My colleague @sophieGG is a treasure—and today, in naming her a finalist for criticism, the Pulitzer board made that official. pulitzer.org/finalists/soph…
May 3, 2022 • 10 tweets • 3 min read
1. Some recent stories that might be helpful in contextualizing tonight’s news 🧵
In December, Mary Zeigler listened to the oral arguments, and wrote that "the Court is poised to reverse Roe outright.” theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/…
Nov 5, 2021 • 4 tweets • 1 min read
1. Saddened to learn of the death of Aaron Feuerstein. In 1995, when the textile mill he owned burned down, he said, “I’m not throwing 3,000 people out of work two weeks before Christmas.” apnews.com/article/busine…2. That’s the moment that made him famous. But in the years that followed, he made another courageous choice: Keeping the mill open, instead of following the industry overseas. That cost him his company and much of his fortune.
Aug 24, 2021 • 5 tweets • 2 min read
1. Eric Adams has often told the story of his beating at the hands of NYPD cops in recent years. It’s powerful, and an experience to which too many New Yorkers of color can relate.
2. In 2014, he wrote in a NYT op-ed, "I didn’t want any more children to go through what I endured, so I sought to make change from the inside by joining the police department.”
Aug 24, 2021 • 4 tweets • 2 min read
1. Back in 1999, @TheJuanWilliams interviewed a newly promoted police lieutenant for a magazine profile that never ran. Last month, he went back to talk to Eric Adams again. A lot of surprising stuff in here: theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/…2. One part that caught my eye? Eric Adams’s oft-told story of how he became a police officer. The basic contours are the same, but the details different—and much more revealing, and human: theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/…
Jul 16, 2021 • 6 tweets • 2 min read
1. Fascinated by this @kaiserfamfound poll which asked people who’d earlier indicated they didn’t intend to get vaccinated, but that a conversation helped change their mind, what that person said to them.
2. There are positive messages: "We can go out eating, shopping, and having a vacation after get vaccinated.”
There are obvious ones: "You should get vaccinated because you can get sick with COVID-19."
Jul 4, 2021 • 7 tweets • 2 min read
1. A quick thread on how America confronted a seemingly intractable problem of death and despair—and then solved it in ways that still keep us safe today, on this Fourth of July.
2. Children used to celebrate Independence Day by firing off firecrackers and toy pistols. Sometimes, they exploded, taking fingers or hands or limbs along with them. Sometimes, it was far worse.
Jun 25, 2021 • 4 tweets • 2 min read
1. A few thoughts about “The Cruelty Is the Point,” the new essay collection from my colleague @AdamSerwer, which is due out on Tuesday. amazon.com/Cruelty-Point-…@AdamSerwer 2. The first is that I’m not generally a fan of essay collections. But this is something different—Adam revisits some of the pieces that helped define the last four years, and weaves in some astonishingly good new essays. The whole is much more than the sum of its parts.
Jun 22, 2021 • 10 tweets • 2 min read
1. The news that Kickstarter is putting in place a four-day workweek (read @jpinsk! theatlantic.com/family/archive…) has me thinking about why we have a five-day workweek to begin with.
2. Jewish immigrants to the U.S. faced employers insisting they work on Saturdays, the traditional Sabbath. Making this even harder? A resurgent Sabbatarian movement worked to keep things closed on Sundays.
Jun 18, 2021 • 5 tweets • 2 min read
1. The U.S. is a huge outlier here. Almost all other wealthy countries mandate between 5 and 13 paid public holidays per year, even for private employers. Here? We offer none.
2. Here's the thing about Juneteenth—it raises the number of legally mandated paid public holidays for private employees from zero to …. zero.
May 6, 2021 • 10 tweets • 6 min read
1. I work with some of the most talented people in this business—and this afternoon, a handful of them were recognized with National Magazine Award nominations for their extraordinary journalism.
2. There’s @yayitsrob, who helped build @COVID19Tracking into the premier source of information on the pandemic. But what’s humbling for the rest of us is seeing him recognized for having done this before the age of 30, with an ASMENext award.
Apr 28, 2021 • 5 tweets • 2 min read
1. Completely fascinated by this detailed account of jury-selection in the Chauvin trial—not least for the takeaway, which is the inclusion of jurors whose views or experiences might’ve been used to exclude them from the pool before: theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/…2. Take Juror 44, who said "we have disenfranchised [minority citizens]. Laws were created many years ago that have not kept up with society and cultural changes” and “There’s inherent bias in the system” and was seated anyway:
1. This example is frequently cited as a buried lede. (“President Lincoln and wife visited Ford’s Theatre this evening for the purpose of witnessing the performance of ‘The American Cousin’...”) But I think that misses something absolutely essential that’s worth recovering.
2. In the various papers where this story ran, these were never the first words readers would’ve encountered. A series of stacked headlines—in big bold letters—summarized the main news that readers could expect to find in the story itself. Here, for example, @hartfordcourant:
1. The biggest problem with the way my colleagues are handling COVID is that they’re publishing too many incredible articles for me to keep current. Here are a few from the last couple days that are worth your time:
2. Remember that strange 19th century obsession with miasma, the idea that “bad air” could make you sick? Well, yeah. As @sarahzhang points out, maybe they were on to something: theatlantic.com/health/archive…
Jan 26, 2021 • 9 tweets • 2 min read
1. A short thread for followers, readers, and interested United States senators about what impeachment is for, and how it actually works.
2. The first point—one I made at length two years ago—is that impeachment is not just an outcome, but a process. Specifically, it functions as a public inquest, pulling facts into view and allowing allegations to be tested and debated: theatlantic.com/magazine/archi…
Dec 24, 2020 • 12 tweets • 3 min read
1. A brief thread about a truly obscure episode in American constitutional law that may well become all-important in the days ahead.
2. No president has ever issued a self-pardon. But in 1857, territorial Governor Isaac Stevens in Washington State clashed with the judiciary in an extraordinary episode. Stevens had ordered some settlers arrested.
Dec 23, 2020 • 4 tweets • 2 min read
1. The president has just vetoed the military’s funding bill, rather than allow the Army to rename bases that honor traitors.
theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/…2. Why are there ten U.S. bases named after generals who took up arms against the Union, and for the preservation of slavery?
Michael Paradis unpacks the history of these base names:
1. A short thread of @TheAtlIdeas authors on the president’s fondness for, and propensity to extend pardons to, war criminals:
@TheAtlIdeas 2. "Being no different from or better than our enemies has not been the aspiration of previous presidents, nor of our military," writes @KoriSchake
1. Five perspectives on what’s happening right now, as most House Republicans join most GOP attorneys general in asking the Supreme Court to set aside the election.
First, clarity from @GrahamDavidA: This is a direct attack on democracy theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/…@GrahamDavidA 2. "Republican officeholders appear more concerned about provoking a backlash from the right if they don’t support Trump than pushback from the center or left if they do,” writes @RonBrownstein
1. Biden has named Jake Sullivan his national-security adviser. In 2019, Sullivan laid out a vision for reviving American foreign policy in @TheAtlantictheatlantic.com/magazine/archi…@TheAtlantic 2. More recently, Biden’s newly named national-security adviser has been working on a Carnegie project, aimed at reorienting foreign policy around the middle class. What does that mean, in practical terms? Former Deputy SecState Bill Burns lays it out here theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/…
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