American cities and towns regularly turn to private investors to raise funds for schools and basic infrastructure and on the private bond market, the rich ones win and the poor inevitably lose wrote about the long arc of municipal debt for @theatlantic.com: www.theatlantic.com/books/2025/1...

I've read this book and can confirm it's fantastic. The gorgeous cover is only the beginning—you're not going to want to miss it. Pre-order here: bookshop.org/p/books/my-b...

the Japanese edition arrived! it's a family :)

Great interview between @michaelwaters.bsky.social and Jack Lowery! bombmagazine.org/articles/202...

"No one knows what will come to replace the international system that is currently collapsing around us, but any political system that prioritizes punishing those who protest genocide rather than stopping the killing has clearly exhausted itself." www.theguardian.com/us-news/ng-i...

Hi btw!! I was on The Brian Lehrer show last week talking about Palantir — what it actually is, what it's working on, kicking me out of their conference booth/threatening to call the cops on me last week, etc. Here's a link to the segment: www.wnyc.org/story/the-se...

tomorrow: I'm so excited to be in conversation with the great @paisleycurrah.com at the Upper West Side Barnes & Noble! come join us at 7 pm! stores.barnesandnoble.com/event/978006...

I wrote for @theatlantic.com about how archivists are contending with our digital detritus — whether we'll be able to save emails, texts, Discord chats, etc, and what that means for how we tell history: www.theatlantic.com/culture/arch...

this is tonight @ 7pm!! come pick up a paperback copy of The Other Olympians and enjoy my presentation on Sexually Active Popes

i'll be giving a brief oral presentation here tomorrow about the most batshit insane nineteenth century love triangle in history ive ever encountered. do come through if you have the time

cannot wait for this beautiful and inevitably horny event

in one week: to celebrate the paperback of The Other Olympians, @leahtigers.bsky.social, @hughryan.bsky.social, @sabs.bsky.social, and I are presenting on our research obsessions hear about historical love affairs, sexually active popes, and much more June 3 @ 7 pm! register here: lu.ma/lnnvrmoh

The biggest mistake I see in discussions of trans people's healthcare is the idea that hormones and the like are some special service just for us when really all kinds of people access the same health care for all kinds of reasons but they are *withheld* from us because we are trans

I can’t wait to 1) celebrate @michaelwaters.bsky.social’s THE OTHER OLYMPIANS, 2) share my obsession with Robert Bonner, a Black saloon owner in the early 1900s who had an intense few years in Brooklyn, and 3) hear the amazing research of @leahtigers.bsky.social & @sabs.bsky.social ! lu.ma/lnnvrmoh

The Other Olympians is coming out in paperback on June 3, and to celebrate, @leahtigers.bsky.social, @hughryan.bsky.social, @sabs.bsky.social, and I are presenting on research obsessions that never made it to print come for wine and light debauchery, and maybe even a photo-op RSVP: lu.ma/lnnvrmoh

“In the summer of 1936, Wilhelm Knoll, an influential sports doctor and a Nazi who wanted to purge ‘unsuitable elements’ from sports, began lobbying for sex screenings. This time, he channeled his panic solely onto gender nonconforming women.”

Hell of an essay on sex testing from @michaelwaters.bsky.social

I wrote for @thebaffler.com about a century of right-wing fanaticism for bodily screenings, from immigration to prisons to sports — and why what we’re seeing today is different: thebaffler.com/latest/testi...

truly had the time of my life losing the LA Times Book Prize

Why have trans people been so vulnerable to political attacks from the right (and scapegoating from the left)? My take in @slate.com slate.com/news-and-pol...

Here are 5 books I chose to help one think deeply about the Olympics. It was tough to pick only five! I include works from Caster Semenya, @michaelwaters.bsky.social @davidgoldblatt.bsky.social @jeffersonlenskyj.bsky.social & more. For @shepherdbooks.bsky.social shepherd.com/best-books/t...

in the network state scene, Irvine is sometimes mentioned as an aspirational example of a planned city - worth knowing more about!!! www.bloomberg.com/features/202...

so excited to finally share my investigation for @bloomberg.com into the Irvine Company—the landlord that built the city of Irvine, California—and the highly secretive 92-year-old who runs it www.bloomberg.com/features/202...

it took no time at all for the recent bans on trans women in sports to turn into an effort to simply bar trans women from entering the U.S. at all these policies were never about sports — they're ideological cover to sideline trans women out of society www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...

must-read piece from @sabs.bsky.social on the news coverage of Sam Nordquist and the meaning of a hate crime: defector.com/who-gets-to-...

so so thrilled to share that THE OTHER OLYMPIANS is a finalist for the LA Times Book Prize!!!!! and alongside so many brilliant historians! (everyone join me in praying I get a Getty Image watermark out of the ceremony)

“All autocracies attempt to control the past in order to control the future.” incredible piece from the always brilliant @hughryan.bsky.social on how we should confront the deliberate erasing of trans people from queer history: slate.com/news-and-pol...

Really good post from @michaelwaters.bsky.social . defector.com/the-trans-sp...

unfortunately they don't make graves like they used to

I wrote for @defector.bsky.social about the federal bill to ban trans girls from school sports, the history of surveillance in sports, and why this legislation is part of a much bigger, more violent project: defector.com/the-trans-sp...

always grateful to have @michaelwaters.bsky.social on the site; his clear-eyed assessment of the pretense of the trans sports ban is a must-read defector.com/the-trans-sp...

this bill is horrific on so many levels, and really it is authorizing a system of bodily surveillance of kids of all ages it demonizes trans girls first and foremost. it will also bring scrutiny on anyone who doesn't conform to ideas of femininity 19thnews.org/2025/01/tran...

I wrote for @theatlantic.com about how rich 18-year-olds with no credit experience of their own can start off with high credit scores

I wrote for @theatlantic.com about why the owner of Forever 21 also owns rights to Marilyn Monroe: https://www.theatlantic.com/culture/archive/2024/12/ai-dead-celebrity-estate-profit/680873/?gift=g5TfX0y4Gr6Bt0sBkt5kpCm6Jzro2l43J3VuJP_m764&utm_source=copy-link&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=share

today is a perfect mail day: the meeting minutes from a radical 1930s debt resistance group (that is almost entirely forgotten today) have finally arrived

One of those books that has been recommended to me a zillion times - and that I’m finally reading! I cannot put it down. Fascinating @michaelwaters.bsky.social

Btw my genius friend Michael is an amazing freelance journo who’s also writing his second book!!! Like many of us he’s starting to post on here now, so worth following if you don’t already:

🚨 Sound the Michael Waters alarm 🚨 Absolutely can’t wait for his next book!

hi friends, making my debut on this website with an announcement: I’m writing another book!!!! it’s a story about the history of financial surveillance — from private detectives to Black Power activists to, ofc, the invention of a credit scoring system that mediates our access to jobs, housing, etc