"35 years ago today... I was standing in the middle of Red Square when tanks rolled down Gorky Street. I spent the next three days not sleeping, shooting photos, and watching history unfold. This is what I saw." -- Deborah Copaken @dcopaken.bsky.social

35 years ago today, August 19, 1991...

...I was standing in the middle of Red Square when tanks rolled down Gorky Street. I spent the next three days not sleeping, shooting photos, and watching history unfold. This is what I saw.

deborahcopaken.substack.com

Great stuff from @dcopaken.bsky.social. Nina Schwalbe, public health scientist and vaccine superstar, is running for Congress open.substack.com/pub/deborahc...

Nina Schwalbe, public health scientist and vaccine superstar, is running for Congress

If she wins, she will be the only Democratic member of Congress with a PhD in public health. She will also wear a T-shirt on day one that says, "Impeach RFK, Jr."

open.substack.com

“Speaking of transparency, yesterday, a 34-year-old Muslim American, Zohran Mamdani, won the election to be the next mayor of New York City in large part because of his truth-telling“ -- Deborah Copaken @dcopaken.bsky.social open.substack.com/pub/deborahc...

Reclaiming our truth

Between Zohran Mamdani's win, Lily Allen's new album, and Pentagon reporters rejecting spoon-fed propaganda, it's been a good month for saying no to lies and yes to truth and transparency.

open.substack.com

“No, Speaker Johnson — the No Kings rally on October 18 is not a hate America rally. In fact, it’s quite the contrary: It’s a love America rally.” #NoKings

I am continually floored by the brilliance of both @zohrankmamdani.bsky.social ‘s social media team and by the candidate himself. Please let this be a harbinger of a better, more equitable world.

Zohran Kwame Mamdani@zohrankmamdani.bsky.social · last yr.

#ReleaseTheCuomoList

I thought I knew how to vacation. Science now tells me I was just doing it all wrong. deborahcopaken.substack.com/p/you-actual...

You (actually do) need a vacation

A recent meta-analysis found that the immediate effects of a vacation are more long-lasting and profound than previously believed. As long as you focus on two things.

deborahcopaken.substack.com

This video by Progress Action Fund really hits the nail on the head. It’s both horrific and an accurate portrait of the U.S. today. youtu.be/j7SOc_8IhSY?...

Republican Kidnappers

YouTube video by Progress Action Fund

youtu.be

When students of history look back on these moments--a city comptroller, running for mayor, asking for a judicial warrant and getting arrested by masked thugs--it will be like us reading about Nazis only worse. Because we can all see this and know it is wrong, fascist, and horrific in real time.

Gwynne Hogan@gwynnefitz.bsky.social · last yr.

Here's a longer video of Brad Lander's detention just now inside 26 Federal Plaza as he tried to walk a man out of immigration court, by masked federal agents.

Huge crowd in Sag Harbor for #nokings.

The average wedding in the U.S. now costs a cool $36,000. But @dcopaken.bsky.social discovered that embracing DIY elements for her daughter's wedding not only kept costs down—it brought communities together. www.thepersistent.com/how-to-diy-a...

Page One must have been crowded. So NYT puts it on Page 13. 🤡 @schooley.bsky.social

“It's not a partisan issue. It’s not an ideological issue. So who voted for this? I personally don't remember Donald Trump's campaign promise to cut breast cancer research and to make menopause harder for American women,” says @chrislhayes.bsky.social.

Follow the money.

Anne Applebaum@anneapplebaum.wsocial.eu · last yr.

The DC attorney nominee has appeared dozens of times on Russian state media www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/202...

Thank you, Seth Rogan, for taking a public stand against tyranny. And shame on the Breakthrough Prize video editors for editing out that bravery.

Fryda Wolff@frydawolff.bsky.social · last yr.

While presenting an award at the event known as the Oscars of Science, 'The Studio' star pointed out the irony of tech titans' support for the Trump administration's defunding of science. The potentially embarrassing comments were edited out.

@harvard.edu not only stood up to Trump, it redesigned its website to highlight groundbreaking scientific work that relies on funding. For me, being deaf, research into hair regeneration was fascinating! This is how you stand up to fascism and tyranny. I'm proud of my alma mater. www.harvard.edu

Harvard University

Harvard University is devoted to excellence in teaching, learning, and research, and to developing leaders who make a difference globally.

harvard.edu

I just moved in with my partner. And his wife. open.substack.com/pub/deborahc...

Moving vans and thwarted plans

Since leaving college, I've moved 18 times within 3 different countries. Most were forced. All were stressful. But this move, combining two families under one roof, was both different and revelatory.

open.substack.com

Here’s a mandate I can get behind: let all children born to mothers who do the hard work of carrying, birthing, nursing, and (more often than not) raising them take their mother’s surname at birth from now on. Go, Italy! www.theguardian.com/world/2025/m...

Proposal to automatically give babies mother’s surname ignites row in Italy

Politician says idea would be ‘compensation for centuries-old injustice’ of children being assigned father’s name

theguardian.com

Unidentified men grabbing someone off the street and putting her in a car because she wrote an op-Ed. This as flatly authoritarian as anything we’ve seen in this country in a very long time.

Matt Novak@paleofuture.bsky.social · last yr.

Video of the international student at Tufts being arrested by "federal authorities" in Massachusetts has been released and it's terrifying. They're not even uniformed officers. Just secret police thugs in hoodies and masks. From WCVB: youtu.be/PuFIs7OkzYY

Since White House says info in the chat was not classified, seems like @JeffreyGoldberg has the all clear to lay out everything in there....

Why bother to care about what "vibe" of tablecloth to pick for a wedding when democracy is crumbling? Because we must. Because love should always trump (ahem) hate. deborahcopaken.substack.com/p/planning-a...

Planning a wedding during the apocalypse

Tablescapes, hellscapes, and why celebrating love in a time of hate in America is not unseemly. It's the only antidote.

deborahcopaken.substack.com

Some more good news: all of these young women just became doctors. It’s Match Day. They will be fanning out across the U.S. to care for patients. My daughter’s in the purple dress. She’s heading to the University of Illinois-Chicago College of Medicine Family med residency program. Congrats to all!

Some good news. For once.

David Roberts@volts.wtf · last yr.

Congestion pricing is an unqualified triumph. One of the most immediately, strikingly successful public policies of my lifetime.

Anyone know where to get Paxlovid these days? Capsule doesn't have it. My local Brooklyn pharmacy doesn't have it. Ah, Covid. The gift that keeps on giving.

With so little research on UTIs in women and how to prevent them, we need to be our own advocates. One male doctor told me to take a weekly bleach bath and daily Macrobid. Then he slut shamed me. We need to do better. deborahcopaken.substack.com/p/probiotics...

Probiotics and UTI prevention

After a lifetime of UTIs that turned debilitating in menopause, I have finally landed on a several-step precautionary protocol that (knock wood) has been working.

deborahcopaken.substack.com

I, um, what?

Brian Tyler Cohen@briantylercohen.bsky.social · last yr.

The US military just purged their website of mentions of the Holocaust, 9/11 remembrance, cancer awareness, sexual assault, and suicide prevention to align with their new “anti-DEI” policies.

NEBRASKA CROWD: “TAX THE RICH! TAX THE RICH!” @USRepMikeFlood: “So your proposal to solve (the debt) is tax the rich?” NEBRASKA CROWD: *CHEERS WILDLY* (not sure this went quite as he planned 😬)

Coming soon, to a hospital near you: my daughter, Dr. Sasha Kogan. Who is the first person I call every time I'm confused about what happened in The Pitt and who just found out she matched into a family medicine residency.

On the left, Moscow, USSR, 1991. No bread. On the right, Brooklyn, USA, 2025. No eggs.

I made many mistakes! So you don't have to! deborahcopaken.substack.com/p/12-life-le...

12 life lessons from 59 years of mistakes

I have some thoughts. About everything I did wrong and how to fix them.

deborahcopaken.substack.com

If you’re one of the 69 million married women in the U.S who changed her last name, but you’re not sure where your birth certificate is, time to brush up on voter suppression aimed directly at you. Then call your congressperson and demand they vote no on H.R. 22. open.substack.com/pub/deborahc...

Married women: now they're going after your right to vote

Did you change your name when you got married? Do you know where your birth certificate is? If the answer to the first question is yes, the second, no, the SAVE act is designed to suppress your vote.

open.substack.com