You Don’t Need an Olympic Medal to Stand Up for Human Rights, but How’s This for a Protest?
Kimia Alizadeh, the first woman from Iran to win an Olympic medal, before announcing her decision to defect in protest.Andrew Medichini/AP Welcome to Recharge, a weekly newsletter full of stories that will energize your inner hellraiser. See more editions and sign up here. They told her where to go, what to wear, how to act,…
This Jaw-Dropping Interview Shows How the Media Still Struggles With Trump’s Lies
George Stephanopoulos interviews Trump national security adviser Robert C. O’Brien.ABC News/YouTube Every once in a while, a moment comes that crystallizes what is so wrong with the political-media universe in the era of Donald Trump. And one such moment occurred on Sunday morning. It was not flashy or headline-generating. This moment lasted only seconds. Its…
How Do You Make Pop Music for the Algorithm Era? Ralph Has An Idea
Mother Jones illustration; Mariah Hamilton Fuck, Ralph remembers thinking, I’m garbage. Before she was Ralph the pop artist, Raffaela Weyman was a Toronto teenager bombing an audition for a performing arts school. For her tryout, she’d decided to go with what she felt most comfortable with—musical theater—and sang songs from My Fair Lady and Sweeney…
For Black Americans, It’s Not a Housing Crisis. It’s a Chronic Condition.
Donte Bruce holds the US flag during a 2000 march in the Watts neighborhood of Los Angeles to demand fair housing for low-income communities.Wally Skalij/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images Redlining is widely seen as the source of the vast disparities in housing and homeownership between white and Black Americans. Denied access to government-backed mortgages,…
Hero and Monster of the 2010s: Listicles
Richard Vogel/AP The staff of Mother Jones is rounding up the decade’s heroes and monsters. Find them all here. The listicle is such a ubiquitous online presence that it hardly seems worthy of a shoutout. But let’s take a moment to remember the early 2010s, when it first took the internet by storm and helped put BuzzFeed, who…
Dan Crenshaw Called for Civility on SNL. Maybe That Was the Joke.
Illustration by Lincoln AgnewDan Crenshaw started off as a joke. On the last episode of Saturday Night Live before the 2018 election, Pete Davidson was rifling through headshots of candidates when he got to the 35-year-old retired Navy SEAL from the Houston area. “You may be surprised to hear he’s a congressional candidate from Texas…