heartbreaking piece about how SNAP suspension is hurting people in Texas www.newyorker.com/news/the-led...

“Where does this end? I don’t think anyone knows right now.” @rachelmonroe.bsky.social weighs in on the Supreme Court temporarily allowing Trump to curtail SNAP funding and how 40 million Americans are navigating it all.

Some states have stepped in to cover SNAP benefits. Texas, which has a multibillion-dollar rainy-day fund, has not. https://www.newyorker.com/news/the-lede/the-human-toll-of-the-suspension-of-snap

With SNAP benefits in limbo, many states have covered the gap and/or allotted more $ to food banks. Texas, which has a $20 billion+ rainy day fund, has done neither. www.newyorker.com/news/the-led...

NEW: ICE is planning to build a shadow deportation network in Texas. A proposal outlines a 24/7 transport operation run by armed contractors—turning Texas into the logistical backbone of an industrialized deportation machine. My latest @wired.com: www.wired.com/story/ice-is...

While other people playing fantasy basketball may choose to optimize for overall points or a wide array of stats, I have selected the roster for my team, Jalen, to maximize the number of players named Ja(y)len who will be on the court at any given time. Preferably 100% Jalen. Stay tuned for updates

Long-distance relocation is an “essential stopgap measure while shelters get a handle on their pet populations,” the director of an animal-rescue organization said. Rachel Monroe reports on a novel approach to helping pets find their forever homes.

I promised a heartwarming story and so here it is: rescue dogs on planes! www.newyorker.com/news/letter-...

I have a genuinely heartwarming story coming out tomorrow. It's a strange feeling and may never happen again !

Cryptids, dark tourism, and close encounters. Take a wild ride with @asherelbein.bsky.social and @rachelmonroe.bsky.social over at @texashighways.bsky.social. texashighways.com/travel/do-yo...

“New Mexico has quietly emerged as a progressive health-care sanctuary in the Southwest. Since the Dobbs decision, the number of abortion clinics in NM has more than doubled …. More than 10K women have travelled there to receive abortion care.” @newyorker.com www.newyorker.com/news/letter-...

Rights defenders at the US-Mexico border tried for years to warn about Border Patrol's abusive culture. We built a database of abuses (borderoversight.org/event) and several reports. Maybe 2 dozen national Democrats were responsive; the politics were tricky. We couldn't keep that work funded. Now:

New Mexico’s governor, Michelle Lujan Grisham, has allocated $20 million to build reproductive-health clinics. “I want more primary-care access for women and their families,” she said.

Earlier this month, New Mexico became the first state to offer universal free child care to all residents, regardless of income.

New Mexico, one of the poorest states in the country, is banking on a progressive approach to health care-- strong protections for reproductive rights & gender-affirming care (including for minors), vaccine access. & it's the 1st state to offer universal childcare! www.newyorker.com/news/letter-...

Yesterday, Trump declared war on American cities. Since 2021, Texas border communities have been the testing ground for a MAGA military occupation. Now, residents say they have some advice for the rest of the country.🦂

Texas is still planning to kill Robert Roberson clayjak.substack.com/p/theres-sti...

“I’m emotionally shellshocked right now,” said one professor in the Texas Tech system. “What does it say about academic freedom? It says we don’t have it.” The professor spoke by phone from the inside of a car to avoid being overheard by colleagues. www.nytimes.com/2025/09/26/u...

I had to pick my jaw off the floor after reading this lede in @rachelmonroe.bsky.social on self-defense insurance. Like out of an Elmore Leonard novel. www.newyorker.com/news/letter-...

The idea that gun owners might need to use a weapon to protect themselves or their loved ones is a cornerstone of contemporary gun culture, and central to the sales pitches of self-defense-insurance companies. But do these policies promote gun violence?

Use of the word "evil" in official congressional e-newsletters, over time, by party

I wrote about the rise of the self-defense insurance industry, which promises to pay for an attorney if you shoot someone in certain circumstances www.newyorker.com/news/letter-...

“We’re going to teach the truth. We don’t know what the consequences of that may be in terms of our own professional careers… if we were to censor the truth … that’s going to damage our society. That’s going to damage our students. That’s going to lower trust in the things that we do.”

Rachel Monroe visits Texas A. & M. University—one of the nation’s most conservative campuses—to report on reactions to the death of Charlie Kirk, who filled an auditorium to its 2,500-person capacity when he visited in the spring.

Texas A&M is one of the biggest schools in the country, but alarming events there receive a fraction of the attention given to Harvard. I wrote about a campus vigil for Charlie Kirk, and how TX Republicans plan to honor his legacy by cracking down on speech www.newyorker.com/news/the-led...

Lost in the Texas A&M news is that the entire crusade is the product of a former labradoodle breeder turned State Rep whose stunts and grandstanding are so insufferably transparent that even his Republican colleagues despise him. Meet Brian Harrison, winner of Texas Monthly’s 2025 Cockroach award:

Apparently being in the middle of fighting a wildfire is no protection from border patrol www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news...

A year ago, I heard that Oklahoma City had approved a plan to build Legends Tower, the tallest skyscraper in the entire Western hemisphere. Why were we building the Tower of Babel in the Heartland? I decided to investigate. This essay is the result. (gift link) thepickup.com/whats-so-wro...

That's my brave little nephew, recipient of the first successful partial heart transplant, in @nytimes.com today! www.nytimes.com/2025/08/27/w...

For @nytimes.com Magazine, I visited the Palisades burn scar to write about fire and resilience www.nytimes.com/2025/08/26/m...

This part, from NYT. Just inhuman.

“King of the Hill” evokes a prelapsarian period when problems were small and solvable, and the ugliness of the world was held at bay. But can the show’s revival reconcile its easygoing charms with our current fraught reality?

Watching the King of the Hill Revival from Texas www.newyorker.com/culture/the-...

What a lovely piece by @rachelmonroe.bsky.social about King of the Hill, small-town life, and the meaning of the twilight sky above Arlen.

Reminds me of this @rachelmonroe.bsky.social story from earlier this year www.bloomberg.com/news/article...

"When the water finally began to ebb, hours later, it receded so quickly that it left fish flopping and gasping on the highway. Pool kicked them back into the water with his boot. 'If I can’t save people now, I’ll save fish,' he said." By @rachelmonroe.bsky.social: www.newyorker.com/news/letter-...

“Across the county, Pool explained, the human remains that searchers discovered were being stored in refrigerated trucks at fire stations until funeral homes could handle them. Then the radio crackled, and he excused himself again.” www.newyorker.com/news/letter-...

The volunteer fire department in Hunt, Texas, typically responds to some 60 calls a year, handling everything from brush fires to welfare checks. Now it’s tasked with recovering bodies from one of the most deadly floods in America of the past century.

Lee Pool, a firefighter who worked nighttime security at Camp Mystic, has been working non-stop since the flood, seeming to be powered by a mix of necessity and purpose. nyer.cm/QlbUG07

In Kerr County, I was struck by two things -- the extent of the devastation (it's hard to fathom) and people's incredible desire to help one another www.newyorker.com/news/letter-...

“I don’t know how long it took—ten seconds, maybe fifteen—for the house to come apart." During the early-morning hours of July 4, the Guadalupe River pulled senior editor Aaron Parsley and six members of his family into its waters. Read his firsthand account:

Rachel Monroe reports from McAllen, Texas, where local activism against the federal immigration raids is on the rise. “We’re shooting ourselves in the foot,” Javier Villalobos, the mayor of the city, said.

Interesting article on one of my favorite museums. www.newyorker.com/magazine/202...

Gift link: wapo.st/3IcNOLa

Great piece by Rachel Monroe about a place I have deeply mixed feelings about.

Many specimens in the Mütter Museum were obtained during surgeries and autopsies at almshouses, prison wards, and military field hospitals; few were collected with a contemporary understanding of consent.

Honored to be part of this article on the strange life of the Mütter Museum. Thanks to Rachel Monroe for ending the story with me. www.newyorker.com/magazine/202...

"Gamblers are mystics at heart, and lottery players see all sorts of patterns in the supposedly random sequences of winning numbers. The Lotto Report provided fodder for their scrying." @rachelmonroe.bsky.social @newyorker.com www.newyorker.com/news/letter-...

“Nature does all this stuff—it’s such a bag of chaos, you know?” she said. “We’re born into this chaos, and we grow up, and then we’re, like, Well, now what do I do in this body I landed in?” www.newyorker.com/magazine/202...

An old friend, and great writer, writing an article of local interest to Philadelphians and of subcultural interest to medical oddities everywhere? You love to see it