Deborah Copaken

Nina Schwalbe, public health scientist and vaccine superstar, is running for Congress If she wins, she will be the only Democratic member of Congress with a PhD in public health. She will also wear a T-shirt on day one that says, "Impeach RFK, Jr."

Great stuff from @dcopaken.bsky.social.

Nina Schwalbe, public health scientist and vaccine superstar, is running for Congress open.substack.com/pub/deborahc...

Reclaiming our truth Between Zohran Mamdani's win, Lily Allen's new album, and Pentagon reporters rejecting spoon-fed propaganda, it's been a good month for saying no to lies and yes to truth and transparency.

“Speaking of transparency, yesterday, a 34-year-old Muslim American, Zohran Mamdani, won the election to be the next mayor of New York City in large part because of his truth-telling“

-- Deborah Copaken @dcopaken.bsky.social

open.substack.com/pub/deborahc...

“No, Speaker Johnson — the No Kings rally on October 18 is not a hate America rally. In fact, it’s quite the contrary: It’s a love America rally.” #NoKings

I am continually floored by the brilliance of both @zohrankmamdani.bsky.social ‘s social media team and by the candidate himself. Please let this be a harbinger of a better, more equitable world.

Thank you. 😊

You (actually do) need a vacation A recent meta-analysis found that the immediate effects of a vacation are more long-lasting and profound than previously believed. As long as you focus on two things.

I thought I knew how to vacation. Science now tells me I was just doing it all wrong. deborahcopaken.substack.com/p/you-actual...

Thanks, Peg!

Republican Kidnappers YouTube video by Progress Action Fund

This video by Progress Action Fund really hits the nail on the head. It’s both horrific and an accurate portrait of the U.S. today. youtu.be/j7SOc_8IhSY?...

When students of history look back on these moments--a city comptroller, running for mayor, asking for a judicial warrant and getting arrested by masked thugs--it will be like us reading about Nazis only worse. Because we can all see this and know it is wrong, fascist, and horrific in real time.

Huge crowd in Sag Harbor for #nokings.

The average wedding in the U.S. now costs a cool $36,000. But @dcopaken.bsky.social discovered that embracing DIY elements for her daughter's wedding not only kept costs down—it brought communities together.
www.thepersistent.com/how-to-diy-a...

Totally unhinged.

Page One must have been crowded.

So NYT puts it on Page 13. 🤡

@schooley.bsky.social

“It's not a partisan issue. It’s not an ideological issue. So who voted for this? I personally don't remember Donald Trump's campaign promise to cut breast cancer research and to make menopause harder for American women,” says @chrislhayes.bsky.social.

Follow the money.

Thank you, Seth Rogan, for taking a public stand against tyranny. And shame on the Breakthrough Prize video editors for editing out that bravery.

Harvard University Harvard University is devoted to excellence in teaching, learning, and research, and to developing leaders who make a difference globally.

@harvard.edu not only stood up to Trump, it redesigned its website to highlight groundbreaking scientific work that relies on funding. For me, being deaf, research into hair regeneration was fascinating! This is how you stand up to fascism and tyranny. I'm proud of my alma mater. www.harvard.edu

Moving vans and thwarted plans Since leaving college, I've moved 18 times within 3 different countries. Most were forced. All were stressful. But this move, combining two families under one roof, was both different and revelatory.

I just moved in with my partner. And his wife. open.substack.com/pub/deborahc...

Proposal to automatically give babies mother’s surname ignites row in Italy Politician says idea would be ‘compensation for centuries-old injustice’ of children being assigned father’s name

Here’s a mandate I can get behind: let all children born to mothers who do the hard work of carrying, birthing, nursing, and (more often than not) raising them take their mother’s surname at birth from now on. Go, Italy! www.theguardian.com/world/2025/m...

Unidentified men grabbing someone off the street and putting her in a car because she wrote an op-Ed. This as flatly authoritarian as anything we’ve seen in this country in a very long time.

Since White House says info in the chat was not classified, seems like @JeffreyGoldberg has the all clear to lay out everything in there....

Planning a wedding during the apocalypse Tablescapes, hellscapes, and why celebrating love in a time of hate in America is not unseemly. It's the only antidote.

Why bother to care about what "vibe" of tablecloth to pick for a wedding when democracy is crumbling? Because we must. Because love should always trump (ahem) hate. deborahcopaken.substack.com/p/planning-a...

Some more good news: all of these young women just became doctors. It’s Match Day. They will be fanning out across the U.S. to care for patients. My daughter’s in the purple dress. She’s heading to the University of Illinois-Chicago College of Medicine Family med residency program. Congrats to all!

Some good news. For once.

lol it lists all the pharmacies I've already tried, and they don't have it.

Thank you!

Anyone know where to get Paxlovid these days? Capsule doesn't have it. My local Brooklyn pharmacy doesn't have it. Ah, Covid. The gift that keeps on giving.

Probiotics and UTI prevention After a lifetime of UTIs that turned debilitating in menopause, I have finally landed on a several-step precautionary protocol that (knock wood) has been working.

With so little research on UTIs in women and how to prevent them, we need to be our own advocates. One male doctor told me to take a weekly bleach bath and daily Macrobid. Then he slut shamed me. We need to do better. deborahcopaken.substack.com/p/probiotics...

I, um, what?

NEBRASKA CROWD: “TAX THE RICH! TAX THE RICH!”

@USRepMikeFlood: “So your proposal to solve (the debt) is tax the rich?”

NEBRASKA CROWD: *CHEERS WILDLY*

(not sure this went quite as he planned 😬)