Neil Lewis, Jr.
banner
neillewisjr.bsky.social
Neil Lewis, Jr.
@neillewisjr.bsky.social
Behavioral Scientist & Science Communicator.

Nancy and Peter Meinig Family Investigator in the Life Sciences and Associate Professor of Communication, Medicine, and Public Policy at Cornell University.

More here: neillewisjr.com
Personal account
Pinned
2/6. In a set of experiments just published in Social Science & Medicine, we found that Asian, Black, and Hispanic Americans were consistently more willing to engage in individual and collective efforts to address health disparities than their White counterparts. news.cornell.edu/stories/2025...
Those most willing to address health disparities tend to be overlooked | Cornell Chronicle
Cornell researchers found that by prioritizing the perspectives of white Americans instead of those from underrepresented groups, studies of pandemic disparities likely missed important insights from ...
news.cornell.edu
Reposted by Neil Lewis, Jr.
This is a scandal.

Public universities should be banned from paying these insane buyouts for college coaches.

No pro sports teams are paying $33 million to fire their incompetent coach, so why are colleges paying this kind of money?!?
SOURCES: Michigan State is firing head coach Jonathan Smith, @theathletic.com has learned.

He went 9-15 in two seasons, including 1-8 in the Big Ten this year. (ESPN first reported).

MSU players meeting called for 2:45. Smith has a $33 million buyout (with offset).
November 30, 2025 at 11:02 PM
Reposted by Neil Lewis, Jr.
Absolute debasement of academic standards
*student submits opinion in psych class
*gets bad grade
*instructor says she can make whatever arguments she wants but must draw on empirical sources
*student & Turning Point says her religious freedom & first amendment rights violated
*professor suspended
OU has put the professor here on administrative leave:
November 30, 2025 at 9:37 PM
Reposted by Neil Lewis, Jr.
Lol, Zillow tried to rate the climate risks facing individual properties. The real estate industry *hated* it, precisely because it worked -- it made selling risky properties more difficult. So they rebelled & Zillow caved.

Don't look up!
Zillow Removes Climate Risk Scores From Home Listings
www.nytimes.com
November 30, 2025 at 8:04 PM
Reposted by Neil Lewis, Jr.
The most precious commodity you have is your attention. You don’t have to waste it on poor-faith debates or arguments with strangers if you don’t think they’ll be productive. You can prioritize the things that matter to you and make your life richer.
November 30, 2025 at 8:00 PM
Reposted by Neil Lewis, Jr.
Listen to FDR’s fifth fireside chat:

millercenter.org/the-presiden...
November 30, 2025 at 4:54 PM
Reposted by Neil Lewis, Jr.
They’re simultaneously arguing that soldiers have to follow all orders from the president, legal or not, but they get to ignore orders from a federal judge if they feel they’re not legal.
KARL: Did you know about the judge's order when you issued your order for the planes to continue?

KRISTI NOEM: This is an activist judge. We comply with all federal orders that are lawful and binding.
November 30, 2025 at 5:43 PM
Reposted by Neil Lewis, Jr.
1/7. In the few years that my university tracked COVID-19 cases, we saw some of the biggest infection spikes after Thanksgiving break (see this article from 2021 for example). Seeing that data in those years made me think about the tradeoffs associated with having...

www.npr.org/sections/cor...
Cornell shuts down its Ithaca campus after significant signs of omicron variant found
The campus reported nearly 500 new cases of COVID-19 among the student body. The new omicron variant was detected "in a significant number" of positive tests, the university said.
www.npr.org
November 30, 2025 at 5:27 PM
Reposted by Neil Lewis, Jr.
Our Congress has explicitly, specifically blocked the President from banning or even limiting immigration by entire nationalities.

www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/...

The law was very deliberately crafted to prevent a return to racist exclusion in immigration policy.
November 30, 2025 at 4:33 PM
Reposted by Neil Lewis, Jr.
I criticize all the time so credit where credit is due. Just state the plain, damning facts, without any euphemisms or both sides double speak. More please.
Good front-paging.
November 30, 2025 at 3:49 PM
Reposted by Neil Lewis, Jr.
Mark Kelly: "This president, when he says things like 'third world countries,' what is he really saying? I think what he's saying is he doesn't want brown people in our country. And that's disturbing. It's un-American."
November 30, 2025 at 2:23 PM
Reposted by Neil Lewis, Jr.
Trump is invading American cities to nominally address crime, and I think the scale of his pardon-sprees should be given more political salience
When this criminal was jailed, the judge told David Gentile and America: ‘This is a warning to would-be fraudsters that seeking to get rich by taking advantage of investors gets you only a one-way ticket to jail.’ I guess not
November 30, 2025 at 1:37 PM
Reposted by Neil Lewis, Jr.
The Boston Globe identified the companies in Massachusetts that employ the most SNAP recipients. A key stat: "In Massachusetts, 74% of working-age recipients of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program are employed, half of them full-time."

Full article: www.bostonglobe.com/2025/11/28/m...
November 29, 2025 at 3:55 PM
Reposted by Neil Lewis, Jr.
Even a decade ago I'd have far sooner predicted that the US would succumb to authoritarian rule than that it would become a state where vaccines were unavailable.

But if we don't throw RFK Jr. out on his ass, we're headed there fast.
RFK Jr. is overhauling the program that helps preserve Americans' access to vaccines
A Kennedy adviser said he wants to preserve the Vaccine Injury Compensation Program. The health secretary's anti-vaccine allies prefer it collapse.
www.politico.com
November 30, 2025 at 4:04 AM
And schools. And healthcare. And housing. And...
Imagine if they just subsidized newspapers and magazines the way they’re subsidizing this slop
"All of this falls apart if humans don't adopt the tech. This is why you've seen Meta cram its lame chatbots into WhatsApp and Instagram. This is why Notepad and Paint now have useless Copilot buttons on Windows. This is why Google Gemini wants to "help you" read and reply to your emails."
November 30, 2025 at 2:00 PM
Reposted by Neil Lewis, Jr.
We are living at a time when university leadership amplifies anti-intellectual tropes and technologies

These are very troubling times
November 29, 2025 at 4:08 PM
Reposted by Neil Lewis, Jr.
Incredibly depressing if the lesson of the US is preemptive institutional surrender
This is the most alarming story I’ve read today. Giving up the fight before it’s started
November 30, 2025 at 1:30 PM
Reposted by Neil Lewis, Jr.
i love my city so much. thank you to every single person who was out there.
ICE was blocked and impeded by people all the way to the Lincoln Tunnel
November 29, 2025 at 8:15 PM
Reposted by Neil Lewis, Jr.
How it started / How it’s going
November 30, 2025 at 12:49 AM
Reposted by Neil Lewis, Jr.
The numbers in here are hilarious.

Do you use AI on the job?
Execs: 87%
Managers: 57%
Workers: 27%

Planned investment by 2030: $5T
"Necessary" annual revenue to justify that spend: $650B
Current annual revenue: $50B
Three years into the generative-AI wave, demand for the technology seems surprisingly flimsy
Investors expect AI use to soar. That’s not happening
Recent surveys point to flatlining business adoption
econ.st
November 30, 2025 at 12:28 AM
Reposted by Neil Lewis, Jr.
this guy is betting on a future with accountability for today’s crimes, so we should too
Dimon on why JPMorgan Chase is not funding WH Ballroom:
We have an issue, which is anything we do, since we do a lot of contracts with governments here and around the world, we have to be very careful how anything is perceived, and also how the next DOJ is going to deal with it.
November 29, 2025 at 7:56 PM
Reposted by Neil Lewis, Jr.
It’s infuriating to me that I need to evaluate media to determine whether it’s AI generated now. The great “time saver” technology wastes incalculable time and energy for people who want to retain their grasp on reality
November 28, 2025 at 8:48 PM
Reposted by Neil Lewis, Jr.
Demolishing the East Wing of the White House before finalizing plans for what will be built above its ruins is a near-perfect metaphor for Trump's approach to economic policy. The only difference is the wrecking crew doesn’t claim the rubble is evidence of unprecedented growth.
November 29, 2025 at 3:46 PM
Reposted by Neil Lewis, Jr.
November 29, 2025 at 2:05 PM
Reposted by Neil Lewis, Jr.
Finally getting some theological clarity on the ethics of reclining in one’s plane seat
November 29, 2025 at 12:13 PM