @USArmy, they likely conjure up images of Custer and Little Big Horn...but the largest (and more significant) instance was St. Clair's Defeat in Indiana. UNC prof. Wayne Lee provides a brilliant summary here: warontherocks.com/2026/02/the-im…

Eileen Gu, of course, can say whatever she wants about America while representing China. But she cannot say whatever she wants about China while representing China. That's distinction #1 on the difference between our country and hers. At least, it should be.

@JoePostingg I dare you to move up here to Vermont and have the same opinion after a winter.

I kind of like shoveling snow. Physically strenuous outdoor task with a clear beginning middle and end. There's worse chores.