Barry Yeoman
@barryyeoman.com
Freelance journalist in North Carolina who writes longform stories about political, social, and environmental issues. Web site: http://barryyeoman.com. Newsletter: http://barry-yeoman.beehiiv.com. Teaching: Duke University.
"To redesign living organisms to make them better suited, or more useful, to the altered world we have created." Great work by @barryyeoman.com. www.nwf.org/Home/Magazin...
Is Synthetic Biology Worth the Risk?
Some say using synthetic biology to change the DNA of plants and animals could help species survive threats. Others say the technology is far too dicey.
nwf.org
MY LATEST: Should we rewrite the genetic codes of endangered animals and plants in order to save them? To make one species more hardy, should we borrow from the DNA from another? For National Wildlife magazine, I explored the controversy over synthetic biology and conservation.
Is Synthetic Biology Worth the Risk?
Some say using synthetic biology to change the DNA of plants and animals could help species survive threats. Others say the technology is far too dicey.
nwf.org
Cop is subject of community complaints (including for punching a driver in the face during a traffic stop). Local newsroom files a public records request about him. Eugene, Ore says sure thing, that’ll cost $2.5 million and take at least 44,000 hours to complete. My latest for @theintercept.com:
Oregon Police Are Charging a Local News Outlet $2.5M for Records About One Cop
Eugene-based Double Sided Media requested police officer Justin Peckels’s records. The city slapped the publication with an exorbitant fee.
theintercept.com
As part of a three-state experiment, journalists at @theassemblync.bsky.social and @propublica.org tested whether they could get a North Carolina state license to open a private school inside Ponysaurus Brewing. #ncpol @carlibrosseau.bsky.social @jenniferberryhawes.bsky.social
Almost Anyone Can Start a Private School. We Put This to the Test.
Reporting has shown how easy it can be to found a private schools. That led us to an experiment: Could we do it?
theassemblync.com
Youth baseball is becoming a sport for rich kids, writes Harriet Ryan for @wsj.com. Many adults remember Little League and rec programs, dad coaches and the snack shack. But it's now an intense and costly year-round endeavor dominated by for-profit enterprises. Spending $10,000 a year is common.
Advanced Stats and $500 Bats: Why Baseball for 6-Year-Olds Is Breaking the Bank
Travel teams, high-end gear and specialized training are turning America’s pastime into a sport for rich kids.
wsj.com
MAGA activists now consider Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders too woke, writes @theatlantic.com's @dgraham.bsky.social. "They’re upset because the face of loafing in Sanders’s [Medicaid work requirement] ad is a cheese-ball-snarfing couch potato named Brad who is a young white man."
The Right’s Identity Politics Take a Bizarre Turn
MAGA activists are having a meltdown over a throwaway character in Sarah Huckabee Sanders’s political ad.
theatlantic.com
Cancer patients are being persuaded to spend tens of thousands on unproven treatments. Trisha Thadani's father was one of them and—dozens of interviews later—she wrote about him for @nytimes.com.
Dying Patients Are Inundated by Misinformation. My Dad Was One of Them. (Gift Article)
Cancer patients are being persuaded to spend tens of thousands on unproven treatments by alternative-medicine clinics.
nytimes.com
I've been waiting to read this: journalist Evan Gershkovich's account of his 491 days in a Russian prison. An excerpt from his new memoir, "This Cursed Beautiful Land," published by @thetimes.com. Hat tip: @thesundaylongread.bsky.social.
Journalist Evan Gershkovich: My 491 days as Putin’s political prisoner
The Wall Street Journal reporter in Russia thought he was meeting a source. Instead, he was arrested for spying. In an exclusive extract from his prison diaries, he reveals how he survived — and won h...
thetimes.com
Our @theguardian.com investigation into overcharging by 7-Eleven and Circle K caught the attention of some members of Congress. @michaelwhudson.bsky.social @jocelynzuck.bsky.social @byardduncan.bsky.social @sophiemsullivan.bsky.social
‘It’s enraging’: lawmakers call for action after Guardian investigation into convenience store overcharges
Congress members say pricing practices at 7-Eleven and Circle K stores underscore everyday Americans’ affordability struggles
theguardian.com
My former student Andrew Long writes about the social-media conspiracies that followed Hurricane Helene, and the officials who say they’re better prepared to address disinformation two years later. @theassemblync.bsky.social #ncpol
After the Flood Came the Lies
Social media conspiracies hampered relief efforts after Helene. Two years later, officials say they’re better prepared to address it.
theassemblync.com
The world moved on after Kilmar Abrego Garcia's return to the United States. But other deportees without criminial records are disappearing into El Salvador's prisons. Brave on-the-ground reporting by Kevin Sieff for @theatlantic.com. No paywall.
ICE Deportees Are Vanishing Into Salvadoran Prisons
The world moved on after Kilmar Abrego Garcia, but people continue to disappear.
theatlantic.com
The Little River north of Durham NC was the scene of a 1981 murder that helped spark the state's LGBTQ+ movement. The details have always been fuzzy. Now, 45 years later, Andrew Nurkin has told the story of Sonny Antonevitch's killing and the movement it launched. @theassemblync.bsky.social #ncpol
The Incident at Little River
The brutal crime that catalyzed the LGBTQ movement in North Carolina 45 years ago has never been fully chronicled—until now.
theassemblync.com
Excited to introduce North Star Way, a podcast series launching Oct. 27. We interviewed Minnesotans about the creative and courageous ways they showed up for their neighbors during the largest federal immigration operation in U.S. history. A collaboration with John Noltner and A Peace of My Mind.
North Star Way: Minnesota Navigates a Harsh Winter (trailer)
YouTube video by Barry Yeoman
youtube.com
Our Guardian story about how 7-Eleven and Circle K, the US's top convenience store chains, habitually overcharge customers appears to have hit a nerve. www.theguardian.com/us-news/ng-i... @jocelynzuck.bsky.social @byardduncan.bsky.social @sophiemsullivan.bsky.social @michaelwhudson.bsky.social
NEW for @theguardian.com: U.S. Convenience store giants have been quietly overcharging consumers for years. It's salt in the wound for ppl struggling with out-of-control living costs. W/ @barryyeoman.com, @sophiemsullivan.bsky.social and @jocelynzuck.bsky.social. www.theguardian.com/us-news/ng-i...
Amid soaring living costs, America’s biggest convenience-store chains quietly overcharge consumers
Guardian investigation: 7-Eleven and Circle K stores often fail to honor advertised prices – charging more at pump and register for gas, snacks, and other items
theguardian.com
Was happy to add "7-Eleven secret shopper" to my resume this summer and help report this excellent investigation into serial overcharging by America's convenience stores, alongside @jocelynzuck.bsky.social, @barryyeoman.com and @byardduncan.bsky.social. Thanks to our editor Mike Hudson! Read below.
The Guardian@theguardian.com · 2w agoAmid soaring living costs, America’s biggest convenience-store chains quietly overcharge consumers
MY LATEST: Today @theguardian.com published our investigation of 7-Eleven and Circle K. Both chains routinely overcharge customers for food, toiletries, tobacco, and medicine, and yet elude government scrutiny. With @jocelynzuck.bsky.social, @byardduncan.bsky.social, @sophiemsullivan.bsky.social
Amid soaring living costs, America’s biggest convenience-store chains quietly overcharge consumers
Guardian investigation: 7-Eleven and Circle K stores often fail to honor advertised prices – charging more at pump and register for gas, snacks, and other items
theguardian.com
One of my investigative stories is about to drop, which means I'll be sending out my Unabridged newsletter soon—maybe tomorrow. If you don't subscribe (it's free), this would be a good time.
Barry Yeoman: Unabridged
Journalism (and other) recommendations, along with links to my own latest work.
barry-yeoman.beehiiv.com
Durham NC holds itself up as a pro-immigrant jurisdiction. But its magistrates and judges repeatedly refer people facing low-level criminal charges to ICE when they're not required to—even for offenses as minor as a single trespassing charge. @twitterlessabe.bsky.social @indyweek.bsky.social #ncpol
Durham Judicial Officials Are Unnecessarily Putting People on ICE's Radar for Low-Level Crimes
Durham judicial officials flagged people for citizenship checks when they didn’t need to, landing some in ICE custody, INDY found.
indyweek.com
For six decades, in four languages, Taleen Mardirossian’s grandmother kept a secret. Who was she hiding, and why? In this new, haunting SLR original, Taleen tells an intergenerational story of love, language, and loss. sundaylongread.com/2026/09/12/t...
The Mother Tongue of All Secrets - The Sunday Long Read
For six decades, in four languages, my grandmother kept a secret. Who was she hiding, and why?
sundaylongread.com
"[Sloan] Rachmuth’s lawsuit raises crucial questions that courts are grappling with across the country: What’s the line between an internet asshole and a criminal? And will attempts to regulate decency inevitably stifle dissent?" @jeffreybillman.bsky.social @theassemblync.bsky.social #ncpol
Shouting Terrorist in a Crowded Grocery Store
Charges against Sloan Rachmuth were quickly dropped, but she says the arrest violated her First Amendment rights.
theassemblync.com
This column is worth your time.
Philip Kennicott@philipkennicott.bsky.social · last mo.America will still be feeling the economic impacts of its hardline and gratuitously cruel immigration policies in 2076, when Pierre Damas Bel might have been retired, enjoying a life well lived, surrounded by children and grand children. www.washingtonpost.com/style/2026/0...
West Point’s Cadet Hostess Office was founded in 1931 as a matchmaking service for aspiring young officers. It still exists, writes Jasper Craven. One recent document stresses the importance of “opening the door for ladies,” but only in a literal sense. @playboy.com HT @profligategrace.bsky.social
The Military Office Training Cadets in Old-School Manhood
West Point’s Cadet Hostess Office Is the military’s training ground for old-school masculinity.
playboy.com
Kevin Sieff reports from Tapachula, at the southern tip of Mexico, where the Trump administration has been dumping immigrants from Cuba, Venezuela, Nicaragua, and Haiti. Many of them elderly, some stripped of their green card after spending most of their life in the United States. @theatlantic.com
A Reverse Ellis Island
A city at the southern tip of Mexico has become the place where migrants’ dreams go to die.
theatlantic.com
Hanif Abdurraqib writes about the group chats—with writers and fellow former teen punks—that bring him closer to the joys of everyday life. www.newyorker.com/culture/essa...
There’s No Place Like Group Chats
My old friends and I have ended up scattered across different states, in different time zones, but we’ve made our own neighborhood inside the black and blue bubbles of our phones.
newyorker.com
Democratic Senate candidate @roycoopernc.bsky.social won praise in 2007, when he was North Carolina's attorney general, for declaring three Duke lacrosse players innocent of rape. Critics wish he’d done more for other defendants. @jimmorrill.bsky.social @theassemblync.bsky.social #ncpol
What the Duke Lacrosse Case Says About Roy Cooper
The Senate candidate won praise for declaring three players innocent as AG in 2007. Critics wish he’d done more for other defendants.
theassemblync.com
. @tommytomlinson.bsky.social on Dolly Parton: "She looked and sounded only like herself, and yet so many of us can see and hear ourselves in her—well, maybe not our current selves, but the version we hope to be. Those rhinestones were mirrors."
The greatest living American
#303: The easy brilliance of Dolly Parton
substack.com
When Luis Manuel Aviles was arrested by immigration authorities, his son was entering his ninth month on the USS Abraham Lincoln with the Navy, a vessel that set a US military record for uninterrupted time at sea, stirring concerns about supply shortages and deteriorating mental health. @apnews.com
He was waiting for his son to return from the USS Lincoln. Then Border Patrol arrested him.
The father of a man serving on the USS Abraham Lincoln has been arrested by immigration authorities.
apnews.com
Hannah Goldfield reports on Hooters’s rebrand as a family-friendly restaurant—and brings her own family to eat there: “ ‘I love Hooters!’ my seven-year-old son declared. Who was I to argue with him?” www.newyorker.com/magazine/202...
Your Friendly Neighborhood Hooters
The chain is attempting a wholesome revival. Will it work?
newyorker.com
