Angela Watercutter

Defector Annual Report, September 2024 – August 2025 | Defector Published on November 19, 2025 Purpose of this report Defector celebrated our fifth birthday in September 2025. It is a great honor, and something of a burden, to be publishing a fifth Annual Report. ...

Really love the Defector year-end report defector.com/defector-ann...

The ‘Great Meme Reset’ Is Coming From Jack Dorsey to Gen Alpha, everyone seemingly wants to go back to the internet of a decade ago. But is it possible to reverse AI slop and brain rot?

Been fascinated by the idea of a Great Meme Reset ever since I first heard about it. Originally, I was trying to parse how it would be possible to rewind the internet. Then I really thought about what it could mean and why people might want to turn back time...

www.wired.com/story/the-gr...

I think the first time I ever talked to a fandom researcher about parasocial relationships was for this story about Rey, having no idea people could one day make AI versions of Star Wars characters they carried around in their pockets...

www.wired.com/story/star-w...

A Son Is Rescued at Sea. But What Happened to His Mother? Nathan Carman went fishing with his mom. A week later, he was found on a life raft—alone. Tragic accident or murder? Ocean sensors may point to the truth.

Then read the original feature here:

www.wired.com/story/a-son-...

Premiere: Netflix’s New True Crime Doc Dives Into a Mother’s Mysterious Disappearance “The Carman Family Deaths,” based on a 2021 WIRED story, chronicles what happened after a son was rescued following a boat accident off the New England coast.

Based on Evan Lubofsky’s story from 2021 (edited by the incredible @supson.bsky.social), the documentary is full of archival footage, family interviews, and new details that have emerged since we published the initial feature. Check out the trailer here:

www.wired.com/story/the-ca...

Watch The Carman Family Deaths | Netflix Official Site A young man's dramatic rescue at sea spirals into accusations he murdered two members of his wealthy New England family in this true-crime documentary.

One of my favorite parts of being WIRED’s Special Projects editor is working with the team that turns our journalism into films, docs, and TV series. Today, the world gets to see one of those projects with the release of ‘The Carman Family Deaths’ on Netflix. 🧵
www.netflix.com/watch/81664825

The ‘Great Meme Reset’ Is Coming From Jack Dorsey to Gen Alpha, everyone seemingly wants to go back to the internet of a decade ago. But is it possible to reverse AI slop and brain rot?

Gen Alpha is already tired of AI slop and brainrot, and they are pining for memes that mean something....so is the Great Meme Reset coming?

@waterslicer.bsky.social finds out

www.wired.com/story/the-gr...

The Mysterious Math Behind the Brazilian Butt Lift For years, plastic surgeons thought the proportions of a beautiful buttocks should follow the Fibonacci sequence. Now, people are looking for a more Kardashian shape.

This is **fascinating**

www.wired.com/story/book-e...

SCOOP from @leahfeiger.bsky.social and @zoeschiffer.bsky.social

Social Security Employees Grill Management During Tense Shutdown Meeting WIRED obtained notes from a Social Security Administration management meeting, where employees pressed leadership on plans for the agency.

“I think I can speak for most of our employees when we say now more than ever, employees are feeling somewhat betrayed by the federal government as federal employees because of what we're navigating and the length in which we're navigating it.”

www.wired.com/story/social...

Click here to support Jake Lahut's story *LahutRentFund *spotfund is the easiest place to create beautiful and free online fundraisers. It takes just minutes to start raising money today.

Hey everyone, thank you so much for the outpouring of support.

I need to pay rent, and I launched a GoFundMe spot.fund/LahutRentFund

This is a really hard day and I want to just add as WIRED's politics editor -- WIRED's politics reporting isn't going anywhere. We are very much here and won't stop.

Please continue to read and support us - canceling your subscription to WIRED is not standing in solidarity with our journalists.

Yes, Makena, yes!

Zohran Mamdani's Establishment-Fighting Campaign Built Community for Young People “What Mamdani has done is not only inspire and mobilize young people, but he has exposed the establishment and some of their calcified views of participation and inclusion.”

here is my story about how Zohran's focus on community amid the loneliness epidemic helped young people connect their politics to an organizing infrastructure, that interviewed ZM, and does not use the NYT's framing of "they don't know how to make friends" :-) and also ran 4 days before NYT's lol

Mere months ago, @zohrankmamdani.bsky.social was polling at 1 percent—right next to “Someone Else.” Tonight, he was elected New York City’s newest mayor.
www.wired.com/story/the-bi...

It's Been a Year Since Trump Was Elected. Democrats Still Don't Get the Internet “I can't, for the life of me, figure out why we are still so rigid and moderating everything when we have nothing to lose for the first time,” a Democratic digital strategist tells WIRED.

It's been a year since Trump was elected. Have Democrats figured out the internet yet?

“I can't, for the life of me, figure out why we are still so rigid and moderating everything when we have nothing to lose for the first time,” a Democratic digital strategist tells @makenakelly.bsky.social:

The GOP Civil War Over Nick Fuentes Has Just Begun Tucker Carlson’s friendly interview with white nationalist Nick Fuentes has led to a major reckoning in the Republican party.

alt hed: How Much Antisemitism Is Too Much AntiSemitism? Nick Fuentes Has Thoughts

read @davidgilbert.bsky.social on a really interesting schism happening in the GOP right now:

The Mathematician Who Tried to Convince the Catholic Church of Two Infinities In the late 19th century, Georg Cantor believed his new theory could help the Church understand the infinite nature of the divine. He miscalculated.

If you need 10 minutes of distraction today, please do read this story about the time mathematician Georg Cantor made a smarty-pants plea to the Catholic Church

www.wired.com/story/book-e...

A Son Is Rescued at Sea. But What Happened to His Mother? Nathan Carman went fishing with his mom. A week later, he was found on a life raft—alone. Tragic accident or murder? Ocean sensors may point to the truth.

Read the original story here: www.wired.com/story/a-son-...

Premiere: Netflix’s New True Crime Doc Dives Into a Mother’s Mysterious Disappearance “The Carman Family Deaths,” based on a 2021 WIRED story, chronicles what happened after a son was rescued following a boat accident off the New England coast.

Netflix's new true-crime doc 'The Carman Family Deaths' is based on an epic @wired.com story from 2021. Watch the new trailer here: www.wired.com/story/the-ca...

Inside the Star-Studded, Mob-Run Poker Games That Allegedly Steal Millions From Players NBA stars, mobsters, and marks with fat wallets are all part of an alleged ring of rigged poker games. Here’s how these games are assembled, who attends, and how the purported cheating happens.

NBA stars, mobsters, and marks with fat wallets.

I dove inside the seedy underbelly of private high-stakes poker games, how they can be cheated, and how alleged scams like the "Billups Games" take shape.

For @wired.com: www.wired.com/story/inside...

Guillermo del Toro Hopes He’s Dead Before AI Art Goes Mainstream The “Frankenstein” director tells WIRED the real Victor Frankensteins are tyrannical politicians and Silicon Valley tech bros.

NEW: I had a very interesting talk with Guillermo del Toro about Frankenstein, AI, tech bros, and whether Mary Shelley really kept Percy Bysshe Shelley's charred heart after he died.

Also, GDT says he hopes to start shooting 'The Buried Giant' next year. (!!!)

www.wired.com/story/guille...

How ‘KPop Demon Hunters’ Star EJAE Topped the Charts Kids everywhere know her voice—if not her name. WIRED talks to the former SM trainee about her rise to global superstardom with her hit song “Golden.”

Obsessed with this @manishakrishnan.bsky.social interview with EJAE.

www.wired.com/story/how-k-...

Workers Say They Were Tricked and Threatened as Part of Elon Musk’s Get-Out-the-Vote Effort America PAC door knockers were flown to Michigan, driven in the back of a U-Haul, and told they’d have to pay hotel bills unless they met unrealistic quotas. One was surprised they were working to ele...

A @wired.com milestone for me today, if you'll excuse a slightly sappy thread for a sec:

It's been one year since I asked @leahfeiger.bsky.social if she was sitting down when I relayed to her what I was hearing. Hours later, we published this story www.wired.com/story/elon-m...

Made a video for @wired.com about protest 🐸s

www.tiktok.com/t/ZTMXuCba6/

Donald Trump Is the First AI Slop President How do AI videos end up on Donald Trump’s social media accounts? WIRED investigates.

Scoop: In digging into the AI slopification of the White House, I’ve learned that the president of the United States is capable, from time to time, of posting generative AI videos on his own, per a senior WH official.

More in this week’s Inner Loop @wired.com: www.wired.com/story/donald...

"According to a senior White House official, there are times when Trump will come across a video he finds particularly funny or amusing—either on Truth Social or through other unspecified channels—save it to his camera roll, and release it into the world. Most of the time, though, it’s staffers..."

from the awesome @bcmerchant.bsky.social

AI Is the Bubble to Burst Them All I talked to the scholars who literally wrote the book on tech bubbles—and applied their test.

"...with the casino-ification of the economy, the breakdown of a meaningful regulatory apparatus to rein in all of the above—well, it has all come just in time to give novice investors a vehicle to sink their savings into the vague promise of superintelligence."
www.wired.com/story/ai-bub...