Ready for Brilliant Minds Season 2? Skip the binge. I’ve got Season 1 boiled down to its essentials: steamy romances, bizarre diagnoses, and one unforgettable elevator ride. www.sadied.com/recapping-br... #brilliantminds

Remember those Highlights magazine comics? Here’s an updated version for 2025.

We’re all living in our own private realities—science is finally starting to admit it. Come hear me talk about the surprising breadth of human (and animal!) experience.

It has come to my attention that I may be alarming children again. #crazyaunt

@ologies.bsky.social Nosology! I specifically want to hear about the disaster that is the DSM.

I got my first byline in The New Yorker today! A lifelong dream! Pictured below: Me taking a call from the NYer fact checker from a lake. (Also pictured; my nephew who netted a large bluefin with a single popcorn kernel.) www.newyorker.com/magazine/202...

Bad news: We lost the lanternfly war… back in 2014. Good news: Turns out, they’re mostly just killing fellow invaders like the Tree of Heaven. Pus native birds and bugs are feasting on them. I did ALL THE MATH for @milkepescs.bsky.social 's blog. mikepesca.substack.com/p/the-great-...

This line came from a very nice Italian review of my book that I sent through Google Translate. I think I originally used a gentler word, but hey, the sentiment still stands www.sololibri.net/Ci-siamo-gia...

Here’s my attempt to boil down an excellent book on the future of speech: 🧠📢🌀🫠🔤 jk jk I wrote it in actual words—for the benefit of my fellow olds. (Gift link) wapo.st/4nAQBOh

Thanks to my fave podcasters ( @yrfatfriend.bsky.social @notalawyer.bsky.social & @michaelhobbes.bsky.social )I now recognize a moral panic when I see one. And wouldn’t you know it — one was crawling up my maple tree. #spottedlanternfly

Cecetan research or Florida retirement community bylaws? Hard to say. #marinebiology

Lanternfly PSA: They are being eaten by native birds, wasps & fungi. They only kill invasive Trees of Heaven and wine grapes. When USDA infested native trees & plants with them for four years, only the ToH died. Meanwhile, the adult lanternflies starved without ToH. youtu.be/D2Glh3Tfl6Y?...

ok wait i cracked it it’s not Hot Girl Summer. it’s not Brat Summer. it’s Hot Broke Summer sweating thru a thrifted tank, flirting with the bartender for a cup of ice, and venmoing $9 for “pool access” that turned out to be a hose and a tarp.

Wait… my book speaks Italian?? Grazie mille to everyone helping this little book find its way across borders and brains!

Fun fish fact: Zebrafish always stretch when they yawn. Also, when one zebrafish yawns, it causes the others around it to yawn too! www.nature.com/articles/s42... #ethology

That was the most boring parade I’ve ever seen. It felt like a spreadsheet with legs. #Army250 #nokings

Selfie stations include: bazooka, missile launcher, and a haunted look in a veteran’s eyes. #50501 #army250 #trumpparade #nokings

Overheard at the American History Museum cafeteria yesterday: “Regardless of who shows up, it will be 50 million people. It will be the largest gathering in the history of the whole country.” Sir, have you seen the radar?

Animals are so much cooler than we realize. Apparently Gobies (tiny fish) can learn from observation, and ants are left- or right- "handed" (tarsus-ed?) onlinelibrary.wiley.com/journal/1439...

Think you can reshape your jaw with your tongue? TikTok does. It’s called mewing—and no, it’s not a cat thing. I investigated this viral trend (and the pseudoscience behind it) for The Gist with Mike Pesca @milkepescs.bsky.social Watch here: youtu.be/hCXowlnEqK8?...

Hurry, hurry, hurry to The Coney Island Book Fair where I will reveal the hidden secrets of "Writing the Creepy!" You will see @colindickey.com @sadieding.bsky.social and other equally brilliant people! Saturday May 10!

Second, on Sat, May 10, 2025, I'll be at The Coney Island Book Fair w/a whole host of great people. I'll be on the 2:00 pm panel, "Writing the Creepy," alongside @leilataylor.bsky.social, @sadieding.bsky.social, and S.E. Porter. Details below! www.coneyislandbookfair.org/schedule

Goal achieved: An unusual number of people in an unusual number of places. 1,300 globally. There were probably more than 10,000 speakers alone at rallies today. Baffling to think about this scale!

Have you ever heard the advice to shout 'fire' instead of 'help' if you're being assaulted? I tracked this old canard to pre WWI France, where it might have actually been good advice! mikepesca.substack.com/p/is-that-bs...

I'm speaking at my first ever book festival this weekend, in Tucson! I can't wait to meet/stalk amazing authors, including frankfigliuzzi.bsky.social tjalexandernyc.bsky.social, kelleyarmstrong.bsky.social, danielolivas.bsky.social & howardmegdal.bsky.social & @ferrisjabr.bsky.social

Is it possible to do therapy with people who can't visualize or re-visit the past? I wrote about this and more for this month's issue of @pnetworker #aphantasia #neurodiversity www.psychotherapynetworker.org/article/what...

Join 50501 in a National Day of Action on Monday, February 17th. We are reclaiming President's Day - a day that is supposed to be celebrating the Presidency. Unite to limit executive overreach. Find your protest at https://buff.ly/417VjtT, or create one.

A suppressed finding from the famous Milgram experiments: Participants were told to press a button to shock a stranger. Compliance rates fell from 75% to 25% when the authority figure left the building. Makes you wonder about those return-to-office mandates. #fedup

Just woke up & there’s some kind of dinosaur outside?!?

‼️DC UPDATE‼️ We will meet at the US Capitol Building at noon! We officially have a permit for our peaceful protest! #50501 #BuildTheResistance

Rep. LaMonica McIver: "We are at war!"

Update: The OPM protests I’ve been organizing have been fruitful in many ways and let’s just say today I’m gathering that fruit. Irony is, because of that, I may not have bandwidth for an OPM protest tonight. I’ll keep you posted. The morning OPM protests are still happening. Please join them!

Tomorrow (Wednesday) there will be rallies happening across the US protesting Musk's unprecedented power grab. Find where yours is at 50501.info And call your senators and reps., and ask them to halt all work in Congress until the unconstitutional power grabs stop.

If you're not in the DC area, you should be organizing where you are. But if you are in the DC area, I think you're going to want to come to the Treasury building today at 5pm. It will be newsworthy. www.mobilize.us/moveon/event...

Of interest.

NEW: Federal workers are starting to receive a copy of the court's restraining order against the Trump administration barring the regime from freezing federal grants and financial assistance. Excellent work, and worth the read:

Urgent tax tip maybe?

Here’s the scene outside of USAID right now. Cspan is live-streaming.

For people wondering where my "Green Line" is:

Giving access to SSNs, other data on government employees to non-employees like Musk is a violation of 5 USC 552a, and carries with it a penalty of $1000 per person whose data was accessed. We are building a case. Govt employees who want to participate should contact me directly

I think about this old Atlantic article all the time. www.theatlantic.com/magazine/arc...

Idk if this is true but word on the street is that this CiA manual is getting downloaded a lot all the sudden. www.cia.gov/stories/stor...

I am in CVS. Someone just asked me if I work here.

For the IgNobels: pooping improves cognitive ability At least that's the result of this study with athletes tested on the Stroop test. Those who took magnesium had better results. (paper) https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2666337624000404 (blog) https://www.sciencealert.com/po…

New study: Climate change is causing an increase in urban rats -- especially in D.C. www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Neurodivergent NOS = a cheeky label for people whose many brain quirks somehow don’t amount to a DSM diagnosis. (NOS is DSM speak for not otherwise specified)

Do you have an inner monologue? Sadie Dingfelder @sadieding.bsky.social doesn’t—and her story about aphantasia & face blindness reveals how differently our minds work. Discover empathy through unseen differences. Check out the episode. outrageoverload.net/outrage-bonu...

Let me be your nerdy Jewish Santa: Venmo me $25 & I will sign, wrap & mail my book to anyone in the continental USA. 🎄🧑‍🎄🎁

In DO I KNOW YOU? science writer @sadieding.bsky.social discovers that her brain is different from most other people's and that she is faceblind (among other things). We ride along as she learns to drive without depth perception! It's fascinating, hilarious, and a little terrifying.