There was a village in rural China back in the mid-2010s where the local government had grown so corrupt that a couple of old ladies started their own competing official government, stamping documents and making decisions, and I think of them often.

At this point, I kind of automatically assume anyone who is pushing AI as the best way to write is someone who is getting paid to say that.

Happy Trans Day of Visibility. I know trans people and I know fascists who are making life difficult for trans people. The trans people are pretty cool and I'm glad I know them. The fascists can go fall down a deep dark hole.

Unpopular opinion but perhaps we need to send coastal urban writers and journalists down to the countryside for a certain amount of time before they are allowed to write about it.

I wrote about a great new book by Megan Kate Nelson, out today, that blows apart the myths of the American West by telling the stories of real, interesting lives substack.com/home/post/p-...

The Lindy West book is grating not because of her relationships but because she demands grace and acceptance from everyone, but gives none to any of the people she encounters on a cross-country road trip. It's the opposite of what a road trip memoir should do, especially in our current moment.

I think there are a lot of Americans who don't realize that, in regards to purchasing power and no matter what their age or job, they will never make more money then they made in 2024—unless something radically changes.

As our economic divide widens, the plasma economy is reaching its tentacles into the middle class (I'm quoted in this one) www.nytimes.com/2026/03/20/b...

My local airport is having a food drive to support TSA employees who aren't getting paid for their work because the government is still shut down, in case anyone needs further evidence that the USA has lost its way entirely.

A million years ago, when the private prison industry was just gaining a footing, I wrote some stories about the perception of corruption with one company in Texas (they had a county judge on their board), and just that was enough for the company to lose its contracts. Whew.

Regarding Montana politics and a US Senator unnecessarily involving himself in breaking a retired Marine's arm over a peaceful protest, don't forget, we also have a second-term governor who assaulted a reporter for asking a question.

Please recommend to me the best books about the Balkans. Nonfiction or fiction, whatever you like!

Updates at both our jobs today have me thinking, "Man, neither of us is even eligible to sell plasma." But anyway, the U.S. economy is FINE, clearly.

As the laid off Middle East News Editor, I concur. Management eliminated the positions of every single staff correspondent and bureau chief in the Middle East.

Please take a moment to think about what this illegal and unjustified war on Iran mean to the basic moral fabric of our nation. newrepublic.com/article/2071...

Saving the people of Iran from being massacred by their government in the streets by massacring elementary schoolgirls from the air.

The backlash against AI and data centers has been entirely predictable, when the promise of AI thus far has been "We're going to steal your work, eliminate your ability to make a living and make art and you can't do anything to stop it."

The Washington Post's description of the bodycam video of his arrest last year, and the translation of Mr. Shah Alam's comments, is gutting. Remember, he was entirely blind in one eye and could only see three feet in the other, and he spoke virtually no English. He spent a year in jail for this.

This story is going to haunt me: a disabled man escaped the genocide in Myanmar, came to the US as a refugee seeking asylum, then died, alone, as a direct result of actions of the American government.

Everything else aside, I just keep trying to imagine winning an Olympic gold medal and immediately wanting to party down with...the head of the FBI?

Hong Kong media mogul Jimmy Lai's daughter will be a guest at tonight's SOTU. To understand the context, the story of repression and censorship in Hong Kong and some lessons on creeping authoritarianism in the US, read my new interview with author Louisa Lim, out now substack.com/home/post/p-...

The journalists-on-social-media discourse is fascinating because when I quit twitter in 2024 I was liberated from regular posting and mostly forget to do it now. This is an excellent thing!

"So grave is the scale, nature, systematic character, and transnational reach of these atrocities against women and girls, that a number of them may reasonably meet the legal threshold of crimes against humanity," UN experts said. www.reuters.com/world/allega...

When I decided to do a series of interviews with smart folks about surviving this current moment in America, @garrettbucks.bsky.social was one of the first people I wanted to hear from. We all need some optimism to get us through and he has it, authentically. kemc.substack.com/p/theres-jus...

Jesse Jackson, civil rights icon, dies aged 84

Related to this, Blood Money: The Story of Life, Death, and Profit Inside America's Blood Industry by @kemc.bsky.social is a book that I think about all the time. If you haven't read it: www.simonandschuster.com/books/Blood-...

“Collection of Handwritten Letters from Children in Detention Center” sounds like an exhibit in the Holocaust Museum.

I've been saying this for literal years, but American journalists desperately need training in how to report safely under authoritarianism because buddy it is here.

It's becoming chillingly clear: an administration that gleefully dismantled USAID and consigned countless people to slow death by starvation and preventable disease will not hesitate to inflict hunger on tens of millions of Americans by cutting off SNAP funds.

We live in a time of even greater wealth inequality than preceding the French Revolution

Kathleen McLaughlin’s book about the plasma industry is an extremely eye-opening look at poverty in the US, and how people who sell plasma to help make ends meet are exploited without being given proper protection and support. This is a labor issue conveniently shrowded in stigma.

I strongly recommend this book, I learned so much from it - I hadn't even known the economics of blood was a thing! IMHO it's also a really good example of a former foreign correspondent using that experience/lens to reveal/learn something new about their home country in a very thoughtful way

Given that the vast majority of Americans who sell blood primarily do so first and foremost for money, yes it does reflect the economic hardships of the United States. Really do wish more people would read my book!

Did you know payday loans wither when plasma centers open? Check put my new radio documentary for BBC World Service here www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/w...

I wrote a whole book about this, and the experience of reporting it was an education in how deeply unequal American life has become. www.simonandschuster.com/books/Blood-...

"The writers have been talking to each other in their essays, without even knowing it. They are deeply connected, in their words, through this place. It’s thrilling to watch unfold and an unexpected honor to experience," @kemc.bsky.social re: a book I'm psyched for! open.substack.com/pub/kemc/p/m...

Did you know payday loans wither when plasma centers open? Check put my new radio documentary for BBC World Service here www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/w...

The proven methods to reduce the chances of becoming the Main Character of the Day on social media platforms is by 1) posting less and 2) multiple trusted group chats.

I have a new radio documentary out this week on the BBC World Service, you can hear it here www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/...

men who claimed to be leaders, to be defenders of liberty, to be dynamos of business, cowering at the thought that they might have to stand up for something, while ordinary people with a fraction of their money and power speak out.

"Today there isn’t a single state, metropolitan area, or county in the United States where a full-time worker earning the local minimum wage can afford a two-bedroom apartment."

Here’s our old friend, Americans’ complete lack of familiarity with real-world authoritarianism, showing up again. They don’t understand that this is exactly what happens in authoritarian countries, outside of totalitarianism. www.nytimes.com/2025/03/15/o...

In 1971, shortly after the EPA was founded, the agency commissioned dozens of photographers to document environmental issues and scenes across the U.S. The "DOCUMERICA" project captured pollution, urban decay, conservation efforts, and everyday American culture.

Self-censorship is the most effective form of censorship in an authoritarian state, the censorship we impose on ourselves out of fear or fealty to power.

One thing I learned in many years reporting in China is how eventually, the power apparatus comes for everyone, even those who think they'll remain safe by keeping quiet or sucking up to power. That's just how it works.

philadelphia inquirer is right there for you to subscribe to instead, people

Your Chinese idiom of the day/century to date is 上樑不正下樑歪 "when the roof beam is out of line, the rafters are crooked," precisely translatable as "a fish rots from the head down."