Tools
Digital tools created to assist in sociological research, data collection, and analysis.
Academic Research
Academic Journal Monitor — Live tracker of new articles across 70+ social-science journals — sociology, criminology, political economy, social theory, anthropology, political science — plus keyword discovery searches, powered by OpenAlex.
RSS News Monitors
AI Monitor — Politics of artificial intelligence, AI commercialization, and compute infrastructure.
Space Monitor — Space commercialization and orbital infrastructure.
Tech Monitor — Silicon Valley: platform companies, AI labs, chips, enterprise/cloud, key individuals, and commentary.
Left Politics Monitor — Social democracy, democratic socialism, and the radical left across Europe and the Americas.
Right-Wing Politics Monitor — Right-wing populist actors across Europe and the U.S.
Transatlantic Right-Wing Monitor — A more comprehensive, standalone monitor of right-wing politics across 10+ countries.
Audio Briefings
Shammas Space & Tech Briefing (Spotify · YouTube) — AI-generated daily audio briefing on space, AI, and the wider tech industry.
Shammas Right-Wing Politics Briefing (Spotify · YouTube) — A daily audio briefing on right-wing and far-right political actors across Europe and the Americas — parties, figures, movements, and transnational networks.
Apps and Extensions
Plainview — A Markdown reader for the Mac: opens Markdown files in a clean, readable window.
Gaugeline — Claude Code and Codex usage limits in the Mac menu bar, with reset countdowns and pace forecasts.
Quoth — Local voice transcription for the Mac: hold a key, speak, and your words appear where you type.
Staple (Chrome Web Store) — A Chrome extension that gathers Substack essays into one PDF, EPUB or HTML file for offline reading.
Claude Usage Meter — Your Claude 5-hour and weekly usage limits in the Mac menu bar. Free and open source.
Lectern — A presenter view for HTML slide decks on the Mac: the slides on the projector, your notes and the next slide on your laptop.
Commonplace — A Chrome extension for the Mac that saves links to Apple Notes, with the page title, the date and your own comment. Free and open source.