Alan Levinovitz (@AlanLevinovitz) / X

Alan Levinovitz

86.6K posts

Alan Levinovitz

@AlanLevinovitz

Professor: religion, philosophy, science, dao. "Natural" on how to love nature without worshipping it: tinyurl.com/y75tpmog. Opinions mine only.

Charlottesville, VA

bookglory.substack.com

Born March 2

Joined March 2013

Pinned
Alan Levinovitz
@AlanLevinovitz
Jun 24
Amazing essay “On Girls” by a 19th century schoolboy, picked out by Mark Twain as the funniest (genuine) boy’s composition he has ever seen. “they always now their lessons bettern boys” … just incredible
540K
Alan Levinovitz
@AlanLevinovitz
Nov 15, 2024
There's been a LOT about why RFK Jr is a terrible pick, but I want to focus on something that is very concerning to me, but no one seems to be mentioning. He appeals to a widespread, common-sense idea that the problem with our food is that it has "lots of artificial
9M
Alan Levinovitz
@AlanLevinovitz
Dec 16, 2024
Japanese people love soy. Japanese people use lots of seed oils. Japan consumes 1/3 the meat of Americans. They live 10 YEARS LONGER THAN AMERICANS. See how easy this is?
Calley Means
@calleymeans
Dec 15, 2024
Japan does not fluoridate their water. Japan does not give the Hep B vaccine to babies on the first day of life. The Japanese live 10 YEARS longer than Americans. It is not anti-science to assess and update American public health policies. It is a scientific imperative.
1.2M
Alan Levinovitz
@AlanLevinovitz
Jul 13, 2020
After reading endless takes, I finally dug into The Letter myself and I was shocked.
00:00
Alan Levinovitz
@AlanLevinovitz
Nov 15, 2024
Replying to @AlanLevinovitz
Here's the truth: If people keep eating large amounts of highly caloric foods made with organic sugar instead of high fructose corn syrup, colored with beet juice instead of Red No4, our health problems will remain precisely the same.
1.1M
Alan Levinovitz
@AlanLevinovitz
Nov 15, 2024
Replying to @AlanLevinovitz
Unfortunately, RFK Jr. does not seem to understand that the problem with our food system is the UBIQUITOUS EXISTENCE OF CHEAP, CALORIE-DENSE, HIGHLY PALATABLE FOOD. That's it. That's the whole problem. It has precisely nothing to do with food dye or high fructose corn syrup.
835K
Alan Levinovitz
@AlanLevinovitz
Nov 15, 2024
Replying to @AlanLevinovitz
Now in a strange way, forcing manufacturers to use "natural" ingredients COULD improve our food system, but not in the way people think. It wouldn't make the food healthier, but it would make it MORE EXPENSIVE TO PRODUCE. And that would reduce consumption. Like a tax!
884K
Alan Levinovitz
@AlanLevinovitz
Sep 28, 2019
Unpopular opinion (among professors): Students should not be terrified of getting their citation *format* wrong. Formatting should, at MOST, be a very minor consideration—not worth a half or full grade! That traumatizes students, makes them think form > content. Stop.
Alan Levinovitz
@AlanLevinovitz
Jun 14, 2024
It’s my daughter’s birthday, so as always my professional cake-maker wife made her a custom cake. She’s doing a movie party, so… 🍿!!!! And no, that’s not real popcorn. Can anyone guess what it is?
476K
Alan Levinovitz
@AlanLevinovitz
Jun 12, 2020
It’s my daughter’s eighth birthday and my wife asked her to design her own cake. Then my wife made it.
Alan Levinovitz
@AlanLevinovitz
Nov 15, 2024
Replying to @AlanLevinovitz
Food manufacturers employ the very best in the business. If you focus on "artificial additives" they are going to spend millions on how to produce "natural" versions of the same food, at the same price point. *taps earpiece* What's that? You say they're already on it?
705K
Alan Levinovitz
@AlanLevinovitz
Jul 25, 2025
I know, instantly, that Shakespeare didn’t write this, without having to look it up. The ability to know this without consulting any sources is an ability that will be decimated by reliance on AI.
150K
Alan Levinovitz
@AlanLevinovitz
Jul 15, 2023
Extraordinary wedding cake by my wife, blue stencil on fondant with sugar flowers. Never seen anything like it, and I’ve seen a LOT of cakes. 🤩🤩🤩
188K
Alan Levinovitz
@AlanLevinovitz
Nov 15, 2024
Replying to @AlanLevinovitz
People want easy answers to complicated problems. We want to believe that Haagen-Dazs "Five" is the solution to our problems. Five simple natural ingredients! Free ice cream for everyone now that it's only got five natural ingredients, and sugar instead of corn syrup! That's
829K