Journalist – Historian – Speaker
The Toronto Star has a good essay that, like my own writing, explores the issue of what happens to a parent when they receive the diagnosis. When my son Max, now 5, was diagnosed with the complex brain disorder just after his third birthday, it was like a sucker punch to the gut. In one …
Just a note, as I seem to be posting this a lot. 1. The person I read, in English, about the Pope, is John Allen at the New Catholic Reporter. In general, the NCR is my first stop when trying to figure out what modern Catholics with whom I generally agree are thinking. Well, my …
Last week the Chronicle of Higher Education published my essay on public engagement. There’s some irony here, in that I just received positive reader reports on my book and entered a grant-writing period (now that I can apply for grants for the next project). So just as I’ve spoken as strongly and clearly as I …
In May 2005, I drove from Minneapolis to Northfield, to interview for my first academic position outside the graduate school bubble. The position involved teaching three classes, one in J-term and two in the spring, for the pre-modernist who was joining the “Great Conversation” program. It was a spectacularly beautiful spring day in Minnesota. I …
No, that’s not a typo. Read this. Then read this explanation from Jezebel. Ok, so it’s a way for Choice U.S.A. to try and guys to explicitly endorse pro-choice policies and position themselves as allies to women. I was going to be on Huffington Post Live today to talk about it, as one of their …
I missed an oil change, the weather got hot, the light flashed red on my 1997 minivan, I bought and poured in some extra oil, and the next day I took it into the shop. Don’t worry, the van’s fine. While I was waiting, a pretty big guy came in and started talking loudly to …
Since The Atlantic – Health published my piece on Jenny McCarthy, I’ve gotten a lot of email. A lot of it has been from parents saying: I don’t like Jenny McCarthy, and I’m not sure about vaccines, but let me tell you about my child and the dramatic improvements I’ve seen as a result of …
I wrote an essay on being a straight white male feminist for the Good Men Project. If you’re reading this blog, you probably already knew that. I’m proud of this short essay and would like it spread far and wide. If you are willing to share it, please do so. I’m also willing to engage …
I have a new essay at “The Good Men Project” on why I call myself a feminist and what it means to me. Please go read it there and share it across your networks. This is my first publication there and I’d like it to do well. In many ways, it’s really an essay about …
New essay online, with a slightly shifted take from my earlier one. I move beyond the vaccine issue, as important as it is. Here, I focus on McCarthy’s epistemology and the ways that parents, buffeted by fear-based marketing, also encounter information and the consequences of giving McCarthy this big new platform. The essay is here. …