Weekend reading from this week's issue: "The Camps Promising to Turn You—or Your Son—Into an Alpha Male" by Charles Bethea (@charlesbethea.bsky.social). https://newyorkerest.com/issue/2026/04/06?utm_source=bluesky&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=weekend_reading

In this week's Top 5: · Chasing manhood @newyorker.com · Naming the dead @wired.com · Searching the stacks @altajournal.bsky.social · Leaving music @hazlitt.bsky.social · Opting out @nytimes.com longreads.com/2026/04/03/t...

"I watched a small son get pummelled. 'That was fun,' he said flatly when it was over. Heading back to the gym, one notably silent son told me that his father had made him come." — @CharlesBethea.bsky.social for @newyorker.com www.newyorker.com/magazine/202...

Inside the programs and camps that promise to turn regular men into “alpha males.” www.newyorker.com/magazine/202...

Went to D.C. and stood beside a hole: www.newyorker.com/magazine/202...

“I don’t care what occupation you have in life,” Kevin McCarthy tells @charlesbethea.bsky.social. “When people know you by a three-letter acronym, you’ve really built a following.”

Why did Marjorie Taylor Greene split with Donald Trump? She may have belatedly educated herself, a longtime Georgia G.O.P. operative suggested: “My theory is she’s not actually a dumbass anymore.” www.newyorker.com/magazine/202...

Went on "Fresh Air" this week to talk about the MTG era: www.npr.org/programs/fre...

Some January 6th insurrectionists have re-offended. Others have run for office. Cleveland Grover Meredith, Jr., is campaigning to get reparations—from “the deep state” and his parents.

When Charles Bethea climbed the world’s tallest volcano with the help of an altitude-sickness pill, he wondered: Had he denied himself some deeper experience or insight?

A former senior official and two current staff members describe the turmoil at the C.D.C. under R.F.K., Jr.,’s stewardship. “Everyone has a limit,” the employees said, “and there are many of us being pushed to the brink.”

this... absolutely this... @charlesbethea.bsky.social #RSDI #Balls #TheBallsInitiative #DogeII www.newyorker.com/magazine/202...

The saddest shortest short story ever written-- For Sale: Used Tesla, Never Driven

reassuring www.nytimes.com/2025/05/30/u...

National treasure. www.newyorker.com/culture/the-...

I had a long talk recently with Kenny Smith: www.newyorker.com/culture/the-...

I had a long talk recently with Kenny Smith: www.newyorker.com/culture/the-...

At @thirdactorg.bsky.social some of us are old enough to remember when Richard Nixon almost lost his job as veep for a $16,000 slush fund and the gift of a cocker spaniel puppy. I guess with inflation we’ve gotten to a $400 million plane…

Brian Steel is expected to cross-examine Casandra Ventura, the main accuser in the Sean Combs sex-trafficking and racketeering case. (Follow @meghanncuniff.bsky.social's excellent coverage of the trial.) My profile of Steel: www.newyorker.com/magazine/202...

Incoming head of the U.S. Treasury doesn't know where January 6 medals went. That and more on Brandon Beach in today's @newyorker.com lede story: www.newyorker.com/news/the-led...

This is Young Thug's dog, Schneebly, a french bulldog-poodle mix. I met Schneebly -- a good boy -- in March when I spoke to YT in Miami for my profile of Brian Steel, his lawyer, in this wk's @newyorker.com www.newyorker.com/magazine/202...

Today’s edition of Why Haven’t You Subscribed to the Print Edition of @theonion.com yet: every single ad in the latest issue is a lil shower of pee on Mr Roll Of Nickels. Two faves:

"no thank you, sir, i do not wish to be lit" ~Brian Steel

This week's This American Life @thisamericanlife.org has 2 segments: the best reporting on Gaza and on deportations that I've yet heard. But listen with care, and maybe not both at once--the cruelty of the powerful is almost unbearable. But we must hear it www.thisamericanlife.org/859/chaos-gr...

Barry Blitt’s cover for this week’s issue, “The First Hundred Days.” #NewYorkerCovers nyer.cm/ysrCZ47

I profiled the remarkable Brian Steel for this week's @newyorker.com -- with a cameo by Young Thug, his client, who met with us in a Miami recording studio in early March. www.newyorker.com/magazine/202...

NEW: Government officials insist that neither DOGE nor Musk have any real decision-making authority—they merely “advise” or “consult.” But internal DOJ emails provide the most compelling evidence yet that DOGE is not simply advising—it’s calling the shots. www.lawfaremedia.org/article/on-d...

dry chuckle in the middle of this article about brian steel, the boy scout lawyer from young thug's RICO case www.newyorker.com/magazine/202...

I profiled the remarkable Brian Steel for this week's @newyorker.com -- with a cameo by Young Thug, his client, who met with us in a Miami recording studio in early March. www.newyorker.com/magazine/202...

Clayton Dalton asked paramedics in Gaza what was hardest about their work. Responding to an airstrike and discovering that it’s your own family, one said. Recovering the bodies of children, said another. nyer.cm/Iz1ztSY

Another infuriating story of "media disruption," this one involving the place where I got my start, @outsidemag.bsky.social: www.newyorker.com/news/letter-...

Charlie Duncan, who lived through the stock-market crash of 1929, shares his general life advice: good sex, fresh vegetables, the occasional Coors Light, and water aerobics.

The oldest man in Georgia never bought stocks. “I can’t afford to lose it, because I can’t make no more.” Asked whether he had any other general life advice, he listed, in no particular order, good sex, fresh vegetables, the occasional Coors Light, & water aerobics www.newyorker.com/magazine/202...

Wrote about Flannery O'Connor's early painted artworks, recently discovered in a rural Georgia attic—five of which are seen here for the first time—for this week's @newyorker.com: www.newyorker.com/magazine/202...

A beautiful piece by @charlesbethea.bsky.social for @newyorker.com about my favorite place in NE GA - Rabun County & the surrounding area. The area has so many beautiful waterfalls and I can't wait to hike some of the unknown ones that Dr. Waterfall (Mark Ozboyd) has documented in his book. 🌿🌱🪶🦎

"Why Trump Freed Ross Ulbricht, the Silk Road’s Dread Pirate Roberts" @charlesbethea.bsky.social for @newyorker.com

Thinking about Ann Kerr, Steve's amazing mom, whose beautiful home in the Pacific Palisades, where Steve grew up, I visited in 2018. It's gone now, like so many others. But she's ok. Her resilience, as chronicled in "Come With Me From Lebanon," is remarkable--

In today's @newyorker.com Daily newsletter, Fergus McIntosh, our head of fact-checking, reflects on Meta's retreat from fact-checking. www.newyorker.com/newsletter/t...

Over the past few years, there’s been ample time to consider and reconsider the long and fruitful life of Jimmy Carter. “He poured himself into the work that he felt like he wanted to do,” his grandson said. “A labor of love—all of it was.”

When Jimmy Carter entered hospice care in early 2023, @nathanielbullard.com and I took a look at his energy/environment legacy, which went well beyond putting solar panels on the White House and was surprising in some ways

I spoke with Chuck Leavell, Stephen Stills, Peter Conlon & others for this piece about Jimmy Carter’s profound connection to rock ‘n roll music: www.newyorker.com/news/letter-...

"Okay, get some snaps of that Mangione character, but you better not pull any bullshit where he looks like the subject in a 16th century painting called 'Christ taken at the Garden of Gethsemane'." "Okay, now don't be mad but..."

An unhoused woman in *active labor*—her water had just broken—was ticketed by Louisville police for sleeping outside. What a cruel, cruel country.

Made the list!

I wrote about ThuggerDaily, the stan-journalist star of the Young Thug trial, in this week's @newyorker.com: www.newyorker.com/magazine/202...

I wrote about ThuggerDaily, the stan-journalist star of the Young Thug trial, in this week's @newyorker.com: www.newyorker.com/magazine/202...

For everyone just tuning in: The most Jersey political scandal of all time has dropped — www.inquirer.com/news/nation-...

America's healthcare system isn’t just broken; it’s often cruel. Here's a piece I wrote for Harper’s about chronic pain sufferers cut off from their medication—a story of destructive drug policy, medical abandonment, and the nightmare of untreated pain, as insurers refused to cover essential care.

I first met Charles completely randomly when I booked a room in his house so I could apartment hunt when I moved to ATL. Now 6 years later he has written this wonderful little piece, I assume specifically for me.