Rebekah Kohlhepp, Author at She Seeks Nonfiction

Book Review: Killing the Black Body by Dorothy Roberts

March 13, 2022March 12, 2022Rebekah Kohlhepp

When you think of reproductive rights, what comes to mind? I’d bet you thought of the right to a safe and legal abortion. At least I hope you did, because that’s a central part of reproductive liberty. Before I read Dorothy Roberts’ Killing the Black Body: Race, Reproduction, and the Meaning of Liberty, I perceived reproductive freedom as the ability to get safe and effective birth control, age-appropriate sex education, and reproductive healthcare, which includes abortion. However, for over a hundred years, poor Black women have viewed reproductive justice as much more than just abortion rights.

9 Pre-Darwinian Evolutionary Thinkers You Didn’t Know About

March 6, 2022August 13, 2022Rebekah Kohlhepp

There are some days, weeks, and months that seem to stretch on forever. The past two years have certainly felt like a lifetime. Our sense of time can feel so warped that the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries can feel like eons ago. In the community of evolution enthusiasts, Charles Darwin’s publication of On the Origin of Species is (intentionally or unintentionally) hailed as the long-ago beginning of evolutionary thought. But in comparison with many of his evolutionary predecessors, Darwin might as well have published just yesterday.

Activists with signs that read "When equality is under attack, atheists show up."

How Atheists Can Fight for Social Justice

February 27, 2022September 4, 2023Rebekah Kohlhepp

How many times have you heard an atheist say, “My nonbelief doesn’t hinder my values but rather it makes me fight even harder against injustice”? This is one of the things I love most about atheism. Most atheists know that since they only get this one life, they ought to use it for good.

Book Comparison: Two Brief Introductions to Human Evolution

February 20, 2022September 5, 2022Rebekah Kohlhepp

Imagine that you’re standing in a bookstore or library. You want to learn about human evolution, but you don’t know where to start. You don’t want anything complicated; you just want to know the basics and to find out if it’s an interesting topic. You’re down to two books: either Bernard Wood’s Human Evolution: A Very Short Introduction (or A Brief Insight) or Silvana Condemi and François Savatier’s A Pocket History of Human Evolution: How We Became Sapiens. Which do you choose?

Book Review: The Girls Who Went Away by Ann Fessler

February 13, 2022April 30, 2022Rebekah Kohlhepp

No matter what I say about this book, it won’t be enough. It would be a lot quicker for me to just tell you to read it for yourself, but in this review I will try my best to explain why.

Why Reverse Ageism Hurts Young People

February 6, 2022February 5, 2022Rebekah Kohlhepp

For as long as I can remember, I’ve struggled with people judging me at a glance. People who are older than I am tend to take a single look at my face and assume that I’m too young: too young to know what I’m doing, to be competent, to remember this or that singer or event. It’s become a lot more noticeable since I graduated college, and it’s an issue that so many people my age face but that none of us were prepared for.

My 2022 Nonfiction Bookshelf Update

January 30, 2022September 4, 2023Rebekah Kohlhepp

While my book collection has been constantly changing, it has been a while since I’ve posted an update on it. This is the perfect time to share my bookshelf with you since I actually just got a brand new one! Plus, there’s an exciting surprise at the end of this post.

Why the March for Life is Not Pro-Life

January 23, 2022January 23, 2022Rebekah Kohlhepp

This has been a big week in the world of women’s rights. Not only is January 22nd the 49th anniversary of Roe v. Wade but the 20th was the annual March for Life. Unfortunately neither of these days give pro-choice advocates much to celebrate. It’s great that women have been protected by Roe for 49 years, but it doesn’t look like we’ll be seeing that 50-year anniversary. And the March for Life is cringey at best and a spine-chillingly ominous march of bigots at worst.

The Abortion Essay of Carl Sagan and Ann Druyan

January 16, 2022January 16, 2022Rebekah Kohlhepp

On April 22nd, 1990, Carl Sagan and Ann Druyan published an article for Parade Magazine called “The Question of Abortion: A Search for Answers.” The essay lives on today as the chapter “Abortion: Is It Possible to Be Both ‘Pro-Life’ and ‘Pro-Choice’?” from Sagan’s last book Billions and Billions. You can read the essay here or listen to it here. I have yet to read the entire book, but I was intrigued by this chance to get Sagan’s and Druyan’s take on abortion, which is a topic I’m becoming increasingly passionate about.

What the Lutheran Church (LCMS) Really Thinks About Evolution

January 2, 2022January 1, 2022Rebekah Kohlhepp

Even as my content and I have both changed and evolved over the years, I always end up finding my way back to the Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod’s teachings on creationism. I was raised in the LCMS and only once I left did I really delve into the details of their beliefs. While it can be frustrating to return to the doctrine of my old church, I think there is something enjoyable in refuting both LCMS doctrine and creationism in general.