Do you have chronic kidney disease, or require dialysis, and want to share your experience with others? For an article, I'm interviewing individuals to educate others about the daily logistics and challenges involved. Please comment here or send a DM if you are. Thanks!

Appreciated by any cat owner, anywhere!

The second Trump administration’s deep federal spending cuts, including at the NIH, have halted at least 383 clinical trials, affecting more than 74,000 patients, according to a new analysis. www.fiercebiotech.com/research/nih...

From humble beginnings to fifteen years, 600 articles—over 1.5 million words. Please consider donating to @theopennotebook.bsky.social on October 24

"...Georgians browsing the state website are seeing estimated monthly costs double or even triple, depending on their incomes, as lower subsidy thresholds resume." (96% of current enrollees are subsidized): www.washingtonpost.com/health/2025/...

Here's an interesting indicator about how ordinary folks are feeling about the economy.

"Like Wong and Wallace, roughly half of Obamacare enrollees work for small businesses, including the self-employed, according to KFF." (Chiropractors, real estate agents, musicians, farmers, ranchers, etc.) www.wsj.com/health/healt...

Per article: "millions of pounds of food, down to the number of eggs, that never reached hungry people because of the administration’s cut." All of us who are able should donate to our local food bank.

Many American families struggle to put food on the table ...but we won't know how many after this year. 🍎 Food insecurity is apolitical 🍎 The fight against hunger is not a 🔴 or 🔵 issue, it's a human issue @hcwvshunger.bsky.social @tmprowell.bsky.social @shematologist.medsky.social

Kids are going to die. Needlessly. Because some other kid's parents are listening to these people. It's monstrous. www.washingtonpost.com/health/2025/...

Research posts on Bluesky are more original — and get better engagement www.nature.com/articles/d41...

Another print newspaper to cease publication and shift entirely to digital: www.nytimes.com/2025/08/28/b...

Brutal honesty re: heat as a "predatory force," with a massive inequality impact @jeffgoodell.bsky.social "Nights are also growing hotter, which is particularly risky for people who work in the heat, since it limits the time the body has to recover from daytime heat." www.nytimes.com/2025/08/20/o...

PS- If you’re a #SeattleWorldCon attendee who is not *yet* a Knowable fan, here is a shameless plug: If you’re looking for research-backed, accessibly written, paywall-free science journalism to inform your worldbuilding… we’ve got you. For example, some articles relevant to the Hugo finalists 🧵

🚨🚨🚨 Yesterday I promised I'd post my full analysis of how much gross 2026 #ACA premiums are expected to increase in #TEXAS. As promised, here it is: 4 MILLION Texans are looking at avg. *gross* rate hikes of 31% starting in January: acasignups.net/rate_changes...

ICYMI: A must-read from ‪@tedalcorn.bsky.social‬, looking at strides made by Kentucky in rural cancer treatment, in a state that stands to lose the most in Medicaid cuts under a recently passed federal bill, via ‪@statnews.com: www.statnews.com/2025/07/23/c...

Hurricane forecasters and scientists rely on weather data collected and processed by Department of Defense satellites. The Navy has decided to stop sharing the data.

Monthly reminder: Many people have a book in them, but it takes a special kind of freak to leave the Land of Laziness, cross the Plains of Procrastination and Insecurity Mountain, find the Blade of No One Made You Do This, and use it to cut your chest open and yank that book out.

Per ‪@reuters.com‬, who interviewed someone about why fellow workers are scarce: "If they show up to work, they don't know if they will ever see their family again," he said. ‪(California grows 1/3 of U.S. vegetables & more than 3/4 of fruits and nuts.) www.yahoo.com/news/immigra...

How do you encourage #Writers? 1. Buy their #books. 2. If you read a book, share it on social & book review sites. 3. Bring #authors to speak at events or schools. 4. Ask your library to carry the book. 5. Follow authors on social media. 6. Show up at local book signings. jurassicgirl.com

This is a travesty & a nightmare. The US was a founder of @gavi.org. It lowers global vaccine costs, has vaccinated 1B children, & averted 19M deaths. This pull out will cost 100s of thousands of children's lives a year - and RFK Jr will be personally responsible. www.politico.com/news/2025/06...

Medicaid cuts could result in more than 16,000 preventable deaths annually www.statnews.com/2025/06/16/m... via @statnews.com

"A climate has been created in which it is hard for people to tell the difference between a fake ICE agent and a real ICE agent," the district attorney said at a news conference. www.phillyvoice.com/philly-robbe...

ICYMI: potential ripple effects, such as: "Kevin Stansbury, the CEO of the Lincoln Community Hospital, a 25-bed rural hospital in Hugo, Colorado, said his business is unlikely to survive under the proposed changes." www.nbcnews.com/health/healt...

Major US climate website likely to be shut down after almost all staff fired www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...

This headline reads like out of The Onion. www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025... From article: Doctors and other medical staff can also be barred from working at VA hospitals based on their marital status, political party affiliation or union activity, documents reviewed by the Guardian show.

Closer look @propublica.org about what NIH cuts mean for scientific progress & for patients: "In addition to jeopardizing data, terminating a grant in the middle of an active study may worsen participants’ conditions and put them at higher risk of death." projects.propublica.org/nih-cuts-res...

"Kentucky, Texas, New York, North Carolina, California, and Michigan have the largest estimated populations of rural Medicaid enrollees." via ‪@kffhealthnews.org‬ kffhealthnews.org/news/article...

“They wanted to show they were gutting the government, but there was no thought about what parts might be worth keeping,” said one FDA staffer who was fired and rehired. www.washingtonpost.com/business/202...

*new interns, residents, and fellows start on July 1 *~11,000 house staff in US hospitals are on J-1 visas *these doctors are the backbone of rural & urban safety-net hospitals *most of these doctors go into primary care after training, often in the same community www.intealth.org/pdfs/J-1_US_...

Republicans slipped a provision into their big spending bill that would limit the power of federal judges to hold people in contempt, potentially allowing Trump and his administration to violate court orders without consequence. @migold.bsky.social www.nytimes.com/2025/05/22/u...

A few friends sent this to me. I'd love to see my book, Jurassic Girl, on their newsstand. secretnyc.co/rexs-dino-st...

The latest estimates from CBO find the House Republican budget plan would increase the number of people uninsured by about 10 million. ** 7.6 million from Medicaid changes. ** 1 million from Energy and Commerce ACA changes. ** 2.1 million from Ways and Means ACA changes. www.cbo.gov/publication/...

Hmmm

The FAA halted the work of an outside panel of experts scrutinizing its management of air traffic control, a previously unreported move made after a fatal airliner crash near Washington raised questions about the agency’s abilities to keep the skies safe.

NIH has cancelled its participation in Safe to Sleep, a 30-year campaign to prevent babies from dying in their sleep www.statnews.com/2025/04/30/n...

The Social Security Administration is backing off its plan to cut off many beneficiaries’ monthly benefit payments to claw back sums they were allegedly overpaid. Instead, it will default to withholding half. kffhealthnews.org/news/article...

Deaths from heart disease down 75%, that’s NIH. Deaths from stroke down 75%, that’s NIH. HIV/AIDS no longer a death sentence, that’s NIH. 99% of FDA approved drugs in the last decade, that’s NIH. Please show this video to anyone who doesn’t understand why the NIH is so important.

Great news! With all the terrible news these days, it’s easy to miss the victories 🔥 Federal officials promise to restore funding to the Women’s Health Initiative "The decades-long research effort has contributed to thousands of research papers, altering medical care for women around the world."

I don't get how anyone can possibly be okay with ending the WHI. This study has accrued decades of data from 42000 women and it is still going. It helps to address critical research gaps that have been allowed to go unfilled because of durable misogyny and provides invaluable insight into aging.

Proud to see both of my alma maters on this growing list of colleges and universities calling for academic autonomy, free from "undue government intrusion in the lives of those who learn, live, and work on our campuses." www.aacu.org/newsroom/a-c...

DON’T LOOK AWAY! The Trump administration is catapulting us into a data black hole and the consequences could be massive. Halting data collection on drug use, maternal mortality, climate change, more, by @alecmac.bsky.social

There is no conceivable legitimate reason for denying a visit. None.

I just called my senators with @5calls.org to oppose The Save Act HR 22/S 128. You should too: 5calls.org The Save Act (passed by the House)would require anyone whose legal name doesn't match their birth certificate to present a passport to register to vote. Clear voter suppression #MomSky #MomPower

Just when grants to study this are being terminated. Story by @aniloza.bsky.social

More suppression of research/ideas: "It covers all scientific meetings including conferences, workshops and investigator meetings even if they are local or free, they said." www.reuters.com/business/hea...

We hang together or we hang separately. Could not be clearer what is happening and how universities must respond.

60 Minutes could find no criminal records for 75% of the Venezuelans the U.S. sent to a notorious mega-prison in El Salvador. https://cbsn.ws/4clubLP

Do you know who laid the foundation for the FDA? President Theodore Roosevelt. Do you know why? Because he read a great piece of literature that exposed the mistreatment of immigrant workers and the disgusting, unsanitary practices in meatpacking plants… The book is called “The Jungle.”

Colleagues are cancelling their US work trips. I worry that international colleagues in the US are at risk if they collaborate with us on certain topics. I've written a new post about the increasing danger of being a foreign scientist in the US. christinapagel.substack.com/p/trumps-att...