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Dick S. Pumpkins

@dtpowis.bsky.social
833 followers 204 following 266 posts

Living in Tampa or Dakar. Medical Anthropologist of/in Public Health. www.dickpowis.com / kuznitsa.media / www.entourage-lab.org

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Reposted by Dick S. Pumpkins
Kuznitsa @kuznitsa.media · 02/08/2026
Our next short film, written and directed by @taylorgenovese.com, has completed filming and is now in post-production. Original score will be composed by @dtpowis.bsky.social. It will be hitting the festival circuit in 2027.
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Rachel Hall-Clifford, PhD, MPH, MSc @rahallclifford.bsky.social · 12/07/2026
Hi. We're in the Age of Diarrhea. I'm a global health expert on helping children survive diarrhea. Here's what to do if you might have picked up cyclospora. 🧵 1. Call your primary care if possible. 2. Take oral rehydration therapy, which isn't just drinking fluids. 1/
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Dick S. Pumpkins @dtpowis.bsky.social · 09/07/2026
The apartment I use in Dakar since last year is a fifth floor walk-up, and at 40, my knees sound like straight up mbalax
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Dick S. Pumpkins @dtpowis.bsky.social · 08/07/2026
The ambiguity around Mitch McConnell’s status and the stories we hear from people like Scott Dempsey is straight out of Warhammer 40,000.
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Chris Geidner @chrisgeidner.bsky.social · 07/07/2026
BREAKING: Eleventh Circuit, on a 2-1 vote, upholds injunction blocking Florida from enforcing its 2022 Stop WOKE Act in the university context. The majority opinion is from Judge Britt Grant, a Trump appointee: storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...
Before GRANT, LAGOA, and WILSON, Circuit Judges.
GRANT, Circuit Judge:
"Congress shall make no law ... abridging the freedom of speech." U.S. Const. amend I. The First Amendment, incorporated against the States in 1868, is this country's written commitment to the idea that freedom of speech is essential to freedom of thought, and that both are essential to maintaining our liberty. The Supreme Court has long been clear that teaching and scholarship are due some measure of protection under the Amendment. But how much? And in what contexts? That Court has not had to say, but this one is now put to the test. The State of Florida legislated a broad set of speech restrictions banning certain viewpoints relating to race, color, sex, and national origin in various settings. The provision at issue here bars Florida's educators from promoting or endorsing those distavored ideas when instructing students. Its prohibition applies not only in primary and secondary education, where states traditionally exercise a great deal of control, but also in public colleges and universities, where the state government's role has been far more limited.
When several groups of professors challenged Florida's new restrictions, the State cast about for an existing case or doctrine that could support its speech ban in the university setting. Finding none, it tried to marry public-employee speech cases with government speech doctrine, resulting in a new rule: if thegovernment pays a professor's salary, it has total control over her classroom speech.
That is not a blessed union. Florida's salary-for-speech rule is a breathtaking assertion of power to ban unpopular ideas from public discourse in the very places the State's own statutes recognize as centers of inquiry-classrooms where students are trusted to puzzle through ideas that are good and bad, easy and hard, ideally getting ever closer to the truth. This new rule also runs headlong into the Supreme Court's repeated, if imprecise, endorsements of academic freedom. If the First Amendment offers any boundary of protection at all for public university classrooms, this statute crosses it.
Nor does this Court's leading academic speech precedent,
Bishop v. Aronov, demand the outcome Florida seeks. 926 F.2d 1066 (11th Cir. 1991). In fact, it counsels the opposite. The restriction in that case was imposed by one university, against one professor, relating to speech about one thing— personal religious views that got in the way of the course's well-understood parameters.That precedent makes clear that universities and even other government entities have crucial authority to shape curricular content, discipline teachers, and take other steps to guide and govern postsecondary education. But the speech ban Florida's political leaders seek to impose here is different in both nature and degree from these ordinary concerns. The rule Florida developed for this case does not withstand scrutiny.
11 Case: 22-13992
Document: 156-1 Date Filed: 07/07/2026 Page:
22-13992
Opinion of the Court
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The ideas Florida targets may well be noxious. Or maybe
not.
Either way, in this context the First Amendment trusts students to figure it out for themselves. We affirm the district court's preliminary injunction.
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Dick S. Pumpkins @dtpowis.bsky.social · 25/06/2026
The American Anthropological Association should reschedule the 2026 meeting so as to not overlap with the release of GTA6.
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Adia Benton @ethnography911.bsky.social · 23/06/2026
This ”debate“ is happening again and I feel there’s another way, different conclusions, that will allow you to recognize the dangers of development ideology, practice, institution —which include how its rapid dismantling and resulting damage/devastation are partly what makes it dangerous
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Dick S. Pumpkins @dtpowis.bsky.social · 15/06/2026
The way some journals front load unreasonable burdens of formatting and compliance into the submission process before anything has gone to review drives me up a wall and it’s all the more frustrating to get a desk rejection and then have to do it all over again-without feedback-for another journal.
static.klipy.com
Michael Scott Says No! Please!
ALT: Michael Scott Says No! Please!
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Dick S. Pumpkins @dtpowis.bsky.social · 07/06/2026
My 8yo Senegalese niece is running around going “six-seven,” so I said it back in Wolof, and she just looked at me like I’m a 40yo white man who needs to step off her aura. My bad, damn
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Dick S. Pumpkins @dtpowis.bsky.social · 04/05/2026
KnowledgeFight has been my #1 podcast since 2018. I’m very happy that Dan and Jordan are moving on to bigger and better things, and I’m excited to see where they go. But damn, this stings.
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Dick S. Pumpkins @dtpowis.bsky.social · 29/04/2026
I fucking called it. www.reuters.com/world/africa...
reuters.com
HIV patients in Senegal skip treatment, fearing arrest amid anti-LGBTQ crackdown
Fewer patients are visiting some HIV treatment centres in Senegal amid a wave of arrests targeting LGBTQ people, according to health officials and government data seen by Reuters, threatening the coun...
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Dick S. Pumpkins @dtpowis.bsky.social · 24/04/2026
“Fallon is the court jester of the Anthropocene, a figure who invites us to watch celebrities play parlor games on stage while the air outside the studio begins to smell of tear gas and smoke.” Fantastic. www.currentaffairs.org/news/the-ban...
currentaffairs.org
The Banal Horror of Jimmy Fallon
Under the sterile blue lights of his studio, Fallon laughs endlessly at the same pseudo-jokes, rubs elbows with Trump and Sam Altman, and ushers in the death of culture.
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Dick S. Pumpkins @dtpowis.bsky.social · 20/04/2026
Here is a gift link for my latest in Le Monde. (If anyone can get a gift link in English, that would be awesome!) www.lemonde.fr/article-offe...
lemonde.fr
Loi contre l’homosexualité au Sénégal : « Les justifications historique et sanitaire de la loi sont infondées »
TRIBUNE. La politique répressive sur laquelle s’engage le gouvernement ne pourra que nuire à la santé publique exceptionnelle du pays, risquant d’anéantir des décennies de progrès, déplore l’anthropol...
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Dick S. Pumpkins @dtpowis.bsky.social · 17/04/2026
Today, I told Le Monde why Senegal’s new anti-homosexuality law is not just bad for public health, it’s out of step with the country’s historic reputation for exceptionalism. www.lemonde.fr/idees/articl...
lemonde.fr
Loi contre l’homosexualité au Sénégal : « Les justifications historique et sanitaire de la loi sont infondées »
TRIBUNE. La politique répressive sur laquelle s’engage le gouvernement ne pourra que nuire à la santé publique exceptionnelle du pays, risquant d’anéantir des décennies de progrès, déplore l’anthropol...
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Dick S. Pumpkins @dtpowis.bsky.social · 14/04/2026
The very first lecture I ever heard in a cultural anthropology class was about "couvade," and I just seized onto it and never let go. Here I am, 16 years later, talking about it for BBC. www.bbc.com/future/artic...
bbc.com
This baffling syndrome makes fathers feel pregnant
Couvade syndrome is changing how scientists think about the role of men in childbearing.
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Dick S. Pumpkins @dtpowis.bsky.social · 07/12/2025
“The Upside Down” presupposes a flat earth. Stranger Things should have called it The Inside Out. In this essay…
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Society for Medical Anthropology @socmedanthro.bsky.social · 21/11/2025
Huge congrats to @eyatesd.bsky.social for winning the Eileen Basker Memorial Prize for her book ‘Mal-Nutrition: Maternal Health Science and the Reproduction of Harm!’ #anthropology #MedicalAnthropology #AAA25
Book cover for Emily Yates-Doerr’s book ‘Mal-Nutrition: Maternal Health Science and the Reproduction of Harm.’
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Reposted by Dick S. Pumpkins
Jacquelyn Gill @jacquelyngill.bsky.social · 21/11/2025
Study after study shows that using LLMs is bad for cognition, bad for learning, bad for understanding, bad for mental health. So why are our schools and universities still relentlessly pushing them?
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Dick S. Pumpkins @dtpowis.bsky.social · 20/11/2025
Thanks to Nathan Fielder, I now hum Evanescence whenever I see two pilots walking together
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Dick S. Pumpkins @dtpowis.bsky.social · 31/10/2025
We're all just dogs wearing shock collars in the background of God's Twitch stream.
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Dick S. Pumpkins @dtpowis.bsky.social · 31/10/2025
Yesterday, my cat kicked a turd out of the litterbox and the robovac came and ate it up, so I'm kinda not worried about Skynet just yet
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Dick S. Pumpkins @dtpowis.bsky.social · 31/10/2025
I switched from a desktop computer to a laptop in 2003 and earlier this year I've made the switch back to a desktop. It's been very freeing, but I'm not sure why. Maybe because I want work to stay at work, and studio to stay in studio, but even this is fairly new in my life (since 2021).
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Dick S. Pumpkins @dtpowis.bsky.social · 28/10/2025
Always a joy to see my Women’s Health students do class presentations on books by my colleagues like @kateclancy.bsky.social and @ratnagiri77.bsky.social
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Dick S. Pumpkins @dtpowis.bsky.social · 28/10/2025
Well, this was jarring to read
An excerpt of text from Jasanoff's "States of Knowledge" in which she refers to "the emerging field of science and technology studies (S&TS)..."
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Dick S. Pumpkins @dtpowis.bsky.social · 03/09/2025
This would go hard as an album cover
Trump’s stupid hand covered in bad makeup, floating in a black void
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Dick S. Pumpkins @dtpowis.bsky.social · 24/06/2025
Wow I’ve always wondered what the early days of the Wars in Afghanistan and Iraq would look like if we had social media and AI and it is worse than I imagined
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Dick S. Pumpkins @dtpowis.bsky.social · 08/04/2025
Good news! The intro article for our special issue on SURVEILLANCE-CARE is now Open Access! www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....
tandfonline.com
Over-looked Spaces: Theorizing Surveillance Care in Reproductive Health
At the 2022 annual meeting of the American Anthropological Association in Seattle, WA, we organized a session called “Landscapes of Surveillance Care in Reproductive Health.” This introduction to o...
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Dick S. Pumpkins @dtpowis.bsky.social · 03/04/2025
The full special issue on SURVEILLANCE-CARE is out now in #MedicalAnthropology! Both the introduction and my article are OA, but don't hesitate to reach out (email or DM) if you need access to the other articles. Check it out here: www.tandfonline.com/toc/gmea20/4...
tandfonline.com
Medical Anthropology
SURVEILLANCE-CARE. Volume 44, Issue 3 of Medical Anthropology
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Dick S. Pumpkins @dtpowis.bsky.social · 26/03/2025
She applyin’ on my anthropology until I conference #sfaa2025
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The Onion @theonion.com · 25/03/2025
Democrats Huddle To Decide How Best To Let Massive Republican Fuck-Up Slip Through Fingers
Democrats Huddle To Decide How Best To Let Massive Republican Fuck-Up Slip Through Fingers
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Dick S. Pumpkins @dtpowis.bsky.social · 25/03/2025
Wtf, I don’t even remember putting this in my calendar. Was this you? Do we have a meeting???
An event in my Outlook calendar that simply says “Something with someone but I can’t remember” and I don’t even remember putting it in my calendar!
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Dick S. Pumpkins @dtpowis.bsky.social · 24/03/2025
New article just dropped with @adriennestrong.bsky.social
tandfonline.com
Over-looked spaces: theorizing surveillance care in reproductive health
At the 2022 annual meeting of the American Anthropological Association in Seattle, WA, we organized a session called “Landscapes of Surveillance Care in Reproductive Health.” This introduction to o...
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Dick S. Pumpkins @dtpowis.bsky.social · 07/03/2025
porque_no_los_dos.gif
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Dick S. Pumpkins @dtpowis.bsky.social · 07/03/2025
My Letterboxd reviews are finally getting the recognition they deserve
An iOS notification reading “buttman9000 liked your review of Mickey 17”
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Kate Clancy @kateclancy.bsky.social · 06/03/2025
A New Present Tense is out: pieces by anthropologists meeting this moment featuring @anthrofuentes.bsky.social, Carolyn Rouse, Rayna Rapp, Faye Ginsburg, Gregory Warner, & me. My piece, Binary Desires, on gender/sex, EOs, & queer joy, & the whole collection here: americananthro.org/advocacy/pre...
americananthro.org
Death by Data Erasure - The American Anthropological Association
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Mike Masnick @masnick.com · 04/03/2025
Wrote up something about Techdirt's recent coverage, and why (whether we like it or not) we need to be a "democracy blog" now, rather than just a "tech" blog (not that we've ever been just a tech blog). This story is *the* story and it impacts everything else. www.techdirt.com/2025/03/04/w...
techdirt.com
Why Techdirt Is Now A Democracy Blog (Whether We Like It Or Not)
While political reporters are still doing their view-from-nowhere “Democrats say this, Republicans say that” dance, tech and legal journalists have been watching an unfortunately recogn…
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Dick S. Pumpkins @dtpowis.bsky.social · 05/03/2025
This is the “opposition party” 🤡
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Dick S. Pumpkins @dtpowis.bsky.social · 03/03/2025
Damn, I was hoping for a David Lynch-inspired dance number
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Dick S. Pumpkins @dtpowis.bsky.social · 28/02/2025
Gonna send my public health students for extra credit: events.berkeley.edu/bscm/event/2...
events.berkeley.edu
“The Danger Zone is Everywhere: How Housing Discrimination Harms Health and Steals Wealth”
George Lipsitz will discuss his latest book, “The Danger Zone is Everywhere: How Housing Discrimination Harms Health and Steals Wealth,” which ...
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anthrofuentes.bsky.social @anthrofuentes.bsky.social · 25/02/2025
My latest with @sciam.bsky.social "Politics, Not Biology, Is Driving Legal Efforts to Classify Sex". Please do read the linked Executive Orders and HS statements that this piece is in response to. I am hoping of a better dialogue on this... www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-...
scientificamerican.com
Politics, Not Biology, Is Driving Legal Efforts to Classify Sex
Sex is not one single, simple, uniform biological reality, so biology cannot be invoked as a basis for “immutable” legal classifications
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ashlee, mph @avs.bsky.social · 24/02/2025
hi! i wrote something for @rewirenewsgroup.com’s campus dispatch about student worker unions and repro justice! it would make me very happy if you could read it and let me know what you think or, the greatest sign it was good: share it with others!
rewirenewsgroup.com
Analysis: Student Worker Unions Are a Force for Reproductive Justice
In the post-Roe era, student unions are increasingly helping student workers secure access to reproductive health care.
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Dick S. Pumpkins @dtpowis.bsky.social · 24/02/2025
This like saying I don’t understand electricity so I’m anti-electrician. I don’t understand cars, so I don’t go to a mechanic. I can’t cook, so I’m anti-restaurant. It’s almost as if there is something else entirely that puts people off of the humanities 🤔
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Dick S. Pumpkins @dtpowis.bsky.social · 23/02/2025
Tl;dr: PRAMS asks “DEI” questions Lol these people aren’t pro-life
talkingpointsmemo.com
Why PRAMS Got Shuttered
Yesterday I broke the news that the CDC has indefinitely shuttered the...
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Dick S. Pumpkins @dtpowis.bsky.social · 23/02/2025
Damn way too young
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Dick S. Pumpkins @dtpowis.bsky.social · 18/02/2025
The greatest threat to public health is a lack of imagination.
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Dick S. Pumpkins @dtpowis.bsky.social · 10/02/2025
Morbidly curious about what Trump is gonna tweet about the halftime show
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Dick S. Pumpkins @dtpowis.bsky.social · 06/02/2025
Me (and a long line of development scholars): USAID is, since their inception, a weapon of soft-power and global capitalist propaganda Musk: USAID is “a viper’s nest of radical-left Marxists who hate America.” Me: lmfao sorry wtf
nytimes.com
Opinion | There Is No Going Back (Gift Article)
The president’s opponents, whoever they are, cannot expect a return to the Constitution as it was.
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Dick S. Pumpkins @dtpowis.bsky.social · 05/02/2025
That’s a yikes from me
floridaphoenix.com
New Florida law allowing C-sections outside hospitals could be national model • Florida Phoenix
A recently enacted Florida law that allows doctors to deliver babies via cesarean section in clinics outside of hospitals could be a blueprint for other states, even as critics point to the role that ...
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Dick S. Pumpkins @dtpowis.bsky.social · 05/02/2025
Love to live in a free country
independent.co.uk
DeepSeek users could face million-dollar fine and prison time under new law
Hugely popular Chinese AI app has raised security, privacy and ethical concerns
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Dick S. Pumpkins @dtpowis.bsky.social · 04/02/2025
I’m about to write the most boring ass funding proposal to do the dumbest Silicon techbro research (its call “ethnography-maxxing,” cuck), and then I’m gonna turn around and do what I always do with grant money: whatever I want lol
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