Image: @TheHappyTalent on Instagram

You know what sucks about human psychology? We're hardwired to be scared, lonely, ableist, and jealous. Happiness and contentment feel good -- but from an evolutionary perspective, they're worthless.

​Meanwhile, people who felt scared avoided dangerous activities. People who felt jealous were less likely to raise offspring that weren't theirs. People who were never satisfied with what they had hoarded resources that kept them alive during droughts and famines. People who gossiped knew whom to trust and whom to avoid.

Evolutionarily, fear is an extremely important emotion... but in the modern world, it's often maladaptive. For example, people's obsession with the idea that women should never run/travel/leave the house alone, because if they do, they'll totally get raped and murdered. 

The reality is: No. They won't.

Smartphones connect us in so many ways. They stunt us in so many others.

So I went to this super epic camping party this weekend.​ (Just an hour from home, too -- I love discovering new adventures right in my own backyard.) There were burgers, guitars, and beautiful harmonies. I was just about to debut my new song, "Expats Are Expats for a Reason," when one of the trip organizers made an announcement:

We were to gather around the fire for group storytime. And during this storytime, I realized that if you're a feminist guy or a male ally or whatever... you kind of just can't win.

True fact: "bitchy" is a gender neutral term.

​And if you’re being passive aggressive, you’re being bitchy -- regardless of what’s in your pants.

And… it is my moral obligation -- to myself, to the speaker, and to society -- to ignore passive aggression.

Purdy, Persky -- what's the difference? 

13 Reasons Why covers tough topics, from bullying to sexual assault to teen suicide. The events in the show closely mirror many real-life events -- including several not-so-subtle nods to Brock Turner, a former swimmer who was caught by two graduate students raping an unconscious woman behind a dumpster on the Stanford campus.

And, of course, Judge Aaron Persky's ridiculously lenient sentence. Despite a prosecutor's belief that Turner should spend six years in prison, Persky deemed he would only serve six months in jail (in the end, Turner only served three months, before being released on probation).

Last week, the Stanford Daily posted about new women-focused weightlifting hours in one of Stanford's many gyms. This week, a triggered little boy filed a filed a Title IX complaint to the U.S. Department of Education; a gender discrimination complaint to California’s Department of Fair Employment and Housing, which enforces the Unruh Act; and an Act of Intolerance report through Stanford’s Student Affairs office.

Before #MeToo. Before DeVos and the Education Department formally rescinded Obama-era guidance on how colleges handle sexual assaults. Before trump's oddly hypocritical tweet about due process...

There was Laura Kipnis and her amazing 2017 book, Unwanted Advances: Sexual Paranoia Comes to Campus.

(International Olympic Committee)

I know it's titillating to think about all the sex Olympians must be having. Just four days ago, journalists were abuzz with some very important news: the Olympic village will be stocked with 37 condoms per athlete.

I'm going to go ahead and state the obvious:

Just because Olympic athletes are taking a lot of free condoms, doesn't mean they're having a lot of sex. 

"That Christmas dress -- my lord!" someone said recently when I posted this photo on my Instagram. It simultaneously felt nice to get a compliment... and slightly uncomfortable, because for some reason, our culture drills into us that it's bad to accept a compliment. 

One of the most valuable classes I ever took at Stanford... was Dance 46: Social Dance I. After a lifetime of feeling totally awkward and weird on the dance floor, I can now look forward to feeling comfortable -- and even skilled -- on any dance floor. For the rest of my life.