Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Olivia Campbell

@oliviacampbell.bsky.social

6.2K followers 1.5K following 470 posts

New York Times bestselling author of WOMEN IN WHITE COATS and SISTERS IN SCIENCE. Editor, Everyday Health. Regular contributor, NatGeo. Journalist. Essayist. Feminist. Mom. Lover of cats, books, baking, tea, & thrifting

Posts Media Videos Starter Packs

Pinned

Olivia Campbell @oliviacampbell.bsky.social · Nov 16

Curious about the resurgence of patriarchal ideals in 1930s Germany? Interested in how structural misogyny proved deadly? Ever wondered why you know the names of so many male scientists who escaped the Nazis but not female scientists? HAVE I GOT A BOOK FOR YOU! SISTERS IN SCIENCE is out Dec. 31

Sisters in Science: How Four Women Physicists Escaped Nazi Germany and Made Scientific History (Original) a book by Olivia Campbell

The extraordinary true story of four women pioneers in physics during World War II and their daring escape out of Nazi Germany In the 1930s, Germany was a hotbed of scientific thought. But after the...

bookshop.org

9 41 150

Reposted by Olivia Campbell

Noah Berlatsky @nberlat.bsky.social · 8h

At Dame I wrote about tradwives and white women choosing white patriarchy because whiteness gives them power. www.damemagazine.com/2025/10/15/t...

“Tradwives” Is Just Influencer Speak for Patriarchal Subordination - Dame Magazine

A blonde woman in a low-cut flowery dress and immaculately shaped eyelashes speaks softly to the camera while gentle music plays in the background. “I’m here to make a clarification video because of t...

www.damemagazine.com

2 28 73

Olivia Campbell @oliviacampbell.bsky.social · 1d

My very vulnerable essay essentially about the extended brain fart that is perimenopause has found a home in a national newspaper. Online and in print. Thrilled, but anxious.

Reposted by Olivia Campbell

WIRED @wired.com · 1d

Another round of terminations, combined with previous layoffs and departures, has reduced the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention workforce by about 3,000 people since January. www.wired.com/story/cdc-te...

A Quarter of the CDC Is Gone

Another round of terminations, combined with previous layoffs and departures, has reduced the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention workforce by about 3,000 people since January.

www.wired.com

26 210 420

Reposted by Olivia Campbell

Chanda Prescod-Weinstein 🌌 @chanda.blacksky.app · 3d

The faux feminism at work here is exactly the kind of shit that @olufemiotaiwo.bsky.social was writing about when he wrote Elite Capture, the essay and book!

www.bostonreview.net/articles/olu...

13 110 560

Olivia Campbell @oliviacampbell.bsky.social · 6d

Your screed against pandas has always stuck with me.

Olivia Campbell @oliviacampbell.bsky.social · 8d

While everyone is rightly aghast at Klein's defense of Charlie Kirk as "doing politics the right way," I feel like this terrible opinion didn't get enough coverage.
open.substack.com/pub/jessica/...

Ezra Klein is Wrong About Abortion

Abortion *is* a big tent issue

open.substack.com

2 1

Reposted by Olivia Campbell

Mark Copelovitch @mcopelov.bsky.social · 18d

We have allowed the lazy, grifting Silicon Valley charlatans into the front door, & in doing so, we have learned just how many of our own colleagues & administrators simply are not interested in the actual business of education. It's incredibly demoralizing.

bsky.app/profile/mcop...

Erin Lockwood @erinkaylockwood.bsky.social · 18d

Thanks so much for your reporting on this, Ben. I just got an email from my campus's IT office triumphantly advertising free student access to four different AI models -- at the same time as we have a hiring freeze, caps on grad enrollment, and a 7% budget cut -- and wanted to scream.

12 290 1.1K

Olivia Campbell @oliviacampbell.bsky.social · 21d

Why I do what I do.

Greg Jenner @gregjenner.bsky.social · 21d

This report is entirely valid, and I welcome it. However, glancing at the Key Stage 3 curriculum, I can see how it's happened -- there's little emphasis on social history or non-political biography
www.theguardian.com/education/20...

School history lessons minimise the role of women, report finds

Campaigners say key stage 3 curriculum plays to misogny and teaches a ‘false version of the past’

www.theguardian.com

Reposted by Olivia Campbell

Chuck Wendig @chuckwendig.bsky.social · Sep 15

Everything is bad, but books are good. Get a book. Read the book. Cherish the book. Finish the book. Tell your friends about the book, and leave a review of the book. Hold the book close. Listen to what it tells you. Do as it commands. Place it on the dread altar and let it guide your every choice.

57 540 2K

Olivia Campbell @oliviacampbell.bsky.social · Sep 15

See you on the science and history panels! Excited to say yes to scary things (public speaking, flying) that mean I get to explore a part of the country I've never seen before.

Poster for the 2026 Tucson Festival of Books

Reposted by Olivia Campbell

ElieNYC @elienyc.bsky.social · Sep 15

Karen Attiah, a black woman, got fired for
A: accurately quoting what Charlie Kirk said about Black women
B: Accurately observing that most white Americans seem permissive of white violence.

It's bullshit, but almost expected in this white supremacist country.

Karen Attiah @karenattiah.bsky.social · Sep 15

Some personal news:

I've been fired from the Washington Post in the aftermath of the Charlie Kirk shooting.

Thread incoming.

substack.com/@karenattiah...

The Washington Post Fired Me — But My Voice Will Not Be Silenced.

I spoke out against hatred and violence in America — and it cost me my job.

substack.com

80 1K 3.5K

Reposted by Olivia Campbell

Carl Zimmer @carlzimmer.com · Sep 14

A deep dive into the destruction of US cancer research by @jonathanmahler.bsky.social “It’s an absolutely unmitigated disaster,” a former top official at NIH told him. “It will take decades to recover from this, if we ever do.” Gift link: nyti.ms/48iH3Cr

nyti.ms

12 220 400

Olivia Campbell @oliviacampbell.bsky.social · Sep 14

Obsessed with these bronze art nouveau dancing scarf lady bookends. I'm so happy I trusted my gut and snapped them up at the thrift store. $25 is a bit more than I usually spend on my little thrift trinkets, but some googling tells me they're worth around $150 to $500.

1 4

Reposted by Olivia Campbell

Kingfisher & Wombat @tkingfisher.com · Sep 14

Every pundit article: BLUESKY IS A HOTBED OF RADICALIZATION

Majority of posts in my feed: Check out this cool bug/bird/random historical personage I found!

Small but vivid minority of posts: Do you think Gritty and Alf are in a polycule or nah?

130 820 6.1K

Reposted by Olivia Campbell

Jaime Green @jaimealyse.bsky.social · Aug 30

Had the great pleasure of reviewing @peterbrannen.bsky.social’s extraordinary new book (gift link) www.nytimes.com/2025/08/30/b...

An Environmental Villain, Reconsidered

www.nytimes.com

1 6 18

Reposted by Olivia Campbell

Michael Clemens @mclem.org · Sep 5

Facts are the mortal enemy of arbitrary and unchecked power, which feeds on concealing reality to evade accountability.

Which is why authoritarians in every era, on the Left and Right, suppress facts and attack experts at every opportunity.

The Bulwark @thebulwark.com · Sep 5

Q: Can you commit to accepting tomorrow's jobs numbers as legitimate?

Trump: "Well we're going to have to see what the numbers, I don't know, they come out tomorrow. But the real numbers that I'm talking about are going to be whatever it is. But it will be a in a year from now."

1 58 240

Reposted by Olivia Campbell

Annalee Newitz @annaleen.bsky.social · Sep 3

We have forgotten all the ways people used to get toxins out of their food before federal regulation. It's not that food and water used to be cleaner -- it's that domestic work used to include detoxing everything we put in our mouths!

Sarah Taber @sarahtaber.bsky.social · Sep 3

When people say "We used to drink raw milk from our own cow and it was fine,"

That's... usually not the case!

In families w their own cow, the mom usually boiled it before using.

We just forgot bc that's a boring chore that mom did. And who pays attention to that?

youtu.be/vKDPast9WFk

"Everyone Drank Raw Milk!" No They Didn't

YouTube video by Farm to Taber

youtu.be

12 150 610

Reposted by Olivia Campbell

Sophie Murguia @sophiemurguia.bsky.social · Sep 3

I'm looking for pitches for @MotherJones' print culture section, Mixed Media! These are ~2,000-word essays that combine reporting, cultural criticism, historical research, and/or personal narrative. More details in our pitch guidelines here: www.motherjones.com/contribute/w...

Freelance Writer Guidelines

www.motherjones.com

17 240 380

Olivia Campbell @oliviacampbell.bsky.social · Sep 2

I feel like Chicken Little, but as a science journo, what can I do but write? open.substack.com/pub/oliviaca...

3 10

Reposted by Olivia Campbell

Olivia Campbell @oliviacampbell.bsky.social · Sep 1

If you read anything I've written lately, I hope it's this post.

open.substack.com/pub/oliviaca...

Attacking Science for Ideological Reasons: Just Like the Nazis

What I learned from researching my book on science under the Nazis has felt terrifyingly relevant this year.

open.substack.com

2 2

Olivia Campbell @oliviacampbell.bsky.social · Sep 1

People who can afford to take unpaid newsroom internships ... newsrooms full of ivy leaguers who got into college as legacies.

Olivia Campbell @oliviacampbell.bsky.social · Sep 1

If you read anything I've written lately, I hope it's this post.

open.substack.com/pub/oliviaca...

Attacking Science for Ideological Reasons: Just Like the Nazis

What I learned from researching my book on science under the Nazis has felt terrifyingly relevant this year.

open.substack.com

2 2

Olivia Campbell @oliviacampbell.bsky.social · Sep 1

That's what reminded me I needed to read the first one! I'm really loving it.

1 2

Olivia Campbell @oliviacampbell.bsky.social · Aug 31

Reading!

1 2

Reposted by Olivia Campbell

Elizabeth Jacobs, PhD @elizabethjacobs.bsky.social · Aug 31

States hold a tremendous amount of public health power. They should use it.

Great article on the need for Democratic governors to step up and protect public health, featuring the incredible @gregggonsalves.bsky.social.

Trump’s Decapitation of CDC Takes Darker Turn—and Hands Dems a Weapon

Illinois’s JB Pritzker is leading a charge other Democratic governors should take up: In our America, we’ll make sure public health systems remain strong.

newrepublic.com

3 89 260