Amy Weiss-Meyer

Is Ian Still In There? People in a vegetative state may be far more conscious than was once thought.

Eve Baer never stopped believing that her son, unresponsive for decades after a severe brain injury, was still there. Eventually, science proved her right, @sarahzhang.bsky.social reported. This story is a finalist for a National Magazine Award for Feature Writing:

Trump-administration officials and MAGA influencers have repeatedly called these activists “violent” and said they are involved in “riots.” But the resistance in Minnesota is largely characterized by a conscious, strategic absence of physical confrontation. Activists have made the decision to emphasize protection, aid, and observation. When matters escalate, it is usually the choice of the federal agents. Of the three homicides in Minneapolis this year, two were committed by federal agents. “There’s been an incredible, incredible response from the community. I’ve seen our neighbors go straight from allies to family—more than family—checking in on each other, offering food and rides for kids and all kinds of support, alerting each other if there’s ICE or any kind of danger,” Malika Dahir, a local activist of Somali descent, told me. If the Minnesota resistance has an overarching ideology, you could call it “neighborism”—a commitment to protecting the people around you, no matter who they are or where they came from. The contrast with the philosophy guiding the Trump administration couldn’t be more extreme. Vice President Vance has said that “it is totally reasonable and acceptable for American citizens to look at their next-door neighbors and say, ‘I want to live next to people who I have something in common with. I don’t want to live next to four families of strangers.’” Minnesotans are insisting that their neighbors are their neighbors whether they were born in Minneapolis or Mogadishu. That is, arguably, a deeply Christian philosophy, one apparently loathed by some of the most powerful Christians in America.

One thing I found deeply moving about resistance in the Twin Cities was the universalism of loving your neighbor, the philosophy driving the opposition to the ICE/BP invasion. I couldn't help but notice the contrast with the blood and soil-ism of Miller and Vance. www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2026/0...

The Power of Private Museums The Equal Justice Initiative’s historical sites in Montgomery, Alabama, show what’s possible when history isn’t subject to federal funding cuts or executive orders.

In December, I traveled to Montgomery to visit the Legacy Museum, which traces the story of Black America from slavery to Jim Crow to mass incarceration. I wanted to understand how the museum & its affiliated sites were operating in a moment where so much of the history they present is under attack.

Today is the last day do apply!

The Atlantic: Careers Inform, Challenge, Elevate.

Early-career journalists: @theatlantic.com's amazing fellowship program will be back starting in 2026! Apply now!! www.theatlantic.com/careers#open...

The Epstein revelations of the past few months suggest that these conspiracies actually do represent reality in some way—plainly speaking, some of the most powerful people in the world were communicating with one another through the kingpin of an alleged child-sex-trafficking operation. But the emails also prove that the truth is dumber than fiction. These global elites are far from organized and hyper-competent—it feels like how Veep would have treated QAnon. The elites don’t message with sex pests using code words; they openly muse about having fun with girls at “Hawaiian Tropic” parties. That reading these emails feels surreal makes sense—they shatter the myth of genius and merit that the ruling class tries carefully and spends exorbitantly to cultivate, and they affirm the worst suspicions of the conspiracy-minded. As more revelations are made public, it may feel like the conspiracy theorists have won. But they’ve been wrong as well. Cabal is too flattering a word for this crowd of cosplaying, hunt-and-peck email addicts. Conspiracy theories are a flawed tool meant to help make sense of a nonsensical world. The truth is darker: You don’t need an elaborate master plan to dodge accountability when everyone’s all too willing to simply look the other way.

but for real i tried to capture what i felt going through these emails (on here & in the document hellscape). how it feels like a last nail in a coffin of some kind in terms of a rot in the heart of the elite. and proof that the truth is dumber than fiction
www.theatlantic.com/technology/2...

The Age of Anti-Social Media Is Here The social-media era is over. What’s coming will be much worse.

New from me: I went deep on the way that generative AI and chatbots act as wormholes, pushing us deeper into our own minds. They threaten to compound the problems of algorithmic targeting that have festered unaddressed for years and years—what comes next may be even more alienating and isolating (🎁)

Patti Smith’s Family Secrets Nearing 80, the punk poet reflects on the twists in her story that have surprised even her.

Patti Smith spoke with @amyweissmeyer.bsky.social over matcha lattes about her new memoir, “Bread of Angels.” In the book, Smith reflects on her lifetime of reinvention—and the twists in her story that have surprised even her. Read more from their conversation:

Patti Smith’s Family Secrets Nearing 80, the punk poet reflects on the twists in her story that have surprised even her.

I spoke to Patti Smith about her new memoir, Bread of Angels—a book about childhood, fame, marriage, motherhood and so much more that also includes a big revelation about her heritage
www.theatlantic.com/magazine/arc...

For our November issue marking 250 years of the American experiment, the artist Joe McKendry painted a tableau of figures drawn from the stories in the issue—capturing the Revolutionary Era in all of its complexity, contradictions, and ingenuity.

Read more: https://theatln.tc/zEfqnh1q

Lower Than Cowards The surrender of America’s elites

"One by one, American leaders supposedly committed to principles of free speech, due process, democracy, and equality have abandoned those ideals when menaced by the Trump administration."

www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archiv...

Authoritarianism Feels Surprisingly Normal—Until It Doesn’t Life in Venezuela was deceptively mundane. Then everything collapsed.

Important piece by my colleague Gisela Salim-Peyer www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archiv...

Growing Up Murdoch James Murdoch on mind games, sibling rivalry, and the war for the family media empire

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...

How Joseph Kurihara Lost His Faith in America He spent his life trying to prove that he was a loyal U.S. citizen. It wasn’t enough.

When America entered World War I, Joseph Kurihara became a soldier. When it entered World War II, he became a prisoner, a dissident, and ultimately an exile. @andrewaoyama.bsky.social tells his story in our August issue:

It’s official: Planned Parenthood has been (mostly) defunded for a year

My quick explainer:

An Actor, a Bookseller and a Chef Walk Into a Voting Booth

“Ms. Glazer, 38, said former Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo, the front-runner, reminded her of a ‘Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles villain.’”

www.nytimes.com/2025/06/22/n...

The Hollowness of This Juneteenth The holiday was always an implicit warning that what had been done could be done again.

“What we were promised was a reckoning, whatever that meant. What we got was a day off.”

www.theatlantic.com/newsletters/...

www.theatlantic.com/magazine/arc...

🧵 Last year, I came across one of the most harrowing studies I've ever read.

It found that 1 in 4 unresponsive brain-injury patients—many considered vegetative—might be cognitively aware but trapped inside their bodies. Could this be true? What did it mean?

www.nejm.org/doi/full/10....

The Mother Who Never Stopped Believing Her Son Was Still There For decades, Eve Baer remained convinced that her son, unresponsive after a severe brain injury, was still conscious. Science eventually proved her right.

I learned so much from this amazing @sarahzhang.bsky.social piece about the human brain and consciousness—which it turns out scientists are only just beginning to understand.

Like everything Sarah writes, this is an utterly fascinating, deeply human story:
www.theatlantic.com/magazine/arc...

Carl Hiaasen’s novels made him synonymous with “Florida Weird,” @amyweissmeyer.bsky.social writes. Now it seems like we’re all living in one of his books. https://theatln.tc/Br7uYfWp

Every book published in the United States is sent to the Library of Congress. Also, if you are under 16 you cannot use the reading room or order books.

We’re All Living in a Carl Hiaasen Novel In the mangroves with Florida’s poet of excess and grift

To say that something is straight out of a Carl Hiaasen novel is only a slightly less clichéd way of saying that truth, especially in Florida, is stranger than fiction.

For @theatlantic.com's June issue, I went to Vero Beach to talk to @carlhiaasen.com himself.

www.theatlantic.com/magazine/arc...

Truly, we are all living in a Carl Hiaasen novel! www.theatlantic.com/magazine/arc...

What It Means to Tell the Truth About America And what happens when empirical fact is labeled “improper ideology”

In an executive order, Trump targeted the Smithsonian and the National Museum of African American History & Culture suggesting that it is “divisive” and pedaling “improper ideology.”

So, I took a trip back to the museum, and what I saw was a place trying to tell the unvarnished truth about America.

PBS Pulled a Film for Political Reasons, Then Changed Its Mind A window into how the network is handling the new Trump era

Lot of people need to grow spines, and fast.

@engber.bsky.social reports on PBS's decision to pull, then reinstate, a doc about a trans gamer:

Andrew Cuomo’s Pro-Israel Group Promised Big Plans. It Delivered Little.

"The Cuomo group’s promises appear to have amounted to little beyond a few private informational receptions and opinion essays." www.nytimes.com/2025/03/07/n...

Growing Up Murdoch James Murdoch on mind games, sibling rivalry, and the war for the family media empire

I've spent the past year talking to James Murdoch about his father's "twisted" behavior, the mind games at the family-counseling retreat, how Fox News really works, and the war over his family's media empire. My cover story for The Atlantic's April edition: theatlantic.com/magazine/arc...

It was such a privilege to get to work with @adriennelaf.bsky.social on this smart, thoughtful, thought-provoking story about Hawai'i—and America itself.