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15 Facts About Kevin Drum

1.

Kevin Drum later was invited to launch another blog, Political Animal, for the Washington Monthly.

2.

Kevin Drum held a writing and blogging position at Mother Jones from 2008 to 2021, before returning to independence with his Jabberwocking blog.

3.

Kevin Drum was born in Long Beach, California, on October 19,1958, the son of Jean and Dale Kevin Drum, a professor of speech and film history at Cal State.

4.

Kevin Drum graduated from Pacifica High School in Garden Grove, California, and then attended Caltech for two years before transferring to California State University, Long Beach, where he received his bachelor's degree in journalism in 1981.

5.

Kevin Drum subsequently got a technical-writing job with a local technology company, becoming a product manager at Emulex.

6.

Kevin Drum quit in 2002 to become a marketing consultant; he gave that up in 2004 to concentrate full-time on writing.

7.

Kevin Drum's blogging started in 2001, part-time; in late 2002 he started his independent blog Calpundit.

8.

Kevin Drum tended toward wry skepticism about dramatic press stories, often deflating sensational headlines with statistics that showed historical continuity rather than any noteworthy change.

9.

Kevin Drum supported the 2003 Iraq War in its early stages.

10.

Kevin Drum published a series of blogs with evidence that suggests a link between crime and environmental lead, including the link between the decline in American crime rates and the phaseout of leaded gasoline.

11.

Kevin Drum's thesis was criticized by Jim Manzi in January 2013; Kevin Drum continued to document new evidence in support of the theory.

12.

Kevin Drum considered Benjamin Franklin his all-time favorite political hero.

13.

Kevin Drum married his wife Marian in 1993, and she was a familiar presence in his blog posts.

14.

Kevin Drum gave regular health updates describing his successive cancer treatment regimens, presenting himself as a case study of medical progress, with sardonic commentary about the "Evil Dex".

15.

In February 2025, Kevin Drum reported that he had been hospitalized with pneumonia and a colon infection, and that his oncologist "agreed my immune system was shot".