Beth Linker, a former physical therapist, is the Samuel H Preston Endowed Term Professor in the Social Sciences at the University of Pennsylvania in the Department of the History and Sociology of Science. Her most recent book, Slouch: Posture Panic in Modern America (2024), reveals the little-known and surprising origins of our fears and ideas about poor posture. Her writing has appeared in The Boston Globe, Time, The New England Journal of Medicine, and USA Today.