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Aug 25, 2024 | 
inkl.com | Christine Kenneally
Thin, bearded, redolent of nicotine, he holds a sketchbook of his works. He enjoys the fellowship of a drawing class once a week, sketching figures of live models. Alcoholics Anonymous helps too, he says, adding: “I have been sober since May 30 and intend to go a long way sober.”Existing on a disability check and earnings from his sporadic art sales, Geo lives on one side of the shotgun-style house where he grew up. His brother, a survivor of the same orphanage, lives on the other side.
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Jun 1, 2024 | 
projektpulsar.pl | Christine Kenneally
Od rozpoczęcia kolonizacji Australii w 1788 roku do dziś liczba języków używanych przez rdzenne społeczności zmniejszyła się o około połowę. Z tych, które nie wymarły, tylko 13 języków jest uczonych jako ojczyste. Na początku xx wieku językoznawca Benjamin Lee Whorf, badający język hopi używany przez rdzennych mieszkańców dzisiejszej Arizony, zaintrygował swoich kolegów po fachu, stwierdzając, że nie ma w nim słów lub elementów gramatycznych odnoszących się do czasu.
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Oct 17, 2023 | 
scientificamerican.com | Christine Kenneally
In the early 20th century linguist Benjamin Lee Whorf thrilled his contemporaries by noting that the Hopi language, spoken by Native American people in what is now Arizona, had no words or grammatical elements to represent time. Whorf argued that this meant Hopi speakers had no concept of time and experienced what an English speaker might call “the passage of time” in a completely different way.
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Jun 28, 2023 | 
christinekenneally.substack.com | Christine Kenneally
Dear readers, With many thanks for all your reading and writing and incredible support, I’m hitting pause for a brief while on Unnatural History. The media cycle is slowing down, and it’s time to step back to prepare a few pitches, write a few stories, and launch my new website. Unnatural History will be more sporadic over the next few months, with a longer term plan to resume regular broadcast again.
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Jun 21, 2023 | 
christinekenneally.substack.com | Christine Kenneally
How do you disappear the story of more than five million people from history? How do you do it so well that some experts say: There were no orphanages in the 20th century, they all closed down in the 19th century. If survivors of the American orphanage system hadn’t come forward, the history would have been lost forever.
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Jun 14, 2023 | 
christinekenneally.substack.com | Christine Kenneally
Part of the publishing adventure this time around has been encountering a world of magazines, podcasts, and other publications that connect to religion, one way (The God Show) or another (Freethought Radio). This week, I’ve included a few excerpts from a review in Commonweal.
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Jun 7, 2023 | 
christinekenneally.substack.com | Christine Kenneally
At the beginning of June, the Spanish Catholic Church released a report on the abuse of children by the church. The report identified 728 alleged abusers and 927 victims of abuse, all since the 1940s. While the report is an admission of culpability, it is a very weak one. Many abusers abuse many children. The likelihood that less than 1000 Spanish children were abused by 728 abusers is virtually nil.
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May 31, 2023 | 
christinekenneally.substack.com | Christine Kenneally
Three earthquakes in two weeks later, that confidence is shaken. It started in 2021 when a magnitude 5.9 quake erupted 200 km from the city. The tremors in Melbourne were impressive. It had me wondering what a semi-trailer was doing in my backyard. The event was so singular, most of us assumed it was a one off. Now it appears the state sits on an “blind” fault line that no one has really looked into before.
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May 24, 2023 | 
christinekenneally.substack.com | Christine Kenneally
The enormous spectrum of podcasts produced now, since my last book was published, is astonishing. Two weeks ago I was interviewed by Arizona-based The God Show. A week after that I was interviewed by Wisconsin-based Freethought Radio, hosted by the Presidents of the US Freedom From Religion Foundation. It was The God Show host, Pat McMahon, nonagenarian media extraordinaire and committed catholic, who straight out asked me if I was anti-catholic. He said he couldn’t tell from reading my book.
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May 17, 2023 | 
christinekenneally.substack.com | Christine Kenneally
One of publication’s more fun activities is being invited to write about the books that influenced you. I’ve written more than one of these roundups now, and I choose different books each time. Truly, many books shaped what I wrote, and how I thought about both my subject and my writing. As far as Ghosts of the Orphanage is concerned, the books that influenced me have never ranged more widely across genre and intended audience.
