my first piece for defector!

I wrote about Surgeon General nominee Casey Means, her preoccupation with our mitochondrial health, and whether this fixation is justified by science

For The Atlantic I wrote about Surgeon General nominee Casey Means and her strange fixation on mitochondrial health www.theatlantic.com/health/archi...

The way nobody can drive well anymore because of GPS — not just atrophied turn-by-turn navigation, but the way ppl no longer know the layouts of their town or the names of roads or what to do when the map doesn’t match the terrain — that’s what genAI is doing to communication skills and literacy

Kurt Vonnegut man

What a summary of the anti-trans movement: March 23rd: female fencer competes in mixed-gender event, beating several male competitors, finishing 8th March 30th: same fencer films herself telling trans competitor “I am refusing to fence you, because I am a woman and you are a man,” collects $5000

One day I was chewing a stick of gum and as it lost all flavor I thought "ugh this tastes like plastic." Then it dawned on me. I wrote about the critical ingredient that changed the world of modern gum.

Modern gum is being marketed as a panacea for wellness. But it’s really just plastic that we chew on. Hannah Seo reports:

One day I was chewing a stick of gum and as it lost all flavor I thought "ugh this tastes like plastic." Then it dawned on me. I wrote about the critical ingredient that changed the world of modern gum. www.theatlantic.com/health/archi...

"Lily...is wedged between an urge to binge that is tempered by the Ozempic and the impulse to restrict that the Ozempic enables." Wrote about the optimism, suspicion, and caution that surrounds GLP-1s and their effects on those with EDs www.theguardian.com/society/2025...

My work explores the tension between how it started and how it's going.

She appears to have been taken to an ICE facility in Louisiana, against a judge’s orders

If you’re a journalist writing about Japanese American concentration camps — or just a person discussing their connection to the present day — I implore you to not use “internment,” “relocation,” “assembly centers” etc. Denshō has a useful guide on specific phrases. densho.org/terminology/

This is going to kill many public libraries, especially in rural areas. If you use a public library, you will be impacted. #imls is a dust mote in the federal budget. It also provides things like internet at your local library so people can apply for jobs and kids can do homework.

IMLS is the Institute of Museum and Library Services. It's about $200 million per year for libraries and $50 million for museums. Not a lot for the federal budget, but a huge piece of the culture and knowledge system - which is why MAGA is eliminating it.

The Department of Health and Human Services has granted associates of the U.S. DOGE Service access to a sensitive child support database with troves of income data, overriding the objections of career employees, according to four people familiar with the matter. wapo.st/4ielu88

It's heeeeeeere. Mask up people. www.nbcnewyork.com/news/local/n...

congratulations to No Other Land, which may be the first film to win a major Oscar but not theatrical distribution.

Free Palestine

"No Other Land," the Palestinian-Israeli made film showing the destruction of the occupied West Bank's Masafer Yatta by Israeli soldiers, just won the Oscar for Best Documentary. It can't get a distributor in the US. Which tells you everything about censorship in the US.

My latest piece for @teenvogue.com delves into the horrific story of popular skincare ingredient Retin-A. Before Retin-A was approved by the FDA in 1971, it had been tested on hundreds of incarcerated Black people in Philadelphia, without their informed consent. The survivors still bear the scars.

I escaped poverty because I am a scientist. And I am a scientist because of the National Science Foundation. A 🧵:

A fun fact abt me: l lived in Qatar for 14 years. I just turned 29, and wrote an essay abt how Qatar no longer being the majority of my life, perpetual foreignness + what I'm learning abt obligation to the place where I live. I hope you'll read/subscribe! hannahseo.substack.com/p/tipping-th...

American science and medicine has been thrown into chaos and uncertainty over the past week. Here are some stories to get up to speed. 1/12

Animals lay eggs or birth babies. Trees make seeds...except for the ones that have live babies, like we do?! I wrote for @biographic.bsky.social about the genetics of baby-having mangrove trees, and why they might have evolved this way: www.biographic.com/how-some-tre... 🧪

Hilariously my baby sister (age 17) is the first kid in the fam to get their driver's license (my other sister and I are 27 and 29)

Less splashy but arguably more consequential — I have another new piece out, this one for BBC, about these weird, overlooked, and possibly endangered fish that refuse to age and can't produce successful young 🐟 www.bbc.com/future/artic...

Resnick-owned companies include: POM Wonderful, Fiji Water, Wonderful Pistachios and Almonds, Wonderful Seedless Lemons, Wonderful Halos (yes, those tiny mandarins your kids love, but there are mandarins grown by less rapacious farmers). Of those, Wonderful nuts use the most water by far.

Starting 2025 with my first byline in NYT Mag (!!) wherein I share the joys and struggles of ASL class, learning not to hide behind diction, and the embarrassment of learning to use my facial muscles. gift link! www.nytimes.com/2025/01/07/m...

20-year-old Ashanti Downey was walking to a Dollar Tree in Sanford, North Carolina, when someone came behind her, poured a flammable liquid on her, and set her on fire Her family is asking for help with medical expenses www.wral.com/news/local/h...

“Thus, the order of grapes we know today fell into place: Grocery stores became the domain of the more robust green and red table grapes, European grapes came to dominate the vineyards, and Concords became the stuff of juices and jams.” HT @hannahseo.com

I filed this two months ago, but my ode to Concord grapes (the perfect fruit 🤌🏻) went up on Slate this morning! slate.com/life/2024/12...

ok, hear me out — Lady Gaga doing Santa Claus Is Coming to Town is low-key the best new Christmas song to come out in yearrrss open.spotify.com/track/0sOLCW...

related to this: some interesting discussions on personal vs societal responsibility in here (the fruitlessness of individual choices in capitalism) and my personal hope for 2025 is that we can find ways to take ourselves out of unjust systems even if it doesn't mean widespread change

my phone autocorrected "sound of music" to "sound of mucus" and I dry-heaved

I wrote about UNION, the gripping and much-needed documentary about the Amazon Labor Union, and why it hasn't gotten a distribution deal (spoiler: Bezos has too much money/power). You can stream it on Gathr this weekend and you should! slate.com/culture/2024...

I was deeply disappointed by the lack of nature/science/climate/enviro on many major end-of-year book lists—so I decided to make my own! Introducing: ✨🎁📚 The 2024 Holiday Gift Guide to Nature & Science Books ✨🎁📚 Please share: Let's make this go viral in time for Black Friday / holiday shopping!

you should read this right now. absolutely not the main point of the piece but after wading through that cormac mccarthy mess it is a pleasure to see a national magazine give space to a writer who is really able to handle and command prose like this

please do not "test" this you rubes. it wants you to do that. it is challenging you "please give me text on which to train." you marks you fools you absolute turnip truck accident victims

we’ve no doubt had sexual predators in office forever, but the fact that people are knowingly, willingly voting for predatory men at all levels of government is disturbing in a way that’s difficult to articulate.

Just walked past a gym called "Con Body" that describes itself as "PRISON style boot camp"?!?!??

If you’re looking for a weekend long read, I’ve been working on this story for months and would love it if you’d check it out: on RA unionization efforts and how they’re fighting for better conditions for themselves and their residents, protesting and the idea of “neutrality,” mental health, & more:

your handles are all valid to me 🥰

Go outside, be less lonely. Nice article by @hannahseo.com in @theatlantic.bsky.social. www.theatlantic.com/health/archi...

Journo request! If you (or someone you know) like: - Inviting acquaintances or even strangers to parties - Bringing together a mishmash of people regardless of whether they all might click - Hosting/organizing large group activities or events Please get in touch! For a new piece I'm working on :)

I wrote about how the phrase "climate anxiety" doesn't quite cut it. The proper, heavier, more foreboding feeling is dread. my first for TNR! thanks to the great @mollytaft.bsky.social for edits https://newrepublic.com/article/174710/stop-calling-climate-anxiety-its-climate-dread

this bot didn't bother reading my bio smh. I'm not a search engine optimizer 😤 does this happen to other people with my last name??