Some cool news about my "Cartel Olympics" story...

“There is that folk wisdom that prejudices are somehow the province of the old and thus they will die off as generations replace generations … Antisemitism certainly doesn't follow that rule.” Listen to my interview with @yair-rosenberg.bsky.social: mckaycoppins.substack.com/p/the-bleak-...

Programming note: I'll be on leave from @theatlantic.com for the rest of the year as I work on a new book. I can't talk about it yet, but I'm very excited. I'll share details with my newsletter subscribers as soon as I can—sign up if you haven't yet: mckaycoppins.substack.com

Programming note: I'll be on leave from @theatlantic.com for the rest of the year as I work on a new book. I can't talk about it yet, but I'm very excited. I'll share details with my newsletter subscribers as soon as I can—sign up if you haven't yet: mckaycoppins.substack.com

I've been a longtime fan of @mckaycoppins.bsky.social and his latest piece is one of the best articles of the year. Psyched I got a chance to voice the audio version! www.theatlantic.com/magazine/202...

Last year, I met a Mexican athlete who told me an incredible story—that he’d been kidnapped in 2023 and forced to compete for his life in a secret tournament of cartels. Once I started reporting, the story only got more surreal. For The Atlantic's May issue: www.theatlantic.com/magazine/202...

Practically overnight, Americans took an ancient vice and made it available on everyone’s phones, @mckaycoppins.bsky.social reports. He examines the unsettling suddenness with which gambling has come to permeate every nook and cranny of American life:. theatln.tc/Jxl7ryUR

have spent years being irritated that the Alabama state legislature's never let me put down 25 bucks on the couple of lines a month I stumble across that look out of whack have reached the conclusion I should probably send them a thank-you note (anyway, take a few minutes and read this)

This is absolutely the best article I've seen about the dangers of sports betting, even as more of a libertarian on the issue

As someone who believes sports betting is quietly destroying hundreds of thousands of Americans’ lives (and as a tennis fan horrified by the number of death threats players are currently getting from sports bettors), glad @mckaycoppins.bsky.social wrote this. FanDuel and DraftKings are destroying us

Last year, The Atlantic gave me $10,000 to gamble with. What started as a journalistic gimmick turned into something more... unnerving. My cover story on the online betting boom that's warping sports, culture, politics, and the psyches of millions of young men: www.theatlantic.com/magazine/202...

New: I've obtained portions of a forthcoming book about the dysfunction inside the Department of Homeland Security. It contains damning details about the relationship between Secretary Kristi Noem and Corey Lewandowski—and how it's warping the agency. www.theatlantic.com/politics/202...

I had a great conversation with Jeff Flake about America’s evolving (eroding?) global reputation. At the end of the episode, we also get into a little debate about what will happen to the GOP after Trump. mckaycoppins.substack.com/p/jeff-flake...

Where did Stephen Miller's politics develop? "The thing that most struck me in talking to him years ago when I was profiling him was how much of his political worldview was forged in opposition to his upbringing," said @mckaycoppins.bsky.social.

For this week's Deseret Voices podcast, I talked to my brilliant Atlantic colleague Caitlin Dickerson about Minneapolis, the flood of Trump-era recruits to ICE, and what it's like to be an immigrant in America right now. Highlights in my newsletter: mckaycoppins.substack.com/p/trumps-new...

Reading the new biography of Harry Reid, I found a lot to admire about the late senator’s relentlessness. But the same thought kept occurring to me: Do we really want more of this in politics? My conversation with author Jon Ralston on Deseret Voices: mckaycoppins.substack.com/p/do-we-real...

Boots on the ground in Caracas? Regime-change operations in Cuba or Colombia? An invasion of Greenland? For this week's episode of Deseret Voices, I talked to Richard Fontaine about the fall of Maduro, the future of Venezuela, and what Trump might do next. open.substack.com/pub/mckaycop...

From April 2017

If you’re looking for last-minute Christmas presents, I wrote in my newsletter about my favorite books that I read in 2025. mckaycoppins.substack.com/p/trump-feed...

Had a great time talking to @sarahlongwell25.bsky.social for this week’s episode of Deseret Voices—what worries her about America’s future, what gives her hope, and what we get wrong about Trump voters. mckaycoppins.substack.com/p/trump-feed...

For this week's episode of Deseret Voices, I had a great, delightfully weird conversation with Ross Douthat about flying saints, atheism's failures, and why he thinks "God is up to something interesting with the LDS story." More in my newsletter: mckaycoppins.substack.com/p/the-ration...

For this week's episode of Deseret Voices, I talked to Utah Gov. Spencer Cox about how he's been "radicalized" against social media companies, his own Twitter addiction, and the startling things he’s learned from Utah’s legal fight with big tech. mckaycoppins.substack.com/p/how-spence...

I assume you’ve read the seminal @mckaycoppins.bsky.social work from 2013: www.buzzfeednews.com/article/mcka...

The president continues to behave in ways that not a single parent I know would tolerate from their elementary-school-aged kids.

🎁 Forty-one days until Christmas. A perfect day to buy someone a gift subscription to The Atlantic: accounts.theatlantic.com/products/gif...

For my first episode of Deseret Voices, I talked to @SenMarkKelly about the plague of political violence, how to stop it, and why he thinks ICE agents should stop following unlawful orders from the Trump Administration. youtu.be/ExpTt31hfTI?...

Flying down to Austin this morning for the Texas Tribune Festival, where I’ll be interviewing former Sen. Joe Manchin and appearing onstage with several of my esteemed Atlantic colleagues. BBQ and taco recs welcome. Come say hi if you’re in town! festival.texastribune.org/event/c17d2d...

Grateful to the Deseret News for this profile, which covers my greatest professional achievement: my stewardship of the student newspaper at my kids' elementary school, The Sunshine Times. (There's some other stuff in the story, too.) www.deseret.com/politics/202...

Excited to share that I’ll be co-hosting a new interview podcast, Deseret Voices. I wrote on Substack about why I’m taking this on, and my goals for the show. We’ve got some great guests lined up, but also taking suggestions—who should I interview? mckaycoppins.substack.com/p/some-excit...

I’ll have something cool to share soon. If you haven’t already, subscribe to my newsletter to get the announcement: mckaycoppins.substack.com/about

On the death of a prophet, a church shooting in Michigan, and what I learned from President Russell M. Nelson. This was a difficult piece to write. www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archiv...

Shortly after Utah Governor Spencer Cox's news conference yesterday, he got a call from the president. "You know, the type of person who would do something like that to Charlie Kirk would love to do it to us," Cox says Trump told him. www.theatlantic.com/politics/arc...

Today is a good day to read @mckaycoppins.bsky.social on the mind games, sibling rivalry, and war for power that culminated in Lachlan Murdoch winning his family’s succession fight: www.theatlantic.com/magazine/arc...

Life is complicated, human experience is varied, some people shouldn't be parents, etc.—I understand the aversion to having kids. But it's kind of amazing that "parenthood is good and makes people happy" is considered such a counterintuitive take in 2025.

From a new survey of 3,000 American women ages 25 to 55, controlled for age, family income, and education: "Married mothers are actually happier than unmarried women and married women without children." www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archiv...

Number of times I’ve heard a KPop Demon Hunters song in Mexico City this week: 3 (and counting)

Photos: Starvation and Chaos in Gaza www.theatlantic.com/photography/...

Something I think about often is when I asked Jason Chaffetz, then Oversight chairman, in March 2017 if he was worried about Trump profiting from his presidency. “He’s already rich,” Chaffetz shrugged. “I don’t think that he ran for this office to line his pockets even more."

“They call Alden a vulture hedge fund, and I think that’s honestly a misnomer,” a former Chicago Tribune reporter told me in 2021. “A vulture doesn’t hold a wounded animal’s head underwater. This is predatory.” www.theatlantic.com/magazine/arc...

Some Pioneer Day reading

"The network that once made Cronkite the most trusted man in America no longer gets the benefit of the doubt. CBS’s owners have made a series of decisions capitulating to President Donald Trump..." www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archiv...

Mike Lee’s “based” online persona and Trump-era theatrics are a source of growing alarm among LDS church leaders, @sambbenson reports. “Mike Lee is far-right,” said one emeritus general authority. “The church is not far-right.” www.politico.com/news/magazin...

"Officers and agents described a workforce on edge, vilified by broad swaths of the public and bullied by Trump officials demanding more and more." www.theatlantic.com/politics/arc...

More and more people are saying this

Incredible. "Paramount said its payment includes Mr. Trump’s legal fees and costs and that the money, minus the legal fees, will be paid to Mr. Trump’s future presidential library."

Idaho Attorney General: ‘Everyone is Welcome Here’ sign cannot be displayed in Idaho schools because they are “part of an ideological/social movement.” www.idahoednews.org/top-news/att...

Wrote this in April 2017

Deseret News on Mike Lee: “The tweets were unacceptable for anyone, let alone from a member of the Senate. It revealed a lack of compassion for both victims and their loved ones and cast a poor light on Utah.” Editorial calls on Lee to apologize: www.deseret.com/opinion/2025...

When I profiled Stephen Miller in 2018 for The Atlantic, I spent lots of time talking to people he grew up with—Santa Monica High School classmates, students at Duke. Some found him amusing, others repulsive. Almost all of them described him as a troll. www.theatlantic.com/politics/arc...

Padilla’s office betting that a lot of people are going to find this treatment of a U.S. senator pretty shocking (and perhaps clarifying).