iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Alan Levinovitz @alanlevinovitz.bsky.social · 25/02/2026

Terrific new book just dropped, Picky by the historian Helen Veit. Just an outstanding broadside agains the idea that children are "naturally" picky, and an eye-opening look at how seemingly eternal truths — children are picky eaters — are products of culture. us.macmillan.com/books/978125...

us.macmillan.com

Picky

An eye-opening investigation into why American kids no longer eat broadly and with gusto"Admirable." —The Wall Street Journal"Enlightening ... a rigorous a...

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Alan Levinovitz @alanlevinovitz.bsky.social · 04/02/2026

shocked, I tell you, just shocked — it's always the gurus you least expect

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Alan Levinovitz @alanlevinovitz.bsky.social · 03/02/2026

Picked up an amazing back issue of The Atlantic!

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Alan Levinovitz @alanlevinovitz.bsky.social · 03/02/2026

I'm going to try to divide my time a bit more between Twitter and Bluesky...many of my OG social media friends are only active on Twitter, and I value the large community I have there, but I also know that many people have left completely. We'll see if it is too much!

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John Williams @johnhuww.bsky.social · 03/10/2025

“To us, this is a version of the placebo effect that has gone, essentially, unnoticed,” Professor Levinovitz said. “Here is this thing that is cross-cultural and trans-historical — the power of an official name to gain control over pathology of some kind — and it is almost entirely unstudied.”

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John Williams @johnhuww.bsky.social · 03/10/2025

Autism, A.D.H.D., Anxiety: Can a Diagnosis Make You Better? “As our diagnostic categories expand to include ever milder versions of disease, researchers propose that the act of naming a malady can itself bring relief.” www.nytimes.com/2025/10/03/h...

nytimes.com

Autism, A.D.H.D., Anxiety: Can a Diagnosis Make You Better?

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Channa Prakash @agbioworld.bsky.social · 14/01/2025

“Alan Levinovitz shows us how the worship of an abstract idea of nature can lead us astray in everything from our health to the laws we pass and even how we structure our governments and our way of life. This book is required” - Tom Nichols www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/621092...

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Magdalena Miedl aka espressozitron @mmiedl.bsky.social · 09/01/2022

"From vaccines to climate change, misinformation poses an existential threat when it inhibits our collective decision-making ability." They Swore by the Diet I Created — but I Completely Made It Up by Alan Levinovitz in @elemental...

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Alan Levinovitz @alanlevinovitz.bsky.social · 01/02/2026

Opposing the ongoing technification of our classrooms should be an easy, bipartisan issue. Every teacher I know has struggled with tech in the classroom, and I'm certain the downsides will massively exacerbate educational disparities.

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Julia Brown, PhD @juliaehbrown.bsky.social · 11/09/2025

Excellent piece by @alanlevinovitz.bsky.social @awaisaftab.bsky.social on the therapeutic effect of diagnosis + the need for qual research. Reading Parson’s “sick role” theory in undergrad sociology was the moment I realized how much is missed by psych models. www.cambridge.org/core/service...

cambridge.org

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Awais Aftab @awaisaftab.bsky.social · 03/10/2025

Grateful to see this layered and multifaceted discussion in the @nytimes.com by @ellenbarry.bsky.social about recent work by @alanlevinovitz.bsky.social and me on the Rumpelstiltskin effect (the therapeutic relief experienced on receiving a diagnosis) www.nytimes.com/2025/10/03/s...

nytimes.com

Autism, A.D.H.D., Anxiety: Can a Diagnosis Make You Better?

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Jon Mathieu @jonmathieu.bsky.social · 04/03/2025

Really fun and interesting chat with @alanlevinovitz.bsky.social about teaching religion in a university setting.

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Timothy Caulfield @caulfieldtim.bsky.social · 17/12/2024

Japan has: < economic inequality > education system > walkable cities > public transportation < guns & gun violence < obesity > healthcare And, yes, many of its own probs... 👇 MAHA as sophisticted as a grade school science project. via @alanlevinovitz.bsky.social

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Ferris Jabr @ferrisjabr.bsky.social · 18/12/2024

In A Christmas Carol, Dickens describes Marley's face having a dismal light "like a bad lobster in a dark cellar." Huh? He was likely referring to the glow of bioluminescent bacteria that can grow in/on crustaceans, presumably a more common observation at the time. 📷 tinyurl.com/6cj6knjw

A snippet of text from "A Christmas Carol" by Charles Dickens. It reads: "It was not in impenetrable shadow, as the other objects in the yard were, but had a dismal light about it, like a bad lobster in a dark cellar."

A photo of cut up shrimp in a silver tray, perhaps part of a buffet table or a stockpile of ingredients at a restaurant. They have an eerie, faint blue glow due to bioluminescent bacteria. Image sourced from: https://www.reddit.com/r/mildlyinteresting/comments/ct8rzq/some_these_shrimp_are_glowing_because_they_ate/

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Pessimists Archive @pessimistsarc.bsky.social · 17/12/2024

Feeling despair? So did this guy in 1875, who couldn't believe there were STILL anti-vaxxers: "One might suppose that the popular prejudice against vaccination had died out by this time, considering that it has been practiced for nearly a century"

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Graham Kendall @grahamkendall.bsky.social · 08/12/2024

The preprint also also mentions by favourite spoof paper: "What's the Deal with Birds" by @evornithology.bsky.social. The abstract is fantastic ....

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Alan Levinovitz @alanlevinovitz.bsky.social · 04/12/2024

Can we not fucking rationalize/equivocate about murder? Is it too fucking much to ask for a space where, when someone is murdered, it isn’t seen as an opportunity to score political points? Bluesky, paragon of civilized discourse. My God it’s all broken.

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Colby Vorland @colbyvorland.bsky.social · 02/12/2024

FBI Director nominee. Sigh. HT @alanlevinovitz.bsky.social

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Chris Longshanks @chrislongshanks.bsky.social · 28/11/2024

“For every Galileo there are 1000 idiots.” The recent Fifth Column podcast with @alanlevinovitz.bsky.social was an invigorating listen. Reclaiming and reframing science via honest, practical no bullshit discussions like this are vital. Thanks Alan.

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Bella Chu @isabellachu.bsky.social · 20/11/2024

I don’t normally cross post, but this thread from @alanlevinovitz.bsky.social is so insightful and novel (as in I haven’t heard a lot of these ideas articulated so clearly before) that I can’t help myself. x.com/AlanLevinovi...

x.com

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Serra Sea @gimblerocket.bsky.social · 20/11/2024

Especially this part, for me.

Image of a post by Alan Levinovitz. It says:

"Why don't people turn against the charlatans that fleece them? After all, when a physician harms or kills a patient, typically people get upset. They sue.

"But when a charlatan harms you, it doesn't work like that. That's because when you buy into a charlatan's bullshit, you've made a choice, as an individual, to trust them.

"The medical establishment demands your trust, so when they betray it, you can be angry. But you GIVE your trust to the charlatan.

"If you admit the charlatan betrayed you? Well, that means you are admitting you betrayed yourself."

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Alan Levinovitz @alanlevinovitz.bsky.social · 17/11/2024

Wondering why I'm skeptical of health influencers who "know the secret THEY are keeping from YOU"? Okay, buckle up, and let me tell you about someone you've never heard of...one of the biggest health influencers of the 20th century. Horace Fletcher, aka "The Great Masticator."

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Alan Levinovitz @alanlevinovitz.bsky.social · 16/11/2024

There's been a LOT about why RFK Jr is a terrible pick, but I want to focus on something that is very concerning to me, but no one seems to be mentioning. He appeals to a widespread, common-sense idea that the problem with our food is that it has "lots of artificial ingredients".

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Alan Levinovitz @alanlevinovitz.bsky.social · 14/11/2024

🚨🚨🚨 MY SUBSTACK FOR BOOK LOVERS🚨🚨🚨 My new Substack is Book Glory, all about fascinating books, the stories behind them, and how to collect them. Here's a taste. We'll start with a mystery. Can you guess the author of this book?

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Alan Levinovitz @alanlevinovitz.bsky.social · 12/11/2024

*taps mic* Would really appreciate if folks from my X community who have found me here (a) let me know, and (b) share my Bluesky handle with others. To make this transition I need a community here!

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David Hughes @filmcritic.bsky.social · 21/09/2023

Polar bears have taken over an ancient abandoned village in eastern Russia. Incredible photographs by Dmitry Kokh who won the Urban Wildlife category award in the Wildlife Photographer of the Year competition.

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c0nc0rdance @c0nc0rdance.bsky.social · 12/08/2023

I feel like the academic community doesn't talk enough about the tradition of fighting a snake during your thesis defense. Given its importance, we should spend more time on it in grad school. For example: Tactical Snake Fighting 101 should be taught in year 1 of PhD programs. Anyone agree?

A transcribed copy of this document:
https://www.mcsweeneys.net/articles/faq-the-snake-fight-portion-of-your-thesis-defense

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Alan Levinovitz @alanlevinovitz.bsky.social · 12/08/2023

Amazing farmer’s market buy, I never want to store garlic any other way. Beautiful, functional, and lasts three months.

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Alan Levinovitz @alanlevinovitz.bsky.social · 06/08/2023

Incredible passage in the book I’m reading. I’ve redacted it. Without looking anything up, who do you think is being described?

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Alan Levinovitz @alanlevinovitz.bsky.social · 04/08/2023

I've been working on a book that's (in part) about jesters, and this is the exact opposite of a jester. Jesters don't enable tyrants—they are the transgressive presence that prevents leaders from becoming tyrants. Jesters are precisely what Trump needs and can't tolerate.

And then there was the laughable plan to mobilize new state electors. Here was certainly an effort to subvert the election, but it was also a fantasy with no hope in hell of ever succeeding; indeed, he seems to have long delighted in surrounding himself with clownish people (especially lawyers) performing clownish feats to gain his approval — more court jesters than co-conspirators.

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c0nc0rdance @c0nc0rdance.bsky.social · 03/08/2023

"To the mouse & any smaller animal gravity presents practically no dangers. You can drop a mouse down a thousand-yard mine shaft & on arriving at the bottom it gets a slight shock & walks away. A rat is killed, a man is broken, a horse splashes." - JBS Haldane.

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Alan Levinovitz @alanlevinovitz.bsky.social · 03/08/2023

My copy of Orwell's Burmese Days finally arrived, and the description on the back is...really something! I include the cover in the next photo so you know it is for real.

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Alan Levinovitz @alanlevinovitz.bsky.social · 02/08/2023

Well THAT was a successful visit to the liquor store. Grown-ass men crying behind me because they got there too late and the last bottle had sold. 😁

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Alan Levinovitz @alanlevinovitz.bsky.social · 02/08/2023

In 1993, twelve year old me wrote to Michael Crichton asking him how to become a writer. And he wrote back! “I have no real advice to give in such an individual undertaking other than to start doing it.”

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Alan Levinovitz @alanlevinovitz.bsky.social · 01/08/2023

Okay, time to start seriously investing in my community and presence on here. I really hope I can recreate my Twitter experience as it once was. Really appreciate those of you who have come over here and followed me.

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Seth Donoughe @donoughe.bsky.social · 10/07/2023

Tardigrade eggs! 🧪 Some bizarre surfaces on these things. I'm trying (and failing) to imagine the cellular processes that give rise to the branched surface structures. Any ideas? Let me know. From Vecchi et al 2021: jyx.jyu.fi/handle/123456789/75978

SEM images of tardigrade eggs. The eggs are spherical with regularly spaced, lobed protrusions emerging from the surface.

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Alan Levinovitz @alanlevinovitz.bsky.social · 09/07/2023

As long as there are legal restrictions on scientific research, as long as research subjects have rights, and as long as research must be funded, science remains inherently political and moral. There is no “apolitical” or “amoral” science.

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Alan Levinovitz @alanlevinovitz.bsky.social · 08/07/2023

discouraged by Twitter getting worse, then better, then worse again, and paralyzed by the choice between different social media apps and finding that it's pushing me towards in-person friendships and communities, which could be a hilarious consequence of all this!

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