Christopher Cox

If Caleb — a most discerning reader — is linking to it, it has to be good.

What if Everything We Know About Sacagawea Is Wrong? A growing body of evidence suggests she might have survived into old age — which would entirely change the story of America’s most iconic Native forebear.

"The Sacagawea found in the oral histories of the Hidatsas is both grander and humbler — more like a person, less like a symbol — than the one taught in schools." — @cwhe.bsky.social for The New York Times Magazine

Thanks, Adam!

What if Everything We Know About Sacagawea Is Wrong?

I’ve got just the story for you: www.nytimes.com/2025/07/23/m...

What if Everything We Know About Sacagawea Is Wrong?

I wrote about Sacagawea and the Hidatsa tribe, which has marshaled some compelling evidence that she lived 57 years longer than mainstream historians say she did. (And died of a gunshot wound.) This story also has my favorite final paragraph I've ever written.
www.nytimes.com/2025/07/23/m...

What if Everything We Know About Sacagawea Is Wrong?

I wrote about Sacagawea and the Hidatsa tribe, which has marshaled some compelling evidence that she lived 57 years longer than mainstream historians say she did. (And died of a gunshot wound.) This story also has my favorite final paragraph I've ever written.
www.nytimes.com/2025/07/23/m...

Relatedly, if anyone knows someone at
@novartis.bsky.social (manufacturer of Ilaris/canakimumab, the drug I need but cannot get!), or Anthem (the insurer refusing access) or their pharmacy benefits manager (Navitus) who might be able to move this process along, that would be very helpful. :)

Your Lost Suitcase Is Probably in Alabama We found your bag! And everyone else’s lost luggage.

Wells Tower wrote about lost luggage, just in time for Lost Luggage Day:

www.thecut.com/article/wher...

Pete Hegseth Is Playing Secretary As he sends troops into L.A. and prepares for war, his Pentagon is beset by infighting over leaks, drugs, and socks. How long will Trump stand by him?

nymag.com/intelligence...

Pete Hegseth Is Playing Secretary As he sends troops into L.A. and prepares for war, his Pentagon is beset by infighting over leaks, drugs, and socks. How long will Trump stand by him?

this is a masterpiece @kerryhowley.bsky.social nymag.com/intelligence...

Pete Hegseth Is Playing Secretary As he sends troops into L.A. and prepares for war, his Pentagon is beset by infighting over leaks, drugs, and socks. How long will Trump stand by him?

Well this is a big one: nymag.com/intelligence...

English words that are like German words (information-dense and literal): brainchild, plaything, fireplace.

Good News About Beech Leaf Disease The city’s forests may be in trouble, but scientists have developed some ingenious ways to save them.

"If you were to blindfold naturalists from New England and take them into some of the forests in Queens, they might think they were back home, as opposed to mere yards from Grand Central Parkway" -- What a wonderful look at NYC's urban forests in @nymag.com

www.curbed.com/article/beec...

Good News About Beech Leaf Disease The city’s forests may be in trouble, but scientists have developed some ingenious ways to save them.

"'I got into forestry to get away from people,' he said. Now he is working in the biggest city in the country." Robert Sullivan upending some conventional wisdom about forests and forestry.
www.curbed.com/article/beec...

Language question: Is the use of “search up” (instead of “look up” or “search for”) confined to Gen Alpha or does Gen Z use it as well?

US cancels more than $700 million funding for Moderna bird flu vaccine The Trump administration has canceled a contract awarded to Moderna for the late-stage development of its bird flu vaccine for humans, as well as the right to purchase shots, the drugmaker announced on Wednesday.

(Regarding this news: www.reuters.com/business/hea...)

Highlighted text reads: The Biden administration also invested $766 million in the development of mRNA vaccines for pandemic flu. “If the strain changes,” O’Connell said, “we would want to stay ahead of what’s currently circulating, and mRNA lets you do that a little easier.”

Highlighted text reads: It turns out that not interfering with the vaccine-approval process is another one of those norms that, like not renaming the Gulf of Mexico, we have scant ability to enforce.

Wrote this about bird flu preparedness back in February.

nymag.com/intelligence...

Second one is multiflora rose, a very successful invasive

A dhow sailing on the open ocean.

The Daily Dhow

Uh oh

Screenshot of the article with this text: The virus won't replicate into a desert indefinitely. In Worobey and Nelson's paper, they write, somewhat cryptically, "The continued absence of H5N1 in U.S. swine is highly fortunate." I asked Worobey to explain what that meant. Pigs, he said, "have both receptor types throughout their respiratory tract and therefore could conceivably be a much, much better place for the evolution of something that could become successful."

Hi, good question! The fact that it hasn’t yet suggests no, but pigs do have the right receptors for h5n1 to infect them, so it might just be a matter of time. Here’s a relevant bit from the story.

If you want to get deeper into receptor-land, this paper is great: www.nature.com/articles/s41...

You made it through the hemagglutinin section!

Can Anything Stop Bird Flu? The longer we allow the virus to run rampant through animal populations, the greater our chances of disaster.

This article from @cwhe.bsky.social is a great depiction of the state of H5N1 in US cows, and how we got here.

Closing line "The only thing keeping us safe, for now, is the virus itself"

nymag.com/intelligence...

Illustration of the respiratory tract of a man breathing in flu virus, the virus mutating, and the man coughing out mutated virus.

David Macaulay did the illustrations for this story. As someone who grew up reading The Way Things Work, this was a special thrill.

A screen shot of a paragraph from the story with the text: “During the first Trump administration, when Alex Azar had Kennedy’s job, he said, “The secretary of HHS has a shocking amount of power by the stroke of a pen.” We may be about to find out how true that statement is. Offit thinks it’s likely that Kennedy will either eliminate committees like his — cutting off one path for dissent — or fill them with like-minded people. He could hold up the approval of new vaccines and refer existing ones for additional study. There may be few checks on his ability to do so. “In a normal world, you would have people at the FDA and CDC who would say, ‘No, sorry, that’s not going to happen,’” Offit said. “But we don’t live in that world. We live in a world full of sycophants who are just there to rubber stamp whatever it is they’re told to do.” It turns out that not interfering with the vaccine-approval process is another one of those norms that, like not renaming the Gulf of Mexico, we have scant ability to enforce.”

I wrote about bird flu and Robert Kennedy.

nymag.com/intelligence...

Deadline to apply is Wednesday. Writers, it’s not too late!

My aunt Meryl Streep received an order to evacuate on January 8, but when she tried to leave, she discovered that a large tree had fallen over in her driveway, blocking her only exit. Determined to make it out, she borrowed wire cutters from a neighbor, cut a car-size hole in the fence she shared with the neighbors on the other side, and drove through their yard to escape.

Meryl Streep did WHAT.

‘My Community Is Gone. It’s Just a Curse That My House Is There.’ City workers and celebrities, teachers and tycoons talk about what they lost in the Los Angeles fires — and how they’ll rebuild.

What’s it’s like to be the only home standing in a neighborhood that burned: “I don’t ever want to see my house again. It’s a toxic-waste dump. My community is gone. It’s just a curse that my house is there.” nymag.com/intelligence...

The Warbler Guide A field guide that revolutionizes warbler identification

It’s like found poetry, but of course it wasn’t found; it was composed. Anyway, here’s the book if you too want to read 550 pages on warblers.

press.princeton.edu/books/paperb...