Terrific new book just dropped, Picky by the historian Helen Veit. Just an outstanding broadside agains the idea that children are "naturally" picky, and an eye-opening look at how seemingly eternal truths — children are picky eaters — are products of culture. us.macmillan.com/books/978125...

Picky

An eye-opening investigation into why American kids no longer eat broadly and with gusto"Admirable." —The Wall Street Journal"Enlightening ... a rigorous a...

us.macmillan.com

shocked, I tell you, just shocked — it's always the gurus you least expect

Picked up an amazing back issue of The Atlantic!

I'm going to try to divide my time a bit more between Twitter and Bluesky...many of my OG social media friends are only active on Twitter, and I value the large community I have there, but I also know that many people have left completely. We'll see if it is too much!

“To us, this is a version of the placebo effect that has gone, essentially, unnoticed,” Professor Levinovitz said. “Here is this thing that is cross-cultural and trans-historical — the power of an official name to gain control over pathology of some kind — and it is almost entirely unstudied.”

Autism, A.D.H.D., Anxiety: Can a Diagnosis Make You Better? “As our diagnostic categories expand to include ever milder versions of disease, researchers propose that the act of naming a malady can itself bring relief.” www.nytimes.com/2025/10/03/h...

Autism, A.D.H.D., Anxiety: Can a Diagnosis Make You Better?

nytimes.com

“Alan Levinovitz shows us how the worship of an abstract idea of nature can lead us astray in everything from our health to the laws we pass and even how we structure our governments and our way of life. This book is required” - Tom Nichols www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/621092...

"From vaccines to climate change, misinformation poses an existential threat when it inhibits our collective decision-making ability." They Swore by the Diet I Created — but I Completely Made It Up by Alan Levinovitz in @elemental...

Opposing the ongoing technification of our classrooms should be an easy, bipartisan issue. Every teacher I know has struggled with tech in the classroom, and I'm certain the downsides will massively exacerbate educational disparities.

Excellent piece by @alanlevinovitz.bsky.social @awaisaftab.bsky.social on the therapeutic effect of diagnosis + the need for qual research. Reading Parson’s “sick role” theory in undergrad sociology was the moment I realized how much is missed by psych models. www.cambridge.org/core/service...

Grateful to see this layered and multifaceted discussion in the @nytimes.com by @ellenbarry.bsky.social about recent work by @alanlevinovitz.bsky.social and me on the Rumpelstiltskin effect (the therapeutic relief experienced on receiving a diagnosis) www.nytimes.com/2025/10/03/s...

Autism, A.D.H.D., Anxiety: Can a Diagnosis Make You Better?

nytimes.com

Really fun and interesting chat with @alanlevinovitz.bsky.social about teaching religion in a university setting.

Christian Century@christiancentury.bsky.social · last yr.

We chat with professor @alanlevinovitz.bsky.social about the impossible truism expected of religious educators: teach students how to think, not what to think. youtu.be/mQYj8Gd462k @jonmathieu.bsky.social

Japan has: < economic inequality > education system > walkable cities > public transportation < guns & gun violence < obesity > healthcare And, yes, many of its own probs... 👇 MAHA as sophisticted as a grade school science project. via @alanlevinovitz.bsky.social

In A Christmas Carol, Dickens describes Marley's face having a dismal light "like a bad lobster in a dark cellar." Huh? He was likely referring to the glow of bioluminescent bacteria that can grow in/on crustaceans, presumably a more common observation at the time. 📷 tinyurl.com/6cj6knjw

Feeling despair? So did this guy in 1875, who couldn't believe there were STILL anti-vaxxers: "One might suppose that the popular prejudice against vaccination had died out by this time, considering that it has been practiced for nearly a century"

The preprint also also mentions by favourite spoof paper: "What's the Deal with Birds" by @evornithology.bsky.social. The abstract is fantastic ....

Can we not fucking rationalize/equivocate about murder? Is it too fucking much to ask for a space where, when someone is murdered, it isn’t seen as an opportunity to score political points? Bluesky, paragon of civilized discourse. My God it’s all broken.

muscular baby jeb lund@mobute.bsky.social · 2y ago

pretty grim when health insurance company executives have to try to hide their identities online like they're public school history teachers, government employees or doctors who care for transgender people

FBI Director nominee. Sigh. HT @alanlevinovitz.bsky.social

“For every Galileo there are 1000 idiots.” The recent Fifth Column podcast with @alanlevinovitz.bsky.social was an invigorating listen. Reclaiming and reframing science via honest, practical no bullshit discussions like this are vital. Thanks Alan.

I don’t normally cross post, but this thread from @alanlevinovitz.bsky.social is so insightful and novel (as in I haven’t heard a lot of these ideas articulated so clearly before) that I can’t help myself. x.com/AlanLevinovi...

Especially this part, for me.

Wondering why I'm skeptical of health influencers who "know the secret THEY are keeping from YOU"? Okay, buckle up, and let me tell you about someone you've never heard of...one of the biggest health influencers of the 20th century. Horace Fletcher, aka "The Great Masticator."

There's been a LOT about why RFK Jr is a terrible pick, but I want to focus on something that is very concerning to me, but no one seems to be mentioning. He appeals to a widespread, common-sense idea that the problem with our food is that it has "lots of artificial ingredients".

@meredithhartwriter.bsky.social Hi Meredith!

🚨🚨🚨 MY SUBSTACK FOR BOOK LOVERS🚨🚨🚨 My new Substack is Book Glory, all about fascinating books, the stories behind them, and how to collect them. Here's a taste. We'll start with a mystery. Can you guess the author of this book?

@matthewbroome.bsky.social @nicolecrust.bsky.social @alanlevinovitz.bsky.social @dranniehickox.bsky.social @meganranney.bsky.social

Awais Aftab@awaisaftab.bsky.social · 2y ago

I wrote about psychiatric diagnosis for Psyche magazine — what it means & what it doesn’t mean. If you are looking for a no-nonsense general intro to diagnosis in mental healthcare or you are grappling with your own diagnosis, this is the piece for you. psyche.co/ideas/what-a...

*taps mic* Would really appreciate if folks from my X community who have found me here (a) let me know, and (b) share my Bluesky handle with others. To make this transition I need a community here!

Polar bears have taken over an ancient abandoned village in eastern Russia. Incredible photographs by Dmitry Kokh who won the Urban Wildlife category award in the Wildlife Photographer of the Year competition.

I feel like the academic community doesn't talk enough about the tradition of fighting a snake during your thesis defense. Given its importance, we should spend more time on it in grad school. For example: Tactical Snake Fighting 101 should be taught in year 1 of PhD programs. Anyone agree?

Amazing farmer’s market buy, I never want to store garlic any other way. Beautiful, functional, and lasts three months.