Sam Apple

In 2025, WIRED reporters have navigated destructive chaos at DOGE, AI run amok, and explosive levels of conspiracy theories. Threaded below are stories from this year that I've had the privilege to assist on. They're just a taste of what you get with a premium subscription to WIRED

Thank you so much, Caitlin! I'm so grateful to the amazing editorial team at WIRED. I really don't think a piece like this would have been possible at any other publication.

Gaza is starving. Where are the American Jewish leaders? A fear of being labelled antisemitic still deters American Jews and Jewish institutions from taking a position that is morally correct.

forward.com/opinion/7575...

(My thoughts in the Forward about why anyone who cares about Israel or the Jewish people should be speaking out on Gaza)

Thanks, Tara!!

Thanks so much, Amy! I'll check it out.

Thanks for sharing, @longreads.com!

My new article for WIRED...

Thanks, Steven!

Loneliness and suicide mitigation for students using GPT3-enabled chatbots - npj Mental Health Research npj Mental Health Research - Loneliness and suicide mitigation for students using GPT3-enabled chatbots

Thank you for reading it. I take your point, but I do think the relationships are serious insofar as the humans have genuine and powerful feelings. Also, while I agree there are dangers and hope there will be more safeguards, researchers have found benefits as well:
www.nature.com/articles/s44...

My Couples Retreat With 3 AI Chatbots and the Humans Who Love Them I found people in serious relationships with AI partners and planned a weekend getaway for them at a remote Airbnb. We barely survived.

“It was as visceral and overwhelming and biologically real” as falling in love with a person.

@sam-apple.bsky.social found people in serious relationships with AI partners and planned a weekend getaway for them at a remote Airbnb. We barely survived.

I wrote about AI companions for Wired...

New images could change cancer diagnostics, but ICE detained the Harvard scientist who analyzes them Without scientist Kseniia Petrova’s expertise, no one can fully unlock the data’s potential, putting crucial advancements in early cancer detection at risk.

Almost every line of this story would have been simply unbelievable a few months ago:

—Pioneering cancer researcher;
—*Arrested* at airport in Boston;
—Now indefinite ICE detention in Louisiana;
—"Crime": not declaring some frog-embryo samples for research.

Read it.
www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news...

Trump’s Jewish Cover Story The administration claims to be protecting Jews while advancing an agenda that most Jews oppose.

Trump's antisemitism agenda isn't about the Jews. I wrote about how the president and his allies are using the pretext of protecting Jews to protect their policies from criticism, while advancing an agenda that most American Jews oppose. Gift link:

Been there...

YouTube video by The Bulwark This Isn’t a Mistake — It’s Evil

Rage rant about the government admitting they wrongly sent a man to the El Salvador gulag and are not going to do anything about it.

youtu.be/2LScwsPP9oc?...

This guy is in one of the worst prisons in the world with no way out and may spend the rest of his life there because, it appears, he has an autism awareness tattoo in honor of his little brother.

www.motherjones.com/politics/202...

this stuff is happening across the country and even more intensively downstream of the veterans admin but it's happening in so many places at once and without any public notification that it's still only barely emerging in the news

For four Venezuelan friends, Alien Enemies Act cuts short an American dream President Donald Trump used the Alien Enemies Act to deport Venezuelans accused of being gang members. Relatives of men sent to El Salvador deny the allegation.

Based on this fast and excellent WaPo reporting, these four guys are not gang members, just Venezuelan dads who came to the US to work. They’re now being paraded in shackles in El Salvador www.washingtonpost.com/immigration/...

This is horrible to post, but I may as well post it. We are essentially shutting down research operations in my group, which is focused on treatments for pediatric brain cancer. I’m a well funded investigator, and there’s no choice. Science can’t function without the stability of NIH

U.S. citizen child recovering from brain cancer deported to Mexico with undocumented parents The Texas family was on their way to an emergency medical checkup, they said, when they were detained at an immigration checkpoint.

U.S. citizen child recovering from brain cancer deported to Mexico with undocumented parents www.nbcnews.com/news/latino/...

It’s been a busy few weeks at WIRED, and we’re just getting started. Many of you have asked how you can support our journalism in a bigger way, so we’ve introduced a new option for WIRED Superfans: $100 a year, because you really love us.

"It's as if someone who had never watched a basketball game showed up at the NBA and bragged about all the millions he had saved by deleting contracts, and it turned out that he had fired LeBron James, Steph Curry, and Wemby."

Plant-based pitfalls: When can the vegan diet go wrong? “Just because it’s vegan, doesn’t mean it’s healthy.”

Also from the weekend: When can the vegan diet go wrong?

I was vegan for four years, so this ain't my first rodeo.
www.post-gazette.com/news/health/...

"NIH’s purported justification for reducing indirect costs can’t override the fact that Congress specifically banned NIH from doing any such thing."

Important context via @stuartbuck.bsky.social

Trump’s Foreign Aid Freeze Leaves Millions Without HIV Treatment (Gift Article) President Trump’s pause on aid, and the gutting of the primary aid agency, could jeopardize the health of more than 20 million people worldwide, including 500,000 children, experts say.

Two weeks into President Trump’s sweeping freeze on foreign aid, H.I.V. groups abroad have not received any funding, jeopardizing the health of more than 20 million people, including 500,000 children.

www.nytimes.com/2025/02/05/h...

Apparently the ebook of Becoming Earth is on sale right now and is ranked #1 in a several categories in the Kindle store!
😲🥹 Thank you, readers! 🙏 💙📚 🧪

I understand the impulse to look away. But this is happening in our schools. A Baltimore teacher shared notes with me from her students, in English and Spanish, which show how they’re reacting to the prospect of ICE in schools. They’re heartbreaking, infuriating, and one was funny.

Study Shows Diabetes Drug Lowers Blood Sugar by Interfering With Mitochondria - News Center A new study has provided direct evidence in mice that the drug reversibly cuts the cell’s energy supply by interfering with mitochondria to lower glucose levels.

Great work on metformin by the Chandel Lab! “We think that the diverse effects metformin has on lowering glucose levels, decreasing inflammation and its potential anti-cancer effects could, in part, be explained by inhibiting mitochondrial complex I."
news.feinberg.northwestern.edu/2024/12/18/s...

Fructose Sugar Fuels Cancer Growth Indirectly Fructose, which is in high-fructose corn syrup and table sugar, can help some tumors grow, but only after getting taken up by the liver, a study of mice suggests.

www.cancer.gov/news-events/...

Aged neurons don’t register energy need Neuronal activity and mitochondrial gene expression become decoupled in aged mice

The link between mitochondrial bioenergetics and brain aging reported in Science. A beautiful study by our neighbours, Huan Ma lab demonstrates that restoring excitation-transcription coupling in mitochondria can improve memory function. This has a potential to reverse age-related cognitive decline.