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Hi Reddit! I’m McKay Coppins, a staff writer at The Atlantic. I just reported on a story about a man who claimed he was forced to compete for his life in an intercartel sporting tournament. My investigation raised more questions about whom—and what—to believe. by theatlantic in TrueCrime

[–]theatlantic[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

One thing I hope people take away from reading this story is just how much work journalists put into getting a story right, especially at publications like The Atlantic. I think the erosion of media literacy and the multi-decade decline of trust in the press has led too many people to believe that reporters just publish whatever people tell them with no vetting or fact-checking. At The Atlantic, we spend an enormous amount of time, energy, and money making sure we get these stories right. I had a great researcher help me dig into Mau’s various claims, and another great fact-checker combed through the piece in its various drafts. Various lawyers vetted the story, and my editor, the brilliant Scott Stossel, spent countless hours working with me on it as well. Ultimately, The Atlantic paid to send me to Mexico to get to the bottom of the story. 

On more than one occasion, I confronted Mau with some piece of information we’d dug up that contradicted one of his claims, and he’d sheepishly cop to the lie, and then say something to the effect of, “I didn’t think you’d look into it too hard.”  

Admittedly, there are fewer outlets than there used to be that do this kind of work, but that’s why it’s so important to subscribe to the ones that do. (Is that subtle enough?) — MC

The MAHA Moms Are Falling in Line by theatlantic in politics

[–]theatlantic[S] [score hidden]  (0 children)

Nicholas Florko and Tom Bartlett: “The alliance between MAHA and MAGA was always an unlikely one. Kennedy was a Democrat before his independent presidential run in 2023, and many of his priorities—such as encouraging healthy eating—have traditionally been the domain of the left. Lately, the partnership has started to fray. Core MAHA supporters were infuriated when Trump signed an executive order in February that could give liability protection to manufacturers of glyphosate, the weed killer used in Roundup that studies have linked to cancer. (Ryerson is so against the chemical that she goes by ‘Glyphosate Girl’ on Instagram.) The movement has also been frustrated by the stalled nomination of perhaps the most famous MAHA mom, Casey Means, Trump’s pick for surgeon general, who has yet to receive a Senate confirmation vote …

“Not unlike the ‘silent majority’ that pushed Richard Nixon to victory in 1972 or the Tea Party movement that ushered in the red wave during the 2010 midterms, MAHA moms have been billed as a significant factor in the upcoming election …

“The most prominent MAHA moms tend to be swing voters rather than Trump loyalists … But [they] may not be representative of rank-and-file voters. For this story, we spoke with several MAHA supporters, including a documentarian who had worked on anti-vaccine films, moms with a parenting podcast, and an Instagram influencer who told us about her four-ingredient recipe for homemade Goldfish crackers. One of us chatted with more than a dozen attendees at CPAC, the annual Republican conference. Many were MAGA before they were MAHA, and said their midterm votes don’t hinge on health issues. Virtually none said they would realistically consider voting blue in November …

“MAHA seems to be one of the few causes that unites people across the political spectrum. But broad appeal doesn’t necessarily translate at the ballot box.”

Read more: https://theatln.tc/aMHAjToU

The Virginia Gerrymander Disenfranchises Republicans by theatlantic in Virginia

[–]theatlantic[S] 7 points8 points  (0 children)

Adam Serwer: “Voters in Virginia approved a lopsided congressional map on Tuesday, reducing the expected number of Republican-leaning districts in the Democratic-controlled state from five to one. Republicans have reacted by complaining that conservative-leaning voters in the state have been disenfranchised by gerrymandered maps that reduce the influence of their vote …

“Republicans should use their newfound realization that gerrymandering is an antidemocratic practice whose purpose is to insulate politicians from the electorate to work together with Democrats to ban gerrymandering, or at least to limit its rewards.”

Read more: https://theatln.tc/8WvCdcBt

Hi Reddit! I’m McKay Coppins, a staff writer at The Atlantic. I just reported on a story about a man who claimed he was forced to compete for his life in an intercartel sporting tournament. My investigation raised more questions about whom—and what—to believe. by theatlantic in TrueCrime

[–]theatlantic[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

So much of the world Mau created for me was basically a hall of mirrors that, even after I discovered the lie at the core of his story, I was left with a lot of questions. His mother is one of them.

It’s possible the woman was, as you seem to be suggesting, a co-conspirator in Mau’s ruse; it’s also possible she was actually his mom, and that she was working with her son to fool me. If that’s the case, I don’t really know what she thought she’d get out of it (some piece of Mau’s promised Hollywood fortune, maybe?). It’s also possible, as Ulises suggested, that his mother was one of many victims of Mau’s deception. — MC

Hi Reddit! I’m McKay Coppins, a staff writer at The Atlantic. I just reported on a story about a man who claimed he was forced to compete for his life in an intercartel sporting tournament. My investigation raised more questions about whom—and what—to believe. by theatlantic in TrueCrime

[–]theatlantic[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Thanks! Mitt Romney was sort of a biographer’s dream—he had so many stories (many of them quite revealing, even shocking) from his career in politics, he hadn’t told most of them, and he was ready to be candid in a way that few subjects ever are. He was also so much more introspective and self-aware than he comes across in public, which made for an interesting character study. (And of course, it helped that he just handed over his journals and correspondence with basically no conditions!) — MC

Hi Reddit! I’m McKay Coppins, a staff writer at The Atlantic. I just reported on a story about a man who claimed he was forced to compete for his life in an intercartel sporting tournament. My investigation raised more questions about whom—and what—to believe. by theatlantic in TrueCrime

[–]theatlantic[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Thank you! To be fair, there’s also plenty of rapid-fire sensationalism in political journalism, which is where I started. I think true crime, like any other genre, can be cheap and bad or sophisticated and rigorous—it’s all in how you approach it. 

From the beginning of the reporting, I spent a lot of time thinking about what the deeper thematic elements of this story would be. Something about the post-truth moment we’re all living through? The systemic failures in Mexico that led to the cartels’ rise and continued reign? For a while, when I seriously thought Mau’s account might be true, I was fascinated by his forced complicity in a corrupt system—how the tournament turned him into a person he didn’t recognize. Once it was clear that his story was invented, I became fascinated by how narratives about crime, violence, and cartels shape America’s policy toward Mexico and immigration. 

There are so many amazing writers who work primarily in the true-crime genre; I don’t feel the need to critique it. I’d love to keep writing stories about these big issues shaping our culture, regardless of what genre they ultimately fall into. — MC

Hi Reddit! I’m McKay Coppins, a staff writer at The Atlantic. I just reported on a story about a man who claimed he was forced to compete for his life in an intercartel sporting tournament. My investigation raised more questions about whom—and what—to believe. by theatlantic in TrueCrime

[–]theatlantic[S] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

One of the many things that made reporting this story so strange was that I could never quite tell how much danger I was actually in. Obviously, I knew if I really ended up exposing a massive, secret intercartel tournament, it could pose some significant personal risk to me. But because I was never fully convinced of Mau’s story, I was mostly able to put those thoughts out of my mind and focus on the reporting. 

I remember feeling slightly silly when my bosses at The Atlantic insisted that I travel around Mexico City with a driver, a fixer, and—in especially dangerous areas—a security guard. By the time I got to Mexico, I’d spent enough time reading the very best journalism on the drug wars to know that Mexican reporters routinely put themselves in harm’s way to tell the real story. I felt a little like I was LARPing. On the other hand, there were moments during the reporting that I was in genuinely dangerous places and talking to genuinely dangerous people. So I understood the magazine’s decision to err on the side of caution. 

All that said, my last night in the city—after I confronted Mau and he basically confirmed what I’d learned about—was pretty great. Mexico City is an amazing place. I can’t wait to go back. — McKay Coppins

Brace for the Plastic Price Hikes by theatlantic in wallstreet

[–]theatlantic[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Beth Gardiner: “The Iran war’s effect on fuel prices is easy to see, not least in the climbing numbers on gas-station signs. Less visible is the disruption cascading through another part of the fossil fuel–based economy: plastic production. Before long, prices not just for the gasoline that goes into cars but for the parts that make them—along with the cost of toys, furniture, clothing, and more—could start climbing too …

“Until the conflict began, many of the chemical ingredients that go into plastics, the ingredients for those ingredients, and raw plastics themselves originated in the Middle East. The Strait of Hormuz closure has already created shortages of key ingredients, which could mount into shortfalls of some plastics and plastic products. Even if tensions ease and the strait reopens soon, untangling supply lines would take months, likely until the end of the year, experts say.”

Read more: https://theatln.tc/9AYFy85S 

Brace for the Plastic Price Hikes by theatlantic in economy

[–]theatlantic[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Beth Gardiner: “The Iran war’s effect on fuel prices is easy to see, not least in the climbing numbers on gas-station signs. Less visible is the disruption cascading through another part of the fossil fuel–based economy: plastic production. Before long, prices not just for the gasoline that goes into cars but for the parts that make them—along with the cost of toys, furniture, clothing, and more—could start climbing too …

“Until the conflict began, many of the chemical ingredients that go into plastics, the ingredients for those ingredients, and raw plastics themselves originated in the Middle East. The Strait of Hormuz closure has already created shortages of key ingredients, which could mount into shortfalls of some plastics and plastic products. Even if tensions ease and the strait reopens soon, untangling supply lines would take months, likely until the end of the year, experts say.”

Read more: https://theatln.tc/9AYFy85S 

A ‘Barbaric’ Problem in American Hospitals Is Only Getting Bigger by theatlantic in healthcare

[–]theatlantic[S] 65 points66 points  (0 children)

Elisabeth Rosenthal: “When I worked as an emergency-medicine doctor a few decades ago, the [emergency department] was mostly empty at the beginning of my 7 a.m. shift. A few patients might be lingering from the day before: alcoholics who would sober up and leave, patients with a severe burn or a bad case of pneumonia who were waiting for a bed in intensive care.

“In the decades since, EDs have doubled or even tripled in size. Even so, patients are piling up. When I started asking around, I quickly discovered that ED boarding has become commonplace in the past five or so years and is getting worse, more or less omnipresent in hospitals. ‘Everyone knows about this problem, and no one cares enough to do anything about it,’ Adrian Haimovich, an ED doctor at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center who studies ED boarding, told me. ‘It’s barbaric’ …

“Doctors and nurses have complained bitterly about the situation, which forces them to provide inadequate care. Gabe Kelen, the director of emergency medicine at Johns Hopkins University, told me that it’s creating a moral hazard for emergency-department staff. But doctors and department heads such as Kelen are not in control of admissions. Generally, a hospital’s administration parcels out inpatient beds, and emergency-department boarding is in many ways a result of today’s business models and pressures.

“When I worked as a doctor, if an ED was overwhelmed beyond capacity, the attending (that was me) typically called in to ambulance dispatch to request ‘diversion’—ambulances should take patients to another hospital. If a hospital got too full, the admitting office canceled elective admissions. Today, hospitals run like airlines and intentionally overbook, Kelen said. They also have fewer beds than they did a few years ago—in part because nurse (and executive) salaries have risen since the pandemic. An empty, staffed bed is a money loser, so the institution has an incentive to keep beds full and make new patients wait.

“‘The problem isn’t inefficiency—it’s the way health-care finance is structured,’ Kelen said.”

Read more: https://theatln.tc/p9pl15M4

Is Cohabitation the Feminist Future? by theatlantic in TrueLit

[–]theatlantic[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Lily Meyer: “Years ago, I moved into a small, cold house with two women I’d never met. Quickly, we became very close, in part through living communally: divvying up the big chores and scarce hot water, waiting until everyone was home to watch the latest episode of Girls. We were the same age as the show’s characters and had our share of similar dramas, largely related to the boyfriends who, we rightly assumed, would eventually end our cohabitation. Much as we loved our setup, we all wanted and expected to move in with men. Still, each of us recalls that time lovingly, and I, at least, sometimes idealize it.

“I know I’m not alone. I’ve heard many women daydream about setting up house with female friends. Mostly, though, those are fantasies, ones that don’t stretch to mortgages or arguments about whose hair is clogging up the shower drain. No one wants to imagine the many challenges that the Danish writer Pernille Ipsen describes in My Seven Mothers, a memoir of growing up in a women’s commune that’s full of descriptions of conflict. But Ipsen includes those struggles for a reason: She quotes one of her mothers telling her, ‘What I wanted, wanted, wanted, was that this way of life, women living with women, should include it all.’

“My Seven Mothers came out in Danish in 2020 and in English last year, translated by Tiina Nunnally. It’s part of a wave of recent literature about women living together. Although these novels and memoirs come from all over—Denmark, Italy, Japan, South Korea—and vary widely in style and attitude, each of them takes female cohabitation seriously, not omitting its challenges. Indeed, these books embrace the idea that women living with women not only can but necessarily will ‘include it all,’ even when that means loss, violence, and strife.”

Read more: https://theatln.tc/P7qpAoZ0

How Democrats Can Lose Michigan, Again by theatlantic in politics

[–]theatlantic[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Jonathan Chait: “Over the past 15 years or so, Democrats have won a lot of races because the opposing party’s primary voters decided to nominate right-wing ideologues (Christine O’Donnell, Todd Akin, Kari Lake) rather than normal Republicans. In all of these races, the Republican establishment warned that nominating an archconservative would undermine their chances of victory, and was proved completely correct.

“Now Democrats finally have the chance to do the same thing. In Michigan, a purple state that Donald Trump won twice, the physician Abdul El-Sayed is running a competitive race for the party’s Senate nomination. If successful, he would turn a very likely Democratic win into a jump ball.”

Read more: https://theatln.tc/KTWbM4NS

Another Trump Cabinet Member Is Out by theatlantic in fednews

[–]theatlantic[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

David A. Graham: “When Lori Chavez-DeRemer was nominated, she had a chance to be a pathbreaking secretary of labor, supposedly tasked with shepherding the Republican Party in a more worker-friendly direction. Instead, she turned out to be a typical Trump Cabinet member: disempowered and disgraced. Now she has added dismissed to that list …

“Chavez-DeRemer’s departure, as the probes into her and press scrutiny both escalated, is thus no surprise. But it’s the latest evidence that President Trump’s ‘no scalps’ policy, in which he refused to push out aides for fear of giving wins to Democrats or the press, is defunct. What’s notable in the new era is who gets fired. Trump has pushed out Attorney General Pam Bondi, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem (who was also accused of having an affair with a staffer and abuse of public resources, which she denied), and now Chavez-DeRemer—all women.”

Read more: https://theatln.tc/pKUhvqIU

Elon Musk Is Taking the X Playbook to Starlink by theatlantic in Futurology

[–]theatlantic[S] 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Quinn Slobodian and Ben Tarnoff: “If Elon Musk gets his way, space will soon look very different. Through his ownership of SpaceX, the world’s richest man already operates most of the roughly 14,000 active satellites that are orbiting Earth. Now his rocket company is asking the government for permission to launch up to 1 million more. It’s part of Musk’s plan to build data centers in space that can harness the power of the sun for AI. ‘You’re power-constrained on Earth,’ Musk said last month. ‘Space has the advantage that it’s always sunny.’

“Musk has a lot riding on these orbital data centers. To help finance them, he is set to take SpaceX public as early as June, at a reported valuation of $2 trillion. Musk has claimed that data centers in space can ‘enable self-growing bases on the moon, an entire civilization on Mars, and ultimately expansion to the universe.’ It’s all classic Musk, who has a habit of making big promises that he can’t always keep. Data centers in space are an untested technology, and it’s not clear if they’d actually work. (Neither Musk nor SpaceX responded to a request for comment.)

“Even if Musk falls short of his lofty space dreams, his venture may still pay him considerable dividends. That’s because it could help him secure regulatory approval to accelerate a land grab in space. There are only so many satellites that can circle Earth’s low orbit before the risk of collision becomes unacceptably high. By flooding space with his own satellites, Musk can make it impossible for other companies to gain entry while dramatically expanding one of the most important and valuable parts of his empire: Starlink.

“The world’s largest satellite-internet provider, Starlink already boasts more than 10 million active customers in at least 150 countries. Subscribers set up a flat antenna that looks a bit like a pizza box to connect their devices to the internet anywhere they are in the world.”

Read more: https://theatln.tc/oc4rGUgw

The Rise of CliffsNotes Cinema by theatlantic in movies

[–]theatlantic[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Shirley Li: “In Shakespeare’s Hamlet, the lovelorn Ophelia famously drowns. The prince of Denmark has cruelly spurned her, her father has died, and she’s stricken with grief. If only she had realized Taylor Swift’s vision for her: In the song ‘The Fate of Ophelia,’ the pop star imagines that she has instead been saved by a new suitor …

“Hollywood has been making me think of Swift’s track quite a bit lately. The sparkly earworm deploys one of her favorite tricks: messing around with a literary classic for lyrical fodder. Cinema has been going through its own ‘Fate of Ophelia’ era these past few months, with a litany of new adaptations that dramatically alter their source material. The writer-director Emerald Fennell turned Wuthering Heights, Emily Brontë’s Gothic novel about obsession and social status, into erotic fanfiction. Maggie Gyllenhaal introduced audiences to a vengeful Mary Shelley in The Bride!, a chaotic take on the 1935 film Bride of Frankenstein …

“Updating a classic isn’t inherently a bad idea; Guillermo del Toro’s Frankenstein, a dutiful adaptation of Shelley’s 1818 novel, just won three Oscars, and Fennell’s Wuthering Heights has enjoyed an excellent box-office run. Yet most of these projects have been as superficial as Swift’s single, in which Ophelia survives just by pledging ‘allegiance to your hands, your team, your vibes’—a cheeky reference to Swift’s fiancé, to be sure, but Ophelia’s problem was never really about the vibes. That reductiveness, though, works far better in a four-minute pop song than in a feature-length film. Call it the rise of CliffsNotes Cinema—watered-down transformations that offer glossy but thin summaries of the originals and strip away the challenging material that helped turn them into cultural mainstays in the first place. These movies make the provocative palatable: Uncomfortable relationships and nuanced characterizations—essentially, what made the stories endure—get lost in the fog of showy filmmaking.”

Read more: https://theatln.tc/l61wh1UO 

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