Kate Cohen
@katecohen.bsky.social
Author of "We of Little Faith," former columnist at the Washington Post, parent, cook, reader, atheist, leftie (both kinds).
I made a little list of all my fellow columnists who have left the Washington Post since fall 2024 — and where their work can now be found. Let me know who I'm missing, so I can add them!
open.substack.com/pub/scratchc...
open.substack.com/pub/scratchc...
Looking for Your Favorite Ex-Post Columnist? Start Here!
from my scratch pad
open.substack.com
December 5, 2025 at 5:26 PM
I made a little list of all my fellow columnists who have left the Washington Post since fall 2024 — and where their work can now be found. Let me know who I'm missing, so I can add them!
open.substack.com/pub/scratchc...
open.substack.com/pub/scratchc...
Very happy to report I have started a new column and posted my first piece: "Starting from Scratch" about quitting my job at the Post. Check it out, please (& share, subscribe, etc.).
open.substack.com/pub/scratchc...
open.substack.com/pub/scratchc...
Starting from Scratch
on leaving the Washington Post and searching for something true
open.substack.com
December 4, 2025 at 9:23 PM
Very happy to report I have started a new column and posted my first piece: "Starting from Scratch" about quitting my job at the Post. Check it out, please (& share, subscribe, etc.).
open.substack.com/pub/scratchc...
open.substack.com/pub/scratchc...
Here I’ll save you: mistaken mess of pseudo-profundities ending w/: “Eventually Americans, restless as any people on earth, will want to replace threat with hope and resume our national pilgrimage. When that cultural and spiritual shift occurs, a lot will change in our religious and political life.”
November 14, 2025 at 4:41 AM
Here I’ll save you: mistaken mess of pseudo-profundities ending w/: “Eventually Americans, restless as any people on earth, will want to replace threat with hope and resume our national pilgrimage. When that cultural and spiritual shift occurs, a lot will change in our religious and political life.”
🎯
Part of the transition from conservatism to authoritarianism is the shift from lies with some veneer of plausibility (wink wink) to lies that are demonstrably, obviously lies, such that accepting them involves an almost total subjugation of individual discernment or judgment.
October 8, 2025 at 8:52 PM
🎯
Ok ok I’ll watch “Adolescence.”Sheesh.
September 15, 2025 at 2:48 AM
Ok ok I’ll watch “Adolescence.”Sheesh.
@peterbeinart.bsky.social thank you for this sobering, compassionate, inspiring little book
September 6, 2025 at 5:06 PM
@peterbeinart.bsky.social thank you for this sobering, compassionate, inspiring little book
Thank you. I never want to see another headline or article about motive. I don’t care why — I only care how. Guns are how
The Minneapolis mass shooting, explained: newrepublic.com/article/1666...
Too Many Guns = Too Many Deaths
It’s not a mystery why the United States has a unique problem with mass shootings.
newrepublic.com
August 27, 2025 at 7:10 PM
Thank you. I never want to see another headline or article about motive. I don’t care why — I only care how. Guns are how
"What a guy like James Dobson does, and what James Dobson did for his whole adult life, is offer people—white men primarily, but not exclusively—a rhetorical framework for doing evil and feeling good about it." defector.com/james-dobson...
James Dobson Is Dead, Was A Monster | Defector
James Dobson was a nasty dude. He liked to beat children and dogs with a belt and to rain misery and punishment on the vulnerable; we know all of this about him because he said as much in public, repe...
defector.com
August 21, 2025 at 9:33 PM
"What a guy like James Dobson does, and what James Dobson did for his whole adult life, is offer people—white men primarily, but not exclusively—a rhetorical framework for doing evil and feeling good about it." defector.com/james-dobson...
What I now believe is: other than MAYBE how much their groceries cost and whether they can see a doctor, voters "care" about what they're told to care about. Trump&Co have proven that. Democrats need to lead with a strong moral compass and actual facts — and convince voters what's really important.
...Voters really, really care about controlling immigration and crime. They just do. And if voters don’t think Democrats will take those issues seriously, they elect a garbage human like Trump who will seize the opportunity to expand his own power.
August 12, 2025 at 3:38 PM
What I now believe is: other than MAYBE how much their groceries cost and whether they can see a doctor, voters "care" about what they're told to care about. Trump&Co have proven that. Democrats need to lead with a strong moral compass and actual facts — and convince voters what's really important.
The number of unsubstantiated assertions and unacknowledged assumptions in a random David Brooks paragraph never fails to astound me. We salute you, sir, whoever "we" might be.
August 2, 2025 at 9:39 PM
The number of unsubstantiated assertions and unacknowledged assumptions in a random David Brooks paragraph never fails to astound me. We salute you, sir, whoever "we" might be.
Reposted by Kate Cohen
Elite journalists wriggle & wriggle & try & try but they can not escape the fundamental dilemma: journalism is, by its nature, supposed to be on the side of accuracy, against lies & liars, but the GOP is lies & liars top to bottom. And for reasons of power & access, journalism can not say so.
July 4, 2025 at 8:19 PM
Elite journalists wriggle & wriggle & try & try but they can not escape the fundamental dilemma: journalism is, by its nature, supposed to be on the side of accuracy, against lies & liars, but the GOP is lies & liars top to bottom. And for reasons of power & access, journalism can not say so.
OK, who's writing the Declaration for tomorrow?
July 3, 2025 at 7:38 PM
OK, who's writing the Declaration for tomorrow?
I've got this weird hangup where someone asks "aren't you proud?" of such-and-such thing a child of mine got or did and I just fumble my response because what I believe is: They. Are. Lucky. This terrific piece by @volts.wtf breaks it down.
www.vox.com/science-and-...
www.vox.com/science-and-...
The radical moral implications of luck in human life
Acknowledging the role of luck is the secular equivalent of religious awakening.
www.vox.com
July 1, 2025 at 7:32 PM
I've got this weird hangup where someone asks "aren't you proud?" of such-and-such thing a child of mine got or did and I just fumble my response because what I believe is: They. Are. Lucky. This terrific piece by @volts.wtf breaks it down.
www.vox.com/science-and-...
www.vox.com/science-and-...
So good. "Democrats keep citing polls showing that 56% of Americans oppose gender-affirming care for minors. But where do they think those poll numbers come from? They come from years — years — of Republicans flooding the zone with their messaging "
Opinions are MADE, people!
Opinions are MADE, people!
July 1, 2025 at 3:58 PM
So good. "Democrats keep citing polls showing that 56% of Americans oppose gender-affirming care for minors. But where do they think those poll numbers come from? They come from years — years — of Republicans flooding the zone with their messaging "
Opinions are MADE, people!
Opinions are MADE, people!
Portrait of Immorality in Green and Orange.
June 30, 2025 at 3:35 PM
Portrait of Immorality in Green and Orange.
I keep hearing it takes a bully to stand up to a bully. No, it takes a person of principle and courage. #nocuomo please.
www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
With Andrew Cuomo, Democrats are doing a disastrous imitation of Trump | Moira Donegan
The former governor, now a New York City mayoral candidate, marks the party’s drift into boorishness and cruelty
www.theguardian.com
June 24, 2025 at 5:51 PM
I keep hearing it takes a bully to stand up to a bully. No, it takes a person of principle and courage. #nocuomo please.
www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
America needs atheists — always, but especially now. So come all ye godless patriots TOMORROW, June 22, at 2 p.m.
NJHN is hosting a talk by @katecohen.bsky.social on 6/21 at 2pm at the Franklin Twp Public Library and via Zoom, preceded by our annual membership mtg at 1:30. Learn about our accomplishments and future plans. Details at njhn.org/katecohen-20...
June 22, 2025 at 12:12 AM
America needs atheists — always, but especially now. So come all ye godless patriots TOMORROW, June 22, at 2 p.m.
Reposted by Kate Cohen
"You sound real corny being scared of the subway."
The Subway Is Not Scary
Fear of the subway is a mark of low moral character.
www.hamiltonnolan.com
June 19, 2025 at 5:04 PM
"You sound real corny being scared of the subway."
Absolutely spot-on use of the royal "we":
June 13, 2025 at 8:17 PM
Absolutely spot-on use of the royal "we":
Do we really have to say "Liberals say" here? Isn't it just a true thing that is happening?
May 26, 2025 at 2:58 PM
Do we really have to say "Liberals say" here? Isn't it just a true thing that is happening?
Yes, there are people who use their children as an excuse not to care about other people's children. But those aren't good people. Lyz lays it out, per usual.
My 14yo is an athlete and a girl and lately people have been asking me how I would feel if she got beaten by a trans girl. And so I wrote about it. And about how I hate that question. But the tl;dr is I’d feel fine, great actually. lyz.substack.com/p/what-if-it...
"What if it was your daughter?"
And other links for your Sunday
lyz.substack.com
May 18, 2025 at 10:11 PM
Yes, there are people who use their children as an excuse not to care about other people's children. But those aren't good people. Lyz lays it out, per usual.
Let’s resist the impulse to face the coming recession with spunk and ingenuity and instead just stay pissed off
These smart pastas rely on only a few powerful ingredients — many of which you probably already have on hand — to keep flavors big and costs small. Because dinner doesn’t have to be pricey to be delicious and to feel luxurious. nyti.ms/43cJWkd
May 13, 2025 at 7:06 PM
Let’s resist the impulse to face the coming recession with spunk and ingenuity and instead just stay pissed off