Scientist: I am an evolutionary biologist, which means I’m interested in everything from brains to bugs, culture to consciousness—just about everything most humans think about is evolutionary, except for rocks and quarks and the like. Other descriptions for what kind of scientist I am include animal behaviorist, zoologist, herpetologist, tropical biologist, and evolutionary ecologist. I have condu
cted research on the evolution of social systems and s*xual selection, from frogs to humans. I received my PhD in Biology from the University of Michigan, where I earned the university’s top honor for my dissertation, and have a B.A. in Anthropology from the University of California at Santa Cruz. From 2019 – 2021 I was a Visiting Fellow at Princeton University. Educator: For 15 years, I was a professor at The Evergreen State College, where I provided undergraduates an evolutionary toolkit with which to understand what it is to be human, and how to be critical, engaged citizens of the world. I architected curriculum that prioritized the scientific method, and pushed students outside of their own certainty and comfort zones, in part through exploring remote sites in the neotropics. That ended in 2017 when my husband, Bret Weinstein, and I resigned in the wake of violent protests on campus. Author: I am the author of Natural Selections on Substack, with weekly posts since Summer 2021. I have written and spoken about wild nature, the philosophy of science, higher ed and the postmodern takeover of the academy; the evolution of s*x, relationship and consciousness; and more. I or my work have appeared in venues as varied as the U.S. Department of Justice, the Krishnamurti Institute, and Oxford University; the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal; Joe Rogan, and Real Time with Bill Maher. My first book, Antipode, is based on my experiences in Madagascar while studying the s*x lives of poison frogs (St Martin's Press, 2002). My second book, co-authored with husband Bret, is A Hunter-Gatherer’s Guide to the 21st Century, and provides an evolutionary toolkit for living a good and honorable life as an ape in the 21st century (NYT best-seller; Penguin 2021). As of the 2024, I am writing my third. Podcaster: Bret and I co-host a popular weekly livestream, The Evolutionary Lens, on the DarkHorse podcast. We stream to YouTube and Rumble, video also goes up on Spotify, and you can listen to the audio on any of the major podcast platforms. Other: I am the mother of two fantastic young men. We have a small crew of carnivoran friends with whom we share our space. I aim to spend as much time outside as possible, exploring and moving, on my feet, on my bike, in a kayak or on a paddleboard, or any other mode that seems interesting. I have worked with clay, and paper, and color. I have sometimes spent hours at a time, for months at a time, watching animals in the wild. Sometimes, especially if said animal is a lizard or a snake, I feel compelled to hold them for a bit.
