Brenna Hassett

This whole debacle doesn't just affect me, Vincent, Nic and Flint -- it also took aim @trowelblazers.bsky.social, and my dear friends & collaborators @lemoustier.bsky.social, @brennawalks.bsky.social, and @suziebirch.bsky.social

🧪🦣🏺 Who wants to hear a story about biotech billions, unscientific claims, and shoddy smear tactics attacking women in science*?

Thread 🧵

*which, for legal clarity, are totally denied as being connected

So, back to those weird articles, which might be AI or not (the 1st was bylined to a PR company, then byline removed).

Guess what? After that one, we found another piece, this smearing not just Tori, but also @trowelblazers.bsky.social, me @suziebirch.bsky.social & @brennawalks.bsky.social .

I get that it isn't easy. But the more of us that speak up, and the more we boost those speaking up, the more we can be a voice for informed change

We live in a hostile world, and it is only getting more hostile. We need to push back against anti intellectualism before we truly are silenced

One of the really fun things about editing Current Anthropology is getting to read and share excellent and extremely fun research like this...

Photo of magazine cover. The image is a digital art picture of a woman's face, with cutaway like a house inside her mind referring to headline story "Sharpen Your Memory".

Photo of first pages in story called "The Other Humans". Image is people in silhouette walking along a ridge. They have spears.

🏺🧪🦣
New piece I wrote for BBC Science Focus is out, on the increasingly complex but ever more interesting story of early Homo sapiens' origins & dispersal, and the other kinds of humans we encountered.

Heheheh

And I say it with love. And evidence 😘😘😘

Aaaaaaand with the @newscientist.com link archive.is/202507311223...

So I guess if you don’t want someone to write the kind of stuff they wrote about @toriherridge.bsky.social about you, better keep your mouth shut around big money big media projects 🤨

This is a weirdly coordinated ‘totally organic’ effort to smear the people who criticise colossal — @toriherridge.bsky.social , @flintdibble.bsky.social Vincent lynch @nicrawlencenz.bsky.social and their work — even @trowelblazers.bsky.social took a hit.

Text clip from new scientist

Coming for @toriherridge.bsky.social , who is the most annoyingly ethical person I know, is a particularly low blow. What is planting libellous and totally fabricated lies about someone’s ethics and expertise likely to do to their career? Huh?

New scientist headline critics of de extinction hit by mystery smear campaign

Like science? Then you better be interested when *someone* starts putting out hit pieces on scientists. This is beyond the pale ethically and honestly anyone who doesn’t want to slide to hell on a slick of ai generated content that benefits billionaire business, maybe now is the time to get angry.

Now then colonel, I reckon it’s just peachy 😂

Documenting change book flyer

Was really nice to speak to people who have done so much for representation in archaeology. Out soon! www.archaeopress.com/Archaeopress... 20% discount code 006120

Petition for Greg to do a 90s emo musical version of totally chaotic: Stone Age starts here ;)

Aaaaa haha how many formal apologies do I have to make for the musical segments? And why didn’t we get you a guitar solo 🤔

Totally Chaotic History: The Stone Age Runs Wild!: Fast, funny, fact-packed history from the host of the chart-topping podcast You’re Dead to Me Totally Chaotic History: The Stone Age Runs Wild!: Fast, funny, fact-packed history from the host of the chart-topping podcast You’re Dead to Me : Jenner, Greg, Hassett, Brenna, Parekh, Rikin: Amazon.co.uk: Books

Hello! If money is tight, you can get my brand-new kids' book TOTALLY CHAOTIC HISTORY: THE STONE AGE RUNS WILD for just £5.56 from Amazon. It's getting lovely reviews from kids, parents, and teachers, and it's cowritten with fab archaeologist @brennawalks.bsky.social www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/1...

In case anyone is wondering, survey is awesome when you have a great team ❤️

Not possible without you! ❤️

Dear friends, writing online reviews of books enormously helps authors get their books up the charts and into customer eyelines

If any of you enjoyed my new one, Totally Chaotic History: The Stone Age Runs Wild, I’d be so grateful for any online support on the usual websites. Thank you!

In news that surprises no one: the ‘optimisation’ of PhD research funding in the uk = 60 per cent cut.

For all the students out there who can’t get the funding, it’s definitely not you. :/

I hope it’s of interest!!

Nifty preprint led by @mathiesoniain.bsky.social comparing femur length as a proxy of stature to genetic variants linked to height today. Many key insights, but main one for me is that variants responsible for lactase persistence are strongly associated with height in ancient but not modern people.

Laundry detergents with foremost labelled Essex touch

This may be Greece but you can still get that…

I wish I had read this while writing ‘growing up human’ (Türkçe : büyümek). My information BaYaka childrearing is probably way less informed but this piece conveys such an important point: how we parent is a very culturally determined thing

Totally Chaotic History: The Stone Age Runs Wild! (TCH 3) by Greg Jenner with expert interruptions from Dr Brenna Hassett, illustrated by Rikin Parekh Cover illustration © 2025 Rikin Parekh I’m pretty sure that much of what I know – or, more accurately, what I think I know – about history is wrong and for prehistory I’m even more cert…

Out now, Totally Chaotic History: The Stone Age Runs Wild! by @gregjenner.bsky.social with @brennawalks.bsky.social, illustrated by @rikinparekh.bsky.social, is a brilliantly funny kids’ guide to all things Stone Age!

@walkerbooksuk.bsky.social

worldssmallestlibrary.wordpress.com/2025/07/15/t...

#runfrogging!! ❤️❤️

Here’s my funny new book TOTALLY CHAOTIC HISTORY: THE STONE AGE RUNS WILD! it’s cowritten with the brilliant archaeologist @brennawalks.bsky.social and illustrated by the ace @rikinparekh.bsky.social

It has facts, new scientific discoveries, and comedy sketches

www.walker.co.uk/978152952249...

Can’t tell you how delighted and relieved I am that readers are enjoying my new TOTALLY CHAOTIC HISTORY book!! It was so very hard to write this one with the brilliant @brennawalks.bsky.social, because the facts kept changing, but I think we are both really proud of it