1. ★If you’re just looking for a hotlinked list of what’s new, go to my “new stuff” page.
   

It’s been so long since I posted a news update, I’m not even sure where to start. I’m in the middle of 18 trips out-of-state in 14 weeks. What keeps me going? The knowledge that when it all ends, we’ll have a dozen or so friends over to celebrate the Summer Solstice with a lavish dinner party on the back porch, and then maybe the mate, the kid, and I will sleep out under the porch tent, to watch the bats swirl about, and to cherish the short night. In any case, I’ll be home. (For a few weeks straight anyway.)

I’ve started writing for The Atlantic, and judging by the response, I’m hitting some nerves. The mail from that has been overwhelming. My TEDx talk is also still generating a lot of mail, and it even seems to keep picking up steam, now at, uh, over a quarter-million views. (Two weeks ago I was checking into a hotel and the desk clerk blurted out, “Oh my gosh, I watched your TED lecture last night!” That was really weird, not least because I was wearing my glasses, jeans, and my hair in a sloppy ponytail, and she still recognized me.)

Last week word came that the anthropologist Napoleon Chagnon has (finally!) been elected to the National Academy of Sciences, and that put a huge smile on my face. People Who Would Know tell me that my Human Nature article setting the record straight on the smearing of Chagnon helped make that happen this year, and if so, well, I’m even happier. (There’s a picture I took of Nap and his dog Darwin when I was doing my research. Yes, Nap was throwing Darwin a kiss, and Darwin was obviously giving him a look that says, “I dunno about this.”)

I’m spending part of this year working on medical school curricular issues, particularly with regard to the treatment of sexual minorities. As part of that, I’ve been named to a new AAMC (Association of American Medical Colleges) task force on LBGTI patient care, and I’m also working under a grant from the Northwestern University provost on my own medical school’s sexuality curriculum, along with a summer research student.

There’s my psychedelic Utne Visionary portrait by Zina Saunders, to the right. I think the best part of being named an Utne visionary was coming upon the full page ad my medical school took out to congratulate me. That actually made me burst into tears. How many academics get to feel that valued? I’m lucky.

I’ve been giving a lot of talks, and although all the travel is pretty damned exhausting, I’m really enjoying the folks I’m meeting. As I write, I’m on my way to Arkansas to speak to the National Association of Perinatal Social Workers about the care of newborns with ambiguous genitalia. Last week I was on a panel about research ethics up in Evanston, and I got to present some of our work on prenatal dexamethasone for congenital adrenal hyperplasia. (The big research paper on that should be out shortly.) A month or so ago I spoke at a Harvard Law School conference on transgender rights, and a couple of months ago I delivered a talk at the American Medical Student Association meeting in Houston, and both were just as satisfying as I’d expected. There’s nothing like a room full of LBGT legal advocates or AMSA kids to make you feel seriously optimistic about the world.

The garden outside my writing cottage is coming along beautifully. When I’m back there, I feel like the luckiest person in the world.

As always, thanks to the mate for paying for half of all this, and thanks to my colleagues at the Medical Humanities & Bioethics Program at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine for company, guidance, and support, and for the other half of the money!

1. ‣To see my short-form c.v., click here.
   

2. ‣To read about my mystique, click here.
   

3. ‣To see a running list of new pages on this site, click here.
   

Updates on my work