Brandon Keim

The terrifying reality behind one of America’s fastest-growing dairy brands The dark side of Fairlife — and America’s protein craze.

Fairlife, a brand that didn't exist before 2012, is now the 2nd most popular milk in the US. It's a reflection of how dairy manages to continually rebrand & reinvent itself. But the reality behind Fairlife, like all dairy, is an unmitigated horror show

www.vox.com/future-perfe...

What if animals find beauty in the world, just like we do? | Psyche Ideas Chimpanzees favour the colour red. Junglefowl prefer symmetry. Our shared capacity for aesthetic pleasure is cause for wonder

Chimpanzees favour the colour red. Junglefowl prefer symmetry. Our shared capacity for aesthetic pleasure is cause for wonder @brandonkeim.bsky.social

Tap Mun version of traffic jam: sharing the path with the real locals 🐄🐖

"Animal trusteeship is not conventional advocacy, and it’s not traditional wildlife management. It is something distinct — defined by a fiduciary duty to act solely in the best interests of the animals represented."

I love this article by @brandonkeim.bsky.social asking if animals can appreciate beauty.
psyche.co/ideas/what-i...

Also we need publications to *pay freelancers more*. Many publications have not adjusted their rates in 10+ years, even as staffers (who are already earning way more than freelancers) get COLAs and/or regular raises.

Oxygen May Have Caused a Mass Extinction. Then It Led to Human Life ‘Strata: Stories from Deep Time’ explores the origins of the air we breathe and untangles some of our planet’s oldest stories.

Thrilled to have an excerpt from STRATA in Rolling Stone today! Fulfilling my dreams of casting geologists as the rockstars of the scientific world:

www.rollingstone.com/culture/cult...

Two more weeks til we launch the book! Preorder here:

wwnorton.com/books/978132...

What Does a Cormorant Feel? Brandon Keim discusses animal personhood, movements around animal representation, and cormorants—one named Cosmos in particular.

Our latest podcast features the story of Cosmos, a deformed cormorant who’d groom his rescuer’s sideburns (it was the ’80s) and turn the pages of his science journals.

@brandonkeim.bsky.social & @lisamargonelli.bsky.social talk animal personhood, policy, and cormorants: issues.org/brandon-keim...

I feel trapped between people who are terrified to use LLMs, and people who are terrified not to. Can we please bring back boredom and indifference when it comes to overhyped new tech?

What We Misunderstand About Robots Sci-fi master Adrian Tchaikovsky on evolution, other minds, and the politics of science

"That everything has to be in competition with each other is not necessarily true. Everything has to work out how to work *with* other things…. That’s what people don’t tend to get about Darwinian survival of the fittest."

I talked to @aptshadow.bsky.social for @nautil.us: nautil.us/what-we-misu...

What We Misunderstand About Robots Sci-fi master Adrian Tchaikovsky on evolution, other minds, and the politics of science

"That everything has to be in competition with each other is not necessarily true. Everything has to work out how to work *with* other things…. That’s what people don’t tend to get about Darwinian survival of the fittest."

I talked to @aptshadow.bsky.social for @nautil.us: nautil.us/what-we-misu...

The protein centricity is what baffles me. It's so risibly obvious that mapping protein structures won't "cure all disease," or even most of it. If someone who claims it will can rise to a position of such commercial & intellectual eminence ... how can we take *anyone* from that world seriously?

A tiny sweat bee between the petals of a northern blue flag iris blossom. Only the bee and a portion of the flower are in focus, and the rest is gauzy. There is no caption on the photograph; as life online becomes ever noisier, with people competing constantly for your attention and algorithms rewarding the loudest and most insistent voices, I find myself not wanting to say anything verbally here. Just a photo and that's all.

Maybe one small thing for science journalists & communicators to do is stop writing single-study stories involving psychology, neuroscience, etc. Becase by inviting attention to & confidence in them, reproducibility goes from an insider concern to a problem for anyone who ever struck a power pose.

I think about this a lot, too. It feels like our community has circled the wagons ever tighter since 2016, treating science as largely exempt from criticism—which can be weaponized in bad faith, but withholding it makes problems worse & erodes public trust in science (and us). It's a catch-22.

This @betsymason.bsky.social post about the benefits of making tiny friends was just what I needed today. www.lastwordonnothing.com/2025/06/11/t...

I’m only speculating, but reaching out to a host you like in the appropriate vertical (Environmental Studies?) couldn’t hurt?

I didn't know that term until now!

Would definitely want to have a typing option available for anyone who needed it.

True. But there are so many benefits to writing by hand! E.g., www.scientificamerican.com/article/why-...

As a bonus, we'll also become a nation of people with legible penmanship who do not gaze upon their own handwriting with mild shame.

A female Western Gull was recorded riding 150km in a garbage truck from San Francisco to a compost facility in Central CA, probably to forage. TWICE. An innovator, an icon, a genius.

This is one of my favorite @waterbirdsociety.bsky.social papers I've ever handled as managing editor #ornithology

I've been meaning to send @margaretrenkl.bsky.social a copy! Bumping that to the top of my to-do lists this week.

A passage on the topic from MEET THE NEIGHBORS:

Eating wild animals might be sustainable for the few, but not for the many Some back-of-the-envelope calculations on how many it could feed.

"... all of the world’s wild mammals would meet just two weeks of our demand for meat. Within a fortnight, they’d all be gone, and their populations would not rebuild."

@hannahritchie.bsky.social on the idea that hunting is sustainable: www.sustainabilitybynumbers.com/p/wild-mamma...

Remember how miserable it was to wear a mask all day? Even outside, in the hot sun?

Now imagine doing that every day of your life.

Who could possibly think that was a great idea ... oh, of course. The guy now designing wearable AI devices.

Less meat is nearly always better than sustainable meat, to reduce your carbon footprint Plant-based protein sources still have a lower footprint than the lowest-impact meat products.

Read more in the article by @hannahritchie.bsky.social: ourworldindata.org/less-meat-or...

Safe travels! Hope it's a good companion.

If you’re free this evening at 7pm ET, come on by! I’ll be reading from Meet the Neighbors and having a conversation with the fine people at PAN Works, an ethics & policy think tank devoted to the wellbeing of animals.

Registration (it’s free): us06web.zoom.us/meeting/regi...

Pension fund accuses Panthers owner Viola, partner Cifu of stealing $400 million from investors By Dan Christensen, FloridaBulldog.org - Pension fund accuses Panthers owner Viola, partner Cifu of stealing $400 million from investors.

Let's see what the league does if the 💩 actually hits the fan.... www.floridabulldog.org/2025/02/pens...