But Not How You Think He was 18. At 18, we allow kids to enlist in the military, drink alcohol, and drive. They can also vote and buy a house. Eighteen is considered a magical age when children become adults. Theoretically, he was an adult. But here’s what recent brain…

This is my third day of having Covid, something I got for being the oldest woman at a crypto conference. Let that sink in. Crypto is a young man’s game, but there I was, publicizing the $KARMA coin. After having spent two years in the house trying to avoid both…

I used to want to live forever. And I put my money where my mouth was. I ate a plant-based diet with no processed food, took lots of supplements, walked 10,000 steps a day, did yoga and meditation, and asked my doctor to prescribe Metformin for me as soon as…

Who Makes a Community? I have spent most of my life building one kind of community or another. When I moved to Arizona in 1968, Phoenix was a very small city. I had a unique chance to help build it into the “metropolis” it has become today. Of course I didn’t realize that, because…

Ask yourself this question: wasn’t war supposed to be just a land grab with a few hundred/thousand/million lives thrown in for good measure? In an age of instant information, cryptocurrency, and metaverses, doesn’t it seem out of place? It’s ludicrous, isn’t it? Out of sync with our image of progress…

It sucks that we have to have an entire month dedicated to Women’s History just so we can remember that women have always been part of everything — at least since Eve. This dedicated month is supposed to celebrate us for our contributions, but it often just reminds us how…

In the winter of 1974–5 I was invited to give a talk at the Modern Language Association. This was a big deal for a young professor. Especially a young woman. The Modern Language Association is, by self-definition, “ a learned society,” and it was founded in 1883 to encourage the…

Last week I peed in my pants. Not leaked a little, but flat out peed. TMI? Don’t move on from this so fast. It happens to both men and women. Why do you think they have all those rows of pads in the drug store? It was not a big…

I bet you didn’t know I ran 8 marathons back in the day. I never meant to do that. It just happened. I think it was all because of Mary. I will always love Mary for this. Or maybe it was partly my fat fixation. While I was spectacularly successful…