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Helena de Bres on Muck Rack

Helena de Bres

  • Contributor, The Point
  • Associate Professor, Wellesley College
Somerville
As seen in: The Point, The New York Times, The Guardian, Stuff.co.nz, Substack, Sydney Morning Herald, The Age, Brisbane Times, Literary Hub, Aeon, Los Angeles Review of Books and
Covers:  Personal narrative, philosophy, twins
philosopher / writer / build your wings on the way down. HOW TO BE MULTIPLE: THE PHILOSOPHY OF TWINS (@BloomsburyPub 11/23, order: tinyurl.com/24sbft6b)

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Helena de Bres’s Biography

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I teach philosophy at Wellesley College, where I write about the nature and value of memoir and the question of what makes a life meaningful. I’m also working on a memoir about philosophy and a book about the metaphysical and ethical issues raised by twins (I am one). Alongside my academic work, I write personal essays, humor pieces and public philosophy.

Helena de Bres’s Journalist Portfolio

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Is philosophy absurd? Only when you're doing it right - Helena de Bres | Aeon Ideas

Is philosophy absurd? Only when you're doing it right - Helena de Bres | Aeon Ideas

Last semester, halfway through a meeting of my 'Meaning of Life' seminar, I found myself lying on a window se…

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Love Is a Nine-Letter Word

Love Is a Nine-Letter Word

A father and daughter stay close by solving puzzles together.

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It's Not You, It's Me | The Point Magazine

It's Not You, It's Me | The Point Magazine

When my identical twin, Julia, came to visit recently, I took her to my favorite café for a coffee and a waff…

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Gimme Shelter | The Point Magazine

Gimme Shelter | The Point Magazine

When I heard that I, my roommates and everyone in six counties in the San Francisco Bay had been ordered to s…

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The Hindenburg Review Writers' Workshop

The Hindenburg Review Writers' Workshop

FUNNY WOMEN #148: The Hindenburg Review Writers' Workshop Dear Participant, Welcome to the Hindenburg Review …

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Writing Advice to My Students That Would Also Have Been Good Sex Advice for My High School Boyfri...

Writing Advice to My Students That Would Also Have Been Good Sex Advice for My High School Boyfri...

Assume your audience is skeptical and easily bored. Avoid making bold assertions you're unprepared to back up…

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Articles

Una persona per due

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By Helena de Bres
| Internazionale Verified
Nel 2002 la statunitense Lydia Fairchild rischiò di perdere la custodia dei suoi tre figli dopo che un test aveva rivelato che nessuno di loro condivideva il suo dna. Risultò che il corpo di Fairchild era popolato da cellule di un gemello non omozigote che lei aveva assorbito prima di nascere, e questo ne faceva, in pratica, la zia biologica dei suoi figli. Il termine tecnico per descrivere questi casi è “chimera umana”: un essere umano composto da cellule geneticamente distinte.
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Is Free Will a Myth? The Science of Determinism

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By Helena de Bres, Dan Sinykin, Michael Muthukrishna, Robert Sapolsky
| Next Big Idea Club Podcast
Robert Sapolsky is an American neuroendocrinology researcher and author. His books include A Primate’s Memoir, The Trouble with Testosterone, Why Zebras Don’t Get Ulcers, and Behave, a New York Times bestseller, and named a best book of the year by The Washington Post and The Wall Street Journal.
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Being a twin helpfully cracks open our ideas of individuality

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By Helena de Bres
| Aeon Verified
In Washington state in 2002, Lydia Fairchild nearly lost custody of her three children, when a test revealed that none of them shared her DNA. It turned out that Fairchild’s body was populated with cells from a non-identical twin she’d unknowingly had before birth, making her, in effect, the biological aunt of her own children. The technical term for Fairchild is a ‘human chimera’: a human being composed of cells that are genetically distinct.
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Interview

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What's your favorite social network?

My actual pals

What's your favorite drink?

French 75

When you're not at a computer, where are you most likely to be?

In a swimming pool