This is damning testimony from Susan Monarez. She was fired from her job as CDC Director for refusing to rubber-stamp RFK Jr.’s unscientific orders. Her testimony confirms what we already know: RFK Jr. is unfit to serve. He must resign.

it's not great www.motherjones.com/politics/202...

a fun time at UT Austin, speaking with Chris Williams' undergrads and a sociology department colloquium about The High School, and then getting a tour of the Stark Center for Physical Culture and Sports with Jan Todd, the strongest woman in the world.

"The High School: Sports, Spirit, and Citizens, 1903-2024" by Michael A. Messner Watch this short video from the author of "The High School" concerning turbulent debate about violence and injury in high school football. www.youtube.com/watch?v=ur6R... #Sports #HighSchool #Football #FlagFootball

But Trump obviously does not care about actual facts and crime data www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...

As the Liberty continue pricing out their longtime season ticket holders (mostly POC &/or LGBTQ+), a reminder that I wrote about this very thing before the season began:

Shithead

Guardsmen have been frustrated to see money spent on “performative” deployments in LA and DC, a military birthday parade that “nobody cared about,” and an anti-woke campaign to change back military base names—all while “soldiers’ barracks are falling apart”...

for kids, reading entire books for pleasure opens up worlds, helps to build empathy, as it enhances creativity.

Looking forward to my September 18 USC Levan Institute Book Chat about The High School with CJ Pascoe, Jeff Montez de Oca, and Alice Echols. Register for this virtual event here: calendar.usc.edu/event/levan-...

A great op-ed about football and gender equity in the Los Angeles Times today by Michael Messner, author of THE HIGH SCHOOL: www.latimes.com/opinion/stor... @mam52.bsky.social

It's hard to decide which Trump admin daily outrage to spotlight, but this one hit home for me today: www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...

Maggie Mertens shows in close-up how high schools still struggle to provide equity for girls’ sports: Minnesota Softball Has A Title IX Problem - defector.com/minnesota-so...

houghtful piece by one of my favorite sociologists, on Trump's Man-of-Steel post: inequalitybyinteriordesign.wordpress.com/2025/07/16/s...

My latest @theguardian.com "The IOC handed LA the 2028 Olympics. Now Trump is weaponizing them." Trump has a secret weapon to turn the Games into a national-security crackdown—the National Special Security Event designation, (NSSE)—& we need to be talking about it www.theguardian.com/sport/2025/j...

President Trump’s domestic agenda—which seeks to inject plutocratic ideology and disdain for the poor into nearly every corner of American life—is on the verge of passage. We take a stab at processing one of the bill's most crushing ambitions: $100 billion in new ICE funding.

AOC: "On this point of tax on tips, as one of the only people in this body who has lived off of tips, I want to tell you a little bit about the scam ... the cap on that is $25,000 while you're jacking up taxes on people who make less than $50,000 across the US ... while kicking them off the ACA."

Here is Part II of Karen Sternheimer's Everyday Sociology Blog discussion of The High School. www.everydaysociologyblog.com/2025/06/high...

So today is also a good day to reminder everyone that it is not an "honor" to have your book banned. It doesn't increase sales. It doesn't land you on the elusive banned books B&N front table. What bans do: harm individuals, erase identity, destroy democracy. Book bans are attacks on freedom.

Part I of Karen Sternheimer's Everyday Sociology review of The High School. www.everydaysociologyblog.com/2025/06/the-...

NO KINGS in Santa Fe, NM

yeah, the assault of Senator Padilla was so terrible that it seemed to have eclipsed the horrifying statement made by the Secretary.

A moving piece by Manuel Pastor about current politics in L.A. and the nation: www.dissentmagazine.org/online_artic...

NIH staffers and scientists standing up for public health research: www.standupforscience.net/bethesda-dec...

"History may mark 14 June 2025 as the ceremonial birth of a new American fascism." www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

Narrator: he didn’t

Elon Musk called empathy a “weakness” of Western civilization. But philosophers argue the opposite: empathy is a hard-won form of knowledge — and essential for understanding others and making informed decisions buff.ly/WTS28lC #PhilSky

This is a video interview that Faculti did with me about my new book, The High School. faculti.net/the-high-school

“The lived experience of a scientist right now is terrifying” My colleague Warren Cornwall spoke to @gregggonsalves.bsky.social, @rebekahtromble.bsky.social, @katestarbird.bsky.social and others about “the fear and self-censorship coursing through the nation’s scientific establishment today”. 🧪

smart moves by NASSS and other scholarly conferences to limit members' exposure to harassment (or worse) when traveling in and out of the US: www.cbc.ca/news/busines...

It was a pleasure to join Ohio State University's Chris Knoester for a webinar discussion of The High School. The link to the webinar is below.

“…in furtherance of President’s agenda.” Of course it is. apple.news/AvKKN3YPiRam...

"Columbia and Harvard have already shown that the only way you have a chance at getting the money back is to sell whatever soul your institution has left. Given that, why not fight? If you have to suffer, suffer for your deepest values." arstechnica.com/culture/2025...

please consider registering and joining us for this webinar: sportsandsociety.osu.edu/events/gende...

Pierrette and I were riveted by this disturbing story. It's great to read Michael Kehler's smart take on it. ‘Adolescence’ pulls in audiences with its dramatic critique of teenage masculinity theconversation.com/adolescence-...

97% of high school cheerleaders in the US are girls. Readers of THE HIGH SCHOOL may be surprised to learn that in the early 20th century they were all boys, and were called “yell leaders.” How cheer changes over time tells us a lot about shifts and turns in the ways that school life shapes gender.

We need more of this sort of institutional courage: "Facing pressure to scrub its website of diversity and inclusion references, a JANM leader says the museum will ‘scrub nothing.’" www.latimes.com/entertainmen...

Nice piece about THE HIGH SCHOOL, written by the historian Carol McKibben, in today's MONTEREY HERALD. www.montereyherald.com/2025/04/06/l...

Neither snow, nor cold, nor planter fasciitis would keep us from joining the "Hands Off" throngs in Santa Fe today. A strong and enthusiastic turnout, especially on such an unseasonably cold day.

For those in the Salinas, CA area, please note the events next weekend for THE HIGH SCHOOL. All three events are free, but if you intend to go to the one at the Nat'l Steinbeck Center, you need to rsvp online at their website.

Simpleton bully at the top + sycophantic economic "advisors" = financial chaos and pain for nearly everyone else www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...

"We call on universities to support sociology departments, students, and faculty and reject efforts to restrict the teaching of sociology at their institutions."

I wrote about Trump's executive order, "Restoring Truth and Sanity to American History," and how it's a bunch of fascist lies. www.thebulwark.com/p/trump-big-...

Contrary to Musk, "It is the total absence of empathy — not its presence — that truly threatens civilization." broadview.org/elon-musk-em...