Michael Luo

Mexico’s Molar City Could Transform My Smile. Did I Want It To? More than a thousand dentists have set up shop in Los Algodones. Their patients are mostly Americans who can’t afford the U.S.’s dental care.

After reading Burk Bilger's feature on Molar City in Mexico, I went and flossed my teeth. www.newyorker.com/magazine/202...

“No Tax on Tips” Is an Industry Plant Trump’s “populist” policy is backed by the National Restaurant Association—probably because it won’t stop establishments from paying servers below the minimum wage.

Despite its populist trappings, Trump’s proposal to end taxes on tips won’t help the lowest-paid tipped workers. In this week’s @newyorker.com, I report on the industry lobby that has prevented a policy that could help them — raising wages — from gaining traction. www.newyorker.com/magazine/202...

The Sad Reality of Trying to Keep Guns Away from Mentally Ill People In most states, the authorities often can do nothing to prevent even an obviously troubled person from possessing firearms.

This piece I wrote in 2018 remains true, though the spread of red flag laws, including in Nevada, are a positive development. But they're often under-utilized. www.newyorker.com/news/news-de...

Israel’s Zones of Denial A wave of triumph sweeps Israel in the aftermath of its campaign against Iran, even as Gaza’s suffering recedes from public view. Beneath the celebrations, a question nags: What is Israel becoming?

From Remnick's latest Letter from Israel: "...in Israel there is no geographic remove. To look away is an act of both will and denialism, a form of self-preservation." www.newyorker.com/magazine/202...

This is today at 2 pm! A virtual event with the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History. Register here! marketing.gilderlehrman.org/l/941553/202...

He Read (at Least) 3,599 Books in His Lifetime. Now Anyone Can See His List.

I love this. Truly. Honor him by reading “a real page-turner.” www.nytimes.com/2025/07/26/b...

Notes on Bed Rest I spent months limiting my movement, to protect a high-risk pregnancy. How did it change me?

Just a lovely, harrowing read by Anna Russell. www.newyorker.com/culture/the-... Notes on Bed Rest | The New Yorker

“South Park” Skewers a Satire-Proof President The new season première goes after Trump as never before—and solves a problem that’s plagued comedians since his first term in office.

"There’s a legal strategy known as the small-penis rule, wherein an author who writes a character based on a real person can potentially evade a libel suit by giving said character a small penis..." Tyler Foggatt on South Park and Trump. www.newyorker.com/culture/the-...

Sniffies Translates Cruising for the Digital Age Open it up, log on anonymously, and you’ll get a real-time sexual map of your neighborhood.

The best observer and writer on sexuality today is @embits.bsky.social. Quite a read. www.newyorker.com/culture/anna...

On Sunday at 2 pm, I’m doing a virtual event for “Strangers in the Land” with the Gilda Lehrman Institute of American History. Join us! Registration link here: marketing.gilderlehrman.org/l/941553/202...

Dear Jeff Bezos …

Donald Trump’s Tariff Dealmaker-in-Chief How Howard Lutnick, the Secretary of Commerce, plans to transform government into a money-making enterprise.

Lutnick is in many ways the most Trumpian member of Trump’s Cabinet—a raw, unbridled expression of the President’s mercantilist instincts and branding acumen, of government as dealmaking in gold-plated rooms. www.newyorker.com/magazine/202...

EP 545: Michael Luo On His "Strangers in the Land: Exclusion, Belonging, and the Epic Story of the Chinese in America" - Asian America: The Ken Fong Podcast Michael Luo is an executive editor at The New Yorker and writes regularly on politics, religion, and Asian American issues. His first book, “Strangers in the Land:

I enjoyed this conversation with Ken Fong for his podcast, Asian America. We talked, in particular, about storytelling and what it means that “Strangers in the Land” is a narrative history and how I tried to build the book around memorable characters. asianamericapodcast.com/2025/07/ep-5...

Bottoms Up for the Big Dumper Cal Raleigh, of the Seattle Mariners, and of the eponymous big butt, has been drawing a lot of attention lately—but he deserves even more.

“Consider the Big Dumper,” @louisathomas.bsky.social writes. “Scruffy, ruddy, built like a truck. Large mitts for hands, and a legendary derrière—a seat that assists in hours of squatting, a professional occupation, and in hitting bodacious home runs.” www.newyorker.com/sports/sport...

What I Inherited from My Criminal Great-Grandparents In working through the Winter case files, I often felt pinpricks of déjà vu: an exact turn of phrase, an absurdly specific expenditure.

Haunting, twisty piece by @winterjessica.bsky.social that begins with a discovery in her family’s history and ends with a consideration of the contentious theory that trauma—memories, experience, and behavior can somehow be genetically inherited. www.newyorker.com/magazine/202...

Stephen Colbert on Kenneth Tynan’s Profile of Johnny Carson From Hollywood to the Hasty Pudding, we waft like smoke from an unfiltered Pall Mall through Carson’s worlds, most of which are gone.

Stephen Colbert happened to be in the midst of writing a “Take” for @newyorker.com, revisiting a classic Profile of Johnny Carson. “While I host a show in the same time slot and tradition as Carson…” We decided to publish it today. www.newyorker.com/magazine/tak...

“Usl at the Stadium” Fiction: For a few minutes, his sleeping form was on the Jumbotron. The next day, he was all over the Internet.

Apropro of Jumbotrons & internet fame, read this short story by Rivka Galchen from 2015 in @newyorker.com. "The game on Sunday had a 2 p.m. start, and Usl was featured on the Jumbotron intermittently from 4:02 to 4:09. By eight-thirty, his home phone was ringing." www.newyorker.com/magazine/201...

The First World War, in Sharp Focus An English chronicler of the trenches, and his wartime romance, captured in long-lost photographs.

I'm not sure if people share stories here (or read the ones that are shared) but fwiw, I've got a new story out in @newyorker.com today that means a great deal to me. It's about a writer I love, and an amazing cache of long-lost photographs from WW1: www.newyorker.com/news/letter-...

“The River House Broke. We Rushed in the River.” The July 4 Texas flooding ripped our Kerr County home from its pillars, pulling us into the water and into the night. Then morning came.

This story wrecked me. www.texasmonthly.com/news-politic... My Family and the Flood: A Firsthand Account

Why a Devoted Justice Department Lawyer Became a Whistle-Blower In the first Trump Administration, “they didn’t say ‘Fuck you’ to the courts,” Erez Reuveni said.

"Am I afraid of retaliation? Absolutely. But...I feel so strongly about the things I’ve seen and what it’s done to the D.O.J., what it’s done to my colleagues, what it’s done to the rule of law, that it’s worth the risk.” New reporting by @ruthmarcus.bsky.social. www.newyorker.com/news/the-led...

Are You Experiencing Posting Ennui? Sharing casual moments from our lives on social media doesn’t seem to make sense the way it used to.

To post or not to post, that is the question @chaykak.bsky.social asks about our personal social media accounts nowadays. www.newyorker.com/culture/infi...

What a thrill to be able to go on @thedailyshow.com with @ronnychieng.bsky.social and talk about Strangers in the Land, the archives, and Stephen Miller. www.youtube.com/watch?v=K_7J...

Tonight at 11 pm on Comedy Central! Thanks @thedailyshow.com and @ronnychieng.bsky.social for having me on to talk about Strangers in the Land!

Is the Hispanic Red Wave for Donald Trump Starting to Crash? In the Rio Grande Valley, bordering Mexico, ICE raids have emptied construction sites and restaurants. Recently turned Republicans are beginning to have doubts.

The wide-reaching impact of the raids is making some Republicans concerned that, as Javier Villalobos, the mayor of McAllen, TX, told Rachel Monroe, “we’re shooting ourselves in the foot.” www.newyorker.com/news/letter-...

Just stunned by the Diego Jota news. #ynwa www.nytimes.com/athletic/647...

What Therapists Treating Immigrants Hear Some mental-health-care providers are trying new approaches to treat patients whose worst fears have come true.

Cognitive behavioral therapy is one of the preferred methods for treating trauma-induced anxiety among undocumented immigrants and their families. But after the recent ICE raids, mental-health-care providers are modifying their approaches.

Trump’s Finances Were Shaky. Then He Began to Capitalize on His Comeback.

“Mr. Trump’s wealth is now built on monetizing the family name in new ways and, intentionally or not, the office of the presidency.”
www.nytimes.com/2025/07/02/u...

The Trans Swimmer Who Won Too Much Lia Thomas is not the first trans swimmer in the N.C.A.A., but her victories have put her at the center of a debate about trans athletes.

This @louisathomas.bsky.social exploration of how to think about Lia Thomas’s participation in women’s swimming is careful and nuanced. Worth a read in light of the U Penn news. www.newyorker.com/sports/sport...

The Case for Zohranomics As some Wall Street billionaires melt down over Zohran Mamdani’s policy platform, a prominent progressive economist argues that it meets the moment.

Thoughtful exploration of Zohranomics by John Cassidy in his Financial Page column for @newyorker.com. www.newyorker.com/news/the-fin... The Case for Zohranomics | The New Yorker

Senate passes Trump’s tax bill, sending it to House for final passage The legislation extends trillions of dollars in tax cuts from Trump’s first term and implements new campaign promises, while spending billions on immigration.

“Combined with the impact of Trump’s tariffs — which the White House has argued will help pay for the bill’s tax cuts and new spending — the bottom 80 percent of households would see their take-home incomes fall.” www.washingtonpost.com/business/202...