thanks @nature.com for selecting ORIGINAL SIN as one of the five best science books of the summer www.nature.com/articles/d41...
Kathryn Paige Harden
@kph3k.bsky.social
Psychology & behavior genetics. Author of THE GENETIC LOTTERY (2021) and ORIGINAL SIN (2026). Speaking as an individual.
"Why would he so disparage a book, I wondered, that so deserves to be read?" Mike Fortun responds to Jonathan Basile's review of Kathryn Paige Harden’s "Original Sin": https://lareviewofbooks.org/article/kathryn-harden-original-sin-mike-fortun-jonathan-basile/
"Basile’s essentializing of 'what' Harden is strikes me as wrong in more ways than one." Mike Fortun responds to Jonathan Basile's review of Kathryn Paige Harden’s "Original Sin": https://lareviewofbooks.org/article/kathryn-harden-original-sin-mike-fortun-jonathan-basile/
Good science writing from thoughtful scientists is a valuable cultural good, especially in a shit time like the present for science and scientists; we can learn a lot from them if we aren’t so set on demonizing them with a fantasy/theory that geneticists can only be essentialist eugenicists. 4/fin
Wow--anthropologist @chromatinfuel.bsky.social reviews ORIGINAL SIN at length, praising its "rich, unorthodox, and literate philosophy of science" -- and calling out a previous negative review for being "performative" & "misleading"
Los Angeles Review of Books@lareviewofbooks.bsky.social · 3w ago"Basile’s essentializing of 'what' Harden is strikes me as wrong in more ways than one." Mike Fortun responds to Jonathan Basile's review of Kathryn Paige Harden’s "Original Sin": https://lareviewofbooks.org/article/kathryn-harden-original-sin-mike-fortun-jonathan-basile/
“Commercialized PGT risks not only flattening human variation but swelling the moral burdens of parenthood and further eroding social solidarity.” New essay on embryo selection for @bostonglobe.com : www.bostonglobe.com/2026/06/29/o...
We’re entering the age of the ‘superbaby.’ The risks are profound. - The Boston Globe
What happens when tech startups start selling parents information on their embryos’ DNA.
bostonglobe.com
Texas students are now required to read Bible passages--and also Margaret Thatcher's eulogy for Ronald Reagan and Ayn Rand on capitalism: www.houstonchronicle.com/projects/202...
See the Bible verses and books Texas students will now be required to read
The State Board of Education on Friday approved a first-of-its-kind reading list, which lays out dozens of books, Bible verses and stories that every public school student in Texas will have to read.
houstonchronicle.com
“Biology, and particularly genetics, is often used as an antidote for blame. Here is the old Pelagian wine in new genomic bottles... If something is a ‘natural event’ then perhaps it is not a contradiction of the moral demand?” @kph3k.bsky.social from Original Sin
When a dear colleague @hdobewall.bsky.social attends a conference and gets you a book by @kph3k.bsky.social. 🤩 Sad to have missed the @invest-flagship.bsky.social conference and the excellent keynotes, but I have great summer reading. 😎
What can behavioral genetics tell us about the propensity for vice & violence? How do echos of religious views of sin shape our modern understanding & its implications? We're Rethinking Sin... Again on How God Works with Paige Harden @kph3k.bsky.social youtu.be/WB3s7J0rgUU?... @prx.org
Rethinking Sin... Again | How God Works
YouTube video by How God Works Podcast
youtu.be
On our new episode, I talk with Paige Harden (@kph3k.bsky.social) about the behavioral genetics of sin, the virtues (if any) of punishment, and how ancient religious ideas around vice & virtue continue to shape our science, policy, and discourse. podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/h...
Book 72. Another super-accessible and thought-provoking read from @kph3k.bsky.social. Using personal, anecdotes, historical accounts, and stories “ripped from the headlines” to have us reexamine snap judgements, shift perspectives, and sit with uncomfortable realities. #amreading #booksky 📚
I am enjoying @kph3k.bsky.social 's book beyond expectations, which really makes you stop and think. The most unexpected consequence, though, is that next on my reading list is Sant'Agostino Confessions; something I always rated as a "mattone" (= brick 🧱 in Italian to indicate a boring book)
Silvia Paracchini@silparacchini.bsky.social · 4mo agoHaving hugely enjoyed The Genetic Lottery, I already know I won't be disappointed by the science, ideas and storytelling of @kph3k.bsky.social in her new book.
The @nytimes.com Book Review praises ORIGINAL SIN as "a daring, complex, sometimes confounding and ultimately powerful tapestry of a book." I'm absolutely thrilled by this review, which captures "the dialectical work" at the heart of my project.
ORIGINAL SIN reviewed in Science (@science.org)! "... an ambitious, compact, and often moving contribution to the literature at the intersection of genetics and ethics."
I woke up to a fantastic review of ORIGINAL SIN in @thetimes.com: "This is a serious and knotty book ... but it can be beautiful. ... Ultimately, this is a well-informed attack on an American style of justice that relies on notions of sin and punishment. ... a darkly glittering book."
Starting @kph3k.bsky.social’s latest and am loving that we’re in an age where serious thinkers talk openly about their experiences with psychedelics and the insights they gleaned from them.
“ERFZONDE” now out in Dutch translation! I’m particularly excited about this edition because of the outsized role that Dutch scientists have played & still play in the genomics revolution. To all my Netherlands BG colleagues, this is a love letter to your work www.debezigebij.nl/boek/erfzonde/
Erfzonde - Kathryn Paige Harden - De Bezige Bij
debezigebij.nl
'Behavioural genetics makes people uncomfortable because it gets at the fundamental tension of being human, “which is that we are both caused creatures and experience ourselves to be subjective agents” '. New interview in @theobserveruk.bsky.social observer.co.uk/culture/inte...
The woman who thinks violence is in our genes | The Observer
A tendency to aggression and antisocial behaviour is encoded in certain people’s DNA, argues Kathryn Paige Harden – and it could have profound implications for crime and punishment
observer.co.uk
I talked with @nautil.us about LSD, MAHA, eugenics, essentialism, Christ on the cross, and all the things I don't know: nautil.us/the-bad-seed...
The Bad Seed and the Problem of Blame
The Bad Seed and the Problem of Blame: A conversation with behavioral geneticist Kathryn Paige Harden about the heritability of vice
nautil.us
I woke up to a fantastic review of ORIGINAL SIN in @thetimes.com: "This is a serious and knotty book ... but it can be beautiful. ... Ultimately, this is a well-informed attack on an American style of justice that relies on notions of sin and punishment. ... a darkly glittering book."
My dear friend Paige Harden and I both have new books out, and both are about crime & punishment — but from different (though still evidence-based) perspectives.
Episode 147 "The Genetics of Vice" is out ✨ In this episode, we talk with Kathryn Paige Harden @kph3k.bsky.social, a Professor of Psychology at the University of Texas at Austin, where she leads the Developmental Behavior Genetics lab and teaches Introduction to Psychology.
The Genetics of Vice (Ep 147)
What role do genes play in complex human behaviors?
bigbiology.substack.com
ORiGINAL SIN reviewed in @theguardian.com: “Harden is exceptionally skilled at interweaving the personal and the scientific. She writes about her own life experiences … with rare, dangerous honesty” www.theguardian.com/books/2026/a...
Original Sin by Kathryn Paige Harden review – are criminals born or made?
A psychologist delves into the genetics of bad behaviour in a book littered with fascinating scientific findings
theguardian.com
"...Much of Harden’s prose is dazzling on the sentence level, in the vein of neurosurgeon Paul Kalanithi’s posthumously published 'When Breath Becomes Air.'" A wonderful review of ORIGINAL SIN in @undark.org: undark.org/2026/03/27/b...
Book Review: How Genetics Shapes Our Ideas About Vice and Blame
Kathryn Paige Harden's "Original Sin" explores the genetic roots of sin and guilt, and our attitudes toward punishment.
undark.org
I thoroughly enjoyed reading Original Sin by @kph3k.bsky.social , an evidence-based yet personal account from a scientist’s perspective. Daisy liked it too because of the bit about her family dog 🐕
The @nytimes.com Book Review praises ORIGINAL SIN as "a daring, complex, sometimes confounding and ultimately powerful tapestry of a book." I'm absolutely thrilled by this review, which captures "the dialectical work" at the heart of my project.
ORIGINAL SIN reviewed in Science (@science.org)! "... an ambitious, compact, and often moving contribution to the literature at the intersection of genetics and ethics."
Tonight (3/19)! Free and in-person at Harvard Book Store. Come talk about the science of sin & punishment with me and Rebecca Saxe (MIT). (It’s such a novel topic my phone tried to auto-correct “sin” to “sun” at least 5 times while writing this message.)
