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