Elizabeth Preston

Mary Roach called it "hilarious," Booklist called it "captivating," and Audubon magazine says it's "A delightful read that will make you think and feel." Order THE CREATURES' GUIDE TO CARING wherever you like to buy books: www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/741329... 🧪

As basically a professional reader of scientific papers, I believe no one has worse jargon than the botanists. Protocorm?? Please calm down 🧪

This is (a) abhorrent, (b) not going to work, and (c) abhorrent 🧪

Please enjoy this poem by my 6-year-old: FOODS When I eat food I get in a happy mood I chewed and chewed and chewed Until I pooed

Today I waited for a 6-digit code on my phone so I could log into my patient portal on my computer so I could find the dates of my kids' last flu and Covid shots so I could go back to the Walgreens tab and finish booking our vaccine appointments and I think we might be asking too much of people.

It can be hard to keep doing your work when the news is head-spinning. Let's take some tips from a snake that escapes danger by making its body into a wheel: elizabethgpreston.substack.com/p/how-to-kee... 🧪

What a cartwheeling snake can tell us about doing our work while the news is headspinning: elizabethgpreston.substack.com/p/how-to-kee... 🧪

Reading this really fucked me up last night. I suppose rape profiteering has been around as long as war profiteering. They’re siblings. That said, there’s something about the unapologetic attitude of betting on the implications of gang rape that bruised the inside of my soul last night.

Someone did a Bouba/Kiki experiment with tortoises and I have some questions, starting with: what 🧪

Plants, Oh plants! So many cans Yet so many can'ts. -from a poem by my fourth grader (title: "Plants") 🌱🧪

Real question: Has Google Maps gotten stupider? I almost missed a kid's medical appointment yesterday because my phone was insisting that my destination was on the side of an I-95 onramp

I'm crying

Helen Branswell has been a shining example of truth-telling, decency, and rationality at a time when those qualities are in desperately short supply. We're all going to miss her at @statnews.com so much, and I know many others will, too. www.statnews.com/2026/10/13/h...

Distressed to learn it's already time for gift guides, but tickled to spot THE CREATURES' GUIDE TO CARING on @publisherswkly.bsky.social's nonfiction list! www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/... Get a head start on your holiday (??) shopping: www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/741329... 🧪

Look I try to stay positive but every single headline this week has been a variation of "AI Declared Human; Women Not" and it's getting difficult

Spy-hopping dolphins teach us that getting a fresh perspective is best with a buddy: elizabethgpreston.substack.com/p/how-to-get... 🧪

the tech industry is about to invent books

What curious dolphins (and their vertical hanky-panky) can tell us humans about getting out of a rut: elizabethgpreston.substack.com/p/how-to-get... 🧪

Do you love learning about marmosets and tamarins in the Amazon rainforest, but not love Amazon dot com? Anti-Prime Day at @bookshop.org is a great day to buy my book! bookshop.org/p/books/the-... 🧪

This is very kind! I won't get royalties no matter where you buy the book, so all sales are the same to me. Audio or ebook? Also great. Check out the book from the library, then tell your friends about it and leave a review on Amazon or Goodreads? Amazing!

The Fat Bear Week winner used to ride on his mom's back, and survived a serious foot injury as a cub thanks to her care. The runner-up was a female who adopted her niece and raised her alongside her own cub. For more animal parents kicking butt, read my book: bookshop.org/p/books/the-... 🧪

They quoted me in this New Yorker piece about AI today. www.newyorker.com/culture/the-...

Yes, searching for new reader reviews is a toxic habit that I should quit...BUT sometimes a stranger uncannily names what was one of your secret goals while writing the book and it's the best thing ever. 🧪

SO much going on here about parenting and living in America: medical insurance, employment, grief, depression, online mobs, baseball.

#Bugsky

“shape of you” by ed sheeran is from the perspective of a dog … he’s in love with the shape of you because it’s all he can see with his dog eyes

YUP

If two marine weirdos can find each other, your soul spider must be out there too: elizabethgpreston.substack.com/p/how-to-fin... 🧪

If two marine weirdos can find each other, your soul spider must be out there too: elizabethgpreston.substack.com/p/how-to-fin... 🧪

NYC friends! Who will I see tomorrow at my book event with Perrin Ireland? She's talking about animal sex, I'm talking about a common consequence of animal sex, and we'll all have a good time: www.nypl.org/events/progr... 🧪

My sister from California must think we plant paid actors whenever she visits Boston. We went to a nail salon today and a woman walked in and declared, "I got hit by a duck boat the othah day!!"

An alloparenting soccer team! I love this so much

This is just a spectacular unintentional self-own

Oh yes NOW I think this is real, good job

I'm honestly so confused about how these technologies are legal. I live in MA, a two-party consent state, which means it's against the law to record someone without permission. Every single time I interview a source I start by asking if it's OK to record.

"The world can feel like a cruel jungle, but human care persists." I love the excerpt from my book that Lisa Sibbetts published at The Auntie Bulletin today: theauntie.substack.com/p/what-predi... 🧪

Counterpoint: I have played 20 Questions with children and they absolutely cannot.

My sister @akpresto.bsky.social found a new job (woohoo!!) and created Lego data visualizations of her 32-week search: aangles.ghost.io/searching/?r... 🧪

Advice about managing our digital lives and appreciating our families’ unlovely moments, inspired by a scientific study on which European butterflies are the ugliest: elizabethgpreston.substack.com/p/how-to-lov... 🧪

Beauty bias affects how we study and protect all kinds of species, even butterflies. Which might be a good reason to save your weirdest family photos: elizabethgpreston.substack.com/p/how-to-lov... 🧪

Six-year-old, trudging sadly back up the sidewalk from the park, with bicycle tire tread marks on her leg: "We had a collusion."