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rmdean.bsky.social
Anthropologist (archaeology, biological anth, ecology). Director of Assessment for the Office of Undergraduate Education. Former Michigan diaspora now home but missing Minnesota. UMich grad working at MSU. Never speaks for MSU.
269 posts 4,319 followers 2,183 following
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My mom was told that the number of in-home nursing visits she will receive has been cut in half because of Medicaid cuts. She doesn’t get Medicaid coverage in general, but it covers a lot of the longer term Medicare benefits, apparently?

submitted 8 hours ago • 1 comment

The look on his face continues to send me.

submitted 19 hours ago • 4 comments

Since Trump took office, his family has made $2.9 billion in crypto. Again, this is a level of corruption so cartoonish, so obvious & on the surface, that it seems to have stunned everyone to silence.

submitted 1 day ago • 176 comments

Took the dog out. Came back and reached for the door and…

submitted 1 day ago • 10 comments

Today’s anthem m.youtube.com/watch?v=-IIK...

submitted 1 day ago • 0 comments

My new book, “Sex Is a Spectrum: The Biological Limits of the Binary” publishes today from @princetonupress.bsky.social My goal in writing this book is to facilitate a better conversation. A short thread…

submitted 1 day ago • 2 comments

Who is the woman standing behind him looking profoundly uncomfortable with this babble?

submitted 1 day ago • 1 comment

A quick and typed-on-my-phone-riddled-with-typos thread about why I think people need to support NPR/PBS, even though they did post that one interview you didn't like:

submitted 1 day ago • 4 comments

Note to self: if your employee needs support for a work decision and you write an email that says, only, “You have my sword,” make sure they are a LotR fan first.

submitted 2 days ago • 6 comments

May 5 is Red Dress Day, the National Day of Awareness for Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls. Today is dedicated to honouring the thousands of lives of missing and murdered Indigenous women, girls and Two-Spirit people.

submitted 2 days ago • 4 comments

Want to know how to send the employees of a university into a total panic? Try this one email trick!

submitted 2 days ago • 2 comments

One of my proudest accomplishments in raising my son (but it's not really MY accomplishment): when he was 6, I asked him who his favorite Wild Kratts brother was and he said "Aviva"

submitted 2 days ago • 0 comments

Had an amazing conversation with @xavierbonilla.bsky.social about sex, biology, humans, and much more, drawing on my new book with @princetonupress.bsky.social convergingdialogues.substack.com/p/418-sex-is...

submitted 2 days ago • 1 comment

This conversation with Dr Dan Hicks was fascinating. We chatted about archaeology and monuments today and how we actively create our cultures of memory www.youtube.com/live/RRsm9C4...

submitted 3 days ago • 0 comments

I just got out of bed yesterday. It hardly seems fair to make me do it again today.

submitted 2 days ago • 1 comment

I cannot say the things that I want to say because I’m a good Christian woman, but as a proud UM alum, I have thoughts. So many freaking thoughts.

submitted 3 days ago • 0 comments

#MayThe4th

submitted 3 days ago • 27 comments

I had to help a lady use the sink in the Minneapolis airport because the sensor for the automatic water taps didn’t work for her dark skin But do go on, professor www.nytimes.com/2025/05/02/o...

submitted 4 days ago • 6 comments

Students would get so upset when I debunked these myths in Intro to Bio Anth.

submitted 4 days ago • 0 comments

In 1953, when my mother was 6 years old, she and her three siblings got measles. It was common then, every child got it. As my mom laid in bed, she heard her brothers and sister playing outside as their symptoms improved, but she just got sicker and sicker. 1/

submitted 5 days ago • 7 comments

Either folks are defining “friends” very narrowly or “Americans” as men only.

submitted 5 days ago • 3 comments

My grandpa was on Okinawa with the 1st Marine Division on May 8, 1945. I have it on good authority that he wasn’t celebrating a victorious end to the war.

submitted 5 days ago • 1 comment

Time to catch up on the past week’s news about science and medicine in the US. Whew. 1/10

submitted 6 days ago • 27 comments

My pet peeve with this: if you go back that far, then you're at a generation that didn't recognize, say, half the fruits and veggies we eat as food because 19th century Midwestern farmers did not have access to avocados or star fruit or jicama.

submitted 7 days ago • 2 comments

I honestly don’t know if I have a cold or spring allergies but I’m ready to take NyQuil and go to bed. It’s 9pm somewhere, right?

submitted 7 days ago • 1 comment