@julierehmeyer
Author of Through the Shadowlands: A Science Writer's Odyssey into an Illness Science Doesn't Understand. I mostly write about complex chronic illness and math. Bylines in NYT, WashPost, Discover, Wired, Slate, Stat News, Science News, lots more. She/her.
6. Through the Shadowlands: A Science Writer’s Odyssey Into an Illness Science Doesn’t Understand, Julie Rehmeyer. @julierehmeyer.bsky.social and I have many of the same health problems, ...
Congratulations! And what a beautiful thread.
New essay: The environmental story that shaped so many of us — small is beautiful — now collides with the scale the climate crisis actually demands.
I wrote about why we need to update our instincts for the world we’re living in now, not the world of 1973. jrehmeyer.substack.com/p/small-is-b...
Alice Wong taught us that disabled people don’t just leave memories behind—they leave infrastructure. Lineages of care. Methods of collectivity, survival. She named the connective tissue that holds our communities together, even across death, even across the losses that come too fast and too often.
Rachel Riggs has a gorgeous, delicious new cookbook out — and I got to have a really interesting conversation with her about it. It'll help you make wonderful food even when one friend is gluten free and one is dairy free and one doesn't eat nightshades... jrehmeyer.substack.com/p/deliciousn...
A moving tribute to Walker, who died of ME way way too young.
I'm carrying you with me as I make these phone calls.
They're making calls to Georgia, Pennsylvania, North Carolina, New Jersey, New York, Virginia and New Mexico today. These are all key races.
Pitch in ASAP at environmentalvoter.org
It's not too late to pitch in! They give you a quick training, and the calls are easy to do (even from bed). Also, you can do it in short bursts to pace yourself if you need to. I find it kind of addictive, honestly. I get a rush when it seems like someone really may vote because of my call.
Because turnout is likely to be low, in Georgia turning out just a few environmental voters can have a BIG impact.
Also, if someone votes once, it's much more likely they'll keep doing it, so this work changes the electorate over time.
I've mostly been making calls for the Georgia Public Service Commissioner election, which is soooooo important and sooooo under the radar. Few people even know what the PSC does and why it matters! But it's critical to cost of living, to climate change, to the economy...
In less than an hour, I've reached several people who didn't know where their polling place was and were happy to get help to find out. I can't say for sure that such folks will follow through and vote, but chances are a heck of a lot higher now!
It's election day! I voted by mail a week ago, so I'm celebrating by making calls with @environmentalvoter.bsky.social, the Environmental Voter Project, reaching out to folks who care about the environment but often don't vote. I'm amazed by the impact I can see from it. 1/
🔗 environmentalvoter.org/get-involved
ME friends: If you want a way of resisting our terrible national situation, phone banking with the Environmental Project is a great way to go! You can do it in small increments. It's easy, they train you, and it's effective. See details below on how it works.
Aw, this makes me so happy to hear!
Julie's essay is worth your time. Promise.
If you have even an hour, you can log in and make calls from home. Volunteer here: environmentalvoter.org
One voter who thought he couldn’t vote said to me:
“Thank you for spending your Sunday evening doing something really worthwhile.”
It’s not too late to help with this Tuesday’s elections—EVP has phone-bank shifts for key races in Georgia, New York, and New Jersey.
Others I called might not have needed that info right away, but maybe the reminder mattered.
I’ll be honest: calling strangers isn’t easy. When people hung up, I felt bad for bugging them. But it’s worth briefly bugging some folks if it means someone gets the information they need to cast a ballot.
In my hour of calls, I reached two registered voters who were convinced they couldn’t vote.
Both were so grateful when I explained that yes, they can—and gave them their polling info.
EVP finds registered voters who care about the environment but don’t always turn out—and helps them navigate the voting process.
They don’t tell anyone who to vote for, just when, where, and how.
I just spent an hour volunteering with the Environmental Voter Project (EVP). It’s one of the most effective, nonpartisan ways I know to pitch in during these dire days.
www.environmentalvoter.org
In my hour of calls, I reached two registered voters who were convinced they couldn’t vote.
Both were so grateful when I explained that yes, they can—and gave them their polling info.
EVP finds registered voters who care about the environment but don’t always turn out—and helps them navigate the voting process.
They don’t tell anyone who to vote for—just when, where, and how.
But most of the time, victories are small, fleeting, incomplete.
Both in illness and in climate work, the discipline is the same: Keep going, even when the realm of action is far smaller than necessity demands.
Read the full essay here: jrehmeyer.substack.com/p/two-system...
And sometimes, it works. Sometimes ME patients improve or even recover.
Sometimes climate action does too — like when Johnston and other activists in kayaks delayed Shell’s Arctic drilling rig, and months later Shell gave up the project entirely.
Hope isn’t a reliable ally, just as it isn't for fighting climate change. Most of us became severe only after years of treatments that failed.
So we practice a kind of hopeless action — trying without expectation, because trying itself is a form of faith. A muscular type of prayer.
ME punishes exertion. It can make even thought or touch unbearable.
Many spend years motionless in darkened rooms because light and sound are excruciating.
It’s a collapse, in miniature.
