#365ways2026 — Public Fediverse posts

Freedom to Read

Oh look, it’s Banned Books Week in the US.

Banding Together for Banned Books Week 2026

Banned Books Week, taking place October 4–10 this year, concentrates and amplifies the messaging of right to read organizations. Libraries, bookstores, and literary associations are hosting in-person and virtual events, featuring authors, educators, and advocates.

Interested in examples of books that have been banned this year?  Here’s a list: Banned Books List 2026 – PEN America

In the near future, Offred is a handmaid in an authoritarian society who is not permitted to read. We’ll let that sink in.

And if you are a teenager in a library system that is banning books, Books Unbanned is for you.

A Books Unbanned library card gives teens across the United States free digital access to ebooks and digital resources, including banned and challenged books—no matter where they live. Books Unbanned helps ensure teens can read what they like, explore new ideas and form their own opinions.

Whether you support your local library, attend an event, read a book that’s been challenged to see what You think, or something else entirely, I hope you take a moment to appreciate the right to read without censorship. Because that benefits us all!

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You Get to Build It Yourself

In some ways, this quote expresses a very Monday sort of sentiment, but I like that you can flip it from “must do” to “get to.”

“No one can build you the bridge on which you, and only you, must cross the river of life.” — Friedrich Nietzsche

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Any Human Ever

Some days you come across something on the web that helps you remember why people thought it was a good idea in the first place. For today’s entry into that ledger, I present Any Human Ever.

Any Human Ever: one life from over 100 billion

So: what would happen if stories were drawn from actual data, randomized to give a valid representation of the human story? That’s the question that was stuck in my head, and that drove this project forward. If you could draw a life at random from all of human history, what would it look like? Roll the dice, and see a genuinely random life, depicted as well as the data allow. Do it again and again, and what kind of pointillist painting emerges from all those colorful drops of humanity?

I love this idea. Do statistics have their place? Absolutely. Is this perfect? Maybe not, but I spent some time in grad school arguing for the humanization of data, and that debate solidified my belief that one of the best ways to connect people to ideas is through stories.

Have fun exploring 100 billion of them.

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