Joanna Kempner

Can’t wait to read this! Congrats!

Hi everyone -- there is a general strike in Minnesota tomorrow to protest what the Trump administration and DHS are doing to our community. In solidarity with the action, I am going to donate my revenue from tmrw's newsletter to People over Papers, the Midway-Hamline Diaper Bank, & Every Meal. (1/2)

Stand With Minnesota Donation Directory Stand With Minnesota is a hub for supporting, learning, and taking action to support Minnesotans impacted by ICE and federal enforcement.

Thank you to everyone who is risking their safety and contributing their time and money to protect our neighbors. If you are so inclined, please check out Stand With Minnesota (standwithminnesota.com) to find a way to help.

And no one start any beefs with Will Stancil. (2/2)

Opinion | We Asked 300 People About Health Care Costs. The Numbers Are Shocking.

A depressing article that will be helpful teaching undergrads about healthcare in the US:

www.nytimes.com/2026/01/22/o...

Nothing to see here. Everything is fine.

Ya, I mean, from an oil/real estate perspective, there’s a lot to like about Cuba and Venezuela. Oligarchs gonna oligarch

Finance Industry Eyes Investment Opportunities in Venezuela Some on Wall Street are already considering possible investment opportunities in Venezuela following the capture of Nicolás Maduro, according to Charles Myers, chairman of consulting firm Signum Globa...

And there ya have it…

Officials from top Wall Street firms will be traveling to Venezuela to investigate “investment prospects” of the country. “The trip will feature about 20 officials from the finance, energy and defense sectors.”

Not today, buddy. just a few more episodes of the Pitt, and I’ll be able to intubate anyone, pretty much anywhere. 🥼👩‍⚕️🩺

You know what cheers me up when the news is this miserable? Snuggling up with a classic rom-com.

Rob Reiner always seemed like such a joyful mensch. My heart goes out to his and his wife’s loved ones.

I witnessed/experienced much the same in a very different context (state school in the US) a few years later. Some people thought they were being funny. Some were genuinely ignorant. Others repeated what they heard at home.

But performative is an odd word—we all perform. But usually not like that

In what sense could this be considered “performatively” racist? Even back then… even in an English boarding school…

!!!

Bc there are pragmatic interdisciplinary disagreements regarding the usefulness of AI, not to mention the sociologists using AI as a method.

Hey, don’t get me wrong. it’s causing a zillion problems. But try getting everyone to agree on a policy.

How is it possible to have *such* bad taste in men?

Shocked! 😵

I grew up in Bucks County and … I left as soon as I could. 😥

So much great news all around but DAMN! This is the best!!!!

JD Vance claims that diversity weakens unions, as people end up distrusting each other and not organizing.

Let me tell you two menswear stories related to this claim. 🧵

Everyone here is so glad to know you are safe. ❤️

“I know that there are some people in this room who don’t believe that my marriage should have been legal,” Ms. Weiss told the Federalist Society, an influential conservative legal group, in 2023. “And that’s OK. Because we’re all Americans who want lower taxes.”

I love Bari Weiss’s moral clarity in this comment.

Perimenopause… tamoxifen can’t be helping with that!

Brockmire

What is “antifascist and transgender writing” that could fit on a bullet?

How I wish I hadn’t spent my career studying this.

I shared the shite news from HHS w my kid today.

Its ok. Virology seemed cool but he’ll be great as a psychedelic retreat vibe enhancer.

Dr. Weissman took the time to talk to 9th graders (including mine) who spent a year studying some of what they’re doing. My kid (who barely cared about science in sept) came home from that talk BUZZING!

Defunding science undermines our futures in big and small ways.

!!! I won’t cook that but I’ll pay you all my money for it!!!

oh cool. let me know if you ever want to chat about any of it. there's a lot of subtext.

Review of psychedelic outlaws is on point: Jul 28, 2025 I very much enjoyed what Kempner had to say and how she said it: she paid attention to intersectionalism and made it a point to examine how experience differs across a spectrum. This fit very well with the podcasts The Retrievals, seasons 1&2, which I have been listening to. I thought the areas on academics and clinical research were good and helpful to the majority of people who don't work in either. I want to think more about what lessons this story has to offer on citizen science and the power of a relatively small group of individuals to drive systemic change. But this week I'm mostly thinking about pain and why medicine too often ignores it.

Yea, actually not so great for a lot of men too, esp if they have a girly disease. But much worse if you happen to be in an even more disenfranchised population. This is 50% of how I ended up writing abt psychedelics for cluster headache…

I’d love to see mdma approved but I’m even more excited about FDA reforms that make sense and build public trust. That a portion of the psychedelic community cares more about a single treatment than about public health writ large disgusts me.

Since I’m catching up, it’s outrageous that Nuwer failed to disclose that she wrote a trade book hyping this very treatment and that, while doing so, formed relationships with people she interviewed for the article. The ethics violation is ridic. Stephens is awful but publishes *opinion*