Some professional news: After 11 years of writing and podcasting at Slate, I worked my last day this week! No drama, just time for a change. I’m leaving with lots of gratitude for the people who filled the last decade of my work life with purpose, camaraderie, and excellent edits. I’ll miss it all.

Honestly maybe the most level-headed thing I’ve read about this whole story!

Christina Cauterucci@c-cauterucci.bsky.social · 2mo ago

I wrote about what we can learn from the chilling case of the COVID-conscious Western Mass lesbian bar! slate.com/life/2026/09...

I wrote about what we can learn from the chilling case of the COVID-conscious Western Mass lesbian bar! slate.com/life/2026/09...

The Real Lesson to Take From the Viral Lesbian-Bar-Meltdown Story

If only we can stop rubbernecking long enough to learn.

slate.com

It’s a long read, but I'd really appreciate it if you checked out my medbed story for Slate: slate.com/news-and-pol... It was a wild ride.

Trump Posted About Magic Beds That Cure Cancer. Millions of Americans Believe They’re Real. I Found the Guy Who Started It All.

An internet conspiracy theory was killing people even before the president posted about it. I found the man who started it. He’s nothing like you’d expect.

slate.com

In this new genre of plastic surgery apologia, cosmetic procedures are not just acceptable in polite feminist society, but feminist deeds unto themselves. slate.com/life/2026/08...

More and More Women Are Opening Up About Something That Used to Be Shameful. I Wish They’d Kept It All Secret.

I’m not sure I can take another round of pretending our actions have no effect on the world.

slate.com

Getting a face-lift is not an act of liberation. By @c-cauterucci.bsky.social

More and More Women Are Opening Up About Something That Used to Be Shameful. I Wish They’d Kept It All Secret.

I’m not sure I can take another round of pretending our actions have no effect on the world.

slate.com

Like everyone else, I loathe the Dulles people movers. But after learning its history for this piece, it makes a hell of a lot more sense!! Still..... rest in piss slate.com/business/202...

Donald Trump Has Finally Wielded His Presidential Power for Good

RIP to one of air travel's most cursed features.

slate.com

sad news - Slate has canceled Outward. it sucks to lose an outlet for queer commentary in this moment, but it's a tough time for podcasts. I love this final, fitting episode we made 💟

Slate@slate.com · 5mo ago

After nearly a decade of pride, politics, and provocation, Bryan and Christina welcome back June Thomas for a final episode of Outward. slate.trib.al/kyUHhnp

Not sure why reporters are still saying this when, with 73 percent of the vote counted, Janeese is ahead by double digits in all but D.C.'s whitest, wealthiest ward.

this is a very satisfying explanation of Susan Collins!

Jim Newell@jim-newell.bsky.social · 5mo ago

New from me: How does Susan Collins do it? Everyone knows she’s a tough opponent, but I really wanted to break down how. Here’s my feature. slate.com/news-and-pol...

I am once again asking you to steam your Pride flags slate.com/life/2025/06...

For the Love of God, Please Stop Putting Up This One Pride Flag

Do this instead.

slate.com

Buzzing Pop {bot}@buzzingpop.xmirror.bot · 5mo ago

Joshua Bassett shares new photo with NYC Mayor Zohran Mamdani: “zohran is the closest thing we have to a superhero”

There's a peculiar sort of comfort to knowing that Trump's aesthetic signature is an ancient, enduring metaphor for a life poorly lived. slate.com/news-and-pol...

​​One Trump Obsession Says More About Him Than Any Other

Every major chapter of Trump’s story has been suffused with the gleam of his favorite metal.

slate.com

I will die on this hill: If there's one Trump obsession that summarizes his character better than any other, it's his thing for Rosie O'Donnell. slate.com/news-and-pol...

What’s Really Going On in Donald Trump’s Head? One Big Clue Has Been in Plain Sight for Years.

We might not have his brain scans. We do have something else.

slate.com

America is now Trump’s Playboy Mansion. The rest of us are just living in it. slate.com/news-and-pol...

What’s Really Going On in Donald Trump’s Head? One Big Clue Has Been in Plain Sight for Years.

We might not have his brain scans. We do have something else.

slate.com

This story has everything: * the biggest fertility clinic scandal in U.S. history * high-rolling doctors and heroic whistleblowers * an unlikely friendship born of tragedy * a major update to the story that came years after I started reporting it * Pedro Pascal's dad slate.com/life/2026/05...

In 1995, a Woman Got a Call That Shook Her to Her Core—and Ignited an International Scandal. It Took Almost 30 Years to Come Full Circle.

She had gone to a clinic for help getting pregnant. She got something far different.

slate.com

I went long on Megyn Kelly, whose career arc tells the story of how journalism, the GOP, and America (??) have warped and withered over the last decade. slate.com/news-and-pol...

What Happened to Megyn Kelly?

The former Fox News host’s transformation tells a dark story about her—and us.

slate.com

Money can overcome a universe of moral or aesthetic objections. The rich occupy a universe unto themselves.

The World’s Most Evil Couple Exposed the Rot at the Heart of the Met Gala

I don’t really care to see an OpenAI employee walk the red carpet.

slate.com

"Basically, everyone else is like, ‘OK, what crunchy thing can I sprinkle on my gummy?’" slate.com/life/2026/03...

Grocery Hackers Are Obsessed With This Secretive Element of Snack Production. But Can It Survive a Legal Crackdown?

Would a PB&J pocket by any other name taste as sweet?

slate.com

Neck beards. Hoodies. Graphic tees. Beanies. I wrote about why ICE agents are dressing less like a regimented unit of government employees and more like a Confederate reenactor meetup at the local Hardee’s. slate.com/culture/2026...

Crusty Beards. Hole-Filled Pants. Plaid Button-Downs. What’s Going On With the Men of ICE?

While other government employees sport crisp uniforms and clean-shaven faces, ICE guys are nearing mind-boggling levels of sartorial slop.

slate.com

I wrote about Cesar Chavez and the left-leaning men whose robust analyses of power and justice stop precisely when they cross the threshold of their own homes, offices, or local middle schools. slate.com/life/2026/03...

The Cesar Chavez Sexual Abuse Allegations Show a Disturbing Similarity to Jeffrey Epstein

As with so many abusers before him, his sterling public image provided the perfect cover.

slate.com

In a rare bit of """good""" news, Kristi Noem had an utterly humiliating last week in office. slate.com/news-and-pol...

Trump Has Been Restrained, in One Way at Least, This Term. That Just Ended.

She looked, to be frank, like a total chump.

slate.com

I wrote about the saddest part of the Jim Carrey conspiracy theories. slate.com/life/2026/03...

A Beloved Actor’s Face Is Now Unrecognizable. But It’s Us Who Should Be Looking in the Mirror.

His extreme transformation spawned a spate of worldwide conspiracy theories.

slate.com

I'm totally fascinated by how easy it can be to defang traumatic memories (including breakups!) with something a lot of us already have in our medicine cabinets: beta blockers. slate.com/life/2026/03...

There’s No Such Thing as an Eternal Sunshine Drug. What We Do Have Is Propranolol.

Pop a few pills, do a little therapy, and it might all go away.

slate.com

Feel like everyone is breaking up lately? Here's why. slate.com/life/2026/03...

Something Strange Is Happening With Breakups. It’s Making It Much Harder to Date.

Careful you don’t get Shrekked.

slate.com

Here's a story, a decade in the making, about my love/hate relationship with the handgun in my living room. slate.com/life/2026/02...

Conservatives Are Terrified That People Like Me Are Buying Guns Now. Maybe They Should Be.

We’re here. We’re queer. Increasingly, we’re armed.

slate.com

Trump is concocting a world that rewards unabashedly manufactured femininity. Who better to capitalize on it than the company that insists the sexiest thing in the world is a stiff, sculpted bra that hides our softest body parts behind a wall of foam? slate.com/life/2025/10...

Victoria’s Secret Is Returning to “Sexy.” You’re Not Going to Like Why.

I hate to be the person who brings up Donald Trump in conversations about thongs, but ...

slate.com

For the NYT Magazine, I wrote about this moment as an existential turning point for climate activists. Just as solar power became cheaper than fossil fuels, global politics swung to the right. Where does the movement go from here? I went to Vermont for creemees with Bill McKibben to find out.

The Old Climate-Activism Playbook No Longer Works. What Else Can?

nytimes.com

they yassified Amanda Knox

I wrote about the first indelible image of Trump's D.C. invasion: a sandwich bouncing off a bulletproof vest.

The Image That Defines Trump’s Reign of Terror Is … a Subway Sandwich?

Sometimes, the only way to fight fascism is with a $5 footlong.

slate.com

“The D.C. public spaces that will be militarized and overpoliced in the weeks to come are exactly where you can best observe the interdependence and plurality that make cities great, and that conservatives view as a threat to their own ideological ends.” slate.com/news-and-pol...