Hope Jahren's Blog

Just because!

I started this site in2013 as a blog about interactions between women and men and Academia. Then I started writing a book, and after that I wrote another book, and I was all like Pshh-shaw, who out there wants to read that old stuff?So I took the blog posts down and advertised that the site was “under construction” for about three years. Now, three years later, I’m all likePshh-shaw, maybe somebody out there does want to read that old stuff. So I put the posts back up and...

Ever wonder just how much money the United States Government allocated toward the endeavors of its different agencies during 2016, and how they compare?  Here’s the answer!

The comic below represents the 2016 Enacted Budgets of fifteen different U.S. government agencies, each with a very different mission.

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[Note that Requested and Enacted Budgets are not necessarily the same figure.]

Highlights for 2016: 

• Defense spending amounts to one-and-a-half times more money than that spent on all ot...

My latest NYT piece appeared yesterday, and in the last 12 short hours since then, I have been bombarded with email from Agricultural Economists, Agribusinessmen, Deep Thinkers (“what do we mean by ‘farm’, anyway?”), Angry-men-sans-affiliation, as well as my usual helping of incoherent threats of sexual violence that pepper the epistolarity of Women With Opinions On The Internet.

You’d be amazed at the number of people (all men so far) who stayed up late last night writing to explain to me th...

I remember the first time that Spock died. It was 1982 and I was a teenager. My brothers and I gasped as his coffin was shot into orbit during the final scene of The Wrath of Khan. Like most fans, we left the movie theater in shock, but also incredulous. They wouldn’t kill off Spock, would they? The fact that director Nicholas Meyer even dared to experiment with such an idea felt like a dangerous betrayal. As fans, we endured two full years of wondering whether the loss would stick.

Leonard N...

Recently, a millennial came to my office and asked me if she should get vaccinated, even though her mom had never wanted her to. I didn’t tell her what to do. Instead, I told her why I vaccinate my own son. Here’s what Isaid.

How I Learned to TrustThe Needle

When my son was a couple of months old, I took him to the third of his many well-baby appointments. On that day, our pediatrician approached me tentatively. “This is the appropriate time for his vaccinations,” she informed me in a cautio...

and you can look at it, if you want to.

Filed under: My Other Stuff

Note: this post is triggering. Are you sure that you want to read it right now?

In Defense of The Trigger Warning

Getting triggered is no fun. The first place that I feel it is in the palms of my hands and the soles of my feet as the initial shock wears off and an inflammation feedback cycle begins. The extremities of my hands and feet begin to burn and itch and flush bright red. I’ve come to recognize this odd sensation as a harbinger of further symptoms, which never fail to materialize. My...

It’s Finals Week and academia’s annual Festival-of-Regret has officially begun! I am celebrating this year by finally writing the letter to my students’ parents that I wish I had written a long time ago, in the hopes that it might do someone some good. Within it, I’ll employ the feminine pronoun “she” liberally, but all my advice applies to the parents of any student. Incidentally, if my use of “her” jars you, it sure as hell shouldn’t because the enrollment of US colleges has been more than...

My son has been telling me for a while now that he wants to be a writer. Poor kid. So I am letting him guest-post to get his literary career up and running. He’s ten years old.

Blood Baseball

Blood was all over my face. I felt pain, searing pain. I would bet my life that I would be Mr. Scar-face for a month. The pain was so bad I might not have a life so I would have nothing to lose if I lost that bet. I rolled on the ground for about 30 seconds. It felt like 24 hours. I hung on, and now I c...

One year ago today this blog right here went live when the poor sorry bastard manning the help chat at WordPress finally said uncle and put it online. From that day until this very moment, we’ve shared laughter and tears, and goshdarnit we also learned a little along the way. But it would bejust too damn bad to keep all this literary goodness to ourselves, wouldn’tit? Why not celebrate the one-year anniversary of my blog by forcing all your friends to read it? Or send the links to your mom, s...