Bret Weinstein

In June 2019, Weinstein began the DarkHorse Podcast.

Weinstein describes himself as a political progressive and left-libertarian. He appeared before the U.S. House Oversight Committee on May 22, 2018, to discuss free speech on college campuses.

In March 2017 he wrote a letter to Evergreen faculty, objecting to a change in the college's decades-old tradition of observing a "Day of Absence" during which minority students and faculty would voluntarily stay home from campus to highlight their contributions to the college. The announced change would flip the traditional event, asking white participants to attend an off-campus program while the on-campus program was designated for participating people of color. Weinstein said this established a dangerous precedent.

In May 2017, student protests disrupted the campus and called for a number of changes to the college. The protests involved allegations of racism and intolerance and threats, and brought national attention to Evergreen, sparking further debate about free speech on college campuses. During the protests, there was an altercation between protesters and Weinstein.

In a lawsuit brought against the school by Weinstein and his wife Heather Heying, Weinstein said the college's president did not ask law enforcement to quell protesters. Weinstein also said campus police told him that they could not protect him and encouraged him to stay off campus. Weinstein then held his biology class in a public park. In September 2017, a settlement was reached. Weinstein and Heying resigned and received $500,000, after having sought $3.8 million in damages.

Weinstein began his undergraduate studies at the University of Pennsylvania. As a freshman, Weinstein wrote a letter to the school newspaper condemning sexual harassment of strippers at a Zeta Beta Tau fraternity party. After experiencing harassment for the letter, Weinstein transferred to the University of California, Santa Cruz, where he completed his undergraduate degree. In 2009, Weinstein received his doctorate from the University of Michigan.

Weinstein was a professor of biology at Evergreen State College in Washington. In 2002, he published The Reserve-Capacity Hypothesis, which proposed that the telomeric differences between humans and laboratory mice have led scientists to underestimate the risks new drugs pose to humans in the form of heart disease, liver dysfunction, and related organ failure.

Bret Samuel Weinstein /ˈ w aɪ n s t aɪ n / (born February 21, 1969) is an American biologist and evolutionary theorist who came to national attention during the 2017 Evergreen State College protests. He and his brother Eric Weinstein coined the term Intellectual Dark Web to refer to an informal group of pundits.