Published essays:
2024
- The FAFSA debacle (CNN, 4/17/24)
- Protest made the university (CNN, with Matt Gabriele, 4/30/24)
- D&D Books! (Washington Post, 8/6/24)
- I need a new hat (CNN, 7/2/24)
- D&D at 50 (Smithsonian, July 24 edition)
- Walz-Pilled (MSNBC, 7/30/24)
- How Republicans will attack Walz (8/6/24 MSNBC)
- The Origins of D&D (WaPo, 8/6/24)
- Western Civ and Burning Books (MSNBC, 8/19/24)
2023
- Campus Speech that really matters is in the classroom (CNN, 12/7/23)
- The Roman Empire Meme (CNN, 9/18/23)
- Review: Michael Roth – The Student (Washington Post, 9/13/23)
- On the fake schnoz (CNN, 8/18/23)
- Mrs. Maisel and My New York Jewish Family (CNN, 4/14/23)
- Real Parental Rights (In These Times, 4/10/23)
- Ted Lasso Season 3: The villain is the past (CNN, 3/15/23, with Matt Gabriele)
- We can have nice things (The Nation, 2/7/23)
- Hamline: Faculty vote to call on president to resign (The Nation, 1/24/23)
- Hamline: On labor and power (CNN, 1/9/23)
2022
- Mercy/War by other Means (Washington Post, 12/9/22)
- Mental Health on Campus (CNN, 12/7/22)
- Botched Medieval Executions (Slate, 12/6/22, with Sara McDougall)
- Gonna miss Twitter (CNN, 11/18/22)
- Fetterman and Reasonable Accommodation (New York Times, 10/12/22)
- Ben Sasse and “Regressive Action” (CNN, 10/12/22)
- The Rankings Aren’t the Only Game in Town (CNN, 9/14/22)
- How to Pick a College Major (CNN, 9/8/22)
- Tech, My Son, and Red Tape (The Verge, 7/12/22)
- A desk, Jewish history, my mom (Washington Post, 4/30/22)
- The Northman (Smithsonian Magazine, with Matthew Gabriele. 4/22/22)
- Fixing the Public Charge (The Nation, 4/11/22)
- Medicaid after Covid (Grid, 3/3/22)
- Vikings: Valhalla and the Global North Atlantic (Smithsonian Magazine, 2/24/22)
- There ain’t no severe autism (The Nation, with Julia Bascom, 1/31/22)
- Don’t ban “Maus.” (CNN, 1/27/22)
- Covidtest.gov is a good start (CNN, 1/19/22)
-
A king of fire and light: Louis IX’s tangled legacy (BBC History Extra, with Matthew Gabriele, 1/14/21)
2021
- Five medieval tales that should become films (Lithub, with Matthew Gabriele, 12/15/21)
- Book Excerpt: Women and agency in early England (Lithub, with Matthew Gabriele, 12/8/21)
- Bodily Autonomy and the trap on vaccines (The Nation, 12/8/21)
- The Blood Eagle (Smithsonian, with Matthew Gabriele, 12/6/21)
- On Writing the Bright Ages (HNN, with Matthew Gabriele, 12/5/21)
- Omicron: What do We Do Now? (CNN, 11/30/21)
- Decenter the Crusades (Smithsonian, with Matthew Gabriele, 11/23/21)
- American men need Feminism (CNN, 11/3/21)
- Medieval Dragons (Smithsonian, with Matthew Gabriele, 10/27/21)
- Medieval mullets? [And the Last Duel] (Slate, with Sara McDougall, 10/20/21)
- The Last Duel (Slate, with Sara McDougall, 10/14/21)
- Ted Lasso and Caritas (CNN, with Matthew Gabriele, 10/9/21)
- Forgive Student Debt Now (CNN, 10/8/21)
- Don’t read that anti-semite Roald Dahl (CNN, 9/28/21)
- The Vinland Map was a Forgery (Smithsonian, with Matt Gabriele, 9/21/21)
- Pregnancy Laws and Surveillance in History (Slate, with Sara McDougall, 9/3/21)
- Rapid OTC Covid Tests should be Free (Washington Post, 8/25/21)
- Mask Mandates and the ADA (The Nation, 8/23/21)
- Who is LeVar Burton? (CNN, 8/20/21)
- Covid School Year Three (CNN, 8/12/21)
- The Modern Medieval of The Green Knight (Smithsonian Magazine, 8/12/21. With Matt Gabriele)
- A Human Resources of Trust (Chronicle of Higher Education, 7/28/21)
- Preserve accessibility after Covid (CNN, 7/27/21)
- Sports History is History (Smithsonian Magazine, 7/20/21. With Matt Gabriele)
- The Prescient Dystopia of Gattaca (The Nation, 7/16/21)
- Vaccinate the Unvaccinated (CNN, 7/10/21)
- How Medieval Ethiopia Discovered Europe (Smithsonian Magazine, 6/29/21. With Matt Gabriele)
- On Singing after Covid (CNN, 6/29/21)
- Down syndrome and school inclusion: The Utah Cheerleader (CNN, 6/18/21)
- Summer Slowdown for kids (CNN, 6/9/21)
- STEM won’t save us without Humanities (CNN, 5/27/21)
- Objective History and the Tulsa Massacre (The Nation, 5/28/21)
- Vaccine Carrots, Vaccine Sticks (CNN, 5/14/21)
- Vaccinate Disabled Kids First (USA Today, 5/6/21)
- The work of history (with Matt Gabriele, Washington Post, 5/3/21)
- Antivaxxers and Yellow Stars (CNN, 4/27/21)
- The Real History of the Black Death (Smithsonian, 3/25/21)
- Always March; Never St. Patrick’s Day (The Current, 3/17/21)
- The Goals Should Lead (The Nation, 3/9/21)
- We can’t grieve alone (CNN, 2/11/21)
- 38 Reasons to Investigate Trump (GEN, 1/17/21)
- What’s Next: K-12 Education after Covid (CNN, 1/12/21)
2020
- #GenC: The Kids of Generation Covid (Washington Post, 12/17/20)
- What the heck just happened these last four years? (Gen, 12/4/20)
- Donald J. Pepin The Short Trump (The Daily Beast, 12/4/20)
- Elvis Presley Beats Covid (CNN, 12/3/20)
- Abolish the Federal Death Penalty (USA Today, 12/1/20)
- The Next Lockdown (CNN, 11/16/20)
- Trump, Eugenics, and Covid (GEN, 9/4/20)
- UNC and the Covid Campus Outbreak (CNN, 8/18/20)
- Disability and DIY Technology (New York Time, 7/14/20)
- St. Louis and Messy History (Smithsonian Magazine, 7/9/20)
- Our Squandered Sacrifices (Washington Post, 7/6/20)
- Crusader Kings 3 and Online Nazis (OneZero, 5/22/20)
- No Mask, No Service (CNN, 5/22/20)
- Dads Step Up (CNN, 5/7/20)
- Interview: Castro (GEN, 4/23/20)
- Social Distancing is Love (CNN, 4/21/20)
- Higher Education on the Brink (CNN, 4/15/20)
- Just Cancel School (CNN, 3/31/20)
- We need a #PassFailNation (CNN, 3/18/20)
- Admin to Staff: Drop Dead. (Chronicle of Higher Ed, 3/13/20)
- #CovidCampus and Vulnerable Students (Washington Post, 3/11/20)
- Disability Politics and Joe Biden (The Nation, 3/10/20)
- #Ableism2020 (CNN, 3/10/20)
- Practical Parents Prep for Pandemic (Washington Post, 3/4/2020)
- Klobuchar is Out (CNN, 3/1/20)
- ICE and Confidential Therapy Notes (CNN, 2/26/20)
- Sharenting is Bad (CNN, 2/22/20)
- Truth Commission USA (CNN, 2/7/20)
- Title Policing and Staff Shaming (Chronicle of Higher Education, 1/28/20)
- The Humanities Ain’t Dead (CNN, 1/24/20)
- Trump and the National Archives (CNN, 1/20/20)
- Klobuchar Needs to Pitch Left (CNN, 1/11/20)
- Trump Jr.’s Crusade (with Matt Gabriele. Washington Post, 1/7/20)
2019
- White Supremacy on Campus (CNN, 12/18/19)
- Trump Ain’t Protecting Jews on Campus (CNN, 12/12/19)
- Thanksgiving without Mom (CNN, 11/23/19)
- Julián Castro’s Failure to Launch (GEN, 11/20/19)
- Venice is Sinking; I’m going under (CNN, 11/15/19)
- Ilhan Omar and the Armenian Genocide (The Nation, 10/31/19)
- Talking to Kids about Climate (CNN, 10/29/19)
- Pierre Delecto Delenda Est (CNN, 10/21/19)
- Ilhan Omar: The Optimist in the Room (The Nation, 10/15/19)
- Betsy DeVos Attacks Campus Speech (CNN, 9/21/19)
- Regulate E-Cigs, sure … but also guns (CNN, 9/12/19)
- The Last Straw (debate)Â (CNN, 9/5/19)
- Bret Stephens and GWUÂ (CNN, 8/27/19)
- Partisanship and Higher Ed (CNN, 8/21/19)
- No New Asylums (CNN, 8/16/19)
- Bulletproof Backpacks Won’t Save Anyone (CNN, 8/9/19)
- Marianne Williamson is Dangerous (Pacific Standard, 8/5/19)
- Professors Aren’t Discriminating against Conservative Students (Pacific Standard, 7/30/19)
- Toxic Masculinity and the Democrats (CNN, 7/31/19)
- Democrats are in Array (Medium, 7/30/19)
- Filibuster Buster (Medium, 7/12/19)
- Break up DHSÂ (CNN, 7/4/19)
- Me, My Son, and Rock and Roll (The Current, 7/2/19)
- How to Fight 8chan Medievalism (Pacific Standard, 6/27/19)
- Trump’s Camps are Concentration Camps (Pacific Standard, 6/20/19)
- Rich People and College Admissions (CNN, 6/16/19)
- State Governments and Free Insulin (Pacific Standard, 6/5/19)
- Librarian vs Gambler vs Student Loans (CNN, 6/4/19)
- Save the Humanities? Make College Free (Pacific Standard, 5/9/19)
- Music and Mental Health (The Current, 5/2/19)
- Gaelynn Lea Interview (The Current, 4/16/19)
- Tennessee vs Medicaid (Pacific Standard, 4/15/19)
- Anti-Depressant Withdrawal (Pacific Standard, 4/15/19)
- Courts vs Seema Verma (Pacific Standard, 4/4/19)
- Rights for Writing Instructors (Pacific Standard, 3/27/19)
- Utah to Impose Block Grants and Kill Medicaid (Pacific Standard, 3/21/19)
- Trump Admin and Spying on SSDIÂ (Medium, 3/21/19)
- Trump and 40 years of GOP attacks on Medicaid (Pacific Standard, 3/15/19)
- A Manifesto: Public Writing for Academics (Pacific Standard, 3/14/19)
- #AdmissionsGate and Lying about Disability (CNN, 3/12/19)
- 100 Years of GOP Lies about Socialism (Medium Politics, 3/12/19)
- M4A adds LTSS. Finally! (Pacific Standard, 3/12/19)
- Health Justice requires Immigration Justice (Pacific Standard, 3/1/19)
- Nationalism and Ethnic Cleansing (Medium, 2/28/19)
- SCOTUS and Bobby Moore and “Lennie” (Pacific Standard, 2/28/19)
- “On your left” – Every Candidate is Vulnerable (Pacific Standard, 2/26/19)
- Can Sanders Talk Racism? (CNN, 2/25/19)
- Make soup, not war (Pacific Standard, 2/19/19)
- What is Amy Klobuchar’s Vision? (CNN, 2/18/19)
- Hypocrisy, Anti-Jewish Hate, and Building Coalitions (CNN, 2/12/19)
- Amy Klobuchar Declares (Pacific Standard, 2/11/19)
- mediCAID? for all (Pacific Standard, 2/11/19)
- We’re a Center-Left Nation (The Nation, 2/6/19)
- Making Grad School Humane (Pacific Standard, 2/5/19)
- Private Healthcare Wants to Kill Medicare-For-All (Pacific Standard, 1/29/19)
- Polar Vortex, Borscht, Climate Change (CNN, 1/31/19)
- Re-Inventing the Special Olympics (Pacific Standard – PRINT – 1/28/19)
- States Expand Medicaid (Pacific Standard, 1/23/19)
- Trump Attacks Medicaid. Again. (Pacific Standard, 1/22/19)
- Ain’t No Freedom at Christian Schools (Huffington Post, 1/20/19)
- The Racism of Western Civilization (with Matt Gabriele, Washington Post, 1/15/19)
- Disability and the 2020 Primary (Pacific Standard, 1/15/19)
- The Wall Ain’t Medieval and The Wall Won’t Work (CNN, 1/11/19)
- Guns Kill More than Cars (Pacific Standard, 1/9/19)
- What Happens with BTS Adopts You (The Current, 1/4/19)
2018
- Fire, Flood, and Being Disabled in the Age of Catastrophe (12/22/18)
- The Five Paragraph Essay Must Die! (Pacific Standard, 12/21/18)
- The Death Penalty Goes Local (Pacific Standard, 12/21/18)
- Alice Walker and Thomas of Monmouth (Pacific Standard, 12/20/18)
- Restraint and the Murder of an Autistic Child (Pacific Standard, 12/20/18)
- Free Speech Unless You are Pro-Palestinian (Pacific Standard, 12/12/18)
- George H. W. Bush and The ADAÂ (Pacific Standard, 12/6/18)
- Ocasio-Cortez and the Politics of Digital Intimacy (Pacific Standard, 11/30/18)
- Kevin Kruse and TwitterStorians (Pacific Standard, 11/28/18)
- The Art of Stimming (Pacific Standard, 11/27/18)
- A last meal with my mom (Washington Post, 11/21/18)
- People with Down syndrome are not animals (Pacific Standard, 11/16/18)
- Grievance Studies and the Humanities (11/8/18)
- Voting Rights Now (Huffington Post, 11/8/18)
- Gun Reform, not Mental Illness Stigma (Pacific Standard, 11/5/18)
- Interview: Sarah Blahovec for NCILÂ (Pacific Standard, 11/5/18)
- The Kentucky Terrorist (Pacific Standard, 10/29/18)
- Dear Sarah Palin: Disabled Kids Ain’t Props (Pacific Standard, 10/25/18)
- #HimToo and Male Victims of Sexual Assault. Even me. (Pacific Standard, 10/19/18)
- Texas Wants to Kill Kwame Rockwell (Pacific Standard, 10/17/18)
- MN AG: Ellison vs Wardlow (Pacific Standard, 10/15/18)
- Beat ICE, Run for Sheriff! (Pacific Standard, 10/11/18)
- Interview: Bruce Schneier (Pacific Standard, 10/9/18)
- Interview: Maysoon Zayid (Pacific Standard, 10/8/18)
- Me and My Depression (Pacific Standard, 10/1/18)
- Neglect and Indifference in Hurricane Maria (Pacific Standard, 9/28/18)
- Interview: Mary Robinette Kowal (Pacific Standard, 9/20/18)
- Norm Macdonald and Down Syndrome Jokes (Pacific Standard, 9/19/18)
- Did Trump call Jeff Sessions “Retarded?” (Pacific Standard, 9/15/18)
- Can Uber and Lyft Become Accessible? (Pacific Standard, 8/31/18)
- Disability Groups come out against Kavanaugh (Pacific Standard, 8/20/18)
- Climate Struggle and the Hugos (Pacific Standard, 8/17/18)
- Introducing CAP Disability Justice (8/14/18)
- Facebook Fails on Free Speech (Pacific Standard, 8/2/18)
- Can We Save AP World History? (Pacific Standard, 7/26/18)
- On the Trail with Billie Sutton (Pacific Standard, 7/24/18)
- Hospitals and Disabled Patients (Pacific Standard, 6/29/18)
- First they came for Immigrants, and Lewandowski said womp womp (CNN, 6/20/18)
- Interview: John Ross Bowie on Speechless (Pacific Standard, 6/20/18)
- Advising as Customer Service (Chronicle of Higher Education, 6/13/18)
- USA’s “Colony” and Resisting Fascism (Pacific Standard, 6/8/18)
- Disability and Disaster: We’re not Ready (Pacific Standard, 6/1/18)
- Don’t Ban Straws (Pacific Standard, 5/31/18)
- Interview: Nicola Griffith (Pacific Standard, 5/21/18)
- Interview: Richard Painter (Pacific Standard, 5/17/18)
- Koch on Campus (Pacific Standard, 5/11/18)
- Texas Principal Jokes About Cops Murdering A Student (Pacific Standard, 5/8/18)
- Arizona Strike (Pacific Standard, 5/3/18)
- Abolish ICEÂ (Pacific Standard, 5/1/18)
- Fight the Alt-Right Terrorists (Pacific Standard, 4/30/18)
- INTERVIEW: Kelly Baker (Pacific Standard, 4/24/18)
- The Right-Wing Plot on Student Government (Pacific Standard, 4/20/18)
- Sci-Fi and Assistive Tech (Pacific Standard, 4/18/18)
- How to Hold Academic Predators Accountable (Pacific Standard, 4/17/18)
- Regulate Sinclair (Pacific Standard, 4/12/18)
- Deaf President Now Changed America (Pacific Standard, 4/11/18)
- White Supremacists are Radicalizing (Pacific Standard, 3/26/18)
- #MeToo and the Commodification of Women’s Pain (Pacific Standard, 3/24/18)
- Stephen Hawking’s Legacy: Health Care and Social Supports (NBC News, 3/15/18)
- No, The Irish Were Not Slaves Too (Pacific Standard, 3/15/18)
- Higher Ed Has 99 Problems and NYT Op-Ed Columnists are One (3/9/18)
- Lawmakers Make Schools More Dangerous (Pacific Standard, 3/6/18)
- How Would Democrats Protect The Environment? (Pacific Standard, 3/5/18)
- Repeal the Second Amendment (Pacific Standard, 2/26/18)
- Lemony Snicket and Sexual Harassment (Pacific Standard, 2/21/18)
- Retailers Attack the ADAÂ (Pacific Standard, 2/14/18)
- Trump’s Brain (The Nation, 2/13/18)
- The New Gerber Baby. So what? (Pacific Standard, 2/13/18)
- Down syndrome and Anti-Choice Propaganda in Ireland (2/8/18)
- Don’t Watch the Superbowl (Pacific Standard, 2/2/18)
- Your Pills are Spying on you (Pacific Standard, 2/1/18)
- IQ Tests and the Death Penalty (Pacific Standard, 1/25/18)
- Interview: ADAPTer Anita Cameron (Pacific Standard, 1/22/18)
- Unrest and Talking about Suffering (Pacific Standard, 1/16/18)
- ICE keeps Raiding Hospitals (Pacific Standard, 1/15/18)
- #MeToo is Not a Witch Hunt (Pacific Standard, 1/9/18)
- The “Stahl Standard” for Mental Health and Politics Reporting (Pacific Standard, 1/4/18)
- Republicans use Fear of Eugenics to Attack Reproductive Rights (The Nation, 1/4/18)
- Companies that exploit disabled labor have a friend in Jeff Sessions (Pacific Standard, 1/3/18)
2017
- Yes there were people of color in pre-modern Europe (Pacific Standard, 12/29/17)
- Will Butler’s Disco Town Halls (Pacific Standard, 12/28/17)
- Disability and Disaster in the Age of Climate Change (Pacific Standard, 12/21/17)
- Facebook won’t fight blood libel and other hate (Pacific Standard, 12/15/17)
- Al Franken has Resigned (Pacific Standard, 12/7/17)
- Here comes Austerity to Kill Us (Pacific Standard, 12/7/17)
- How to Teach A Cyborg (The Atlantic, 12/6/17)
- The CFPB Protects Davids from Goliaths (CNN, 11/29/17)
- The GOP Tax Bill Attacks Graduate Students (Pacific Standard, 11/21/17)
- Franken Should Resign (CNN, 11/20/17)
- States of Neglect (The Nation, 11/14/17)
- The GOP Tax on Disability (Pacific Standard, 11/7/17)
- It’s always been the guns (The Nation, 11/6/17)
- Indoctrination on Right-Wing Campuses (Pacific Standard, 11/3/17)
- Immigration Rights are Disability Rights (Washington Post, 10/28/17)
- Bump Stocks and Sandy Hook (Pacific Standard, 10/27/17)
- Betsy DeVos Attacks Special Ed (Pacific Standard, 10/24/17)
- Stop Using Cannibalism to Justify Columbus (Pacific Standard, 10/13/17)
- White Supremacy and Medieval Studies (Pacific Standard, 10/9/17)
- Paul Ryan Pretends to Care about Mental Health only after Mass Shootings (CNN, 10/5/17)
- There are no Natural Disasters (Pacific Standard, 10/4/17)
- Ohio Politicizes Down Syndrome to Attack Abortion (Pacific Standard, 10/3/17)
- The ADA is not Optional. (Washington Post, 9/26/17. With Lennard Davis)
- Headphones and Hamilton (Pacific Standard, 9/25/17)
- A Week in Policing and Disability (The Nation, 9/22/17)
- Milo’s Phony Rally (Pacific Standard, 9/22/17)
- 5 Ways for Liberal Arts Majors to Get Jobs (The Ladders, 9/21/17)
- Do Not Involuntarily Commit The Homeless During Hurricanes (Pacific Standard, 9/15/17)
- Bodily Autonomy and the Left (The Nation, 9/13/17)
- Nazis Love Medieval Studies. What Now? (Pacific Standard, 9/6/17)
- We’re Failing Our Test for the Age of CRISPRÂ (The Nation, 8/29/17)
- Portlight Fights to Save Disabled People After Harvey (Pacific Standard, 8/29/17)
- Florida Demands Parents Call Their Kids Limited (Pacific Standard, 8/28/17)
- Google Bros and Medieval Beer Bros (Pacific Standard, 8/22/17)
- Why We Need to Name Nazis (Pacific Standard, 8/17/17)
- Are Internet Standards Hurting Accessibility? (Pacific Standard, 8/3/17)
- 5 Ways to Talk about Disability on the Job Hunt (TheLadders.com, 8/2/17)
- Sterilizing People with Disabilities in Prison (The Marshall Project, 7/26/17)
- The Internet of Restaurants is Coming for your Data (Pacific Standard, 7/25/17)
- The History of Dyslexia (Pacific Standard, 7/21/17)
- The GOP Plan for Healthcare is Obamacare (Pacific Standard, 7/19/17)
- Racist Misinformation about Medicaid (Pacific Standard, 7/14/17)
- Why I won’t raise my son in Illinois (Pacific Standard, 7/6/17)
- Support Lisa Durden (Pacific Standard, 6/27/17)
- Block Grants: A History (Washington Post, 6/26/17)
- ADAPT takes the Senate (Pacific Standard, 6/22/17)
- Police Killings: Being Black and Disabled in America (The Guardian, 6/22/17)
- Can Trump’s Disability Commissioner Be Trusted? (Pacific Standard, 6/22/17)
- The Worst Juice Commercial Ever (Pacific Standard, 6/21/17)
- Medicaid Works. (CNN 6/20/17)
- Interview: Seanan McGuire (Pacific Standard, 6/15/17)
- Seraph Jones and Ashton Gelfand – Criminalization of Autistic Kids (Pacific Standard, 6/12/17)
- Donald Trump: You Ain’t No Henry IIÂ (CNN, 6/9/17)
- Restaurants Haven’t Lived Up to the Promise of the American Disabilities Act (Eater, 5/31/17)
- Make Vinland Great Again (Washington Post, 5/31/17)
- Lower Ed vs Betsy DeVos: What’s So Great About Being a Customer? (Pacific Standard, 5/30/17)
- Uber’s Deregulated Business Violates Disability Rights Law (Newsweek, 5/17/17)
- Why Read a Utopian Novel in 2017? (Pacific Standard, 5/16/17)
- ACLU sues New Hampshire for Disenfranchising Disabled Voters (Pacific Standard, 5/16/17)
- Disability Misunderstood as Bad Behavior (Pacific Standard, 5/10/17)
- How Many Death Row Prisoners Are Disabled? All of them (Pacific Standard, 5/9/17)
- In Autism Arrest, Only Thing New was Video (CNN, 4/22/17)
- Disability Rights on Death Row (Pacific Standard, 4/21/17)
- “I thought I understood America.” Talking American Gods with Gaiman (Pacific Standard, 4/20/17)
- What should you do when your favorite celebrity gets autism wrong? (Pacific Standard, 4/19/17)
- Stop Sucking: Environmentalism vs Accessibility (Pacific Standard, 4/11/17)
- Scallops and Ramp Pasta – Taking Eataly Home (Resistance Kitchen, 4/11/17)
- After San Bernardino, We need Fewer Guns, More Empathy (April 10, 2017. CNN)
- How to Break Ground for Deaf Actors in Hollywood (April 2017, Pacific Standard)
- Day of the Dead Languages (March 2017, Pacific Standard)
- The Supreme Court Sets a New Precedent on the Death Penalty and Disability (March 2017, Pacific Standard)
- Can Disability Rights Stay Bipartisan? (March 2017, Pacific Standard)
- Disabled Americans: Stop Murdering Us (March 2017, Pacific Standard)
- Stop Calling Some Needs ‘Special’ (March 2017, The Establishment)
- Meet the Radical Disabled Americans Fighting the GOP Health Care Bill (March 2017, Pacific Standard)
- How Disabled Americans Are Fighting the GOP Health-Care Bill (March 2017, Pacific Standard)
- The Shows Shaking Up Disability Representation on Television (March 2017, Pacific Standard)
- How to Debunk Myths About Autism (February 2017, Pacific Standard)
- Academic Jobs Screen out Disabled Candidates (Pacific Standard, 2/14/17)
- Don’t Turn my son’s Dancing into Inspiration Porn (The Establishment, 2/8/17)
- The Wisdom of Science-Fiction in the Age of Trump (Pacific Standard, 2/8/17)
- Milo and Right-Wing Attacks on Free Speech (Pacific Standard, 2/2/17)
- Advocacy Groups Confront Trump Dilemma (Pacific Standard, 1/30/17)
- Interview: Maria Town (Pacific Standard, 1/26/17)
- Betsy DeVos and Special Education (Pacific Standard, 1/18/17)
- Down Syndrome and Stories (Pacific Standard, 1/13/17)
- The Obama Era is Over (Pacific Standard, 1/10/17)
- How a Prosecutor used Disability to Claim Sexual Assault was just Bullying (Pacific Standard, 1/10/17)
- Use Streep to Get Real on Disability (CNN, 1/9/17)
- The New Blood Libel (Pacific Standard, 1/7/17)
- Facebook Live Attack and Violence against Disabled Americans (CNN, 1/6/17)
2016
- Conservatives Launch Watchlist for Liberal Professors (The Establishment, 11/23/16)
- Disability Heads to the Polls (Pacific Standard, 11/2/16 and October Print)
- How My Non-Verbal Son Uses Hamilton to Communicate (Washington Post, 10/21/16)
- Trump: The Most Ableist Candidate in Modern US History (Los Angeles Times, 10/17/16)
- This is Not the Crusades: ISIS, Trump, the Kansas Terrorists (CNN.com, 10/16/16)
- Westworld and Postcolonial Scifi (Pacific Standard, 10/10/16)
- Inclusion isn’t about Intention, but Communication (TES.com, 9/27/16)
- Speechless is Breaking New Ground on Television (The Atlantic, 9/21/16)
- Paralympics: Why Playing Sports While Disabled is a Radical Act (Rolling Stone, 9/13/16)
- Dear GOP: Stop mocking people with disabilities (CNN.com, 9/9/16)
- Rape Culture and Disability – Nicholas Fifield and Jane Doe (Pacific Standard, 9/8/16)
- Stop Celebrating Random Kindness; Plan Kindness Instead (CNN.com, 9/7/16)
- Disability Rights and Reproductive Rights in the Age of Zika (Los Angeles Times, 8/29/16)
- Remembering the Sagamihara 19Â (Pacific Standard, 8/9/16)
- Stop Calling Trump Crazy (CNN.com, 8/4/16)
- The Massacre in Japan Was Not an Anomaly (Pacific Standard, 7/26/16)
- Hillary Clinton’s Plan for Disability Rights Shows She’s a True Progressive (Playboy, 7/26/16)
- Charles Kinsey: Shooting a Man Lying Down With His Hands Up (CNN.com, 7/22/16)
- How We Got To Dallas: Fear, Racism, and Guns (Playboy, 7/8/16)
- Why Don’t Political Ads about Disability Have Captions? (The Establishment, 7/8/16)
- No One Should Have to Crowdfund a Wheelchair (Pacific Standard, 7/5/16)
- Dante: An Intersectional Political TV Ad (The Establishment, 7/1/16)
- What can Game of Thrones still do to Surprise Us? (Vice.com, 6/27/16)
- Who will be the next Villain of Game of Thrones (Vice, 6/20/16)
- Pope Francis needs to do more than Kiss the Disabled (Crux, 6/14/16)
- Grace: An Anti-Trump Ad Full of Disability Stereotypes (TheAtlantic.com, 6/12/16)
- Why UCLA Shooting Makes Teachers Nervous (CNN.com, 6/2/16)
- The ‘Other NRA’ and the Future of American Food (Pacific Standard, 5/31/16)
- Universal Design: Saying Goodbye to In-Class Tests (Chronicle Vitae, 5/24/16)
- Daniel José Older and Progressive Science Fiction (Pacific Standard, 5/23/16)
- Game of Thrones: The Bloody, Sword-Filled Sexfest Our Generation Deserves (Vice.com, 5/2/16).
- Hung by his Belt: Mistreatment of Disabled Child in Georgia (CNN.com, 5/4/16)
- Are you Raising a Ticking Time Bomb? (Care.com, 4/30/16)
- Dunk & Egg: The Future of Game of Thrones (Vice.com, 4/25/16)
- Four things I hate about Season 6 of Game of Thrones (Vice.com, 4/18/16)
- ‘Amoris Laetitia’ has a Narrow View of Disability (Crux, 4/12/16)
- Narrative Deployments of Disability (Los Angeles Review of Books, 4/6/16)
- Indiana Abortion Law Won’t Help The Disabled (USA Today, 3/26/16)
- How to End the School to Prison Pipeline (Pacific Standard, 3/24/16)
- How Disabled Academics Work (Chronicle Vitae, 3/21/16)
- Olivia Wilde’s PSA on World Down Syndrome Day (The Establishment, 3/21/16)
- Disabled Americans Get Political (The Establishment, 3/10/16)
- Inspiration Porn Objectives People with Disabilities (The Establishment, 2/25/16)
- Sexual Ableism (Los Angeles Review of Books, 2/25/16)
- Guns on Campus Jeopardize Education (CNN.com, 2/24/16)
- Mount St. Mary’s Ableist Plan to Push Our Disabled Students (The Establishment, 2/25/16)
- Game of Thrones – Season 6 Photos (Vice.com, 2/12/16)
- Job Discrimination in Plain Print (Al Jazeera America, 2/10/16)
- Disabled People Need Not Apply (Al Jazeera America, 2/5/16)
- The Expanse’s Triumphant First Season (The Mary Sue, 2/3/16)
- A Reporting Project Puts Disabilities on the Political Agenda (The Atlantic, 1/25/16)
- Is the ‘X-Files’ Relevant in the Age of Terror? (Al Jazeera America, 1/24/16)
- The Expanse – The Best Space Show Since Firefly (The Mary Sue, 1/19/16)
- PC Run Amok is a Red Herring (Pacific Standard, 1/15/16)
- Autism: Can other candidates match Hillary Clinton’s plan? (CNN.com, 1/10/16)
- Brookfield Zoo Gets Inclusion Right (Chicago Parent, 1/3/16)
2015
- When Traveling with Children, there Are No Special Needs (12/22/15)
- Reality TV Takes on Down Syndrome (Al Jazeera America, 12/21/15)
- Star Wars and the Fan-Fictionalization of American Pop Culture (Vice.com, 12/18/2015)
- Beyond the Crisis: Philip Coleman, the Chicago PD, and Mental Illness Response (CNN.com, 12/17/2015)
- When Teachers Abuse Disabled Children (Pacific Standard, 12/17/2015)
- Paul Ryan Blames Mass Shootings on Mental Illness (Al Jazeera America, 12/5/15)
- The San Bernardino Massacre (CNN.com, 12/3/15)
- The New Game of Thrones Trailer is Talking to Us. (Vice.com. 12/3/15)
- Three Rules of Academic Blogging (Chronicle.com, 11/12/15)
- Welders and Philosophy Majors Unite! (CNN.com, 11/11/15)
- Politicians are Ignoring Americans with Disabilities (Al Jazeera America, 11/10/15)
- Halloween and the Social Model of Disability (Pacific Standard Magazine, 10/27/15)
- Switched at Birth and ABC Family’s “New Kind of Family” Hits Home (The Mary Sue, 10/26/15)
- Fix “Autism Speaks.” (Al Jazeera America, 10/9/15)
- No, Carly Fiorina, a degree in medieval history doesn’t qualify you to fight Isis (The Guardian, 10/6/15)
- The Martian is Pure, Pleasurable, Competence Porn (Vice.com, 10/2/15)
- Professor’s Killing Highlights Our Vulnerability (CNN.com, 9/15/15)
- Guess Who Might Not Be Dead – Hint: Kit Harington Still Has Long Hair (Vice.com, 9/11/15)
- What Switched at Birth gets Right and Wrong about Families Like Mine (Salon.com, 9/8/15)
- Down Syndrome, Prenatal Testing, and a Teenage Soap Opera? The Importance of Switched At Birth (The Mary Sue, 9/02/15)
- A “Bechdel-Wallace” Test for the Disability Community (Al Jazeera America, 8/30/15)
- Westworld: The Robots Are Coming! (Vice.com, 8/25/15)
- Stop Politicizing Down Syndrome and Abortion (CNN.com, 8/24/15)
- The Surprisingly Simple Future of Assistive Technology (Al Jazeera America, 8/17/15)
- The Outrage of Handcuffing Children in Schools (CNN.com, 8/5/15)
- Making Academic Conferences Accessible (Chronicle Vitae, 7/8/15)
- I am a Working Dad (Father’s Day 2015)Â (Al Jazeera America, 6/21/15)
- US schools must stop excluding children with disabilities (Al Jazeera America, 6/16/15)
- The Controversies and Success of Season 5 of Game of Thrones (Vice.com, 6/12/15)
- What Kids Learn When Adults Aren’t Inclusive (Washington Post, 6/11/15)
- Where Have All the Good Bad Guys Gone? (Vice.com, 6/10/15)
- Speaking Out Against Autism Speaks (NYTimes.com, 6/4/15)
- Inspiration Porn Disables the Disabled (Al Jazeera America, 6/3/15)
- Jon Snow: The Only Hero of Game of Thrones? (Vice.com, 6/1/15)
- The World’s Reserves of Game of Thrones are Running Dangerously Low (Vice.com, 5/28/15)
- Low Cost College Isn’t Enough (CNN.com, 5/20/15)
- ‘Mad Max: Fury Road’ Is the Feminist Action Flick You’ve Been Waiting For (Vice.com, 5/13/15)
- Zoo Camp for All (Belt Magazine, 5/12/15)
- A Medievalist on Savage Love (Chronicle of Higher Education, 5/12/15)
- Save Academic Conferences! (Chronicle.com, 5/6/2015)
- DC Super Hero Girls – My Daughter Wants Heroes That Look Like Her (Salon.com, 5/1/2015)
- The Corrosive Cult of Compliance in Our Schools (Al Jazeera America, 4/22/15)
- Daredevil and Scenes of Ordinary Disability (Vice.com, 4/20/15)
- “The Net is the Meat:” Bruce Holsinger’s Medieval Fiction (Tor.com, 4/20/15)
- RFK Jr. owes a lot of people an apology for his comments on autism (CNN.com, 4/16/15)
- The Telescoping History of Game of Thrones (Vice.com, 4/14/15)
- Sheehan vs SF: A Chance to Reduce Police Killings of People with Disabilities (Al Jazeera America, 3/22/15)
- Bruce Rauner: Picking on Society’s Most Vulnerable (CNN.com, 3/18/15)
- “Daddy, What’s Down Syndrome?” (Yahoo! Parenting, 3/17/15)
- Dear Student? How about Dear Provost? (Chronicle Vitae, 3/11/15)
- Why Write a Book? (Chronicle Vitae, 3/3/15)
- To assess LAPD shooting, look past the moment of gunfire. (CNN.com, 3/2/15)
- Information, Not Inspiration: How to work against the fear of Down syndrome (CNN.com, 2/18/15)
- From Grad School to the Atlantic (Chronicle.com, 2/11/15)
- Conservatives want to rewrite the history of the Crusades (The Guardian, 2/7/15)
- Kristiana Coignard Did Not Have to Die (CNN.com, 2/2/15)
- Airlines Break Too Many Wheelchairs – But We can Fix It (Al Jazeera America, 1/31/15)
- Associate Dean of What? (Chronicle.com, 1/26/15)
- Anti-Choice Legislators Try to Force Wedge Between Reproductive, Disability Rights Activists (Reproductive Health Reality Check, 1/16/15)
- Who Will Teach All the Free Community College Students? (Chronicle.com, 1/15/15)
- Harsh Critics in Public Spaces, Judging Only What They See (NYTimes.com, 1/12/15)
2014
- Police Violence Sparks Disability Rights Movement (Al Jazeera America, 12/22/14)
- University Presidents and Public Engagement (Chronicle.com, 12/18/2014)
- Academic Freedom and Repellent Speech (Chronicle.com, 12/15/2014)
- Marco Polo Would Be Better Without Marco Polo (Vice.com, 12/11/14)
- Should I Let my Boss Friend Me on Facebook? (Chronicle Vitae, 12/9/14)
- Eric Garner: The Intersections of Race and Disability (CNN.com 12/4/14)
- Playing Politics with the Disabled (Al Jazeera America, 11/26/2014)
- #FergusonSyllabus (Chronicle.com, 11/25/2014)
- For Parents of Children With Down Syndrome, ‘Abortion vs. Hardship’ Is a False Binary (Reproductive Health Reality Check, 11/18/2014)
- No Longer “Falling off the Cliff” – College for People with Intellectual Disabilities (Chronicle of Higher Education, 11/11/14)
- The Death of London McCabe: Child Murder & Discourse of Disability (CNN.com 11/10/2014)
- Save the NEH (from itself)Â (Chronicle Vitae, 10/16/2014)
- Down Syndrome – Getting Beyond “Cute” (Al Jazeera America, 10/15/2014)
- Fictionalizing Your Scholarship (Chronicle of Higher Education, 10/13/2014)
- What To Tell Your Kids About Columbus (CNN.com, 10/10/2014)
- Fix the Hiring Process (Chronicle Vitae, 10/6/2014)
- End the Conference Interview (Chronicle Vitae, 9/23/2014)
- Kanye West and Questioning Disability (CNN.com, 9/16/2014)
- Review: Disability and Technology in John Scalzi’s Lock In (Huffington Post, 8/29/14)
- Fighting Gender Norming One Backpack at a Time (Huffington Post, 8/26/14)
- Psychiatric Disability & the Police: The search for reasonable accommodations (CNN.com, 8/26/14)
- Save the Dissertation! (It saved me)Â (Chronicle Vitae, 8/25/14)
- Don’t Speak Out: The Message of the Salaita Affair (Chronicle.com, 8/21/14)
- Pope Francis did NOT call for a Crusade against Isis (CNN.com, 8/20/14)
- Ferguson and the Cult of Compliance (Al Jazeera America, 8/15/2014)
- The problems with telling jokes about Down Syndrome (CNN.com, 8/6/2014)
- Why John Walsh’s Plagiarism Matters – It’s not what you think (Chronicle Vitae, 7/25/14)
- “Never Alone – Our Story of Down Syndrome Diagnosis” (BLOOM Magazine, 7/21/14).Â
- Catholic Universities and Undocumented Students (Chronicle.com, 7/21/14)
- A Thousand Neil deGrasse Tysons! (Chronicle Vitae, 7/21/2014)
- Eden Foods – Ethics, not Politics (CNN.com, 7/11/2014)
- A Medievalist on CNNÂ (Inside Higher Ed, 7/2/2014)
- The Learning-Centered University (Chronicle Vitae, 7/1/2014)
- Sustained Public Engagement – “But Does it Count?” (Chronicle.com, 6/23/2014)
- College, One Latte at a Time? No thanks. (CNN.com, 6/17/14)
- The Most Interesting Adjunct in the World (Chronicle Vitae, 6/11/14)
- All Faculty are Labor (Chronicle Vitae, 5/22/2014)Â
- Do we need Trigger Warnings in the Classroom? (CNN.com, 5/20/2014)
- An Academic “Working Dad” (Chronicle.com, 5/19/2014)
- Police Violence and Disability, with Lawrence Carter-Long (TheAtlantic.com, 5/6/14)
- Forced Baptism, Blood Libel, and Sarah Palin’s Militant Christianity (CNN.com, 5/1/2014)
- Why Should Secular People Care About Saints? (CNN.com, 4/27/2014)
- Adjuncts and the Language of Labor: Part IÂ (Chronicle Vitae, 4/24/14)
- Frozen vs Little Mermaid – Two Anthems for Two Generations: (Good Men Project and Business Insider 4/13/14)
- Faculty Members Are Not Cashiers: Why the ‘customer service’ lingo in academe is bad for students (Chronicle.com, 3/18/2014)
- Rape Culture and Disability Intersect in Georgia (CNN.com, 3/11/2014)
2013 and before
- How to Talk Like a Feminist (If You’re a Guy)Â (The Shriver Report, 10/4/2013)
- Bullying a Bully – Parenting and Empathy (The Good Men Project, 9/21/2013)
- The New Franciscan Revolution (CNN.com, 9/20/2013)
- Police Accountability and Attacks on the Disabled (History News Network, 9/4/2013)
- Ethan Saylor: Disability Rights are Universal Human Rights (CNN.com, 8/29/2013).
- When Cops Criminalize the Disabled (TheNation.com, 8/1/2013)
- Pope Francis’ Incremental Revolution – On Homosexuality (Atlantic.com, 7/29/2013)
- My Initial Public Offering (Chronicle of Higher Education, 7/22/2013)
- Straight White Male Feminist Manifesto (The Good Men Project, 7/18/2013)
- Jenny McCarthy and Fear-based Parenting (CNN.com, 7/17/2013)
- The Public Health Menace of Jenny McCarthy (Atlantic.com, 7/11/2013)Â
- The canonizations of Popes John-Paul II and John XXIIIÂ (CNN.com, 7/5/2013)
- The Ottoman Past and the Turkish Future (CNN.com, 6/11/2013)
- Best Dressed Girl – Gender Stereotypes in Preschool (CNN.com, 5/28/2013)
- Pope Francis’ Wager (Atlantic.com, 5/24/2013)
- The Cardinal and the Prime Minister (Atlantic.com, 5/17/2013)
- Go Where They Are: An Online Teaching Manifesto (Chronicle of Higher Education, 4/29/2013)
- The Importance of Being Francis (Atlantic.com, 3/14/2013)
- History and the Papal Election: Thoughts for a Sede Vacante (Atlantic.com, 3/12/2013)
- Pope Benedict XVI and Pope St. Celestine VÂ (CNN.com, 2/12/2013)
- The Angel/Retard Dialectic (CNN.com, 11/16/2012)
- Libya violence hits home (Dominican Star, print edition 9/18/2012)
- Teaching Grade Thirteen with Kathleen Kennedy (Chronicle of Higher Education, 12/13/2009)
- Down Syndrome and the Discourse of Abortion (Minneapolis/St. Paul Star Tribune, print edition 10/5/2008)
- When Did the War on Terror Get Medieval? (Minneapolis/St. Paul Star Tribune, print edition 10/1/2006)
Radio/TV available online
- AJ+: On Cancel Culture (2/8/22)
- History Extra: The Bright Ages, with Matthew Gabriele (1/14/22)
- On the Media: The Bright Ages, with Matt Gabriele (1/14/22)
- Michael Smernconish: Down syndrome and inclusion in schools (6/21/21)
- CNN – S.E. Cupp: K-12 after Covid (1/6/21)
- CBC The Current: Gerber Baby and Down Syndrome (2/9/18) (transcript and audio at link)
- CBC Day 6: White Supremacy and Medieval Studies (9/29/17) (with written interview)
- On the Media: Neo Nazis and Medieval Studies (9/14/17) (transcript)
- MPR Tom Weber – Good Government is Good – Leaving Illinois (8/3/17)
- FAIR: Counterspin – Media Coverage of Police Use of Force and Disability (7/28/16)
- Word of Mouth – Assistive Technology: How can you afford to access accessibility? (7/13/16)
- WBEZ Morning Shift – Police Use of Force and the Ruderman Report (3/7/16)
- NPR’s Here and Now – Columbus Day (10/12/15)
- Inside Charlottesville with Coy Barefoot – Zero Tolerance and Cult of Compliance in Schools (4/23/15)
- Inside Charlottesville with Coy Barefoot – Sheehan vs SF/Police Violence (3/30/15)
- The Jack Rice Show AM 950 Minneapolis-St. Paul – Sacred Plunder: History, Memory, and The Crusades (2/22/15)
- The Daily Report AM 950 Minneapolis-St. Paul – The Able Act and Playing Politics (12/1/14)
- The Jack Rice Show. AM 950 Minneapolis-St. Paul – The Cult of Compliance (8/25/14)
- Inside Charlottesville with Coy Barefoot – Ferguson and the Cult of Compliance (8/18/14)
- Talk 910 AM San Francisco with Gil Gross – Ferguson and the Cult of Compliance (8/15/14)
- The Morning Grind with Matt McNeil. AM 950 Minneapolis – Eden Foods. Segment at 12:00.  7/11/14
- Life Matters on ABC RN (Australian public radio)Â – Working Dads, 6/13/14,Â
- Central Time on Wisconsin Public Radio – Trigger Warnings in the Classroom, 5/21/14
- Inside Charlottesville with Coy Barefoot – Rape, Down Syndrome, Justice 3/13/14
- Health and Design Today with Gail Zahtz. BlogTalkRadio.com. Ethan Saylor. 9/12/2013
- Inside Charlottesville with Coy Barefoot – Ethan Saylor, Police, and Disability 9/5/13
- Roundtable on NPR’s Tell Me More – Parenting, Disability, and the Police. 9/3/13
- Talk 910 AM San Francisco with Gil Gross – Ethan Saylor Segment at 17:00. 8/30/13.
- Talk 910 AM San Francisco with “Frosty” – Jenny McCarthy. Segment at 300. 7/12/13
- Talk 910 AM San Francisco with Gil Gross – Gender and Parenting. Segment at 14:30. 5/29/13