2021's Most Popular Posts

The "Key Posts" link in navigation at the top of my blog lists all important posts through the end of 2016. Along with "2017's Most Popular Posts," “2018's Most Popular Posts,” “2019's Most Popular Posts,” and “2020's Most Popular Posts,” this is intended as a complement to that list. (Also, my most popular storified Twitter discussions are here, and you can see other recent posts by clicking on the Archive link at the top of my blog.) Continuing this tradition, I give links to the most popular posts in the 2021 below into six groups: popular new posts in 2021 on diet and health, popular new posts in 2021 on political philosophy, popular new posts in 2021 on other topics, and popular older posts in those three categories. I provide the pageviews in 2021 for each post as counted when someone went specifically to that post.

I am pleased to be able to report 556,084 Google Analytics pageviews in 2021—more than a half a million. Of these, 33,222 were pageviews for my blog homepage. One thing that stands out from the data is how well my back catalog does because of Google search.

Note: This post is still under construction. Numbers at or above 485 are for the whole year. Numbers at below 485 are only for the first half of the year.

New Posts in 2021 on Diet and Health

  1. Livestock Antibiotics, Lithium and PFAS as Leading Suspects for Environmental Causes of Obesity 1,360

  2. How to Summarize a Big Chunk of Nutrition Research: Almost Anything You Are Likely to Think Of Is Better Than the Standard American Diet 934

  3. Are Processed Food and Environmental Contaminants the Main Cause of the Rise of Obesity? 829

  4. Evaluating Sweden's Food Guidelines 478

  5. How Many Thousands of Americans Will the Sugar Lobby's Latest Victory Kill? 192

  6. Elizabeth Bernstein on Getting Better Sleep 180

  7. On the Keto Diet 166

  8. Sugar Rots Your Teeth. Sugar Kills. So Don't Eat It. 150

  9. Starving Cancer Cells: We Need Metabolic Oncology, Stat! 149

  10. Semaglutide Looks Like the First Truly Impressive Weight-Loss Drug 138

  11. In Praise of the Squatty Potty 136

  12. How to Make Ramadan Fasting—or Any Other Religious Fasting—Easier 133

  13. Why Leptin Isn't a Blockbuster Weight-Loss Drug 130

New Posts in 2021 on Political Philosophy

  1. Peggy Noonan: Bring the Insurrectionists to Justice 160

  2. The Federalist Papers #22 C: Pillars of Democracy—The Judicial System, Military Loyal to the Constitution, and Police Loyal to the Constitution 145

New Posts in 2021 on Other Topics

  1. Friedrich Hayek on John Maynard Keynes: Keynes was Brilliant, but Economics was Only a Sideline for Him (video post) 6,554

  2. On Greg Mankiw 4,061

  3. Getting Hired and Published as an Economist: A Theory 1,975

  4. Higher Capital Requirement May Be Privately Costly to Banks, But Their Financial Stability Benefits Come at a Near Zero Cost to Society 1,496

  5. The Devil of Getting Criticized 1,302

  6. Miles Kimball: Leaving Mormonism 830

  7. My Sister Sarah 692

  8. The Economics of Risk and Time (course blog) 625

  9. Preparing the Ground for Mathematical Creativity 317

  10. Did the Pandemic Speed Up Productivity Growth? 281

  11. A Political Economy Externality that Should Be Taught in Every ‘Principals of Economics’ Course 234

  12. The Optimal Rate of Inflation 219

  13. My Sister-in-Law Becky Porter Kimball 219

  14. Why You Should Impute Equal Credit to Co-Authors in Economics 200

  15. The Four Horsemen of Relationship Destruction 199

  16. Why Thinking Geometrically and Graphically is Such a Powerful Way to Do Math 175

  17. Reactions to Miles’s Program For Enhancing Economists’ Scientific Creativity, Engagement and Impact 158

  18. Tiktok of Econolimerick #1 149

  19. Elizabeth MacBride: Leonardo Da Vinci is History’s Best Case for Wasting Time (link post) 143

  20. Chris Carroll, Martin Blomhoff Holm and Miles Kimball: Liquidity Constraints and Precautionary Saving 138

  21. On the Oppression of Women 127

  22. Easter Skepticism 118

  23. Only What is in Our Power is Our Duty 117

  24. Critiquing the Wall Street Journal Editorial Pages on Fiscal Policy 101

  25. Larry Summers Should Not Be Critical of Price-Level Targeting that Allows Inflation Above Target If It has been Below Target for a While 101

Older Posts with Continuing Popularity on Diet and Health

  1. Reexamining Steve Gundry's `The Plant Paradox’ 52,684

  2. Which Nonsugar Sweeteners are OK? An Insulin-Index Perspective 47,973

  3. Forget Calorie Counting; It's the Insulin Index, Stupid 33,652

  4. Why a Low-Insulin-Index Diet Isn't Exactly a 'Lowcarb' Diet 22,105

  5. How Fasting Can Starve Cancer Cells, While Leaving Normal Cells Unharmed 11,933

  6. Whole Milk Is Healthy; Skim Milk Less So 7,610

  7. Can Fasting Help Fight the Coronavirus? 4,431

  8. Obesity Is Always and Everywhere an Insulin Phenomenon 4,129

  9. Stop Counting Calories; It's the Clock that Counts 3,460

  10. The New England Journal of Medicine Review of the Effects of Intermittent Fasting on Health, Aging and Disease 3,306

  11. James Nestor on How Bad Mouth Breathing Is 2,725

  12. Miles Kimball on Diet and Health: A Reader's Guide 2,208

  13. Beware: Monk Fruit Nonsugar Sweetener Raises Insulin 2,120

  14. Jason Fung: Dietary Fat is Innocent of the Charges Leveled Against It 2,061

  15. What Steven Gundry's Book 'The Plant Paradox' Adds to the Principles of a Low-Insulin-Index Diet 1,973

  16. 3 Achievable Resolutions for Weight Loss 1,662

  17. Using the Glycemic Index as a Supplement to the Insulin Index 1,565

  18. My Annual Anti-Cancer Fast 1,472

  19. Nutritionally, Not All Apple Varieties Are Alike 1,464

  20. Evidence that High Insulin Levels Lead to Weight Gain 1,385

  21. Exorcising the Devil in the Milk 1,349

  22. Carbon Dioxide as a Stimulant for Respiratory Function 1,223

  23. Jason Fung's Single Best Weight Loss Tip: Don't Eat All the Time 1,070

  24. The Case Against Sugar: Stephan Guyenet vs. Gary Taubes 1,015

  25. The Keto Food Pyramid 1,000

  26. Fasting Tips 936

  27. Meat Is Amazingly Nutritious—But Is It Amazingly Nutritious for Cancer Cells, Too? 929

  28. Layne Norton Discusses the Stephan Guyenet vs. Gary Taubes Debate (a Debate on Joe Rogan’s Podcast) 856

  29. David Ludwig: It Takes Time to Adapt to a Lowcarb, Highfat Diet 855

  30. On Exercise and Weight Loss 830

  31. Our Delusions about 'Healthy' Snacks—Nuts to That! 764

  32. A Modern World of Endemic Jaw Dysfunction 753

  33. Cancer Cells Love Sugar; That’s How PET Scans for Cancer Work 730

  34. 4 Propositions on Weight Loss 682

  35. Intense Dark Chocolate: A Review 681

  36. The Problem with Processed Food 641

  37. Lisa Drayer: Is Fasting the Fountain of Youth? 607

  38. The Case Against Monosodium Glutamate—Why MSG is Dangerous (as are Other Sources of Free Glutamate) and How the Dangers Have Been Covered Up 590

  39. Why You Should Worry about Cancer Promotion by Diet as Much as You Worry about Cancer Initiation by Carcinogens 589

  40. My Giant Salad 582

  41. Letting Go of Sugar 574

  42. 'Is Milk Ok?' Revisited 551

  43. Sugar as a Slow Poison 530

  44. Kevin D. Hall and Juen Guo: Why it is So Hard to Lose Weight and So Hard to Keep it Off 516

  45. Vindicating Gary Taubes: A Smackdown of Seth Yoder 512

  46. Anthony Komaroff: The Microbiome and Risk for Obesity and Diabetes 504

  47. Which Is Worse for You: Sugar or Fat? 499

  48. Best Health Guide: 10 Surprising Changes When You Quit Sugar 495

  49. After Gastric Bypass Surgery, Insulin Goes Down Before Weight Loss has Time to Happen 481

  50. How Important is A1 Milk Protein as a Public Health Issue? 464

  51. Carola Binder—Why You Should Get More Vitamin D: The Recommended Daily Allowance for Vitamin D Was Underestimated Due to Statistical Illiteracy 453

  52. Good News! Cancer Cells are Metabolically Handicapped 429

  53. How Sugar, Too Much Protein, Inflammation and Injury Could Drive Epigenetic Cellular Evolution Toward Cancer 247

  54. Don't Tar Fasting by those of Normal or High Weight with the Brush of Anorexia 216

  55. Yes, Sugar is Really Bad for You 197

  56. How Low Insulin Opens a Way to Escape Dieting Hell 190

  57. On 'Flipping the Metabolic Switch: Understanding and Applying Health Benefits of Fasting' by Stephen D. Anton et al. 179

  58. Jane Brody on Intermittent Fasting 177

  59. A Low-Glycemic-Index Vegan Diet as a Moderately-Low-Insulin-Index Diet 167

  60. The Trouble with Most Psychological Approaches to Weight Loss: They Assume the Biology is Obvious, When It Isn't 160

  61. Eggs May Be a Type of Food You Should Eat Sparingly, But Don't Blame Cholesterol Yet 158

  62. Inducing Autophagy 147

  63. Diseases of Civilization 144

  64. On Minimalist Shoes 140

  65. Fasting Before Feasting 137

  66. Salt Is Not the Nutritional Evil It Is Made Out to Be 126

  67. In Praise of Avocados 122

  68. Human Skulls, Ancient and Modern 117

  69. Mass In/Mass Out: A Satire of Calories In/Calories Out 114

  70. Is Milk OK? 112

  71. Cost Benefit Analysis Applied to Neti Pot Use 112

  72. How Sugar Makes People Hangry 108

  73. Have We Gone Too Far with Sunscreen? 106

  74. Black Bean Brownies 104

  75. A Barycentric Autobiography 102

  76. The Case Against the Case Against Sugar: Seth Yoder vs. Gary Taubes 101

Older Posts with Continuing Popularity on Political Philosophy

  1. The Social Contract According to John Locke 46,143

  2. Liberty and the Golden Rule 3,489

  3. John Locke on Why the Executive and Legislative Power Should Be Separated, but the Executive and Foreign Policy Power Should Be Combined 2,413

  4. On John Locke's Labor Theory of Property 2,382

  5. John Locke: The Only Legitimate Power of Governments is to Articulate the Law of Nature 2,253

  6. John Locke's Argument for Limited Government 2,036

  7. John Locke's Argument for Majority Rule 2,004

  8. John Stuart Mill’s Vigorous Advocacy of Education Vouchers 1,634

  9. John Locke: The Purpose of Law Is Freedom 1,633

  10. John Locke: Freedom is Life; Slavery Can Be Justified Only as a Reprieve from Deserved Death 1,500

  11. John Locke on Punishment 1,667

  12. William Graham Sumner, Social Darwinist 1,517

  13. John Locke: Legitimate Taxation and other Appropriation of Property by the Government is Limited as to Quantity, Procedure and Purpose 1,354

  14. John Locke: Government by the Consent of the Governed Often Began Out of Respect for Someone Trusted to Govern 1,207

  15. Cass Sunstein on the Rule of Law 1,036

  16. Governments Long Established Should Not—and to a Good Approximation Will Not—Be Changed for Light and Transient Causes 1,036

  17. John Locke: When the Police and Courts Can't or Won't Take Care of Things, People Have the Right to Take the Law Into Their Own Hands 952

  18. The Metaphor of a Nation as a Family 928

  19. John Stuart Mill on Sins of Omission 874

  20. The Federalist Papers #10 B: The Larger the Republic, the Easier It is to Find Thoughtful Legislators and the Harder It is to Put Together a Majority to do Unjust Things—James Madison 798

  21. John Locke's State of Nature and State of War 775

  22. John Stuart Mill on Freedom from Religion 752

  23. John Locke: The Public Good 715

  24. John Locke: People Must Not Be Judges in Their Own Cases 703

  25. John Locke: The Law of Nature Requires Maturity to Discern 687

  26. John Locke: How to Resist Tyrants without Causing Anarchy 669

  27. John Locke: Defense against the Black Hats is the Origin of the State 653

  28. John Locke's Smackdown of Robert Filmer: Being a Father Doesn't Make Any Man a King 648

  29. Freedom Under Law Means All Are Subject to the Same Laws 628

  30. The Federalist Papers #10 A: Conflicts Arising from Differences of Opinion Are an Inevitable Accompaniment of Liberty—James Madison 574

  31. John Stuart Mill's Brief for Freedom of Speech 559

  32. The Federalist Papers #22 B: Supermajority Rules Aren't an Adequate Fix for Departures from One-Person One-Vote—Alexander Hamilton 530

  33. John Stuart Mill on Running Other People’s Lives 526

  34. John Locke: By Natural Law, Husbands Have No Power Over Their Wives 520

  35. Social Liberty 512

  36. Democracy is Not Freedom 490

  37. John Locke: No One is Above the Law, which Must Be Established and Promulgated and Designed for the Good of the People; Taxes and Governmental Succession Require Approval of Elected Representatives 464

  38. John Stuart Mill’s Roadmap for Freedom 447

  39. John Locke Against Natural Hierarchy 447

  40. John Locke: The Obligation to Obey the Law Does Not Apply to Laws Promulgated by Invaders and Usurpers Who Do Not Have the Consent of the Governed 432

  41. John Stuart Mill: In Praise of Eccentricity 430

  42. John Stuart Mill on Other-Regarding Character Flaws (as Distinct from Self-Regarding Character Flaws) 337

  43. John Locke on Legitimate Political Power 321

  44. John Locke: Democracy, Oligarchy, Hereditary Monarchy, Elective Monarchy and Mixed Forms of Government 259

  45. John Locke: We Are All Born Free 259

  46. John Locke: The Law Must Apply to Rulers, Too 244

  47. On the Achilles Heel of John Locke's Second Treatise: Slavery and Land Ownership 235

  48. John Stuart Mill on the Protection of "Noble Lies" from Criticism 226

  49. John Locke on the Equality of Humans 210

  50. John Locke Treats the Bible as an Authority on Slavery 202

  51. John Stuart Mill: In the Parent-Child Relationship, It is the Children Who Have Rights, Not the Parents 198

  52. John Locke Against Tyranny 191

  53. John Locke Explains 'Lord of the Flies' 171

  54. John Locke: How to Recognize a Tyrant 171

  55. John Locke: If Rebellion is a Sin, It is a Sin Committed Most Often by Those in Power 168

  56. John Stuart Mill on Freedom of Contract 162

  57. John Stuart Mill: Two Maxims for Liberty 161

  58. John Stuart Mill on Balancing Christian Morality with the Wisdom of the Greeks and Romans 160

  59. John Locke: The Right to Enforce the Law of Nature Does Not Depend on Any Social Contract

  60. Getting Away with Doing Good 146

  61. John Stuart Mill on Rising Above Mediocrity 142

  62. John Stuart Mill on Freedom of Thought 136

  63. John Locke Off Base with His Assumption That There Was Plenty of Land at the Time of Acquisition 134

  64. John Locke on the Supremacy of the People, the Supremacy of the Legislature over the Executive, and the Power of the Executive to Deal with Rotten Boroughs 134

  65. John Locke on Monarchs (Or Presidents) Who Destroy a Constitution 134

  66. The Federalist Papers #2 A: John Jay on the Idea of America

  67. John Locke: Theft as the Little Murder 128

  68. John Locke and the Share of Land 126

  69. John Stuart Mill on Humans vs. the Lesser Robots 124

  70. John Stuart Mill on Being Offended at Other People's Opinions or Private Conduct

  71. On Despotism 114

  72. John Stuart Mill’s Defense of Freedom of Religion for Mormons as an Argument for Chartering Libertarian Enclaves 113

  73. John Stuart Mill on Benevolent Dictators 108

  74. The Federalist Papers #1: Alexander Hamilton's Plea for Reasoned Debate 104

  75. Edmund Burke's Wisdom 103

  76. John Stuart Mill’s Defense of Freedom 101

  77. John Stuart Mill on the Historical Origins of Liberty 100

  78. John Locke on the Mandate of Heaven 100

Older Posts with Continuing Popularity on Other Topics

  1. How Perfectionism Has Made the Pandemic Worse 10,291

  2. The 7 Principles of Unitarian Universalism 3,831

  3. Adding a Variable Measured with Error to a Regression Only Partially Controls for that Variable 3,047

  4. Noah Smith: Buddha Was Wrong About Desire 2,139

  5. William Strauss and Neil Howe's American Prophecy in 'The Fourth Turning: What the Cycles of History Tell Us About America's Next Rendezvous with Destiny' 2,129

  6. The Medium-Run Natural Interest Rate and the Short-Run Natural Interest Rate 1,951

  7. An Optical Illusion: Nativity Scene or Two T-Rex's Fighting over a Table Saw? 1,912

  8. Monetary vs. Fiscal Policy: Expansionary Monetary Policy Does Not Raise the Budget Deficit 1,501

  9. How Economists Can Enhance Their Scientific Creativity, Engagement and Impact 1,449

  10. The Descent—and the Divine Calling—of the Modernists 1,353

  11. Five Books That Have Changed My Life 1,337

  12. The Mormon View of Jesus 1,319

  13. The Message of Mormonism for Atheists Who Want to Stay Atheists 1,259

  14. How and Why to Eliminate the Zero Lower Bound: A Reader’s Guide 1,142

  15. The Deep Magic of Money and the Deeper Magic of the Supply Side 936

  16. Glennon Doyle on Wild Humanity 872

  17. Joshua Foer on Deliberate Practice 866

  18. Indoors is Very Dangerous for COVID-19 Transmission, Especially When Ventilation is Bad 849

  19. David Byrne: De Gustibus Non Est Disputandum 744

  20. Reactions to Miles’s Program For Enhancing Economists’ Scientific Creativity, Engagement and Impact 742

  21. Why I Write 697

  22. The Logarithmic Harmony of Percent Changes and Growth Rates 683

  23. 'The Four Agreements' by Don Miguel Ruiz (with Janet Mills) and `The Fifth Agreement' by Don Miguel Ruiz and Don Jose Ruiz (with Janet Mills) 662

  24. A Liberal Turn in the Mormon Church 624

  25. Going Negative: The Virtual Fed Funds Rate Target 587

  26. Why Housing is So Expensive 585

  27. How Even Liberal Whites Make Themselves Out as Victims in Discussions of Racism 582

  28. An Agnostic Prayer for Strength 574

  29. What is a Supply-Side Liberal? 572

  30. Critical Reading: Apprentice Level 563

  31. Grace Wetzel: Orgasmic Inequality 559

  32. Q&A: Is Electronic Money the Mark of the Beast? 546

  33. David Pagnucco: The Eurozone and the Impossible Trinity 539

  34. Expansionist India 525

  35. Will Your Uploaded Mind Still Be You? —Michael Graziano 487

  36. The Complete Guide to Getting into an Economics PhD Program 487

  37. There's One Key Difference Between Kids Who Excel at Math and Those Who Don't 483

  38. Ezra W. Zuckerman—On Genre: A Few More Tips to Academic Journal Article-Writers (link to pdf) 479

  39. It Isn't OK to Be Anti-Immigrant 472

  40. Returns to Scale and Imperfect Competition in Market Equilibrium 461

  41. The Most Effective Memory Methods are Difficult—and That's Why They Work 455

  42. Supply and Demand for the Monetary Base: How the Fed Currently Determines Interest Rates 453

  43. Government Purchases vs. Government Spending 452

  44. My Proudest Moment as a Student in Ph.D. Classes 443

  45. There Is No Such Thing as Decreasing Returns to Scale 429

  46. How to Introduce the Next Generation to Literature 426

  47. Noah Smith—Jews: The Parting of the Ways 263

  48. Capuchin Monkeys Reject Unequal Pay 252

  49. Noah Smith: You Are Already in the Afterlife 243

  50. Why Taxes are Bad 235

  51. How and Why to Eliminate the Zero Lower Bound: A Reader’s Guide 235

  52. Cognitive Economics 229

  53. The Right Amount of Wokeness 228

  54. Clay Christensen, Jerome Grossman and Jason Hwang on the Three Basic Types of Business Models 227

  55. Robert Shiller: Against the Efficient Markets Theory 221

  56. The Shards of My Heart 210

  57. John Stuart Mill on the Role of Custom in Human Life 205

  58. Daniel Coyle on Deliberate Practice 204

  59. An Experiment with Equality of Outcome: The Case of Jamestown 197

  60. James Wells: The Discovery of the Higgs Boson Opens Up Other Puzzles in Particle Physics 190

  61. Shane Parrish on Deliberate Practice 189

  62. On Human Potential 179

  63. Wrath of Gnon: Bringing Back to Mind How Traditional Technology Kept Buildings Comfortable before Air Conditioning and Central Heating 174

  64. The Mormon Church Decides to Treat Gay Marriage as Rebellion on a Par with Polygamy 171

  65. Franklin Roosevelt on the Second Industrial Revolution 171

  66. On Teaching and Learning Macroeconomics 170

  67. Paul Finkelman: The Monster of Monticello 165

  68. Why GDP Can Grow Forever 163

  69. When the Output Gap is Zero, But Inflation is Below Target 163

  70. John Locke: The People are the Judge of the Rulers 163

  71. The Coming Transformation of Education: Degrees Won’t Matter Anymore, Skills Will 160

  72. Teleotheism and the Purpose of Life 159

  73. The Complete Guide to Getting into an Economics PhD Program 159

  74. 100 Economics Blogs and 100 Economists Who Are Influential Online 152

  75. Forgive Yourself 151

  76. The Message of ‘Sal Tlay Ka Siti’ 148

  77. How Does This Pandemic End? 145

  78. Will Women Ever Get the Mormon Priesthood? 142

  79. Michael Coe on Joseph Smith the Shaman 134

  80. Bex's Rules for Life 132

  81. Hannah Katz: The Pros and Cons of Tipping Culture 130

  82. My Life Will Be Good When ... 127

  83. How Even Liberal Whites Make Themselves Out as Victims in Discussions of Racism 127

  84. The Costs of Inflation 126

  85. My Dad 121

  86. 18 Misconceptions about Eliminating the Zero Lower Bound 120

  87. How to Reduce Date Rape 116

  88. How to Turn Every Child into a 'Math Person' 113

  89. Modal Papers in Various Fields 111

  90. Peter Conti-Brown's Takedown of Danielle DiMartino Booth's Book ‘Fed Up: An Insider's Take on Why the Federal Reserve is Bad for America’ 109

  91. Peter Conti-Brown's Takedown of Danielle DiMartino Booth's Book ‘Fed Up: An Insider's Take on Why the Federal Reserve is Bad for America’ 109

  92. Eric Schlosser on the Underground Economy 108

  93. How Mormon Scripture Declares the US Constitution to be the Work of God 107

  94. Lumpers vs. Splitters: Economists as Lumpers; Psychologists as Splitters 106

  95. The Racist Origins of the Idea of the ‘Dumb Jock’ 106

  96. On Ex-Muslims 105

  97. Negative Interest Rate Policy as Conventional Monetary Policy: Full Text 104

  98. What to Call the Very Rich: Millionaires, Vranaires, Okuaires, Billionaires and Lakhlakhaires 104

  99. New Evidence on the Genetics of Homosexuality 104

  100. On Master's Programs in Economics 104

  101. Christian Kimball on Middle-Way Mormonism 102

  102. Sticky Prices vs. Sticky Wages: A Debate Between Miles Kimball and Matthew Rognlie 102

  103. Co-Active Coaching as a Tool for Maximizing Utility—Getting Where You Want in Life 101