Nate Bowling (نيت بولينج)

natebowling@scholar.social

Teaching & researching US Government and Comparative Politics at the American Community School, an embassy school in Abu Dhabi.Maestro. Traveler. Sounder. Host - Nerd Farmer Podcast, a civics and nerdery-centric interview show. Often on here hunting for show guests.Author - Takes & Typos Newsletter He/Him/Grumpy

Posts

Post #4388645
Eli Cranor is a former college football quarterback turned Southern noir author. His book Broiler (2024) is social commentary about immigrant labor in the poultry industry wrapped in a crime novel. I really, really enjoy Cranor's writing and think you'd likely enjoy his book and this (spoiler free) conversation I recorded with him. https://nerdfarmpod.com/2026/08/02/on-broiler-a-crime-novel-and-social-commentary-eli-cranor-269/
Post #4182796
My time in the US is coming to a close. I'm headed back to a deeply uncertain situation in the Gulf, given the war. But that somehow still feels more "normal" and less chaotic than it feels here.
Post #4073466
I keep coming back to the ecological concept of "shifting baseline syndrome": each generation mistakes the world it inherits for the way things have always been. Anyone between the ages of 18 to 21 has spent their adolescence in a world in which options trading, sports betting, prediction markets, and crypto are commonplace activities. That's a drastic departure from recent norms and we're all worse off for it. Words by me. https://buttondown.com/natebowling/archive/every...
Post #3970735
Much to my chagrin, I spent much of the spring stuck in a drone war in the Middle East. Since then I've been thinking a lot about drones. Into my life walked @faineg@mstdn.social. They're a researcher and journalist on drone technology and policy. This is a conversation with them about our emerging drone century. https://open.spotify.com/episode/6A9LoVxLwiRlP5TioUxxhA?si=-xtZmnqCRBO1amIrq_4ugQ
Post #3815271
I'm sometimes embarrassed it took a family tragedy to make me a disability advocate but it's better late than never. Clears throat: trim your damn bushes and hedges! Words by me. https://buttondown.com/natebowling/archive/one-less-obstacle/
Post #956297
I&#39;m currently waiting out the war teaching remotely from Thailand. About half my students are still in Abu Dhabi, the remainder are as far west as California and as far east as Seoul. Meanwhile, the messages from Washington are triumphant even braggadocious about victory. But if we were winning, the embassy would be open and my students wouldn&#39;t be ducking out of class due to missile alerts. Words by me. https://buttondown.com/natebowling/archive/the-kings-speech/
Post #916635
This weekend the US or Israel bombed two universities in Iran. In retaliation Tehran is threatening to strike US or Israeli schools in the region. This is obviously sub-optimal for my school community and other American schools in the region. Words by me. https://buttondown.com/natebowling/archive/the-war-they-didn-t-plan-for/
Post #746363
My school instituted a phone free campus policy for students and by the end of the second week boys were huddled in circles during breaks showing and teaching each other close magic and card tricks.
Post #510503
This is a dispatch from here in Abu Dhabi about the fallout from another US war of choice. https://buttondown.com/natebowling/archive/another-american-war-of-choice/