Karen Van Drie

Inspired by young people around the world, each week I am going to share one resource on this thread relevant for learning more about human impact on the planet. #FridaysForFuture #ClimateChange #GlobalWarming #Anthropocene #PlanetEarth (1/?)

“Rather than being primarily about ideology, the manosphere is a contest over who gets to define success for a generation of boys actively searching for an answer.” Superb weekend piece by @S_VanTeutem @FinancialTimes ft.com/content/a00cba… via @ft

.@PTBwrites is correct to highlight this chart: The fertility drop is driven by a marriage drop. -Married fertility is stable -Unmarried fertility is dropping -Fewer people are getting married We don't want to reverse the decline in unmarried births, we want more marriages.

The scariest finding in this paper: the subjects couldn't tell it was happening. UPenn ran this study on 48 healthy adults. One group slept 8 hours. Another slept 6. Another slept 4. For 14 straight days. They tested cognitive performance every 2 hours from 7:30am to 11:30pm. The 6-hour group's reaction times, working memory, and sustained attention deteriorated on a near-linear curve. By day 14 they were performing at the same level as someone who hadn't slept at all in 48 hours. The 4-hour group hit that threshold by day 6. Here's the part that should unsettle everyone who thinks they "do fine" on 6 hours: the subjects' self-reported sleepiness flatlined after the first few days. Their brains kept getting worse. Their perception of how impaired they were stopped updating. The cognitive decline was invisible to the person experiencing it. The researchers found a hard threshold. Any wakefulness beyond 15.84 hours in a day produces cumulative neurobiological cost. That cost compounds every single day you exceed it and does not reset with a weekend of sleeping in. About 35% of American adults sleep less than 7 hours a night. 40% of those get 6 hours or less. In 1942 that number was 11%. We built an entire professional culture around a sleep schedule that this paper says is functionally equivalent to pulling consecutive all-nighters. "I'm fine on 6 hours" is the most common response to sleep research. The first thing chronic sleep debt destroys is your ability to notice chronic sleep debt.

“Prediction markets exist in a legal gray area. Technically, they are investment platforms, regulated at the federal level. But they function like gambling platforms,” AIBM’s @JonathanDCohen1 explains in his latest piece in @BostonGlobe. bostonglobe.com/2026/04/04/opi…

Tailoring prevention strategies to the specific communities and jobs where risk is highest is how we can start saving lives. Read more of the research: aibm.org/research/male-…

In 2023 alone, 39,045 men took their own lives, roughly one every 13 minutes. The risk is even greater for working-class men, and since 2010, rates among men aged 25-34 have climbed by 30%.

New in the book room: a gorgeous picture book from northern Minnesota's Mary Casanova and @UMinnPress and something for slasher movie buffs

Brehm: Trump owes Christians — and Pope Leo — an apology startribune.com/trump-truth-so…

NEW: ALPRs and Minneapolis’ Growing Discriminatory Surveillance Dragnet Automatic License Plate Readers (ALPRs), an extremely invasive form of public surveillance, have been around for decades, but lately they have been becoming more prevalent. Read in full at our website. 🧵

Every time I think about what these two brilliant women could’ve done for America, and how the nation said, “Nah— we’ll take the corrupt, racist, sex-abusing, demented, malignant narcissist”— it fills me with indescribable sadness and rage.

I just signed a bill to rename Minnesota’s community solar program after Speaker Melissa Hortman. Melissa was a true champion of solar and I was proud to sign this in honor of my dear friend.

Trumpism without Trump. This is gonna be a problem for the GOP.

i made a map to monitor data centers all around the world tracks construction + nearby power plants + local AI legislation, and follows the politicians behind their bans (+ if they're getting paid to do so!)

Senator Jon Ossoff (D) just hit an all-time high of 84% to win re-election in Georgia

Khanna: They're basically getting workers subsidized by tax dollars and not paying them a fair wage. The reason I believe you should have a tax on billionaires of 5% is because you had massive public subsidy and there was massive exploitation that allowed you to do that.

Harvard University is offering a FREE online course on the US Constitution! Understanding our Constitution has rarely been more important. Enroll in a free, short, engaging online course. HarvardX: American Government: Constitutional Foundations | edX edx.org/learn/governme…

With the fall of Victor Orban, alot of far-right organizations will no longer enjoy the largesse of Russian cash that came to them through Hungary acting as conduit. Putin's destruction of global democracy required ALOT of cash. Orban made alot of it possible.

Alex Pretti cared for our veterans and helped train future nurses. Good to see the University of Minnesota Nursing School honoring his legacy with a scholarship—and even better to see Minnesotans stepping up to support it. startribune.com/umn-pretti-sch…

International law applies to all States, without exception. Respect for its rules is not optional. Without it, instability spreads, mistrust deepens & conflicts spiral out of control. This is not the moment to retreat from international law. It is the moment to reaffirm it.

Absolutely catastrophic for American men. If you are a sports better break away immediately. It is not worth it. You will not win it back. You will not beat the house. You are being exploited.