Bethany Brookshire

Science journalist, podcaster, author. Book, Pests: How Humans Create Animal Villains. Here for the trash pandas.

Latest work: https://linktr.ee/BeeBrookshire
Book: https://www.harpercollins.com/products/pests-bethany-brookshire?variant=40262537379874
Podcast: scienceforthepeople.ca
Verified by: fedified.com

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Last Notes

2026-05-26 12:45:37 UTC

Y'all I spent YEARS of my life putting mice in little cages and giving them tiny little treats, took a solid month to train...
...and it turns out that no one ever checked if a BIG TREAT might work better. https://www.hhmi.org/news/bigger-rewards-speed-up-learning-dopamine-study?et_rid=51388002&et_cid=5964544
YEARS OF MY LIFE.
Via the excellent
@science.org
newsletter

2026-02-17 20:06:24 UTC

Evolution is slow.
But life comes at you fast.
What picks up the slack? Epigenetics, and it's epigenetics that may have tweaked the crucial parts of our brains to make us who we are. https://www.templeton.org/news/the-evolution-of-the-human-brain

2026-02-16 16:45:19 UTC

Ok HOLD THE PHONE.
"He said that his previous research shows that humans have the start of a third set of teeth already embedded in our mouths."
Just drop that right at the end of this article WHAT?! https://www.popularmechanics.com/science/health/a70366090/humans-have-third-set-of-teeth-new-medicine/

2026-01-16 19:01:14 UTC

DC and DC-adjacent humans!
There's a new Barnes and Noble opening on F St downtown, and they've asked me to do a signing for their opening! So if you head over next Friday we can hang out!
And you can get my book! That is also nice.
https://stores.barnesandnoble.com/event/9780062201473-0

2026-01-16 14:29:57 UTC

From the people that brought you the "war on Christmas" when Christmas definitely now starts in October, they bring you "the war on protein"
Also this image slays me. It looks like they skinned RFK Jrs head and it's sort of an improvement.
https://www.wired.com/story/rfk-jr-says-hes-ending-the-war-on-protein-it-doesnt-exist/

2026-01-08 19:47:06 UTC

RFK Jr thinks we are in some sort of war on protein. The war on protein is about as real as the war on Christmas.
"The idea of encouraging people to eat more protein makes no sense at all, because people are already eating twice as much protein as they need." https://www.sciencenews.org/article/new-dietary-guidelines-food-pyramid

2025-10-28 13:15:58 UTC

Daylight savings ends this weekend in the US...so watch out for DEER.
Yes. REALLY.
Deer.
https://www.sciencenews.org/article/deer-vehicle-collisions-daylight-saving-time

2025-09-26 01:29:19 UTC

I gave a book talk today and someone came up and said hi, they follow me on MASTODON!
HELLO person!!! Thank you for coming to my talk that was lovely. :)

2025-09-23 14:11:38 UTC

Sharing this info on groundhogs because it never fails I get neighbors sending me photos every fall and spring going "WHAT IS THIS THING!??!?! IS IT A GIANT RAT?!!?"
I mean yeah...it's a groundhog.
I've got one. His name is Keith. https://www.reconnectwithnature.org/news-events/the-buzz/5-things-groundhogs/

2025-07-29 16:33:14 UTC

When people started farming rice, they ended up with a problem: the wet conditions mean rice gets a LOT of weeds and snails and bugs...
And then one day, someone tossed in some carp.
A beautiful relationship was born. This week in my newsletter
https://brookshire-team-trash.beehiiv.com/p/carp-criminals-or-collaborators

2025-07-17 15:24:18 UTC

Ahem hello does your dog watch TV.
Scientists did a survey of dogs to find out how they interacted. More anxious dogs might get upset about vacuum noises. Energetic ones might follow other animals on the screen. https://www.sciencenews.org/article/dog-tv-taste-depends-temperament
I've decided that schnauzers are absolutely true-crime girlies and it makes them even more paranoid than they already are.

2025-06-20 16:17:03 UTC

People get all grossed out by scavengers. Dining on the dead.
But carrion doesn't just get up and walk away on its own. And without scavengers...scientists warn of an increase in zoonotic disease. https://www.sciencenews.org/article/fewer-scavengers-more-zoonotic-disease

2025-06-19 21:26:06 UTC

Plastic bag bans, it turns out, WORK! They reduce the amount of plastic bags that end up in the wild.
Might seem obvious, but it's good to have the data. https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.adp9274

2025-06-17 14:45:12 UTC

GLP-1 agonists (Ozempic, Mounjaro, Wegovy) are currently in their "silver bullet" era.
They can't do everything, of course.
But one thing they MAY do? Help reduce the risk of dementia in people with type 2 diabetes.
But no one quite knows WHY https://www.nationalgeographic.com/health/article/glp1-alzheimers-dementia-memory

2025-06-02 15:11:36 UTC

I was recently talking to someone moving back to Europe, he'd been living in the US, and we were talking about the things he LOVED about the US.
1. Zion NP
2. Arches.
3. Yellowstone
4. Bryce Canyon...
It was all our national parks. All of it. https://www.nytimes.com/2025/06/01/opinion/trump-parks-budget-cuts.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share

2025-05-22 15:02:27 UTC

"in her more recent interview with New Scientist, Shapiro claims Colossal made it clear from the start that the animals are just gene-edited grey wolves."
😂
https://www.newscientist.com/article/2481409-colossal-scientist-now-admits-they-havent-really-made-dire-wolves/

2025-05-07 15:43:57 UTC

Look, if you're going to allow your raccoon access to meth, you want to make sure you've got the proper raccoon documentation. You want to do this LEGALLY.
https://6abc.com/post/woman-arrested-raccoon-found-meth-pipe-drivers-seat-during-police-stop/16345306/

2025-04-30 14:02:16 UTC

Trying to explain cancer to kids can be super tough. Esp when adults themselves may not really understand.
Thank you @snexplores.bsky.social for letting me write this explainer on cancer for kids. Heck, maybe it's secretly for adults, too. https://www.snexplores.org/article/what-is-cancer

2025-04-18 13:51:37 UTC

If Harvard doesn't have its grants unfrozen, humans are going to go without new treatments, people will die.
Animals will too.
When COVID hit I was living in Cambridge for the fabulous @ksjatmit.bsky.social fellowship. I had just seen their mouse colony. but as the campus shut down, the colony...had to be culled. Only extreme skeleton staff were allowed in to take care of the animals.
https://www.cnn.com/2025/04/16/us/als-research-harvard-funding-freeze-hnk/index.html

2025-04-14 15:18:32 UTC

If I ever again need to argue that rats are not universally disgusting to all people, I will note that there are people willing to pay ~$46 for a tiny canvas that a rat has "painted" by running on it with its little rat feet.
"Pawcasso" someone worked HARD on that one
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c8jee22z239o?utm_source=pocket_shared

2025-04-07 14:23:00 UTC

"an insult to one of the greatest living filmmakers—someone who is on record saying that the use of AI tools in artistic production “is an insult to life itself.” From the grandchild of Diana Wynne Jones, the writer of Howl's Moving Castle.
https://gabrielburrow.com/2025/04/02/make-it-ghibli-howls-moving-castle-and-genai-slop/

2025-04-02 14:02:09 UTC

There's a stereotype that people who live in the West (Global North) love wild animals in places like Kenya more than people living there do.
Turns out? It's not because of Global North vs South divide.
It's because we never LIVE with them. https://teamtrash.substack.com/p/we-love-animals-we-never-see

2025-04-01 17:05:38 UTC

The tragic irony of nearly 2000 scientists, members of the National Academies, coming together to write a letter condemning the attacks on science: https://docs.google.com/document/d/13gmMJOMsoNKC4U-A8rhJrzu_xhgS51PEfNMPG9Q_cmE/preview?tab=t.0#heading=h.b3f2t4qlidd
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/03/31/science/trump-science-nas-letter.html?unlocked_article_code=1.8E4.xqcK.nhnoSSFDmRNo&smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare
And then today: Mass cuts to federal health https://www.nytimes.com/live/2025/04/01/us/trump-news-updates

2025-03-11 12:57:47 UTC

“Hey, I’m sorry you lost your job but I think we really need to cut out some of this waste in the government,”
https://apnews.com/article/trump-musk-doge-federal-layoffs-c41ae32800a7f170484de79572543da2

2025-03-06 16:20:39 UTC

A sadly important explainer from @thsaey.bsky.social about how vaccines work and why they work.
TBH it feels like heroism that we don't open each one of these with "I cannot believe I have to explain this AGAIN" It feels like trying gently to redirect toddlers.
https://www.sciencenews.org/article/experts-vaccines-texas-measles

2025-03-05 16:25:42 UTC

This is such neat, thoughtful little piece from @artologica.net (with GORGEOUS illustration of course) on "emerging" artists, what that means, and how you can do beautiful work without ever "emerging" https://artologica.substack.com/p/be-the-mycelium

2025-02-26 16:44:10 UTC

Anti vaxxers have been trying to talk down measles for years. It's just a rash. It's just like chicken pox.
And now a child is dead.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/feb/26/texas-measles-outbreak-cases

2025-02-18 17:53:15 UTC

If you need a break think about windmills.
Don't the ones in the countryside look nice?
Why do we think those look nice but the new turbines look ugly? https://teamtrash.substack.com/p/who-determines-what-is-ugly

2025-02-10 17:49:36 UTC

The world might be a garbage fire.
But you know who loves garbage?
Pigeons. Come here me talk about how pigeons will never give you up, never let you down, they will fly around but they won't desert you. https://www.eventbrite.com/e/nerd-nite-tickets-1147686494199

2025-02-03 14:26:26 UTC

Hi do you hate rats?
Better solve climate change because climate change means MORE rats in cities. https://www.sciencenews.org/article/rats-climate-change-hotter-cities

2025-02-02 22:52:43 UTC

Did you know parts of my book have been censored in China?
The CCP doesn't want people know the truth of a famine that killed 15-55 MILLION people.
So when I wrote to a school board about book bans, I tried to tell what happens when people rewrite history. https://teamtrash.substack.com/p/banning-books-and-rewriting-the-world

2025-01-17 20:12:35 UTC

Thanks so much to The Verge for chatting with me about TikTok, its disappearance, and what makes its audience so different from other apps. https://www.theverge.com/2025/1/17/24342982/tiktok-ban-creators-instagram-reels-youtube-twitch

2025-01-16 14:51:38 UTC

Hello did you know that there's an ecosystem that is SEASONAL.
It only exists in the winter.
Because it's under the snow.
Which mean, with climate change, an entire ecosystem could disappear. https://www.snexplores.org/article/subnivium-life-under-snow-climate-risk

2025-01-15 16:16:39 UTC

Do you feed squirrels?
Do you feed squirrels peanuts?
Did you know you might be altering their skulls?
https://www.sciencenews.org/article/hand-feed-red-squirrels-changed-skulls

2025-01-10 16:34:20 UTC

"Nothing will change until our anger gets powerful enough. But once you accept the truth of loss, and the truth of who perpetrated and profited from that loss, the anger comes rushing in, as fierce as the Santa Ana winds." https://www.nytimes.com/2025/01/10/opinion/la-fires-los-angeles-wildfires.html?unlocked_article_code=1.oE4.wlwn.9-ljiFqRbGB9&smid=bs-share

2025-01-09 15:21:11 UTC

This post encapsulates about 50% of my social media interactions of late.
"While we’re at it, what’s your problem with chicken soup?...Is there a reason you didn’t mention cold food options? Do you think you’re better than other people just because you cook?" https://www.mcsweeneys.net/articles/did-you-even-consider-every-possible-lived-experience-before-recklessly-posting-your-chili-recipe-on-social-media

2025-01-02 15:33:41 UTC

So many good points in here.
When women begin to enter fields, first people cheer the pioneers. Then women do it more...and men get nervous.
And then men run.
And then they declare they NEVER wanted to do it anyway. Education is for GIRLS. https://celestemdavis.substack.com/p/why-boys-dont-go-to-college?triedRedirect=true

2024-12-16 15:20:07 UTC

Many biomedical scientists study cancer.
But very few work side by side, at the bench, with the patients who have that cancer.
These scientists do. https://seek.rockefeller.edu/lab-partners/

2024-12-11 16:00:13 UTC

This is something we really don't think about enough: Victorian novels are full of children dying.
FULL of them. Full of diseases that we can now prevent with sanitation and pasteurization and vaccines!
And we wanna go back WHY? https://theconversation.com/infectious-diseases-killed-victorian-children-at-alarming-rates-their-novels-highlight-the-fragility-of-public-health-today-242273

2024-12-11 15:35:27 UTC

Women feel pushed from academia by "poor workplace climate"
But what that really means, in this case, is women feel pushed from academia because men are too dang insecure to allow their success. https://www.science.org/content/article/women-faculty-feel-pushed-academia-poor-workplace-climate

2024-11-04 14:03:25 UTC

Look, you COULD just immerse yourself in the misery and anxiety.
OR.
You could dissociate and read about the time the Mongols demanded a tribute of 2 million dinars...and 3,000 HATS.
Yes they wanted 3,000 hats. What did these hats look like? NO ONE KNOWS https://open.substack.com/pub/teamtrash/p/the-hat-that-purchased-a-kingdom?r=35288&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web

2024-11-01 15:37:20 UTC

So often, we blame rats for being invasive species and harming biodiversity.
But THESE rats? These African Pouched Rats? They are being trained to HELP biodiversity, by sniffing wildlife smuggling. https://www.sciencenews.org/article/giant-rats-sniff-smuggled-goods
Look at these Very Good Rats.

2024-10-01 13:30:51 UTC

The carnivorous plants heard "eat shit" and went "y'know what? Hold my beer." https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/carnivorous-plants-nepenthes-eat-poop

2024-10-01 13:27:22 UTC

One of the issues with scientific peer review is that scientists are people. And people can be dicks.
https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-024-02943-z
I will never forget the review I got on a paper, I showed it to my aunt, and she cried because it was so personal and mean.
It was accept with minor revisions.

2024-09-25 14:09:53 UTC

Where does a coyote "belong"?
In the 1800s, we sure thought we knew. And the answer was extinct.
Now, of course, we know better. The wilderness! Far from us.
But do we know better? Do we? https://teamtrash.substack.com/p/how-is-nature-like-art

2024-09-09 15:26:35 UTC

My book is temporarily available on Kindle unlimited! You too can take a look for FREE, and then make sure to email me to tell me how exactly I'm doing squirrel management incorrectly. And yes. People have indeed done this.
https://www.amazon.com/Pests-Humans-Create-Animal-Villains-ebook/dp/B09V2Z1R9Z/ref=sr_1_5?dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.mJNc832OUJg2M7qW6a-2aYQwdPwzcdyvcZUkpT58vH8OAl6rnxFlriZWRxK2oezJpnQvp7d--wWpvl4gsApiWoJqcPqhMcOnK6nRjqXpBer1ehDC1h_cJKaTPtZz_CqSQrk3_pgc88ulhA3ofalzy6REF8H5xJs1ZpSqpGcx0WK-ABcdVBz8IbR5G8BxoAQczvr5fftF5oRxU_EHFkYHgf3W5LG7AoeMIEQ3KIoDIfWPVLi-6c-_XZvF5mqNpxc_h6WFa4OeMSV6JRvVQ7GkCfOtSk9JzkbaU-unQqgdN_E.if3SqKLDLsypHNdn6jTAroUmAcPpZ9Nv60x34hQ_7qg&dib_tag=se&keywords=pests&qid=1725563542&sr=8-5