Daniel Engber

Here's a delightful + moving podcast about the history of football shenanigans, which is somehow just as much about family: pod.link/6812943096/e... from the great @joshuablevin.bsky.social

Excellent overview of where we are on food-borne illnesses, by Dan Engber in @theatlantic.com www.theatlantic.com/health/2026/...

They're not anti-vaccine, and they had no idea anyone was talking about the child they lost. www.theatlantic.com/health/2026/...

A good, disturbing story about carelessness with data: www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2026/0...

The Cambridge professor Jason Arday’s remarkable rise through academia has come to an end, @engber.bsky.social writes. He examines Arday’s forthcoming memoir, and finds both implausible details and the makings of a tragic arc:

Sociologist Jason Arday has resigned from Cambridge University after being accused of rampant fraud. Now his very inspiring memoir is about to come out from Simon & Schuster, and it's already an Editor's Pick on Amazon. Something very weird is going on: www.theatlantic.com/books/2026/0...

This is so interesting. @engber.bsky.social is such a wonderful and ~consumable~ journalist.

Psychologists Jonathan Haidt and Peter Gray were once allies in the fight against the ONE BIG THING that is destroying children's lives. Then they had a disagreement over which THING, exactly, is the BIGGEST THING of all... www.theatlantic.com/technology/2...

If you’re only thinking about how pesticides affect you or your kids, you’re not seeing the full picture. With this episode I tried to help people widen that aperture.

"The same person who will pay $900 for microneedling with salmon sperm may refuse a hepatitis B shot for her newborn baby." 🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸 @engber.bsky.social

In which the Retraction Watch Database makes it into the Harper's Index. harpers.org/harpers-inde...

This is worth reading. @engber.bsky.social on the birth of a new conspiracy theory: www.theatlantic.com/science/2026...

This is completely fascinating, by @engber.bsky.social: www.theatlantic.com/books/2026/0...

Upward Bound, a best-selling debut novel about life in a day-care center for adults with disabilities, is very good. But who wrote it? [gift link] www.theatlantic.com/books/2026/0...

A movie couple that would definitely have a podcast.

How bad is it, really, to have your whole family infested with blood-sucking parasites? www.theatlantic.com/science/2026...

What do you make of this claim: the Inca Empire had a progressive system of taxation in which poor people were encourage to pay in head lice, which served in turn as a public-health intervention.

I wrote about Dario’s Oppenheimer moment and the utopian dreams of the nuclear age www.theatlantic.com/technology/2...

Donald Trump's administration has taken a more active approach to animal welfare than any other president's in recent memory—which hints at something more widespread in right-wing, nationalist politics, @engber.bsky.social writes:

The Trump administration has been working very hard to protect puppies, kittens, even mice from harm. This fits into a long history of animal-welfare activities in ultranationalist movements: www.theatlantic.com/science/2026...

The "jeans guy" at the gym comes out into the light www.theatlantic.com/health/2026/...

As a migraine sufferer I am intrigued by the "extra strength" medicine that contains the exact same dosages as the regular-strength

Oof, that scene at the end where Ernest Hemingway gets totally drunk and drives off a bridge www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2026/0...

Once again "hunker culture" is taking over-- using minor inconvenience as a rationale for buying too much food slate.com/human-intere...

Slate ran a spectacular piece by @engber.bsky.social 15 years ago about a previous generation's obsession with quicksand; it's one of my favorite things ever. www.slate.com/articles/hea...

A generation ago, getting braces was a rite of passage into seventh grade. Now orthodontists are giving palate expanders—meant to keep teeth from crowding—to seven year olds. @engber.bsky.social reports:

Even NASA's potted plants have now withered and disappeared, after money was withdrawn for watering them. This tiny detail, evoking E.T., is one of many to remember from @rossandersen.bsky.social's latest feature... www.theatlantic.com/magazine/202...

This technology sounds nifty but the way they've shoehorned in a fake **octopus** connection is truly outrageous news.stanford.edu/stories/2026...

So...my undergrad thesis student is doing a quality analysis of studies found in meta-analyses. She identified a few and we contacted the authors to request their effect sizes and other variables for the studies in their papers. Here's what happened: scientiapsychiatrica.com/index.php/Sc...

New sign for my meditation room

Is there any lower form of journalism than the "holiday debunker"? Here I inaugurate a new series of holiday-debunker debunkers. First up: DON'T BELIEVE THE MYTH ABOUT THE MYTH ABOUT THE 'TURKEY COMA' www.theatlantic.com/health/2025/...

Surrogate outcomes Screening versus prevention schools of thought And much more in this extremely readable @hildabast.bsky.social post absolutelymaybe.plos.org/2025/11/24/t... (Remember Nordic Cochrane aka Gøtzsche went off the rails a few years ago? This is the outcome)

Last year, the Canadian government ordered a flock of ostriches to be killed after some contracted bird flu. The movement to save the birds became a right-wing cause célèbre—and sparked a standoff with authorities, @engber.bsky.social reports: https://theatln.tc/8UCgg88M

Well that’s one way to think about intellectual property… Common Crawl’s Rich Skrenta: “You shouldn’t have put your content on the internet if you didn’t want it to be on the internet.” Must-read Alex Reisner: www.theatlantic.com/technology/2...

More news on the slimy, invasive species that everyone loves: www.nytimes.com/2025/09/29/w...

New PubPeer comment on "Efficacy of oral folinic acid supplementation in children with autism spectrum disorder: a randomized double-blind, placebo-controlled trial" (Panda et al, 2024). Concerns about significant errors. #folinicacid #leucovorin, #autism pubpeer.com/publications...