I read a lot of these emails and my immediate response is disgust. But also, what a bunch of buffoons. Spouting off confidently without even a basic understanding of the essential concepts related to their obsessions. How cringe.

I only read the first of the Broken Earth Trilogy by NK Jemisin, but ever since I have thought of a mother’s rage as a physical force. And how world consuming but ultimately impotent it can be. Because these aren’t even my children and I want to burn the world down.

Meanwhile www.cnn.com/2026/02/04/w...

There is a neighborhood in my town called Hobbits Glen and all the streets are named after the works of JRR Tolkien. Rivendell Lane, Wood Elves Way, Proudfoot Place, Oakenshield Circle, Green Dragon Court...the list goes on. Anyway, your whimsy of the week.

Fun news! @gcbias.bsky.social and I are teaching a 2-week online population genetics workshop this summer to raise money for the Center for Population Biology at UC Davis. We're trying to gauge interest -- please fill this out if you might be interested! And please share broadly!

I have yet to see any evidence that there is a market for AI-generated books outside of people being tricked into thinking they are not AI-generated books. AKA, it is a project of scamming and deceiving people, and really should be treated as fraud

I stand with County Executive Calvin Ball as he signs emergency legislation today prohibiting privately owned buildings from being used as ICE detention centers. Howard County chose dignity, accountability, and its people. Tune into our event now: bit.ly/4a2VtHw

Everything is fine. FINE. (this is for a single week of camp out of the eight I need to register them for omg fml)

the Post news is gutting for many reasons, but I can’t help focusing on the books section—how great it was, and how essential. So many worthy books barely get reviewed. I’ve had authors reach out to thank me because mine was the only post-pub coverage they got. Just awful for readers & for writers.

I mean, yeah, I used to be cool waiting for music festival tickets to go live. Now I change travel plans to crouch over my laptop ready pounce on kids summer camp registrations, hoping to get a wait list spot. And now with two kids to schedule. 🫠 It's fine. I'm fine. Totally fine.

In What We Inherit, Sam Trejo and @daphmarts.bsky.social debate the use of genomic tools and their societal impact. Now available (31 March UK pub). Learn more about this fascinating book: press.princeton.edu/books/hardco... #Biology #ReadUP

Once all of the other, uh, things are settled we really need a serious public health campaign around everything involved in being part of a society.

Horrifying. ICE confirms measles outbreak at Dilley family detention center. www.cbsnews.com/news/ice-dil...

This is awful. There are so many hard-working and talented people who work at the Kennedy Center. They only get paid when there is a performance, so the last year has been hard. And now there will be nothing.

Tyler Childers wins his first Grammy as "Bitin' List" is honored as Best Country Song stereogum.com/2487089/gram...

*At least* a thousand people, probably more, out in the streets today protesting against the ICE detention center in downtown Baltimore

NEW: Enormous anti-ICE, anti-Trump protest happening in Baltimore right now. Crowd stretching back over the horizon. (🎥 PSL Baltimore)

🚨 Requesting help: I am looking for an agent who can facilitate more speaking gigs, podcast appearances, and interviews with journalists I want to more widely share my story and expertise as a trans geneticist who understands the reality and complexity of "biological sex" 🏳️‍⚧️🧬 Please signal boost?

there are lots of book buckaroos that do not know football who follow chuck and they say 'who should i root for in general?' and i say 'go seahawks' but honestly a GREAT second choice if you are a book buckaroo is the BALTIMORE RAVENS. only team in the NFL named after a literary character

Yourself, but as a cartoon.

It's the right choice, but I feel for everyone who works at the Kennedy Center as they only get paid if the show goes on.

Last week in Minnesota, I watched ordinary people risk their lives to protect their neighbors. In the process, they not only won a significant—though not final—victory against authoritarianism, they proved virtually every MAGA social theory wrong. (gift link) www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2026/0...

I am a 'no' on the DHS funding bill. Not another penny for ICE. We cannot give more money to a group of cowards who are making our country less safe.

I keep thinking “my god the people they’ve killed seem like exceptionally good folks” and I think the lesson there is that they’re not exceptional, but that wonderful people abound and that a baseline distrust in humanity is a shitty conservative trope that privileges power over collective strength

the millennial urge to post song lyrics instead of our actual thoughts

Really stretching the limits of my northern peoples upbringing to shove all negative emotions way down until they're just smoldering nuggets of rage keeping me warm while also maintaining a happy face and open arms as I'm stuck indefinitely at home w/kids who don't understand but feel everything.

This devastating, enraging NYT article reveals what happens when scientific institutions naively assume good faith while bad-faith actors exploit their systems. In a likely violation of both HIPAA and the Privacy Act, NIH failed to protect the DNA data of over 20,000 children.

🚨🚨🚨 "At least 63 times since 2007, data from some of the 28 human genomic repositories that the N.I.H. controls was improperly released to researchers, used for unapproved purposes or made vulnerable to theft..." (Gift Link) www.nytimes.com/2026/01/24/u...

Important to note that bearing witness is something people have done since long before video existed. We bear witness by listening, but sharing the stories, by refusing to let them be distorted or ignored. We do not have to watch execution videos to do that.

One of my neighbors was murdered in the streets today by ICE agents motivated by this sort of race science propaganda.

They aren’t inefficient. They are terrorizing and killing people with the maximum amount of terrorist spectacle that they want and intend.

“This is causing so much harm that is going to carry on for decades,” said Kate*, an early childhood educator in Minneapolis who works with mostly Spanish-speaking children and their families. “This is a generational trauma.”

This is really is a great piece, and Kevin makes an important point in it: “the data was made vulnerable because our scientific institutions assume good faith in people. There needs to be an acknowledgment that there are bad-faith researchers. The rules and regulations need to catch up with that”

It's also a case that @jedidiahcarlson.com and I wrote about about a year ago, with recommendations for how legitimtate researchers can prevent this kind of manipulation and misuse

An excellent, bone-chilling story about a cadre of online racists who stole genetic data from studies on children so they could make specious arguments for the innate inferiority of non-white people, it's embrace by Elon Musk/twitter & how the Trump administration might make it easier to do again.

Incredibly important story that everyone should read. These are not disorganized lone actors, but well-funded and powerful networks to be treated as serious threats. They are using our work to push a eugenicist and racist agenda that is scientifically invalid and morally reprehensible.

they went to an emergency room seeking help for their 7 year old child. ICE arrested the 7 year old and her parents. the family is here legally. www.oregonlive.com/portland/202...

Me, a New Englander: Oh, it's only a foot of snow. It'll be okay and we have days to grab some groceries before it starts. Maryland:

Instead, people think that Asians are the "model minority" who are sort of latecomers to this country and "know how to act." The reality is more that we excluded everyone but the very wealthy until relatively modern times, and limited almost everyone else to those with high educations.

People can say they didn’t vote for this but people are liars

Cost of being female lead/corresponding author in biomedical sciences: "[T]he median amount of time spent under review is 7.4%–14.6% longer for female-authored articles than for male-authored articles" even in disciplines where women well-represented. #AcademicSky journals.plos.org/plosbiology/...

I gotta go eat brownies and hang with people I love because they kidnapped a baby and I'm gonna lose it thinking about all the other children they've taken that I don't know about. Be kind to yourselves and your neighbors. I'll also share this in case you're able to help www.standwithminnesota.com

Our work on understanding how common genetic variants contribute to recombination and aneuploidy risk is published!

"If the musicians’ financial situation is perilous, Kennedy Center leadership should take the blame, Zambello says. 'They created a situation where musicals aren’t coming, ballet companies aren’t coming, & that’s who they play for. They’re going to have to remedy that, (...) honor their contract.'"

Pregnancy loss is common in humans, and chromosomal abnormalities are the leading cause. Using genetic data from ~140,000 IVF embryos, we show that maternal variation in meiosis genes influences recombination and aneuploidy risk. First authors: @saracarioscia.bsky.social & @aabiddanda.github.io

I’m thinking more about how we’re all millions of flawed sense-making units having millions of different lived experiences of our current, utterly chaotic situation and (for the most part, the exceptions hopefully are obvious) all trying to see each other through.

Currently writing multiple grants with the hope of future funding feels like peeling potatoes below deck while the titanic is going down.

There is a literal committee of vultures occupying our neighborhood just glaring from the trees as I'm reading about standby guardianship in our elementary schools weekly newsletter. I need the writers for this season of life to quit it.

"Wonder whether supporting “claims” with “credible sources” is even still a “thing”? - - - Choke back sense of nihilistic futility and impending doom." 🫠