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My Thursday column is up and makes a modest proposal: a king and queen for America - http://nyti.ms/9kzZmP. Think of an American Idol process to choose a new royal family for us all (they could live in Disneyland Castle). The idea is that if we have royals to do photo ops and get angry at B.P., our president can actually worry less about showmanship and more about getting the work done. Read the column and post your thoughts.

I just got the news that the paperback version of our book "Half the Sky," just out, has made its debut as No. 8 on the NY Times paperback best-seller list. The hardback was on the best-seller list quite a while last fall, and it's very cool to see the paperback make the list as well. I know that so many people have helped spread the word about it, so a heartfelt thanks to all!

You have may have noticed that I've been quieter than usual over the last month or so. That's because I had a tumor discovered and then surgically removed from my kidney. I'll be fine, but I write about this in my Sunday column: http://nyti.ms/d1IWqw. My point is that any brush with mortality makes you appreciate this glorious world all the more, and makes you want to rebalance your life to leave a more meaningful legacy. I still feel like a truck ran over me, but what a lovely truck!
Read the column and post your thoughts.

Usually, I ask the questions, but here's your chance to grill me. I'm taking questions with the help of Youtube. The tougher the better: http://bit.ly/ahkvHB Post your questions there by text or, better yet, video.

My column today that Israel is slipping into a dynamic of self-defeating behavior of which the assault on the Gaza flotilla was emblematic. Israel has largely given up on world opinion and lashes out with short-term security moves, even when they undermine central strategic objectives (a non-nuclear Iran, a Middle East peace). Read the column and post your thoughts.http://nyti.ms/cF8h28

Yay! The paperback of our book "Half the Sky" is out today. Sheryl and I want our message to reach beyond the choir, and that's much easier with a paperback. The publisher moved up the paperback date so that colleges would choose it as a "freshman read," and that's another way to broaden the readership. So thanks for the support ...and spread the word! http://amzn.to/9MYJE4

My column today is about a bishop who has excommunicated a saintly nun over abortion politics: http://nyti.ms/dgRtDI. The case underscores all that is morally bankrupt with the Vatican, all the ways it seems out of touch with its great soul at the base. Read the column and post your thoughts.

My Sunday column addresses an ugly little secret of global poverty, one we're normally too polite to mention: http://nyti.ms/bJvrwQ. It's that if one reason for the suffering of poverty is low incomes, another is bad spending by heads of households -- on alcohol, tobacco, prostitution, rather than on education and bed nets. I may be a sanctimonious misanthrope, but I think we need to look squarely at this issue. Read the column and post your thoughts. Lots of comments on my FB page.

My Congo column is up: http://nyti.ms/c5rPug. I argue that birth control has been a much-neglected element of a poverty fighting strategy. It's heartbreaking to drive through impoverished rural areas and meet woman after woman who wants fewer children but has never heard of birth control and couldn't access it if she had. The hostility in some conservative circles to family planning efforts has led to tens of millions of abortions of unplanned pregnancies. Read the column and post your thoughts.

My Sunday column, the first from my win-a-trip journey this year, is about preserving Africa's Eden, Gabon. It's those elephants on the beach I was raving about....Read the column and post your thoughts. (and apply for next year's win-a-trip.) http://nyti.ms/ciivcg

My Thursday column is up: http://nyti.ms/a4E2Ou (sorry for the delay; I'm on my sat phone in Congo....). I argue that making Times Square safer from terrorists might involve focusing on schools in Pakistan, not just drones. Read the column and post your thoughts. (And greetings from Congo....)

My Sunday column is up. I suggest that we mark Mother's Day by sending flowers, yes, but also by saving a mother or two. In other words, let's move the apostrophe and make it Mothers' Day, and take a step to make motherhood less dangerous in so much of the world: http://nyti.ms/azAbFE . I have a few ideas about how to do this. Read the column and post your thoughts.

My latest column is up and it's about chemicals around us causing cancer. A presidential panel will shortly release a report warning that chemicals are a much greater threat than commonly believed, and urging people to eat organic, filter water, etc. http://nyti.ms/9ySHCV. Read the column and post your thoughts. And be very wary of plastic bottles because of BPA and phthalates that may be in them....

My Sunday column is about the Catholic Church in crisis: http://nyti.ms/dzIM8T. From Sudan, I suggest that the Church should be turned upside down and led not by Big Hats but by Big Hearts. I offer a defense of the Church that the Vatican won't like. I have no time for male chauvinist, homophobic social reactionaries in Rome, but I'm awed by the grassroots nuns and priests I see in impoverished places like southern Sudan. They would make great popes. Read the column and post your thoughts.

My column is up and tells a good-news story from Africa. It's a battle between Jimmy Carter and the most awful parasite out there, Guinea worm. And Carter is winning, with Guinea worm close to eradication. One lesson is the need to involve local people in such health campaigns: http://nyti.ms/bOcP9o. Read the column and post your thoughts.

My Sunday column is up: http://nyti.ms/9EWNG0. It's from a new high school being built in a harsh, remote area of Sudan by a former "lost boy" who became a refugee in Atlanta. It is rising with the help of thousands of Americans, including some of you. I spent a couple of days there this last week and was awed. Read the column and post your thoughts.

My first column from my Sudan trip is up: http://nyti.ms/bL14ll. I argue that President Obama has slipped backward on Sudan, and that his reluctance to apply pressure could increase the chance of another north-south war here. Sudan's president sees to think the U.S. is in his pocket. Read the column and post your thoughts.

My Sunday column is up: http://nyti.ms/bgO26j. I argue that I see two Catholic Churches. One is the familiar old boys' club of the Vatican, mired in scandal, that gets all the attention. The other is the grassroots church of priests and nuns getting no credit for the great work they do fighting poverty and injustice around the world. They underscore that the magnificence of a church lies not in its vestments but in its selflessness. Read the column and post your thoughts.

Good causes usually aren't nearly as savvy at marketing things that really matter as Coke and Pepsi are at marketing things that don't matter. My column today looks for some lessons in marketing and rebranding a good cause from a quixotic effort to save the African wild dog -- now the painted dog. http://nyti.ms/9C5nB7
Read the column and post your thoughts.

Why is Africa poor? In my Sunday column, I argue that the central problem isn't Africa's people, but its leaders -- specifically, bad governance. I tell the story through an amazing family of orphans I met living alone in their hut in Zimbabwe: http://nyti.ms/acMOlT Really inspiring kids! Read the column and post your thoughts.

My first column from Zimbabwe is up: http://nyti.ms/bssvXX . Boy, what a mess that wonderful country has become. I visited schools without enough books, chairs or even classrooms, where students meet under a tree. One teacher had 50 students and two textbooks. And, most sadly and poignantly, I interviewed villagers who say they miss the racist old white-ruled regime of Rhodesia, because at least then they could get food and jobs. I flinched every time I heard that. Mugabe must go. Read the column and post your thoughts.

From my undisclosed location (I'll narrow it down: I'm in Africa), a
quick note about my column today: http://nyti.ms/bdGezr. It's about
China, America and Google. Read it and post your comments. And greetings from...wherever I am. (I'm leaving Saturday and can then talk about it)

From my undisclosed location: a head's up about my Sunday column: http://nyti.ms/bxeHkV. It looks at a different gender gap -- boys being left behind in schools in American and other Western countries. In America, schoolgirls are leaving boys in the dust. It's a serious problem, leading to affirmative action for white males by colleges. Read the column and leave your thoughts on why this is, and what we should do about it.

My Thursday column is up, and this time I look at domestic poverty rather than global poverty. I argue that randomized experiments are giving us a better handle on what policies work best, and that education initiatives and jobs programs have a particularly good record. Read the column and post your thoughts.http://nyti.ms/beTHvh

My Sunday column, http://nyti.ms/cHufMb, tells the story of my former neighbors, Zack and Jan, and their battle with stomach cancer and an insurance company. It's a heartbreaking example of why we need health care reform -- Now! Read the column and let me know if you agree.

How can we still be debating health care reform when, as I note in my column today, an American woman is 11 times as likely to die in childbirth as an Irish woman? When an American child is 2.5 times as likely to die by age 5 as a Swedish kid? The evidence is overwhelming that health care is about access as much as technology, and that's what the Obama reform focuses on. Read the column and post your thoughts: http://nyti.ms/bFTb0o

My Sunday column addresses one of the most common questions I get: What can one person do about global poverty? There's never a perfect answer, but here's one ingenious solution from some bead smugglers turned development experts: http://nyti.ms/a9PbFA. Read the column, and post your thoughts.

My Thursday column announces a winner in my fourth annual Win-a-Trip Contest: http://nyti.ms/ahpXOI. We may go to Gabon, the two Congos and perhaps Angola, so ideas for issues to cover and places to visit welcome! I also suggest the creation of a Teach for the World, a cross between Peace Corps and Teach for America. Read the column and post your thoughts.

On the occasion of International Women's Day, I put together a video introducing the Congo Exercise Plan -- do a Congolese woman's work. It's a foolproof way to lose those pounds. I tried it, and just about killed myself. Watch the video and post a comment. http://nyti.ms/cz3FUx

My Sunday column is up: http://nyti.ms/dy2mEc. The takeaway is, "DON'T GET SICK!" Overuse of antibiotics in farming has helped lead to pathogens that resist antibiotics. That's what happened to Tom Dukes, a Californian business executive who is the protagonist in my story. In a few days, antibiotic-resistant bacteria struck him, and his life fell apart. Unfortunately, Congress and the Obama administration have been asleep at the wheel. Read the column and post your thoughts.

My Sunday column is up and is rather unusual: http://nyti.ms/c461ht. I say that we liberals need to acknowledge that conservative Christians are actually doing a tremendous amount of good fighting global poverty. If liberals dropped their snootiness and evangelicals dropped their sanctimony, there's no limit to what they could achieve together in fighting poverty. Read the column and post your comments.

A head's up: Next Thursday in theaters around the U.S. and Canada, look out for "Half the Sky Live." It's an evening drawn from our book Half the Sky, with a premier mini-film, music including a fabulous song about women by India Arie, appearances from Marisa Tomei and the Duchess of York, and plenty more. Think of it as a night of inspiration about women of the world. Info at http://www.halftheskylive.com

My new column looks at the health peril from unregulated chemicals in shampoos, fragrances, pesticides, etc: http://nyti.ms/cP0Veu. There's growing evidence that these chemicals may be linked to autism and other ailments. It seems to me that we should conceive of health care reform not only as tweaking our system of insurance but also as trying to protect ourselves by beginning to regulate these toxins. At an individual level, I'd suggest avoiding plastics marked 3,6 or 7. Read the column and post your thoughts.

What if journalism were like our unreformed health care system? Well, for starters, I'd spend a lot more time billing you. And I'd be demanding a co-pay right now. That's the theme of my Sunday column: http://nyti.ms/cbQ2X0. But don't worry, your insurance will pay the bill. Read the column and post your comments.

The debate on health reform has focused on the drawbacks of the reform proposals. Fair enough. But in my Thursday column, I argue that the question isn't whether we can afford health reform but whether we can afford not to: http://nyti.ms/bsP5Wo.

Are liberals and conservatives, at least at the extremes, biologically different? My Sunday column is up, http://nyti.ms/aE9qDF, and looks at some fascinating recent research noting that liberals and conservatives seem to blink and sweat differently. Read the column and post your thoughts.

The real kowtowing to China isn't anything President Obama did. It's what Microsoft has done with its Bing search engine. Bing is now part of the Propaganda Department apparatus, and Microsoft has dissembled about it. That's insulting to all of us, and so I'm boycotting Bing. Here's my full post on this: http://bit.ly/2cmmfT

My Thursday column is up and looks at how opponents of universal health care are using the same precise arguments that were used against Medicare and Social Security generations ago. But that earlier scare-mongering was discredited and proved false, and once again opponents of health reform are on the wrong side of history. Here's the column. Read it and leave your thoughts: http://bit.ly/3QeXwq

My Sunday column is up and tells the story of a hero of mine, Tererai Trent: http://bit.ly/1Q573C . She's perhaps the most remarkable university degree recipient this year in America. She's also a reminder that while talent is universal, opportunity is not. And her journey from poverty to Ph.D is truly an inspiration. Read the column and post your thoughts.

My Thursday column is up and argues that the U.S. faces a profound choice: Do we focus resources on health reform at home or on troops for Afghanistan? Each costs a similar amount, but I argue that the greater threat to Americans comes not from the Taliban but from our dysfunctional insurance system, killing 45,000 Americans a year: http://bit.ly/PWvDU . Read it and let me know what you think.

My Sunday column is on line and looks at an amazing U.S. ob/gyn, Lewis Wall, who has devoted his life to helping women with fistulas. For those who don't know, a fistula is a horrendous childbirth injury -- it may truly be the worst thing that can happen to a human being. Now Dr. Wall is finally achieving his dream, a hospital to help such women. He deserves everyone's support. http://bit.ly/4gANn8. Help spread the word. Here's a chance to make a difference, to use our voices for the world's voiceless.

My Thursday column is up and argues that instead of sending 40,000 troops to Afghanistan, we should send 40,000 schools: http://bit.ly/3wTFCH . More military force won't help, but education might. And the cost of a single soldier would pay for 20 schools. Read the column and let me know if you agree.

My Thursday column looks at school reform, which is the most promising way to chip away at poverty here in the United States. I argue that Democrats have been AWOL because of their ties to teachers' unions, and that this is the civil rights issue of our time. Read the column and leave your thoughts. http://tinyurl.com/yzd62yv

Some folks evidently didn't like my column today. As a bunch of you discovered, when you hit the link to my last entry, Facebook popped up with a warning that the link had been reported as abusive and it refused to go there. So here's a new link to the column that should work, and thanks: http://tinyurl.com/ycvalw5 . And if Facebook thinks this is porn as well, then just go to www.nytimes.com and my column is on the upper right.Thanks for the patience. And if you see any members of Congress skulking around, reporting my columns to FB as abusive, lemme know.

My Thursday column is up, proposing that if Congress can't pass health reform this year, its members should lose health insurance in proportion with the U.S. population. In other words, 15 percent of members of Congress and their families would go without any health insurance, and 8 percent would be left underinsured. Maybe that would concentrate their minds? What do you think? Read the column and leave a comment. http://tinyurl.com/yaphba6

Here's my Sunday column: http://tinyurl.com/yc7y8lu . It's a family story -- two sons trying to save their father's life with a kidney transplant -- that underscores how desperately we need health reform. Now! Read the column and leave me your comments, please.

Every year, 18,000 Americans die for lack of health insurance. So meet one, Nikki White: http://tinyurl.com/ouz3by . Even if you know intellectually that so many people die unnecessarily because of our dysfunctional health system, it's still a shock to hear Nikki's story -- and so she's a focus of my Sunday column. Do we really want to be the only rich country where people like Nikki die? I'm hoping we'll seize this opportunity to reform our health care system, so that no more Americans die the way she did.

The Washington Post today gave a rave review of our book "Half the Sky": http://tinyurl.com/kjzvjc. Excerpts: "Half the Sky" is a call to arms...with exquisitely crafted prose and sensationally interesting material…I really do think this is one of the most important books I have ever reviewed." And more along that vein. So excuse the shameless self-promotion, but Sheryl and I are floating around on Cloud Nine as we go about book tour today!

Sheryl and I just had a new baby: one that, in contrast to our teenagers, doesn't talk back or demand the car keys. Our book "Half the Sky" goes on sale today, after a few years' gestation. We really want people to get involved in the cause of global women's rights, and the book is conceived as a DIY toolkit. So pardon this shameless self- promotion....There's a new movement brewing on this issue, and we hope the book will give it a bit more traction. Info at www.halftheskymovement.org .

My Sunday column is up and warns strongly against President Obama sending more troops to Afghanistan. I quote some intel officials who think it would be a historic mistake. Frankly, I think Washington doesn't appreciate how many Pashtun tribesman are ambivalent -- until our actions drive them into the Taliban camp. http://tinyurl.com/knrsv6 . Read it and lemme know if you agree.

My Thursday NYT column is about health care, again. Sorry if I'm a broken record, but I'm afraid we're going to let reform slip through our fingers. And I don't understand why we're so terrified of govt in health when we agree on single-payer public schools, fire and police. In some areas where universal access is necessary, "public" isn't so bad: http://tinyurl.com/kuyv63. Read and let me know what you think on my FB page.

My Sunday column tells the story of a friend whose husband developed early-onset dementia. She loved him -- yet was forced to divorce him to avoid going broke. And with 18,000 people dying a year because they lack insurance, the threat to Grandma doesn't come from reform or "death panels," it comes from our existing system if reform fails. Here's the column: http://tinyurl.com/ndsvue . Read it and please leave a comment beside it or on my FB page, particularly if you have your own experience with the health system.

My column is up and tells the story of Wendell Potter, a former senior insurance executive who helped devise the messaging that the insurance industry uses to scare people about health reform. Then he had a crisis of conscience and retired -- and now he calls for far-reaching reform and a "public option." http://tinyurl.com/m9toad .

So why did the chick think it was a goose? The answer's in my Sunday column, which is a very personal look at growing up on a pre-industrial farm: http://tinyurl.com/m6nobt . Read it and let me know if you share my concerns about farming and food. And if you think I was mean to the chick (or the goose) -- hey, I was a kid....

Some people say we can't afford health care reform. But then why do we squander money imprisoning people for non-violent offenses, at far greater rates than Europe? Our "justice system" is an oxymoron and needs reform, and our priority should be to lead the world in education and health, not in incarceration rates. That's my column theme, http://tinyurl.com/nyb3yc . Read it and let me know if you agree; I'd be especially interested in the views of those who have worked in the criminal justice system.

Here's a sneak preview of this coming Sunday's NY Times Magazine cover story by me and Sheryl on the world's women, as the best way to address global poverty and instability: http://tinyurl.com/m4hmv3 . The entire magazine is a special issue, full of great features on this subject.

Also, as part of the magazine issue, there's a call for reader photos showing women being empowered around the world. And a "Half the Sky contest" for the best essay describing an experience or organization that relates to these issues. Details here: http://www.nytimes.com/ontheground

Just three more weeks of glorious August -- a time to overcome "nature deficit disorder" and enjoy the outdoors. After my column a week ago, many people said that they didn't know just how to go about it. So today's column is unusual: a how-to guide to backpacking, in 10 steps. http://tinyurl.com/lh3w4g Now you've no excuse!

My Thursday column is online, focusing on North Korea: http://tinyurl.com/meffpz . It's a strange column to write, because for years I've been a dove on North Korea, urging engagement. But I'm afraid that's not going to work any more, and the North's nuclear proliferation is really scary. In particular, there are new reports that Kim Jong Il is selling a nuclear reactor to Burma, on top of the one it already sold to Syria. Read the column and let me know your thoughts?

My Sunday column is up: http://tinyurl.com/mhd6vs . I argue that we need to get young people out of doors to overcome "nature deficit disorder." So, c'mon, pry your kids (or yourself) off the keyboard and go camping this summer. See what happens when you lick a big yellow banana slug. Anybody remember that? Any great childhood memories of the outdoors? Any great suggestions for outdoors activities?

My Thursday column is online: http://tinyurl.com/lx7jcq . It tells the story of a young Pakistani woman, Shazia, whom I met as doctors were struggling to save her life and her child's. She had wanted to deliver in the hospital; her in-laws thought that was an extravagance. Britain and the UN are leading an effort to make maternal mortality a global priority and I'm hoping President Obama will jump aboard as well -- to save women like Shazia.

Usually we in the news biz focus on villains, but my Sunday column looks at a kid who is truly a hero. Assiya Rafiq was gang-raped by the Pakistani police, and now she is trying to prosecute them. The burden of shame is huge, and she is also putting up with threats against her and her younger sisters. Yet she persists, to protect other young women. She also could use your help: http://tinyurl.com/m4474s .

My Sunday column is the first in a cluster from Pakistan and looks at a hugely under-reported way in which women in poor countries get a raw deal: http://tinyurl.com/kj9c7m . Put it this way: if men had uteruses, I think "paternal mortality" would be far higher on the global health agenda. Read the column and let me know if you agree. And I do hope some of you help the amazing doctor I describe. He is doing extraordinary work and deserves support.

My Thursday column is up: http://tinyurl.com/nuq6wk. It looks at chemicals called phthalates that may be damaging our health -- yet just aren't being regulated adequately. In particular, they seem to be harming male fetuses, and perhaps also are linked to obesity, diabetes and other ailments. I hope the Obama administration will show some leadership here. Read the column and spread the word.

My Sunday column is up and tells the stunning story of Scott Harrison, who went from drug-addled nightclub promoter to founder of a brilliantly successful aid group, charity: water: http://tinyurl.com/nd4r68. Scott shows people how they can donate without concerns about corruption and waste. (He helps people pay for wells in Africa and Asia, to bring clean water to schools and villages). Read, forward, and let me know what you think.

My Thursday column is online, http://tinyurl.com/lnlge2 , and looks at why the G-8 is failing to meet its aid pledges. I argue that the problem is that humanitarians are really ineffective at marketing. That's why any of us would help somebody next to us in distress, even as we ignore the needs of those who are far away. We need to learn from the recent research in social psychology about how to connect people to the greatest needs. Please read and let me know if you agree.

My Sunday column doesn't mention politics or international affairs; it's a bit different. Instead, I offer my own list of the Best Kids' Books -- Ever! http://tinyurl.com/lztjta I figured it's summer and I should promote reading -- and, more to the point, I just love these books and feel I owe them. So read the list and let me know what I've left out -- or offer ideas for parents who are looking for ideas. Frankly, I feel guilty about leaving out Roald Dahl.

My Thursday column is online: http://tinyurl.com/mqkq4c . I argue that our brains were designed by evolution to confront ancient threats, like snakes and men with clubs. We have great instincts to deal with those kinds of threats. But evolution never prepared us to confront 21st century threats, like climate change. Read the column and let me know if you agree -- and what we do about it.

The New York Times Magazine will have a special issue on Aug. 23, exclusively about women of the world. It's a first for the magazine, and it'll be built around an excerpt from "Half the Sky," the book that my wife and I have written on the topic (the book is due out Sept. 8). Lots of other stuff in the issue, including a reader contest. Details at www.nytimes.com/ontheground. Let me know there or on my FB page if you have suggestions for the special issue, particularly for online accompaniments.

Youtube has started a Reporter's Center to train citizen journalists: www.youtube.com/reporterscenter. I contributed a video, as did Bob Woodward, Katie Couric, Arianna Huffington, Scott Simon and others. But none of us explained how the citizen journalists are going to get paid online. And it's striking that as we're explaining to Netizens how to be journalists, we journos are struggling to adapt to the Web. Part of that is my experimenting with Facebook, Twitter and Youtube. I've even started a youtube channel: www.youtube.com/nicholaskristof . Let's just hope that news organizations figure out a way to pay the bills.

My Sunday column is online -- and it's scary: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/28/opinion/28kristof.html . Scientists are finding increasing evidence that certain chemicals -- endocrine disruptors -- cause deformities in animals and humans, particularly in male genitals. These chemicals may also be linked to obesity and diabetes. Endocrine disruptors are widely used, so we're all exposed. They're even in our drinking water. The evidence isn't conclusive, but it's getting stronger and more alarming by the day. We need a wake-up call. Please read the column, and pass it on.

My latest column is online, http://tinyurl.com/ndtwcp , and suggests that President Obama listen less to the A.M.A. and more to his long-time physician in Chicago. That doctor notes that the A.M.A. has taken the wrong turn time and again in its history -- e.g. its support for tobacco and opposition to Medicare -- and that it's doing so again in its opposition to a public insurance option. The public option won't solve all our problems, but without it we're back to Square 1. So c'mon, Mr. President! Listen less to the A.M.A. and call your doctor!
Hope you enjoy the column.