Robert Jensen

A successful malpractice suit and changes in medical association guidelines this past week signaled a shift in the trans debate. If you’re wondering where to start to understand the issue, I recommend my chapter (available online for free)
robertwjensen.org/wp-content/u...

Practicing vulnerability: A black man’s struggle toward understanding and belonging By Darrell Jackson

Thanks to my friend Julie Bindel for running Darrell Jackson’s essay, “Practicing vulnerability: A black man’s struggle toward understanding and belonging.” juliebindel.substack.com/p/practicing...

‘Teaching Students to Think for Themselves’ Starts with Political Self-Awareness My nomination for the most predictable platitude invoked by university professors when describing the essence of their job is “teaching students to think for themselves.”

“The conventional wisdom isn’t always wrong, of course, but it’s wrong often enough that reflexively adopting it is dangerous. Challenging the assumptions of the dominant culture is crucial, especially in a journalism class.”
hxlibraries.substack.com/p/teaching-s...

Reading about CBS Evening News declaring ‘We Love America’ took me back to my 2003 article, “Patriotism’s a Bad Idea at a Dangerous Time.” robertwjensen.org/articles/pat...

Anthropause by Stan Cox: 9781644215142 | PenguinRandomHouse.com: Books A rallying cry to save the Earth with an “anthropause”—a term that can apply to any broad rollback of economic activity that gives nature room to recover and flourish. “An iconoclast...

My friend Stan Cox's new book is out. "In Anthropause, Stan Cox writes that by embracing degrowth, we are not turning our backs on progress. Instead, we are redefining it."
www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/796376...

YouTube video by World XP Podcast Robert Jensen - Media's Lies: Vietnam & Iraq War Cover-ups, Journalism Saved Me: Weird to Confident

I had a great conversation with Eric Jennings on the World XP Podcast, covering politics, culture, and my career. www.youtube.com/watch?v=um9D...

A clip from my interview for the World XP Podcast, on the joy of connecting with students.
x.com/worldxppodca...

Teaching Students to Think for Themselves Is Never Apolitical Journalism professor Robert Jensen considers how educators should handle contentious politics in the classroom, from the Iraq War to more recent American actions in Venezuela. He argues that honest di...

“Teaching is not politics, but there is always an underlying political current to teaching about human affairs because there is inescapably a politics to living.” www.merionwest.com/teaching-stu...

Teaching Students to Think for Themselves Is Never Apolitical Journalism professor Robert Jensen considers how educators should handle contentious politics in the classroom, from the Iraq War to more recent American actions in Venezuela. He argues that honest di...

“Teaching Students to Think for Themselves Is Never Apolitical“ in Merion West.
www.merionwest.com/teaching-stu...

Helena Addison, PhD, RN Helena Addison, PhD, RN Postdoctoral Fellow, National Clinician Scholars Program, Yale University PhD, Nursing Science – University of Pennsylvania MSN –

m.yale.edu/c446

Why Professor Watchlist gets my teaching values completely wrong The question isn't whether to politicize the classroom, it's whether we presented the material with evidence, reasoned argument and critical reflection.

From 2016, reflections on the sexual predators Donald Trump and Bill Clinton. wagingnonviolence.org/2016/11/why-...

How to be a good man A guest post, by Robert Jensen

“If you want to be a good man, do your best to be a good person.” From “How to be a good man.” juliebindel.substack.com/p/how-to-be-...

How to be a good man A guest post, by Robert Jensen

My response to the conversation on “How to be a good man.” juliebindel.substack.com/p/how-to-be-...

Why I work out in prison The nurse offered pills to lower his blood pressure. He chose to work out instead. In his first for Grassroots Thinking, Antoine Davis shares the physical and mental health benefits of exercise, and h...

One of the prison writers I work with, Antoine Davis, writes about taking control of his health through exercise in prison. Online at Grassroots Thinking, www.grassrootsthinking.com/essay-why-i-...

Pornography, Hate Speech, and the Inconsistencies of the Left By Robert Jensen

“the paradox of pornography. ,,, How can a media genre become more mainstream at the same time that it becomes more misogynist and racist? Why would liberals/progressives/leftists who routinely critique sexism and racism give pornography a pass?” juliebindel.substack.com/p/pornograph...

My Interview with Robert Jensen fewer and less

Thanks to Howie Richey for a great conversation at “Turbulent Times Book Review” and on KURU Radio about my writing on the multiple cascading ecological crises. ttbc.substack.com/p/my-intervi...

Pornography, Hate Speech, and the Inconsistencies of the Left By Robert Jensen

“I learned quickly that my new brethren on the left were mostly opposed to radical feminism, and eventually embracing radical feminism got me shunned by liberal and postmodern feminists.” juliebindel.substack.com/p/pornograph...

Pornography, Hate Speech, and the Inconsistencies of the Left By Robert Jensen

See Julie Bindel’s Substack for my reflections on “Pornography, Hate Speech, and the Inconsistencies of the Left.” juliebindel.substack.com/p/pornograph...

FREE screening of "Prairie Prophecy" at Lawrence Arts Center, Nov. 21st, 7:00PM.
Get 40% off (UPKHOLIDAY25) these Wes Jackson books:
-Hogs Are Up (kansaspress.ku.edu/9780700630592/)
-The Restless & Relentless Mind of Wes Jackson by
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(kansaspress.ku.edu/9780700636808/).

Who’s to Blame? Political Action, Personal Accountability, and Human Nature | Common Dreams ​We are more likely to advance human dignity and ecological sustainability if we focus less on “Why are those people so bad?” and more on “What forces shaped this outcome?”

“We are more likely to advance human dignity and ecological sustainability if we focus less on ‘why are those people so bad?’ and more on ‘what forces shaped this outcome?’” from “Who’s to Blame? Political Action, Personal Accountability, and Human Nature” www.commondreams.org/opinion/who-...

My plea for humility in politics: “The moral high ground is a dangerous place to stand, even when it’s warranted.” dissidentvoice.org/2025/10/whos...

“The only human future I can imagine is ‘fewer and less’: fewer people consuming less energy and stuff. To deal with the temptations of dense energy, we need to agree to limits.”
from my essay “Who’s to blame?” dissidentvoice.org/2025/10/whos...

“The only human future I can imagine is ‘fewer and less’: fewer people consuming less energy and stuff. To deal with the temptations of dense energy, we need to agree to limits.”
from my essay “Who’s to blame?” dissidentvoice.org/2025/10/whos...

“Who’s to blame? Political action, personal accountability, and human nature” is online at Dissident Voice. dissidentvoice.org/2025/10/whos...
The ideas come from my last two books and the forthcoming _This I Don’t Believe._

Trump’s new “peace plan” reminded me of “Occupation Blues,” my 2003 review of Tanya Reinhart’s _Israel/Palestine How to End the War of 1948_: “for the ‘political generals,’ … the maximalist dream never died, and the plans for more land, and more war, went forward.”
robertwjensen.org/articles/occ...

Teaching the Transgender Debate: Journalism, Academic Freedom, and Responsible Reporting How educators can navigate state mandates, cultural conflict, and the responsibility to prepare future journalists for difficult conversations

My latest attempt to summarize the trans debate in plain language: “Teaching the Transgender Debate: Journalism, Academic Freedom, and Responsible Reporting” in the LA Progressive.
www.laprogressive.com/lgbtq/teachi...

The Freedom to Teach about Freedom The worst teaching is simplistic teaching. Grappling with the complex history of the United States takes more than political slogans. And our most vexing cultural problems won’t be solved by dogma.

“the worst teaching is simplistic teaching. Trying to understand a complex topic in philosophy can’t be done through platitudes. Grappling with the complex history of the United States takes more than political slogans.”
blueearbooks.substack.com/p/the-freedo...

The Freedom to Teach about Freedom I had my share of political critics when I taught in Texas, back in what today seems like the quaint era of professor watchlists, but I never felt my job was in jeopardy.

I speculate on what the MAGA reaction to my teaching would be if I were still in the classroom in “The Freedom to Teach about Freedom” on Heterodoxy in the Stacks.
hxlibraries.substack.com/p/the-freedo...

Thinking Beyond the Bars | The Journal of Blacks in Higher Education How higher education helped a prison inmate develop confidence and rediscover his humanity.

Darrell Jackson, one of the wonderful prison writers I work with, describes his college experience in prison. “Thinking Beyond the Bars” is at the Journal of Blacks in Higher Education.
jbhe.com/2025/09/thin...

An Inconvenient Apocalypse Confronting harsh ecological realities and the multiple cascading crises facing our world today, An Inconvenient Apocalypse argues that humanity’s future w...

My book with Wes Jackson, An Inconvenient Apocalypse,
undpress.nd.edu/978026820366...
is 40% off from the publisher. Use the code at
undpress.nd.edu/apsa-virtual...