But every mention has to do with my literary agent, John Brockman, who was one of the people cultivated by Epstein (Brockman is the agent for nearly all popular-science writers.) I mentioned Steve Pinker, whose connection with Epstein appears limited to flying on his plane to a conference (not to the island! But as we know, Epstein was an obsessive collector of celebrities, including academic celebrities, and he was tight with an astonishing number of my close colleagues, making it difficult to escape associations with him. My other association with Epstein came when Dershowitz asked my advice, as a psycholinguist, on the natural interpretation of the wording of a statute which, it turned out, Epstein had been accused of violating. And that is probably true of quite a few people who are being tarred via guilt by association.

Source: CBC News February 16, 2026 22:17 UTC