Sally Jenkins
@sallyjenx.bsky.social
Journalist for The Atlantic Monthly, author, generator of highly disposable matter.
The "investigation" into Bill Belichick may not be all it seems. Did some reporting in Chapel Hill. www.theatlantic.com/culture/2026...
The Knives Are Out for Bill Belichick
The celebrated coach’s football program at the University of North Carolina is under investigation. It’s hard to know what is of substance—and what is noise.
theatlantic.com
Been reporting on Bill Belichick at Carolina, and some toxic air down there. #ncaafootball www.theatlantic.com/culture/2026...
The Knives Are Out for Bill Belichick
The celebrated coach’s football program at the University of North Carolina is under investigation. It’s hard to know what is of substance—and what is noise.
theatlantic.com
The #Giants-Cowboys pregame show is lingering on 9-11. Normally I'd kick the #NFL in the knee for co-opting the day but truth is local NYC teams were huge mood lifters and did such good for fire department families. My piece on one of them. www.theatlantic.com/magazine/202...
The Man Who Refused to Sit on the Sidelines
Kevin Dowdell, a lieutenant in an elite FDNY rescue unit, taught his sons to take action. When he disappeared on 9/11, they went to Ground Zero to search for him.
theatlantic.com
Twenty-five years after 9/11, “Never Forget” is a T-shirt slogan. A third of the American public is too young to recall the day. But for families affected, the tragedy is ever present. @sallyjenx.bsky.social on two sons’ search for their firefighter father:
Kevin Dowdell’s Last Fire
When a veteran firefighter vanished on 9/11, his teenage sons went looking for him.
bit.ly
The South Tower collapsed at 9:59 a.m., taking many lives, among them that of firefighter Kevin Dowdell. His son spent the next months digging for him. The most remarkable and meaningful story I ever worked on: www.theatlantic.com/magazine/202...
The Man Who Refused to Sit on the Sidelines
Kevin Dowdell, a lieutenant in an elite FDNY rescue unit, taught his sons to take action. When he disappeared on 9/11, they went to Ground Zero to search for him.
theatlantic.com
I can't listen to Mary Jo Fernandez one more sec. I can't remember a thing she's ever said of any interest. She induces a narcoleptic response. Please, ESPN, stop kidnapping tennis with blather. Lindsey Davenport and Mary Carillo are far superior to any of your other announcers, and you bury them.
ESPN Unlimited is a joy. Not only does it provide every single match on every single court at the US Open, its broadcast teams blow away the supposed first string. Why is ESPN holding tennis viewers hostage to bland natterers?
ESPN tennis producers: WHEN will you understand how much better your ESPN Limited broadcasts are than your regular cable.
Nice looking Carolina team so far. Decided improvement for Tar Heels. But they still can't stop a run.
If you haven't listened to #DollyParton cover Stairway to Heaven and Free Bird, go find them. Masterpieces. www.theatlantic.com/culture/2026...
The Truth About Dolly Parton’s Style
It wasn’t about showbiz. It was about sovereignty.
theatlantic.com
Dolly’s style was actually subversive - those rhinestones and torpedo bustiers were her way of kicking off the dirt of rural poverty and a retort to preachy men who labelled women “trashy.” www.theatlantic.com/culture/2026...
The Truth About Dolly Parton’s Style
It wasn’t about showbiz. It was about sovereignty.
theatlantic.com
Dolly's look was circusy, sure, but it represented something serious too. It began as an act of calculated defiance, a way to bolt out of a hill country hovel, and a retort to preachy rules about "trashy" looking women. My piece on Dolly for @theatlantic.com : www.theatlantic.com/culture/2026...
The Truth About Dolly Parton’s Style
It wasn’t about showbiz. It was about sovereignty.
theatlantic.com
Imagine being talented and beautiful and rich and famous and still the most noteworthy thing about you is how good a person you are.
I love Prime’s WNBA coverage. And I don’t say that easily.
The annual @theatlantic.com festival is coming, with a hell of a lineup. www.theatlantic.com/press-releas...
The Atlantic Festival announces interview with Colin Kaepernick and exclusive preview of Netflix’s East of Eden, with Florence Pugh, Zoe Kazan, and Bela Bajaria
New speakers include: Senator Mark Kelly, Padma Lakshmi, Joe Kahn, Gina Raimondo, Ben McKenzie, Malcolm Gladwell, Richard Linklater
theatlantic.com
NYC firefighters take care of their own like no other profession. That mattered after 9-11. It especially mattered to the Dowdell boys, as they dug through the World Trade Center wreckage. My story on their story. #NYFD #September11 www.theatlantic.com/magazine/202...
The Man Who Refused to Sit on the Sidelines
Kevin Dowdell, a lieutenant in an elite FDNY rescue unit, taught his sons to take action. When he disappeared on 9/11, they went to Ground Zero to search for him.
theatlantic.com
Today is August 11. I've spent the last few months working on a piece about September 11, and how one New York City firefighter's family lived that day -- and lives it still, 25 years later. It was a remarkable experience reporting on this. www.theatlantic.com/magazine/202...
The Man Who Refused to Sit on the Sidelines
Kevin Dowdell, a lieutenant in an elite FDNY rescue unit, taught his sons to take action. When he disappeared on 9/11, they went to Ground Zero to search for him.
theatlantic.com
As the 25th anniversary of Sept. 11th approaches, take some time to remember. www.theatlantic.com/magazine/202...
Kevin Dowdell’s Last Fire
When a veteran firefighter vanished on 9/11, his teenage sons went looking for him.
theatlantic.com
The best piece you will read today, or any day, about madness on campuses. www.theatlantic.com/magazine/202...
Confessions of a Token Black Professor
The insufferable hypocrisy of elite academia
theatlantic.com
That's such a lovely compliment.
@pprt01.bsky.social · 2mo ago@sallyjenx.bsky.social has written a beautiful, incredibly powerful piece for The Atlantic, September issue: Kevin Dowdell’s Boys. You must read it. There is much to be learned from it. If you don’t already know her, Sally Jenkins is a gifted writer, on a range of topics.
Well thank you! The story made my own heart ache.
thereluctantk@thereluctantk.bsky.social · 2mo agoContent so good, I have to tell someone about it: just got my old-school, hold-it-in-your-hands September copy of The Atlantic. @sallyjenx.bsky.social's piece is so well done, it made made me rethink my life choices. Writing exquisite enough to make your heart ache. Thank you, ma'am, for your work.
The never-ending doofusness of the Bezos Washington Post continues. www.nytimes.com/2026/07/31/b...
Adam O’Neal Resigns as Washington Post Opinion Editor
Adam O’Neal inherited a mandate from the paper’s owner, Jeff Bezos, to shift toward “personal liberties and free markets.”
nytimes.com
Oh. Caitlin Clark with 11 points in the first five minutes of the WNBA All Star Game #Obama www.theatlantic.com/culture/2026...
A Brief Exchange That Shows the Enormous Difference Between Trump and Obama
This is what a president sounds like.
theatlantic.com
As I recall it was crumbled. There was some discussion that it was called "re-rock."
Aoife@aoife-rose.bsky.social · 3mo agoDo u have any idea the amount of cocaine 1 has 2 actually ingest be4 it becomes fatal? I do. 1st hand. It's A LOT. Unless u suffer from a heart condition. U sure it was cocaine that u saw? And not fentanyl? They look a lot alike. Unlike heroin, which is a yellow beige in powder form.
Covered him for two seasons and was at that NBA draft. And, with Brian Burwell of NY Daily News, saw the traces of coke in the car he had ridden in back to his dorm the morning he overdosed. Saddest day ever.
Dan Diamond@ddiamond.bsky.social · 3mo agoWas browsing the archives and had never realized that @sallyjenx.bsky.social was the beat reporter covering University of Maryland hoops + Len Bias, up until his death 40 years ago. Wow.
