A while ago, someone mentioned to me, offhandedly, that a friend of theirs had become akin to "the mother hen of the cancelled." Naturally, I was like, "I need to know everything about this."

That's how I met the Thought Criminals. (1/x)
newyorker.com/news/our-local… The Thought Criminals are cancelled or cancelled-adjacent. Some of them you might know—notorious professors or journalists. Others are regular people. They get together in NYC once a month to hang out, drink, and share their banned opinions. (2/x)
newyorker.com/news/our-local…

A while ago, someone I know started sending around links to the People's CDC—a coalition that styles itself as a model of what the CDC would look like if it actually **followed the science** on pandemic restrictions. I was fascinated. (1/x)

newyorker.com/news/annals-of… They believe America has left its most vulnerable citizens behind. They believe people should be avoiding indoor dining, moving gatherings outside, testing before events, etc.

They believe we should wear masks, basically forever. (2/x)
newyorker.com/news/annals-of…

My first piece for @NewYorker: What the likely fall of Roe v. Wade will mean for the next generation of obstetricians.

The big question of the piece: Should there be space for pro-life medical students and residents in OBGYN?

newyorker.com/news/annals-of… @NewYorker One thing I've learned throughout my time covering abortion is that there's actually a wide range of views among OBGYNs on abortion. Encountering women, doing procedures, knowing the medicine--all of that makes tidy slogans and clean camps less useful.

A while ago, I started noticing something strange: Very progressive people, who love to talk about "believing in science," were adopting COVID restrictions *over and above* CDC guidelines. I thought, is there a story here? And, well, wow, there is.
theatlantic.com/politics/archi… I called up some moms in Somerville, MA, who have been trying to get their schools to reopen for months. They're scientists who think in-person school is safe.

A local leader called them "fucking white parents" on a hot mic during a public meeting.
theatlantic.com/politics/archi…

A couple of years ago, a source mentioned something that surprised me: Pro-life activists were debating the best way to build social services for a world in which they've won: Roe is overturned, abortion is illegal, and there are a lot more babies. 1/x
theatlantic.com/politics/archi… Pro-life activists are in a complicated position on this issue: For at least two decades, the movement has almost exclusively allied itself with the Republican Party, which tends to favor cutting government social services. 2/x
theatlantic.com/politics/archi…

Kayleigh McEnany, Trump’s White House press secretary, has been dismissed as an opportunist, hypocrite, and fool. People love to circulate gotcha videos of things she’s said in the past. Reporting this profile of her, I found a more complicated story. 1/x
theatlantic.com/politics/archi… Whatever you may think of her, Kayleigh represents two important aspects of Trump’s Washington that are crucial to understand. 2/x

theatlantic.com/politics/archi…

October 27, 2019. One year ago, today, 11 Jews were killed in a synagogue in Pittsburgh. I want to share some of the stories I've gotten to write about this community over the last year, and also some of what I've been reading. 1/x One day after the shooting in 2018, I sat with Jews from the community in the Pittsburgh morgue. Following Jewish custom, they stayed with the bodies of those who had been murdered, until they could be released and buried.
theatlantic.com/politics/archi…

White supremacy has created one of the brightest dividing lines in American Christianity today. Churches & pastors from various traditions disagree profoundly about how to speak prophetically on the issue of race and, by extension, American politics. 1/x theatlantic.com/politics/archi… In my reporting, I have not found the common progressive caricature of conservative Christians to be true--that they don't care about racism, etc. In fact, many conservative churches are multi-ethnic, and intensely debate racism in their communities. 2/x
theatlantic.com/politics/archi…

I spent some time hanging out with a new (aspiring) coalition of conservative nationalists this week. My dispatch from the HQ of the nationalist revolt, which, naturally, was at the Ritz: theatlantic.com/politics/archi… A few thoughts. First, it was bracing to hear so many diehard conservatives condemn the right’s worship of the free market — including the former architects of Washington’s free-market nerve centers. theatlantic.com/politics/archi…

Today, The Atlantic published a piece I have been working on for a long time, about one of the most powerful stories of our time: The decimation of Christianity in the Middle East. This is tragic, on its face. But it's also devastating for democracy. 1/x
theatlantic.com/international/… I traveled to the Nineveh Plain in Iraq, a strip of land that is the focus of epic bible stories and tense geopolitical wrangling. I met a family there that embodies the impossible struggle that Christians face in staying in the region. 2/x
theatlantic.com/international/…

Over the past few weeks, we've seen a huge amount of hopefulness about 2020 from folks who identify as the "religious left," and nobody has inspired that more than Pete Buttigieg, who argues that Christianity has a progressive-friendly message.

But! 1/x

theatlantic.com/politics/archi… A few notes for the wave of religious-left enthusiasm. The first is that campaign infrastructure, time, and dollars matter more than rhetoric for getting votes. Where will 2020 Dems put their resources? 2/x
theatlantic.com/politics/archi…

This is a huge moment for the United Methodist Church. Today, the denomination voted to toughen its teachings against homosexuality, same-sex marriage, and LGBT clergy. But this fight is about more than that. /1
theatlantic.com/politics/archi… Christians and pastors are debating about what they see as the role of the Bible and biblical interpretation: Conservatives claim they are deferring to scripture, but LGBT-supporting pastors say they're also following Jesus's teachings.
theatlantic.com/politics/archi…

A dispatch from the universe that is *not* being covered on Kavanaugh... I talked to roughly a dozen conservative women activists who are spitting mad about what's happening to Brett Kavanaugh:
theatlantic.com/politics/archi… I'll share some of the quotes from these conservative activists here:

“Honestly, I don’t think I have ever been so angry in all of my adult life."

theatlantic.com/politics/archi…

A few observations from Jerusalem today, where I watched the jubilant festivities around the U.S. embassy opening while watching reports of intense violence in Gaza: [1/x]
theatlantic.com/international/… 1. The Jerusalem embassy opening is just one more entry into a week--a lifetime--of wrestling over the narrative of Israel, and of this city. [2/x]
theatlantic.com/international/…